Confession time

When I took flights as a kid, I used to look out the window thinking I'd be able to see Heaven somewhere in the clouds

When in doubt, write about country music

For those of you who somehow missed the news, Sugarland – pretty much my all-time fave country band but whose summer tour I will torturously miss – won two American Country Music Awards this past week for “Stay.” I’m ecstatic. No, no, that doesn’t even cover it: I’m like a proud parent.

But the song I want to talk about in this here blog post isn’t “Stay.” It’s “Settlin’.” This song is basically my new life mantra. Why settle, in relationships or in life?

I don’t have a particular Bible verse to reference, but the gist of today's thought is this: God has plans for each of us. Those plans probably involve feats and duties of which we think ourselves incapable. Thing is, what significant Biblical figure ever feels ready for what God calls them to do? I think – and I’m talking from experience here – a lot of us tend to settle for our comfortable little world instead of obeying what God wants for us to do. Kinda communicates a lack of faith, don’t you think? As my friend Jennifer Nettles reminds us, we shouldn’t settle for “just getting by”; instead, let’s listen to God, “raise the bar high”, stop settling for comfort and make a difference in this world.

check it.

http://www.dear-god.net

Words that are overused in prayer

"Just"

Listen for it and you'll hear what I'm talking about

Worship and why

I've written something similar to this before, but it bears repeating:

From birth I've been a "why" person. I think it was like my third word, and I've never really outgrown it. Remember how you used to ask your parents "why does ___ happen?" I still do that. The mindset never left me.

To be clear, everyone is looking for meaning at some point. But other types of people also wonder "how?" (as in how the process works), "what?" (what can be done) and so on. Those questions never concerned me. I just want to know why. Give me meaning or give me death.

I was thinking about this in regards to worship recently. I'm not sure if there's a specific definition of worship outlined anywhere in the Bible, but I'd imagine it's something along the lines of looking past yourself, focusing on Him and saying thank you. It's totally submitting yourself to God. To me, then, a large part of worshipping is removing my penchant for asking why, submitting to His will and simply accepting events without the need for meaning.

God and the canines

Sometime during the boring drudgery of Mr. Marinell's high school English class, I taught myself to be dyslexic. Most people try to avoid this learning disability; I sought it out. True story. Hey, I've never been accused of being conventional.

I sat in the back of the classroom reading words from right to left (note: this is why I excel in the Cranium "GNILLEPS" category). Most of the results were fairly unproductive. For every "TARA is 'A RAT' spelled backwards" revelation, there were a hundred "INSTANT is 'TNATSNI' " types.

Every once in a while I'd read something interesting. DENNIS is SINNED. EVIL is LIVE. And, most importantly, DOG is GOD.

For a long time I thought of the dog-God parallel this way:
My dog loves me. He's never, ever sad or indifferent towards me. All I feel from him is love.

Now I'm trying to learn more from Dog = God:
Anyone who's ever seen me drive knows I'm not a patient person. It applies to other walks of life as well. Why is this taking so long? don't you want to get there faster? Why is Aspect X of my life taking so long to develop?

But now I'm trying to think of it in God's time. To Him, the time I have to wait for a job promotion is no time at all. Three more years to get my PhD after graduate school? Also not a long period of time (though it sounds like a small eternity to me).

So how can an impatient, I-want-results-and-I-want-them-now person like myself come to grips with God's time? I can think of my dog. See, to him (or any animal), time is moving faster than it is for us. We've all heard it: one human year is seven dog years. You know that feeling when you return from work and your dog treats you like he hasn't seen you in years? And you can't understand why he's so excited, because it's not like it's been that long? That's with a seven to one ratio. Now imagine God's ratio with us: eternity to one. Here's hoping that thought can (mind) (mind) me of God's timing.