Road in Retirement

Strength from God Many have asked me how my husband and I maintain our strength, maybe even our sanity through the trouble, through the physical disease, through the complications of brain surgery, and through arguably the hardest time of our 40 years together. Our faith in God and a few Bible truths come to mind. We have finally given up on the notion that God provides a trouble-free existence if we just have faith—not true. It’s crystal clear to us now that God doesn’t always provide protection from trouble nor reward our faith with complete deliverance when in the heat of crushing circumstances. However, through these past 18 months of trial, we have found God’s promise of strength and endurance through any hardship to be true. That supernatural ability to find hope and press on comes through seeking refuge and sanctuary in his presence.  God’s Provision of Refuge God invented the words refuge and sanctuary to describe places where we humans could find his presence and his safety or

As I stated in my last blog, I am cheerful, delighted, and full of God when I am enjoying the company of someone and playing games. My disabilities may keep me from bantering on or entering boisterously into the conversation, but I am paying attention because I also like winning. I learned to love card playing mostly in kitchens and dining rooms. Kitchens and Dining Rooms Both my husband and I learned a few things about playing cards in our grandma’s kitchens and dining rooms. Those heart-like places set the pace for all home activities. And bear with me because older architectures sometimes melded what we might call today a kitchen and a dining room. Many households of old ate their meals in the kitchen. My husband’s grandma‘s kitchen and my grandma’s dining room were not only places to cook and eat food, but they also served multiple purposes like debate center, courtroom, comedy theater, political platform, town hall, banquet hall, and most importantly, gaming center. Chris’s grandm

 A Family Affair Several years ago I went on the road to the Hills of Missouri to pay respects to a precious matriarchal figure in my life. I lived in her home for a summer during my sophomore year in college in Southwestern Wisconsin, as things back home with my mom were strained and a bit tumultuous. Her youngest daughter was a close friend of mine, and the matriarch’s family became my family. The dad became a replacement for my dad who had died 11 years earlier. These people loved games. At the celebration of life, one of her sons even told a funny story of the matriarch’s notorious and well-hidden ability to cheat at cards. My summer in this home showed me how to delight in God. Being unchurched, I attended various religious groups on campus and noted that some Christians lived in religious piety in such a way that it stole their ability to have fun. Their relationship with God seemed dominated by the keeping of religious laws and rules. My college family and the matriarch taught