My childhood friend, MJ, affectionately called 'little Mo' back in the day, recently shared that he was working on simplifying his life. I asked his definition of simplify. He in turn asked for mine. This is what I've come up...so far.
Simplicity is the art of choosing wisely between the good and the better and pressing on to the best.
An art often comes first as gift...given not sought. The catch of course is that an 'art' is never easy. It builds on a Authentic and Integrated self and it requires focus, determination and hardwork.
Its begs to be asked: What is my gift? So I can turn it into my art...simply that.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Simply Overflow J.E.S.U.S.
Simply [from simplify: to make less complex or complicated]
Overflow [ to flow or run over]
Join: mingle intentionally.
“The Savior mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, "Follow Me."--MH 143.
Elevate: the tenor of my conversations.
Psalms 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.”
Surrender: A heart in surrender will be Spirit directed to give a "word in due season." Prov.15:33. Be it vocal words or printed words.
Isaiah 30:21 “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
Unity: Involve other people, in prayer for, friendship with and service for our friends.
John 17:11 “That they all may be one…that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
Serve: Seeing eyes, willing hands and an understanding heart is Jesus' key to reaching the heart & mind.
“ Sympathize…pray with them, watch for opportunities to do them good…and open the Word of God.”
--Review & Herald, March 13, 1888
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Abuelita...
If Grandma's where chosen...you'd pick mine=)
Always happy, consistently positive. Looks for the humor in events and people. Unselfishly my biggest fan. Totally charming and beautiful to be around!
The most Romantic and uncynical person I know.
My Colombian Abuelita: Isabel Naranjo
Monday, December 14, 2009
One you can surprise...
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Sleeping Bags & other tricks
I like saving time...
by sleeping in sleeping bags,
brushing my teeth and rinsing out the sink.
I hate wasting time...
as in pumping gas: it plummets my mood in short order.
Or that sucky second when Facebook sucked me in again.
I hate saving time...
as in texts when I wanted voice...
or voice when I wanted touch.
I like wasting time...
by working on things of no tangible importance...
as in blogs and books and other brilliant things of imagined importance.
I like saving time...
to wasted it on things of imagined importance.
by sleeping in sleeping bags,
brushing my teeth and rinsing out the sink.
I hate wasting time...
as in pumping gas: it plummets my mood in short order.
Or that sucky second when Facebook sucked me in again.
I hate saving time...
as in texts when I wanted voice...
or voice when I wanted touch.
I like wasting time...
by working on things of no tangible importance...
as in blogs and books and other brilliant things of imagined importance.
I like saving time...
to wasted it on things of imagined importance.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The Vision
My heart didn’t get what it wanted…that’s the short and the long of it: A collage of disappointments, the big break, a love of my own. A season of creeping bitterness unlike anything I have ever experienced wove a dampening-fog-web within me. At first I thought I could shake it off with reasoning…logically deduce my disappointment away…but there was no real reason. Where a logical reason appeared, its voiding retort flipped right up. It was unfair and not right. My conscientious bent to life, my spiritual world-view had made me choose principles above inclination, the right above the feel-good. And by contrast and comparison; I had received less then my due. Asaph had it right. “I’ve been stupid to play by the rules; what has it gotten me?” Ps.73:13. I was discouraged, offended and betrayed.
I dared not voice the volcano of emotions that churned within me...I am a spiritual leader, a counselor friend, a good-little-church-girl, according to one facebook tag. And that’s the jab. I am questioning God. More than that, I am comparing my life-plate with that of others…and it comes up short. I’m sick of thinking of those less fortunate, I am tired of looking at the ‘eternal perspective’, I am fed up with ‘dieing to self.’ My normally surrendered, your-will-be-done prayers are turning into stony- blockade silences or outburst of answer- demanding tirades.
My disaffected spirit troubled me. The lack of feelings of loyalty and affection for the God of my childhood and youth jarring me more then the reasons that had prompted those feelings to begin with. In a moment I sensed how easy it is would be to walk away from the One you have centered your life around. If feelings kept me believing, then they weren’t there so where was my belief?
What was my belief in? Maybe that was the point. With a dawning dread I was brought face to face with a picture of me; maybe, just maybe, I was serving God more for the cookies and milk than any altruistic, high principled reason. My real loyalties might lay more with a Santa- Claus-God or the unconsciously God projected by my self-centered consciousness than by any biblically faithfully revelation of God.
It was about that time that my devotions took me to the book of Job. The submersion into the Job-story was uncannily perfect, even though I expected no ‘new’ insight. The raw edge to my devastated hopes glued my heart to the solitary Job, questioning where he questioned, extolling my ‘virtues’ where he did his and wonderingly admiring his steadfast faith in the face of it all. What would normally have taken me a couple weeks I finished in a couple days! The climax of God’s whirl-wind arrival into the conversations paused my heart. Maybe this time I would find an answer to the ‘whys’ on my heart. But the disappointment was real. God’s marshaled answer was an eight-plus question session; with more statements to back up the questions! He didn’t answer Job’s questions! He didn’t clear up Job’s charges, He didn’t even explain the big picture!
I didn’t get it. I just didn’t. Whatever it was Job got it. He humbly repents for “babbling about things far beyond him”. Job 42:3 Of course, good ‘ol faithful Job would get. But I didn’t it. It just seemed like a blow off, a rudeness par-excellence! But Job’s repentance is premised by a statement: “I have heard of you but now I see you” Job 42:5. Job saw a vision of God that put Job’s questions to rest.
I walked on my frustration, because I couldn’t certainly walk it off! If that is the answer to my questioning heart, then God “I want a Vision of You!” I went back to the text and shimmered in the questions. According to the passage, God’s questioning discourse disseminates from within a whirlwind. The vision of God is a verbal palate that sets of God’s phenomenon Creative genius from the cosmic scale to the earth seasons and creaturely order, detail and sustaining power.
I’m still pondering its significance.
I dared not voice the volcano of emotions that churned within me...I am a spiritual leader, a counselor friend, a good-little-church-girl, according to one facebook tag. And that’s the jab. I am questioning God. More than that, I am comparing my life-plate with that of others…and it comes up short. I’m sick of thinking of those less fortunate, I am tired of looking at the ‘eternal perspective’, I am fed up with ‘dieing to self.’ My normally surrendered, your-will-be-done prayers are turning into stony- blockade silences or outburst of answer- demanding tirades.
My disaffected spirit troubled me. The lack of feelings of loyalty and affection for the God of my childhood and youth jarring me more then the reasons that had prompted those feelings to begin with. In a moment I sensed how easy it is would be to walk away from the One you have centered your life around. If feelings kept me believing, then they weren’t there so where was my belief?
What was my belief in? Maybe that was the point. With a dawning dread I was brought face to face with a picture of me; maybe, just maybe, I was serving God more for the cookies and milk than any altruistic, high principled reason. My real loyalties might lay more with a Santa- Claus-God or the unconsciously God projected by my self-centered consciousness than by any biblically faithfully revelation of God.
It was about that time that my devotions took me to the book of Job. The submersion into the Job-story was uncannily perfect, even though I expected no ‘new’ insight. The raw edge to my devastated hopes glued my heart to the solitary Job, questioning where he questioned, extolling my ‘virtues’ where he did his and wonderingly admiring his steadfast faith in the face of it all. What would normally have taken me a couple weeks I finished in a couple days! The climax of God’s whirl-wind arrival into the conversations paused my heart. Maybe this time I would find an answer to the ‘whys’ on my heart. But the disappointment was real. God’s marshaled answer was an eight-plus question session; with more statements to back up the questions! He didn’t answer Job’s questions! He didn’t clear up Job’s charges, He didn’t even explain the big picture!
I didn’t get it. I just didn’t. Whatever it was Job got it. He humbly repents for “babbling about things far beyond him”. Job 42:3 Of course, good ‘ol faithful Job would get. But I didn’t it. It just seemed like a blow off, a rudeness par-excellence! But Job’s repentance is premised by a statement: “I have heard of you but now I see you” Job 42:5. Job saw a vision of God that put Job’s questions to rest.
I walked on my frustration, because I couldn’t certainly walk it off! If that is the answer to my questioning heart, then God “I want a Vision of You!” I went back to the text and shimmered in the questions. According to the passage, God’s questioning discourse disseminates from within a whirlwind. The vision of God is a verbal palate that sets of God’s phenomenon Creative genius from the cosmic scale to the earth seasons and creaturely order, detail and sustaining power.
I’m still pondering its significance.
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