Rest

In a previous blog post I gave several tips on how to "Live a Balanced Life."

As I have pondered this, I think the hardest for me is number 7 - giving myself permission to relax. I have a very hard time with this. Like most of society I am programmed that if I am not doing 'something' I am wasting time. Take now for instance, I have nothing that I have to do tonight. Yet here I am posting in my blog...I have an incessant need to feel productive.

Even if I am doing something that I am not sure many people will find useful. Something that is only useful to myself, I have to do it. I can only sit and do nothing for so long without feeling like I am being lazy. Which is something I need to work on.

I know the pitfalls of always being active and never having any down time. I understand why rest is important. But it is a hard to do.

The Jewish people have a concept of a Sabbath rest. This is basically taking one day in seven away from work, away from the chores of life and just resting. This is based upon the fact that God created all of creation in six days and on the seventh He "rested" from His labor (See Genesis 2:1-3).

I am beginning to believe that there is something in this. For the Jewish people there are many spiritual and physical benefits related to the Sabbath, but I am seriously beginning to see a benefit to this. Taking one day of the week, to basically hit the 'reset' button on life.

Farmers will even let their fields "rest" by not planting them for a season and letting them return to seed. This, depending on the crop, greatly improves the quality of the future crops.

So I will encourage you as I encourage myself. To find time to rest and relax. To allow yourself time to be unproductive. To not feel the need to fill every moment of everyday with a project, goal or work.

Community

As most of you know I sing in a semi-professional choir. I have been singing in choirs since I was in high school. One of the most interesting things about a choir, is that it is one of the only groups I am a part of where every member has to give 100%.

If just one person is slacking it can (and most often does) affect the whole choir. If one person if off by a quarter of a beat, they will come in early or hold the note too long and dramatically alter the performance. Every member has to be giving their best and not holding back.

Contrary to popular opinion it takes hard work, skill, dedication and a lot of time to produce a good choral performance.

I wonder what life would be like if in every situation I found myself I applied the same dedication and commitment I do in choir. How would that affect my relationships, my job, my church, my life? How would it affect those around me?

Just think if everyone everywhere gave 100% no matter what situation they were in. Even if it was a situation they did not particularly like or want to have to deal with...say a meeting at work or a struggling relationship.

What if I took the attitude I have in choir (if I'm not giving 100% it dramatically affects the whole) to the rest of my life? I would like to think that it would produce as positive results in life as it does in choir. But, I think that for it to work like that everyone everywhere would have to have a common goal and take the same approach.

Practically I'm not sure it could work in society as a whole because of so many diverse opinions about what a common goal should be. But the church is another story.

The church is a place where Christians come to proclaim the greatness of God, fellowship with other believers and reach out into their communities with the good news of the Gospel. The church has a common goal and a common purpose. What if everyone in the church gave 100% to the common goal instead of (as is often times the case) treating church as if were something that can be done half-heartedly.

I think if everyone in the church took the attitude I have in choir (if I'm not giving 100% it dramatically affects the whole) then we would see a dramatically different church. We would not see a fractured church filled with problems. We would see a church that, even when it had problems, would have people coming together in love to solve it, instead of pointing fingers.

We would see a church that positively affectes its communities for good and fulfills its God given purpose.

Down is Up

One of my favorite sci-fi books of all time is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's about children at a military academy on a space station training to be the next great military geniuses that defeat the attacking alien race. As part of their training they play a game in the battle room that can best be described as a game of laser tag in a zero gravity environment.

The object of the game is to get from your territory through the other team's territory and through their entrance to the battle room. One of the most important things that new recruits are taught is that once they enter the battle room "down is up". When looking into the room it appears that the enemy's gate is below you. But once you step into the zero gravity environment of the battle room what direction you are going becomes relative. You are no longer going 'down' to get to the enemy's entrance you are going 'up'.

I've had some changes in my life the past few weeks that have made me think of this whole idea of "down is up" again. My life took a couple of turns that I didn't expect and actually thought that they might be a negative. But the more I look at it and pray about it, the more I see these changes as a good thing.

So I started thinking about how God works in all the great men and women of the Bible.

Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely put into prison and then made second in command of all Egypt reporting only to Pharaoh.

Moses went from living in Pharaoh's court to herding sheep in the desert. Eventually becoming the leader that lead the Jewish people out of Egypt's slavery.

Ruth's husband died, she was living in a land stricken with famine. She returned to Israel with her mother-in-law and eventually found favor in Boaz's eyes. He married her, provided for her and her mother-in-law and because of this, Ruth, the Moabite woman, is in the lineage of Jesus.

Paul, who was once Saul, one of the greatest persecutor's of the church, became Paul the Apostle. As Paul he was beaten, shipped wrecked, thrown in prison and eventually killed for his faith. Yet this was the man who lead the evangelism of the Gentiles and wrote most of the New Testament.

These examples reminded me that God is not about doing things the way we expect Him to. Many times God does things completely opposite to what our plans would be. God does things to prepare us for the plan that He has for our lives. It may not always be easy, but the rewards are always worth it. And it helps to remember that with God sometimes "down is up".

The Balancing Act

I was asked to give a speech last night to the Washington County Rotaract club on "How to Balance Life, Work and Community Service." Interesting topic for me, I know, but I used myself as an example of what not to do. I came up with 7 tips to help live a balanced life and thought I would share them...feel free to feed back, I would find a discussion on my points interesting.

7 Tips for a Balanced Life

1. You are in charge of your own time

Many people try to pull you in different directions, but realize that it is up to you to go.

2. Learn to say “No”

It’s okay to say “no”

3. Set your priorities, there are 5 main focus areas in your life

Work/Career
Family/Social
Renewal (Physical, spiritual, emotional, leisure)
Community
Intellectual

4. Know your limits

Get to know yourself and what your capabilities are. Knowing your limits reinforces your ability to say no.

5. Know you cannot “do it all”

When you try to do it all, you generally fail at everything.

6. Health, Exercise and Sleep

Seems like a “no brainer” but often times when we lead an unbalanced life these three things take a back seat first and are generally in this order 1) Health - not eating properly; 2) Exercise - I can skip the gym “just this once”; 3) Sleep - I can stay up late and get this project done, the boss won’t mind if I’m a little groggy

7. Give yourself permission to relax

It is perfectly acceptable to have times in your life when you are not productive.

Growing Up

We all have moments in our lives when we realize we have grown up. But as I’m beginning to realize, we are never totally grown up. Even though I’m only 27 I have had several experiences in the past year that have reminded me I’m not a teenager (or a college goof-off) anymore.

I recently had one of those experiences. While the experience itself was important, for me the most important part was realizing that it was a moment in which I grew as an individual. A defining moment in my life that I will look back upon forever with joy and sorrow. Two very different emotions.

Joy because I’ve grown and maybe helped a couple people around me in the process grow. Joy because something I had been wondering for over 10 years if it would actually happen finally did.

Sorrow because things have changed; relationships that have been one way for a very long time will now be different. Sorrow because I liked the way things were and maybe did not want them to change.

Another emotion felt in the aftermath of the event is inquietude. Inquietude is a fancy word for an uneasiness of either of body or mind. I do not know how everything is going to play out. I may not know for years. I may never know the full extent of how it effects the other people involved.

I think I will be processing this event for the weeks and months to come. Anxiously looking forward to the ways it will change me. The thing that will keep me from ignoring it will be to remember that any opportunity for growth is a good one.

Through a Mirror Darkly

I have been wondering lately if we laugh enough.

A few weeks ago I was at a friend's house playing games and I had a lot of fun. I think we all did, because we laughed a lot. In fact I "laughed until I cried" several times. I left that night feeling refreshed in a way that I had not felt in a long time.

The next day I still felt refreshed. That feeling has since faded and I have once again been worn down by life. The experience prompted me to go back and re-read a section of Telling The Truth: The Gospel as Comedy, Tragedy and Fairy Tale. I have read this book at least 8 - 10 times over the last four years.

In it the author tells us that it is the truth of life that preachers must preach. He says that preachers must "address themselves to the fullness of who we are and the emptiness too, the emptiness where grace and peace belong but mostly are not, because terrible as well as wonderful things have happened to us all."

What brought me back to the book this time was his discussion on laughter. He says that laughter and tears both come from the same place. That "emptiness where grace and peace belong but mostly are not." Tears are the response to that emptiness and laughter is the antidote to it.

I think that both laughter and tears have the same effect: leaving us feeling drained and refreshed at the same time. They provide a release to the stress, the pain and hardship of life. Both are necessary and important.

Tears, in a way, allow us to admit that life is tragic. Laughter, in a way, allows us to escape from the tragic - if only for a moment.

Laughter gives us hope, in those moments when God seems the most absent, that God can at any moment break through and do the miraculous that only God can do. Just as He did with Abraham and Sarah when he told them that they would have a child in their old age. Just as He did with the disciples when they thought all was lost, Jesus rose from the dead.

Happy Fourth of July

I pray that as we pause to celebrate the birth of America you will find time to thank God for all the blessing in your life.