Day 33: Field Trip!

Happy Independence Day weekend everyone! In honor of summer, and the very brilliant idea that is the long weekend, I thought we'd take a little field trip beyond our 40 Days blog world, and check out how someone else is shepherding her ducks into a row. (I feel like Mr. Rodgers, right before he boards the little train that takes us into the Neighborhood of Make-Believe...)

Today, we're going to visit my friend Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen runs one of my favorite blogs, called The Happiness Project. On THP, she has gathered the most interesting, diverse, and unexpected collection of information on the subject of happiness that I've ever seen. I love her approach: not everything will be for everyone, but she casts her net far and wide and then lets us step up to this buffet of options to choose what we'd like to try.

One thing I'd like to try is her idea of creating your own commandments. These aren't meant to be an alternative to the ten God provided, but rather a personal supplement, sort of like the little kid bumpers at the bowling alley or training wheels on a bike--reminders of who we are and what matters to us that keep us from falling over. The point of commandments is that you don't violate them--or when you find that happening, you do a gut check, figure out why, and recalibrate. That intrigues me. I suspect that I already have personal commandments that I live by, but it seems worthwhile to think for a bit about what they are.

This weekend, check out Gretchen's site. Take note of what catches your attention and come back and tell us about it. Tell Gretchen, too--introduce yourself and say hello. You can even congratulate her on her book, which comes out at the end of this year.

Our field trip dovetails interestingly with today's chapter from Ecclesiastes, which tells us how when God enables us to enjoy our lives, it's a gift. One of the hallmarks of this gift is that we "seldom reflect on the days of [our lives] because God keeps us occupied with gladness of heart."

Gladness of heart sounds an awful lot like happiness. So I wonder if perhaps our ultimate Happiness Project might be to ask God to give us what King Solomon calls "satisfaction with our lot in life"? I don't mean that we force ourselves to settle--just the opposite, actually. I mean that we ask for the supernatural peace that allows us to enjoy where we are on the way to wherever God is taking us. That's my prayer for today :)

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Day 32: Envy = Motivation?

"And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind."

Today, I charged into our chapter of King Solomon's wise musings ready to hop up on my favorite soap box, chant my "life is not meant to be lived alone!" refrain, and encourage all of you who are praying for a husband to keep on keeping on, because I think God is with us in this particular dream. I even had a nice little illustrative story I was going to trot out, about the benefits of determination, perseverance, and not giving up (tennis player Venus Williams and all the times she's been on the brink of defeat with the whole world watching, and somehow she digs deep inside herself and fights back, usually winning the tournament, in case you're wondering. I was going to tie it into the fact that she's never really alone out there--that unlike most players, her sister and the rest of her family are on the court with her. I think that sort of teamwork is exactly what God intends).

But before I reached my favorite line, the one about how "two are better than one" and "a cord of three strands is not easily broken," I was stopped in my tracks by the line at the top of the page. Envy as our primary motivating force? That sounds so grim! And yet so true...

Right now, I'm busting my hump to finish revising/editing my manuscript for my second book. It's been an absolute bear to write, truth be told. It's due in to my editor, in final form, a week from tomorrow. I'd stop to throw up because I'm so panicked, but that would only waste time. Yesterday, I typed so long, my fingers got an odd tingling at the tips that sort of freaked me out.

But why?

Don't get me wrong--I'm not against hard work, or going above and beyond to honor our obligations. Part of me enjoys cruch time, because it's when my most creative juices flow. But if I take a nanosecond to consider WHY I'm working so hard, King Solomon's point really resonates. I love it when an author I admire has a whole array of books for me to read. I love when someone pushes themselves to think about a variety of life's slices (and then pushes even harder to capture those thoughts on paper). I look at writers from the past like Madeleine L'Engle and C.S. Lewis and see how much they wrote, in so many different genres, and I want to do the same. I want to push myself, to take up some room on the shelf. But wanting it isn't enough. Bookstores and libraries don't just give you that space--you have to earn it. So that's what I'm trying to do. But is envy mixed in there as a primary motivating force? Absolutely. I'm not sure what to do with that, but it's worth thinking over.

We typically think about envy as inherently bad. I think it's even one of the Seven Deadly Sins. But can it ever be good? Can it spur us on to greater things than we might otherwise attempt? (Granted, this falls apart if our envy includes NOT wanting the other person to have the thing in question--that gets pretty ugly. But what if their having it simply stirs up in us the desire to have or accomplish something similar ourselves?)

When I first started coming to church, I openly envied some of the couples I saw there. (And yes, I could ditch the word "envy" and replace it with something more socially acceptable, like "admire," but that would be a total lie.) At a certain point, I made the connection that to get where they were, perhaps I should do what they were doing. This lead to a pretty radical restructuring of my life. Tough, but worth it.

Think for a moment about the thing you're working hardest on right now--mentally, physically, spiritually. It might be a project a work, a friendship you're trying to save, getting into shape...
What's your motivation? Don't judge it, just think it over, maybe talk it over with God.

Let me know how it goes :)

Day 31: Big Eyes & God's Timing: It's Alright

"Me and Ryan G. can make the best of things, almost anywhere, and it seems to me a metaphor for life: We go from town to town and make the best of what's around. And it's alright..."

Today's part of Ecclesiastes is about timing. God's, not ours. (It's a good one, and encouraging in a unique sort of way--if you don't usually read the passages, this is worth the extra click to check out). King Solomon talks about pulling back to see the big picture, and how even with our best human effort, we can't possibly see how God is fitting pieces together over the broad span of time and space. During our lifetimes here on earth, he suggests, we'll never understand. But we'll keep trying. Why? Because God has "set eternity in the hearts of men." That line captivates me. It describes how and why we're caught in this tension of seeing the beauty around us and yet still always longing for something more.

C.S. Lewis put it well when he said, "“If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." But for now, we're in this world, longing for things. What do we do about that?

I think Ryanhood has a great starting place. It sounds glib, but it's not, not really. We could do worse than to go from town to town and make the best of what's around. This looks different for each of us, of course. During some seasons of life we go from office cube to office cube, or grocery store to post office running errands, or doctor's visit to treatment center. But with God, we can make the best of what's around. We can ask Him to give us eyes to see, to expand our awareness of His big picture.

Doing this, for me at least, is like flossing or working out. Every single time I've tried it, it's been a spectacular improvement, making me wonder, "Why did I ever stop?" (the question that has no answer). The truth is, it doesn't matter why we stop, just that we start up again.

Today, let's go from town to town and make the best of what's around. And when you see part of that "best," drop a comment so we can notice, too.

My first "best" this morning? Opening Ecclesiastes (with a little bit of dread, expecting another meditation on meaninglessness) and seeing this encouragment about how God's got a time for everything. Nice surprise :)

Day 30: A New Way to Roll

I spend a good part of my life chasing down little things I think will bring me some sort of satisfaction. This morning, for example, I'm already thinking about the book I ordered from the library: when I'll have time to pick it up, when I'll have time to read it. Little stuff like that can occupy my mind for a bizarre amount of time, sort of like a hamster running on a wheel to get its exercise. The effort isn't necessary, but it feels like it is. It feels like it takes me somewhere, even if that feeling is a total lie.

Which makes me think of this:



What if the fine people at Kia Motors are right? What if there's a new way to roll?

King Solomon describes his experience with the old way in today's chapter. His take is pretty much, "I thought these things would make my life worthwhile. Not so much..."

Reading one commentary on this chapter, I found some wise words on how to apply it to our lives (because I had no idea--I mean, spiritually speaking, how do we get off the wheel to nowhere and into the sporty red car?) One of my favorite speakers suggests that perhaps it's about the peace God gives us in certain things, and letting that guide us as we take inventory of the things we spend our time on:

"Realizing you cannot do everything, then deciding with God's help what you can and cannot do, will make you more effective at the things you are supposed to do and will greatly increase the level of peace in your life. Peace equals power; without it you will stay frustrated and weak. As you evaluate how you are spending your time and what you are doing with your life, use this simple rule: if you have peace about it, keep doing it. If you do not have peace about it, stop. Hearing yourself complain about [something] on a regular basis indicates that you need to make an adjustment."

Interesting to think about. Solomon's point, I think, is that we chase endlessly after the things we think HAVE to do to succeed, to survive, to be satisfied. Mostly, we're wrong, and we don't end up where we think we will. Today, let's give God some room to prune things out of our lives and to adjust our perspective. Let's ask him for the keys to the car He created us to drive, and His map for where to go :)

What's one thing in your life that you have peace about?

Day 29: Everything is Meaningless?

I'm supposed to be taking a sabbath today, but so far I've blown it completely (both bathrooms cleaned, 3 loads of laundry & counting...) What's funny about this (when you ignore the whole disregarding God thing, which isn't funny at all) is that when I prayed this morning about where we should go next in the Bible, God led me to Ecclesiastes. Which is essentially a book about how we spend our lives flitting about doing this and that (cleaning sinks, washing towels), thinking it will make a difference, never pausing to realized that in the big picture, it really doesn't.

In my Bible, there's a note I wrote at the front of Ecclesiastes that says, "A response to the general messiness of human experience." That sounds like a good thing to explore, given where most of us are now in this spiritual adventure.

Read Ecclesiastes 1. Consider: What do you spend time doing that's meaningless? (And by meaningless, I don't mean fun, or how you relax, or guilty pleasures like Top Chef marathons on Sunday afternoons...I mean stuff that you don't like doing that you make yourself do before you can relax and spend time with God).

What do you think?

Day 27: Selah and...

I'm thinking of two things this morning, as we get ready to take Steve's parents on a tour of wine country (well, three things, actually...I'm also praying for sun!)

The first is the word "Selah." It pops up in the Psalms quite often. It's a tough word to translate from the Hebrew, but it means something to the effect of "stop and listen," or "let those with eyes see and with ears hear." It indicates a pause, a time of reflection. And perhaps an openness to something God might want to impart to us from the words we've just read or heard.

Psalm 111 isn't one that specifically suggests a Selah moment, but I took one this morning. It seemed called for. The words about all God has done and all He's doing, along with this pithy maxim: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding." That seemed worth thinking about. My concept of fearing the Lord is different than some, perhaps. I've never worried that God was going to strike me down if I disobeyed, but rather that I'd miss out--on His guidance, His plan for my life, the things He created me for. So I try to begin my decisions with Him, allowing that my "understanding" of a situation might need some adjusting :)

As I was selah-ing, I thought of this from the prophet Habakkuk:
"Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay."

If God gives you a vision, write it down. I was surprised recently, as I read through an old journal trying to figure out a chronology of something for my book, to see how many things I'd forgotten, things I'd prayed for that have happened since then. Now granted, several things I wrote down worked out in ENTIRELY different ways than what I expected. But every single time, God's way has been better.

Stop. Listen. Write down the vision. (Then pray for a sunny afternoon for my vistiting in-laws!!!) :)

Need music to write to? Here you go.

Day 26: Good News

Good stuff happens today as we finish Luke's account of the Jesus adventure. Just when all hope was lost...Hope shows up on the road and walks a few miles with two guys, then pops into a dinner party to see if anyone will recognize Him. Jesus, recently killed, is now alive.

Jesus=Hope.

Here's what amazes me about this: These guys--the apostles--witness this miracle. Spiritually, everything has changed. Because of Jesus' death, now anyone can approach God freely, without an intermediary, without fear. That's rather astounding.

But yet on some level, it wasn't like the circumstances of the daily lives of these guys looked all that different. They'd witnessed something supernatural, but not everyone saw it, or would believe them. What do you do with that?

I think this is a tension many of us live with, this sense that something big is going on, that God is working in our lives, but we don't have any outward evidence to point to, and often our best guess at how things will play out ends up being totally off-base. We search for signs, for proof, for evidence we can point to to prove that Jesus is working, changing us and how things will go from this point on. But proof is elusive.

It seems important that the main thing Jesus told his followers at this juncture was WAIT: "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." His resurrection was the beginning of the story, Jesus suggested, not the end. God had more in store for His people, power they'd need to take the journey God had planned for them.

This power, you might recall from our look at Acts last year, was God's Holy Spirit. Not only could we now communicate directly with God, but God would come and live inside of us, guiding us, interceding for us, and being with us every day.

At the beginning of our 40 Days, I shared about how I've been singing Ryanhood's AROUND THE SUN all spring. I have this sense that God is taking me somewhere I can't get on my own. But I'll need to stay closely in touch with Him, I'll need all the help I can get. And I'll need to remember that Jesus is alive, and that Jesus=hope.

Anyone else get that same feeling?

"Ready to go? Honey let's begin...we'll try to see by the light of the sun and tell it like it is."