Category Archives: Alaska

rebuild: how we heal, protect, and recover

Posted on by October 31, 2024

We never need someone’s permission to do the right thing. Seems like that should be obvious, but apathy and cowardice and destruction hide behind many doors, and “I’m not allowed to” is sometimes one of them.

rebuild: how we heal, protect, and recover | Shannon Guerra

Years ago when the Matanuska River was flooding its banks and the local government was dinking around with bureaucratic red tape, we watched a house a few doors down from my grandma’s tip into the river as the water ate up the ground underneath it and then proceeded to slowly swallow the house as it floated toward the Knik Arm.

It was 1991. The edge of the river moved closer to her house every day, and if nothing happened by the time it got to her property line it would be too late, because that was a mere hundred feet from the foundation of her house. So while those “in power” did nothing (and does that mean they’re really in power at all?) my dad and uncles dropped concrete slabs down the embankment to shore up the side, deterring the rapid erosion. They saved her house, and probably several others downriver, before a series of dykes were installed to keep the Matanuska in check.

So now it’s 33 years later, and in another rural part of the country we have a much bigger problem:

People are stranded in disaster areas without food, water, or fuel, and institutions and government blowhards who are supposed to help are confiscating supplies, and clearly up to something else.

[Warning: Many of these videos I’ve linked have language and other details you will not want to play around your kids. But adults need to hear it – we’re not sugar; we won’t melt.]

Citizens try to help but are blocked by government officials and threatened with arrest. Government resources are grounded instead of helping…but that doesn’t stop them from taking credit for what civilians are doing on their own.

People were dying as a senile “president” flew over, blocking air traffic from those trying to deliver supplies, undoubtedly causing more deaths from the delay.

If all this sounds unbelievable to you and you think things are fine, you need to turn off your TV and stop listening to people who are paid to lie to you, and start listening to real people. Like here. And here. And here.

A government who sent billions of dollars across the world to foreign nations now says there’s nothing left to give to citizens, but then releases a meager $750 via the flick of a middle finger to Americans who’ve lost everything.

What is happening?

If you were paying attention to what happened in Maui, you probably already know.

So…abhorrent, dire conditions in our own country. I sit here, far away in Southcentral Alaska, at my desk and on the couch and at the kitchen table with my family, remote from it all and yet hyperaware that Alaska has its own vulnerabilities and enemies, foreign and domestic. Wherever you are in America, you do, too.

But what can we do?

With such need, and corruption, and distance, what can we do that goes beyond mailing a check? How do we help, how do we resist, and how do we protect our own communities?

And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”

– Nehemiah 4:14

We create a life out of slow, single days, tiny beads on a string, and one event can wipe it all out. I look around, and everything I do is slow work: Growing food is slow, raising poultry is slow, writing is slow. Parenting and teaching and healing is slow. Supporting small businesses and strengthening families is slow.

It is easy to get bogged down looking too close at my own inabilities, and despair. The needs are immediate, relief needed right now. And we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. But we must not capitulate to the enemy’s ploy to make us feel powerless and helpless.

Prayer is fast. Miracles are fast, and they’re needed right now.

Prayer reaches across the distance and touches people at the speed of thought, bringing supernatural protection and favor and wisdom and guidance. We don’t know the details and most of us can’t get there, but God does and can, and is there.

Prayer doesn’t care about the mocking, scoffing, spitting, disbelieving. Let them berate and see how much peace they find from their ignorant faithlessness. It doesn’t care about permission or blowhards or red tape; it soars right over, blasts right through, the agreement with God’s goodness releasing His power to change situations, to create something out of nothing, to lead those who don’t know where to go or where to look, to draw water from the rock.

So there’s that, and it’s definitely something.

I had a long conversation with one of our kids about all these events, and why we do what we do – why we shop certain places and avoid others, why we spend time learning and teaching things that aren’t on a curriculum. You can’t go wrong in learning about prayer, healing, security, and food, I told her. All we can do is the thing God’s telling us to right now, today, in this moment.

For example, when you learn about healing, you learn that there are four stages to it: hemostasis (stopping the bleeding), inflammation (scabbing over), rebuilding, and strengthening.

What strikes me about this is that none of it is done in isolation: At first, the closest blood cells come together to clot and protect the wound. But then, white blood cells and oxygen come in. Then red blood cells come in, helping to rebuild new tissue.

We have a huge gash in our Southeastern states right now, and the process of stopping the bleeding, clotting, and protection is in full force thanks to those who didn’t wait for permission to do the right thing. Meanwhile, those of us holding down the fort in other areas do well to strengthen our immediate surroundings, to fight against the attempts to obliterate our communities and culture. We don’t know when our own tissue could be injured, or our red blood cells called in to reinforce healing needed nearby.

When all else fails and you are overwhelmed, unsure of what to do or prioritize, look at the core strengthening things. What foundations need shored up? What relationship needs some extra time, or just an extra hug? What small task is going to bolster your day tomorrow? Do you need an extra hour of sleep, an extra glass of water? We can get so focused on the big things that we forget the little things until they turn into big things we could’ve prevented.

And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

— Isaiah 32:17-18

There are so many voices out there. Many of them are good and true. But we still need to be quiet, to stop scrolling for a while, and listen for Him to speak specifically to us, just to us, in the quiet.

It’s important to starve the voices that aren’t true. We have to prioritize who we give the microphone to in our lives. We can turn the volume down on the excess noise in our society by trimming the amount of time we scroll.

We can’t go wrong in reaching out, making stronger connections, hugging the prickly kid, texting the distant kid, feeding more broth and tea to the sick kid. We can read good books, pray for our neighbors, grow and cook real food, memorize Scripture, learn new skills. We can repair rather than replace, create more and consume less. We can smile and talk with the person in line at the grocery store or post office. We can filter our media consumption, and prioritize what gives life, beauty, joy, and wisdom.

We will probably never regret doing things like deep cleaning our kitchen, taking flowers to a friend, or spending an extra few minutes talking with our kids at bedtime.

These are the things that bring oxygen, that create healing, that prevent injury and sickness, that declare to the world, We are building Kingdom culture and we have no intention of stopping. Where it’s damaged and hurting, we will rebuild and reinforce and strengthen, and as many times as it is wounded, we will keep rebuilding, and won’t wait for paperwork to go through or for bureaucrats to finish dinking around or for a government blowhard to give us the green light.

We are Kingdom people; we live in the green light, and we will keep moving forward.

We don’t need anyone’s permission to love our neighbor. We don’t need the government’s permission to protect our families or build and strengthen our culture. We just need to do it.

no dig: what happens when the light hits us

Posted on by June 27, 2024

I think we’ve started the no-dig method of gardening, but it was an accident.

Partly out of laziness, partly just not knowing anywhere better to toss the old coop bedding, we started throwing it on top of the garden beds as compost in the fall. Then we just planted in that same compost-turned-mostly-dirt in the spring. Not only did the gardens do better, but weeding was a piece of cake – there were hardly any weeds at all because the weed seeds were buried underneath and left dormant, rather than stirred up and activated. Those that did come up were pulled out with no effort because the soil was so loose and healthy.

no dig: what happens when the light hits us | Shannon Guerra

Unfortunately, the chickens and local rabbit have not observed our new no-dig policy and we’ve lost most of our zucchini as a result of their enthusiasm.

But other than their help, it’s been a perfect summer so far for gardening: Mostly sunny days, a little rain. We’re out there doing school on the lawn, playing with the chickens, reading in the deck chairs, wading in the kiddie pool. And lo and behold, I am tanner than I have ever been…which means I’m slightly darker than bleached white printer paper. (It’s the little things.) But still, I’m not just freckled or sunburned, and after a lifetime of skin issues I can feel things shifting in healthy ways I’ve never experienced before. I know I’m late to the game, but I finally understand the joy of feeling the sunlight sink into your bones – the warmth that fills the gaps deep within us as we realize, Yes, this is exactly what I’ve needed.

I never used to really care about getting out in the sun. Sensitive skin gets even more aggravated by bug bites and plant scratches; I didn’t want to get burned; staying inside was easier. Sunny days were cheerful, but nothing to really revel in.

Now though, we’re out there everyday and I notice things I never did – Oh look, that’s shepherd’s purse, and there’s wild mustard. There’s Peter Rabbit hiding in the raspberries. And above, two eagles flying over our house, circling so high they’re mere specks in a photo.

(In the center, right at the edge of the cloud, one above the other…so small you probably thought they were dirt on your screen. ;)

The speaker a few Sundays ago was from Pakistan, and his accent was a little difficult to catch but he talked about eagles and his points were spot on: Eagles fly above the storms, and their strength is in their diet – they eat fresh things, not dead things. Fear and doubt are dead things, so don’t feed on them.

I’ve been feeling my mindset shifting, learning to fly above the storm rather than to beat against the waves and be pummeled by the wind. Yes, xyz could happen, and yes, it could be devastating. The stakes are higher and scarier. But also yes, God is providing and healing and restoring. It’s like the open window of heaven is hovering right above me, waiting for my beliefs and attitudes to line up so breakthrough can pour down.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

– Psalm 139:23-24, NKJV

It’s the Lord’s work, not mine; He is the one doing the searching and digging. But it’s also my perspective, my focus, my decision to not indulge in complaining or bitterness or self pity, my choice to look at Jesus and not the wind and waves around me.

It is the no-dig method of gardening in my heart, letting some things simmer and fade. Some issues do need pulled up and examined, but the healthier the soil is, the easier they come out, and minor offenses can be buried under other nutrients like love and forgiveness and surrender, smothered into nonexistence rather than stirring up old wounds that expand, proliferate, and scatter.

He knows that wounds and irritations are louder than quiet, everyday joys, and if we focus on them they magnify way out of proportion. He knows our default is to focus on the pain and frustration. We have a million great interactions with people, but if we have one or two painful ones that are filled with rejection or abuse, those hard experiences threaten all the other good ones in our future if we let them.

So He tells us to think on certain things – the beautiful, the pure, the lovely – and bury the irritations not out of irrational denial but in a gritty, deliberate focus to play it cool and stay postured for breakthrough. Focusing on the good things is a strategic covering; refusing to dig up and entertain the weeds keeps them down to size.

The digging is where I start looking too close, too deep, examining every little germ that might be my fault, might be why I deserved this, might explain why I need to go through this really hard thing because it’s for my own good since obviously I’m still just not humble, smart, wise, or holy enough yet. Striving and fear take over. The tightness in the throat, trying to get a deep breath, the feeling of not enough oxygen…but it’s not asthma, it’s anxiety.

Whatever you feed grows, the pastor said. Don’t feed the fear and doubts. Feed hope and life, feed on the Word of God. It is alive.

It’s His work, but I have to position myself to receive the benefits of it. And caving to fear or anything else that weakens faith will blow me out of the sweet spot every time.

It is a small view of God that makes us feel like we have to strive and dig and do all the things just to be in the right place at the right time, to navigate the confusion of the unknown, lest we miss the boat. The Lord will put us where we need to be, tell us the things we need to know, as long as we are yielded and willing.

So we do yield and surrender, and He peers in like the light that soaks into our bones, and we realize, Yes, this is exactly what I’ve needed. We’ve gotten used to living in the cold and the dark, and didn’t realize what we were missing out on. Or maybe we sort of did, but we sucked it up and dealt with it because we were used to the pain that’s always there – the grief, the disease, the abuse, the resignation, the attitude. This is our weather, our lot, our destiny, whatever.

We can take it, we tell ourselves. We can be tough, we can be longsuffering. It’s just one more thing; I can do this. We forget that we were made for more than the dark and cold.

But two things can be true at the same time. Yes, we can (and should be) longsuffering, but also, hope deferred makes the heart sick. Yes, we should carry our cross, but also, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

So we choose the light, the warmth, the brightness and glory of His eye on us, as we are aligned and in position to receive the breakthrough He’s wanting to send.

I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Every one there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes.

– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The Lord is bringing light and healing, revelation and joy to areas we’ve given up on and settled for. Ignoring pain isn’t our lot; living in the dark and cold isn’t our lot. It might be a season, but it’s not our destiny.

The belief that things could be different comes out like a little bit of sun, and we see it through the window and wonder what it would feel like on our skin. And sometimes we think, Nope, not worth it, it’s too bright and my sunglasses are all the way downstairs. I don’t want to deal with the bugs. I might get burned.

I never realized how cold I was until I stepped into the sun.

But the color is so glorious out there. It lures us. His kindness leads us to repentance and we are drawn and wooed by the warmth of the way things ought to be.

right here: how we seek first the Kingdom

Posted on by May 8, 2024

I was sitting on the bed, journaling, and out of the corner of my eye I saw something move across the floor. Turned my head to look, and it was a huge spider.

My preferred method for dealing with spiders is to grab a book, hold it a few feet above the intruder, and drop it with a solid thump. Then I leave the book on the floor for Vin to take care of because I don’t want to see what’s underneath, and he’s a good sport about this…even when I use his books, not mine, to do the thumping.

(The only book of mine currently next to the bed is a clothbound copy of The Count of Monte Cristo and we do not, not, not use clothbound books to smash spiders, let the redeemed of the Lord say so.)

right here: how we seek first the Kingdom

So I dispatched the spider with Vin’s military history book, left it on the floor by the bed, and went back to writing:

My last post is still doing its work in me, teaching me to behold joy and win through peace and gratitude. Also, I am strategically ignoring the wind and waves – those things that feel simultaneously too much and not enough – and am continuing to focus on writing His words and stewarding our home.

This verse came up last weekend in church, and it’s long been one of my favorites:

I paused to look up Matthew 8:33 – but no, that’s about herdsman fleeing a demon-possessed man, definitely not it…tried again…ah yes, Matthew chapter six, not eight:

It’s this: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

I’ve always focused on the kingdom part and not really noticed the “and His righteousness” part, until our pastor said that “His righteousness” could also be seen as “His standards” – and the verse came alive to me in a whole new way. It seems obvious from a moral standpoint, but for the first time I also related it to His order, and beauty, and functionality, in a more domestic, home-keeping, family-nurturing, homesteaderly light.

I haven’t stopped thinking on it, how all the things are added unto us when we take care of the core issues. And I was still thinking on it when another spider crossed the floor, closer to the door this time, presumably to check on the first one.

But there weren’t any other books nearby.

I looked across the room at the bookshelves, and back near the door where the spider was. There was nothing else to be done, it was too close to getting away, so I peeled the already-used book off the floor and held it by the edges, careful to not look at the smashiness stuck to its underside. Took two steps, and WOMP, dropped it on spider #2.

Then I got a tissue and bravely (I hear you laughing, stop it) looked for the smudge of grossness on the floor from spider #1, and wiped it up. Threw the tissue in the toilet. Then grabbed three books off the shelf to keep handy, because the next offender was going to get hit with How The Irish Saved Civilization.

And I thought, Huh, that’s ironic, because that’s basically what I was journaling about, and what so many conversations have centered on lately. Not the Irish, but saving civilization.

Friends and acquaintances have been talking about redirecting their focus homeward, turning from what has somehow become normal because as Dave Ramsey says, normal is broke – not just in the sense he means, but also in the sense that forty-plus hours outside the home to meet the car payment and mortgage payment and the skyrocketing price of groceries often equates to parents and kids and spouses barely knowing each other because they spend so little real time together. Hence disconnection, and disillusion, and burnout.

Normal is broken; we do need saving.

Our culture has had all kinds of misfires in its attempts to do the right thing, depending on the current consensus of what the “right thing” actually was at the moment – provide for the family, reach the lost, raise the children, attend the church functions, train and educate for the next endeavor. All good things. But in light of “seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you,” it also makes me think of Jesus saying, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.”

And then He defended Mary, sitting at His feet. Mary, defying cultural norms and expectations, learning with the men. Mary, coming close: her eyes on Jesus, preparing to teach others about Him, seeking first the Kingdom and His righteousness.

We fight this constant sense of obligation and “ought to” that is more often just pressure than real conviction. The accusers and distractions (sometimes external, but often in our own heads) come in like so many spiders, trying to divert us from the work at hand, but only one thing is necessary.

Sometimes we feel like we ought to be doing something else because we’re subscribing to our culture’s standards and not His standards. We are a culture that likes formulas and programs, and we will often jump through all sorts of hoops rather than do the most simple, necessary task at hand that we’ve been avoiding because it isn’t the popular answer.

Prepare your work outside;
get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.

— Proverbs 24:27

We look for breakthrough and direction, but sometimes we do so while ignoring the unglamorous answers right in front of us. It has taken me a lifetime to learn that our breakthroughs don’t require us to say just the right words in just the right order, crack the code or solve the riddle, stand on your left foot for a certain number of seconds while singing the pre-determined worship song that will unlock everything once and for all.

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

— Luke 17:20-21

We look all over, but the Kingdom is right here.

The mom who can’t raise her hands in worship because her arms are full of baby, of child, of other things, is no less engaged in worship than the person who stands up and sits down and claps at all the right times.

Having your arms full with your calling is also worship.

At the risk of stating the obvious (because sometimes we need to hear it): If you’re burnt out or sick, it might be because you’ve been so busy leading or serving others that you need to take a break to get yourself well. We can’t lead or serve others well if we’re not leading ourselves well.

That doesn’t mean you have to feel like you’ve arrived before you can lead or serve. It just means that it’s important to routinely draw back and strengthen our foundations, make sure our personal structures are sound before we miss the forest for the trees and try to serve our community. This is the heart of why we Sabbath, but it isn’t limited to just observing the Sabbath. (It’s also important to give grace to those who are different, or in different seasons than we are. What looks like rest to one of us looks like drudgery or torture to another.)

It also doesn’t mean you’ve got to have your act fully together before you can obey the Lord in whatever He’s called you to serve in externally. It just means there’s a necessary balance, because the first thing He’s calling us to is Himself. And if we’re not able to abide because our lives are so busy serving, serving, serving, and we’re out in our community so much that our home life is falling apart, our kids are falling apart, our marriage is falling apart, everything’s out of control, then it’s definitely time to draw back and strengthen those core areas.

A shadow runs across the path in front of us, and we look away from the work at hand. It needs to be squashed quickly so we can return to the one thing that is necessary.

Just to clarify, this isn’t a message about women needing to be solely domestic. We can blame radical feminism all we want but it does no good if we don’t recognize that radical feminism was an overcorrection in response to routine misogyny. Both sides have missed the mark in seeking first the Kingdom and His righteousness.

I shared this recently on social media:

If you feel stuck and aren’t sure what to do because the thing you want to do seems to have no openings or opportunities right now, put the weight of your focus on the things right in front of you or just ahead of you that you can do.

Strengthen those foundations and core areas. Build a strong spiritual structure, make the presence of God your permanent atmosphere.

Much will change in the coming months and you’ll be the better for not rushing into certain moves and changes right now.

But other things — the ones you feel Holy Spirit leading you in right now — need to be addressed immediately, and those are the things that will prepare you for the bigger moves in the long run that you can’t see the way forward in quite yet.

A voice cries:

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

— Isaiah 40:3-5

We spent part of a recent Sabbath checking our chicken paddock fencing, closing gaps, stretching the fence back to its height where it had sagged from the weight of snow. If we don’t, the chickens will get loose and predators can get in (been there, hated that).

When we were done, walking back, we talked about how this would be a good time to look for chaga before the leaves come out. (What is chaga, you ask? It grows on birch trees, great for all kinds of health issues – here you go.)

We’ve never really hunted for it before, but lots of our friends have. We walked through the woods, looking up while also trying not to trip over the roots and fallen logs at our feet, wondering how we would get to the chaga if we found any in these tall, tall trees. Even if you do spot some, it’s not the most accessible thing in the world.

“You know what would be amazing?” I said. “If that giant birch tree the neighbors cut down last year had some on it.” We’d shared our chainsaw with them, and they had shared the wood with us, but we’d already chopped and stacked our share. We kept walking, looking up, going around the trees, looking at all sides.

We finally reached the edge of the woods and a huge birch log lay next to the path – part of the neighbor’s tree that for some reason we hadn’t cut for firewood.

Right on the top of it, a choppy dark crust with some exposed orange under it. If you know, you know.

“Um, wouldn’t it be nice…” I repeated, “if there just happened to be chaga on the tree that was already cut down…like, right in front of us…”

Wouldn’t it be nice if the thing we’re seeking really is what’s closest at hand?

It wasn’t a large piece, but it was right there. No climbing, no striving required. Just right in front of us, waiting to be found.

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P.S. It’s been a while since I updated y’all on some things, so here you go:

  • Looking for more homesteaderly content? Here’s our fun new gig: short posts on sustainability in small bites, everything from chaga to chickens.
  • If you feel stuck and need someone to help you move forward in this season, I currently have one slot available for coaching and will have another open up in a couple weeks. Info here.
  • If you are local (here in the MatSu Valley, or within driving distance) and want to address some core issues – because this is how we pave the way for breakthrough and revival – we’re in the middle of a series of multi-church prayer and worship gatherings that have been focused on unity, repentance, and restoration. Info and schedule here.