God and Me-Back to the Basics

I haven't posted anything with a God and Me tag in a while. Let me explain why: our regular PC crashed. I know, that makes perfect sense.

The things I post as God and Me stuff actually sprang up out of a trip D and I took to Lima, Peru where the church we worked with was just so authentic in their faith. They were so passionate about the condition of one's heart. It sparked in me a desire to be this way, to be transparent in who I was, what I was dealing with, and to be very conscious of the state of my soul and those around me. Out of this desire came a weekly email, sent by me to my friends. (My blog didn't exist yet so the email format was how it went out.) I simply said "here's what God is doing in my life this week."

I'm sure some people just hit delete as soon as the email hit their in box. But it wasn't really for them. It was for me. It was me saying "here's my life, lived within the arms of Jesus. Take it or leave it, but here's what it looks like." Those emails really provided a lot of depth to my relationship with God. Every week, when you sit down and start saying to yourself, "What is God doing in my life? Have I lived as someone whose identity is in Christ? Have I fallen down a lot? What was good? What was cruddy?"...when you make yourself do that and then share it, suddenly the stuff that happens in between the Sunday church service and the night when you are writing means a lot more. The words you might have read just the day before but have quickly forgotten are once again in your face. I thought a lot longer and deeper about some of the things God had been putting before. It just made me more aware of the spiritual nature of my life.

Lately though, I've been out of touch with that. A computer crash has made my email address book inaccessible. I've used that as an excuse to not reflect on what God has been doing in my heart.

And then there's just life. Adding a new person to your family means changes in routine. I finally think we're getting a routine down. But truthfully I really struggle to get in quiet time every day. (Even as I type this, I haven't set down with God yet today.) It seems like I can shower and eat breakfast, or shower and do quiet time, or exercise and shower, but it seems like I rarely am able to exercise, shower, eat breakfast, and get my quiet time in. It's that having to choose between things that are necessary, things that are good for you, and things that should be most important.

So here's the deal: I'm getting back to doing what has been good for me in the past. And truthfully, if you haven't ever challenged yourself by making a committment to share with others what God is doing in your life, on a regular basis, consider yourself challenged. It doesn't have to be flowery or lovely; in fact I think a lot of what comes out is exactly the opposite of that. But it will certainly change you. Introspection always does.