Life versus LIFE

I've been running..err jogging. I doubt any serious runner would call what I have been doing running, however I've been out there on the track and the road putting in the miles at a slow and steady pace. I'm doing this because I have a goal in mind. I signed up to participate in a 10K run in October.

Yesterday I was running along the beach and thinking about will power. I used to have great will power, but now not so much. My husband,on the other hand, is very strong. When he is training for something, his resolve to avoid treats or stay on his training schedule is impressive. So I was pondering why I choose to indulge in eating or acting in ways that don't help my 10k goals. I decided it that it was because I make the choice to enjoy life right now--meaning I want to taste the sweet flavor of that berry cobbler or skip my workout for a coffee date with my friends.

Then I heard the still small voice of the Lord telling me that I could enjoy life right now, in the moment by eating and drinking and chatting with friends. Or I could make different choices and enjoy LIFE. That means choosing with an eternal perspective.His Life flows in me, through me, energies me and gives me joy whether I am eating, drinking and socializing or choosing not to. I saw that I could enjoy His life in me if I ate or passed the dessert. And I remembered that eternal life is both now and later. I had lost my perspective. I had been short sighted and He was reminding me to enlarge my vision to take joy in both eating and abstaining. In Him I live and breathe and have my being, NOT in my senses. As I meditate on this and keep it in mind I hope to make more deliberate choices and enjoy LIFE not just life.

Dry Bones

Here I am again... I am trying to get over my writer's block. For a long time I just felt like I didn't have anything to say. Nothing even sparking in my head waiting to be ignited into words. But it's been coming back little by little. This week I have been reading in Ezekeil 37 about dry bones. I love that passage. Israel says to the Lord " Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost and we are indeed cut off." They have three complints and the Lord replies with three sets of three answers. I just love the extravagance of God. Israel: Three issues. The Lord: Three times three responses. He says, " I will open your graves, raise you from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. Then He says, "I will put my Spirit in you, you shall live and I will place you in your own land" And finally He declares,"You will know that I am the Lord, I have spoken and I will do it."

So even when I feel a little dry or a little lifeless or a little bit out of touch or cut off or all of them at once God has a response.

And as I look deeper into what God says here I see three things He promises to do for us.

First: He changes where we are: he digs us up, takes us out of the dirt and puts us in a new location.

Second: He changes who we are. Now we have His life, His breathe, His spirit with in us

Third: He changes what we know: We will know that He is Lord, that He speaks and that He acts on behalf of his people.

H