This week we will be in Kentucky,
working on other people’s houses
instead of our own,
with intermittent internet access.
Uncomfortable words to us modern
bloggers, googlers, emailers, texters, tweeters…
The words from this sign
Jump out at me.
Really, no other words are needed.
So what happens when one finally gets settled into a routine at the cottage where one has spent three years preparing to live?
Life.
Yes. Life.
Yes. Life. Happens.
There’s a new job.
There’s a volunteer commitment one made before the new job happened.
There’s cooking to do, gardens to plant, flowers to grow, pillow covers to make, Bible to study, VBS to get ready for, neighbors to visit, friends to talk to, firewood to haul, and, yes, there are still boxes to unpack, files to organize and a room to paint. As well as the bathroom to gut and redo, and the back porch to finish.
And suddenly, there’s no time to write.
Ha, silly me. I thought perhaps after we moved here, I’d have spare time to finish that novel… Now I can’t even find time to write 500 words for a blog post.
It’s the rhythm of life. Suddenly there is much going on, but it is the routine of day-to-day, interspersed here and there with a gorgeous full moon, the bloom of a new starburst flower, the scent of peonies, a gentle sunrise.
But that is life, isn’t it? Making the most of those boring bits of life in-between the great, amazing stuff that, if we are honest, doesn’t really happen all that often.
It’s what we do with the routine and the interruptions to our routine that are important. Read this C.S. Lewis quote and put it on your fridge.
Yes, the unremarkable, the humdrum, the commonplace — that’s the life God is sending us. And do we sing on the way to work, or grump about the trucks that are making us late?
Do we gripe about having to fix dinner on a day when we don’t get home until 6:00, or do we look into the fridge and make it a game with ourselves to come up with the best we can with what’s there?
Do we go to visit the neighbor when we really should be… (insert really important thing to do here.)
I have to admit that I’m only good at loving the uneventful life sometimes. I try to remember that God has given us this ordinary life to live for him. He sees when we grumble at our husbands for no good reason except a mood; he knows when we choose to be in a funk, rather than pray; and best of all, He understands when we chafe against the boring bits of ho-hum pfhh that so much of life seems to be…
and he graciously gives us new eyes to see beauty in the familiar.
My word for 2015 is content.
I struggle with contentment,
though I shouldn’t.
I have everything I need.
except I need a better car, a new blender, new sliding glass doors for the bedroom…
More than enough.
yes, I sure don’t need more junk; we don’t have room for what we have.
My cup runneth over.
yet still I yearn.
Not only for things
but for emotional peace
Not only for me
but for the people I love
Not only for this life —
I yearn for God.
In order to stop all this yearning, I’m keeping track of my blessings again this year. He has given me. So much.
2,015 blessings for 2015 = 167.9 blessings per month = 5.5 blessings per day = the practice of contentment for what I have been given.
This is the beginning of my blessings project for 2015. I’m only publicizing it for encouragement. Your encouragement. I’ve been blessed (?) with a personality that is more pessimistic than optimistic, tending toward depression rather than enthusiasm — especially in the winter. This is my way of change — to express joy and contentment for the little everyday blessings.
I do want to encourage you to do your own “resolutions” or changes for God’s glory, not your own. Are you trying to lose weight? Do it for his glory, not yours. Are you trying to organize your life? Do it for his glory, not yours. Are you trying to work on your marriage? Improve your prayer life? Exercise more? Do it all for his glory, not yours, and …
…before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” –Philippians 4:6-7 The Message.
the circle of life 