Am I There, Yet?

We had a bit of a “pay-it-forward” moment yesterday.  Josh came home early yesterday.  He had been working on his sermon and needed to take a break so he thought he’d shovel the snow out of our driveway.  After he finished our driveway he went over to help our neighbor shovel her driveway.  When he was done with that, he thought he’d run over to co-worker/friend/neighbor’s house to shovel his driveway before he got home from work.  Right when Josh was finishing up, co-worker/friend/neighbor showed up with his son.  Well, co-worker/friend/neighbor’s son wasn’t very happy with Josh for shoveling the driveway because he really wanted to shovel the driveway.  So, co-worker/friend/neighbor told his son that they could go over to my parent’s house and shovel their driveway.  This cheered up his son. 

Josh then got home and I left to run some errands.  I planned to stop at Store A, Store B and a friend’s house.  There’s something you should know about me.  I love to drive in the snow with my 4-WD SUV.  It’s exhilarating.  Maybe it’s because I feel a sense of accomplishment when I maneuver through the icy roads.  I don’t know.  It didn’t used to be this way.  I’ve only lived in a snow region for 7 years of my life and I used to hate driving in the snow.  I remember living elsewhere and calling into work saying I couldn’t make it in because I was terrified of driving in the snow.  One day my boss sent one of the couriers over to pick me up on one of those light snow days because of my chicken-itis.  Anyways, now I look for opportunities to drive in the snow. J Yesterday at the store I found a large open spot in the parking lot and I drove over there just to get the opportunity to turn a few sharp corners.  Yee-haw!  Anyways, the roads were pretty slick and it was getting late so I skipped Store A and went directly to Store B and to my friend’s house.  By that time it was dark and the roads seemed worse so I went straight home, skipping one of my errands.

When I got home Josh suggested that I cancel Bible Study in the morning.  What?!?  The roads were extremely slick out and the forecast doesn’t look that great, so I called my trusty side-kick J and we decided that maybe we should cancel for a couple of reasons.  #1 being that the church parking lot probably wouldn’t be plowed early enough and #2 the chances of school delays are high and that would cause a big inconvenience for moms who wanted to come.

You have to know that I live in an area that prides itself on continuing on through life regardless of the weather.  Urban legend says that our school district has only closed once in known history due to snow.  I don’t know if that’s true or not, but in the 7 years I’ve lived here I can’t recall a school closure due to snow.  We’ve had many school delays, but never a closure.  These people are tough.

So, we wake up this morning and it’s much warmer than predicted.  In fact, there was no new snow (that I could tell) and no school delays.  But, with 5,000 Southern Californians moving here this year, the roads should be interesting this morning.  Maybe that’s reason enough to cancel Bible Study.  Maybe the women just needed a scheduled time off to get some things done, or to relax at home and do nothing.  They deserve it.

I heard somebody say, “Why does the weather man get it wrong so many times and still get to keep his job?”

Good question.  We’re still under a winter storm watch and it’s so sunny and clear right now that it’s almost comical.

Check this out…not everything is as it seems:

http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html

I suffer with depression.  I hate it.

My depression seems to pop in with the change of seasons.  It takes awhile for me to even notice it’s there.  Usually my husband notices before I do.  For some reason, this year seemed to be especially bad.  I’ve had the hardest time kicking it in the butt with my usual tricks. 

Typically when I recognize depression I’ll consciously make an extra effort to spend time outside in the sunshine.  I’ll attempt to spend time with friends.  I give myself small tasks that give me a sense of accomplishment when I complete them.  I light candles.  I listen to uplifting music.  I watch comedies.  This may seem menial, but this is very hard to accomplish because everything in me wants to fight these things.  Everything in me wants to stay in bed and lay around in my pajamas all day. 

This year none of my usual tricks seemed to help.  My wonderful husband even surprised me with a weekend away.  He made arrangements for the kids to stay with friends and he took me to a resort nearby to just get away from the daily grind.  It did nothing to boost my spirits.

I’ve never been to the doctor to discuss this.  My mom suffers from it.  My grandma suffers from it.  My dad has never had a problem with it until this past year when cancer because a part of our lives.

I’m in a women’s small group at my church and we wanted to do a service project together so we decided to all learn how to knit and make scarves for Adopt-A-Block.  I learned how to knit as a kid, but haven’t done anything with this skill since.  Last Tuesday we all learned how to knit.  Now I couldn’t make it to small group and so a friend of mine gave me a website with videos and I re-learned how to knit.

I’m hooked!  No pun intended.  Knitting has been so therapeutic for me.  My spirits are lifted and I’m having a blast creating scarves.  I’m on my 5^th scarf and can’t wait to finish it so I can start another one.  Guess what everybody is getting for Christmas…including my brother and sister-in-law in Phoenix, AZ.   J  Just kidding!

Now if I could just figure out how to make money off of this…

Q:  When you are on the theoretical high dive of life, do you jump?

A:  Depends on whether or not there’s water in the pool.

Q:  What if you’re too high up to know if there’s water in the pool?

A:  You’ll never know unless you jump.

Scenario #1:  I’m on the high dive and chicken out.  What do I do?  I get on my hands and knees, crawl back to the beginning of the diving board and climb down the stairs causing an inconvenience for those standing in line and who wish to jump off the high dive.  Where does that leave me?  Humiliated?  Disappointed?  Missing out on the adventure?  Safe and comfortable?  Wondering, “What if?” 

Scenario #2:  I’m on the high dive and I jump.  There’s no water.  Splat.  I fall flat on my face.  Where does that leave me?  Scared of taking the next leap?  Was the adrenaline rush worth the splat?  I’ll not wonder, “What if?” anymore. 

Scenario #3:  I’m on the high dive and I jump.  There’s water and it’s refreshing and it’s the perfect temperature and the adrenaline rush was amazing and it was worth it.  Where does that leave me?  Wanting more adventure?  Having more faith?  Enjoying life more?

What if we never took risks in life?  Where would we be?  Comfortable?  Maybe.  Bored?  Probably.

I’m bored.  I’m ready for an adventure.

God, if You ask me to jump off the high dive…I’m trusting that You’ll provide the water in the pool.

Josh got a package today from Amazon and made me promise not to steal the books before he got a chance to read them.  Two of the books are written by a couple of his professors through the Fuller/MAGL program.  One was Leadership Next by Eddie Gibbs and the other was Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger.  The third book was written by George Barna and it is called Revolution. 

Josh is asleep right now so I snuck them away from his side of the bed and have spent some time browsing through them.

No worries…I’ll give them back.  I’m still working through Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy.  And besides…those books will continue to feed my discontent.  I ask myself, am I brave enough to “take the red pill, go down the rabbit hole, and enjoy the ride”?  (Karen Ward as quoted in Gibbs & Bolger’s book, Emerging Churches)

Actually, that may be the wrong question.  It’s not about bravery…it’s about obedience and doing exactly what it is that God has called us to do…even if that means giving up every comfort that we now know.  This would be where I reference The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus.  If you haven’t read it…go get it.  NOW!

O.K.  So I said all of that in order to post a question.  Here is is:  Is there such a thing as “righteous discontentment?”

Feedback requested…

Oh the weather outside is frightful

But the fire is so delightful

And since we’ve no place to go

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

It doesn’t show signsof stopping

And I’ve bought some corn for popping

The lights are turned way down low

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

When we finally kiss goodnight

How I’ll hate going out in the storm!

But if you’ll really hold me tight

All the way home I’ll be warm

The fire is slowly dying

And, my dear, we’re still goodbying

But as long as you love me so

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

We went to the Chris Tomlin/Matt Redman/Louie Giglio worship concert this weekend.  It was an amazing experience.  There’s something awesome about worshipping God with many others who share the same passion and beliefs.  Giglio is a fantastic communicator and painted a beautiful picture of an aspect of God that gave us another reason to worship our Creator.  Our God is an amazing God and so much bigger than any of us can fathom.  That’s reason #652 to worship Him. 

I read an interesting article over on Monday Morning Insights this morning.  It was actually written by a man named Dan Reiland.  He was discussing a group of people that he called “Professional Christians.”  Here’s his definition: 

 “Professional Christians are believers, but have no intention to roll up their sleeves and serve. They are looking, in contrast, for a church to feed them, meet their needs, serve their schedules, and offer many of the latest and coolest programs in town. If you felt a little heat there, it is intentional. The consumer mindset in the local church is killing us.” 


A few years ago I probably would’ve argued this seemingly callous definition, but now I have no argument.  Question of the day:  If you are a church-goer, are you a “professional Christian”?  Do you have a problem with this definition?  Why or why not?  Is being a “Professional Christian” necessarily a bad thing?

I’ve created a quiz to see how much you know about me…so if you’re reading this, please take my quiz (even if I don’t know you and/or even if I do know you and you don’t think I know you’re reading my blog.) 

Click here for my quiz.