Thursday, April 30, 2009

Swine Flu & God

Okay, the title might be a little deceiving. If you haven't heard about this one, well, you're hiding under a rock. Or, maybe you just don't watch TV, and congratulations on that. I just found out about it two days ago because of talk at school.

This morning I was having my time with God when Jenna started coughing. The first couple, I shrugged off, "allergies," I thought in my mind. When it kept on going for a while, I have to admit, I got up to take her temperature. I even got a little nervous when it read 99.7. But, the consecutive tries gave me a closer to normal reading.

It made me think, everyone is on heightened alert right now. As a teacher, I am instructed to send any students who seem ill to the nurses office (I usually tell them they'll live if they complain of being ill- in a very compassionate way, of course!). We're watching everyone, prepared for anything.

What if....

What if I lived my life for my Holy God that way? What if every detail, every nuance of life I was on heightened alert; I was watching with scrutiny for Him working around me? Would I "get it" more than I do? Of course! Man, my walk with God would be ROCKIN'! Think of all the little opportunities you miss (I miss) every day because I'm not focused on him like I should be! That just blew me away when it hit me this morning.

Prayer - I'm getting better at the 15 minutes. Know what I've discovered? Noise. Noise keeps me from praying. Simple things like turning off the radio on my drive to school (the whole 2.1 miles that takes 8 minutes :) ), turning off the radio as I shower and get reading in the morning, just taking time to sit in solitude instead of noise, really help my prayer life? I challenge you to find at least 10 minutes in your day to turn off some noise and spend time in prayer. I like it, and I didn't think I would.