Life In Dixie

This message has been resounding in my head lately.  And if I’m completely honest, I have been doing my best to ignore it.  Our pastor returned a few weeks ago from a three month sabbatical.  He is rejuvenated and excited.  He started our church 20-some years ago it has grown to have over 2000 members.  He has taken a sabbatical twice in his entire ministry.  So, he came back and immediately started talking about…REST. He talked about intentionally slowing down.  He gave an example of how during the summer, he spent the first TWO hours of the day with God.  He talked about intentionally turning off the electronic devices.

To be brutally honest, that’s when my hackles went up.  My immediate reaction was, “Are you going to babysit every morning?” Two hours of peaceful quiet time is just not going to happen in my current life stage.  I can type this now because my kids are watching Bob the Builder.  That gives me about 23 minutes, if Sean actually chooses to sit still watch the show.

So, two weeks ago, our schedule was really busy.  I knew we should slow down.  That week, I hurt my foot doing some speedwork for the marathon training.  Begrudgingly, I took a week off from my marathon training schedule to let it heal.  Not having to squeeze in a bunch of long runs, (18 miles takes me a good two and half hours of solid running), slowed our schedule down.  (Even though my run plan is only three days a week, it is usually around 6 miles of speedwork, 8-10 miles of tempo work, and an 18+ mile long run.  It’s a definite time commitment when you add it to the 8 workout classes I teach a week.)

The following week was back to normal. Then the week after that, we had our usual stuff, plus a few extra meetings.  The adoption meeting was on a Tuesday.  The purpose was to meet other families in the area adopting from Ethiopia.  Jesse and I were both excited to go.  We had been at the meeting about five minutes when Sean unloaded his stomach contents on Jesse.  Jesse ran to the bathroom with Sean, while I tried to clean up the mess.  I joked with the host that they wouldn’t forget us and then we all headed home.  Throw up slows EVERYTHING down.  Sean got the bug on Tuesday, Trent had it by Thursday, Jesse got it on Saturday.  Thankfully, I somehow managed to avoid it, but we could not GO anywhere. We managed to juggle schedules (and my parents came down to help) so Jesse and I could both work, but the extras all went out the window.  This week, we started at full speed again.

Yesterday, my mother in law volunteered to watch the boys for a few hours.  I taught a class at 8:30am, then had some free time.  I thought about going shopping because I have a gift card to burn, but I felt led to have a Jesus “coffee date.”  Normally, the only realistic time for me to have quiet time is during nap time.  Trent goes to the playroom for quiet time and Sean takes a nap.  I get about an hour before Trent is ready to come out.  When I’m disciplined, I make this happen, but it’s also the easiest time for me to do EVERYTHING else – blog, clean, prep dinner, plan my spin rides, etc.  So, often times, quiet time gets put aside for something else.  As I sat at the coffee shop, I prayed that God would help me listen.  So I opened my Bible to read and it happened to be Psalm 46.  Psalm 46:10 reads,

“He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”

At that point, I felt like saying, “okay, okay, okay.” I hate being intentionally still.  The whole sit and wait on the Lord thing is tough for me.  With the adoption, we are already in a major sit and wait phase.  It’s easier to be in wait mode when I’m busy because then I don’t have to think about the waiting.  I much prefer busy mode to intentional wait mode.  ”Intentionally being still” doesn’t equate to laziness.  It just means being intentional in what you do and listening to and aligning your actions with what God wants you to do.  I prayed about it and took away some of the clutter in our schedule yesterday and today.

This morning, I woke up, got my coffee, and checked Facebook.  One of my close friends (not knowing all that has been running through my head these past few weeks), posted this on her wall today:

NACR Daily Meditation

Tuesday 18th of September 2012

Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

We need to be reminded that we are not God.

This seems pretty basic. You wouldn’t think it would be hard to remember. But we get so caught up in proving ourselves by performing, achieving and rescuing that we forget that we are humans with real limits. We fill our time so full of frenzied activity that there is no ‘stillness’. And when there is no stillness, it is hard to remember who is God and who is not.

A while back, I took the boys to the city park.  There were several other moms there.  One of them had a tattoo on her wrist.  I am always intrigued by tattoos.  Some people get a tattoo simply because they like the design, but most people have put considerable thought into what they’re going to get before they actually ink their body.  The tattoo said, “Every day is a gift, not a given right.”  Her daughter was really ill when she was born and they didn’t know if she would live.  Thankfully, she survived.  She was playing on the playground with the boys.  I don’t know that I would get Nickelback lyrics tattooed on my wrist, but the mom has a valid point.

Attitude is everything.  Each day we choose joy or choose negativity.  Our attitude and not our circumstances define us.  Our attitudes in the tough times are walking, talking testimonies to others. What kind of message do I want to be sending?  What am I believing?

Daily life can be stressful enough, but we’ve had major medical concerns in our family in the past year. My grandfather’s health rapidly went down hill and he passed away, my cousin was in a horrible motorcycle accident, my mother in law is fighting colon cancer, and just last month, we found out that my father has prostate cancer.  If we choose to dwell on the what ifs, it can be overwhelming.

When things are hard, our theology is SO important.  God promises us many great things!  It has given me a daily sense of joy that can only come from Him. (Nehemiah 8:10) I can’t explain it.  I’m just thankful for it. He promises to carry us through situations.  (Hebrews 13:5-6) He wants us to walk through life with Him.  (Matthew 11:29) He wants to take our burdens.  (I Peter 5:7) He promises to make good out of everything.  (Revelations 21:5) He delights in us. (Zephaniah 3:17)  He lavishes his love on us. (I John 3:1)  He cares about every.single.detail. (Psalm 37:23-24)

Today, I choose joy.

Wow. It has been over a week since I last blogged. Time escapes me sometimes. I was out of town last weekend for an annual girls beach trip. Every year, I go with some of my friends from the Y. This was our fifth year. Each woman is so unique in their background, opinions, and values. If you were to meet us each individually, you’d be surprised at the glue that holds this group together. But, there is such a sense of loyalty, trust and respect among the group. We were supposed to have six gals this year, but two had stuff come up at the last minute so we were down to four. As always, it was a blast!

 

I taught every day this week. Trent had swim lessons every day this week. Summer is just craziness. All the time. It doesn’t seem to slow down. Our church has a “drop in” bible study in the summer time. I haven’t been able to go all summer. This week, I forced it. I just felt like I needed to be there. I was so glad I went.

 

We’ve had storms all week, but this rainbow showed up the first day. It was such a beautiful reminder that God is present in the storms of life. It was much prettier than my cell phone picture.

Trust, hope, and faith were recurring themes this week. A friend of mine is an agnostic and we often get into discussions about faith. Then, the bible study on Tuesday was on faith and trust and in our daily lives, we’re dealing with issues that require a lot of faith and trust.

One of the verses they quoted in the study was Hebrews 11:13. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.” The passage before the verse talks about Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Noah, Isaac and Jacob.

Each person is born with their own story, their own purpose. God has a plan for each of us. Trust is looking at, believing in and trusting God. It’s an emotional response. It requires something from us. I loved the way it was described on Tuesday. “Trust is the decisive yielding to the glory of God.” Faith is our standing position on the word. Hope is daring to believe that God might do something. There is pain associated with hope because God might not move.

The bible study leader gave 5 ways to help us when it’s hard to trust.

1. Recalibrate our understanding of trouble
We sometimes forget that life is a long distance race, not a sprint. Think of trouble as a training tool. Guard your heart from bitterness.

2. Set our eyes on Jesus
How can I discover Christ in the current situation? Remember Christ’s faithfulness at other times in your life. Be honest with God. He can handle it when we gripe and He already knows how we’re feeling.

3. Cherish your inheritance
Dwell on the promise of heaven, the beauty of nature. There are always blessings to be found. Sometimes we just have to focus on looking for them.

4. Dwell on the Promises of God
The Bible is full of them and each of them is true for you and me.

5. Know God
Knowing that Jesus trusted his father helps us to trust in Him too. Often times, we feel closest to God in times of trouble.

And, I just figured out how to post this from my phone. Very cool!