Friday, June 25, 2010

What I learned on my summer vacation....

In true fifth grade style, I am writing my "what I did on my summer vacation" essay. And in true fifth grade style, my desire is to simply say, "lots!"

We had a beautiful family adventure across country. First the 1100 mile trek from Arkansas to Maryland for my husband's stepbrother's wedding, and then to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a relaxing week of sand and surf and then the 1300 mile trip back....wooh, that's a lot of driving!

Ever the dutiful writer, I brought my new prayer journal for all the epiphanies God would show me in my quiet time at sunrise on the beach, and my big 5 subject notebook for all the essays I would write from the great life lessons I learned, and my computer for all the blog posts I would write about my adventures, and even a couple of steno pads for the times when I just felt like jotting brilliant ideas down. I headed out on our adventure, eyes wide open, pen in hand, eagerly awaiting a blog-worthy moment like paparazzi waiting for the latest starlet to hop out of her car with a too-short mini skirt. AND, well, guys...I got nuthin'.  

Oh, I tried...I tried hard to write. I got up at sunrise and sat in the quiet light of the sun and the whoosh whoosh of the waves...I hauled paper pads with us everywhere lest I be caught unaware by the writing bug....but nothing.  Words wouldn't flow from my pen.  My mind was blank....Even God was remarkably quiet about writing.  And, frankly, I was a little more than disappointed by that.

And then, one day, after forcing words into a what I called a "poem" just to say I had written SOMETHING, I, in a fit of petulance, I cried  out to God, "What is going on!?"

"Don't write, Cari. ENGAGE! Play! Relax! There is no lesson here except be present with your family and have some fun. Put away your notebook.  The words will come when the time is right."

And then I realized that I was viewing my life through spectator's eyes. I was constantly seeking an opportunity to turn life into an object lesson because that's what I love to do...to turn the everyday life story into an universal lesson on life, but I had begun to view my entire life that way and I had stopped ENGAGING the people I love. 

How great is God to gently shove me back in the game by silencing my words, knowing that I desperately needed that time of connection with my husband and kids and that I would not choose it for myself because I didn't realize that I had forgotten how. That is what he is teaching me now...through stories like this:

A Zen monk, being chased by a bear runs off a cliff. As he is falling, he grabs a branch. He looks up and sees the bear leaning over the cliff, clawing at his head and missing only by inches. As the monk looks down to the ground, about fifteen feet below him, he sees a lion leaping up, missing his feet only by inches. As he looks at the branch he is clutching, he sees two groundhogs gnawing away at it. He watches as his lifeline disappears, bite by bite. As the monk takes a long, deep breath, he notices, next to his branch, a clump of wild strawberries. In the middle of the clump is a great, red, juicy strawberry. With his one free hand, the Zen monk reaches over, picks the strawberry, puts it in his mouth, chews it slowly and says, "Ah ... delicious."


So, I learned to eat strawberries again. 


I am learning to be intentional again. To be present in the moment and take joy in it. To participate in it. It is a beautiful time of renewal for me. So if the posts seem sparse over here, please know that I am in the midst of a wonderful season of growth, and bear with me. I will return with stories soon enough.


In the meantime, what has God been teaching you lately?

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Guest Post - Worrying too much about trends - Jon Acuff

www.stuffchristianslike.net/book/
I am so excited to feature one of my favorite bloggers as a guest, Jon Acuff from Stuff Christians Like. Jon uses satire to pull back the veil on the things we do and say as Christians and take a hilarious look at them.  On Wednesdays, Jon breaks a down a bit and gets really reflective. He calls these posts "Serious Wednesday" posts. This Wednesday was all about community, relationship and loneliness.  I hope you enjoy!
Even though I’m not wearing 45 belt loops Z-Cavaricci’s I got at Chess King and ladies have far less perms, our neighborhood pool is very similar to my high school cafeteria.
On one end you have the cool table, populated by neighbors who have lived in our subdivision the longest. They drink beer, get tougher than leather tan (Run DMC reference) and feel compelled to play Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive,” approximately 37 times.
On the other end you have a grab bag of dorks, which includes me. This is the end where the guy who swims in a speedo is. This is the end where the first time parents are, a curious couple who have used SPF1000 on their child, creating what appears to be a miniature stay puff marshmallow man from the movie Ghostbusters. Just a floaty wearing, encased in thick white sunscreen monster terrorizing the pool in a swim diaper.
And make no mistake. I am a dork. I had approximately 2 friends in high school, got rejected from every fraternity in college and once shaved a Vanilla Ice stripe in my left eyebrow. That’s right, I emulated Vanilla Ice.
I’m just not a trendy person, but despite that, people often ask me, “What’s next? What are the trends that will matter in the next five years?” That’s a good question and I think I have the answer. I think I have an idea that is not only going to change our next 5 years, but probably our next 500, that’s if Burger King serving ribs was not a sign of the impending apocalypse and we actually do make it another 500.
But the thing is, I’m not the one who actually decided this idea was important. I didn’t brain storm or create it, God did. And it kind of punched me in the face when I saw it the other day in Genesis.
In chapter 2, he starts getting down to business and dealing with some serious issues. The first one he addresses is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is death involved and it makes sense that he would so quickly address that situation. But what is the second issue he focuses on? In God’s economy, what is the next big topic he covers as critically important?
Loneliness.
Immediately following a statement about death, God says in Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for man to be alone.”
I knew it was important, I knew that loneliness was a painful thing that hurts lots of people but I honestly didn’t see how big it was until God so quickly dealt with it in Genesis.
When people ask me what trends matter with Twitter or Social Media or the Internet, I often tell them, “The same things that have always mattered.” You see Twitter and Facebook are just mediums. The message, the core issues that really shape people are the same things that we’ve always dealt with. Loneliness, joy, incompleteness, sadness, hope. Twitter is just a vehicle, things like loneliness are what matters.
Why?
Right now, we have thousands of friends who know the Facebook version of us.
Right now, we can distract you from what we want to hide with mountains of tweets and status updates and rivers of words.
Right now we have more tools than ever before to be someone we’re really not.
Right now, we are connected to more people and known by less.
If you want to change your neighborhood or your church or your whole community, don’t worry about trends. Focus on truths. Focus on the things God cares about, the things he’s always cared about from the very second chapter of the Bible.
And if you’re lonely, if you’ve created social media scaffolding that presents one view to the world in the hope that you can hide what’s really inside, please know this – God loves you.
God cares for the lonely. His heart beats loud and true and open to the lonely. God has always cared for the lonely. And all trends aside, the truth is, he always will.