I had the distinct pleasure this Easter morning of enjoying a sunrise service on the top of a mountain. Well, ok, if Stone Mountain counts as a mountain... in actuality it is a bug hunk of granite rock. Nevertheless, I was at a high elevation with a view of the entire city of Atlanta and beyond. It all started at 5:15am, when I met up with some of my friends from church at one of their houses. We drove to Stone Mountain Park and then proceeded to hike up the mountain towards the top. It's 1 mile up the side of the rock. As we were walking, Don commented on the beautiful full moon that we were enjoying, as otherwise the sky was completely dark. He said, "You know, if someone had never seen the sun, they would probably think that the moon was really bright, but it pales in comparison to the real light of the sun." Something I'm sure you have heard before, as I have, but really it is amazing the clear picture that we saw of this as darkness turned into light before our eyes. You can see in this first photo what the sky looked like when we got to the top of the mountain. Dark. Actually, this was not right when we got there because the skyline was not even lighting up yet at that time, but still you can see that it was dark. If you scan the middle of the picture, just below the lightening horizon, that is the ground below. It is where we live. It was completely black. And even though we have created little lights to help us see the roads or our front doors or parking lots, viewed from this elevation it is clear that we do not provide much light for ourselves at all. See the little specks dotting the ground? This was not a forest, you are looking at the city, granted it is not the downtown area. I'm sure I don't have to point out, but I will, that this is what our lives are like when we attempt to live on our own. We attempt to shed a little light on our circumstances or those of our friends and family. We try to understand the world around us. We even try to show others the way. But if we are not living in the true Light and leading each other there constantly, we reduce ourselves to the little specks of light. They don't illuminate beyond our little personal space, if that. Ok, moving on….
So this next photo was taken at literally the first moment that I saw the sun peek up over the horizon. See the little top edge of the sun? It is barely there at all, and yet look at the brightness! The world is suddenly illuminated. The little specks of light on the ground are vastly outshined. They are insignificant, and so are our own efforts to lead ourselves and others in this world. I had to ask myself later, am I truly experiencing the Light in my life right now? Or am I blindly feeling my way through tough decisions and relationships and demands? Is my flashlight shining, or have I done away with my insignificant source of light? Am I more comfortable with the flashlight, not wanting to really see my life for what it is? And you will probably agree that was enough questions for one day. Praise God that He loves us enough to provide Light when we are lost, which if we are honest is pretty much every day.
The rest of the sunrise…
A few weeks ago, I realized that I was going to have to board my dog for a then upcoming trip. I was heading to Orlando for a conference and would be gone for 4 days. Because I was returning on a Saturday night, in boarding terms that would equal to 6 days as they are not open on Sundays. The place that I normally board my dog is conveniently within a few miles of my place, but it costs $27/night. For 6 nights, that would be over $162. So, being the resourceful person that I am, I decided to find a different kennel for Kelsey. I was very excited to locate a place in Alpharetta (about 30 miles from my place) that would board her for $18/night. AND as a special bonus, they offered a 5th night free discount, and furthermore, they had a Sunday pickup time! With this wonderful find, I was down to $72 total plus a $20 bath - why not? Even with the extra cost of gas for driving to Alpharetta and back (twice) it was still much cheaper than the alternative. Everything went swimmingly until a few days after I picked Kelsey up from this kennel. In the middle of the night last Thursday, at about precisely 3am, she startled me in the middle of the night with a fit of coughing and heaving that had me fearing her imminent death. After a few minutes of freaking out for both of us, she stopped hacking and sort of looked at me like what just happened and why didn't you prevent it? I apologized profusely (yes, to my dog), gave her a few love pats, and then settled back into bed. A few hours later, same deal, hacking, coughing, heaving, freaking, etc. Then it was over again. I sort of hoped it would go away, but Friday night proved to be about the same, not to mention she had a few fits during the day on Friday. Saturday morning, it hit me all of a sudden - one of the required vaccinations for boarding your dog is for kennel cough. I quickly googled this and found that Kelsey's symptoms were remarkably similar to the description. It turns out kennel cough is highly contagious in dogs and not surpisingly is commonly picked up in kennels. So off we went to the vet, who was thankfully able to see her on a Saturday and on short notice. She agreed that it was probably kennel cough and prescribed some antibiotics.Here is where the math comes in. The vet cost $78 for the visit and medication. So did I save any money after all? Ok, I'll do the math for you. No, I did not save money. In fact, it has now cost me more money in total than it would have been to just board Kelsey at the expensive kennel. Sigh. I sort of felt God laughing at me as I realized all of this. Not that he enjoys seeing me get exasperated, but in the grand scheme of things, all of my planning and scheming just didn't amount to much. Pretty typical of the planning and scheming of my little earthly self.
