Is it possible that it's been so long since my last post? I could give you all the reasons why I haven't posted - but you're not really interested in excuses. You're looking for truth. Authenticity. So here you go.
My greatest fear in starting this blog was that I would run out of things to write about. And in these weeks since my previous post, I felt like I had nothing to say. Or maybe it was that I had no time to write, you know, May is a busy month for schoolteachers in Florida.
Upon reflection, it turns out that writing wasn't my problem - listening was. It wasn't that I had no time to write - I did not make time to listen.
Ouch.
The kitchen is a great place to have conversation. A few years ago, I was cooking every Sunday for our young adults' ministry, and every week some of the young adults would join me in the kitchen to prepare. Many times our prep work included deep life talks - you know, the kinds of things you feel safe talking about while you're chopping peppers because you don't actually have to make eye contact with the person to whom you're making yourself vulnerable. It was a non-threatening environment.
But when I'm in the kitchen by myself, often I get into my "cooking zone" where I'm so focused on what I'm doing that anything else is a distraction. My husband or son will come in and start talking to me, and before I know it they're gone and I'm wondering what we just discussed (or what I just agreed to!). Or I'll put Joyce Meyer's broadcast on the computer so I can listen while I cook. More times than I can count, I've had to rewind the video because I missed so much of what she said.
Do you behave the same way when it comes to listening for the voice of God? I do! Do you consider His whispers a distraction? I'm afraid I have - unwittingly, but I have. Are you so busy multitasking that you don't stop to listen? Guilty.
I'm working on it.
True .....too busy. ..distracted by life at times! Like Martha ...need the good part like Mary!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you wrote again. Like you, I let too much time lapse between one writing and the next. And sadly, the longer I go without writing, the more difficult it is to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. This too has a spiritual parallel. The longer I go without time spent in the Word or in fellowship with God, the more difficult it seems to approach intimacy with my Father. It's the enemy's trick to keep us from God. That lying devil tries to convinces us that we should feel ashamed for neglecting God. That we are the Christians we wish we were. All the while God is standing with open arms to us, waiting for us to turn toward Him.
ReplyDeleteGuess I need to find some time to post too. Thank you, Lisa...
Yes, my friend, I have been there and especially in the kitchen (I am guilty of agreeing to things I never really "heard"). I find the times it is hardest to hear is when I am overwhelmed with hospital issues, as you have been. I think that is the time when we reap the benefits of worship, prayer and reading the Word; we are able to go into auto-pilot mode while the Lord carries us.
ReplyDeleteYour writing is always so profound and real. I appreciate your realness and the fact that you don't feel you have to perform, but only publish when you have something to say. Blessings to you my anointed friend.