The Country.

El Nido is a far cry from San Francisco. We are in the country, my friends. Vast, and beautiful, and flat, and quiet, and peaceful as it is.

Matt and I went on a walk the other night. The sky was like a painting. The temperature was like the perfect bath water. It seemed like you could see for miles, hear every chirping cricket and talking bird. And it felt like a scene from “The Notebook” to be walking and talking with my sweetheart.

I have really enjoyed being in the country and getting to walk for miles while chatting on the phone with just cotton fields and cows to look at. The only interruption is the occasional tractor (okay, and my windedness from walking). I have enjoyed the twenty-minute drive to town that gives me a chance to think and pray, or to talk and listen to the Chronicles of Narnia. Driving is more special and meaningful, because we get to “drive to town”. I feel really cool that I can say that. I appreciate a trip to Starbucks or the grocery store as far more exclusive and exciting these days. It’s fun to experience day-to-day life in a fresh new way. I think it wakens you to dormant thankfulness and wonder. It’s all new to me, anyways. Some of you long time country folk might think I’m silly, but dormant gratitude in my own heart is woken.

There is something very private about the country, in a good and a bad way, I think. Privacy is really nice, but it’s also easy and convenient in some ways. No one to bother you. No neighbors. No distractions from a painted sky, “Notebook” kind of night. Convenience and privacy are really nice. Even Jesus taught us the importance of getting alone, getting privacy sometime, to be with the Father. It's good, most of the time. I was struck the other day by this quote:

"Revelation is God's gracious self disclosure whereby He forfeits his own personal privacy so that his sinful creatures could know Him." –Carl Henry

God’s Word, THE WORD, is God giving up his privacy so that we could know Him. He sent His Son so that we could know what God is like. He, Jesus, is “the visible image of the invisible God”. He was the Word and the Word became flesh. How gracious of God to come down. How good of him and how loving that He let us know him, when he lacked nothing in Heaven and was perfectly happy in Himself. 

But God loved us too much not to let us read his journal and experience things His way. 

Matt and I have found much joy lately in clinging to this God who has made Himself known. We have seen in many ways this summer how much we don’t have it all together. In the wake of this, there has been unexpected growth and joy and peace. The answer always seems to be the same in life, which is kind of frustrating, but also so comforting. Frustrating because it feels easier, more inventive and ingenious to come up with the newest self-help, fix-it answer to "life". But comforting because the answer really is always the same. The answer: look AT God. Behold Him and feast on WHO HE is. Love Him. Worship Him. Adore Him. Cling to Him. 

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18

I’m so glad the answer has always been the same and always will be the same. Look at Jesus and worship him, and we’ll become like Him. Because the Good News is that He has lets us into his space and privacy- by opening up the door to Heaven, coming to be our neighbor when He didn’t have to, and inviting us into the greatest quiet, dirt-road, painted sky, romantic walk of a lifetime. 

Simon is here!

I am absolutely in love with this child...

 and I haven't even met him yet.

Simon Phillip Cheatham, our first nephew, was born on Friday, July 23 at 7:08 pm. 

He is a miracle. He is absolutely precious. I can't WAIT to meet him. And my sister is an absolute champion. 

Matt and I will visit the new family in August! We're so excited that the next generation of my family has begun and we're looking forward to holidays, and vacations, and the excitement of watching this little guy grow up!

How we're doing and what we're learning.

I apologize for my complete neglect of this blog. I assure you we have still be sojourning. I realize that it's a little narcissistic to apologize for not writing to what really is an imaginary audience…as though you, whoever you are, didn’t have your own sojourning to do. 

I’m not quite sure how to re-cap the past month besides to say that we have put more than a thousand miles on my poor little Honda, we bought the Chronicles of Narnia on tape so that we didn’t go crazy during those miles, and we don’t really have a home. Overall, I’d say we feel very blessed though. I'll also say with confidence that we are learning A LOT- about marriage, trusting God, ourselves and the "sin that crouches at [our] door, and desires to master [us]" (Gen. 4:7), self-control, boundaries, judgments and acceptance, and community.

We’re in Merced most of the time living with my absolutely wonderful in-laws. They spoil us. I always said that I could never live in Merced or the Central Valley. I take back my snobbery now. There are GREAT people here.

This post is about simply that. Matt and I are learning how important community is. I’m starting to believe that you could live truly anywhere in the world, as long as you have good people to live alongside of. We are learning a lot about how important it is to be honest and open with people, to really give prayer requests and to know that it matters because if we’re in a battle it’s probably best to have people fighting with us. We are so grateful for all of the amazing people that are in our lives, which I realize sounds trite and too simple, but I mean it sincerely. We have needed all of them- the ones we know really well, are just getting to know, and have only met once, but leave us feeling like we’re the best of friends. Just last night in having dinner with some friends, we were pondering the “best friends after an hour” feeling and our host said, “Well, it’s because we may not know all of the stories of each other’s pasts but we share the same future.” See, good people. Matt and I have been able to “break bread”, if you will, with the kind of people who make you want to be a better person. We always want to surround ourselves with people like that and to be intentional in expending the energy that relationships take.

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:12-17

 Relationships are the best and hardest things we’ll ever do. And I’m realizing that most of our best moments and memories in life are made that because of relationships. A sunset isn’t quite as beautiful when you’re by yourself. A wedding wouldn’t really make you cry or be very fun, if it weren’t for the marriage. Movies are funnier when you have people to laugh with, and food tastes better when you eat it with loved ones. And if I could just finish by saying that in light of that you ALL need to read THIS book:



It’s by far one of the most convicting, challenging, encouraging, inspiring, hope-filled, realistic, valuable books I’ve ever read. You won’t be sorry if you read it.

Here are a few quotes that I LOVE, and they're just a warmer up-er...

“Here is where we must all remember that our relationships have been designed as workrooms for redemption and not shelters for human happiness.”

“Every painful thing we experience in relationships is meant to remind us of our need for Him. And every good thing we experience is meant to be a metaphor of what we can only find in Him.”

“We enter relationships for personal pleasure, self-actualization, and fun. We want low personal cost and high self-defined returns. But God wants high personal cost and high God-defined returns.”

“The problem with relationships is that they all take place right smack-dab in the middle of something, and that something is the story of redemption, God’s plan to turn everything in our lives into instruments of Christlike change and growth…our job is to learn how to best live in the middle.”


Anyways, we're here in the Central Valley, learning that we still have A LOT to learn.