Time is tickin' away!

Do you ever find yourself in the midst of a mountain of projects wondering how on earth you will ever get them all done?  I must be honest, I've not felt this way in quite a while, but things seem to have compounded all at once lately.  Just the fact that was able to wash 3 loads of clothes the other day seems like a huge feat! Sad...I know :)

So, what does the craziness of my life look like?

Work:  Our company is in the middle of merging with another company and I am in the IT dept so to say that we have our work cut out for us is an understatement.

Side work:  I have recently begun sub-contracting social media/website maintenance for a friend's business customers.  I am so happy to be getting paid to play on social media!

PTO:  Due to new PTO policies at my company I can only carry over 40 hours as of 6/30 (which means anything over 40 will be forfeited).  To ensure I do not lose any time I must take 4 more days before 6/30.

Work travel:  I have 2 travel items on my agenda so far - 1 is a software training class in NC and 2 is a software user conference in Denver, CO.  I am very excited to visit Denver for the first time :)

Graduation visit:  My niece is graduating on 6/9 and I still have not settled on the perfect gift yet.

Cleaning:  Seriously...does house work ever end???  At some point in my life, I will make enough money to have a house keeper at least twice a month.  Mark My Words!

Writing a book:  Oh yes!  I've been working on my book idea for about 5 weeks now, but with all of the other things that have recently been dropped into my world I'm having a bit of difficulty in carving out enough time to work on it.  I hope this weekend will bring me some free time to really focus on the book.

I take comfort in Ecclesiastes 3; it reminds me that even though I may feel like there simply are not enough hours in the day, God says that everything has a time and a season.  Some seasons are busy and full of activity and others are quiet and still.  I know His grace is sufficient for every single thing He has for me :)

A Time for Everything

1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

² a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³ a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶ a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸ a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

On a nostalgic note, as soon as I typed the title of this post I was immediately reminded of the old DC Talk song "Time Is"...and of course, that made me smile!  Please enjoy this trip down memory lane to a tune of my youth!

Living on Borrowed Time

Many songs and speaches have been written about this subject, most of them in reflection of someone who has been lost.  I was watching a movie recently where a boy had fallen into a freezing lake and had gotten trapped within some tree branches and died.  When the boys mother came to the hospital and was told of her son's death, you could see her entire world being pulled from beneath her, she cried, yelled and could barely breath.  At that very moment I had a realization...

What if we lived each day like everyone and everything around us was just borrowed for a short time?  What if we allowed only God to fill the deepest of voids in our lives so that everything else that came into our lives after that would be just a gift?  What if we removed our deepest of  attachments with people and replaced them with full reliance on God? 

When two people fall in love they become so wrapped up in each other that sometimes it's hard to know where one ends and the other begins - I believe that is the true meaning of two becoming one.  But, a great many relationships are based on the invalid notion of being together forever and never leaving each other.  Even parent-child relationships have an air of this; many children are told that their parents will always be there for them and will never leave them - this idea may be giving us a false sense of security at the time the words are spoken, but those same words cut deeply when the very person who promised you forever vanishes from this life.

Imagine for a moment if we took a different approach to relationships.  If we think of our heart as a glass, most people begin filling their glasses from birth with their parents, family members, friends, classmates, boyfriends, girlfriends, co-workers, children and so on.  Now, imagine a storm of life, a tragedy, an accident, a death...when the glass is tipped and begins to spill its contents you must react quickly to prevent everything from spilling out.  Some lesser tragedies may not affect the content level of your glass very much such as losing a person who was not very close to you, but what if you lost one of the people at the very bottom of your glass, someone who you believed to be your foundation?  How do you even begin to pick up the pieces of your spilled heart and go on without your foundation?

Now consider this...what if your foundation was not a person?  How would your life be different if your ultimate foundation was built on someone who would actually never leave you?  What if your foundation was built soley on God?

Imagine God as wax; once the wax is poured a glass and allowed to cool, all the shaking in the world will not move the wax or cause it to fall out.  Now imagine this...if we first filled the very bottom of our hearts with God and His Word and then layered all of the other people in our lives on top of that firm foundation, no matter what storms would come our way, even if our glass was turned upside down and completely emptied out, we would never be truly empty because our firm foundation is stuck at the bottom of our heart.

What if we realized the people we love are just borrowed for a short time?  What if we viewed each one of them as a traveller wandering through our lives, always anticipating their departure?  How would this change the way we treat people?  How would this change the way we react in tragic situations?  How much easier would it be to pick up the pieces of our lives after a storm of life knowing that the foundation of God that is stuck in the bottom of our glass will never go away?

 

Storms will never cease to blow into our lives; and tragedies will always try to get in our way.  But those things do not determine the outcome in our lives...our reaction and the foundation of our lives is the only determining factor in our future.  Tragedy can leave us devistated if we choose to allow it; storms can destroy everything we have worked for including our resolved to move forward if we succomb to its powers.  But, if our hearts are built upon a foundation that cannot be moved no matter how strong the winds might blow we can choose to stand up, dust ourselves off and keep pressing toward our goal.

 

I'm reminded of the song I Will Not Be Shaken by Tommy Walker.  Here is my favorite version of this song done by the choir at my church, Mount Paran Church, Atlanta, GA.  Enjoy!

 

 



It's Not About Me

I just love that when God gives you a revelation He doesn't just give it once, but instead He reinforces it over and over again.  Recently, He has been showing me again and again that my life is not about me.  While many people would look at me and say "Of course, Jenni.  Didn't you already know that?  Everyone knows that!"  But how many of us actually understand what that means and even more so, how many of us live our lives with that realization?  What would we do differently?

Two days ago an old song came across the radio that stopped me in my tracks because it carried with it the very thought of what God was trying to tell me.  How simple yet how poignant.

In my life, Lord, be glorified, be glorified.
In my life, Lord, be glorified today.

So, what is it that glorifies God?  How can we glorify Him in our lives?  Ironically, or maybe not so much, my pastor used this verse in his sermon today.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

Imagine that!  When we are compeled by the love of Christ we should no longer live for ourselves but for Him...ok, so what does that mean?  I think it comes down to just two things...Mark 12:30-31

³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. ³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.

So what does love have to do with it?  If we love Him, we know His voice.  If we love Him and can hear His voice, we bring glory to Him by our obedience to His words. 

So if it's not about me...who is it about?  It's about others!  As the hands, feet and mouth of God we all have jobs to do, and these jobs bring Him glory and us fulfilment.  I shudder to think of the millions of people who die each year without ever experiencing their first day on the job with God.  I don't want to be one of those people; I want the fulfilment that can only come from following the voice of the One who died for me.  What about you?

When you were created God planted a tiny seed in you...a seed of the work He wanted you to accomplish...a seed meant to bring joy, peace and love to you and all those around you.  What have you done with that seed?  Have you watered it?  Have you fed it?  Have you sheltered it?  Have you pruned it?  Have you cared for it?  If not, it's never too late to start!

Whether your seed yields an athlete, an actor, a business owner, a teacher, a doctor, a minister, a mechanic, a scientist, a mother, a chef, a store manager, a grandfather...or in my case, a friend - remember that this gift is just not for you, but is meant to accomplish the job you were born to do.  You were meant to change the world with the gift that springs forth from that tiny seed that God placed within you.  He even gave us an instruction book to keep us on track...He thinks of everything :)

But what if you don't know what your job is?  That's easy!  Just follow His leading step by step and eventually you'll figure it out.  And then one day, you might just hear it while taking a shower, or going for a run, or washing the dishes, or getting into an elevator (like me).  Whenever and wherever it happens, take note!  Remember that moment; write it down; cherish that calling; protect it; and above all else, never let anything or anyone deter you from fulfilling it.  Don't worry about how you will do it...just focus on following His voice and He will lead you step by step.  Just imagine how different the world would be if everyone on the planet was actively doing what they were born to do, fulfilling the job God has for them...what an awesome sight that would be!  Only you can do your part :)

95 weeks since my last confession...

It was exactly 95 weeks ago, on a Thursday, that I confessed my undying love for the Blues Brothers.  Don't believe me?  It's true!  Check it out here.  Now, as a person who loves numbers, this is extremely intersting to me especially since I love multiples of 5 and graduated in 1995...you do the math (hardy, har, har)...or better yet, let this nifty calculator do it for you!

Each Thursday night, my favorite movie theater, Studio Movie Grill, shows a $1 Movie Classic and tonight just happened to be my beloved Blues Brothers.  Having never seen it on the big screen, I jumped at the chance to see my favorite characters bigger than life. 
Let me tell you, it was heaven - except...the jerk 3 seats down!

Let me just clarify that this film was released in 1980; therefore, anyone in the theater tonight has most likely seen it enough times to quote each and every line as well as sing every riff and tune.  HOWEVER, just because you CAN do these things does not mean that you SHOULD!  I mean seriously!!!  What is the reason for my rant, you might ask...

There I am, sitting in my comfortable chair, enjoying my amazing coconut chicken tenders with sweet potato fries, getting ready to watch my most favored film...when 3 seats down...some smarty pants guys felt the need to recite the entire movie and sing most of the songs!!!!!!!  What tha?????  Does he not know that most of us can do the same???  Does it not occur to him that the reason we are all there is to enjoy our beloved film by hearing the actual characters speak the lines and sing the sings and not hear some cheap fan knockoff???  I mean really dude!

Like most normal people who have watched a film more times than they care to admit, every single line was running through my head, each choreographed dance move cycling through my brain and every last note of music echoing throughout my person like a canyon.  But those moments should be kept to myself unless in the comfort of my own sofa with no one there to ANNOY!

Ok, now that I've invested too many words than this low life deserves...back to the movie!  It's awesome...what can I say?!  If you've never seen it, it's a must if you're a lover of blues or soul music, but I caution you, do watch out for the language.  Normally, I just don't watch many movies with much language in them, but this is my one exception.  In fact, I never knew there was any bad language in it until I was a teenager and saw the real uncut, non-TV version...man, was I ever surprised...and you should have seen my Mom's face!  However, I choose to overlook it because this movie is a part of me, a part of my childhood, a part of my father...and that is a beautiful thing :)

So, please enjoy one of my favorite scenes; I just love the look on Ray's face right before he takes them to school on his rockin piano. It's like "I know something you don't know"! 
And he's right!!!