Sunday People

I am part of a team of people that helped to put services together each week for our church. For the majority of America the work week ends on Friday, but for my team the week ends at about noon on Sunday, right after the service. One member of the team often says she wishes that she could be one of the "Sunday People". Those are the people who have casual Sunday mornings. You might see them at the local coffee shop leisurely sipping coffee and reading the paper, out for a jog, maybe walking the dog. It appears they have nothing to do and plenty of time to do it in.

Those of us who work for the church (at least in the capacity we do) are having one the busiest times of the week in those same few hours. We are putting all the pieces in place that help the worship service to happen. The more I think about it, I realize I am too a Sunday person, and maybe even more so than the joggers and dog-walkers. I am all about what happens on Sunday or I wouldn't do what I do. So what does happen on Sunday in my world?

I go meet with a group of people who come together to corporately worship and learn more about their God and how to live to honor Him. I often play a role there as band member, singer, worship leader, encouraging volunteers, giving the welcome or announcements and various other things. It makes my morning busy, but I feel God has chosen this path for me and placed me where I am. It is a privilege, an honor to walk along side God's people there.

Sometime later on the Sunday afternoon I take a nap. I seriously consider this my Sabbath Rest. It helps me to have energy for the rest of my week. The rest of the day is given to things such as family or our small group, playing the piano or being creative. This particular Sunday we spent the evening with our small group over dinner, getting to know them better and finding out what is going on in their lives. They are a great bunch of people!

Sunday is a very good day! I am all about Sunday. I am a Sunday person. (Come to think of it, I believe I was born on a Sunday.)

It's Quotable.....

Much thought has at its root a dissatisfaction with what is. Wanting is the urge for the next moment to contain what this moment does not. When there's wanting in the mind, that moment feels incomplete. Wanting is seeking elsewhere. Completeness is being right here.
--Stephen Levine

And So I Write

This blog doesn't get much attention these days. My life is very full of activity. Most of it is good, but navigating all of it is difficult. I make parameters concerning what I will do and how I will choose to spend my time and yet those boundaries always get pushed against. Let's be honest here, I probably still have way too much on my list. Busyness helps me accomplish more. One could laugh at the obviousness of that statement, but for me there is a deeper meaning. I organize my time better when I am on the busy side. If I have tons of space in my days I can let the time slip by unaccounted for.

Don't get me wrong, I value quiet and space and I also make sure (most of the time) that I have built that into the schedule, too. The stress level decreases if I allow for some calm places, even if they are scheduled.

I was somewhat sidetracked about why I haven't been writing as much, but let's return to the blog, which was my intent in writing today. I enjoy writing it and I took it up for the purpose of doing just that, writing. I believe the more we write the greater opportunity to become a better writer. The truth is I want to be a better songwriter, but all writing helps our writing. Somewhere along the line, I have hoped that beyond my practice and discipline that readers would enjoy the blog. I suppose my initial hope should be that there would actually be readers and that perhaps they would comment.

The reader (and sometimes, listener) help you to know if your words make sense or if they have any impact whatsoever. Music alone can move someone and touch the emotions, but add a powerful lyric and you can speak deep to the heart and soul. I'd love to make a difference with my words. It would be great to have readers and listeners, but something inside me compels me to write and so my writing continues regardless.

Who Wants to be a Winner?

Yesterday I was working in my garden. I couldn't help but overhear the children playing in the neighborhood. Three girls were riding their scooters up and down the street. It was friendly, little giggly-girls play, until the competition began. They started racing down the hill and around the cul-de-sac. Each time someone would shout out the rules and call the ready-set-go, they would take off! Occasionally one girl would take off and the other two wouldn't go. The one who was suppose to give the "Go!" would claim she didn't really say "Go!" she said some other word, like bologna. (Let's at least be creative. That doesn't even sound like "go".)

Eventually one girl stops riding, but is still heavy into competition in whole new way. She stands at the bottom of the gradually sloping hill and calls out the new orders. She gives direction to each rider. The racing continues, but the two riders have different paths to follow. In the end there is a loser and a winner. The loser is overwhelmed with the game, quits and sadly trudges home. It was an unfair race.

The one who gave the orders was the Queen of the Competition and she comes out the ultimate winner, or so she thinks. She was in control of the game! She had the power! I honestly could not identify a winner in this type of play. Everyone lost or at the very least came out a little more broken.

Why do we play like that? Childhood games, you say? A little healthy competition? I would contend that in all our sophisticated grown up ways we play the same kind of games. We want to win and we most certainly want the power. I am struggling to understand how it is healthy on any level.

I am not competitive by nature. When I partake in games for the most part I am just not that invested and don't care whether I win or lose. It is just a game, after all and doesn't affect the living out of the rest of my life, except perhaps to give me bragging rights, but who REALLY cares about that? If I am honest at the deepest level of my heart and soul, though, I want to "feel" like a winner. I want to have significance. There are probably games I play in my own mind at the very least about wanting to look like a winner. I am so very human, depraved at best. Oh, that I could live in light of these words. I am who I am because He has purposed it. No amount of game play will make me a winner.

"Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him." Luke 18:8

He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight." Luke 16:5

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." Romans 12:3

"Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." Romans 13:14

"If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself." Galations 6:3

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Phillipians 4:8

It's Quotable.....

"God has given us two incredible things: absolutely awesome ability and freedom of choice. The tragedy is that, for the most part, many of us have refused them both."--Frank Donnelly