NC to OH

The two weeks after my last infusion were filled with beautiful Appalachian Mountain views, fun-filled activities, and joyful time together with my husband… And yet during this gift of extended time together, I sensed such a longing deep within me that is a need not met in these wonderful miracle moments. As I have been contemplating the reason why, it was in the waking hours between sleep and consciousness one morning that the Lord revealed to me the reason for my sense of wanting. 

I love how God meets us where we are and uses metaphors that are meaningful to us, even when it might make no sense to someone else. He gave me a vision of me being a bobber on the water and thinking that what held me up and provided meaning was the water I had been floating on. But He showed me how it is like me floating on the Dead Sea, where it might look like I’m existing with purpose, yet the Dead Sea offers nothing of sustenance, and there is no true life to be found in it. Yahweh reminded me that I need to be floating upon Him, which is the actual Living Waters that offers true meaning, life, and purpose. He reminded me that unless I’m spending time with Him and I’m in His Living Word… I am just a bobber floating on the Dead Sea.

In all my busyness those two weeks that appeared to be so enriching, I now realize that like Solomon once said in the book of Ecclesiastes, that everything is vanity and meaningless except for one thing. I just leafed through Ecclesiastes again and it’s worth a re-read if it’s been a while since you’ve glanced it in its entirety. 

My friend, Linda, introduced me to a new, rather poetic and heady, Bible translation & study that is in the process of being translated called The Mirror Bible and I have downloaded it because I find it to be incredibly life-giving and reveals the heart of God like I’ve never experienced in any other translations. I do need to have time to really contemplate it rather than just a quick pick up and read kind of mentality though. Admittedly, The Passion Translation is a close second for me and I thoroughly enjoy reading Scripture again in either of these two translations! 

This last week I continued to come back to 1 John chapter 1, and read and reread The Mirror translation and the footnotes and have found it satisfying. What I’ve discovered in these passages trumps every glorious vista of mountains, flowers, sunrises, picturesque fog and wild life, every squeal of laughter going down a flowy trail on my bike, every retirement freedom joy, every good morning kiss and every thrilling activity of learning history of an area or walking 4 miles underground in ancient caves! So while I will share some of my favorite moments from these past few weeks, honestly, there’s nothing that is more life giving than the truth found in these few verses and the Word of God in general. I hope you take the time to reflect on these following scriptures and it is my prayer that you will also experience the gift that they contain, as I have.

1 John chapter 1:6-10 The Mirror Translation

6  This is the real deal. To live a life of pretense is such a waste of time. The truth has no competition. Truth inspires the poetry of friendship in total contrast to a fake, performance-based relationship. Light is not threatened by darkness. Why say something with darkness as your reference? 

7  We are invited to explore the dimensions of the same light that engulfs God; when we see the light in his light, fellowship ignites. In this light, we understand how the blood of Jesus Christ is the removal of (1) every distortion and stain of sin. 

Amended Footnote: (1) Sin is a distorted identity. To walk in the light as he is in the light means to see your life and everything that concerns you, exclusively from your Father’s point of view.

8  To claim innocence by our own efforts under the law of personal performance, is to deceive ourselves and to deliberately ignore the truth. The truth about us, does not mean that we now have to go into denial as if we haven’t done anything wrong. 

Footnote: (If you’ve hurt or wronged someone, go to them and be reconciled. To apologize restores harmony; but the essence of confession is a conversation inspired by the revelation of the love of God demonstrated in Christ. The focus of this conversation shifts from what you did wrong, to what Jesus did right. One cannot afford to cheat oneself by living a double life, acting out the fellowship thing, while still hosting stuff in one’s life that is inconsistent with the life of our design. You do not need to first get rid of darkness and then bring the light. Light deals most effectively and effortlessly with darkness. The light of the gospel does not reveal sin; it reveals our freedom from it.)

9  Our (1) conversation takes on a brand new dynamic when we take sides with what God believes about us. So, instead of telling God about the detail of our sin, we remind ourselves about the detail of our redemption. God doesn’t need the information, we do. God’s faithfulness and righteousness is the basis of our (2) forgiveness and cleansing from every distortion. Jesus removed every bit of condemning evidence against us. 

Footnotes: (1) The context of verse 7 suggests that we say what God says about us. (2) The word translated forgiveness, or remission is the word that means, ‘away from’, and ‘I am’; thus forgiveness is in essence a restoring to your true ‘I-am-ness.’ The injury, insult, shame, hostility or guilt would no longer define the individual.

10  If we judge ourselves innocent by the law of our own works, then we make Jesus Christ, and what his word and blood communicate within us, irrelevant. 

Footnote: The Logos/Word is the source; everything commences in Him. He remains the exclusive parent reference to our genesis. There is nothing original - except the Word. His life is the light that defines our lives. In His life, we discover the light of life. The darkness was pierced and could not comprehend or diminish this light. Darkness represents mankind’s ignorance of our redeemed identity and innocence.

Mirror Bible (https://app.mirrorword.net)

My refreshment I receive and agreement I have in reading this translation is an understanding that’s not necessarily new and yet totally new at the same time.

This simple and profound Truth is my everything. My why. Grateful. My identity is not in cancer, heritage, family, hobbies, wealth, or anything else. Sometimes I forget. Staying in the Word helps me remember. 

As promised, here is a slice of our past three weeks together… a snapshot of what John and I have been doing. After my last infusion, I flew to meet him in Charlotte, NC and we’ve been slowly working our way back home while taking advantage of the beautiful Spring weather. 

One annual ritual we missed this year in Ohio was morel mushroom hunting. I actually looked before I left and found none. I’m sure if there were any in our woods they are past their prime by now. But while there may not be morels, that doesn’t mean we missed the beauty of what is in the woods! We saw these two black bear in the woods of North Carolina and one day in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park we saw 5 black bear in the Cade’s Cove area.

In addition to whitewater rafting, hiking to many beautiful waterfalls, riding mountain biking trails and sight seeing in North Carolina and Tennessee we went deep underground in Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Come join me for the rest of our pre-WonderVan life!

Just outside Charlotte, NC there’s an awesome recreational paradise with a man made river for whitewater rafting, plus zip lining and mountain biking and we plunged in! Great fun! Charlotte, NC has become one of our new favorite cities!

Asheville, NC entertained us with a pricey little tour through Biltmore Estates on our way to more outdoor fun in Brevard, NC where we took in more hikes to waterfalls and a couple mountain bike trails.

The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad tour in Bryson City, NC traversed along rivers and the back hill country and the sweet folks we got to meet made the trip special and one thing we love about traveling is the good folks we get to interface with! 

A few days later we hit up Abrams Falls Trail which took us to this beautiful roaring 25’ tumbler and offered a moderate 5 mile loop hike in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. 

The mountain bike trails were mostly wet on the days we were in the Smoky Mountains but we found an all weather trail we could ride and enjoyed going over bridges near rushing rivers. And when we weren’t biking, we were hiking! 

Once called Clingman’s Dome in the Smoky Mountain NP, this peak now named Kuwohi is a vista that was supposed to reveal a panoramic 360 view with hundreds of miles to see. Instead we were treated with a misty and mysterious living photograph of something spectacular!

Mammoth Cave National Park was physically challenging as we had 2 days of cave tours that equaled 3 underground tours, about 2000 stairs, and 8 miles of trails all below the earth’s surface. It wasn’t too claustrophobic for me but after hiking up and down shafts through the belly of the world, my calves are screaming even 2 days later!

Then our last stop before making it home to Ohio was to visit my dear friends now in Indiana! It’s been almost 30 years ago that Cindy and Ross were first my neighbors in northern Illinois and what sweetness to be able to make an impromptu visit and feel like not one minute has passed since the last time we were together! We still call each other neighbors and look forward to our next cherished moments together!

Other than those fun haunts, we made it home to overgrown grass with a yard full of puffy cotton ball dandelion weeds and spent this past week just doing what needed to be done to get back into a routine of normal life! 

Looking forward to spending Mother’s Day with one of my kids tomorrow! I’ma blessed woman!!