Busyness or Avoidance?

Honestly, Walter's last post made me really think. How busy am I really?? I'm pretty sure that's not quite what he was getting at and I may have missed the point entirely, but that's what I thought. I sat down and I thought about all of my "busyness" and as I really looked at it I have a bunch of what I'm calling "fillers". I mean sure don't get me wrong I have a lot going on in my life, school, work, family time, and the list goes on and on. But if I were to condense my schedule and take out all of those fillers ie. Facebook, T.V., AIM etc. I realized that there are a lot of those in my life. I mean don't get me wrong, I think all of these are fine activities but for me personally I think I use them to make my day "look" busy.

When I thought about it in terms of looking busy I realized that I had a lot of missed opportunities to be listening, but as I thought about it more I wondered if I was actually avoiding those moments. I mean sure I pray and I think I'm pretty sure what I'm called to do with my life, but I seem to be really "busy" not leaving a whole lot of time for some listening my daily life for any changes in direction or just to simply help grow my relationship with God.

Busyness

A busy life is not always a meaningful life.

I want to believe that if I am doing something all the time, I am doing something meaningful. But meaning is not measured quantitatively. Meaning arises when we do something significant with the gifts we have been given. A meaningful life is a life filled with quality relationships where one is freed to share one's gifts with other people.

Being busy for the sake of being busy will never help us write meaningful stories with our lives. Rather, meaningful stories are written when we stop and pause, freeing us to hear God's voice once more. Freeing us to hear how God wants us to share our gifts with others.

 Are we listening? Or are we to busy?

Little Story Making

Several days ago Ross introduced me to Katie, a young girl who has intentionally made a great story out of her life. Katie's story began several years ago when her 3rd grade teacher gave her a cabbage seed to take home and plant for some school project.  Eventually the cabbage grew to over 40 pounds. When it came time for the cabbage to be picked, Katie decided to donate it to the Tri County Family Ministries so that the cabbage could help feed those who are hungry in our community.

Touched by how grateful the recipients of the cabbage were, Katie started dreaming about ending hunger. Instead of just sitting around and thinking that it would be nice to end hunger, Katie took the initiative to ask her friends, school, and other organizations for assistance in taking on this endeavor. After sharing her vision, Katie's school donated a piece of land to be used as a garden. Kindergarten to 12th graders have helped Katie in the school's garden. As of today, seven plots of land throughout SC have been donated to Katie's organization for the purpose of producing more fresh vegetables and fruit for local homeless shelters. Katie has been featured on NBC Nightly News, People Magazine, and other various media outlets. She will be entering middle school this coming school year. You can learn more about Katie and her dream by visiting her website.

After meeting Katie, I left church inspired to dream big and encouraged that we can write a better story.

Starting This Blog

As I sit down at Ross' desk to begin this first blog, I realize that this is my first blog I've ever written. Personally, I think I have never written a blog because in my mind I live a boring life. I go to school, church, and kind of do the same things over and over again with my friends. I find myself in a routine, repeating the previous day or the previous week. After reading Donald Miller's book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and began writing this blog, I realized why I have never blogged before. I think I haven't done this before because I wanted to write something meaningful, and I am afraid I have nothing meaningful to write.

Whoever came to the small group last week will remember that I loved Miller's quote: "The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won't make a life meaningful either." For me, this is kind of a mantra that I want to live my life by each day. I want to live a meaningful life not just for the sake of living some great story that would make an earth shattering, million copy selling, awesome memoir; rather, I want to make a difference in this world by living a meaningful life.

Meaning for each one of us is unique to our own particular context and setting. But I believe that as Christians, our meaning is deeply rooted in the story of God. We were created in the image of God and are called to be Christ-like in all that we do. Therefore, our meaning is wrapped up in living out God's will and plan for our own lives. My hope is that this summer we will all be able to learn how to discern God's will for our lives as we have the chance to edit our lives in order to make a meaningful story!

I have invited everyone in the group to help author this blog. So feel free to write a blog on your reactions to the book, our discussions, or just your own thoughts about meaning, life, Christianity, story telling, or anything else. And commenting on our blogs will help us in this editing process.