Sitting back and thinking...

There is this book that CM gave me over a decade ago call, God Calling. It was written anonymously by two woman, who were very poor. Each day they woke up and asked the Lord to speak through them and He did. Some of CM and my greatest life quotes came from this book. We often say, Claim Big. This means Claim big things on behalf of God's kingdom and his children. I still read this book many days of the year. Another book CM has given me, maybe twice, is My Utmost by Oswald Chambers. Yesterday, I was struck by this quote--"The proof that we are rightly related to God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not." I wrote it down and it is sitting on a note card in the window above my desk. CM loves quotes. She can remember a sentence from a sermon we heard 15 years ago and apply it to her life today. I like that about her. A quote God just put on her heart today is: The Sun Never Goes down, the Earth Just Keeps Spinning. Think about it in the context of God's son, Jesus, how profound, yet simple.

These past few days I have been sitting back and thinking about why I am the way I am. Why I tell my husband every few months, "I have an itch in my craw, let's go on an adventure!" And we do. We have ended up in the most wild places and have done some very fun things. On my "itch in my craw list" is to head down to the famous mooning spot down street from my house. Once a year hundreds of people risk citation and at the same time moon an oncoming train. Tell me that is not hilarious? I bet I could get CM to do that one with me. So this adventurous spirit was probably written into my DNA but it was cultivated richly through living in close quarters with CM. Through her "nudging" I have camped as a 16 year old in the mountains of Wyoming, ending up at our campsite by simply closing our eyes and pointing at a map of the entire state. That day we met a female bear killer, Ethel. We befriended her and found her again the next summer while she was unloading her guns and wearing a hat that said, "Beer: it just ain't for breakfast anymore." Ethel was a Harley chick and for some reason that inspired us to go Harley chick too. One year we were packed and ready to go to Sturgis in my uncle's 76 Nova. When we met up with some people who strongly encouraged us not to attend. The rest of that summer CM made us wear Thelma and Louise bandanas around our necks. We were certainly the only girls at Point Loma Nazarene College with Harley posters on our walls. CM also nudged a group of us girls to take the doors off her jeep, pack backpacks and head out for a week long trip, which included back country hiking at Joshua tree and 2 days in what would become my heart's joy: The Grand Canyon. One year CM laid some information in front of me--we were heading to Colorado to become white water rafting guides. And we did . We lived in a tent for three months and took people down the Arkansas river. Luckily we never killed anyone, but we did get in a shoving fight in the tent once. When she felt we were not making enough money rafting she said she was going to go out and get us side jobs. She did. That afternoon she handed me a slip of paper and said, you start today, I start tomorrow. "Where CM?" "The gas station down highway in front of the prison." We worked there at the Conoco Beer/Gas station for the rest of the summer. It was these adventures brought on by CM's adventurous spirit that leads me to look at my husband and say, "I have an itch in my craw. Let's go...." And we do.

Guest Blogger: ClaimBig