My friend, Candy, went skydiving last week. Yes that's Candy in the photo. She posted her adventure on Facebook (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXLjJSybrtQ) and I laughed as I watched it – she never stopped smiling. She embraced life, took the challenge, and literally let go.
Candy lives deliberately – experiencing each day. She didn’t let fear or excuses stop her from achieving a deep desire in her heart. Now I am not going skydiving and am not recommending it either, but doesn’t it make you wonder what has been on your bucket list too long and needs attention? What God given yearning is buried in your heart under the clutter of everyday chores and other people’s demands?
Henry David Thoreau
lived deliberately. He rose every morning with the intention to absorb very crumb of the day. He wrote, “I want to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life…to know it by experience.”
lived deliberately. He rose every morning with the intention to absorb very crumb of the day. He wrote, “I want to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life…to know it by experience.” I think most of us walk around half asleep or even worse half dead. We get caught up with our never-ending to do lists and trapped into shallow living.
I don’t think God gave us a numbing, boring life but a real, vibrant, energizing life. I want to taste that, experience that, to be fully alive.
So now what? I am going to pray about this observation this week – remain open to what the Lord is teaching me about living deliberately. What do I need to let go off – like Candy had to do in skydiving – in order to embrace the dreams God planted within me? I plan to revisit some of my deepest desires and intentionally open one of them – yet this summer.
Join me?
12 comments:
It's not as thrilling as sky-diving, but I think the trip my mom and I are planning for September fits the "deep desire" criteria. For several days, we'll be staying in a farmhouse without internet or cell phone access in the area where my mom's parents grew up. We're going to visit family cemeteries and explore abandoned iron furnaces. I can hardly wait to enjoy those days.
Such a great message.
But what if you're so stubbornly intent on living deliberately that it takes over your life? Sometimes I feel that it's sort of selfish of me to insist on doing all these things that God has planted in me-different programs that I want to volunteer with, spiritually oriented writing I want to do, when I could be doing a better job of helping secure us financially, for our kids' sake & for our future's sake. Yet I don't want to give up anything I feel led to do. It's hard for me to know what I should let go of, in both the world and in my spiritual life.
Oh yes... I've always wanted to sky dive.
My uncle used to have a motto: "I want to do something dangerous, yet legal today."
Sometimes I wonder if maybe we need to face a little danger... step out of our comfort zone.. and let God use us where we would rather not be. Good thoughts, Jean. :)
I'm joining you! My leap from the airplane this week is going to She Speaks and giving talks in front of professional speakers who are critiquing my every move! Yikes! Maybe I'll just jump out of an airplane instead! ;0)
Tweeting this out as part of Tweet Me Tuesday!
Oh me oh my! I have a dear friend that does this but it's definitely NOT for me. On the other hand, I've always wanted to get serious about writing and God's got me doing that now so I'm THRILLED! AND having so much fun doing it! So I totally agree with you there :)
As a pastor of mine used to say - if you make plans, you might achieve them. If you never make plans, you can't make them because they don't exist ;)
Have a blessed week!
I would so love to go sky diving!!!
You are so right!! Sometimes we just have to let go (and let God)!! Beautiful!!
Alright, Jeanie, lets jump together! I totally agree, sometimes we go around most miserably.
A beautiful post! Loved the video of your friend, what a huge mass of smiles she was!
Visiting from Tweet Me Tuesday! So nice meeting you! =)
Yes! (not to skydiving) but to the heart of your post.
I will join you and lets see what He says. ;-)
This is GREAT, Jeanie! I'm driven -- compelled -- to finish something this summer that has been hanging around in my head and heart for more than a year. You know! And I'm trying to leap every day.
Great post.
Love reading all of your comments, especially Duane's quote from his uncle. What a way to live. It is a hard balance and hard to discern what to let go off and where God is leading. Hard to wake up and move out of our comfort zones.
Like Laura one decision I have made is to complete one project that has been hanging over my head too long. Actually even if it doesn't lead to anything, its incompletion acts as an obstacle to my other dreams. won't really take much to finish it, then let it go.
One of my deepest desire is to write a children' book and even though I have been writing for quite a while, I don't know much about the genre. This week changes that as I attend Midwest Writers conference and learn. Scary to dive ( skydive?) into new and unknown territory.
Yes, Jean, I join you! I am one who is often caught up in the everyday mundane, the to-do list. I think I miss so much with my nose buried in my ought-tos. This post is an inspiration!
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