A. For once (for ONCE) I remembered to plan to get good sleep the night before because it means better waking up on the day of. It's so simple but I forgot every other time. I somehow thought of the Day as a day off and it's pretty normal for me to stay up late before a day off because I either "don't have to get up" or "don't have to be anywhere". It can make sense. Rest is good. But, a Day Alone With God, that's something important and something worth being fully rested and fully awake for.
So, off to a good start. (81)
B. Then (after I sucker-punched a few time-sensitive things off my to-do list -- which felt great) there was the daily Advent reading which me re-appreciate God's power.
C. Next I went down the street for two errands and though there are other points today in which I need to leave the house, I slotted this trip in where I did so I could break up the periods of sitting still. Yes, also for the first time with all these DAWGs (but really for many things) I recognized that I need to work hard to balance my natural (and very strong) propensity toward sedentary activity.
Anyone who knows me fairly well, if they've thought of it, would know that I like sitting still or being still. I like reading and thinking and having coffee dates with people. I like planning, brainstorming, contemplating (yes, it's different from brainstorming and thinking), writing, communicating remotely (email, letters, cards, textaging), watching television and films, and a billion other similar things, I'm sure. I really like being in one place. I don't know how to describe it. That doesn't mean haha that I don't like moving although that would be an interesting propensity to have.
Dictionary says, under the third definition for sedentary,
Chiefly Zoology
a. abiding in one place; not migratory.
b. pertaining to animals that move about little or are permanently attached to something, as a barnacle.
"sedentary." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 14 Dec. 2010.
That sounds terrible. This doesn't mean I'm lazy, cowardly or a hermit. I could be all those things but not for this reason. It's just what I'm given to. Yesterday I realized, after having been at a hang-out/bake-a-thon for nine hours that I really DO like that kind of thing. I could stay still or "be here" for a long, long time. And I shouldn't. Not forever and not when it means I'm avoiding something else or being lazy.
I still do get restless, being still for an extended period and I have come up against this during pretty much every DAWG up til this point. I get mildly annoyed, my brain saying to itself, "I thought you liked this kind of stuff! Now you want to stop and ruin the flow?? I can't win with you."
I am glad for that restless mechanism that prompts me to change tasks or "get up and do _____" and so if I break my still-sitting into chunks with good errands in between then we're all winners!
D. Upon my return I read the second chapter of "SORTED: steps for getting your christian life the right way up" and found many good truisms in it.
I also did that I John 1:9 activity for the first time since...maybe my second year. I have never liked the cheesiness of it. I don't want an emotional experience, not necessarily. But..I did it because I thought I needed to give it a second chance.
I enjoyed watching the paper burn and I think it was very important for me to at least search my heart and make not "a list of sins" but "things that are getting in the way of [my] fellowship with God." I did not enjoy the colored smoke...I think it was the ink.. I think I maybe shouldn't have allowed myself to breathe it in.
a gem:
"I read the passage and felt understood. I felt like God had caught up with me in a way that was at once both embarrassing and liberating" (27).
Without reading on to hear him unpack the statement I stopped and had an aside of "YES! I totally get that!" I love it when authors take the words out of my brain. I can't think of any recent times/passages where I've experienced this but I know it has happened and I know it's often with a passage I've heard or read many, many times. Then when it comes alive at you, you feel embarrassed and liberated! I guess it's the "how could I not see this?"/"how was I so off?" and relief that comes with understanding + the freedom to go forward. Fantasigreat.
E. The fifth segment was listening to a sermon online.
It kicked my butt.
[I'm amazed at how well these sermons are speaking into my life. Amazed by how I threw some sermon titles down on my calendar last week, thinking only of good scheduling, and the last three have been bang, bang, bang exactly what I needed to hear when I needed to hear it. Sigh. Other ones were largely encouraging, enlightening, challenging but this last one was really a kick in the teeth.]
F. Next was a small bout of Christmas shopping which was actually quite fun and a continuation of the hunt for lip balm. (This winter wind is merciless.) I enjoyed the part where I had to shell out more money than I wanted to to get the only non-flavored/non-stupid balm I've been able to find in the past two weeks and when I looked at my receipt upon returning home I saw it was on sale for 40% less than it was marked as! Like when that happens. I also found a five-dollar bill on the street on the way home...which was particularly happy-fying after I had convinced myself NOT to eat dinner out and NOT to sit in Starbucks for QT this evening because I would regret dropping that kind of cash by tomorrow (or at least by Friday).
G. QT (I mean studying Scrip and journalling) at home. Had to look in three places before I found something that wasn't frustrating (this doesn't happen all the time) and finally settled in Proverbs 2. It (surprize, surprize) piggybacked on the aforementioned sermon & rebuke which gave me structure and space to work out my response. It was very good. I felt some kind of "closure" that I wasn't expecting.
g. This wasn't planned but it fit well and seems to be a bonus gift! I was INCREDIBLY relaxed and jovial for the 40 minutes I watched a third of "The Daily Show" and a full ep of "The Colbert Report". I am not normally like that because I am multitasking when I'm doing anything, esp passive-ish activities like watching tele. But I just sat and watched and enjoyed and I felt God blessed me through it. (I don't know how that's possible or why but I'm not complaining.) (82)
Ricky Gervais was Jon Stewart's guest and they really have found kindred spirits in one another. It was fantastic to watch. I laughed out loud a lot, I was thrilled by their matching intellect and I gained respect for both of them. I would now go out of my way to watch or read something they've produced. It's true. I'm interested.
H. This should be now, working on another devo (the one I did this morning was actually for Monday) but I am tired and it is after midnight. I maybe will do it tomorrow or maybe will do it tonight before I slumber.
Good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment