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Around the Network -- Taming time and unleashing God
There's a folder in my desk stuffed with letters – some 40 years old or more. Despite the passage of time, the handwritten swirls of ink from friends and family continue to inject wit, understanding and love. Within these folded pages are the annals of people who make an impact in my life.
In these days of e-mails, status updates and tweets, we have lost the meaning of the letter. The impersonal world of the instantaneous leaves us longing for something deeper, something with relationship. Blogs are the closest thing we have to letters today. Within them are unique perceptions, revelations of personalities and inspirational insights that we can read – and then reread, hopefully tucking them away in our hearts.
Around the High Calling Network last month were plenty of “keepers,” blog posts that keep on breathing. Monica Sharman and I were amazed at the many writers who spoke to the sands of time trickling out of our fingers. Perhaps there's the realization that summer was rushing headlong into fall, that vacation can’t last forever.
Few captured the essence of time as well as Jenny Rain did in The Ministry of the Moment.
“When I stretch back the sixty-second rhythms of my day and take a deep look, I am becoming aware that God has shown up in ordinary, yet miraculous ways,” she writes.
Jenny advocates embracing the moment, down to each second as it unfolds. “I am guilty of leaving my minutes behind.”
At first read, I thought about my own wasted moments – like the time I spent analyzing the ingredients in Allspice or sniffing dozens of cantaloupes at the grocery store, pretending like I know what's the best smell.
But Jenny isn’t talking about wasted moments – she’s talking about finding meaning in the moments, especially the unplanned ones. She’s tired of “compressing them into hurried adverbs of usefulness instead of expanding them into majestic adjectives of praise.” Read her post from Rainmakers and Stormchasers.
Other network bloggers also wrote on redeeming the time with purpose.
Jim Lange was walking on the beach with his daughter, each making a different-sized impression in the sand. But it was the three-toed print of a bird in the sand that caused him to pause. Read We All Have a Role.
Success for Dummies by Gary Davis is a great reminder that true success is really all about making your life count. His six assessments are invaluable.
We often pray for God to intersect in our lives, but we don’t realize that He’s not safe. He’s not tame. He's unpredictable. Lyla Lindquist wrote a humorous and yet convicting post, We Can’t Handle This Much Jesus.
Speaking of being tamed, Jay Cookingham, confesses a manly fear of beauty. But after being captivated by his wife, he begins to understand godly beauty. Read Stepping into Beauty.
An often misunderstood word is wisely explored in Submissive Obedience, which Zena at The Observer calls “silent strength.”
Charity Singleton’s post, Still Running, is a powerful piece that charts her battle with cancer and how she has found a new passion in distance running.
There’s nothing more innocent than a newborn, and Kim Hyland writes a Poem for Sophia that will cause a lump to rise in the throat of every parent.
Finally, Jeff Goins went to see the movie “Eat, Pray and Love” and asked this question; “Is it possible to live a life of deep, transformational faith without dropping everything and hitting the road?" Read Pilgrimage of the Heart.
High Calling Bloggers are probing the wonders of this temporal world, showing us slivers of eternal light. Keep writing and we’ll keep reading.
Featured Posts for August, 2010
- Jenny Rain -- The Ministry of the Moment
- Jim Lange -- We All Have a Role
- Gary Davis – Success for Dummies
- Lyla Lindquist -- We Can’t Handle This Much Jesus
- Jay Cookingham -- Stepping into Beauty
- Zena – Submissive Obedience
- Charity Singleton -- Still Running
- Kim Hyland – Poem for Sophia
- Jeff Goins — Pilgrimage of the Heart
Photo by E L K. Used with permission.
Post by David Rupert
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