Final blog from me....

No I'm not dying, and no I'm not planning on it anytime soon. I am, however, going to cease writing on this blog...

It's been a real good time, for the last year and a bit writing thoughts, funny stories, sad stories, current events, basically having the freedom to write whatever you want in whatever style or format you want (I would have quit this blog thing the first day if these posts had to be done in Turabian format).

I have been reading this book by Richard Foster called "Freedom of Simplicity" and I have been challenged, overwhelmingly at times, by the reminder in it to be simple people. Not simplistic, but simple.

The other day I was reading it, and Foster was talking about how to practice simplicity, inwardly. This means not so much the stripping away of your material possessions or things that busy your schedule.... not yet at least. Simplicity starts inwardly, it starts with your soul, your center, whatever you want to call it, entering (or sometimes being barged in by) the presence of God.

Once there, I think some of the outward things, some things like your clothes, food, all your possessions, the things that Jesus warns about not putting first in our lives.... Those things start to loose their grip on our us.

Richard Foster challenges his readers to categorize (this can be hard) the things done in your day into four sections;

1. Absolutely essential
2. Important but not essential
3. Helpful but not necessary
4. Trivial

My mind was flooded with all the things that I do in a day.... Eating breakfast at the sals-essential....reading my emails-important but not essential.......reading a little each day-absolutely essential........watching CSI for more than 3 hours in one day-seems important, but really trivial

My fall is looking more busy than it has ever been. I am feeling a little bit like my good friend who prays not that God would fulfill his life's dreams, but that God would help him make it through this day alive.

Blogging is a little bit twofold for me. It's like Richard Fosters number three above (Helpful but not necessary), and this is how I break it down.

For me to post a blog is not really necessary. I realized I get excited about writing just as much if I write in my private journal. I realized I blog mainly because I just really want people to like me. I want people to think I'm smart, that I'm funny, that I actually have something important to say. It's one of my ways of making sure I get people's vote to stay on the lifeboat (if you're not sure what I'm talking about there, refer to Donald Miller's "Searching for God knows what" - lifeboat theory)....

I realized that people don't need to hear what I say. It is not essential. They do, however, need to hear what God says, essential.... I need to hear what God says. I know that many folks will say, "God speaks through his people," to which I would say, "God speaks through the bible," to which I (and I would gander to say many others) don't look into near enough.... and I would even go as far to say that God speaks mainly through people who are in the Word, not those who don't read it.

So for me, posting a blog is actually not that important.

Reading other people's blogs, on the other hand, is kind of helpful. I enjoy gaining insights beyond the scope of Cody Anderson. I enjoy reading and being interested in others' lives. God loves them just as much as he does me, so why wouldn't I be just as interested in their writings, their lives, as I am in seeing how many people commented on my "brilliant" post.

I found it interesting that this is my 121st post, which immediately reminded me of Psalm 121, where is says "I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from you the maker of heaven and of earth." My hope this fall, is to be a little more simple. For me, not worrying about keeping up my blog is a simple, good step in my journey. My hope is that the time I would spend blogging, would be used to start reading more of a book that is absolutely essential to my vitality as a follower of Jesus Christ.

I'm not trying to over-spiritualize blogging here, I'm just cutting something out of my life, and that's o.k.

So long and farewell blog world.

Almost done

Summer is nearly over, and I think I am ready for it. It's not like I have a thing against nice weather or anything ridiculous like that, I just have a thing against running around frantically from place to place (so it seems) over a few months.

I've felt like Dana and I have had such a full summer. It's been good, it's just been really full. I guess part of what wears people down about that is all the travelling involved in going different places; a wedding here, a visit there, a drive over there, a camping trip somewhere.

Fall always is like a fresh start to me. It sometimes feels more like a New Year than January 1st does. It's back to routine, back to school for some, back to the daily work grind for others. That's an o.k. thing though.

Routine and random vacationing can balance each other out. When one gets a little bit too much, incorporate the other.

Fall will be good, but I'm sure before long we'll need some spontaneous random vacation or something of the sort to bring us back to the center.

MD

So for the last few days I've been having slight dizziness, and I have not really been sure why. It started when I was doing some simple tasks, but was moving in a lot of directions as if I were on some ride. I immediately felt like you do after you get off of a merry-go-round, and had to stop what I was doing. But the dizziness kept on for three days.

I don't know about you, but when something is wrong and you don't know what it is, you always expect the worst. I found myself on webMD (which is kind of entertaining to browse through) which asks your symptoms and gives you possible diagnosis's (can that word be pluralized..is "pluralized" a word?).

Anyway, on this website if you type in your symptom as "dizziness" it gives you like 300 different things that could (key word) be wrong with you. Everything from the common cold to glaucoma to panic attacks to anemia to....well you name it.

I figured I'd better go to a walk in clinic to see which one of these I actually had.......

Turns out I really don't know what I have, or the doctor doesn't know what I have, but "take 1 gravol per day until the dizziness goes away."

I'm glad I'm free of glaucoma.

Funny how we can blow things wayyyyyy out of proportion when we don't actually know the facts, isn't it?

Solitude

"We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship." -c.s. lewis

Perhaps true friendship is found in the simple act of being (maybe not such a simple act for us in today's age) and allowing another to truly know us.... In essence giving another an admission into our lives, costly as it may be, instead of giving them an edited version of what we think they want us to be.

Perhaps becoming vulnerable like this involves arranged time to be with God, no agenda included. Doing this is in and of itself a step forward on our part, and I think that God does meet us there.... continuing redemptive work in us.

Perhaps a world that is full of disruption, distrust, dissension, death....perhaps this world would do well to "Be still and know that I am God." We would do well to remember that God will reign victorious, His ways will prevail, the God of Israel is our fortress, even in today's world.

Small Group

There once was a time when I did not care to be a part of a small group. I'm not really sure why that was either. I am not an overly shy person, I don't mind sharing my thoughts or feelings with another person (or persons) and I can shoot the breeze with strangers pretty easily. Why was being part of a small group not important to me?

Perhaps I was just plain ignorant. They say that you don't know what you've got until it's gone, but in my case I didn't know the worth of something because I never had it in the first place. I didn't put myself in a place that would even give it a shot.

Eventually I did give a small group a shot, and that was all it was. I didn't make it a priority, other things would easily crowd my schedule and our little weekly meeting to discuss the bible was the first thing out the door. I moved from group to group, never really lasting all that long. Why, even though I now tried the small group thing, did I still not care for it?

Why was it so easy to push it right out of my schedule, find that trap door out of it, you know.

I'm pleased to say that I am part of a small group right now, in fact we just met this evening, and I don't see myself bailing on this any time soon. I'm not sure what changed, perhaps it is the people, perhaps the discussion, or something else.....

What I think is going on, though, is that my soul is being awakened to the importance of encouragement in a world that at times seems so incredibly discouraging. I was telling the group tonight how I have felt an incredible weight upon me this week, that weight being the tragedies that have taken place over the last 10 days. Its seems like everyday someone is dying a horrible, unthinkable, death. My soul was being crushed.

To be able to have a place to share intimately the stuff that really matters in life, to have a place to discuss the Word of life, to have a place to pray....I am incredibly thankful this day.

God is good to me, he is good to us.

If by some chance there is someone that has read this to this point, and by chance you are a person who is interested in a small group (or completely disinterested in one) I encourage you, I charge you to join one. Talk to someone who can hook you up with a group. You will not regret it. Give it a better chance than I did sometime ago, make it a necessity in your schedule, value it.

God dwells among His people.

Trip to Two Harbors....

We had a great time visiting with Matt, Jahna, and lil' Aurora over the long weekend.... My hilight was definately getting the chance to go sailing on Lake Superior, I'm pretty sure I want to be a pirate when I grow up....check out some of these pictures.