Mindful.Ness

I have been wandering through the vast wilderness called "Mindful." Some time ago I read an article about being mindful. It has been a while, and maybe the subject was not really about our mindfulness towards Christ, but it is likely if I read it, my thoughts interpreted it through the filter of Christian obedience. I am dubious of mindfulness in the common, but not mindfulness in Christ.

Mindfulness is about being fully in the moment. I teach cognition... thinking about your thinking. I believe that we are slothful-lazy thinkers. We allow input without addressing it. I am an advocate for being in the moment every.moment. We cannot be in.the.moment if we spend hours daily watching tv, playing video games, or just allowing time to pass us by... And especially if we are not purposeful about our surroundings. When I drink cold water I think about how the coldness slides down my throat, or when I open the window and the cold outside air or the warmth of the wind touches my face. I breathe deeply. I experience it. I experience all of it. No longer reaction or impulse, but mindfulness. I am filled with the experience.

This is Easter weekend. This is a bittersweet holiday for me. Every year, without skipping a beat, my tears flow at the story of Jesus' crucifixion. My heart aches at the thought, "He did that for me." He suffered and died for me. He shed His blood to reconcile me with God the Father. Adam and Eve turned willingly toward the deceiver and away from God causing humankind to be cast out of the garden. Jesus came from forever.from eternity.to earth.in the flesh to reconcile you and me to God the Father because God intended us to fellowship with Him in the garden FOREVER. Isn't that something to be mindful of? Isn't that worth giving every thought.every moment to Jesus? To indulge the senses He created in us to embrace and be mindful every moment!

As you proceed StepxStep, embrace every moment as the gift it is.

"No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light. The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light... If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining lamp gives you light."
Luke 11:33-36

Alone

I just read My Utmost For His Highest the January12 entry, and it talks about God getting us Alone.  I have read and reread that book almost yearly since 2001, yet I cannot remember reading that topic before. The idea that God wants us Alone is both frightening and invigorating.

It has been impressed upon my heart for many years to focus on Jesus. To cast my eyes upon Him and Him Alone. I have explained it to my Sunday school class that it is like following Him, StepxStep, through a crowd. To watch Him exclusively as not to lose my way. To step to the right when He does, or to the left, when He does, to pause, when He does, and to go, when He does...

He loves us and wants us to fellowship with him, Alone, just Us/us... 
To worship
To serve
To love
To teach 
To grow

I thought one time about how I will stand at the judgement throne  -Alone- no mother or father, no husband or children, no one responsible but me for me...then it dawned on me that I will not be Alone. My blessed Savior and Redeemer will be right behind me like a Sentry who has paid my penalty, who protects and has provided for me. Little stick figure me with the Son of God as my Representative overshadowing my guilt and shame with His blood. 

Oh my goodness, what a picture that is in my imagination. 
(I honestly wrote the statements above prior the finding the following scripture to quote!)

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4

Words

In the last several years, as I have acquired my degree as a teacher, I have found that I am enamored with words. StepxStep, words have come to mean a great deal. They can, as the song says, "Build you up and tear you down..." I love loVE LOve LOVE words. I truly love what words do and mean and are... Even as a young child I remember thinking of words and how they work. 

I collect things. I collect strange things. 

I collect rocks. I LOVE rocks. I know many people collect rocks, so that is not strange. 

I collect books. That is not strange, if you read them... I love to read, but it appears with just the books I have on my Kindle, I would have to read a book a week for 50 years to read them all... that does not include the hard covered and paperback books I have in my office/library in my home. Some have been read, some are eagerly waiting. So, I am in the habit of collecting books, I just need  to read them now. 

I collect trips. 

I do that by collecting miles in my car.  I love to travel. I really like see places. 

I collect sand. I know collecting sand is strange, but it is something that my students love. I started  collecting sand from beaches I have visited. I took a trip up the west coast and everywhere I stopped  I collected sand. I knew that I would have students who would never have been to many of the places  I had been, so I wanted them to see that one beach could produce different sands. While on Long  Island in New York, I collected three types of beach: the typical sand type, then a courser red sand,  and a gravel type beach, and finally small smooth rounded rocks. That to me is amazing. All from  one beach. All within fifty feet. My collection now includes sand/soil from around the world. No  longer from places I have visited, but from places others have been. 

I collect words. 

     submit

     I submit to Jesus.

     I submit to God in becoming a minimalist. 

     I submit to God in becoming debt free.

     I submit to God in building StepxStep. 

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.                                                                                                                             James 4:7 NKJV