PAUSE

Last weekend we took some time to breathe.  We acknowledged the fact that life seems to constantly move towards the hectic.  Without wanting it or intending for it, life becomes about worry and stress.  We hate it, yet we feel stuck.  The bad news is that our culture is structured in such a way that this is normal.  The good news is that we don't have to simply go with the flow until it controls us, we can step away from what is normal, we can PAUSE.

Bryan posted a great summary of our retreat yesterday.  You guys should definitely give it a read just for a refresh and recap.  Or if you were unable to join us, it'll give you a great idea of what we thought about during the weekend.

I want to just take a minute to encourage you to think about the impact pausing can have on your life and how you can making pausing a part of your everyday life.

As you think about your week, consider these questions:

- How do you get perspective on life?  What helps you see the bigger picture of who God is and who you are on a daily basis?

- Do you take time every day to pause and to broaden your perspective on life?  If not, how could you do that?  What would it look like?

- Are there friends around you who would be willing and able to help you keep your focus on things that truly matter?  Could you be more intentional about developing friendships that help you grow closer to God on a daily basis?

- How do you love God and love others every day?  This is the key, this is the ultimate in gaining perspective.  Try pausing each day to think about how you can love God and love others and then act on it and see how that impacts the way you see life.

My prayer for all of us is that we would see the importance of stopping and pausing so that we don't rush through life, missing God and others along the way.

What Do We Really Want?

     What do we really want?  If we all stopped and took a couple minutes we could come up with a pretty good list of things that have been on our minds over the last few days, weeks, and months...things that we want.  These things range from Volcano Tacos, new music, and new clothes to boyfriends/girlfriends, less homework, and better relationships with our parents.  Some of those may be true for you, some may not be but what is true for all of us is that we want something.  We always want something.  That's not a bad thing in and of itself, its a part of life and I believe its a part of the way that God has created us.  I also think it something that we should actually give some thought to though.

     One thing that we need to realize about our wants is that we live in such a way as to get what we want.  Seems pretty basic right?  It is and that's why we have to keep it in check.  If we don't stop to think about what we want and why we want it, we can begin to live in ways that lead us to places that we don't really want to go.  What we've experienced to be true in our lives is that usually the joy of getting what we want doesn't fulfill us for long.  Ever gotten something you really, really wanted and it was all good for a little while and then the newness wore off and two months later you barely thought about what it was that you got again?  These cycles happen often in our lives and we rarely take time to think about the fact that stuff really doesn't fulfill us.  It never will be able to.

    Last week we took a look at the world and thought about how different our wants are from people who live in different places and under different living conditions around the world.  Take a couple minutes and check out this site for some statistics.

    This week we want to do something tangible, we want to take action to help do something about the wants of others.  I'm asking you to sacrifice something this week; sell clothes to Plato's closet, do chores to makes some money, or maybe deep into that money you've been saving up for something!  Bring it in and we'll all put our money together and we're going to help making a micro-loan through www.kiva.org that will allow someone in another country to work towards making their community a better place!  The beauty of KIVA is that the person who we loan money to will pay it back and when they do well get to "pay it forward" again and bless another person and on and on.  Your sacrifices, you giving up what you want can be a tremendous blessing to someone thousands of miles away!  Talk to your parents about it, they might like to get involved too.