Wow! Am I a total slacker or what? Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile ( a long while). I’m not really sure what my problem has been. Guess I’ve just been too busy with work that when I have free time I don’t utilized it very productively. The past couple weeks at work I’ve been working 6 days a week, and once I get home I am totally unmotivated to do anything productive in front of the computer. I’m committing to pushing through this lethargy and getting something things done this next month. So much so, that I’m going to lay them out here for all to read. Ready? Here goes…
By August 16th I will:
Blog at least 3 times a week
Finish the non-profit incorporation process for the Pneuma Project
Write my monthly update newsletter
Finish the 4 books I am halfway through (ie. Last Child in the Woods, Missional Church, The Great Good Place, and Patrick)
Begin the IRS non-profit process
Ok I think thats good enough, we’ll see how I do.
On a lighter side, Liza and the girls and I were able to go camping with some friends this past weekend. My first couple (2) days away since January. It was so good to get away and to not have anything to do.
Here’s my top 10 list of what I learned this week at Stampede Reservoir.
10. Kids should be require to spend time camping ever year. It’s so great to see them out and experiencing creation.
9. Boats are great! As long as there not yours 
We had a blast on the boat, but I don’t think I could handle all the stress and hassle associated with owning one.
8. Everyone loves a campfire. It’s even better with marshmallows.
7. Always camp downwind from the toilets.
6. Drunk people think you are driving a lot faster then you are when you drive by them at 15 mph.
5. Camping is always better with friends.
4. The larger your camping accommodations the more stuff you must bring. The more stuff you bring the more complex and stressful camping becomes.
3. I don’t like stress when I’m camping
2. Don’t leave a sleeping bag at home. Fleece sleeping bag liners don’t cut it for 50 degree nights
1. We need to camp more. Not only for our own well-being, but for the girls to experience more of the adventure of creation.
Overall it was a great 2 days. If only a little short. Can’t wait to go again.
Filed under: Missional Living, Quotes | Tags: Busyness, God, Pleasure, Quiet Time, Spirituality, Worship
I’ve been thinking a lot the last couple days about about how I worship God in the midst of my busyness. How do I, as a lover of Him, bring Him glory and pleasure when I don’t really have time to breathe let alone go to a worship gathering, remember to pray, or spend some time reading my Bible. Sure I have time in the evenings after work, dinner, and getting the kids to bed, but then I am so freaking tired all I want to is veg out. I’ve heard the old, “wake up earlier”, “if you really wanted to you’d make it a priority”, and “do it anyway till you like it” theories, and there is probably truth to them, but things just don’t seem to work that way in my world. Can anyone else relate to this busyness dilemma? Am I suddenly a second class follower of Jesus? Is God frustrated at me just as I am frustrated with my schedule? I think part of the guilt/conviction I am feeling is do to all the “spiritual success” stories I hear about “Super-Christians” and their awesome 3 hour quiet time, but another part is do to my limited (and incorrect) view of what worship and connecting with God really is. Spend some time to read this quote from Michael Frost’s book Exiles:Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture a couple times:
“G.K. Chesterton was noted as having quipped, ‘I think God is the only child left in the universe, and all the rest of us have grown old and cynical because of sin.’ Like a child giggling with the attention paid by its parents, God derives enormous pleasure from receiving attention. The Scottish athlete and missionary Eric Liddell, portrayed by Ian Charleson in the film Chariots of Fire, is quoted as having said, ‘I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”With this kind of faith exiles should be able to acknowledge that the whole of our lives can be God-directed and therefore God-glorifying. When our chief end is to please God, running fast isn’t about personal glory or being the best in the world; it is about giving pleasure to God. Likewise, a life lived in order to give God pleasure will mean that our choices, our preferences, our desires become subservient to our greater end.
Thus, loving the Lord, or enjoying the Lord, or obeying the Lord, or even accepting the Lord’s salvation in the first place–all these are means of serving the chief end, which is to please the Lord. Nurses please God when they perform the Gold-glorifying work of healing the sick. Teachers do it when telling the truth to students. Runners do it when running fast. And as we cooperate more and more with God’s unstoppable goal of self-glorifying, we bring increased pleasure to God and to ourselves. Like Jesus, we will literally glow.
Why is it that many worship pastors seem to suggest that the primary way we give God pleasure is through sung worship? Was Liddell worshipping God on the track at the Paris Olympics? Do I worship God when I meet with my local politician to raise his or her awareness of global poverty? Do we worship God when we choose to protect the environment over which we’ve been granted stewardship? I think so. Our whole lives are to be lived in praise of God, as expressions of God’s glory, adding to the enjoyment that God has in God’s self and in the outworking of the divine purposes on this planet.”
Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, and whatever you find yourself busily doing this week, may you do it all well, to the pleasure of God. And in that, may you find great pleasure in spite of the busyness. Much grace to you.
