Learning Along The Way

Being Brave in the Little Things

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It’s Monday evening and this is what I’m up to:

(shout out to iBloom planner)

I struggle with structure. Don’t get me wrong, I like a certain amount of structure. It creates the frame around my days. But sometimes I feel too constrained by structure so I reject it; I act as if I don’t have limits of time or energy or focus and just do what I feel like doing. I go back and forth from detailed planning to simply having appointments on the calendar. I like to tell people I am a recovering Type A personality.

Anybody else?

  I lived rigidly structured for quite a few years of my life. I took it upon myself to be the organizer within our family; somebody had to bring order out of chaos! But I learned along the Way that rigidity isn’t actually a  life style that leaves room for God’s plans. I began to be challenged in my rigidity when I read the book Life Management for Busy Women by Elizabeth George. 

I read the book the year it was published, 2002. Both our sons were school age: Matt was 14 and a freshman in high school and Mark was 7 and in second grade. I was a full time SAHM, not homeschooling either of them at that point, and so, in an effort to establish my worth, (I didn’t believe I had inherent worth at that time; more on that brave change later) I created an action plan for my life that was scheduled down to the minute; filled with good things like teaching Bible study, volunteering at both schools, helping with AWANA at church, making meals for new moms & for end of life needs, leading children’s worship on Sunday mornings, early morning walks for exercise and prayer with a different friend each morning of the week. In those days I was getting 6 – 7 hours of sleep in order to fit it all in. If anything unusual happened, like an invitation for a spontaneous coffee with a friend or anything else out of the ordinary (which of course wasn’t on the schedule), I might be known to have a meltdown. Can you say hair trigger emotion? My poor family! I have no idea how they still speak to me! 

The book had lots of practical ideas to help people create structure in their lives; which I didn’t need help with. There was one mind blowing take away that has stuck with me: the principle of “leaving room for God”. Her point was, if we are so committed to our plans, our schedules, we often say ‘no’ or ‘I don’t have time’ when an out of the ordinary opportunity comes. 

Sometimes it’s in the unplanned, off the schedule opportunities where God wants us to be His hands and feet in the world. If our lives are too full, too scheduled, we don’t have time for God’s Plan B for our day. Click To Tweet

It took several big, brave steps in my life before I made the shift from my rigid, over scheduled plan to leaving room in my days for God’s plan. I have learned that being brave in the little things, like not over scheduling my day, saying no to too many commitments, and leaving time margin between one thing and the next has given me courage to say Yes to God’s plan for my day. 

How do you handle the need for structure? Is the whole idea overwhelming? Or do you have so much structure you don’t have time for spontaneous, out of the ordinary events? Let’s share how we are brave in the little things like bringing order out of chaos. We need to hear how others are brave because it encourages us to be brave, too.

Rhythm of Life

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When I asked my husband, who is a trained percussionist, this question: How important is rhythm to being a percussionist? He looked at me with this quizzical expression, but he humored me and responded seriously, “Rhythm is essential.  You can’t be a successful percussionist without a good sense of rhythm.”  I pressed a little further: Can rhythm be learned or is it innate?  He said, “No one gets all the variations of rhythm without practice.  Rhythm takes practice.”

Rhythm provides the structure to music that all else in the piece is built upon.  Interestingly, what is true of music is true of our lives.

Our pastor uses the phrase, “Rhythm of life”.  I’ve pondered the meaning and implications of that phrase for awhile now.

Rhythms can vary.  Just like seasons.  But even in the repeating of the seasons there is rhythm and it is comforting to our souls.

Rhythm to your day, the regular habits of thought and action that turn your mind and heart toward God are what the phrase is about I think.

It’s a pattern but not a rigid pattern; not a legalistic way of going about your day. Although there are those individuals who are very disciplined and their structure does not vary even to the minute.  That’s not what I am talking about here.

Rhythm of life is more about the big ideas, elements, that fill your days.

Ironically we often move through our day driven by the clock, the external keeper of  rhythm rather than by an internal intention or rhythm.  Time and again I hear people say things like: ‘I just don’t know where the time goes’ or ‘I don’t have time for …’

We are all given 24 hours to steward.  What we do with the time is up to us.  Of course there are fixed and variable elements in our lives that must be attended to: people, work, sleep, food; but it is often the intangible elements that give us pause when they’re missing: time with God, creativity in some form, mental rest.

If you are feeling out of sorts or driven by the clock without a break, I encourage you to make an assessment of your days.  Write down how you spent your time at the end of the day.  Do that for three days.  Look at what fills your time.  Now comes the hard part.

Change.

If there are things in your day that don’t have to be there: tv watching, internet surfing, excessive texting or tweeting, excessive time on the phone; make some changes.  To make rhythm adjustments change has to happen.  To make room for the intangibles some tangibles have to go.

In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus he tells them about change.  “These former ways of living, don’t work for you any longer.  Put those off.  Instead, put these on.” (the Message)

What are “these” that Paul was referring to?  What are the things on your list that don’t work for you any longer?

 

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