I’ve been loving a YouTube channel called Black Opal Direct. I’m a big fan of opals—the way colors play peekaboo with you as the gem moves. When first mined, opals are covered in sand and dull white, black, or gray layers that conceal the brilliance inside. With extreme care, the expert polishes away these outer layers on a spinning wheel. As he grinds down the surface, vivid flecks of orange, red, blue, and green begin to appear. I’m in awe of the exquisite beauty that’s revealed. The point of this? The expert wants the brilliance to shine, and sees what needs to be removed.

As God encourages me, I want to encourage you. God’s intentions toward me and you get lost sometimes in our striving to understand how to behave. His faithfulness really is enough, yet our own efforts, if done out of insecurity, only lead to more confusion. Let Him be free to do the necessary work, and remember our inheritance is already given to us, because the brilliance is inside. He shapes our lives in order to reveal true beauty.

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Being a shepherd really impacted me and has impacted some of you who read my posts on Facebook. I’ve not put all of my encounters with the Lord and with the sheep here on this shepherd’s muse website. I have considered creating a mailing list for those who want to have frequent devotions in their inbox, and will consider doing that if you let me know at my email address or in the comments below.

I could write three different stories of what happened today, but will stick with this one. This beautiful young ewe with twins at her side constantly escaped her paddock. Typically I cannot keep a rebellious sheep as it influences the entire herd. I said to my friend today, I don’t want to shoot her, I’ve got to keep trying. In every pasture I’ve been managing, there are just the tiniest gap or weakness, and she’s been exploiting them. She got moved up the hill away from where I’m living and she escaped from there five times in two days. I drove into her field, and she got up, came down as she recognizes the vehicle, and seemed really glad to see me. Still she didn’t want me to catch her, but trusted me enough that i got close enough to grab her leg. So she is now moved to Waimea, which is the fortress and I’m somewhat risking her health, but my options are quite limited as to where she can live. The above picture is of her in the field she escaped from numerous times, she was already looking for a way out.

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Today is USA’s presidential Election day. Lots of feelings going on in this nation, but the basic one is fear. This is not what God would desire for us. I have succumbed to fear as well. I want to know the answers. But no leader at any point can do everything, it is the people around them and in each state that can make or break a nation. If transformation doesn’t occur on an individual level, and upward from there, a nation cannot prosper.

Humility is how Jesus acted, and he saw the person as an individual, knew what was in their heart, and responded accordingly. That’s why I’m really seeking out what are the things in me that he sees and wants to transform. It isn’t by deciphering a code and following it; it is by gazing into his character, the way he treated women and children, and much more. When broken families occur, it comes from not seeing, hearing, treating the person according to what Jesus sees in them. Stubborn hearts are the ones Jesus breaks, not humble and contrite ones.

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They always need a leader. I have an open gate nearby, and this is a good move, they came to me, then they saw what I intended for them to see, the way into their pasture.

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Keiko!

For sometime I’ve noticed a change to my mood after the physical labor needed to move the sheep, fences, water and so on. Just going to a place like planet fitness would probably work but I’m not motivated that way.

Motivation. It started when I got Keiko, my service animal. I got my exercise because he needed to go out. I discovered my attitude toward life also changed. The exercise helped me find a new mental balance.

There are good chemicals in our brain that increases with vigorous exercise. Today I learned that one of these chemicals called GABA helps with resetting my mood. So exercise isn’t only about helping the physical body!

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At times, encountering life around me depletes my energy. In the span of one day, I’m considering the fight going on regarding elections, the horror of people swept away by Helene as reported by survivors, the inner struggle among students and staff in our school to sort out existential questions, the pain of two young women dealing with their mom and dad dying in the same year, and the loss of their brother to Covid.

Hope still springs fresh, but my body and mind feels very dented and exhausted. It is interesting to note how God meets you where you are, not where you think you should be. Other Christians are saying: pray and rebuke the enemy; get your focus off the negative; use a scripture or song to rebuild hope. Today, my personal reaction is to enter into God’s space, be still, and know He is God. My recharging station is about recognizing God’s merciful intentions toward me.

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Mixed thoughts in my mind today. As a United States citizen, I want my nation to thrive. I want to honor each person as valuable, and truly discover what it means to humble myself and pray and act like Jesus, who declared, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Discovering the truth about my nation can be shocking. Case in point: Voting rights for our black citizens occurred only after tragic violence occurred during the 1965 marches between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama. Another is the illegal overthrow of the Hawaii kingdom. It is not always included in USA history textbooks.

A photo where a sign announces “God hates fags” illustrates what people have done in God’s name. Being silent against hatred is one factor in a nation’s downfall. Be aware that collective groupthink, not the individual person, moves the needle to changed communities. In our homes, is each member of the family is treated with dignity? Is your co-worker being treated like Jesus treated us? It’s a movement toward each believer being respectful, gentle, kind, and compassionate, reflecting Jesus’ kingdom.

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There was lots of action yesterday at YWAM Kona. Hundreds of students landed at the nearby airport and were given rides on our 15-passenger vans to Ohana Court, where they met their school staff and classmates. It’s an all hands on deck situation for YWAM staff, each who is a volunteer, raising their own support as missionaries. Driving, registration, taking students to their rooms, providing meals and snacks, and more.

Yesterday I shopped for snacks, gave medication to a very sick lamb, welcomed the new students, printed/prepared the signage, manned the snack table from 9-2:30, and came together with four other Truth and Transformation staff to organize who would be speaking during the next couple of school days. This illustrates the life of others like me, one of whom lives in this condo, and she’s involved with Foundations of Counseling Ministries, a twelve-week school.

That is a snapshot of one day; the picture shows the signs that I’ve printed to direct arriving students to their school staff.

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“…Jesus of Nazareth get annihilated, and it’s totally unjust, and it’s corrupt, and like that’s the world we live in.

And it’s the world where, it’s the world where people die tragically, where loss is what’s normal. It’s the world where someone is super healthy. All of a sudden their heart gives out, and you would have never seen it coming.

It’s the world with cancer, right? It’s that, that’s our world. And this story is inviting us to say that that’s not actually the full story, and it’s not the end of the story.

And so you and I, we walk in here, we come from lots of different places in a week, you know, and some of us are totally the walking wounded right now from how people have treated you and what’s happened to you in the last year or seven days. And you’re very tempted to read the teachings of Jesus and just go, yeah, that’s a nice idea, if only the world was really like that. And some of us walk in here and we have major personal failures, moral integrity failures, and the ones that you keep doing.

And you begin to say, like this is who I am. And this is the kind of world I live in. And it’s nice that Jesus could talk about, like, victory over death, and Paul could say, there’s, like, hope for real change and life transformation, but, like, I know my life, and I know that that’s a pipe dream.

And this story just asks you to entertain the simple, simple claim to say, no, that’s not true. That’s not the way the world is, and that’s not who you really are. You, you’re a glorious human, made in God’s image, and you and I are caught in a web of selfishness, of evil and injustice.

It’s wrapped us all in, and we’ve all participated in the death of Jesus of Nazareth in one way or another. And this story is telling us that even our own failure and evil, it’s not the last word. It’s not the last word.

Like Jesus has chosen to take responsibility for us, for the human condition and the human story, and he’s chosen to have victory over it with his life and his love. And there’s a hope for a new creation. There’s hope for a new you.”

From Exploring My Strange Bible: The Crocus Flower and the Empty Tomb – Gospel of Matthew Part 35, Feb 10, 2019

https://podcasts.apple.com/…/the-crocus…/id1271147429…

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At this moment, onboard Japan Airlines’ Boeing 787, I’m watching the Islands of the Philippines grow smaller, and I’m sensing mixed feelings. The land is beautiful; the white capped waves line the seashore, forests blanket the hills, and ribbons of rivers decorate the valleys. I pass over boats at sea, tiny dots of homes below. Also within Metro Manila are thriving and beautiful spots that rival any other place in the world. However I asked myself why do people believe their life is better working all day, stopping to get food from the bodegas, and enduring traffic jams to live their lives.

In rural areas, growing food and living off the land can beautiful and fulfilling. Or it can be tragic. Rebels may come in and wreck the place, or the land has been held hostage by owners/governments that fail to be good stewards. Perils like floods, volcanic activity, invasive weeds, or drought tear down man’s efforts and causes suffering.

Jesus commented on suffering. 18 people died when a tower in Siloam fell onto them. He asked, “do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?” My takeaway? Calamity does not equal punishment. This same principle is in the book of Job. Jesus’ kingdom includes that moment when everything is restored better than ever. Currently being in a Job-like moment will end one day.

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