Coming Alive

OK, so I knew I wouldn’t get to write much on this trip.  Not having my own laptop really gives me a great opportunity to be out of touch when I go on vacation.  For this I am thankful!

I am really getting some great opportunities to listen to God.  Karey, my brother in law, brought this AMAZING book down to the beach which I have confiscated and almost finished.  You will be hearing more about this soon!

Also, Friday is the day that the whole family goes out to shop and I stay behind.  8 hours, 3 hot tub trips, 1 Joe Dirt, several chapters of a few books I brought, and a great time of prayer and I am feeling uncluttered enough to hear well from God.

Yea, I get cluttered a lot.  That’s what God is working on this week in my life…uncluttering.

I think it’s about to get fun for me!

Balance is the hide-and-seek champion of lifestyle pursuits.  We are always trying to “find it”.  In some things it’s totally appropriate, but when did all of life become a tightrope?  The idea of balance (in pretty much everything I can think of) is to guard yourself from making a mistake.  There are a lot of things that the ideal actually does fall between two extremes.

Not everything.  I totally believe that most of life is meant to be lived in the extremes. 

Balance your diet, balance your time alone and time with friends, balance your dog on spinning plate…but keep that word away from your dreams, your passions, and especially your pursuit of God. 

The reality is that when we talk about “finding the balance” it usually is in reference to work/play or child raising.  We may not say it, but we actually do a better job of balancing our pursuit of God than we do in teaching our kids. 
~ Time with God – did you give him an entire 1/48 of your day? 
~ Go to church – God has given a lot of responsibility to something that exists for an hour and a half each week.  If the “church” is called to reach the world we better knock out donut and coffee time and get our butts outside and do something!  Most people have heard the phrase, “church is the people not the place”.  I don’t care if you are familiar with that phrase.  If you aren’t living accordingly re-read the last paragraph and go spend some time with a neighbor that could use some light of the world in their life.
~ Tithe – This is tricky.  God doesn’t call us to 10% (I am more convinced of this every day).  God calls us to be “givers”.  Actually if you need a percentage I can give you one.  You wont like it though…
100%.  Yep, all of it.  Its a perspective issue.  Are you willing to give it all (I don’t mean to an institution)?  Really willing.  Jesus said the man with two tunics should give to him with none (abundance giving to need).  I’m still trying to get my mind around how someone can have two houses and drive past a million homeless people on their way to their weekend retreat.
~ Ministry – See tithing above.  Same principle.  I could be convinced that pastors get paid b/c followers of Christ don’t get this.  We have 80 years or so on this earth and it’s not to accumulate or to be comfortable.  It’s to see people come alive in authentic relationships with God and with people. 

There is no balance to find between time with God and time without God; being the church and not being the church; giving and being selfish; serving and wasting time. 

This writer’s strike thing is going to cause some serious problems pretty soon.  In a few weeks/months a lot of the major shows are going to be done, sending the world into a purgatory of reality TV and reruns.

That’s not the serious problem.

The problem is that television survives as an “escape”.  It’s our vicarious other.  Come on, who didn’t emulalate Zach Morris back in high school (some better than others!).  Oh, and when Ross and Rachel got together in the finale…well, let’s just say I have friends that think they are Friends. 

I’m not knocking it.  I have my 3 or 4 shows too.  Don’t call me during LOST or Heroes.  I auditioned for Survivor (and will try again I’m sure).

The problem is that this strike is going to ruin the aura.  The man behind the curtain is…well, not behind the curtain anymore.  We don’t want to hear about writers!  We pretend they don’t exist…that way we can pretend that Jim and Pam are hanging out even when they aren’t working at The Office. 

Well, I guess we will all get to do a lot more pretending now that the people who get paid to do it for us are all taking a break.  Let’s just hope our collective creativity hasn’t dried up as much as the ratings for Jericho.