time

So...wow...where does the time go? Been twenty days since I last blogged. You would think I would have more to talk about than that...well, you are right. Just don't have the time to do it as I would like. :)

Here are a couple of things that have been rolling in my head/caught my eye/made me go: hmmmm.

Started reading a little Thoreau. Walden. These two blurbs caught my eye:

Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine. How can he remember well his ignorance — which his growth requires — who has so often to use his knowledge?

I like that last line. We work so hard to stay ahead that we can't learn from our own ignorance or mistakes...next line, I am sure you have heard this one:

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

How profound is that statement today? And this was written back in the mid-1800's. I know...nothing is new under the sun...read Ecclesiastes 1...oh here:

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

Although, I have not read Walden in its entirety yet, I agree with him on those points to an extent, but. There is always a but, isn't there? :) From what I have read regarding this work, he seems to go to extremes on his points, so I will be anxious to see what else he states in the writing. I do believe we make ourselves too busy at times though.

OK...what else have I seen that caught my eye? Ah, yes...I get an email every Monday Morning from Roy Williams from Wizard Academy and he had this to say a week or so ago:

"You can be anything you want to be," was once the anthem of America. But we seem to have twisted that sunlit dream into a shriveled demon that whispers, "Hurry, hurry, hurry and you can be everything you want to be." Too much to do, too little time. Tossed and turned by a too-much world, we're as tired as a termite in a yo-yo. And all along, we were just trying to find our way home. "Why am I here? What is my purpose? Who are my people? Where is my tribe?"

Another issue of being busy...are we seeing a theme here? Too busy for this...too busy for that...too busy, too busy, too busy.

And yet, I have found the time to post this blog. :)

Food for thought. Enjoy your day. Give God thanks that you even have the day, for He is the one who controls the days you get. What will you do with it?

pilgrimage

Studying the book of Genesis in the Bible right now...starting to wrap it up actually. Last night I went over the death of Jacob and his blessing of Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Before that it talked about the meeting between Pharaoh and Jacob. When Pharaoh asked Jacob how old he was, he said, "The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers." (Gen. 47:9)
Pilgrimage. Another word for life. Just a thought...

This life is a pilgrimage...a pilgrimage to our home. You see, I am not a citizen of this world any longer, ever since I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I am now a citizen of heaven. A son of the King. ("But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ"...Phillipians 3:20)

What is the purpose of my pilgrimage? To be more like Christ. And how is this for encouragement in that process?:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:1-3

I need that encouragement often...because I feel that I fail often. I am not saying I walk around moping that I fail...Jesus came to give me life, abundant life (John 10:10)...not a desolate, always grieving, always in despair life. His grace is sufficient...it's a hard thing to wrap my mind around sometimes and, yet, so easy a concept.

Random thoughts...started by one word. Pilgrimage. How can I make my pilgrimage more meaningful for my boys? What spiritual legacy will I leave them? I pray that it is a process that benefits them and helps them on their pilgrimage.