My Delusional Life

How many calories per day do you eat? I was looking at a women's health website and the question was on the computer screen in front of me. Hmmm, let me see... I gave it some thought. Gee I must eat about 1500 calories a day. Yes, that sounds about right. I entered it in. Later that day I was reconsidering the question and decided I'd think about all the things I'd eaten over the past couple days and try to make sure my guess was correct. I'll spare you
the gory details, but let's just say that 1500 calories barely got me to lunch time, forget about dinner (and the dessert I had afterward).

After that, I started thinking of all the questions in my life that I have misconceived answers to. How often do you floss your teeth? (I'm sure it's most days of the week.) How many times a week do you vacuum? (Virtually everyday I told the salesman at Sears.) How much do you spend per month on lattes and hair care products? (Not more than a couple bucks...honest.)

I quickly realized I live a completely delusional life. I consider myself "good" in a lot of areas until I take a closer look. Same holds true for my spiritual life. I compare with others and tell myself that I'm not that bad, but when I measure my actions and thoughts against the holiness of God, I realize just how delusional I am. He asks me to take a good look at him and get a proper perspective. Yikes.

So next time someone asks you how many Reese's Peanut Butter Cups you eat in a week. Think long and hard about your answer. And next time you're tempted to judge your own goodness based on those around you, think long and hard about the goodness of God.

Music Monday - Hello Love

If you've been in a church service or listened to Christian radio lately, it's likely that you've heard music by Chris Tomlin. One of his previous CDs, Arriving has hits like How Great is Our God, Holy is The Lord, and Indescribable. They've become mainstream worship songs.

Chris has a gift for fantastic worship music and he delivers once again with Hello Love. Starting off the CD with Sing, Sing, Sing, the catchy tune will keep you listening for more. Following that is Jesus Messiah and then halfway through the album you'll hear Love, sung with the Watoto Children's Choir. Here's a link from Amazon with Chris talking about the story behind the song. Take a few minutes and enjoy the video and if you get the chance definitely take the opportunity to download or purchase the CD from Amazon.


Happy Monday!

Life is Good

My son has a terrible habit of throwing his clean clothes into the laundry hamper. I know it's a common kid thing, but it drives me crazy and I can't seem to break him of it.

So this weekend I decided to show him what it really takes to actually do all that laundry that he's creating. I taught him how to sort clothes, load and start the washing machine, and transfer to the dryer.

I wasn't sure if any of my invested time paid off, but when I came home from work yesterday, my son casually said, "Hey, Mom, I did the laundry today. I took the white clothes out of the dryer, put the clothes from the washer in the dryer and washed one of the piles on the laundry room floor." And he did. And he did it well.

Yippee!! This is the day I've been waiting for. Life is good!

Lord, I am Here

"You're lost."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are. You're definitely lost."

"I know exactly where I am. I just don't know exactly how I got here or how to get where I'm going."

A familiar conversation to some of us. I'm not sure why it's hard for some to admit that they're lost. This is an equal opportunity blog, so I'm not mentioning any specific genders that might have more of a difficult time than other genders admitting when they're lost...I'm just commenting that sometimes it's hard to admit.

For others of us, we might not have a problem denying when we're lost, but we certainly don't want others to know the true condition we find ourselves in. I'd freely admit I can't find my way home, before I'd admit that my life was anything but okay. I often plaster on a smile and answer, "Fine...actually, great!" When asked the question, "How are you?" even though I know good and well that I'm having a record breaking crummy day.

In my post You Are Here, I mentioned that it's pretty hard to determine where you're going if you don't know where you're starting out from. I've been thinking about that a little more over the past few weeks and realize there's another element to that truth that I missed mentioning.

Once I locate my "Red Dot" on the map, I must be willing to acknowledge where it is that I find myself. Even more important than admitting my location to myself is being willing to admit it to God. Lord, I am here. I'm distracted, I'm sad, lonely, upset, furious, depressed... whatever the case may be. I might not like it, but I am here.

In the Psalms, David says that God desires truth in our innermost parts. I have to be willing to find where I'm at and then come to Him just as I am. Once you locate your red dot on the map, be willing to admit it to yourself, your family and friends, and most importantly...to God. He already knows anyway, because, after all, he's the one who put you there.

Blessings!

Mouseaphobia

There’s a mouse in my house. I consider myself to be a strong, independent woman, but something happens to me when I catch a glimpse of a mouse running across my floor out of the corner of my eye. I turn to jello. I panic. I freeze. I don’t scream, but as is often depicted in scenarios with women and mice, I usually jump on top of the closest piece of furniture. It’s utterly ridiculous and I recognize that, but I can’t stop.

Yesterday, I saw the mouse go running by. I swear he was the size of a regulation football. I immediately rounded up all the mouse traps I could find in the house and set them out all over the kitchen floor, warning my son to keep out of there. Poor kid, my mouseaphobia translates into no snacks for him. I knew I wouldn’t catch the mouse during the day, but I still hoped it was possible. Throughout the day I could hear him rustling around, but of course, I didn’t catch him.

The Pastor was (and is) getting pretty sick and tired of hearing me whine about the mouse. Last night he told me to “grow up”, which was probably appropriate advice based on the fact that I was completely freaking out at the time. But in my defense, this mouse has become so bold that I named him Reepicheep.

I’ve been reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by CS Lewis and Reepicheep is the brazen little mouse that encourages others not to fear and boldly marches forward into danger with great courage. My Reepicheep has taken to fearlessly running around my kitchen and tormenting me with no thought that he will be caught.

Last night, however, things took a turn in my favor. The Pastor, sensitive to my freaking out spell, reset all the mousetraps with a delicious feast and Reepicheep couldn’t resist. Mwahaha!

This morning it seemed that the sun was shining brighter, the birds were chirping louder, all the world seemed at peace. The Pastor went to an early breakfast meeting and I sipped a latte in my mouse-free living room. In addition to my mouse mania, I’ve also been fighting a super sore throat, which seems to have finally taken a turn for the better this morning. I couldn’t resist texting a quick message to The Pastor telling him how good I felt about both situations being better.

As is often the case in life, my victory was short lived. While I pushed send on my Blackberry, I saw a little brown streak run across my living room out of the corner of my eye.

Here we go again...