Currently Reading Extravagant Worship By Darlene Zschech see related

Sacrifice

It’s something beautiful

       Something humiliating

              Something risky

                     Something fulfilling

                           Something wonderful

                                  Something terrifying

It’s everything in us

       Everything from us

              Everything real

                     Everything obedience

                           Everything hearing

                                  Everything choosing

                                         Everything giving

                                                Everything humble

Sacrifice is: “Take your everyday, ordinary-life – your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life – and place it before God as an offering.”

Currently Listening The Phantom of the Opera (2004 Movie Soundtrack) see related

Writer's Block

It's happened!  I know many of you thought it would never happen, but it's true.  I have no idea what to write this week.  What?  Bryan Peetoom doesn't have a story to tell or a funny comparison to make?  Yes, it's true I simply feel like I've reached an impasse as far as writing goes.  If any of you have any inspiration or suggestions for me, I'd love to hear them and maybe consider them for future entries. 

Currently Reading Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything By Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner see related

As Blind As a Mouse

     Blindness can be defined as the inability to see your surroundings, your circumstances, or your direction.  It can be a devastating condition that brings with it much danger for your well-being.  Blindness hinders experience as the beauty of color, depth, and expression are removed from everyday life.  Blindness keeps you from seeing what's in front of you.  It eliminates your ability to know what is going to hit you before it ever does.

     Blindness is an extremely dangerous condition, yet so many people live with this condition when they don't necessarily have to.  No, I don't have the ability to correct the eyes of those who have lost their ability to see.  I simply want to ask those who walk around with their eyes closed in blindness to open their eyes and see the reality in front of them.  Many people walk around with their eyes shut because they live in a fantasy, they live in a bubble created by their imagination and carried out by their emotions.  Emotions are what keep our eyes closed in everyday situations.  When we live in the moment, in the feeling of our emotion, or in the energy of our situation we make choices that are essentially being made with our eyes closed.  Wrong choices are made out of emotion because we all struggle with controlling our emotion and keeping our emotions in check with a Godly standard.  Learn to not make choices in the moment, and instead to make choices absent of emotion and you will see how much easier it is to detect where your life is headed when your eyes are open to avoid danger and see what is coming down the road.

Currently Reading Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity By David Allen see related

The Rabbit

       When most people hear the word rabbit, a cute, cuddly, cotton-ball tailed animal is what is pictured.  An animal with long floppy ears and oversized hind legs used to hop around in often very random patterns.  Although the cuddly, floppy-eared, bunny is worthy of a Xanga post, that is not the type of rabbit I will be referring to today.  When I think of a rabbit, I am immediately transported to my running era and my years spent running Cross-Country.  A rabbit was a term used for a runner that would sprint out in the beginning of the race to take the lead for awhile but would quickly fade into the pack because he/she could not maintain the pace that he/she started the race at.  Sometimes rabbits were harmless, sub-par runners who just simply wanted to know what it felt like to be leading a race, but other times rabbits were much more dangerous.  In fact some teams would purposefully place rabbits into the race instructing them to go out fast and hold on for the first mile.  The coach would instruct them that it was not important that they finished the race, but just that they kept the lead for as long as they could.  These were the rabbits that were dangerous in the race.  The purpose for a rabbit in this circumstance was to push the pace of the race hopefully ensnaring some of the good runners to go with him or her.  The rabbit could sometimes trick the good runners from other teams into starting the race too fast while the team that placed the rabbit in the race would pack together pacing each other and setting their own pace as opposed to following the pace set by the rabbit.  Although the rabbit would usually fade after a mile and the good runners would settle back into their normal pace, the damage had already been done.  After the second mile, the good runners would begin to notice that the pace they were running was no longer natural and relaxed but instead tight and difficult.  During the third mile of the race, the pack of runners from the team with the rabbit would many times catch those lead runners and overtake them before the finish because they were stronger at the end of the race.

      So far, 2006 has been an incredilbe year.  For the first time in months, I am feeling healthy and energized and excited about each day.  It is a year that I am looking forward to with such joy and excitement that I can barely wait for the upcoming months.  There are so many things to look forward to that it is easy for me to be like a rabbit.  Part of me just wants to sprint as fast as I can now that I am feeling better and excited about tomorrow, but I know that anticipation and excitement are a two-edged knife.  They help us dream and make it through the mundane of life, but they also steal energy and health needed to sustain a full year of emotional, spiritual, and physical health. 

    This year I pray for the ability to work smart and to be disciplined enough to not get caught up in someone else's pace.  Instead I pray that God would pace me in my race protecting me from being ensnared by the rabbit causing me to finish 2006 like how 2005 was concluded.  God give me endurance, discipline, and wisdom to continue 2006 the way it has so wonderfully began.