Chismville

We are finishing up the final details to head up north for a quick Chism Family Vacation. The past few years, Joli and I have spent most of our vacation time with the Howards in Maryland. My west coast family has now planned a short and sweet trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains: Devil’s Postpile National Monument. Some of the Chisms left this morning, and we will be following bright and early tomorrow morning.

I am really excited about our trip, because it brings back many childhood memories. My dad use to camp at the same place when he was a kid as well. Therefore, I am looking forward to starting new memories and telling Joli lots of stories of my adventures in the past.

Our website is almost 100% finished and things are working well. The guest book and comments also work. So, please comment or sign our guest book.

Today’s the getting ready day for a camping trip at the Devil’s Postpile. This place holds special childhood memories for David. I look forward to seeing some of his special places. I unfortunately inherited my mom’s disdain for packing. I’m sure I’ll much enjoy our time once we get there. I just don’t want to forget anything of importance especially for Joel and Chalice. David’s parents, Em and Andy, the Goodharts and Browns will also be there. Camping trips are fun with Mom and Dad Chism because they have enough nifty gear it doesn’t really feel like camping!

It’s a scorching hot day in San Diego and I discovered that the best time for Walmart runs with little people is around 7:30 AM. No one else is there, so the lines are short and there are no spectators to see me discipline Joel for climbing out of the cart onto me, or worse climbing on top of his very patient sister. I’m just hoping my tomato plant will still be happy when we return from our trip. It’s just starting to look decorative with its red, vine-ripening fruits.

I love the way Joel greets Chalice in the morning. He dances out of his room beaming and looking for Chalice. When he finds her he says, “Hey!!!” with such warmth and enthusiasm. I realized that’s usually the way I greet him when I get him up from naps. Yesterday though, he added “Baby” after the “Hey.” Hey Baby!! Very cute.

I just finished my two day painting conference in Annapolis and wrapping up my final hours back at the Howard’s house. It is my first time visiting Joli’s family without her and the kids. It was weird to attend New Hope OPC this morning without my family. The conference was excellent, and the Howards are always a joy to be with!

I am looking forward to going back home and press on at Chism Brothers Painting. It is so much fun to meet painting contractors from all over the country. I get encouraged that I am in the right vocation for this season of life. I will miss the Howard family as I leave today but am very glad to stop by and say a quick 24 hour hello.

I miss my Baby. There’s nothing like the nostalgia of a wedding to bring back dozens of sweet romantic memories. Tonight I attended a delightful wedding without my Honey. While David was eating dinner with my family in Libertytown, Maryland, I was enjoying matrimonial festivities with David’s family in La Jolla, California.  I had no one to dance with.

I was thinking as I drove home about how ad lib dancing is always for someone. I could dance freely with my sisters or with my husband, but to dance just to dance would seem strangely disconnected. I love to watch children dance. They manifest no self-consciousness.

My heart is in Maryland now with David. I miss the green open spaces and the aesthetically-appealing architecture with the comfortable feelings of home. I wonder if California will ever carry those same special feelings I associate with home.  Will my heart ever sing in this foreign city? When my brain is not so tired I want to think of the things I love about San Diego. I do want to love San Diego.  I used to love slipping off to quiet beautiful places. I loved finding and making peaceful places my own. I would ride my bike, or walk or run, or read in the peaceful solitude of sweet outdoors just me and my Savior. Or I would rollerblade with happy music choreographing my movements. Sometimes in those quiet pretty places, I would daydream about my one somebody. My somebody is a San Diego man! Wherever we live together will be home.

Many times I have wished for the perfect assistant who could face my current challenge with the most appropriate insight. Then there are the inconvenient times–odd last minute times in a day or night when I’m running on little sleep and wish I could call in a reserve squadron to bail me out. Many too, are the times I have finished a project or a paper with my own insufficient insight or prowess–or so I thought. I can imagine the anxiety the disciples must have felt when Jesus left them to go to the Father. They had been given much and much would be required of them! In such a short time they had been trained by the ultimate Teacher and He was leaving them. Jesus did not leave them alone, however. He said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” Cash in on that one! A Helper with us forever! Not just any helper–a Helper sent from God Himself–who is God Himself. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” I wish my college professors would give me that assurance before an exam. I love the truths of the Bible. It seems no matter how many times I’ve read or heard an insight, I need to remind myself again of the implications. I have the Holy Spirit indwelling me. What liberation to believe and access a divine assistant!

I am flying to Maryland tomorrow afternoon for a 2 day painting conference this Friday and Saturday. I am really excited to spend time with fellow painting contractors but will deeply miss my little family in San Diego. It is SO hard to leave Joli and the kids.

The conference is called AST (Advanced Shop Talk). It is a place for me to learn more about how to run a successful painting business through a round table discuss. There will be different categories that we will be discussing and hearing some prepared speeches. I always get so encouraged when I meet fellow painters. It is fun to see small business owners doing the same thing I have grown up doing. We get to share ideas that work and don’t work. I am also seeking a board position as well. AST is part of the Residential Forum of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America (PDCA). They have their own small board, which my dad was apart of for a few years. He helped start the forum but has since stepped down. They had asked me if I would consider joining, so I put my name on the ballet. We’ll see what happens.

I am looking forward to my brief visit with the Howard family as well. I will, Lord willing, be staying with them Saturday night and returning to San Diego on Sunday evening.

I’m very grateful to be married to a nerd as I have never enjoyed navigating my way through long conversations on hold with tech support folks. This morning as I was sending an email to a friend, I encountered a new problem. A pop-up read: “One of the USB devices attached to the computer has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it. Try reconnecting the device. If Windows still does not recognize it, replace the devise.” I looked down to see the “devise” attached to my USB port was Chalice, happily chewing on my palm synchronizing cord. It was a startling revelation that Windows did not recognize Chalice and further mystifying to think of replacing a devise so clearly irreplaceable!

The Pharisees had no place for Jesus in their stuffy tradition books, for they had invented their own religion devoid of Christianity. A blind man is made to see and they put him on trial, not to believe in his Healer, but out of fear that one whom they believed to be a mere man could attract attention away from them in their sacrosanct ways. Even the blind man’s parents were too timid to vouch for Christ’s deity. “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age,” they said. This blind man, however; born for the very purpose that God’s works might be displayed in him, did not hesitate to declare Christ. He had lived his entire life, to this point, in darkness from the colors and light of day. He had no anxiety about the possibility of offending these pious leaders. “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” The Pharisees threw this man out of the synagogue, livid that a “man born entirely in sin” would teach them. They had nothing to learn, for their hearts were full already –full of their own prideful ways. Jesus sought this man born blind, after he had been put out of the synagogue, and affirmed His deity to a soul, starved for the truth. Jesus said to this man whose identity had been wrapped up in sightlessness, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” Jesus could have parachuted into planet Earth as an adult and impressed the Pharisees with His holy perfection. Instead He came as an infant to enter the world in the blood and sweat of humanity to heal the sick and the blind and to utterly befuddle the pompous religious leaders of the day.

What I’ve been thinking about:

How many times have you heard unbelievers say that Jesus was just a good teacher? I have heard in a number of times. Just recently, I heard a professing Christian (or church-goer) describe Jesus, “I cannot see how Jesus was divine, but he was an amazing good teacher.” What a sad conclusion for anyone who knows just a little about Jesus.

Joli and I were talking about the claim that Jesus was just another “Good Teacher” but nothing more, and Joli had a great insight. She could not believe how some people can make such comments about our Savior with all the things Jesus taught. Jesus would have been such an odd person to be around if one did not believe his doctrine. He claimed to be God. He spoke with such authority and power that people marveled. The people accused him of having a demon as well. So even in Jesus’ day, people made him to be a lunatic. If he was such an amazing teacher and praised for his ability to lead a group of people, why then did people say he was mad? He was a fool in the eyes of men during his time, not an acclaimed teacher.

Jesus’ authority when he taught set him apart from all other prophets, church leaders and gifted teachers of all time. When Jesus had finished his sermon on the mount in Matthew 7, this is what the Bible says,

“And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:28,29)

Jesus’ authority was so gifted and so astonishing, because he was more than a good teacher. I do not see how anyone can read the Bible or study the life of Christ and come up with the conclusion of his powerful teaching abilities. Jesus’ claim was that He was the Son of God. He taught that his Kingdom in not of this world. He claimed to be equal with God by saying these words, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” The Jews on several occasions picked up stones to stone him because he had claimed to be the Son of God, which was to say, “I am God.” Anyone who gives credit to Jesus for being one of the most gifted teachers of all times and says he was not divine must not know much about what he preached. He did not just preach a bunch of good moral principles about how to be kind to one another, which some people think. He preached that the kingdom of God was at hand and that we must repent or face the wrath of God. That does not sound like a warm and fussy teacher to me!

If you have heard or ever will hear someone claim that Jesus was not divine but an amazing teacher, encourage them to read the Bible carefully, especially the life and ministry of Jesus Christ on earth. Ask them to look closely at what Jesus said to the religious leaders who did not believe in Him. It is shocking. Jesus did not have a demon. He was not made. He was Divine, and He had a Gospel that no human mind can conceive without the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Praise God for His Work in Opening Hearts to His Truths!

On my way home from our family vacation last month, the Southwest flight attendant told me to hold the luggage space above me for a guy with a guitar. The guitarist entered the plane, found a different spot for his guitar but asked if the space next to me was open, which is was. He looked like a singer, but I could not place his face. I prayed a selfish prayer for what I wanted for my empty seat, “Lord, I would like to leave the seat empty but if it must be so…maybe a Christian or someone I can talk to about the Lord will do!”

We had small talk for a little bit before he took a nap and I began reading. When he woke up, I was having a little Bible study and also reading a book on Biblical doctrine. He leaned over and said something about the Bible being an awesome book! We both realized at that point that we were believers! We had a great time chatting and talking about the Christian faith and music. He said he had just published his first CD this past year, so I asked for his info to purchase a CD. He said his name was Phil Wickham. I had to ask how to spell his name! I still had know idea that he was an up and coming Christian Contemporary artist. He just returned from a Christian music concert called, “Creation.”

We had a really good and honest talk about life, marriage, family, music, etc, and I enjoyed my time with Phil. He was a genuine Christian young man seeking to glorify God with the gift God gave him. He also was from my home town, which was cool. I’m glad at the time I did not he was “famous!” When we got of the plane, I met his father, and he gave me one of his CD’s.

If you have not heard his music, I think you will be impressed! He has an excellent voice, and he has a lot of talent when it comes to the lyrics. Even while he sat next to me he was busy writing. I am simply amazed with how songwriters can write so much!!!

When I returned home, I told some friends about meeting Phil, and they said, “You sat next to Phil Wickham? Oh Wow!” They loved his music and the artist. Ha! It was a fun experience. I invited him to worship at Grace Church and have a cup of coffee when he is back in town. However, I forgot to get his email!