Multitasking!!

Are you a multitasker? You know, able to do more than one thing at a time? I'm going to bet that if your a woman, not only did you say yes, but you are also proud of it! Am I right? I thought so. You know how I know this? That's right, I am a recovering multitasker too.

I'm going to give you a little food for thought and if it resonate's hold on to it, if not, let it fall away.

Multitasking is one of the great enemies of presence. To be present is to be in the here and now. Multitasking is about doing, not being. Think about it, how many times have you talked to someone who is looking right into your eyes and you can tell they are nowhere near you? How many times have you been that person?

The deal is, we need to stop it! How on earth are we to ever hear from God when we aren't really listening? When we sit there and inside our heads we are making lists of things that need done, doing laundry, living in the past, hoping in the future... Really? You think you can hear God speak through all that? 

So how do we go about being in the here and now? One way is to pay attention to your breath. Brenner says to attend to your breath, meaning to be fully present to your breath. To help you do this, get comfortable and when your ready, close your eyes. This cuts out visual distractions. Then, insert ear plugs or cover your ears. Now, notice your breath - don't try and change it, just attend to it as fully as you can. Be present to it. Listen to the sound it makes and feel the movement in your chest as you draw each breath in and then release it. When you notice thoughts or any other thing that takes your attention, simply return to being to your breath. Don't resist thoughts, but don't hold on to them either. I like to see it like I'm standing in a stream and thoughts are like boats that come towards me. I see them, and let them pass.

Now this isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. I end up paying too much attention to the color of the boats as they pass and sometimes I just climb on board and off I go. When that happens, I take a deep breath, and attend to my breath again. With practice it becomes easier, and the presence you slide into becomes deeper and fuller. 

You become settled. You become balanced, centered, calm. Then when God whisper's in your ear, you are able to hear, and be in His presence in the present moment.

It's really all we have, this present moment. The past is gone, and there is no promise of a future here on earth. So be in the here and now. Stop grading yourself on the stuff you get done and start trying to let the Father of all creation un-do you so you can be-come into the present.

Oasis in the Valley!

Libby Landing on the Little Red

We have decided to call this place Oasis in the Valley, what do you think? Our reasoning is pretty simple; the name of our Non-profit is Oasis Ministries in Arkansas and we are living in the Valley. (It makes me think that rocket science can't be all that hard! Or is it brain surgery?) It's a lot shorter than Oasis Ministries in Arkansas on the Little Red River in the Valley! I'm lost just writing that much down!

Preacher man is out with Dad getting a load of firewood. We are going to have a few days of crazy cold weather for Arkansas, like lows in the 7's! So I informed the birds they needed to eat up and that I would not forget to put out the black seeds that they love so much! The weather service said we might receive some snow. I loved reading this, "Temperatures are expected to drop quickly and be significantly colder than this area has experienced in several years." Oh yeah, yet again the Workman's bring dramatic weather wherever we go!

When we moved from Rogers to Sherwood, the church didn't have anywhere to store their lovely furniture, so we had to sell ours. Hence, we now have make shift furniture. The pillows you see to the right is the couch. We have lawn chairs we are also using and when we have friends over, the chairs give the place a "I still live in a frat house" feel!

Needless to say, we are making progress on the unpacking and settling in. I just have to stop doing it ever now and then or I'm going to give away everything that doesn't fit in a place!

There have been interviews and chalk tests, yet we still feel God calling us to ministry. Do we know what it looks like yet? No, not really, but we know who does! All we can really do is pray and walk through the doors that He opens. We know something special will be happening here at Oasis in the Valley and we look forward to that with great expectation!

Through all of this the one constant has been God with us! Emmanuel! It was the only way to get us out of the UMC so that we could be in real, true ministry. Truly, God called us out! We are at a place where our faith is growing and becoming deep. We are learning that good things do come to those who wait on God.

So if you need a place to go and BE, you are welcome here at Oasis in the Valley, aka Alex and Kim's place. We'll keep the fire going for you and feed you some homemade soup. 

Peace Out! 

Catch a Cold!

I woke up this morning wondering why I had gone to sleep with the ceiling fan on high. If Preacher man had his way, we wouldn't use the things. He's from the school of: You'll catch a cold sleeping under a fan! Who came up with that stuff anyway? Probably someone that likes to lie in their own sweat.

This time of year makes me want to sit on the porch and just do nothing. I mean, have you been out there and noticed the humidity is under 50%? Wait, you may not be from here... The humidity in central Arkansas is sometimes, somewhat high. Anyway, it's been downright pleasant!

We came to a place this summer where we turned the A/C off and we left it off. Mainly cuz we couldn't afford to cool this house, but there comes a point when it's cooler outside in the morning than it is in your house,? that's when you shut the puppy down and just deal with the heat of the day. It almost prepares you for the coming death grip of winter!!! Almost. 

We're having a yard sell this weekend. I can hear you asking: 
But Kimer, you just had a huge yard sell!
I know! This is the stuff that almost didn't make the cut last time.

I working on having more good day's that bad day's. I believe I can help the odds of this happening if I would just stay home.

We started our new Thursday night service last week. We're calling it 707 for Matthew 7:7, check it out!

Peace!

  

Weary!

Butterfly on flower!

I have a confession to make, I'm weary! It was less of a weight last week, but this week it's full blown heavy! Let me look that up real fast to make sure I'm using the right word. Yep, it's the right word. Feeling or showing tiredness, esp, as a result of excessive exertion or lack of sleep. For me this means; more than necessary physical or mental effort. I think I can throw in emotional and spiritual effort too. 

I found it very interesting that in talking with my spiritual director he suggested that I look at weary and ask why it's hanging around. 

Have you ever thought about doing something like asking your weariness why it's there? Well, up until a few years ago, ok it may have been months, I had never thought about doing anything but begging God to take it away from me. 

So I've been asking weary; What is your intent here? How long is the duration going to last? What do I need to do to make you go away!?

The answers I seem to be getting are: Invitation, as long as it takes, pay attention.

I'm going to do more asking. I'm also going to step back and see if the view is any better from back there.
  

Awareness

I'm finding it hard to get this started for some reason. It's not that I have a lack of things to write about it, it's just figuring out what I want to open up to. 

At times, our life moves at worp speed. I mean so much is going on that if you aren't in contact with us daily, you are behind. We walk around singing Deep and Wide and we add in Fast! 

Then there are the times when life is like a slow float down the river. Moving at a speed that allows us to take in the sights and sounds. The trick for me is to bring the speed down so I can really see what's happening in the deep and wide.

I found these five questions from Mary Oliver help me to be aware of God in my life.

1. What do I notice?
2. What do I hear?
3. What is most wonderful?
4. What is most tender?
5. What astonishes me?

For me, anytime is a good time to ask these questions. I have found that doing them once a day, say at the end of the day before bed time, isn't the best time, as much as it is the default time. You know, Oh I forgot to be intentional about my questions at some point today, so I'll be aware of them now. My issue with this is; we focus on one thing as wonderful when there could have been 16. Tenderness could have surrounded us in so many different ways but we just didn't notice.

So here's my suggestion or maybe I should say confession: At the top of each hour, answer the 5 questions. If you do this for a while, you'll start doing it without even really having to think about it. The next thing you know, BAM! you'll be giving glory to God, cuz you're noticing God in your life.

Give it a try, what do you have to loose? Give me a holler if you want to talk about it.  
    

Filled

Our youth did the 30 Hour Famine last week, which means they didn't eat for 30 hours; to raise funds and awareness for starving children in Africa. They lived in cardboard boxes on the front lawn of the church! It's was a great time for them. They broke the famine at the prayer service with communion. It was an awesome time. 

Sitting through that prayer service, I was encouraged in my heart. We had a time of meditative prayer, followed by communion and topped off with music. It refilled me, as I find myself in what lately.

I am once again reminded of the spirit of childlikeness. That when we come before Him small, weak, and open, He will be there! 

During the service we sang "I'm Madly in love with you" and it just did something to me. Jesus reminded me and He set me free. He called me to more, and He refilled my soul! 

If we will come to Him and make ourselves like children, He will refill us and encourage us and equipped us for the job He has called us to. The key being, come to Him. That's really all He asking, just come. He will provide the rest. Just show up!

So often, we are too busy with our own agenda's and we don't make time for the Father of our soul. I encourage you to take 15 minutes today, find a place to sit, and just show up! Here I am God! I have no idea what I'm suppose to do, but you told me to come, so here I am. Then just be still and listen.     


  

Simply

I've been thinking about what it means to live simply or to simply live. They go hand in hand now that I've been thinking about it. So what does that look like? Have you ever thought about reducing your carbon foot print? Do you even care? 

Here's some things I've either done or I'm trying to work into our lives.

I'm hanging our clothes out to dry. I know there are people out there that don't like the feel of line dried towels on their soft supple skin, but I personally think there is nothing better than a thirsty towel. Not to mention, that I'm drying my clothes with the help of nature. They smell good, iron up awesome, and it just makes me feel good to do it. 

Something else is recycling our trash. The city helps with this by providing awesome yellow trash cans and picking our stuff up every other week. I enjoy the fact that I have more recycle than trash and feel they should pick up recycle more often than trash! One things has really opened my eye's while we've been doing this recycling, it's how much we package stuff that is just silly and wasteful. If producers would cut down on packaging, we wouldn't have so much recycle to deal with.

These are just some things we've been doing to live simply, which helped us to see how important it is to simply live. To slow down and tune off the world and just be. It's hard to do when you work for a church and live beside small children, but it's the kids that help me see it's all about running as fast as you can, finding that turtle, being pushed on a swing, and eating blackberries. It's sitting on the back porch, watching the birds at the feeder and the ones that are living in the cucumber plants. It's about making enough dinner to last for a few more meals so you just heat it up. It's simple, everyday stuff that I'm doing to help us live in The presence. 

It's all we really have and all we've been promised. Yesterday is gone and we pray we learned those lessons. Tomorrow might not ever get here, so what are you waiting on? 

We're heading out today for some R&R. Just want to sit around and watch birds and eat good food and talk a slow story. Don't want no drama, or excitement, or other peoples issues. Just wanna be in the moment and simply live into it with all I've got!

Present to the Presence

I talk a lot about living in the present. I got to thinking the other day, well, if your not living in the present, where are you living? My thinking on this, is either in the past or the future. One of which is gone and you can't do anything about it, and the other might never get here. It's living in grief and regret or the land of 'what if.'

Dr. Fred say's it this way: From the vantage point of Christian spiritual practice, being present is about being present in the moment to the presence of the triune God. In that way, and in that way alone, is the meaning of any moment made clear to us.

It's not just about paying attention to what's going on around you. It's not just about living in this moment, as opposed to any other moment. It's about THE presence of the triune God. Paying attention to what God is saying through the things that surround you. Living in this moment so you can see and hear what God has for you right now, cuz that's all you've really got anyway. No promises of tomorrow.

To me, it's about making time, not finding time, to spend in THE presence of God. Starting my day with Him, always re-calabrates me. In this way, any moment is made clear. 

Heart

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” 

~ Howard Thurman

Ouch! That hits a little below the belt, if I do say so myself. However, on re-reading this, I have to say that it hits something very true. We don’t need to sit around and figure out what the world needs from us. In all honesty, the world probably doesn’t care. So are we going to let that stop us? Not me buddy! In fact there is a lot of freedom in this statement.

What makes you come alive? Is it reading to children, cooking, eating, gardening, giving care to a loved one, telling stories, making people laugh, fixing things, breaking things? Do it! The way I see it, if you’re waiting on the world to call you to a need, your backing up and you will be waiting for the rest of your life. That would be a shame, a flat out crying shame.

So I challenge you first off, ask the question; what makes you come alive? Then seek it out and just Do It!    

Wore out?

I've been blown away by the effect Easter has had on me. As a PW (Preacher's Wife) more things get on me than your normal non-PW, you know...the wife's out there. We have to be that support that comes from a deep place so that the Preacher Man can wear clean underwear, eat enough protein to keep up that smile, and brush the demon's off his back when he comes home for breaks. It really is a never ending cycle of strange demands that was not taught in seminary!

For some strange reason, I thought Christmas was going to be the big demanding Holy holiday that would pull me to the edge of the cliff and call me to jump in order to save myself. I was wrong. It was Easter.

I think it has to do with the preparation during Lent. No, that can't be it, we had Advent before Christmas. Maybe it was the lack of the church knowing how to prepare that wore me out. I found myself saying, a lot to other's, Spend time with Jesus, just be with him on his way to the cross. I believe in the mist of this time, I did spend that time just being with Jesus.

I feel like that was what he craved, and no one would really do it. He asked them to stay awake while he prayed, sleep over came them. He was denied by Peter, left alone in chains, beat to the point of death, and the one person who did struggle to get to him, wasn't allowed to comfort her child.

So I spent time just being with Jesus and it was hard. It pulled my life right to the surface of my being and it hung there, raw and open. It literally wore me out, physically, emotionally and mentally. So I'm done, stick a fork in me kinda done! Lay on the floor and not shower for a few days kinda done!

Preacher man, being a man of secret smartness, that remains hidden from me, even after 20 years, has planned this vacation to commence after church this Sunday and last for ruffly two weeks. So now, preparing for said vacation is wearing me out... More to come....  

Emptiness!

I've been somewhat sick for about a week. It's hard for me to be sick, I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about, so let me explain! I have stuff to do... important stuff to do! I get paid for a few of these things that I do, but mainly it's just stuff, my stuff. Working out is a good example of some of my stuff, blogging is another. Anyway, all I've been able to do for a week is sit around and try to breath! OK, your right, I did work the Arkansas Flower and Garden show last week, went to dinner with my parents for my birthday, rang handbells in church, got my hair done, had spiritual direction, went to vision cafe, centering prayer and got finger printed for concealed hand gun license. Maybe if I had sat around and tried to breath I would have gotten well sooner, you think?

We are afraid of emptiness. Flat out scared to have space in our lives! This, that I just shared with you, is a perfect example of how fearful we are of empty space! We like to occupy-fill up-every empty time and space that we might have in our life. Look at your calendar if you think I'm making this up! We have filled our empty spaces before we even get to them!  

I'm going on a silent directed retreat this weekend at the beloved St. Scholastica, where I will try to allow emptiness to exist in my life. Emptiness requires a willingness not to be in control, a willingness to let something new and unexpected happen. It requires trust, surrender, and openness to guidance.

God wants to dwell in our emptiness. But as long as we are afraid of God and God's actions in our lives, it's unlikely that we will offer our emptiness to God. 

Come Lord Jesus, and fill our emptiness with you.

Try Hard

Do you find that you try too hard sometimes? Or are you one that finds you don't try enough, or anymore. I have to admit, after trying again and again with success down around my ankles, sometimes I find it easier to not try anymore. It get's hard coming up against walls again and again. 

Those are times when we are called to just Be for awhile. To stop and check out what's going on around us. To be present. 

Do you find that you are centered in the past or the future? I was thinking about it just this morning. I go to my past, it's what made me who I am. It's where lessons were learned or continue to be learned. I go to my future to plan and to have hope in. 

To be present, that's where I fall short. I think it's because it requires effort, and sometimes it requires a lot of it. That aside, to be present, we have to be attentive to the life we have right now, and to experience the scared and the wonder within this present moment.

I want to do less and live more. I want to look into the eye's of others and remember the color. I want to know what's important to the birds that come to my feeders, and to show people that they really can be heard.

What is sacred is what is worthy of our reverence, what evokes awe and wonder in the human heart, and what, when contemplated, transforms us utterly. -Phil Cousineau

Conclusions!

Got out of the house last night for a little date night action for the first time since before Christmas, it felt strange! Not strange to be out on a date with Preacher man, but strange that I hadn't really been out of the house since it snowed, 12 inches... and we don't have the 4x4 unstoppable Ford Truck anymore! I'm not complaining mind you, I just miss it sometimes! We washed and vacuumed LilWhls the day before Christmas, and she is still sitting in the garage. All I got to say is come spring, the rubber will be hitting the road!!

I have come to some conclusions in the last few days and I'm going to admit some of them to you right now. 

Conclusion #1: God is all about restoration! He wants to restore us to Him and He wants us to be restored to each other. I looked it up and here's what I found: to bring back into existence, use, or the like; reestablish: to restore order. I also know that in order to be restored, sometimes it requires us to be vulnerable. My friend Leigh has helped me with this being vulnerable stuff. Can't say I'm a pro at it, but I'm getting it. I also looked that word up, and here's what I found: capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt. Anyone want to sign up for any of that? Well, I did today! I became vulnerable in order to be restored, and you know what? I cried a little and my voice got a little shaky, but I didn't die!! God Rocks!

Conclusion #2: While in seminary, I had the pleasure of meeting and working with this soon to be Preacher's wife. She has had a bazllion knee surgeries, 2 kids, been on Weight Watchers as many times as me and is an awesome writer of blogs. She has started back up with her race training, WW and blogging, which has set a fire under me. So today, Becca, I got Jullian's 30 Day Shred and I'm really wanting to get back out on the road, even if it's walking! So thank you for your inspiration! 

Sometimes, all it takes is to hear about someone else being human to make us want to be more human ourselves! 

Are you being inspired to be more human? To be more of what God is calling you to be? 

Down Day!

This is the first day I haven't had to get out my notebook and see what I have to get done today, in about a month, if not 15 day's. 

The Parsonage Open House was last night and we lived through it. Not everyone came and that's ok, it would've been nice, but I get it. Momma kept telling me we had too much food...she was right! She's always right. I don't know what it is in me that feels like when I put out food, I have to have enough to feed an army or maybe The Army, but it's in me! Could not have done it without my folks helping to prepare and the church ladies cleaning up. I think my knees are still swollen!

This day, I have nothing on my agenda and while that scares me a little, I'm going to live into it! I have a ton of reading to do for class and I've started back playing my Sax, so I might do that too. Sometimes we just have to take a down day, and today is mine! 

New Self?

So, is time getting away from you too, or is it just me? That's what I thought! My time away from home this past weekend, sent me into a tail spin yesterday with making list's, going to store's, the post office, starting the cooking craziness and being overall flat out stressed. Then, when I took a minute after I received a call from my Daddy, I started putting things into order in my heart. This meant pulling out a prayer that just might end up being my mantra for awhile! I'm a gona' share it with you right now!

Searching for Our Self

Good Shepherd, who finds the lost one,

the "me" I have known has disappeared.

Will I ever recover the person I have been?

Will I find who I am, and who I am becoming?

Protect me in this great vulnerability.

Assure me that I will come home to myself

even thought my "self" may be different. 

Silence my impatience. Calm my worry.

Restore my joy. Dispel my negativity.

Help me to befriend my new self with hope.

Isn't that cool? It's not a bad thing to become someone new, however, it can be scary. The more I change, the more I look back and say things like, Wait! I didn't like that about me anyway! This new joy is so much bigger than the old joy! We need to change and grow, we need to become uncomfortable with where and who we are. We need to take a deep breath, invite the Holy Spirit to come over us, and just be. I know it's hard, but if you will do it once, you will be able to do it again. The next thing you know, you are digging this new self you are becoming.

God takes us as we are, but He doesn't leave us that way. This is what is known as change! 

Ladders and Walls!

I spent the better part of three hours reconnecting with a friend yesterday and it opened my eyes to a ton of things I had either forgotten, or dismissed. One of which is how women need to remember how to be women.

It's really pretty funny, cuz I was a huge feminist growing up. Trying to prove all the time that I could do anything a guy could do! After I found out in climbing the ladder to success, my ladder was leaning up against the wrong wall, I fell rather fast to the ground and had to start rethinking my live and what I was really after. So many of us just stay on the ladder, even when we see that it's not working out the way we had dreamed. I'm thankful for my fall, now, not so much when it was happening.

I started to learn something about the way we women are made and don't think I've shared this before so here we go with a few things we know as women, but might have forgotten!

We were made as caregivers! It is something that comes as easy as breathing. Now, some of us are better at it than others and that's fine. We are social and want to connect everyone to everything and in the process we care about others. When I fell off my ladder and started getting real with myself and God, I found out I was pretty dang good at this caregiver stuff. I found this out very quickly after I started working at the soup kitchen. I got to looking and low and behold, 95% of my volunteers that came in and cooked and cared for the people, were women. The 5% that were men, were my board leaders, food pick up and maintenance.

Another case in point story. I was completely blown away one day when I had cleaned the parsonage, played in the yard, and had dinner ready for Preacher man when he got home. The look on his face when he walked through the house and smelled dinner, was worth an amount that I still can't put a price on! I had shown care for him by doing what was becoming my job. In all honestly, it has always been my job. I had balked against it for so many years, cuz I was a woman with more education than you could shake a stick at! Anyone could take care of a house, I wanted to climb that dang ladder that was leaning up against the wrong wall! 

This has been part of my wake up call from God. My job is to care for my husband, AKA Preacher man! Because I am saying ok to this God given design, He is blessing me with a ministry! I am freed up enough to be able to sit down with others and listen to where they are on their spiritual journey and walk beside them. Just in the past week, I have shared in tears of joy, calmness that has come straight from God, frustration that has been self made, and rekindled a relationship that I believe will turn into something so much bigger than either of us can get our heads around right now! All I really did was be available to listen, which is a God given gift (those of you who know me, have seem the change!). 

To think it all started when I fell off the ladder that was leaning up against the wrong wall and I allowed God to reshape me into the woman he had planned all along! 

Different Place!

I'm in a really different place than I've ever been in before and I can tell I'll be here until I learn the lesson. What's the lesson you may ask, well if I knew, I'd be moving on now wouldn't I? 

Haven't you ever been someplace like this before? Where you know your way around, yet nothing is happening like it use to? You look in the mirror and know that person, but the things that are going on inside your head are a little on the right side of center. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if I really was out here on the edge, alone!

I found myself sitting in a room with some people who are trying to learn more about the Bible, or at least 3 of us are. Some words were spoken that really have given me cause to think long and hard about what I stand for, or won't stand for. 

I will not stand with the world on it's views! I am called to be in the world not of the world! I want to be different than the world. When you look at me and line me up with the world, I want to stick out like a sore thumb! While I am human that doesn't give me the excuse to be like everybody else! 

I get that you don't want to judge! I have a news flash for you though...every time you get into your car, you judge. Or maybe you don't and that's why you don't have a car! 

I have written about the whole God is love, Jesus loves you thing before but I feel compelled to say once again... This is a great place to start, but they are so much more than just love! You can't just stop there and hope we will all love each other and get along. I mean, how's that working for you? Jesus didn't come so we would all get along, in fact, he said he came to cause a ruckus, paraphrasing by me!

Here's the deal, for me and maybe you. If you can't stand up for Jesus now, do you think when it's get's bad and we're persecuted, it's going to be easier? If you don't take the opportunity to study and grow deeper and wider now, do you think when stuff starts hitting the fan, your going to have lots of time to do that?

We need to love each other and call each other into account for our actions. We need to stand up for Jesus, spend time with Jesus and walk in the shadow of His cross. It's not the easy way of going about doing things but for me, it's the only way!   

Ripped

Boy, am I glad I announced I was going to be posting more! I don't know what I was thinking, oh wait, I'm sure I wasn't thinking and I wanted to share that with you!

I went to Fort Smith on Friday in order to be at the monastery bright and early for class on Saturday morning. Had to drive through a horrific storm in order to get there and came to the conclusion that I prefer driving 80 in hard rain in a truck! The Mini did just fine, I on the other hand, was offered a scotch upon arrival.

While I was gone, Preacher man had a visit from a man that we have been waiting on all summer long, the tree take-her down dude! Both of the very old, planted too close to the house, pine trees, are now down. They are down all over the back yard and the dogs have no idea where to go potty, but they are down. 

I have been buzzed by Humming birds that don't know where to land in order to wait for other Hummers to buzz! Every black flying bug that lived in the trees are swarming and in a really bad mood. It smells like Christmas in the back yard and now we have to start cleaning up and there are not enough hours in the day!

Do you find that your day is too short too? That all you do is run from one thing to the next? Without taking time to slow down and just breathe? Do you find that every time you do sit down to breathe, you get buzzed? I am with you, but the really cool part is, God is with you too. 

I found yesterday, I just had to do some physical work in the yard. I now have close to 200 iris' ready to be replanted somewhere. The cool part is they aren't under my Crape's anymore! However, every muscle in my body is now buzzing me! 

There is just something that calms down in me when I pull things out of the ground. That ripping sound of roots being pulled from the earth, the smell of the damp dirt... it puts me smack dab in a Holy place. So yesterday, I got to play with God in the dirt and he showed me how even the worms are something he's proud of. When the day was done and I was cleaning up, I looked over what I had done. It didn't seem like a huge amount had been changed. Then I noticed, something in me had shifted. I was calmer and stiller than I had been in a long time. I don't know how long this shift will last, but when I start to get crazy again, I will go see about pulling something else out of the ground and allow myself to re-center on what really is important.

We need to remember that the evil one is out there ready to steal our joy, every day. When we don't take time or crave out time, to just sit and be with the Holy One, well, we end up being the ones being ripped from our ground! So take 20 minutes today to sit somewhere that you enjoy, and ask God to speak to you, then watch and listen. When you make time for Him, he shows up! 

  

Place!

I'm finding that I'm being pulled to move my place of solitude. That sounds kinda funny doesn't it. I really miss my big over stuffed chair that we had to sell before we moved to Sherwood. I could get all comfy in that big ole' chair and just spend my time with God. 

I found that last year, I was needing more of a structured place where I could place a candle, have some cards/icons around me. So I set up an alter on a tea table, got a great old rocker to sit in and gathered my things I would need to be with God for an hour. This has worked just fine for over a year, but the other day, after Preacher man had gone to work and the neighborhood had calmed down, I took my things and went to the back porch and me and the birds spent some awesome time with God!

I know as the weather changes from summer into fall, I am lovin' hanging outside, but that will change on day's like today that are hovering around 48 degrees. The point I'm trying to make is find you a place, set apart, where you can be alone with God. It will look different for every person, but it should be a place where you can just be with God for around an hour. Now don't freak out about the time, you have to start somewhere, but you also have to shoot for something. Start with 15 minutes. You will find as you grow in your comfort with God, you will want to spend more time in His presence. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said Spend one hour a day in adoration of your Lord and never do anything you know is wrong, and you will be all right. 

Solitude is where the changes happen in us. It's the place where Christ remodels us in his image and frees us from our false self. If you are in ministry, and we are all in ministry whether we know it or not, you need to have this time of solitude. I see it almost like plugging my phone up at night. If I don't plug it up, the next day it's running slow and shutting down. If I don't take time to plug into God, to spend time alone with him, well... you can tell!

Compassion is the fruit of solitude. We may just have to look at that next.      

Being about Doing

I pray for the grace to be in God's presence, in all of my doing Lord - Help me be. 


So does that mean I sit around reading books thinking about pie in the sky? How would I ever get anything done? The yard would be a mess, I'd never shower, (that sounds ok for a few days) and Preacher man wouldn't have any clean clothes!


To be in God's will and presence... at all times. That's a tall order, or is it?


I believe God wants me to have an ordered house - it's good for Preacher man, it's good for when people come over without calling 2 days in advance. I mean, God is a God of order, so this makes sense to me. However, I don't believe he wants me to be all crazy about it like my friend Anne use to do. She would vacuum and them jump on furniture to keep from flattening out the carpet. That's crazy! God doesn't want me to get sucked into the doing, he wants me to be about it. If something comes up, I'm free to stop and be with what came up.


I have found that at times, (long ago) I have become too ridged in doing. It then becomes more about doing the task than being with God. It can be at work or just here at home. I forget that my job is to take care of this home and Preacher man. I don't want to do it so  I'm miserable, I want to find the joy in being about the care.


It's the Mary and Martha thing again! Martha was too involved with the doing when it should have been more about the being with Jesus. They probably thought Jesus was going to be around for years and years. There would always be time to be at his feet. 


I have my whole life to figure this being thing out, but I don't want to put it off till the last minute. I want to be about keeping an ordered home and being with Jesus while I'm doing it!