Categories
Daily Post

Ode To Busyness

I feel like my life has been shot out of a cannon since school has started.  Over the last two weeks it’s been a combination of new practices, new routines, school meetings, and over various events that eat up the calendar from sun up until sun down.  The lazy days of summer ended in such incredible fashion that the memory of those days in only re-callable with pictures!  And it seems to be set to continue like this for some time.

This weekend I have been thinking about these weeks ahead and the ‘business’ that they are filled with and have decided to not be stressed by it.  There are so many positive things about to happen as our children discover their own strengths and weaknesses.  I can’t imagine the amount of memories that I will gather as a parent observing and challenging those guys. Maybe I am a little crazy, but I have decided that this busyness is life. Oh, sure some of it can be reduced, and lots of it can be managed.  But instead of ‘just getting through it’ or trying to find another way, I am going to try to embrace it head on.  (This may be the biggest mistake of my life!).

I am starting to think that the things we do each day are not barriers to us living life, but actually are us living life.  So today, on this Monday morning the beginning of a week with a schedule that is quite full, I am rejoicing.  Not because I am ‘busy’, for there is not doubt I would rather be laying on beach somewhere, but because I am starting a a day that is a gift from the Lord and the number of opportunities that lay ahead of me in this busyness are enormous.

So off I go, rejoicing ( I hope I can make it past 10am!!!)

 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4 New International Version (NIV)

 

Categories
Daily Post

Grab It

Last week, I visited the physical therapist to have some work done on my “crunchy” patella tendon.  While I was there the PT asked me if I had ever had a cortison shot in my knee. Upon my postive reply she ask when?  After thinking for a moment, I remember my last shot before the Boston in 1996, so I replied 96.  She laughed and walked off. Ouch!

Last night, my sister sent me some pictures of one of my childhood homes that she visited during her high school reunion, I barely recongized the place as it has changed so much.  Ouch! Oh and then I realized that my parents were around my age when we moved out of that house.  Double Ouch!!!

Today, I dropped my two children off for the start of high school and junior high respectivitely. Triple Ouch!

I have been reminded with quite a lot of force over the last few days about the passing of time and the true breivity of life.   However, I am also reminded about the richness of blessings that I have enjoyed in this life here, even while I focus on the coming promise!

Even so, there’s no getting around the actuteness of our lives.  But this is not a time to be sorrowful, nor regretful.  This is a time to throw up your RAWK Fist and grab life, before it’s gone!

 

 31So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you’re eating to God’s glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God’s glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31 The Message (MSG)

 

Categories
Daily Post

Week in Review

It’s Friday again, and around my house even though the thermometer sits in the upper 90’s, summer is rapidly coming to a close.  Monday is the start of a new school year,  and subsequently  I am spending my time today away from the normal haunts and activities to spend a few hours with the boys before they are engrossed in homework, practices, events and friends.  Therefore today’s post is quite simple, but I think very powerful.

Last Friday, I noticed one of the groups I follow on Twitter posted this simple question:

Take a look back at this week…what was a highlight?

So today, I ask you the same thing.  What was the highlight of your week?  Give it some thought and also throughout the weekend think about what you will do to make some highlights next week!

And while you are thinking here is a obscure verse from the book of Job to enocurage you through the day.  Its relates, it’s up to you to make the connection!

9 Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways,
and those with clean hands will grow stronger.  Job 17:9New International Version (NIV)

I am off to make some highlights!

Categories
Daily Post

Anticipation

I love the feeling that exists at schools in the fall.  Yesterday, I was able to take my children to their school’s registration day.  There is always so much excitement in the air.  Old friends that you have not seen for several weeks.  New schedules, new people, new opportunities and new beginnings.

The electricity and energy in the air is so contagious.  Do you remember that feeling?  It is only supplanted by the actual first day of school – when there are new teachers, new friends, new routines, new pencils, new pencil boxes, and anticipation!  I only wish I could bottle that energy and sell it to others, because most of the time, our days are not like these days.  The anticipation we hold is sometimes akin to the anticipation of a man walking to the gallows.

I wish so much I could capture that new school year anticipation and let it explode from me each day. You know, what is so interesting is that we as followers of the Christ have this little promise of his return – a event  that could happen any day.  Man, if we could just re-create that atmosphere of  anticipation everyday! I wonder how much energy, urgency and excitement we would have each day?

 31But those expecting Jehovah pass [to] power, They raise up the pinion as eagles, They run and are not fatigued, They go on and do not faint! Isaiah 40:31  Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)

As the kids would chant at camp last week  oooooooohhh, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Categories
Daily Post

The Joy of Freedom

Last night  I brought my oldest home from school and he realized that between now and next Wednesday night, the only thing he had to do was to take one test and go to church on Sunday morning.

What freedom!  I anticipate the that the joy he will feel as he finishes his last exam today and understand that he is free (for a while) from the confines of school and homework.  Oh, the joy of being able to do whatever he wants with no projects or major commitments hanging over his head.

There is so much joy in freedom.  I treasure the days when I am not handcuffed with a day full of schedule meetings.  We yearn for the simple days of vacations when we have no one telling us where to be and what to do. ( let me pause and reflect… oh only 18 more work days!!)  And our spirits compel us to look for something that set us free from the curse of the daily toils, and when we find it- oh what joy.

 16-18Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18, The Message)

As we enter the Memorial day weekend, be so thankful for those who have come before us to fight for the freedom that we enjoy in this country.  And with that also remember how that freedom facilitates access to the the spiritual freedom that comes from the Christ.

Share it!  You are free to!  Woot Woot!!