For One Hour

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1 One summer as a college student I had the opportunity to go to Colorado with Athletes in Action. We studied the book of Philippians and the theme was "Dioko!" ( Press on!). It was a period of great spiritual growth and fellowship for me as we spent the summer learning about Philippians and sharing our faith in the places we worked. One Sunday afternoon I got to spend an afternoon in the park doing some Bible reading. Somehow I ended up in Jeremiah 17 and this chapter deeply impressed me. I had one of those supernatural moments where I felt God was telling me, "This is the truth you need if you are going to live in freedom as a Christian." I had grown up Catholic and we went to church every Sunday, but my knowledge of God and the Bible was extremely small. I had no idea how small! This is the passage I felt God wanted to mark indeli...

"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ--yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead."(Phil. 3:7-11) "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." (vv. 20-21) "Brethren, the test of us who hav...

I feel weary this week. I feel like I've been on a hamster wheel of meeting needs, driving here and there, running errands, meeting with friends, and being "productive," and yet I'm running on empty. Yesterday it all came to a head when it occurred to me that I had had five and a half hours of  kid-free time and the thing I most desperately needed to do I hadn't done: sit by myself. I did several good things: visited with a friend I hadn't seen in a while, stopped by Allen's Grandma's house to bring her a meal, went to the grocery store to get my kids some lunch food, and went to counseling. All these things are good in themselves, but at the end of the day I felt frustrated. I hadn't really made the first thing the first thing. I needed to fill my tank. As an introvert who also really loves being around people, it is so tempting for me to fill all my hours with people. It somehow seems selfish to schedule in alone time as a necessity. Yet, if I do...