God Found in the Everyday « Jamie Miles Blog

God Found in the Everyday

God Found in the Everyday / Sleep — No Comments
31
Aug 10

Are you wary, wary weary?

I fell asleep on the couch last night. Waking up to a tap, tap, tap on my shoulder, there stood my 16 year old.

My husband was nowhere in sight.

The chicken.

He refuses to wake me when I fall asleep for fear of what I will say to him. More correctly ~ how I will say it.

I stumbled to the kitchen which was still a mess after dinner. I shoveled all the dirty stuff into the sink, brushed my teeth and fell into bed next to the sleeping chicken.

Sound familiar?

Lots of us are falling asleep not remembering what was on the television.

Working my way through 2 Thessalonians, I’ve made it to the third chapter. I’m reading all of Paul’s letters in chronological order. (Because I have absolutely nothing to do.) Galations was first, then the two he penned to the church in Thessalonica. The city was founded by Cassander, one of Alexander the Great’s army officers.

He named it after his wife, Alexander’s half sister.

Thessalonica. I like it a lot. It’s a good thing I’m done acquiring children. Now that I found out it’s a proper name, I would have named a daughter such.

Tess. Alright, I threw out the “h” ~ but Thess just sounds ridiculous. Looks like it should be in some Dr. Suess book.

Not like Thessalonica. Which I love.

(I have completely and totally wandered off point here, but will leave this in risking my credibility as a decent writer ~ because I love the name Thessalonica so much.)

THE POINT of this post.

I read “Do no weary in doing good” this morning. 2 Thessalonians 3:13.

Don’t weary in doing good. Paul loved that church…and that’s what he told them. He knew what it was to be weary living the gospel when everything around him screamed different. The television, the Internet, the women at the temple of Dionysius whose togas left nothing to the imagination.

We all get weary sometimes.

The smallest action of good is a victory. Sometimes that’s all we can muster… a bitty action of good.

If you are weary today, I wish you rest.

I think Thessalonica the perfect name for a cat ~ don’t you?

God Found in the Everyday / Thought for the Day — No Comments
24
Aug 10

My Internet-al Soul.

I have not been online since Friday when a pecan limb fell on a power line and knocked out our power.

The resulting surge crashed our Internet.

This is the third time that has happened in as many weeks.

I mentioned to my IT person that God is trying to unplug me or the devil is trying to frustrate the hell out of me.

Whomever it is — it’s working.

My IT said, “Well, maybe it’s both.”

Great.

God and the devil battling over my internet soul. Guess that’s better than them battling over my eternal soul.

But they might be doing that too.

Good grief. A good verses evil tug-of-war over my Internet connection doesn’t seem so bad.

But that might be because I once again have a connection.

Just never know about somethings.

Faith / Free-for-all-Friday / God Found in the Everyday — No Comments
4
Jun 10

The Lucky Ones. I’m even worrying about the jellyfish.

I used to think they were the unlucky ones. The sea creatures at aquariums.

Ones caught and sentenced to a life circling around and around in a bathtub.

Lately not so sure.

This could turn into a rant on the greed of oil companies and greed of us ~ but no.

It’s about the beauty of the jellyfish. Most have seen them washed up on shore all drying and sticky. Our inner child still whispers, “If I touch it ~ will it sting?”

I’ve swam through jellyfish at that silly triathlon each August. Last year no jellies , but three summers ago there were tons. Got one right across my left check (face). It felt like a switch across my other set of cheeks long ago ~ probably for disobeying my mother in a manner my children do every day with no consequence.

It stung ~ for a while. Got stings on ankles, arms, all over.

Here’s a picture of the picture of me leaving the water after that swim.

Not fun.

Not pretty picture. I look in pain and mad. Well, might not look mad, but I was mad because I thought I’d tanked the swim because of the jellies.

Here they are in the nice blue of the Georgia Aquarium on Wednesday.

Beautiful.

I can’t see them whether in a manufactured sea pit or from my son’s kayak without thinking how beautiful they are in their environment.

How graceful, how unearthly.

Then to see them up on the shore…they look…well, pitiful.

Find your inner jellyfish. Where are you nothing but fluid motion? Your brain just flows ~

When not there, you are just a sticky pile of goo on the sand.

Like living immersed in the Holy Spirit. I guess…

Fluid.

Find the environment, where you flow.

And could BP find a flippin’ way to stop that expletive gusher?

God Found in the Everyday / Writing — 2 Comments
25
May 10

Tension — unmet desires. Where did Jack Bauer go?

Tension.

Writing the word gives me a headache.

Style and tension were the subject of my writing class on Monday.

Not going to blog about style. With all the Sex in the City 2 hype, the only image I have is Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha swathed in fabric striding some sand mountain.

Tension.

Every good story has to have it. A writer’s job is to create it from the first scene and build it, weave it — keep it rising on a string up to the climax. The moment when the conflict is resolved.

This includes creating empathic characters with deep motivations. Their motivations manifest themselves into desires and wants. Good writers block and impede the fulfilment of these desires until two-thirds to three-quarters the way through the story — the climax

That creates tension. The more tension, the more compelling the novel.

Why do we like to read stories filled with so much conflict — yet no one can live that way very long in good mental and physical health?

Our lives might seem pretty lame on the surface.

Granted there is lots of activity. Work, school, volunteering, baking cupcakes for end of school party, battling against the creatures that are shredding my collards. Nothing is as life shattering as the drama that unfolded in the finales of Lost or 24. Thank God. But why don’t we feel peace?

Jack Bauer is a tough *@###*. If I ever have to battle international terrorists I hope he is on call wherever he has run off to.

You never know. I might find a nuclear zucchini planted in my garden.

It might not be as sexy as a John Grisham thriller, but our inner selves are mega-repositories of tension caused by unmet motivations.

That must be why I religiously run, but that only releases physical manifestations. It doesn’t go to the root of the motivation that’s not being met.

I’ve been studying Galatians. Been working through Chapter 5 this week. The war of the flesh and the Spirit.

Very interesting stuff.

Galatians 5:22.

I really am going to miss Jack Bauer. Don’t tell my husband because all I did was talk about how violent that show was.

But have to admit, tension looked good on Jack.

Faith / The Music of Life — 1 Comment
18
May 10

Born Again…the Newsboys.

DC Talk

If you’ve been listening to Contemporary Christian music for a while, you know of DC Talk. You also know they have been on” hiatus” for a long time.

When I first started listening to Christian music — DC Talk drew me like a magnet.

Then they were gone. Toby Mac, Michael Tait and Toby McKeehan pursuing solo careers.

Toby Mac has had lots of success. Recently learned Michael Tait replaced the lead singer of the Newsboys. The new Newsboys (new Newsboys?) CD is due out July 13.

The first single can be downloaded May 18 — today.

I’m so very, very happy. I loved the other Newsboys sounds– John James era and Peter Furler era – but this new song sounds like…dare I say it…

DC Talk. or Michael Tait.

Here’s the video.

So much of the world lives in poverty and here I sit with a cup of coffee, typing on laptop — that is making me crazy because it is so old, listening to an awesome tune I downloaded just because I wanted to.

What’s going on?

For what did Christ break open my heart?

Will think on that today. But I love this song. Beat first as always, then lyrics.

“I’m not the one with two scarred hands….. I’ve been born again.”

God Found in the Everyday / Thought for the Day — No Comments
1
May 10

Cheers to Coffee and Pond Scum.

Yesterday I met good friend Mary Gardner at Starbucks on Aloma Avenue.

The door flew open and Mary came in carrying a small cooler like those that rush organs to hospitals. Hers was a tiny Playmate – so it couldn’t have been used for anything but a bitty bird heart or something. I knew better. Mary brought some blue green algae for me.

That’s all I’ve been hearing about from her. She looked great. I became curious about the contents of the bitty Playmate and if blue green algae could make me look great.

We ordered coffee. We went outside.

People were smoking outside with their coffee. We went back inside and surprise, surprise — there at a table sat fellow WPHS classmate Sandy Gantt Hayes.

We sipped coffee together, laughed lots until the cooler opened.

Mary poured us each a shot of blue green algae. It was like Gunsmoke, with Starbucks as the saloon and Mary as Miss Kitty.

Sandy drank first. I hesitated because of age-related gag reflex.

“It tastes like grass.”

That’s all it took to have visions of my puke of grass all over the table.

Sandy was brave and didn’t vomit – so I tipped up the algae. WOW.

With our brains on fire…

Conversation turned…

* To our kids and the challenges of raising children today.

* To our parents and the challenges of raising parents today.

* To us and the challenges of raised expectations that keep us trying to function at a reasonably high level today.

* How the most memorable moment of sophomore year was Andre Owens singing Reunited.

Sandy said her daughter is going to UF next year on a full track scholarship. A fact which impresses the heck out of me. (And all done without any green algae.)

She mentioned her track star daughter wondered why her parents would move back to Winter Park after living in Gainesville for so many years. Mary and her family moved back after living in New York City and about every place in between.

Fueled by coffee and algae we concluded that Winter Park, Florida next to Madison, Georgia is probably one of the most beautiful, greatest places to live. Sandy and Mary echoed that it had real community.

That is what we are all searching for – a place to belong.

Our children can’t imagine it, but twenty-five plus years from now, they will find themselves around a table at a Starbucks equivalent, drinking coffee and shots of blue green algae and wondering how they, their children and us (the aging parents) all fit together.

And where in the world did the last twenty-five years go?

It was great fun yesterday morning. And I felt great the rest of the day. Here’s to placing an order for algae.

Pills.

Faith / God Found in the Everyday / The Music of Life — No Comments
17
Apr 10

It’s hard to admit being a tad jealous. But sometimes I am.

I can’t sing.

I tried playing guitar for six weeks in the sixth grade. Lessons at school. Actually, I tried for about two weeks, then the other four consisted of me taking my guitar case to school on the bus and carrying it back home unopened.

My brain can’t wrap itself around chords and notes without strangling and shutting down.

Then there’s Amy Grant. So dang talented ~ I could be jealous, but one of the benefits of maturity is to realize there are just somethings in this world I am never going to be able to do and wasn’t meant to do…so don’t waste precious energy stewing about it. Just relax and experience the gift of another.

I love her new song Better than a Hallelujah.

Okay, loved the melody first…but the lyrics resound deep within anyone who’s ever poured out their heart to God.

A beautiful song. Enjoy.

God Found in the Everyday / The Music of Life / Thought for the Day / Wellness Wednesday — No Comments
14
Apr 10

My new favorite song…by Sanctus Real.

This is my favorite new song.

That song you hear on the radio twice in one day. Download to your iPod and listen to over and over — while you make dinner (while everyone else has fun) and clean up after dinner (while everyone else has fun.)

The message is the central teaching of the New Testement — but honestly, I like the music first.

The melody and arrangement draw me first to any music from pop to classic.

I’m a simple girl that way.

And I’m forgiven.

Food / God Found in the Everyday — 2 Comments
13
Apr 10

Confession is good for the soul. Or does God care if I’m like Spongebob?

Dear Father forgive me…for I have sinned.

Okay.

Not Catholic. Don’t know if that is correct confessional address. Doesn’t matter.

I sinned.

Okay, could use present tense. But this is not about sin. It is about confessing. Reading Merrill’s blog post. “Now that I have your ATTENTION” http://justmerrill.com/?p=730 ,

I enjoyed how this self-proclaimed “YaYa” made it through Lent alcohol free and grew in relationship with God.

Giving up chips and dessert, I broke faster and in more ways than my piggy bank. Do your children know where you keep your share change? — UGH. Some years with Lent are good — some not so much. This year was dreadful.

I’d eat three chocolate eggs — unnerving how good those “artificial” chocolate ones are — and refresh my vows. Recommitting at noon, I’d grab a handle up chips when hunger struck at 4:34 p.m.

Wondering why this year caving with no shame came as easy as stripping the foil off a Reese’s egg…I don’t want to sound whinny.

But, I was tired. When tired and busy, it is hard for me to stick with stupid rules.

Stupid rules?

Aha. The real reason I wasn’t able to fulfill my Lenten pledge. Not slowing down or shutting out chatter to experience a circumcision of the heart. Without it, Lenten fasts are nothing more than silly rules to lose weight or break bad habits. God couldn’t care less.

Nothing sinks in washing over a rock. To be changed, my heart needs to be as Spongebob taking a long stroll on the streets of Bikini Bottom after a day at Sandy’s without wearing his waterbubble.

God cares about our heart. Period.

So I started my own spiritual journey — and set a time period. A plan between me and God. Slowing down for a moment.

Did anyone have better luck with their Lenten fasts? I hope so… or hope you experienced what I am searching for — a soggy heart.

Okay, and a little more sleep. Sorry, somedays I just whine.

Family / Lent — No Comments
23
Feb 10

Money. Oh, how my perception’s changed.

Money.

My perception of money changed in the last few years.

Money doesn’t always appreciate, grow or result in multiple dividends. In fact the opposite can happen. And it’s not very wise to charge things you can’t pay cash for in the present, especially at a usurious interest rates.

Though I’d still like to very, very much. It’s just not wise.

Or mature.

I’m trying to be mature with money these days. Wants verses needs. You know the drill.

This was what I saw yesterday out by our street.

All you want for $2.00.

That is our dirty paper recycling receptacle. Which in a former life was a laundry basket. Since they were out on the street because Monday is our day, why not have a sale?

My kindergartner, set this stand up and informed me that this sale was to raise money for next Valentine’s Day.

There were no takers…

Must have been a night for Jack Sparrow.

And surprisingly no takers for these….

Remember Rubik's Cubes?

I guess there is not a lot of business these days rehabbing 1980′s brain teasers. But the point is, my children have more of an appreciation for money than I did.

It’s been another part of transforming my character. Ouch.

My daughter said the other day, “We don’t have any money anymore. And (insert name of her friend) doesn’t either.” Now thankfully, we do have money coming in, but we surely don’t spend it like we used to. We are hammering away at the debt and trying to save as well.

Have you thought of any creative ways to earn or save money? Other than selling Rubik’s Cube chips? (As valuable as they might be.)

The flower of Midlife sifted through faith, family and heaping helping of southern fried chicken.