Just a Few Things I Like...

Dance parties in the car.

Challenging discussions about the person of God and how that plays out in this world with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Having joy that only comes from the Lord, joy that directs my heart and mind back to the gospel.

The realization that the gospel is the only motivation I need in serving Him in whatever capacity it might be whether it be waking up or talking to the person next to me about the great sacrifice made for me on the cross.

Talking to new people.

Finishing a good book.

Finishing a project.

Hearing my sister sing.

Waking up early.

Running [slowly in comparison to most of the running population].

Accomplishing something I didn't think I would be able to do.

Hand-written notes from others where their love for me is obvious.

Writing notes for others because in such circumstances, my focus cannot be on myself.

Biting into a juicy strawberry, plump blackberry, firm raspberry or gigantic blueberry.

Having fresh flowers on my desk or at my kitchen table.

Decorating my home and scheming about what project to start next.

Receiving snail mail.

Adventures.

Stars on a very black night. In the grass.

Sewing. Feeling fabric in my hands.

Seeing a rose blossom over a period of days.

Hardwood floors. For dancing.

Baking bread. In an apron.

Getting muddy.

Talking to brothers and sisters in Christ with whom it is extremely easy to carry on a conversation for hours.

Walking outside at night.

Weeding when I get the entire root.

These things previous are just a few things that I like in this life. The list could go on for quite awhile. May I be thankful in the fact that the Lord has enabled me to enjoy this life. Everything in my life should draw my heart back to the gospel.

This summer, during the C.S. Lewis Transposition talk in Tennessee, we talked about how this earth is a shadow of heaven. Dell discussed church and how many of the things that we do in church are shadows of what we do daily (communion, dinner). Communion and dinner can even be broken down further. Dinner and communion parallel one another: a call to worship (call to dinner), confession (eek...should have taken better notes but I think within the dinner context this was talking about one's day), consecration (prayer for the meal), communion (eating). What I'm trying to get at is the things that I enjoy and the things that I participate in daily should draw me back to the Lord. Dell used the example of a shower. The purpose of a shower is to clean oneself of the dirt, body odor, sweat from the day: a daily shadow of salvation. What if for the fifteen or twenty minutes I spend in the shower, I were to remind myself of my salvation, of how I am justified. I have been made clean by the Only One who can truly clean.

Maybe I'm making too big of a leap but the things that I enjoy should bring me back to Christ and His work in my life because the things that fill our day (i.e. meals, cleaning oneself, work, talking to others) are often shadows of the Lord's work in our life, what He has done on the cross and continues to do in our sanctification. I don't know if I'm making a lot of sense. I am only starting to grasp this in my small mind and so I do not expect any one reading this to be able to make any sense of such things.