Gittin' 'Er Done
2013
was, well, a year of lots. Lots of
projects. Lots of sports. Lots of driving the boys to the sports. Lots of watching the sports. Lots of farming. Lots of church. Lots of meetings. A bit of writing. Lots of juggling in general.
I
know that doesn’t sound much different from your lives, dear readers. I’m thinking that “keeping up with the
Joneses” has switched from material stuff to scheduled stuff. Everything must be Multi-Tasked to save time,
but no one “saves up” the “saved time.”
I
don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being pulled in 45 different
directions. I have found I am not a good
multi-tasker. *sigh* But what’s a Twenty-First Century Woman to
do?
Every
year I ask God for a word, sort of a theme for the upcoming year (an idea I blatantly
stole from Brian Hardin and John Eldredge).
My word for 2013 was Steady. It
turned out that God did some serious steadying in my heart, which seemed to
have quite a bit to do with shifting my priorities (which was NOT the direction
I thought Steady was going in January…).
My
word for 2014 is Persevere/Perseverance.
I have to confess, I am not excited.
It means trudging through hard things and hard times; in other words,
not fun.
BUT
in Webster’s Online Dictionary, the theological definition of perseverance is, “Continuance in a state of grace until it is succeeded by a state of
glory…” Now THAT I like! I’m in a state of grace until Success! A state of glory! Completion!
It makes me think I might actually finish my screenplay.
And that is the biggest thing I plan to pursue with perseverance,
or as we say here in Southern Illinois, “We gonna git ‘er done.” To accomplish this I have scheduled writing
time, and I plan to persevere in maintaining it. Focus.
One Task At A Time. Steady.
Persevere.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
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Nehemiah, Brian Hardin and Bricks in the Wall
I
believe we can learn something from everyone we meet. For the past few days, however, I have been
learning from people I have not met.
I've mentioned before that I listen to the Daily Audio Bible. The Old Testament reading for the last
several days has been from Nehemiah, and God is using this book as a crowbar,
attempting to pry out some of my serious disobedience and lousy attitude. I have been, um, shall we say, resisting.
Brian,
the DAB’s fearless leader, speaks about Nehemiah’s life--an exile from Judah
and a servant of the king of the Persian Empire, he leaves this great position
to take fellow exiles back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. What he gets for his passion is
discouragement, diminishment, frustration, even death threats, yet he refuses
to come down off the wall, to stop doing what he is meant to do. Through his leadership the exiles finish the
wall in an astonishing 52 days, often working with tools in one hand and a
weapon in the other.
It
was terribly difficult for Nehemiah. At
any time he could have said, “Forget it.
It’s too hard. It’s too
dangerous. It’s costing me too much. I quit.”
But he doesn’t. He stays the course,
inspires the nation and succeeds.
Brian
applies this to our lives, saying, “It is so much more romantic to think about
what you’re called to do than it is to do what you’re called to do…it’s hard,
hard, hard work. Don’t come down off the
wall…we can’t get to what comes next until it’s done.
“Whatever
it is for you, don’t stop what you know God has told you to do….Don’t be
discouraged. Don’t be distracted. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t be diminished…And don’t think it’s not
enough…
“My
goodness, what brick in a wall doesn’t matter?...They all matter because they together make the wall. Everything that we are called to do matters….Finish
what you started.”
Hear
that? That’s God’s crowbar (hopefully, finally) succeeding. I will finish, even though it is hard. Through distraction, discouragement, intimidation, diminishment. One brick at a time. Standing on the wall.
*Daily Audio Bible Transcript, 8-13-13
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Thursday, August 15, 2013
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