Q & A - Thursdays

Last week you were given 168 hours, were you wise in how you spent your time?

How did you waste time?



Q & A - Thursdays

What are a few of your indulgences - little things you take pleasure in that make a big difference to you?

Q & A - Thursdays

Do you read to learn or escape?

spiritual formation

This is a reflective activity from Henri Nouwen's book, Spiritual Direction.  At the end of each chapter, Nouwen encourages the reader to 'ask the deeper questions of the spiritual life' through journaling.

'...{journaling} is a way of recording how you feel about certain observations, presentations, and idea's and proclaiming what you believe in a context of prayer and listening...'

Nouwen suggests the reader select two trustworthy persons to examine and discuss the following questions/statements. 

Identify and name a persistent question at this time in my life.

Lord,

• Where do you want me to serve you on a regular basis?

• In what area of my life do I need to 'chip away' attitudes or behavior's that stand in opposition to you?

Do I know or perceive where God is active and where He is leading me?

Lord,

• You are leading me into places I'd rather not go (John 21:18). In love and obedience, I will follow even though I don't understand why.

• I am exploring the possibility of obtaining a Spiritual Director. Someone to hold me accountable, to help me explore Your claim on my life, and someone to help me recognize Your activity and say YES to it.

to be continued...
 
How do I listen attentively to God and what am I hearing right now?
What questions would I like to explore with a Spiritual Director?
Where am I prone to self-rejection?
What moments in my life with God stand out as crucial in my spiritual journey?
What persons, books, and idea's have played a significant role in my life?

Would you ever...

Have your body pierced?

Bungy jump?

Skydive?

Parasail?

Take tango lessons?

Move to a foreign country?

Take houseguests for renters?

Move where you know no one?

Be hypnotized?

Start a small business?

Travel internationally alone?

Give your testimony in a church service?

Get a tatoo?

waiting

I have spent years in tracing the outline of days with the arc and curve of writing down my soul - finding Your Spirit in this journey of waiting. 

It has been years of holding on with white knuckles. 

I continue to close my ears to words that sting ~  knowing you've written this story for me.

How much longer Lord?

"Is there any challenge in your life right now that is large enough that you have no hope of doing it apart from God's help?

If not, consider the possibility that you are seriously under challenged."

-John Ortberg

being intentional...

Do you regularly schedule a time/place into your week to meet with friends and have spiritual conversations about life?

Something fun...

Name ten words that define who you are...don't think too hard, let your subconscious do the work.

Here are mine:

Family     -     Home     -     Bible study     -     Girls     -     White     -     Hunt     -     Curious     -     Reading     -     Cook     -     Discuss

Tell me your ten words.  Did your list include what you'd like to do more of or what you should eliminate?

What is the use of knowing our weakness if we do not implore God to sustain us with His power?

--Thoughts in Soitude, Thomas Merton

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." 

-Psalm 16:11

Does this mean I have the assurance God will make our directions clear?

He promises '...to make known to me the path...'   It doesn't promise to give us the direction in which we're headed.  But scripture encourages me to trust and obey. 

It's an attitude of my mind, an orientation of my heart, a sum of all learnings.  It is the learnings that life is all about, not the situations in which we learn them. 

Show me, Lord.

Ava's photostream - Flickr

How do you gain perspective in worrisome,
sad or hopeless situations?

Needless laws?

• In Kentucky, it is illegal to remarry the same man four times.
• Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take a bath at least once a year
•  It is illegal to carry an ice-cream cone in your pocket in Kentucky.
  
  
  WHAT???

Life's difficult questions

CNN reporter Sara Sidner sits in a car surrounded by children as she and a crew
prepare to leave the flooded Sindh Province in Pakistan

Sindh Province, Pakistan

The first things you notice are the flies. They form what looks like a buzzing black crust on children's lips, eyes and foreheads. The children are either too tired to keep brushing them away or too used to them to bother.

"We have terrible problem with flies," 50-year-old Khuda Jatoi says in Sindhi, the local language here. Everyone here is suffering from something. Still, the moment they see us, everyone scrambles to find a suitable place for us. Someone is trying to find a chair for us to sit down. Father Khuda Joti is insisting on giving us tea or sending someone to buy a cold drink. We are guests in his makeshift shelter, and he wants to give us the best of what he has. We cannot bring ourselves to take anything from him. He and his family have lost nearly everything they own.

They are victims of the worst floods Pakistan has ever seen, and yet they are trying to make us comfortable. That keeps happening everywhere we go. The day before, in a school-turned-clinic, a few ladies who had survived the floods handed me a "hair catcher" because they could see that I was sweating profusely, and they wanted to make me more comfortable. At the same time, the men kept fanning us with brightly colored hand fans. It makes me feel both ashamed about how much I have and don't appreciate, and inspired by the kindness that is clearly being extended with no expectation of anything in return.

When we ask about their troubles, the entire clan begins to talk at once. Suddenly we are surrounded by children, women, fathers, uncles, aunts, cousins and grandfathers - all members of the large extended family. They have taken refuge in a small school that the family broke into and turned into an unofficial shelter. They have nowhere else to go.

"We were drowning in the water," one family member says. We couldn't hear much else as the sound of all those voices began to weave together in a suffocating quilt made of despair.

We tried to quiet everyone so that we could have a conversation. They told us their sorrows and spewed anger at authorities for giving too little too late.

Then, something happened that makes me cringe. One of the women in the crowd asked that I take the tiny baby girl I was cooing at. She said the baby would have a better life with me. I wasn't sure I heard her correctly until the actual mother of the baby girl said it. I stood there silent, my brain churning so furiously it was as if it was looking for the right answer to a test from the Almighty. How am I supposed to answer that question? What is the right answer? Is there a right answer?

There have been plenty of days in my line of work where I imagined gathering up all the suffering children and taking them with me - at least I would know that they would have food to eat and books to read. But I never really considered actually taking a baby from the arms of its mother, even if asked. In this case, the family has been so traumatized, I told myself it was just their fear and anxiety talking.

I left with only my notepad and camera in my hand and another of life's difficult questions swirling in my head.

Post by: CNN's Sara Sidner

Leading others

What would it look like for me to lead more consistently from my soul ~ the place of my daily encounter with God ~ rather than leading from my head and thoughts?

What would it be like to find God in the context of a conversation with one of my daughters rather than miss Him trying to have all the right answers for her?

Who are you?

I'd like to know


~Your favorite home-cooked meal...

~Three things you have in your pantry...

~Whenever you're nervous, you psych yourself up by...

~If you could change one thing about yourself...

~Your favorite 'all time' book...

~You wish you had more time for...

What is your guiltiest pleasure?

I have many…

Salty chips.

White T-shirts.

Purses, satchels, handbags, and carriers of all kinds.

Staying up late at night reading and eating salty snacks in bed.

Spending afternoons at Barnes & Noble w/ a hot tea and while browsing through magazines and books I’ll never buy

…and always, shopping at GOODWILL!!

“It isn’t the great big pleasures that count the most; it’s making a great deal out of the little ones.” Jean Webster

On Being a Grown-Up

Can you remember the first decision you made that slid you into the catagory of 'grown-up?' Was it signing the lease for your first apartment? Did you feel grown-up with your savings passbook of deposit slips? Maybe it was your first pay check and the knowledge you could spend it on ANYTHING! Whatever it was life has now settled in and you most likely haven't thought recently about it. It's as if we step over that hurdle of being responsible and with a sigh of relief we continue on our way down the path of adulthood.

Take a minute and think about the step you took into being a grown-up and tell me. Whether the experience was difficult, funny, easy, or bittersweet, share your lesson with the readers of this blog.

Paying attention to our tears...

"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Jeremiah 31:33

Deborah Smith Douglas recalls hearing a wise priest say that we should be grateful for whatever breaks our heart. Reflecting on God's promise to write 'upon' our hearts, rather than 'within' them, he suggested that our own hearts are so hard that all God can do is write upon the surface."

It is only when our hearts break, that they break open...then the word of God can enter deeply.

We should prize the gift of tears?

Leon Blum has said, "Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist, and into them enters suffering in order that they may have existence. "

In my own suffering and heartache I have tried to surrender to God's presence. I have tried to withstand the hurt of others. Yet there are still 'places in my heart' that I long for God's holy writing...within my heart. After months of struggle, I willingly acknowledge there are places inside me that might never have been explored had it not been for the dark times in recent days. In a very strange and mysterious way the light shone in and opened up the darkness. So when tears come instead of avoiding them I am trying to learn to pay attention...to pause...and ask...What makes these tears come?

HEAR THIS...

A wake up call is either something you ask for at a hotel or a traumatic event that changes your life.

The call to change comes in many guises: a divorce, the loss of a friend or family member, an accident, sudden job loss, illness of a child, financial 'bumps in the road' or any other unexpected event that storms into your life and takes control.

It's what we do when we receive the call that reveals who we are.