Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 163

There truly is a time for all things.

 There is a right time for everything, and everything on earth will happen at the right time.There is a time to be born and a time to die. There is a time to plant and a time to pull up plants. There is a time to kill and a time to heal.There is a time to destroy and a time to build.There is a time to cry and a time to laugh.There is a time to be sad and a time to dance with joy. There is a time to throw weapons down and a time to pick them up.There is a time to hug someone and a time to stop holding so tightly. There is a time to look for something and a time to consider it lost.There is a time to keep things and a time to throw things away. There is a time to tear cloth and a time to sew it.There is a time to be silent and a time to speak. There is a time to love and a time to hate.There is a time for war and a time for peace.Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (Easy-to-Read Version)
Out of this whole list, the hardest for us to fathom is why God would ever declare there is a time for war. But throughout the Old Testament, it seems those Israelites were doing nothing but making war. It was all part of God’s plan for the great nation of Israel. His chosen people were supposed to dominate their part of the world, so with God as the divine commander, they conquered many nations. In the end, though, because they were a sinful people, it didn’t turn out so well for them.
In our modern times, we ask ourselves what the purpose for war is. Thankfully there hasn’t been a world war in my lifetime, yet it seems we are always on the cusp of one. As various nations go after each other, we have to wonder which one of these events will lead to the “big one”. It’s so scary, isn’t it?
On days like this, when I don’t want to listen to the news, don’t want to know what is going on in the world or in our nation’s capital, I turn my fears over to God. All these things will happen in His time, He is the ultimate Commander in Chief.

Lord, God, Heavenly Father, let us put our trust in You. Let us lay our fears at Your feet. Guide those making decisions which will affect us all. And send Your Holy Spirit into the hearts of non-believers so that they can know Your peace. Amen

A Three for One Special

Have you read any good books this summer? Looking for something a little lighter to read as we head into the busy autumn season? I started writing reviews on the following three books, but I continue to struggle with that particular assignment so felt that I wasn't saying anything of merit. I decided to clump all three of these books together. Then, imagine that, by the grace of God, I was able to find the common thread in these books. Maybe it is just what I am drawn to reading.  

“His Grace is Sufficient: Decaf is Not (A Devo for Women on the Go)” by SandraD. Bricker, Loree Lough, Trish Perry, and Cynthia Ruchti
Just like its sister devotion, "Be Still and Let Your Nail Polish Dry", "His Grace is Sufficient" speaks to women everywhere. Women who are not perfect, women who may have messed up big-time, but as we learn, God forgives us for all of our messes. His grace will smooth over all our wrinkles and settle all our crinkles. All we need to do is keep plowing through life, with as much caffeine as we need, and God will take care of the rest.


“TheRepurposed & Upcycled Life: When God Turns Trash to Treasure” by MichelleRayburn

 Michelle takes the messes we have made in our lives and shows us how they can be turned around for the good. Not only things like discarded objects we pull from the garbage, but mistakes we have made in our lives. She shares stories from her own experiences and shows us how to recycle and repurpose even the sorriest incidents.







“AllThat You Can't Leave Behind: A Rookie Missionary's Life In Africa” by Ryan J.Murphy
I can relate to so much about this book, because I have been there, not only physically been to Kenya, but emotionally and spiritually been to a place where I knew I was called but woke up some mornings wondering what was going on. I loved Ryan's honesty and sincerity in his memoir. Things aren't perfect, he has problems with things that an outsider wouldn't imagine should be a problem. Yet, Ryan perseveres.  Whether you're considering short-term or long-term missions or just wonder what life is like in a third world country, you have to read this book.




So see, in all three books, we are handed messes or we make messes of our own, but God is the ultimate janitor. He cleans them all up for us.

Take the first step.

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."Martin Luther King, Jr.
With so much in the news the other day about the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr., I thought I would post some of his quotes you may not have heard. 
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."


"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Life goes on

Remember this blog post from the end of July? The meaning of friendship.

I'm kind of scared to even write about this.
When I posted this picture last month, I mentioned that between these four high school friends and myself, only one had a dad still living. I'm so sorry, Sal.  I knew your dad had been sick, but I sure didn't think his time was going to be up so quickly. 
On the upside, I now have Kathy's email address and we have been sending messages back and forth. Also this week, out of the blue, another friend from high school found me on Facebook and we have been catching up. 
I guess that even when life ends, life goes on. And Sal, we will get together soon. 

Be Still

Sometimes I don't get poetry. I like the word pictures that poems can paint and the stories that can be shared. But some poetry is just too deep for me. I don't understand the deeper meaning; I only understand what the words mean to me on the surface.

At the Green Lake Writers Conference last week, one of the speakers was poet Michael Belongie. Some of the poems he recited were very moving, other times, I didn't know what he was talking about.

He shared the following (the pictures of course are mine), and as near as I can tell, Father Richard Rohr should get credit for this beautiful rendition of a common Bible verse. This would be the kind of poetry that doesn't need explaining, it just needs to be taken in slowly, in the stillness of the word.

Be still and know that I am God. 
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still. 
Be.  I hope that didn't ruin the somber mood for you. I can only be still for so long. God is OK with that; that's how He made me to be. 

Bucket List Items

As you may already know, I was at the Green Lake Christian Writers Conference for a few days earlier this week. I even had the pleasure of sharing my publishing story with the attendees.
If you are able to read the print on the slide, you will see that I had two bucket-list items: to change the world and to be a writer. In the course of this past year, I feel I have achieved both of those dreams.

I took the long way home from Green Lake on Tuesday just to be able to check one more thing off of my bucket list. I have wanted to visit this place since it was in the national news in January 1975. (Click here to find out why it was in the news. And you can click here to find out more about this grand building. There's even a book about it.)

The history of the Novitiate is fascinating. And I am sure there are many more stories within these walls.

Short Track

Last winter, when I was trying to decide if I wanted to go to Kenya with my daughter or not, my husband offered me this option. I could either go to Kenya or the Green Lake Christian Writers Conference. It didn't seem like a very reasonable deal, but I could see his point. If I went to Kenya we had to cut corners somewhere and I also had to ration my time off of work.

I decided to go to Africa.

Then two wonderful things happened. The Writers Conference offered what is called a "short-track", for people who couldn't make the full conference, but wanted to attend for two days. These two days would be packed with seminars. The rest of the week would allow for "full-track" attendees to work more in depth with their workshop leaders.

The second thing that helped get me to the Conference this year is that they asked me to speak. Lisa Klarner and I gave a presentation on the pros and cons of different publishing options.

I kind of had to go for at least the short-track after that.

Earlier this afternoon, I returned home from Green Lake, feeling rather melancholy and little cheated. I still had the chance to bond with my writer friends, to gain new insights into my writing career and to get lots of helpful advice.

Also, for me, just soaking up the positive energy of the Conference Center grounds is re-energizing.

Lisa and I getting ready for our presentation.   Listening to Marshall Cook on Monday evening.   Two of the new friends I met on my run Monday morning.  Two years ago I started taking a yearly picture of my feet on the shores of Green Lake. I call the series of photos "Writer's Feet", but I haven't figured out what it means.  
The full moon over Green Lake on Monday night. Not too bad for the basic camera that I have. 

What will you be remembered for?

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.2 Timothy 4:7
If you have been following me at all, you know I ran a 5K (my first race of any kind ever) on the Fourth of July and had hoped to run in more races this summer. Today is the first annual Don Lintereur Memorial Run and I really wanted to run in it. I just couldn’t do it; I have too many other commitments this weekend.
This is what the flyer for the race says about Don.
Don was a running icon in the Tomahawk and surrounding communities whose passion was to inspire people of all ages to develop a love and commitment to the sport of running. Don passed away on Thanksgiving 2012 after a courageous battle with kidney failure, running and competing right up until his death. Don was also a well-respected Biology teacher in the Tomahawk School District for 35 years. We hope this run, in his honor, will carry on his passion for running and his commitment to the field of education. All proceeds go toward a scholarship fund established in his name to assist THS graduates pursuing the field of education.
Do you want to know who Mr. Lintereur was to me? Besides my high school Biology teacher, he was my tutor for eight weeks while I was in junior high.  
The winter that I was a seventh grader, I broke my leg sledding. My cast went from the tip of my toes to the top of my thigh. I could get around on crutches ok, but someone decided that I shouldn’t go to school for the eight weeks that the unwieldy cast would be on. I didn’t argue with whoever made that decision.
Once a week, Mr. Lintereur came out to our house to give me my assignments for the next five days and to gather up the work that I had finished.  We’d visit a little bit, an odd concept for me since I was at that age where visiting with any adult, much less a teacher, was just plain awkward. But Mr. Lintereur saw past my teen-age-ness and talked to me like a person, laughing with me and never at me.
Then one day Mom made peanut butter cookies.
Apparently, Mr. Lintereur loved peanut butter cookies. He claimed that I should eat a lot of them as some component in the peanut butter cookie had bone-healing powers. He was a Biology teacher, remember, so he must know what he was talking about.
Which meant that my mom made peanut butter cookies every week the day before Mr. Lintereur was due to come.   

Here’s the funny thing. I have known that this run in his honor was coming up, but I wasn’t thinking about it that much since I wasn’t participating. But I have had a craving for peanut butter cookies for over a week. Friday night, I finally gave in and baked a batch. It wasn’t until I was cleaning up afterwards that my mind flashbacked to all those batches of cookies in seventh grade. 
(Mr. Lintereur's obituary. How's your obituary going to look?)

I am confused, once again.

I don't know if you were following me a year and a half ago, but I posted a picture of this sign on a blog post then. If you haven't read that post or aren't inclined to do that now, the speed bump in this parking lot was taken out over the winter so that the road could be plowed.   But what do you know? They never did put the speed bump back in during the summer months.
 But, believe it or not, they did install a new speed bump sign. Can anyone out there tell me what is going on? Do they think that if they hide a bright shiny sign in the tree that we will actually slow down for a bump that doesn't exist?
I was just wondering if anyone can explain this to me.

Water Photo Challenge (even though I missed another deadline)

A few months back I came across yet another blog challenge. This one was a personal photo challenge. Once a month, the blogger posts the theme for the month – birds, food, weather, etc. and those taking up the challenge post on their blog the pictures they have taken on that theme. It is recommended to take new pictures for each theme, but since I have such an array of digital photo albums, I thought it would be just as easy to use what I have in the archives.
That seems to have worked well for me, seeing as this is the first month that I have taken up the challenge. Ok, and I missed this month’s deadline anyway, so what exactly am I doing? I am getting my feet wet. And since this month’s theme is water, that makes perfect sense.
Here we go, photos of water from the archives.  This was taken at Foster Falls in Northwestern Wisconsin last spring. The power of a waterfall always leaves in awe.
With all the rain we had this past spring, it's hard to believe that this was taken the year before at Glidden, a few hours north west of where I live, where I had thought we had a mild winter and not unusually wet spring in 2012. Though this looks peaceful right now, I am sure that the swollen river had caused countless difficulties for this little town. 
And then there is the magnificence of Lake Superior. In any season, summer or ...
... or early spring, if I am thinking about water, I am thinking about Lake Superior. 
Next month's challenge is "doors and windows". I got pictures of that too. Trust me.