Distracted and Dang Pleased About It

Sometimes I have a love/hate relationship with Sundays. Mostly it is a love relationship but there are those Sunday mornings that come along where if deep calls to deep at the sound of His waterfalls, for me it is more of sleep calls to sleep at the snooze button of the alarm. I was sorely tempted to sleep in this morning. But the temptation was fleeting and I arose to declare His steadfast love in the morning. I will declare His faithfulness tonight before falling asleep.

What tempted me to sleep in this morning was our decision around 4:45 pm yesterday to drive out toward Chappel Hill. Roy had been at the office most of the day and I had enjoyed a quiet Saturday but there had been those moments of quiet where life was being sucked right out of me. Roy said, let's go, come on, there is still a lot of daylight left. I hemmed and hawed and we were out the door in five. Wow, once we were past Hempstead the bluebonnets were perfused in splendor. We drove along back roads with the top down drinking in the fragrance. We saw several photo ops and I pulled out my camera only to find out the battery needed to be recharged. Dang! I did pull out my phone and take a few pics and attempted a lovely narrated video which somehow only caught the rim of my tires. Roy and I were laughing and having a blast. We were recharged and revived! As the sun began to set, we decided to go on 359 over to I-10 because 290 had been fierce with traffic. We began discussing dinner and stopped briefly at a Sonic to get drinks and ice cream cones. Roy suggested Southwell's and it was a great decision. Good hamburgers and we were able to watch March Madness with half of Memorial High School. It was fun. All that fresh country air and eating later than usual had me hitting the sheets sooner than later and when the alarm went off this morning....you know I was tempted...

I am glad to have been in the house of the Lord this morning. The worship was awesome! John Bolin and the choir brought it, wow. And Curtis Jones brought the Word from I Thess 5:16-19. Yep, he brought it all right. I could not keep up taking notes, neither could Roy. We might catch the live web cast tonight to fill in the holes. It was what I needed to hear and confirm deep in my heart about my on and off again attitude about the next few weeks. Loved the point in giving thanks...we need to redefine what is valuable and we are not grateful because we have bad treasure...out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks....Ouch!

Met Peggy in the rehearsal hall robe room to walk together for Sunday School. Roy went to speak to Jerrell and Malcolm about working in the Connection Center after the 9:10 service and they said yes, so he went there right after the prayer. Peggy and I sat in the front of the room today. That is not our usual preferred seating but it was a good place for us to be today. Dena finished up her series on Drawing Close. This has been a good series and she has taught us well. She had asked for email responses to what keeps us from spending time with the Lord. She divided it into time and distraction. I had some thoughts on distraction but I didn't want to be a distraction and thus saying things that might empower a class member to begin disrupting and distracting the class with her rapid succession of comments. But being blessed with ADD my life and days are nothing but distraction. It is difficult for me to keep focused on one task for any length of time unless it is very interesting to me. If I was one of those types who has to have a quiet time complete with 2 Psalms, a chapter from Proverbs, something from the major and minor prophets, a chapter from the Gospels and a chapter from the Epistles, a poem and a prayer, I would never get out of bed. That whole thing right there overwhelms me. It seems that people come to quiet times with such high expectations on themselves to have a meaningful time, not high expectations that God will break out of the box we like to keep Him in. High expectations can immobilize and inspire avoidance. Some time is better than no time. Take small steps. God is taking BIG steps to us and let the drawing near God be a process that is non-linear. Let it have stops and starts and distractions. If we will stay in action, the process is alive with surprises. Being distracted seems to be a theme in the Bible. I am glad that Moses was distracted by the burning bush. Happy that the disciples were distracted from the fishing business one day to answer the call of come, follow me. What about Paul, bright light and a personal conversation with Jesus distracted him from being a one man Christian killing machine. I am glad all the about couldn't stay on task or be a model employee. They would have missed the adventure of a lifetime. Yet, we need to be thankful for those who do stay on task and can see the tedious to the very end. I am very thankful for being married to a plan man. I am grateful for my friends who possess this ability and determination. I mean, God made them that way and life would be pretty topsey turvey if I was in charge of things. But.... If you are like me and can't do the linear life, it's OK, embrace the distractions and look for God in them. Don't beat yourself up cause you can't do it like everyone else. He is there wanting to spend time with you and He wants our success more than we do and even know to desire. I mean if Zep 3:17 says He is singing over us, I want to be distracted from my one year reading program, my devotion book, my thought for the day, my spiritual reading program and join in with the singing and the dancing. Psalm 96, sing a new song to the Lord.

So, if I hadn't gone to church, we wouldn't have gone to Lupe's for beef fajitas afterwards. Soooo good! Then we did a trial run over to Methodist Hospital, twice, cause we missed the parking garage on the first go around. It is a beautiful day, so the top was down. Lots of people out and about, mostly going to the zoo. We took the long way home going through downtown. Lots of distractions to notice and pay attention to. Happy to come home and take a much needed nap. And now to blog about the day and thoughts.

I wonder how much we miss in everyday adventure because we won't relent control for change and seeing new things?

I'm encouraged by these verses today, Psalm 94:17, 19 (see no two Psalms for me)

"If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence." (there are those of you who read the blog and wish my soul and mouth lived more in the land of silence :) ) and "When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul."