Time Flies!

Ten Years!  It's been an entire decade since I thought I would enjoy trying my hand at being a blogger. I penned two whole posts . . . and that's as far as I got.  However, I was inspired today by a dear friend who has her own lovely, thought-provoking blog.  She hadn't posted in a year.  "Well, I want to do that again, too," I thought.

However, it had been so long that I couldn't figure out how to get back to the place to do it.  After quite a while of trying to get back to my own blog, I was beginning to believe that there was a time limit that I must have exceeded.  That if you went silent for a decade, your blog would automatically self-destruct, Mission Impossible style, and simply cease to exist.  That made me sad.  So I saved all I could and printed out the two posts I had written a decade ago because I really liked them and was afraid they, too, would vanish.

Turns out my problem was that the blog site did not recognize me as an author of a blog.  I felt personally insulted.  I was looking at my ten year old post of which I was obviously the author, and it was on a blog.  Apparently, it all had to do with how I tried to sign in.  A lot of things change over the course of a decade, like email addresses and passwords.

So, here's to reflections and lessons learned over the past ten years, and to a brand new year ahead already bursting with blessings and mercies just waiting for us every morning.  May we open our eyes and our hearts to receive them.

"Barefoot and Breathless"

Here we are at the beginning of a brand new year. 2008 stretches out before each of us with blessings just waiting to be unwrapped one day at a time--indeed, one moment at a time. In the coming 365 days we will all experience moments of exquisite joy, moments that take us by surprise and take our breath away. And no doubt we may also walk through some dark valleys as well. We might even be amazed to find some of those exquisite moments shining like the North Star in those dark valleys. One thing is for sure, this time next year when New Year's Day 2009 rolls around, we won't any of us, be exactly the same as we are today.

So how do you want to be different?

This year I want to be more aware of the treasures that sometimes come camouflaged in our ordinary days. I want to train my eyes, and my ears, and my soul to pay attention, to notice, to receive these gifts. I don't want to be so busy with the mundane routine of life that I don't have the time, the energy, nor even the inclination to see the beauty, to be amazed, to sense the presence and nearness of my God.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning penned these words:

"Earth is crammed with heaven
and every common bush afire with God;
but only he who sees takes off his shoes.
The rest sit around it and
pluck blackberries."

I want to spend more time barefoot because I am aware I am on holy ground.

Mark Buchanan in his book YOUR GOD IS TOO SAFE makes the point that we tend to separate our lives into two categories: sacred and secular. The problem with that distinction, he says, is that according to Colossians 1:16-17 all things were created by Christ--things in heaven and on earth, things visible and invisible, thrones, powers, rulers, authorities--ALL THINGS. They were all created by Him and for Him. Buchanan says, "In the biblical worldview, there is only the sacred and the profane; and the profane is just the sacred abused, unkempt, trampled down, trivialized, turned inside out. It is just the holy treated in an unholy way."

I want to be able to recognize all that is sacred as I live in the "everydayness" of this gift of a brand new year. I want that awareness to leave me amazed and breathless.

If I have a New Year's Resolution it would be this. I want to be able to say, when I look back, that I lived 2008 "barefoot and breathless!"

What are some exquisite moments you have experienced in your ordinary days? What things have left you breathless? What are some things that have caused you to "take off your shoes" when you realized you were standing on holy ground?

Finally, sisters . . .

Do you ever get weary from too much negative "stuff"? Too much negative talk, and my heart gets heavy and my spirit gets sad. What about yours? Whether I am the giver or the receiver of complaints and whinings, it doesn't take long before I find myself wallowing in a quagmire of despair and doubt. I start to believe all the negative stuff, and things begin to seem pretty hopeless. Sometimes I feel bombarded and battered from it all. It quite literally takes its toll on me physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. So why are we so drawn to the negative? Why do we listen to it and allow our minds to be filled with such poison?

Philippians 4:4-9 sounds so wonderfully positive! If you haven't read it lately, or even if you have, read it again. It talks about rejoicing and the nearness of our Lord. It talks about not being anxious, but instead taking all our requests to God. It talks about being thankful, and about a peace that transcends all understanding that will guard our hearts and minds. I don't know about you, but my heart and mind are in dire need of guarding!

This blog is an attempt on my part to take a stand for things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. It is an attempt to invite sisters to come along with me as we purposefully search for these things as if they were treasures to be discovered and turned over and over in our minds as one would carefully examine every facet of a valuable jewel. Let's share them and fill our hearts and minds so full of "These Things" that there is no room for the negative. Let's spend our days rejoicing in the goodness of our God who leads us beside still waters, and steer clear of the undercurrents that threaten to suck us under into the murky waters of the deep.

So, if you would like to join me on this potentially mind-altering adventure, I would love your company. Here is our first assignment. 1. Read Philippians 4:8 over and over this week. 2. Commit it to memory if you will. 3. Choose one of the kinds of things we are told to think about, and search for it all week long.
4. When you notice it, jot it down if you can, so you won't forget 5. Thank God for it. 6. Rejoice! 7. Share it with the rest of us.

May the God of peace be with you.