Not So Ideal

Don’t know why today was different than so many other days over the last couple of weeks, but for some reason, I was able to post pictures on the blog. I’d almost given up in my frustration and decided to start posting just text. I hate the thought of that, though, because life is lived in color, and words can only go so far. But here we are—up and running again. Perhaps, only for today though. We shall see. I know so many of you check the blog often and I hate it when I can’t get posts up frequently. Oh well, as one of our respected friends here always says, “Life is not so ideal.”

Yes, life is not so ideal, and I am learning this on many levels. As I look around my house or at all the things that have been on my to do list for an eternity… as I think about all the people I wish I could see, all the language learning and relationship building I wish I could do more of, all the more time I wish I’d spent in the floor playing with my kids… Yes, life is not so ideal. Time is precious and is never enough, and it takes a great measure of wisdom to know where it will be best spent each day. And even then, our best efforts and intentions often go awry when circumstances beyond our control come our way.

So what do you do? How can we handle living a life that is bigger than we are? The words, "Be still and know" come to mind, but even kids understand that being still and not doing can be the hardest thing to do. We've all heard it said that there's a restlessness in our spirits to be human doings rather than human beings, and I guess that's what makes it hard to accept when life is not so ideal.

But I guess what I've been learning throughout my twenty %*&@# years is that I am most still when: 1—The way I spend my time lines up with higher values; 2—I realize that Sovereignty is always at work; 3—and most importantly, I realize that even when I myself am not so ideal, and the way I spent my time does not line up with higher values, Sovereignty is still at work. Now that’s peace...