Thought of the day

For You know my inmost being. You kit me together in my mother's womb. Your works are wonderful; I know that full well.


Thursday, September 27, 2007

Why do people look up when they think?

I am sitting here in Sprau Tower on WMU's campus, in a little cafe thingy, trying to fill the time until my late class at 6:00. I have been doing a lot of people watching while sitting here. It's amazing some of the things that people will wear. I know the big thing in fashion nowadays is to be original, and unique. I strikes me that in all this attempting to be unique and original, that everyone is essentially wearing the same thing. Most everyone is wearing jeans. I know that they have become a staple in most everyone's wardrobes, but really...is that the only type of bottoms that anyone has anymore. I will interject that I am not at the moment wearing jeans, they are an army green corduroy material. 65 percent of the people are wearing a t-shirt, or t-shirt type material top. There is also a lot of layers. I have seen some girls that are wearing three tank top layer willy-nilly on top of each other, most time with bra straps showing. The other thing I am not quite getting is wearing patterns and colors that have no business what-so-ever being in the same room, let alone on the same body at the same time. Again interjecting, I will say that I am also wearing a tasteful green 3/4 sleeve light sweater and a pair of heeled black dress shoes with an open heel that clink when I walk, with a pair of black trouser socks. (I wonder if many people in this generation even know what trouser socks are!?!).

I just got up and cleared my head for a second (I had to take a potty break). I realize that there really was no point to my previous tirade. A lot of school work, and life in general has me desperately seeking times of absent-mindedness for relief. Now I am "Off to read Beowulf, the wonderful Beowulf of old." (pardon my lose paraphrase, see previous sentence for understanding).

Later all!!!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Watch the pretty birdie...

Kinda strange title, but I couldn't think of anything informative, intriguing, or interesting, so I went for the first thing that popped into my head.

I will be talking today about life, and it may seem that I am complaining, this is not the case. I just want to get some things off my chest and vent for a bit, but remember, It's All Good; Beautiful day, Great to be alive; Thank God I'm Alive!!!

I don't think that there has ever been a time in my life that I have been so busy, and seemed so overwhelmed with all the things that I have to do. School is really reading heavy this semester, in fact, I bought 26 books for my four classes. 26!!! Now I like reading, but this is a bit much. I am still working at the Women's Center on Friday's, and Babysitting Tyler on Friday mornings. Teaching Sunday School. Taking Jess to soccer practice on Wednesday evening, then Praise practice, then Faith Weavers. Soccer games on Saturday mornings. The wonderful Worship Taskforce that meets every two weeks on Wednesday evenings, in which I get the pleasure of reading another book!!! I started BSF last week, which is two hours on Tuesday morning... but I realized that I am too busy, and with a lot of prayer, decided to not do BSF for lack of time. On top of all this, I still have to be a mom, packing lunches, making breakfast and dinner, and try to keep my house from reaching the toxic waste dump status.

Honestly, I don't know how people do it all. It really does make me appreciate the 40 min drive to class four days a week. At least I get some time to myself, where I only have to worry about driving, don't have to deal with Jess, and can tune out the world blasting my WAYFM. Thankfully, I have realized the importance of quite time with God, though they are few and far between.

Last Friday, I was helping Jen go through 20 years of collected possessions (for lack of a more polite word than junk or crap), and was exhausted. It was getting dark. Jen was in the house putting Tyler to bed, Jess was in the pole barn with Jen's folks; no one except me was outside. So I sat on the ground. I just sat there looking at the clouds. The wind was blowing cooly, and the clouds were moving rather quickly across the sky, the trees were rustling and it was very peaceful. I couldn't help but slow down, and just not think about anything except God. This time only lasted for maybe ten minutes or so, but it was enough to renew myself and to calm down and appreciate life.

My prayer is that I can have more of these short breather moments more often.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

It's been a while...

I realize today that it has been a while since I have pondered mindlessly and talked about it. Well, unfortunately, today will not be a mindless pondering.

Doing my devotional this morning, made me think about things. Well, of course I think about things when I read God's Word, but it was really thought provoking this morning. It was entitled "God's Viewpoint."

"From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth."
Acts 17:26

The jist of the article was about a guy who saw a bumper sticker that read "God bless the rest of the world, too." He talked about how you see tons of stickers, and hear almost everyone saying "God bless America." The point was that "God is not the God of one nation or denomination, and Christ came for everyone who believes." It is easy to get caught up in the need for God's love in our own country, because we definitely do. But America is not the only country in the world. God created all people, and He has a "world perspective."
With Deanna and Jamie and Taylor in Africa, where the standard of living is much lower, and the problems are more serious than what outfit I am going to wear to school today, it is enlightening. We, and definitely me included, need to break out of our Ameri-centric mindset, and see that God's love is more than sufficient for the whole world, not just America, and that we need to show that.
I almost wonder if this is not one of the world's lies that we have bought in to. We do need to show God's love right where we are at, but that doesn't mean we need to stop there. It almost is like denying that God is that awesome that He can handle it all. America is not better than the rest, nor do we have a monopoly on God. If anything, we underestimate Him, and take Him for granted. He is not simply the God of White Protestant Conservative Americans, but of the North Koreans working on Nuclear technology, on the members and victims of the Taliban and Al-quiada, of those in the path of Hurricane Franklin, of the Pygmies, and even of all the murderers, thieves, and every other sinner in the world.
I pray that my eyes will be open to see that, and not only pray that God would bless America, but the entire world.
And I thank God that I will never know everything there is to know about Him, but that everyday is a chance to rediscover who He is.