Wednesday, June 13, 2012

In Colorado: Sitting in the River

        Greetings Friends and Family:  I thought this picture was appropriate for our current circumstances.  This week we are on vacation in Howard, CO, right off the Arkansas River in the valley between two separate swaths of mountains.  As I said in my previous post, my father died on March 1st.  He found this place last year and visited twice between the months of June and August.
        As far as vacations go, this place was his favorite.  Dad loved the mountains and He loved his family.  His intention was to be here with us this summer, he wanted one last trip with his family to Colorado.  We grew up coming to Colorado, but rarely did we appreciate the grandeur of the state until we were able to grow older and see the significance of the glory of God in His creation.  Last Fall, Dad booked a home for us to stay in, which leads us to our current circumstances.  We are here in Colorado without Dad physically, but in our hearts he is ever present.
       I really feel like this trip as been well worth the time to just come to the house and have a family retreat.

Coffee and Conversations:

        The coffee mug is the mug I've been drinking from for the past few days.  I love coffee and I love conversations.  I am not a fan of drama.  If you know me, you know that is true.  I live with 5 women, and each of them are the most significant women in my life.  I have a son, he is a gift from God, and constant reminder of the legacy my father left on this earth.  Tripp is his name, really named after my father, Lee Roy Goodson III.
         I've been waiting for God to just speak to me on this trip, but it has been a quiet few days.  I used to think that God was upset at me during days of silence; however, I have grown up to know that it is simply not true.  So in my questioning of the presence of God in this trip, I realized yesterday that I am the one that was noisy.  I walked to down to the river's edge yesterday afternoon after a somewhat disappointing day, because selfishly it did not work out the way I expected.  My expectations are usually blown out of the water anyway!  Nonetheless, I needed to get away.  I sat down on the rivers edge and shut up.  I shut up not on the outside but on the inside, my soul was noisy, fighting the calming call of the spirit.  So I shut up.  God proceeded to tell me to get into the river.  The Arkansas river this year is down.  I walked into the river with my crocs and my cloths and just sat down in the river.   The significance of that moment was huge, the grandeur of listening to the voice of God speak over me caused me to be quiet and rest.  Why was this such a huge moment?  It was a huge moment because I simply did what God told me to do.  He told me to get into the river, so I did.  It is the most relaxed I have been yet on this trip in the midst of the noise in my soul.
         I was just as calmed and satisfied in my soul at this point as I would have been in the most crowded worship experience ever.  I worshiped God.  He spoke over me the joy of Zephaniah 3:14-17, He gave me in that moment the most important thing, Himself.  A Hearer became a doer, and the joy of the Lord was present.  In that moment my niece and oldest daughter came walking down the steps, my nephew walked out of the cattails and rocks in the river, my nephew by marriage and brother in law had been fishing and saw a calmed, satisfied, enriched, and wealthy soul.  The Gospel was made known and I did not speak a word.  I acted on the voice of God which spoke from the beginning and sat in the river.
     

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