Living smart phones

We are living smart phones... if you think about it.
Our brains are full of information, we glean and retain information each day as we learn and then we log that information on our "sim card". Like cell phones, we also need to be, charged... physically, mentally and spiritually. We rest our bodies when we sleep, we rest our minds when we sleep and when we take some time to walk away from the worries of our lives. We recharge spiritually when we go to church, read our Bibles and pray.
So if we are living smart phones, the charger would naturally be Christ. In order for us to recharge spiritually, we need to plug in at a church, we need to plug in and read our Bible and we need to plug in to God's will.
When we are connected, we find ourselves renewed, refreshed and revitalized.
The other night when I woke up, I noticed my phones screen was dark... and my phone usually remains lit when it's attached to the charger. Long story short, it wasn't charging due to a bad cord. I found another usb cord and attached it to my phone... and presto, it started charging.
This got me thinking... unconfessed sin, living life our way, doing things we ought not do... all these things can cause a faulty connection. For example, when you have a faulty connector on a cell phone charger, you get spotty, if any charge at all... which can be frustrating.
When we confess our sins and live according to God's will, we find that our connection is strong and we are being recharged and revitalized.
We are told to Pray without ceasing I Thessalonians 5:17; what better way to connect with God, than direct communication. When we read our Bible, we connect and recharge.... Psalm 105:109 reads: Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path; If we are in the word, we are allowing God to speak through His word to us. And finally we are revitalized when we fellowship with others: For where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am among them. Matthew 18:20. Fellowship with others, challenges us, encourages us and keeps us accountable to the life that we live.
When we are plugged in, we find our hearts, minds and spirits renewed in the promises of His word. We are revitalized to serve and refreshed by the power of His love.

“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!“ Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— “Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

When words fail...

music can speak for us... this song has been on my heart for the last few days.



If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-7, The Message)

A quick thought on jobs...

We all have to work... whether it's a corporate job, a stay at home mom, a retail gig... whatever.
These past few weeks, I have had an eye opening experience regarding work... I love my job. I love everything about it.... the people I work with, the customers... the fact that I get to help people look their best... I love it... the fact that it's fashion related is a bonus.

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Colossians 3:23

The great thing about this job; there are some really great Christian girls... their attitudes, their work ethic, their love of fashion... it makes for a wonderful work environment.
Work willingly at whatever you do... If you're like me, you've had a lot of jobs that you've disliked... I've been an admin, I've been a receptionist... and there are jobs I've loved and jobs I've very much disliked... some of them, it's been hard to do my work as unto the Lord... my attitude was rough... and I was trying to please everyone around me... schmooze, kiss up... most of the time it didn't work.
Now that I am happy and enjoying my job, I work and I love it.
Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

King Sisyphus and the boulder

In the myth, Sisyphus shares one of Zeus' secrets with the river god... Zeus is angered and sends Hades to chain him up and take him to the underworld. Sisyphus tricks Hades by asking him how the chains work. Hades obliges him and ends up chained himself. But because of this, people were not dying... the gods threatened to make Sisyphus' life so miserable, until he had no choice but to let Hades go.
When it came his time to die, Sisyphus begged his wife to throw him in the square after his death... which she did. When he came to the river Styx, he complained to Persephone that his wife had not buried him corrected. She allowed him to go back to Corinth and chastise his wife, however, he refused to return to the underworld and had to be dragged back by Hermes... because of this trickery, Zeus punished him by making him push a boulder up a hill for all eternity.
Albert Einstein defines insanity as:

doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

How many times have we struggled and struggled to make everything go according to out plans, only to have them topple around us... We're like Sisyphus and the boulder... struggling to push it to the top of the hill, only to have it crash back down to the bottom.
It's like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole... you can push and try to force that peg through the hole, or you can find the correct hole that the peg fits into. Instead of rushing ahead, sometimes we need to be patient and bide our time... God knows what he's doing. If we try and run ahead, we may miss some amazing blessing and instead end up hurt and discouraged. But if we wait on God, follow after his plan for our lives and are patient... we will find that his blessings surround us and are far too numerous to count.
Instead of rushing into a position for a raise, ask God for clarity... I know that is what I should have done. I rushed into a position and not even three months later found myself on the job hunt again. It wasn't that I was horrible at the job, it was simply not the job for me. My personality can only abide silly people and their nonsense for so long... and, believe me, my patience was being tested every day that I went to work. But I found myself, like Sisyphus... pushing a boulder up a hill and fighting a losing battle. I felt like I was stuck in a time loop... my attitude was getting worse, bad habits were forming and I was out of touch with God.
Saturday, I found that I was able to breathe. My stomach wasn't in knots anymore... I quickly returned to my writing, reading the Bible and enjoying my quiet time in the morning instead of grudging taking five minutes to quickly read a verse and then go to bed. Prayer was slowly returning and I felt like I was changing back into who I wanted to be.
If you've ever seen the movie Groundhog Day, this might help... Bill Murray plays Phil, a egotistical meteorologist that gets stuck in a time loop on Groundhog Day. After he repeats February 2nd, several times, he finally talks with someone he's met. She suggests that he reevaluate his life... make some changes, and become a better person... when he starts to really want to change, the cycle is broken.
When I first saw this movie, I hated it... it annoyed me... probably because I didn't get the underlying message of the movie... after doing so reevaluation of my own life, I get it... even though you aren't stuck in a time loop, you can get stuck in a routine of ego, bad attitude and self centered-ness that can lead to falling into the same pattern over and over and over.
Romans 12:12 tells us to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.... when you feel like you're stuck, don't just stick it out, pray... really seek God's will for your life... you might be surprised what find.

Have a Happy and Safe Fourth of July everyone!!!!

Photo credit: "Fireworks" by: bayasaa, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license