August | In Hindsight

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

Never a dull moment! August came and went, in some ways seeming to be a very long month, in others flying by too quickly.

The Sturgis Rally at the beginning of the month put everyone on edge. It wore me out, at least. Although no final numbers have been given, the estimate was that 1.3 million people would be congregating in the western third of a state with a population of less than 900 thousand…That’s a lot of people, in case you had any doubts. Glad that is over.

We spent time with friends and family, over meals, on hikes, enjoying the outdoors and wildlife, doing some shooting and taking pictures. God has blessed us with a wonderful church home and with a strengthening community of believers with which to fellowship. What a blessing.

I spent a week with Jack and his crew working cattle in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska, which was a welcome relief from the craziness of the tourist season. “Maybe she’ll marry a rancher,” Grandma says with a laugh.

After much deliberating, I gave my two weeks’ notice at the antique shop I worked at, and worked my last day last week. It was a great summer job, but the hours weren’t sustainable. After a few months working there, I realized I needed more time at home, more time with my family, more time spent in God’s wonderful creation, more time doing the things I love. It was a good decision, I must say. If you feel like you’re about to go crazy, do yourself a favor: look for other options. Give yourself permission to think outside of the box.

Eriogonum pauciflorum – Ballhead eriogonum

I wouldn’t want all months to be as busy as August was, but it was a good month. When Sarah and I hiked this evening, we were talking about being in South Dakota. Sometimes I still have to pinch myself when I think that we’re actually living here. Sarah commented, “God really cares about these things.” He cares that for as long as we’ve been alive, we’ve wanted to be in South Dakota, our “ancestral home,” as I like to think of it. He cares that this was one of the deep longings of our hearts, the desire to be here with family, the desire to walk these hills and these trails, to smell the pines, and listen to the wind singing through the needles on the trees. We’re here. And this is home. It always has been. Even before we were here. God knows. And God cares.

Keeping focused

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

Started work officially as a scribe at a family practice clinic in Rapid City today. What a learning experience this will be! In spite of only four hours of sleep last night, the day went well and I think I’m learning. A lot.

For those of my readers who don’t know, I have absolutely no medical background. I am an artist, of various sorts. But I have a love of learning and a desire for knowledge. As a writer, any new experience, however challenging, can only add to the depth and breadth of my writing! This will be an opportunity to grow as a writer, but more importantly to cultivate a Christlike love for people, to grow in compassion, empathy, and in my desire to serve.

Of course I was exhausted by the end of the day (actually, by 10 a.m.), but tiredness doesn’t extinguish the joy of the art of photography. I found a few pictures just waiting to be taken on the way home this evening…These pictures caught my eye as I was almost home, in an open valley on Hwy. 40. We’ve had a lot of smoke in the Hills from fires further west, and a little fog this evening, too. The haze was illuminated by the evening sun, just as it was disappearing into a bank of cloud on the horizon. The sunlight streamed golden onto neat rows of hay bales, onto the western slopes of the foothills, onto a herd of cattle grazing in the last light of today.

Photography is a way of reminding myself of what a gift life is. Life can be bleak, daunting, or even just tiring. Days are long. I’m realizing September is going to be a very long month (working six days a week). But keeping myself focused on the beauty of life, on God’s goodness as I can express it through photography and writing, is a way of keeping centered on what is really important, lasting, and blessed.

Sundry Sunday adventures

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

The Sabbath should be the central day of the week for Christians. Not because the Jewish ceremonial law still applies to Christians (Matthew 5:17 is clear about the ceremonial law and Christ’s redemptive coming having completed it), but because God has given us a day which we still, 2000 years after Christ was raised from the dead, which we still set aside to be a time of devotion to God and fellowship with other Believers. What a gift! If you’re not enjoying it to it’s fullest, you’re sadly missing out, and I recommend a prayerfully considered change.

And by “enjoying it to it’s fullest,” I mean taking advantage of the fact that Sunday is the one day of the week where a substantial part of the day is set aside for worship of God and fellowship with other believers. Why wouldn’t a Christian want to savor that time, and make it last as long as possible? The world is a lonely place, and as the world becomes more hostile to Christianity, I find fellowship with Believers sweeter and sweeter.

And what a day–What a day! After a wonderfully applicable sermon about fully identifying with Christ, and our lives being dictated by what we believe about God and what we desire, we headed over to Stockade Lake to give Anna a dipping, and to celebrate through a baptism Anna’s decision to publicly identify with Christ. What a joyous time, to celebrate a Believer’s desire to fully identify in Christ! Our culture calls us to identify as many things–Anything we want, really. But to identify with Christ? How counter cultural! What a blessing to be able to identify with Christ! How humbling and wonderful and glorious.

After the baptism, we went back to church and were officially welcomed into the membership of Southern Hills Bible Church, and enjoyed our weekly potluck, which was all the better for it being with our own church, the congregation of Believers we have chosen to attach ourselves to. God willing, we’ll be there for years to come.

And as if that wasn’t enough, some of us “young people” headed out on a hike, enjoying an extended time of friendship and fellowship and reveling in new relationships centered around one important thing: Jesus Christ’s redemptive work in our lives. What a gift. All of us young people, Hannah and Jacob, Roy and Jessie and Isaak, Sarah and I, all of us are relatively new to this congregation, and, speaking for myself, I have been tremendously blessed by these new brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you’re reading this wondering how in the world a bunch of Christan (homeschool or homeschooled) kids can possibly have fun together, let me tell you, it doesn’t take alcohol, it doesn’t take R-rated movies, it doesn’t take cell reception and texting, and it doesn’t take rebellion against rules and authorities. We know how to have fun and how to spend time in a meaningful way, and it doesn’t take anything more than another person with whom to share life. But we had more than that. A wooded path is an invitation into God’s beautiful Creation. Fellowship with Believers is a glimpse into eternity. The delicate petals of a flower are a living testament to God’s handiwork.

The unceasing conversation, the frequent laughs, the mutual enjoyment of God’s Creation, all made for a delightful afternoon. We explored an old mine tunnel, marveled at grass snakes and flowers, stones and toadstools, got soaking wet in a little downpour, talked theology and politics, delved into one another’s lives, and, speaking for myself at least, we could have gone on for hours more.

And hey, I even found an arrowhead. A little bonus for today.

July | In Hindsight

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

Penstemon glaber – Sawsepal penstemon

So we have come to the end of our fifth month in our new home. In some ways, things are still getting settled into place, and in others, we’ve found a routine. God continues to amaze me with His goodness and His love and His providence. He has provided a church home, friends and community, work for all of us (shout-out to my Dad–He went on a radon testing trip to Chadron yesterday! Getting things going!), blossoming family relationships, good health and safety, and the blessing of living where we’ve always wanted to be. God is good. So good.

Over the past month or so, we did the membership class at church and are soon to be welcomed officially into this church. The meetings were encouraging, insightful, and spiritually awakening. The past few years were hard on my spiritual well-being. Not hard on my faith–If anything, the last few years have drastically strengthened my faith in God and His love for His children. But I found myself spiritually exhausted. A lot of things contributed to it, I know, but my prayer has been that God would re-awaken my heart for Him. And He has–And I couldn’t be more glad.

Mariposa lily

I’ve done some more thinking about the next few months and next year, and what I can be doing now to be making myself more home-based. I’ve realized, particularly over the past month, that I am as much a homebody as ever, and that I really (really, really, really) don’t like town, even a small town like Hill City. A full week of working in town is exhausting, even when I am not doing strenuous work, while a day of sweat and dirt and gasoline and chaff leaves me feeling mentally alive. Even when I’m wheezing from the dust and my arms are itching from my allergy to spruce trees. Time to make myself more home-based, or at least rurally-based. We’ll see how that progresses.

July was a busy month! We spent time with friends, went hiking, worked like crazy, saw rattlesnakes, hunted wildflowers, celebrated my Grandma’s 92nd birthday, house-sat for my uncle and his family, we had hail storms and thunder storms and our first stretch of 90 degree weather, I’ve learned about push rods and drive belts and greasing up a lawnmower, we visited with Dad’s college roommate and his wife from eastern South Dakota, Sarah and I drove Spearfish Canyon and saw the waterfalls, and we completed a membership class at our new church. It was a good month.

What will August hold, I wonder?

Sweet, sweet fellowship

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. Hands down, it is my favorite day. What better way to spend a day than in fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ as we revel in our relationship with God and in the joy of companionship with His followers? What a privilege!

As we got closer to the moving date last year and early this year, I feared that we’d move out here into the middle of our 800 family acres and suddenly be lost from fellowship and friendship. What a petty and faithless fear! I read a quote recently that said “Worry is the worship of circumstance.” How profound. For a Christian to give in to worry is for a Christian to momentarily believe that a circumstance is stronger than God Himself. What a pathetic witness and a waste and misuse of energy. But worry I did. Yet God was gracious, and as I learned to trust Him more, He has provided against that fear in so many ways.

He has provided us with a wonderful church home, a welcoming body of Believers who are a living example of the sweetness of the Saints, and He has provided us with friends with whom my sisters and I can share meaningful friendships. Leaving Illinois and the friendships we’d developed over the years was hard–It is hard to leave friends behind, friends who have invested in your life and whose life you have invested in. Separation hurts. But God knows. He knows and He provides.

In church for the past few months, we’ve been studying through the Olivet Discourse, the last group of teachings of Christ before His crucifixion. The passage we studied today was Matthew 25: 31-46, in which Jesus talks about love among Believers, ministering to the “least of these”, and we talked about what genuine love looks like. Genuine love for one another is a direct result, a fruit, of our love for Jesus Christ. Then, as our love for Jesus grows, our love for the Saints will also grow. And as our love for the Saints and our love for Christ grows, we become easier to love. A dynamic, thriving church is a church where love for Christ is causing radical, otherwordly love for one another, a love that spans class differences, racial differences, cultural differences, temperament, personality, interests, education…A love that defies everything that “pop culture” calls love. What a life-changing, culture-changing, overwhelming thought. We get to experience here a little piece of Heaven, a glimpse, a mere glimpse of what perfect fellowship will look like on the other side of death.

All that is to say, God has provided wonderfully for us in our new life here in the Black Hills. I wish I could personally share some of these adventures and experiences with friends back in Illinois–You are missed, and greatly. But I am in awe (why should I be surprised when an awesome God does wonderful things?) of how He has provided. Today after church, a bunch of us were going to go hiking. It ended up just being me and Sarah, and two of our friends, Hannah and Jacob, but we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon in God’s creation, a hike up to Lover’s Leap, and a lovely view of the Black Hills. We reveled in a fellowship that only our mutual love of Christ could make as sweet as it is. What a sweet, sweet fellowship. What a great, great God.

Not just a silver lining

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

So sometimes you just have to find a silver lining. Like with this hail storm we had day before yesterday. I could whine and complain about the work we put into the garden that was wasted, I could complain about the beautiful tree we lost that fell on our beautiful Miner’s Cabin (the cabin is fine–One branch is going be fun getting down, though…), I could complain about the mess, the leaves everywhere, the matted lawn, the millions of sticks and branches, etc…

But I choose to find a silver lining. At least we have firewood! And guess what? It is hardwood, which means it will burn slower. Great. There’s a silver lining.

We also managed to salvage a bowl of radishes from our square-foot gardening frames. There’s a silver lining. The great thing about radishes is that the leaves can be destroyed, but the roots are fine! So now we have radishes.

But even when something is explained simply as being a silver lining, I believe that silver lining is a gift from God, sweetening an event that might be bitter otherwise.

He gives these little gifts, if we’re willing to see them as such. Whether it is a dew-spangled spiderweb on an early morning walk, or three piles of wood ready to be cut into firewood in the aftermath of a hail storm, God sends little gifts our way as a reminder, I believe, of his goodness. In this world, stuff happens. But God is there, an ever-present help in time of trouble, and an ever-present friend in times of plenty.