Unwind

What does that mean? Are we supposed to separate ourselves from “life” itself to escape? And if so, what does that say? That we must escape ourselves? WOW! In our fast pace lives of one city to the next, and furthermore from one person to the next, when do we unwind? When do we escape our environment, our responsibilities, our blackberry/iphone -to be completely in the presence of God?

I noticed today that there are very few times though out the day that I am in complete silence. Those times are when I am in the shower, sleeping and sometimes when I read my bible-that’s it. Other times through out the day I am enveloped by sound, in chaos-whether it be organized or disheveled. Even as I sit here, I hear noise, my blackberry just dinged to let me know that I have an email, my dog is sleeping and breathing pretty heavy beside me, a plane is landing behind me, the keys on the keyboard echo after I press them… Noise- it’s constant! How do I ever hear God’s voice amongst all of this? It explains why we want to hear God audibly, because we are so used to being told verbally what to do and what not to do. We are told what to hear and what not to hear -and beyond that- numerous details.

There is a great lyric in a song by the artist “pink” that says “the quite scares me, cause it screams the truth.” When you think about it, that lyric is truth. If we are in silence we are forced to be okay with being with ourselves, hearing what "we" think and not what someone else's opinion is- and it is in those quite moments that we make our deepest discoveries. Discoveries about life, love, and faith!

So what if at the end of your life, you could only testify to being a part of noise, clanging symbols? I hope there is more to life than that… Today allow yourself to hear “you” think, to hear what you have to say and what God has to say to you…Truth is essential to life, rediscover it, unwind!

In this time alone, is there anything that you dicovered that you would like to share?

I want cake!

Firstly, I would like to say that I am very sorry that I have not blogged in a while. My life has been extremely hectic, but I know "no excuse!" Speaking of hectic, I was talking to a friend tonight about "internal chaos." We talked about how in life we try different things in an attempt to better ourselves, but yet life still never seems to work itself out the way that we thought that it would, and when it does, what did we do different? I thought long and hard about my responses, because I realize that I do not posses the secret to life, but pray for wisdom. And well, all I could come up with was-CAKE! Yea, real genius I know, my friend was not amused to say the least. But then I began to explain myself and I think he loosened up-a little.

Life is made like a cake is made. There are certain variables that are important, that alone don't mean much. But when put into something together, they make cake. I talked about the things that you need to make cake such as: Cake mix, Eggs, Oil, Water. The "cake mix" can represent your individuality that is God given, the "eggs" can represent spiritual health, the "oil" can represent financial health, and the "water" can represent physical health. All of these components make you-"you." I am sure that we could list a number of other things that are essential to life, but these are the areas that I would like to focus on.

A friend of mine sent me this quote:

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both.
-UNKNOWN

It is so important for us to have all areas of our lives balanced out. So much so, that there is little distinction between one area and another. My Mom always used to say, "Is it to much sugar for a dime?" This was her way of asking "is it too much of a good thing?" That is possible you know? As good as sugar is, if you put too much into a cake, it will not taste right. In fact, it will not be a cake. It will just be a bunch of off balanced ingredients blended together.

As great as work is for our lives, we can do too much of it. As great as church is, we can serve too much and rob someone else of a blessing. As good as the gym is, we can overwork our bodies. As much as we tend to love ourselves, we can become selfish. With the help of the Lord, I pray that he will guide me on how to measure these ingredients out in my life. Because I do not know about you, but I want CAKE!

What areas of your life do you think need to be reevaluated?

Rendered Heart,
Christina