Gus Long (aka "Not Max)

I don't believe I've written anything yet about our newest addition to the family, Gus Long.  

Gus joined the family in October when we adopted him from another family feeling a bit in over their heads with a growing lab puppy.  We apparently have no sense of where are heads are and welcomed him right in.  Gus spent the first few days with us afraid of the hardwood floors and being barked at my his dachshund sisters.  The girls still do not love him, but he's managed to cope with this by stealing the beds out of their kennel on a daily basis.  

Gus is, like many growing lab puppies, a hot mess.  He's a big oaf of a goober who doesn't know his own size or strength and often forgets that his tail is actually his own.  He starts everyday by whining until we let him out of his kennel.  Then he systematically grabs everything that isn't bolted down on his way to the back door....pillows, shoes, blankets, books, my purse, the jacket I've just put on.  When I walk him up to the school to pick up the boys he barks at the children and tries to take their backpacks.  Yesterday Kevin took him for a jeep ride and he jumped out the window of the moving jeep.  When Kevin finally caught up with him he was over at the school barking at a family playing ball.  They did not have backpacks.

Shortly after we were married, Kevin and I adopted a lab named Max.  She was a petite black lab who was gentle and patient, quick to please and excellent with training.  She did not chew.  Did not bark.  Some days Gus' nickname is "Not Max."  He doesn't know what we're talking about, of course, but the reference to our former pet reminds us that we are not entirely inept and we did manage to have one good dog before.  Perhaps there is hope for us again...

My biggest challenge with Gus are our walks.  He gets a walk usually every morning and every afternoon.  Pretty much everything on the sidewalk and bordering lawns are of great interest to him right now, and I am not much of a match for his super moose strength as his zig-zags back and forth, forward and back.  He sticks his nose in ant beds and eats wasps, whining he is stung and bit.  My favorite thing is when people drive by in their cars and light-heartedly holler out the windows, "Who's walking who?" as Gus takes off after a butterfly.  

To counter his erratic behavior I have started--upon the advice of our vet--walking with treats in my pocket.  When he wanders I call him back.  When he comes I give him a treat.  The exercise is meant to reinforce the idea that sticking close to me is better than chasing whatever squirrel/bird/cat/butterfly/piece of trash is moving past him on the sidewalk.  As we walked this morning I couldn't help but thinking of that dynamic in my own life....the things that pull my focus, that tempt me away from my own master.  

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight."

We have a hard time with the word "submit".  A culture of deviance, defiance and sin has made it into something negative, where submission is akin to weakness.  But the Greek root of the word as we see it used in scripture is closer to the idea of being in support of or identifying with its subject.   As one author puts it, to submit is to exercise "the Christian grace of voluntarily yielding one's preferences to another."  Individual rights don't have anything to do with it, in that submitting is not taking something away from you at all.  As we submit to the Lord we are not putting aside who we are or what makes us unique individuals.  We are not bowing in weakness or cowering in servitude.  Rather, we are accepting our identity in Christ and letting Him lead us.  Submitting to the Lord gives us the freedom to discern what is of God, that we may reflect the will of God and the grace of Jesus Christ in everything we do.  That others may come to know Him and that He may be glorified.

So two things to take away from all of this Gus-inspired submission talk....  

(1) Life is infinitely better when I am close to Christ.  It is not perfect.  It is not trouble-free.  But it is guarded, it is regarded, it is purposed when I am close to Christ.  On my own I am free to zig-zag back and forth, forward and back.  I can chase whatever squirrel I want to.  And, inevitably, I end up with my mouth full of wasp stings or my nose full of ants.  But, oh what Christ has to offer!  Grace!  Mercy!  A path not always clear, but always straight and sure.

And (2) Christ walks with me.  Not above me or beyond me.  Not without me.  With me.  That's the real idea of submission and identification, that we are not asked to serve someone who does not join us, who sits on a high and mighty throne somewhere and asks us to endure what He would not.  No, not at all!  Instead, Christ came to live among us.  He died for us.  He rose again, and through the power of His spirit, continues on in us and with us as very much alive as ever.  He sees our struggles as we see them, but with a power beyond our own understanding.  And in this power He works to make straight the paths this world threatens to undo every minute of every day.

We really do love Gus Long.  For all of his faults (can we really call them that?) he loves nothing more than to snuggle up next to you and put his head on your lap.  He is loyal and endearing and I do believe there is hope for him yet.  Hope for all of us, in fact.  Amen to that!

XOXO....Kelly

        

  

     

Girl, get that hand off your hip....

Do you remember the days before everyone had a camera on their phone?  When you took a photo and all you could do was hope because it would be a week or so before you got the film developed.  It was a time of unflattering angles, glowing red eyes and mid-sentence facial expressions.  It was not always pretty, but it was comfortingly human I think.

Nowadays everyone looks like a print ad for Abercrombie & Fitch all the time.  We've mastered the angles, the lighting.  We don't even need someone to take the shot for us.  Did you know that the average person will take around 25,000 selfies in their lifetime?  And don't even get me started on the hands on the hips.  You know what I'm talking about....the one where a bunch of women get together to line up for a picture and the people on the ends do that funny lean out thing with one hand on their hip.  Who stands like that?  Seriously, 1993 called and would like it's yearbook pose back....

Now I don't mean to pick on anyone.  The truth is I HATE unflattering pictures of myself.  When I see one something inside of me panics, as if that millisecond of time caught on camera is what I look like all the time.  I am the vainest of the vain when it comes to photos and (ironically) it's not pretty. 

But as much as we obsess about it, the Bible shares shockingly little concern for our outward appearance.  In fact, it's quite the opposite.  In the book of 1 Samuel, God has sent Samuel to anoint a new king over His people.  "I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem.  I have chosen one of his sons to be king" (16:1).  Jesse and his sons appear before Samuel.  These are young men of great stature, confident and chiseled, I imagine.  (They'd be great in an Abercrombie & Fitch ad.)  Surely one of these will do, Samuel thinks to himself.  But the Lord says to Samuel....

Do not consider his appearance or his height, for have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things people look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.  16:7

The rest of the story is that it's David Samuel has been sent to anoint, the youngest, smallest and slightest brother.  David who slays the giant no one else can take down.  David who will become king and make probably as many mistakes as he will victories.  David who is--above all else--God's.

Psalm 33:15 reminds us that He has formed the hearts of all.  Did He form the rest of you, too?  Oh, you bet.  That nose you think is crooked, torso you think is short and hips you think are wide.  God has created that, too, and calls it--get this--GOOD.  Do you know why?  Because all of that is simply a vessel to that which He has formed, filled and tucked away inside of you.  Your heart.  Your heart which is--above all else--God's.  

Will you challenge yourself to rest in that truth today?  Will you challenge yourself to scrutinize your image not on what the outside says about you, but what the inside says?  Will you drop that hand off your hip and be confident that He who has started a good work in you has much more in store for you than a winning Instagram photo?

You have been looked upon today, friends.  And you look GOOD.

XOXO....Kelly

    

Things Unseen

I realized something about myself this past Christmas season.  As I was participating in one of those white elephant style gift exchanges I realized that I never take an unopened gift.  I always steal.  I'd rather choose something I already see than open something unknown.  For years I've picked out my own presents....I don't even pretend to be surprised when I open them.  I've told myself it's because I have very specific taste, but really I'd rather just look forward to the thing I know I will like than be surprised by something else.  I know....not very heart-warming, is it?  Now who wants to get me a present??  If I was a groundhog I'd most definitely be peaking out to find out about the weather....

(Don't drive angry.)

Scripture talks about the unseen a lot.  At Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

And at 1 Corinthians 13:12, "For now we see only a reflection as we see in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
 
The future is the unopened gift in the white elephant gift exchange.  It is unseen, a calculated guess at best.  It is the spring or winter coming for us, and really has nothing to do with the groundhog!  But it has everything to do with the Father.

For as much as we are asked to trust and walk and obey, we are not abandoned.  The assurance that makes all of this faith in the unseen possible is that we have a Father who loves us, knows us and desires far better for us than we can possibly ever imagine for ourselves.

"And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the flowers of the field grow?  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith?" Matthew 6:28-30

We do our best to predict the future, lay plans that are good and smart and prosperous.  But the very best belongs to the Lord.  He who sees you sees the whole you, the whole picture of you, the world in which you live and the future on which you hope.  And His plan for your life has been rooted in His good and perfect will.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is eternal, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17-18), and embrace that sometimes the unexpected can be the biggest blessing of all.  

Except for those unopened white elephant presents.  Definitely leave those to the groundhogs....

XOXO....Kelly
   
   

Merry Christmas from the Long's 2018

Merry Christmas from the Long’s!

What a year it has been!  It feels like just yesterday that I was writing our last holiday letter.  Actually, that’s a lie.  I barely remember what actually happened yesterday let alone a year from now.  Kids kill brain cells you know….

Speaking of kids, ours are great!  Michael is in 6^th grade and handling middle school like a champ.  He’s in beginning band this year, playing percussion.  On top of soccer and piano lessons that means he makes a whole lot of noise and beats on stuff a bunch.  His other favorite hobby is asking for a phone.  Our favorite hobby is saying no. 

Blake is in 5^th grade and ready to move out of elementary school.  We can tell because of how often he refers to everyone around him as “idiots”.  He enjoys guitar lessons and also playing soccer.  His first love is hunting, though, and if we’d just let him move to the deer lease like he’s asked he could do it all the time.  And be around less idiots.

Zachary is in 3^rd grade, is teaching himself the ukulele (seriously) and still loves playing, well, anything with a ball.  Or without a ball.  Did you know you can even compete at blinking?  It’s true.  I bet you’re losing right now.  Zachary is smart and bright and funny and caring.  And currently beating you at blinking.

Parker is in 1^st grade.  He loves reading and not following directions at home.  This fall he played on a flag football team and did not love it.  We can’t blame him.  Have you seen some of those flag football parents?  They are crazy.  Lots of talent out there, but also lots that can’t tie their own shoes. 

Kevin (still bearded) is still with his firm, Oldenettel & Long.  He says and does lots of important lawyer-y stuff.  In his free time he scoops leaves and small snakes from the pool.  We celebrate 15 years of marriage this month!  The magic is still there, folks.  I mean, when I hear him argue with people on the internet he may or may not even know, well…..  I’ll just stop there.  This is a family letter after all.

I am still on staff at our church, Foundry UMC.  In my free time I’ve really committed to Netflix.  I don’t mean just watching an occasional show, but really connecting with several fictional and non-fictional characters I will never meet.  It’s a whole different kind of rewarding to lose yourself in the drama of Britain’s royal family when you’ve been listening to the sideline commentary of 1^st and 2^nd grade flag football parents for several weekends in a row.

And so in the middle of all this madness and joy we come to Christmas!  I love what my devotional said this morning….”Advent is an invitation to perceive. Christmas calls us to look again” (Matt LeRoy).  We look again at the year behind us—remembering the good with the bad!—and see Christ at work in so many ways.  And we look again to the future—always hoping & sometimes questioning—and are assured He will be there.  May you and your family rest in this same peace now, and in the New Year ahead!

XOXO….Kevin, Kelly, Michael, Blake, Zachary and Parker

Pictured from left to right:

Zachary (currently winning at picture-taking)

Parker (tied his own shoes...JK...they're velcro)

Michael (so much 6th grade swagger we don't even know where to begin)

Blake (solely responsible for the 15 shots it took us to get one decent picture together)

Kevin & Kelly (making a list of cocktails to try when the boys move out one day)

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter....

I'll admit that amid the joys of parenting there have--from time to time--been moments of frustration as well.  Moments that remind me of that line in the Christmas poem "when out on the lawn there arose such a clatter".  Literally.  Like the boys are actually fighting in the front yard.  Moments that have driven me to shut myself inside the laundry room (no one ever looks there) and eat a chocolate bar.  Sometimes when my kids call my name--"MOM!!!"--I reply, "She left!"  It doesn't work, just so you know.  They know too well the sound of my voice.

John 10:4-5 says, "When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."

Ah, to know the voice of the Shepherd.

Can I be honest that I started the Christmas season this year a little grumpy?  I don't know why exactly.  The weather.  The traffic.  The calendar.  On December 1 I got down on my knees and poured it all out to God, that I desperately did not want to be this season's Grinch and I most certainly was not interested in a whole month of a fake-it-till-you-make-it attitude.  That evening we attended the Christmas party of some dear friends and there--amid the clatter--came the voice of Christ.  It wasn't anything huge or expensive or glittery.  It was simply His presence lived out in those around me, the reassurance in that time and place that He was there.  My head turned and I followed immediately.

That's my prayer for you this season, that you would hear the voice of Christ.  Beyond the lights that sparkle and the trees that gleam.  Among the crowds in the stores and above the joyful noise of each holiday party.  As you look over your calendar and plan your menu....

His voice.

Let us follow it, each and everyone of us.  Amen.

XOXO...Kelly
 

Like a fish out of water...

My Monday morning walk took a bizarre turn this week when a friend and I happened upon--of all things--a fish on the sidewalk near my home.  

We figured either Sharknado was 'bout to happen or a large bird had dropped it mid-flight.  At 1pm that afternoon the fish was still on the sidewalk and, we discovered, still alive!  Feeling slightly guilty for having let the poor thing suffer so long, Blake and I filled a bucket with water and transported it to a nearby creek where it swam away.

 

(He's a cute little wildlife conservationist, isn't he??)

That fish laid on the sidewalk for 5 hours, still and seemingly lifeless.  There's no telling how far down it fell when it landed there.  But you should have seen it when we dropped it in the water!  Its gills moved and fins fluttered.  It's head searched for the direction of the current and righted immediately.  That fish found life again.

In the book of John it's recorded that Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well and offers her living water.  

"Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”  The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”  John 4:4-15

Y'all, there are so many souls living in a fish-out-of-water state everyday.  If I'm honest even I find myself there on a pretty regular basis, where I am half-full of the life God wants for me and sorely out of place.  But friends, there is living water that can revive us the way the creek near my house revived that fish.  There is a Savior that not only quenches our thirst, but rejuvenates us completely, who removes us from the dry, cold ground and sets us free to swim again.

The most beautiful part of this passage in John is how Jesus goes on in this conversation to name this woman's sin.  He asks her to go and bring her husband back to him, knowing that she is not married, and she confesses the truth to him (verses 15-18).  At first glance maybe it looks like Jesus is being unkind, taunting her with a promise and then reminding her of her past.  But as the account continues "The woman said, "I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes he will explain everything to us."  Then Jesus declared, "I--the one speaking to you--I am He."  (verses 25-26)

Here Jesus declares who He is.  Not a prophet with limited wisdom or vision, but the One True God who sees her and knows her and offers her life.  In those times no man would have spoken so freely with a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman.  But the life that Christ offers is not limited by world says we can do, or what society says we deserve.  And her encounter with Jesus would not only change the course of her own life, but the lives of many more because of her testimony (verse 39).

Christ sees you.  He sees your struggle.  Your past.  Your present frustrations.  And He comes to you anyway.  Because the life He wants for you--for any of us--is not cold.  It is not misplaced.  It is not devoid of hope.  It is, rather, eternal.  And it is not just rescue, but it is rebirth.  For you, and for all those who will hear the Good Word He has put into your life.  

So swim, friends.  Swim.

XOXO....Kelly   

        

Bad gifts

The holiday season is just around the corner.  I overheard someone talking the other day about Christmas shopping.  Arg.  Let's just leave that right there for now....  But it did make me think.  Have you ever received a really terrible gift?  One year for Christmas I bought my mom a musical coffee mug.  Every time you lifted it up it played Christmas music.  This was a terrible gift because (a) my mom did not drink coffee and (b) every time you lifted it up it played Christmas music.  The dogs kept knocking it over while it was wrapped and under the tree and music would come from out of nowhere.

What's a person to do when they receive a bad gift?  If you're a mother and your wonderful middle daughter has spent her very own money on a musical mug I think you just accept it and wait for the day when said mug "mysteriously disappears".  But there are some bad gifts you don't have to accept...

I love what my good friend Jennifer Patrick says about not accepting bad gifts from others.  Comments, opinions and criticisms that we are all going to hear about ourselves at one point or another, from friends and enemies alike.  Jennifer says to think of this sort of feedback as a gift.  You either accept it or you don't.  Once you've accepted it you have to do something with it.  Do you believe in it?  Carry it around with you?  Let the words change you?  

Or do you recognize those words for what they are--a bad gift--and simply say, "No, thank you. I just don't have room something like that right now."

There is great freedom in accepting the grace Christ offers you, not because you are perfect.  Not because you may ever get to perfect!  But because He loves you, He died for you, and He has a purpose for you.  

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Ephesians 4:29

Anything less is a musical coffee mug for someone who doesn't drink coffee.  And you, my friend, simply don't have to accept it.

XOXO....Kelly 

*Interested in more life-affirming words for yourself, your friends and family?  In a world full of misleading thoughts and "bad gifts" we all need a reminder about where our truth comes from.  Contact Jennifer Patrick at jpatrickcomm@sbcglobal.net about hosting a Soul Book Gathering, a unique experience in creating art from the heart and finding your truth!