What really matters...

Have you ever played hide and seek with a 2 year old?  You know, when they hide in a corner because if they can't see you then clearly you can't see them.  Their brains have not yet developed the ability to understand that their reality is not the same as your reality.   When I was at Emmaus, this was one image that kept popping in my mind, because it is what I try to do with God.  And then this morning I read this (these quotes are from  Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life  by Emily P. Freeman) : I hide behind my smile and my laid-back personality.  I hide behind fine  and good .  I hide behind strong and responsible.  I hide behind busy and comfortable and working hard toward your expectations.  And if I do not meet your expectations, I hide behind indifferent.  And the reason behind this... My idea of who I should be is at war with who I am.  I want to be perfect in every situation. ...

There is so much I could say about this past weekend at Emmaus.  But most of it is summed up in this story that was used by one of the speakers... A Tandem Ride With God I used to think of God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there, sort of like a president. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I didn't really know Him. But later on, when I met Jesus, it seemed as though life was rather like a bike, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Jesus was in the back helping me pedal. I didn't know just when it was He suggested we change, but life has not been the same since I took the back-seat to Jesus, my Lord. He makes life exciting. When I had control, I thought I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable. It was the shortest distance between two points. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places...

Today was one of those days when I love my job.  This morning I met with a family just starting to get involved with our church and got to share about our ministries with them.  This afternoon I took the largest group we've ever taken to pick up trash on the highway and they did a great job. Then this evening, I got to hang out with some awesome teenagers at dinner, and then we played some amazing games - like 3-legged kick ball - that were also part of our Bible study lesson on how we are called to love God.  We played and laughed and learned together.  And to top it all off the weather was gorgeous, so we were able to enjoy that as we hung out.  And I found myself thinking - I am the luckiest person in the world - I get paid for this. And then we went inside to conclude our Bible study.  The focus of tonight's Bible study was on loving God, with a special emphasis on how we need to grow in our relationship to God, and how sometimes we need to simply r...

I know this is something I have posted about before, but it is something that I really feel on my heart, and I read this quote yesterday in Immerse: A Journal of Faith, Life, and Youth Minstry. "We must see people as people, not issues...  I do not feel the need to be the Holy Spirit and bring down judgment on those who have a different perspective than I do.  I am committed to conversations and relationships with those I don't agree with.  I want to be open to learn from others.  I seek first to understand.  We can be people who disagree on important issues without demonizing one another." ~ Mike King, executive editor  I love this.  There are a couple of things that stuck out to me.  First - "We must see people as people, not issues."  Jesus did this.  He saw the people behind the leprosy, the blindness, the prostitution, the adultery, the tax collecting.  But how often do we write people off because they disagree with us on...

So I know that a lot of my more recent posts have focused on my running and my faith coinciding.  I think part of it is that there is time to think when I am running (I have to do something  to distract myself from the fact that I'm running!), and part of it is that there are so many comparisons to be made.  Maybe that's why Paul used that example so much. At any rate, here are 2 lessons that I have learned this week... 1.  Just do it: Monday I really  didn't want to run, but I hadn't run all weekend, and I knew I needed to get a decent run in.  So I decided to do 6 miles.  But deciding it and doing it are 2 different battles.  I decide to run all the time - and change my mind, or decide to do it later instead.  But Monday, I was not going to let myself get away with that.  So I finally made it to the treadmill, and the first 2.5 miles were not fun.  I felt tight and not good, I kept changing my mind about how far I was going t...

After last weekend's winter storm in the northeast, I saw this video... and honestly, I felt this describes my life so far in 2013.  It feels like there has been so much going on and there is no way I can stay on top of everything that needs done.  For me, that means that those things that are low priority (read: can get put off), simply don't happen, and they all pile up.  This coming weekend is my first Saturday off of the year, and I am only getting it off because an event was canceled. Retreat is over.  Sub sale is complete.  Youth Sunday was a success. When youth group was over Sunday night, I felt like I could breathe for the first time this year.  So as you have to do after a big snow storm, I started digging out.  Yesterday I was able to finally  clean my bathroom and bedroom, and today I started on my office.  It is my hope that I can dig out enough to catch up, and maybe even get a little bit ahead before I go out of town for...

I made it!  I had the pit stop for my illness, and then had trouble getting motivated again, but I have finally made it successfully 80 miles.  The journey started on December 4, so it took me 33 days.  Which really when I think about it, is still impressive.  I ran 80 miles in 33 days.  And I made it to Bethlehem before Epiphany, which was my new goal after not being able to make it by Christmas. A few final thoughts about my journey to Bethlehem.  Tonight I debated about how far to run.  I only had 6 miles to go thanks to 2 other post-sickness runs I had done, so I thought about running 3 miles today and then finishing the other 3.  Or I thought about doing 4 since that was my standard for most of December and then I would just have 2 to go.  Then I thought, but I could do 5 and be closer.  But if I did 5, what's 1 more just to finish?  And I realized I wanted to get there. At one point I was singing to myself O little town...