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A couple of days ago I got back into town from my vacation in Colorado. The biggest thing that I noticed when I got back is life’s ability to pick up exactly from where it left off.

My trip was a very necessary break from all of the stress and chaos from the daily grind. I spent a lot of time just catching up on my sleep and sitting by the fire relaxing. I hadn’t sat in the same place for that long in who knows how long. We stayed in a cabin that my mom is refurbishing eight miles away from any resemblance of civilization, and even then it’s only a dot on a highway. On top of that you have to drive about thirty minutes to get the faintest cell phone signal, and while they are working on getting an internet connection out there, they don’t have it yet. For all practical purposes, we were in complete isolation.

Whenever you get away from all of the flashing lights and billboards of civilization you realize that life doesn’t really rush by as fast as you think. Life runs a lot slower pace when you’re not being distracted away from it. Don’t believe me? Try going and sitting in complete silence and stare at a blank wall for three minutes.

For some reason I think that we’ve all come to think that one of the worst things in life is boredom, but honestly, I think that boredom isn’t the problem itself. It seems to me that boredom is a symptom of a much bigger sickness, an addiction to entertainment. I don’t just mean multimedia, tv, internet, ect. I think those play a huge part in it, but on a whole I think that our addiction is even bigger than that. I think that most of us have gotten into this habit of being busy all of the time. And for the most part it’s really true. Off the top of my head I can tell you almost exactly where I’ll be at any given time in the next 4 days. We are a nation of day planners and routine appointments. Maybe you can relate to this. Have you ever been sitting around with a group of friends and gotten into the whole, “what do you wanna do?” “I dunno, whatever you want to do” whirlpool. That irritates me. But I think it illustrates my point in that we feel like we always have to be doing something.

I have often heard the analogy of culture being a current that pulls people into being influenced one way or another. I like this analogy a lot. Think about this, another reason that our society (for the most part) is like a river is because it does pull you in, alluring with ideals of acceptance and popularity, but also because it is constantly moving. It is so easy to get caught up in the constant flow of the current without a hope of escape. And how dangerous is this to our faith?

God specifically says, “be still and know that I am God.” Later the bible tells us to actively pursue a quiet life. Work hard to lead a simple life. It’s a warning… DON’T GET PULLED INTO THE CURRENT.

The irony would be humorous if it weren’t so depressingly true. We live in a nation where we promote free thinking and celebrate individuality, yet we’re all to afraid or lazy to think for ourselves and we all conform for conformities sake. Now I know that it’s not always as bad as I make it out to be, but I’m just trying to make a point.

Now sometimes we have the opportunity to get away and take a break from the drag of the current and our daily routines. We go on vacations and trips leaving our cares behind us. But anyone that’s ever tried to escape the problems of life by vacation knows that a lot of times they follow you wherever you go and if they don’t they’ll be patiently waiting for you when you get back. I think a misconception that many people have is that if you step out of the current for just a little while then you will be freed from it forever, but the current continues on whether your in it or not.

I really was glad to get away for fall break, yet even while I was away I missed the rush of daily routine. And the moment that I got back, things were already underway full swing. I got back five days ago and it feels like no time has passed at all. I thought to myself that by getting away from the routine for a whole week I would somehow break the cycle, but I was wrong. However what it did do, was give me an appreciation for a much slower pace of life and show me the problem with my own nonstop lifestyle.

We all need to learn to slow down and see God in everything around us. I was talking to one of my best friends and I was pointing out that we should be able to find good in everything, God in everything. Even in the things that we dislike there has to be someway that it can benefit us. That’s what God is all about, taking the hard and bad things in this life and turning them for good. The ultimate example of this is Jesus on the cross. He was brutally beaten and exposed for all the world to see His death, but God took that and turned it into the most awesome good when He conquered death three days later. The problem is, it’s nearly impossible to find the good in the tough things especially whenever we’re caught up and being dragged along by life’s currents.

May we all step out of the current and see God around us.

Just Sayins All…

Rusty

Have you ever just found yourself in a place and asked yourself, “How did I get here?” Have you ever felt like your just cruising through life on auto pilot? I think it’s like sleep walking.

We were talking about sleep walking in a General Psychology class that I’m taking and it’s really an interesting condition. It has been recorded that people have eaten, bathed, gotten dressed, and even driven cars while technically asleep. Studies have shown though that when people sleepwalk they tend to do things that they do on a regular basis, something that is familiar to them. They have their eyes open, but they are not aware of the things that they are doing. So they are as we say, just going through the motions.

How many of us do this in our everyday lives. I can even describe a very long time in my life in which this was the case… High School. I woke up went to school only looking forward to the end of the day to go home and sleep to start the process over again. My life was a weekly routine. And there were a couple of times whenever I came to my senses just for moment to realize I had no clue how I had gotten to where I was or how I became who I was. And in that time it was just easier to fall back in to the routine than to start something new and step outside of the box. It was terrible, and I look back now with fistfuls of regret.

However I have taken the experience and used it. I’m not saying that I never live in routine. Even to this day I often find myself just going through the motions, sleepwalking both spiritually and emotionally. I like to consider myself a writer and think that I have a way with words. This being so, I find that it is very easy for me to say what people want to hear. And while this is good in the sense that I can placate and pacify those around me, it can quickly lead to isolation. If I tell people what they want to hear by saying that I’m doing just fine when really I’m hurting, I just make the pain worse.

I think that a lot of people are too comfortable for their own good. As people, whenever we get comfortable, we get bored, but for some reason unknown to me, it’s all that we want in life. It’s as if we can be financially secure and socially accepted then all of the other problems of the world will just fade away. Again I’m not trying to criticize people that are well-off or popular. The idea, which I think is generally understood, is that those things alone will not satisfy. There’s always a craving and a desire for something more. The reason for this comes from the fact that we were meant for more.

I don’t understand why people do things that they aren’t passionate about. It’s seems that the cultural rule is to choose a career that will pay well over one that you will actually enjoy. But humor me for just a moment. If when God created us He gave each one of us specific passions for the sole purpose of glorifying Him, imagine how awesome the world would be if we embraced those God-given gifts.

It’s just really hard for me because I see so many people around me in my everyday life full of potential that ignore their passions. So many people that are just sleepwalking through life. But God calls us to wake up. God calls us to live with His passion in everything that we do. I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and they commented on how the title of Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion is so appropriate. Jesus is God’s passion for us in human form. Jesus is God’s passionate love that came down and lived with us. And it’s in that passion that we are supposed to live. It’s in that fully-charged, heart-warming, life-changing passion that we should live. And it’s whenever we begin to live outside of the passion and in the routine that we lose ourselves. We lose everything that makes us who we are.

My hope is that this will cause you to wake up for just a moment and take a look at your life. Are you living in the routine or are you living in the passion that you have been created for? Are you too comfortable, longing for something more? Are you sleepwalking? I know that it’s something that I struggle with a lot and my prayer is that we would be able to get through it together. It’s what we’re called to do and that’s what the church really is.

Just Sayins All…

Rusty