Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Doing a New Thing!


Yesterday, Alex and I were in the office futzing around, and he looked on the Central UM Church website, just to see what was going on at his future job site. Guess what he saw. www.cumcrogers.com What do you see? That's right; there in living, full-blown color is us! After I got up off the floor and thought about it, it really touched my heart that they are that excited to have us join them. Of course, they haven't met us—or should I say me—yet. Alex got an e-mail from one of the folks on staff wanting to know if he could change his mind after meeting them. So maybe we're all just broken humans fixing to get in the same boat.

I gotta tell you how wonderful my spiritual direction was yesterday. OMG! God is so simple, and we do our dangdest to make it so hard! I keep thinking I should be doing something to get ready to be in Rogers, besides all the packing. Like contemplative prayer—maybe I should try and do that. Read Thomas Merton or go, sit and look at an Icon to hear from God—that kinda thing. My problem is that every time I try to sit down and get still, I'm distracted by everything—birds, cars, dogs barking, people running (Oh, I should go run too!). See what I mean?
Well, let me tell you what I learned yesterday: I'm not really made that way! Freedom! My director tried something with me that worked so easily that I must share it with you. She asked me to look at the curtains hanging on the porch and complete this statement: "Jesus, what the curtains are showing me is that there is a veil between us,  but I can still see you, and you can still see me." We looked at other things, and I was blown away with how easy it was. I found out that that's contemplative prayer for the modern woman. Is that not the coolest thing ever? So now instead of being distracted by everything that's going on around me, I can ask God what is He trying to show me. I mean, let's get real. Do we really have time to sit down and be contemplative for a few hours every day? Do we not think that God will meet us right where we are? Is the word of God living? Then He can make contemplative prayer work for me in a new and different way. What do I keep hearing Him say to me? "I am doing a new thing in you." So I'm going to let him.

I was supposed to wake up at 5:00 to go for my run before Alex and I go for our walk at 6:00. However, I didn't hear the alarm until 5:30. The first thing I thought was, "Oh my gosh, I'm late. I gotta get up and run!" Then I thought—more like heard, "Late for what?" So I lay there for a few minutes and smiled. God is doing a new thing, and it's so freeing and exciting for me!

2 comments:

Laura Messamore said...

Kim I love it! The other day I read in a devotional that we should let go of the illusion of a clutter free life and start looking for God in the midst of our business. That idea was so freeing for me too. I'm not doing anything wrong-a chaos free life just doesn't exist. It's an illusion! I just have to learn a new way of being in the midst of it:)

Kimer said...

Thanks for the comment and Amen huh? Great to see you today and I hope to chat with you soon!