Real Life and What Doesn't Matter
My site tracker tells me that many of you have continued to check in even though I haven't written for a while. Thank you. It's because of the encouragement that brings me I'm writing today.
I have a new job. I've been there 3 months now, and I'm starting to settle in. The kids I now work with are a lot different than the ones I led before. "Rough" would be a good term, but so would "hurting", "angry", "funny" and a dozen others. It's a wonderful opportunity...if I can get into it.
I like where we're at in a lot of ways: our adoption is progressing, our bills are getting paid, Olivia and I are getting to hang out, IBG is doing well, we're now able to attend church regularly, I've even been playing my guitar a little. I quit playing two years ago today, when we lost our daughter, Rachel Elizabeth. Today is her 2nd Angel Day.
Healing is a long, slow process when the wound is so deep that you hardly dare to explore it. And, we have lots of wounds: Natalie, Malachi, Rachel, Jireh, our failed adoption...Sometimes it seems like we have more sobering anniversaries than any two people should be allowed to have. Add to that the constant reminder of sickness, 50 hour work weeks, some uncool family dynamics, and a list of incomplete projects around the house and the word "Peace" feels impossibly inapplicable to my life.
Yet, "Peace" is exactly what I'm fighting for. So, I seek the Prince of Peace. I ask Him to speak. I listen for Him to answer. I cut out as much of the junk as I can, and there is a lot of junk out there, a lot that simply doesn't matter and only serves to distract us from reality. So, I watch almost no TV, I read only good books, I don't follow pop-culture icons, obsess about being entertained, wait in lines for the latest i-phone, or listen to the latest Godless music,... and I don't miss any of it. People Magazine's Top Twenty Most Beautiful People could all crash in an airplane on their way to a 'Celebrate Me 2010' event and I'd neither know nor care. Life is too real for these foolish pursuits.
People will say that these things are harmless, but I don't believe them. I don't even think they would believe themselves if they were honest. How does a teenage girl fell when she looks at the cover of a tabloid magazine and compares herself to some 'superstar sex godess'? How does it improve a young man's life to argue about which baseball player deserves the highest pay? How does it help our country when our vote is determined more by star quality than character and qualifications? What god is served by our self-indulgence and partying? It's not just that it's all so meaningless, but that it's also so harmful. None of it brings true satisfaction or peace.
So, my challenge to you today is to do real things, to seek the true God, to embrace real joys, and to pursue actual peace. Decide what matters. Do that.
I have a new job. I've been there 3 months now, and I'm starting to settle in. The kids I now work with are a lot different than the ones I led before. "Rough" would be a good term, but so would "hurting", "angry", "funny" and a dozen others. It's a wonderful opportunity...if I can get into it.
I like where we're at in a lot of ways: our adoption is progressing, our bills are getting paid, Olivia and I are getting to hang out, IBG is doing well, we're now able to attend church regularly, I've even been playing my guitar a little. I quit playing two years ago today, when we lost our daughter, Rachel Elizabeth. Today is her 2nd Angel Day.
Healing is a long, slow process when the wound is so deep that you hardly dare to explore it. And, we have lots of wounds: Natalie, Malachi, Rachel, Jireh, our failed adoption...Sometimes it seems like we have more sobering anniversaries than any two people should be allowed to have. Add to that the constant reminder of sickness, 50 hour work weeks, some uncool family dynamics, and a list of incomplete projects around the house and the word "Peace" feels impossibly inapplicable to my life.
Yet, "Peace" is exactly what I'm fighting for. So, I seek the Prince of Peace. I ask Him to speak. I listen for Him to answer. I cut out as much of the junk as I can, and there is a lot of junk out there, a lot that simply doesn't matter and only serves to distract us from reality. So, I watch almost no TV, I read only good books, I don't follow pop-culture icons, obsess about being entertained, wait in lines for the latest i-phone, or listen to the latest Godless music,... and I don't miss any of it. People Magazine's Top Twenty Most Beautiful People could all crash in an airplane on their way to a 'Celebrate Me 2010' event and I'd neither know nor care. Life is too real for these foolish pursuits.
People will say that these things are harmless, but I don't believe them. I don't even think they would believe themselves if they were honest. How does a teenage girl fell when she looks at the cover of a tabloid magazine and compares herself to some 'superstar sex godess'? How does it improve a young man's life to argue about which baseball player deserves the highest pay? How does it help our country when our vote is determined more by star quality than character and qualifications? What god is served by our self-indulgence and partying? It's not just that it's all so meaningless, but that it's also so harmful. None of it brings true satisfaction or peace.
So, my challenge to you today is to do real things, to seek the true God, to embrace real joys, and to pursue actual peace. Decide what matters. Do that.
Comments
Good to see you back again.
The title certainly fits the post. I think that most people take for granted the simple and the real. I wish that that they would read your post and learn what really Matters.
Trials tend to make us all the more sensitive to the real and the true in live.
And my YHWH bless us both and our loved ones so we can always experience His blessings....in the sunshine and the rain.
Shalom In Messiah.