Friday Fun

Let’s do this.  5 minutes of free writing with no pressure, no edits, no rules, and just plain fun.

Today’s topic:

Rest

I sneak over to his side of the bed after he’s snuck out to shower.  My sleepy brain is still in complete sleep mode.  When he comes back, he prays over me for my day and I mumble a prayer back.  Though, let’s be honest, I can’t say for sure that what I said was all that great.  I do remember how he made fun of me because my words were messed up and then I joked back with him that God was going to smite him because he was making fun of my prayer.  He played right along with my sleepy state.  When the nights are long and work schedules are late, I find myself needing so much more rest than I’d like.  I grumble about how I used to get up at 4 something or 5 something.  He gently reminds me that I also used to start work at 6.  Work starts at 3pm now and that definitely causes a shift.  He’s ever full of grace for my sleepy, restful state and I’m humbled.  Rest for the soul. A place to rest my heart. Rest for my body.  Saturday, come quickly, I’m ready for a day of rest.

Pressin’ On

Yesterday, I wrote about resting in Him rather than trying to strive toward behavior change versus heart transformation.  There’s a difference. I can self-manage myself all I want, but if I don’t get rid of the roots (side note: I’m trying to correct my Minnesotan accent and say that word correctly except then I just get confused on what way is correct! how do you say it?) and get my heart right then I’m just covering up the real issue.  So true…but along with that…

I need to strain toward what lies ahead. I need to beat my body and make it my slave. Put aside my old self and put on the new. Letting God direct my path and fix my eyes on Him because He is the author and perfecter of my faith.

Where do you find balance between these two? How does it look in your life?

Nothing Missing, Nothing Broken

He calls us to be salty.

To let the world see the difference.

He calls us to repentance.

To stand on the promise that we are chosen by God, holy and dearly loved.

He calls us to love and walk as a new creation in Christ.

To experience the Hands of the Healer.

He says “Follow Me.” Immediately.

To show us that he doesn’t run away from our needs, even needs wrongly met, because they reveal something about us that He wants to transform, to redeem, to deepen our roots through relationship with Him.

He looks at the Samaritan woman with love and maybe we should say: “Look at what potential she has for God.  See how hard she’s trying to find the right thing in all the wrong places.”

To ask us if we looking at messy, real lives and saying “that’s wrong” or if we are penetrating the walls and masks to seek why they are in such trouble in order to love them where they are?

He reminds us that our message is not that we have it all together.  Our message is that we know the one who does!

To let us rest in shalom שָׁלוֹם: nothing missing. nothing broken. life as it was meant to be.

Still Here Waiting…

My head automatically tries to see everything from all sorts of angles.  For example, a simple decision about whether I should go to the Lion Park turns into a litany of streaming thought: if I go then I won’t have as much time to run, but then I might be missing out on hanging out with people and then again I would have to get up early and maybe I need to just have a day where I can do whatever I want, although, I don’t always get these opportunities to do things off base so maybe I should jump on it, but I like to sleep in and it is a day off and well I don’t know.  I play out all the pros and cons.  Sometimes this can be a great help when really weighing in on decisions, but other times I end up torn between the choices and pondering for a while.

Then on the other hand, I make a decision and that’s that.  There’s no question.  I will follow through and there’s no wavering.  Before I started running yesterday, I decided to run a 10k.  So I did.  I decide to climb a rock.  So I do.  No matter the cost, the time, the sacrifice, I follow through with the decision.

I live in this juxtaposition of knowing exactly what I want and yet seeing all the implications of all the potential choices.  Yet, as I’ve written about before.  I’m in a time of waiting.  I would much rather go find all the choices and play out the scenarios in my head so I can at least be torn over them and then decide.  Instead, I trust, I rest, I ask, I set my eyes, I wait.

Bedtime!

I have SO many things I want to write about and share, but silly work and sleep are calling my name.  I don’t have any “plans” for tomorrow night so hopefully I’ll get to some of these blog ideas.  Until then…go read Philippians 2:1-11…aw, plus I love the verses after that especially 14 so read it all!May your night be filled with joy and rest!