The Lazy Crusade?

I have to be honest with you...I am lazy.  I know this may surprise some of you - maybe not my mother and close friends, but yes..it is true.  I enjoy laying on the couch with my coffee and blanket.  My wonderful husband bought me a small notebook laptop so that I can begin to blog....he knew I would not blog if I had to sit in a chair at a desk! Here I am...with my coffee, blanket and notebook.  It is a wonderful feeling.  The Bible does not encourage laziness, so I can not blog to encourage others to lay around and do nothing...so, what am I doing??


I love sitting at the beach, reading a book...doing nothing.  I have a close friend who I talked into sitting at the beach with me and she enjoyed it so much that she began to meet me at the beach quite often throughout our 6 week summer here in Michigan.  We had a great time chatting and soaking up the sun. One day, she looked at me and said, "Heidi, thank you for teaching me how to sit around and do nothing without feeling guilty about it".  Ummm...your welcome?  I was not sure how to take this statement at first...is my calling in life to create lazy people?? I don't think God would want me to begin a crusade for sitting around...although, I think that crusade would probably be quite popular! I laughed at my friend as she was turning red from the few hours we had been sitting in the sun.  I looked at our feet splashing in the water - we had moved our chairs up so we would not have to actually stand up and walk over to the water to cool off...we could just set our chairs in the sand while our feet were in the water!  ( I think this is another very important thing I taught my friend that day...no standing required!)


My friend was not laughing, which was a little strange.  She had just finished telling me that I taught her how to sit around and not feel guilty, but she had a very serious look on her face...and...was that tears in her eyes or just a reflection of the waves? She continued by talking about the verse in the Bible, "Be still and know that I am God..."  she told me that she had a problem with "being still".  She talked about how she needs to learn to "just sit".  Sometimes we need to take time for ourselves, and sometimes, God can speak to us easier if we take the time to "Be still".  My friend was not joking around with me when she thanked me for teaching her how to sit around.  I guess some people need to  know that it is okay to sit, relax and listen.  God shows us many things when we sit down for some quiet time.  He can show us things about ourselves. He can show us his creation...especially while sitting at a beautiful beach.  God is waiting for us to "be still" so that we can "know" Him better.  Take time to sit down..take time to look around you.  God maybe trying to show you something, but you are too busy with life to see it.
So, don't be lazy...but Be Still.  You can thank me later!

Shortcuts

My husband loves to take "shortcuts".  You know, the kind that you think you are lost but of course, you are not because he knows "exactly" where you are! We had three days without kids.  The youngest was visiting Grandma and Grandpa.  The oldest we had just dropped off at camp in a place that is difficult to find with directions.  We were on the adventure of a lifetime - that was his line.  "We" decided to just drive around and find a place to spend a few days alone.  Did I mention that we were in the middle of nowhere?  I think we drove through part of a state land area of Michigan, which was full of trees, trees and more trees.  While driving through our shortcut to nowhere, we saw a tiny log cabin sitting near a home with a sign on it stating that  you could rent by the day.  We stopped, rented it for our two nights and were excited to have some peace and quiet.  During the one room tour and exchange of money and key, the man told us he had a canoe.  He would drive us upriver, drop us for a peaceful canoe trip back to the cabin if we wanted.  The next day, we decided to try our rowing skills and take the trip.


Waving goodbye to the stranger who dropped us off with his canoe, we began our adventure.  It was quite a beautiful trip when we were not stuck in bushes or sitting on sand where the river ran too low.  Toward the end of the ride, we began to head toward another group of bushes.  The tree branch was going to hit my face, so I grabbed it.  As I held the branch, the canoe continued to move.  I am not sure if you can picture this or not, but my husband was behind me - behind the branch that I was holding as it bent further and further.  He yelled for me to not let go, but by the time I saw his terrified face, the branch was bent so far I could not hold on any longer.  Yes, I let go.  What happened next actually happened in slow motion.  The branch flung toward my husband's wide eyes.  His arms and body went backward as if in a Matrix movie.  Then, his feet followed his arms and body.  He did quite an amazing back flip over the side of the canoe and into the river.  His head popped out of the water to find his "should be concerned wife" laughing uncontrollably.  I was bent over, holding my stomach that hurt from laughing so hard, with tears streaming down my face!  What a hilarious event!  It was priceless.  I guess he did not find it as funny as I had.  He dragged his soaking body back over the canoe and sat looking at me with one sandle on.  The other had been sucked under the muck at the bottom of the river.  Well, of course that caused me to break into another mindless moment of giggles.


I Will never forget that two day trip to nowhere.  We had just wanted to get away from life for a few days.  Isn't it amazing that God can bring joy and laughter in small silly things?  If we had been too busy to take this mini vacation, I would not have this fun memory of our marriage.  Of course, my husband may wish he had not taken the 'shortcut' that day!


Take time to be silly and laugh with your family or a friend.  Take a shortcut in your life to give yourself a little time to relax.  Take a few moments to find "you" again.  Sometimes we get lost on the road to success and living life - we need to take time to just be. Time to laugh. Time to break loose and have a little fun. Ask God to show you a shortcut that you can take this week that will bring joy and laughter to your life.