sleepwalking

     Sleepwalkers don’t just walk. They talk and drive cars and cook meals and write checks. They look wide awake, but they aren’t. They’re just going through the motions.

      It’s easy to slip into sleepwalking. I do it sometimes. I look like I’m wide awake, but I’m not. I’m just going through the motions. Ho-hum. Same-old-same-old. Dusty and dry.

     Sometimes I wake up on my own, and sometimes something “bad” wakes me up--a health scare or a relational crisis or whatever. Waking up changes everything. When I’m wide awake, things like getting out of bed in the morning and sitting at my desk and folding laundry don’t seem mundane anymore. In fact, when I’m wide awake, there is no mundane.

“You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy. . . .” Isaiah 26:19

“now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened” e.e. cummings 

report card

     Our preschooler got his report card yesterday. It said, “Your child brings this special quality to our class: . . . ,” and then the teacher describes the special quality. Our little guy apparently brings “a sense of wonder and excitement.”

     So I’ve been wondering this morning--what would my report card say?

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

“[T]he place where you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5

let it begin with me

     Years ago, I was complaining to a friend about someone else’s shortcomings. She did me a big favor. Instead of commiserating, she said this: “Whenever you point a finger at somebody else, there are three fingers pointing back at you.” I need to remember that today. If things need to change, let it begin with me.

“Thy kingdom come [in my life]. Thy will be done [in my life]. . . . Forgive [me]. . . .” Matthew 6:10

“God, grant me . . . the courage to change the things I can. . . .” Serenity prayer

a good and risky business

     Really listening to somebody is a good and risky business. You open all your doors and windows. You welcome him in. You lean in (sometimes literally). Your defenses are down. You loosen your grip on being right. You risk being changed by what you hear. It’s a win-win.

“[T]o listen is to lean in, softly, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.” Mark Nepo

“Be hospitable to one another. . . .” 1 Peter 4:9            

mere trimmings

     I have a favorite shrub. Most of the time, it looks plain and leggy and boring and colorless, but it isn’t. I know, because for a few weeks every spring I see its beauty bursts out. It dresses up in its party clothes--small, salmon blossoms that give me joy. So, when I see it looking plain and leggy and boring and colorless during its off-season, I just smile and say, “That’s okay. I know better.”

“I suppose . . . Rose’s husband seems to you just an ordinary, good-natured, middle-aged man. . . . Just a rather red, rather round man. . . . He isn’t. . . . Rose sees through all that. That’s mere trimmings. She sees what we can’t see, because she loves him.” Elizabeth Von Armin, Enchanted April

“[L]ove one another.” John 15:12

Father, today I accept your kind invitation to see through people’s mere trimmings.

Prepare To Meet Thy Maker

     In front of an austere little church stands a large sign that reads “Prepare To Meet Thy Maker.” I’m pretty sure that it is intended to be a warning: “Straighten up and fly right. You could die any second and find yourself face to face with your Maker who will be scowling at you, switch in hand.”

     But what if it were an invitation instead of a warning? Then it might mean something like this: “Start today to live arms-wide-open. Learn to welcome and savor and say thank-you for every good gift. Practice loving. Practice being loved. Start getting used to joy because, any day now, you might find yourself face to face with the most joyous Being in the universe.”

“Undoubtedly, [God] is the most joyous being in the universe.” Dallas Willard

“In Your presence is an abundance of completely satisfying joy and gladness.” Psalm 16:11