Enough

So, here's something that's been at the front of my mind, and tugging at my heart for a while:
What if we all redefined "enough"?
If we stop believing that we always need more, then we may just start to see the value of everything we already have.

I'm talking about this American lifestyle.

[[Food.  Clothes.  Possessions.  Waste.  Spending.  Media.  Stress.]]

When did it become a burden to cook meals for our families, containing whole and simple foods?
Why do we feel entitled to a second or third car for our family?  Why does it feel "below us" to walk or bike to the grocery store instead of drive? or to have family birthday parties in the parks in the "scary part of town"?
Why do we JUST HAVE TO HAVE the latest version of the latest smartphone?  Isn't just being able to pick up any old phone and dial our friends' numbers enough?
When did it become acceptable to pre-package EVERYTHING, in the name of convenience?  And when did we stop caring about littering our streets with that packaging? And where is that mountain at the landfill going?
Just why is it UNACCEPTABLE to not have internet access at home?  Isn't Internet an extra thing?  Didn't we all live and love and laugh before the Internet?
Why is it okay to have lessons and articles with advice on "How To Take the Perfect Selfie?" and "How to Get More Likes on Your Posts"?  And is this what we want the next generation to be about?
When did stress and worry take over our every decision? And when did it become acceptable for "stress-relief" to include such extravagances as "going out on the yacht" or "retail therapy" or even "blowing some money on poker with the guys" or "racking up my credit card debt to feed my alcohol or tobacco habit"?
All these First-World problems, attitudes, and ideas...It just all feels like too much to me, and I don't think we give ourselves a chance to check our choices.
Does anyone else ever wonder why we get to live in such a privileged country while mommas and daddies around the globe fight to keep their children alive?  Why we make choices every single day of our lives pretending like they don't affect our global neighbors?
If you think too quickly, you'll just toss these words into some compartment of your brain, maybe "Random", "Awkward", or "Weird".
You may think none of it makes sense.  
A lot of it doesn't make much sense, because it's all questions...
But if you stop and give it a chance, you might see how all my questions above are related to one another.  You might see the big picture.  I'm convinced there's a big picture.
I'm sure glad I can see it now, but more importantly, I'm glad that I am finally brave enough to start putting all my observations into words.

Change is coming.

Easy

"It’s so easy to fall into the trap of self-judgment and loathing.  It’s so easy to wish for something else, something more, something more beautiful.  Why can’t we all just be content with what we have?  What is it about the human condition that always makes us desire more?  I wish I knew. 

I also wish I knew what it was that makes us so stubborn.  What makes us want something that isn’t good for us, even when all the signs point to/God is showing us in every way that there is something better.  Something different.  The very thing we wanted in the first place."

Coffee Buzzed Thinkin'

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

 

I had a large coffee from Mcdonald’s tonight, between 7 and 8 pm, and I am buzzin’ and ready to take on the world.  It’s 10 pm.  I should be going to bed.  Between the recent time change (fall back), my hormones, my stress, my workout schedule, and my desire to read, damn it, read, and write, write, write, my sleep schedule is interesting, to say the least. 

I know I want to write, but I can’t decide about what.  I keep getting topic ideas during highly inappropriate times (youth group and work training seminars, for example), and then, I can never choose a topic from the topics list. 

Something I’ve been pondering lately is, “How am I gonna write everything out of my memory, and keep up with present stuff at the same time?”  I have to tell myself to take a chill pill.  I get really anxious about it (surprise, surprise), and I want to make sure I get EVERYTHING down.  I get all over the place and then I can’t decide what to write about.  It’s like having a plan hinders me and then I end up going all over the place.  But then I get mad because I didn’t stick to a topic or a plan, and then I feel disorganized, and that stresses me out.

So.  What to write about tonight? 

 Tonight, something sparked me at youth group.  One of our leaders was up speaking about how she does her daily devotional time, and she was telling us about how lately she’s been choosing a blessing from her life to thank God for and talk to Him about.  She told us that today, the blessing she had thanked God for was “not being blind”.  She said, “How bad would that be, to be blind?”  This statement sparked that slightly stubborn, argumentative side of me, the side that’s been like supportive of all people, and finding things to defend everywhere; the philosopher, the instigator. 

I kept thinking, “Well, what if the blind person you see on the street is blessed with gifts that we could not even begin to imagine?  Maybe it’s not so bad being blind.  How rude is it to say that it’s bad to blind?  What, you have to have eyes to see God’s creation and experience the beauty of it?”

Hmmmm.

Right?

 

(***I'd like to insert here that I have nothing against this particular person who made this statement; she presented some awesome ideas to our youth group!! This one statement she made just got me thinking, is all***)

It gets one thinking: What are our blessings that we take for granted every day?

But then it gets one thinking: What makes me think that my blessings are so awesome?  What makes me think that what I have is so much better than what anyone else has?

Since God works all things together for our good, it is only mature to realize and speculate about the fact that everyone has unique blessings, and unique ways of experiencing the world, and God.  I bet blind people are blessed through the other senses in ways that we are not; and maybe they don’t miss not being able to “see” with their eyes.  Maybe they feel sorry for us, for not being able to hear what they hear, or feel what they feel.  Maybe we’re the ones missing out.

I don’t think there’s anything particularly innovative or radical about my thinking here.  I just think that as human beings, we need to be a little more open-minded.  I wish we could get away from feeling sorry for people, and learn to just see the beauty in everyone as they are.  If we all spent a little more time learning one another’s stories, I think we could all just live in a more peaceful state of mind.  I don’t want to say, “put ourselves in each other’s shoes” because I don’t think that’s what I’m getting at.  And I don’t think we can necessarily do that all the time.  I just think that we need to keep in mind that what we see as a burden, might not be a burden to someone else; it may be their greatest enabler. 

Just because I have all my limbs and physical senses doesn’t mean I’m “complete”, and someone who doesn’t have their limbs, “isn’t”.  There is not just one meaning of complete.  There is not just one way to be whole.  There is not just one way of being human.  There is not just one way of being right.  There is no way of knowing what was “the way people were meant to be”.  The Bible says, “God created man”.  The Bible does not say “God created man with eyes to see and feet to walk”.  I think we need to just get over some things and experience our fellow man more fully.

Snippets from Late March

Some more..

"It’s so easy to fall into the trap of self-judgment and loathing.  It’s so easy to wish more something else, something more, something more beautiful.  Why can’t we all just be content with what we have?  What is it about the human condition that always makes us desire more?  I wish I knew. 

I also wish I knew what it was that makes us so stubborn.  What makes us want something that isn’t good for us, even when all the signs point to/God is showing us is every way that there is something better.  Something different.  The very thing we wanted in the first place.

I wish I had just a little more faith.  "