Longing for Leisure

8/5/11 “I would love it if someone would pay me to stay home,” is a thought I averred for years. Now I’m paying myself from my retirement funds to do just that. Throwing in my 3^rd Wednesday Social Security check and that assertion has become a reality. Leisure looms in my future. Or does it? Hubby tells me that I can even make “work” out of leisure.

I am a, self-admitted, goal-oriented gal. Can one enjoy leisure times and still accomplish goals? “It’s okay to have a busy life. It’s crazy to have a busy soul.” (Miller p. 251) But how do you reconcile the two?

Today’s Jesus Calling (8/5) answered that. “A leisurely pace accomplishes more than striving.” What a great affirmation for one who would like both---productivity and a quiet soul. It just depends on your focus/priority. Put first things first.

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; (Psalm 37:7)

Pithy Prayer Points to Ponder

8/2/11 Points have to be pithy because computer, along with our phone, has been off "all most" all day. If the "bundle" does get reactivated, it's brief. Ongoing problem. Isolates me when I think I really need to be connected. I did spend part of my disconnected day reading the last few chapters of Paul Miller's, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracted World.

Hm-m-m-m there's a point to ponder. Is my computer and the internet too often a distraction?

• There is nothing secret about communion with God---IF we live broken of our pride and self will and cry out for grace there will be communion with Him. (p. 147)
  
• It's okay to have a busy life. It's crazy to have a busy soul. (p. 251)
  
• Self-fulfillment apart from God can become an obsession of self as we become touch and supersensitive to self, but insensitive to others. (p. 252)
  
• I don't have control over my heart and life or the hearts and lives of those around me. But God......does! (emphasis mine) (p.257)
  
• Remember Life is both holding hands and scrubbing floors. It is both being and doing. Prayer journals are on the "scrubbing floors" side of life. Praying like a child is on the "holding hands" side of life. We need both. (p. 224)

I have been praying that I would be connected long enough to finish this entry. Pithy punch---in prayer, set the Lord always before you. (Psalm 16:8)----not the computer.

"at-TEA-tude"

7/12/11 Brewing my cup of tea this morning in preparation for my "Tea with Thee" time, I began to mull over my "at-TEA-tude" about prayer. Recapping the week's assigned reading in Paul Miller's, Praying Life, one thought becoming more steeped in my mind was that prayer needs to be focusing on God, not my praying or method of praying. As Miller puts it,

"Prayer is simply the medium through which we experience and connect with God." (Praying Life, p. 20)

My attitude about prayer seems to be changing. Hopefully this new prayer at-TEA-tude will be a good one!

“P”erfect “P”airing

7/5/11….and I’m not talking golf here. Today I received 2 books that have really piqued my spiritual interest. One by a pastor. One by a pray-er, as in one who prays. Unable to decide which one to read first, I dove into both and began to extract “plums” from each.

A Positive Life is written by Shane Stanford, who is set to become the senior pastor at Christ Methodist this month. It’s basically “his” story of living with HIV (from a transfusion) and how it taught him the simplicity and contentment of a life shared in a community of laughter and love.

• Positive Life plum---God’s healing passes understanding; it gets down on the floor with us and wipes away our tears and holds us, especially when the aches and pains of life seem too much to bear. (Positive Life, p.44)

Paul Miller’s, A Praying Life: connecting with God in a distracted world, is the focus of a 5 week book study that Kathy T. is leading in the east Memphis area for a group of like-minded women. She was drawn to the book on Fellowship Memphis’ pastor, Bryan Loritts recommendation as more than another “how to pray” type book.

• Praying Life plum---What does an unused prayer link look like? ANXIETY. (caps are mine) (A Praying Life p. 70)

With pink highlighter in hand, I’ll keep you posted as I partake of more of these powerful, though personal, plums/treasures.