Life Giving or Taking?

I am challenged by this article...tell me what you think or ask me how I am doing with this... In The Joy of Missing Out, Christina Crook offers a helpful yardstick for evaluating the effects of our digital “possessions.” She was inspired by a seemingly unlikely and decidedly un-modern source: Saint Ignatius Loyola, who lived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. While it’s unlikely he created the discipline, he considered what he called “The Examination of Consciousness” (sometimes shortened to simply be called “Examine”) to be the most important spiritual practice one could partake in. It was really quite simple — twice a day, the Christian practitioner would guide themselves through a reflection of their actions and time spent, using the 10 commandments as a guide. With Ignatius’ Examine as a starting point, Crook created a shorter, modern, secular version designed to inspire reflection. She asks readers to inquire of themselves, on a daily basis, two things (and in this case especially, thinking with your device and internet habits top of mind): What today was most life-giving? What today was most life-taking? In just two days of practicing this contemporary Examine I came to realize that most of my digital actions were far more life-taking than giving. What was most life-giving in a normal day? A splendid cup of coffee in the morning alongside a real book, a breath of fresh air in the middle of the day, playing with my son after picking him up from daycare, writing a letter to a friend. Not once in my reflections has anything social media or internet-related been most life-giving.

Hiking is glorious!

Lake Janus

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Overlooking an Offence is Glory!

A man's discretion makes him slow to anger, And it is his glory to overlook a transgression.
(Proverbs 19:11 NASB)
It is a delight to find and say, "Glory" in the most unsuspecting of places! It is like finding treasure. I will say more on this, but for now I just wanted to write this down and "bask" in it. We certainly love it when others are able to overlook our transgression or sin. And we could not do without Jesus not only overlooking but loving us in spite of our sinfulness. There are times when both our offense and others need confrontation but there are times to overlook, let go and move on.

friend, Joe Brouillette

There is Glory in friendship.

The older I get the more I value friendships. I have always valued friends but when I was younger I would often value getting things done over relationships. Someone told me recently that you may not get many true friendships in your life. I also have heard that most men don't have a friend at all. Some might see needing friends is simply being "needy" and we don't want to appear needy because we value appearing self-made, self-sustaining, able to make it on our own.

Friendship is not really about us, what we get or our appearance. Love comes from God and we have the privilege of not only receiving it, but sharing it with others. We may choose to withhold that love gift and stop the flow and stop life--our, really living. Glory is in the living and giving. As we love, we present God to others. We take His friendship and friend others. What is that? That is part of the mystery of following in the footsteps of Jesus.

1Jn 3:14 We know that we have left death and come over into life; we know it because we love others. Those who do not love are still under the power of death.

Was Jesus a friend to the blindman--He healed, the woman at the well--he asked water of, the Pharisee--he corrected. How about , as well as a friend to the 120 who called themselves His followers? He lived to give what He had to those around Him upon His Father's direction. Will I see His glory today? Today, if I am a friend, I believe I will. Yesterday, it was soooo glorious to help throw a 50th birthday party for my friend, Joe.

the beginning of "Everything"

Greetings, this is my new journal where I jot my thoughts and write random commiserations with an axis--to see and speak of the divine presence that is everywhere around me. My title, I hope will serve to remind me and my readers that God is present always, though His presence may go unseen. It comes from a verse from the Psalms that has always intrigued and mystified me. This describes Jesus to me. He can be known but not fully. There is always more and always something new to discover and delight about Him.

Please join me in going forward in delight and discovery of the Glory of God from post to post!

The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everything says, "Glory!"
(Psalms 29:9 NASB)