Waiting Around Sloppy

Most of us are just waiting around in life. Oh, we have a schedule to keep, make lists perhaps, have a pretty good idea of how the day is going to go; but most of us don't initiate anything. It's a "get up out of bed then live life until we go back to bed" sort of existence. We may gain something from being with friends, family, getting that paycheck on Friday, sleeping in on Saturdays and Sundays, but when Monday comes back around its "same o, same o." I wonder if people tire of this "do it again" existence.

Jesus told a parable about some guys who were just waiting around. In the parable the master hires the guys to go work in his field and they seemed excited to do so...for pay. There is more to this parable but I wonder if this waiting around problem isn't new to my day ... To me?

I have been feeling like I have just been waiting around. It's safe, just waiting. Besides the Bible gives a promise to those who wait ... Who wait upon the Lord, true, but who wait ...right? So I mind my business, take care of my own backyard, put in my time, and don't rock the boat.

I have also been learning how messy I am. I am not the not the most focused and shiny things can distract me. Messy? Maybe make that sloppy. I do have kids and I love and enjoy them and give them sloppy kisses sometimes. That's not what I mean by sloppy. Sloppy means I assume too much... And I do. It means I plan and hope others do the heavy lifting and then I ... Wait around until there is a need and then I can either step in or delegate... Sloppy. Sloppy is one step away from neglect. And I neither want to neglect nor be neglected.

So before I get bored and snap another selfie, what do I do now that I have become aware of this waiting around, sloppiness I have I have found myself in? Oh, that is another symptom of sloppiness: victimization. So let me rephrase that. What I do now that I have discovered my sinful expression of me?

"Just Thinking About Jesus"

I was wondering today about how I could start meaningful, spiritual conversations with others whom I know are not Christians but perhaps once were. I wondered how I would come across if I was deep in thought and he or she asked me, "What are you so deep in thought about?" and I replied, "I was just thinking about Jesus." I wouldn't want it to be annoying, just bridging. I was reading over an article adapted from The Evangelism Study Bible, that explored responding to people who have had a bad experience with Christianity. I found their five reminders worth repeating and good for keeping in the back of your mind, once practiced in your "holy imagination" (aka, spiritual reflection). 1. Don't be defensive. Remembering that it isn't so much that you do not agree, but HOW you disagree that will stick in their minds when they walk away. Take into yourself their comments as if you were the one who did them wrong and then reflect it back to the...

What if Metallica Came to YOUR Church?

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Are Teens Living an Avatar Existence in our Matrix World?

What if teens today are living out their lives in a somewhat Matrix existence? A false reality where the "adult world" that is seen and lived in by adults is participated in by their sending a 'surrogate avatar' out into it everyday while their 'real body' is kept in an underground world. This makes sense. The world the next generation has been handed by adults of the past 2-3 generations has not been a very safe one at all. What is seen on the outside is never the "real"--it hasn't been the real in the former generations for decades! All that is cared about is the self--and we have become very adept at self-preservation. But I wonder if this isn't just a deception of the Enemy? If we are creating a lifestyle of fake-living, how can the next generation be real? They would be cast to the sidelines until they wised up on how to live with us--in a fake, covered up manner. But learned they have! 2 nd life living among our teens is n...

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