Because we Like it Fresh

Why write when it's all been written about already?
Why speak when it' all been spoken about?
Why create art when so much art has already been created?
Why sing a new song when the old songs already say it all?
Why read it again when you've read it all before?

I'm growing a garden again this year - vegetables and weeds. Gardens are awesome because they produce the freshest foods you will ever eat. When growing your own garden you can eat a carrot just seconds after it is removed from the ground, you don't even have to wash it, you just have to rub it on a relatively clean swatch of grass and it's good for consumption. And when you do consume that carrot you will taste and see that there is no carrot sold in a store that can rival it's freshness and flavor...ahh I can't wait.

Here's the connection to the above questions

Because just like we love it fresh when it comes to garden veggies we crave the fresh words and experiences in life too, we want to see something new and feel the vibe of the fresh tunes, we want to know what's the latest with family and friends, and I especially feel it today when I think of my experiences with Jesus, I crave fresh in my faith. Sadly it has become obvious to me  that I am scooting along on the coat tails of last seasons experiences with Jesus and I'm noticing I'm overdue for something fresh. Time to make some adjustments to my devotional time because I feel like the colour has faded, the gum has been chewed out, the bread got left out again and has become crusty, the glass of water has gotten those little bubbles in it ...... it's like the frozen beans I keep making my family eat because I refuse to waste "perfectly good food", they are limp and flavorless and we have a gazillion frozen from last season but for the sake of all starving children in the world we shall eat every last one! ok so that's a little dramatic but you get the picture.

I need my faith to be fresh again. I need to have new encounters with Jesus in action in me. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the past experiences, they are still worth talking about but they can't replace the need for the new ones.
I know this is in my court. It's not like Jesus has been holding out on me, I have to take the time with Jesus, nothing can replace true and authentic time with Jesus.
So that's where I am at today, maybe you're feeling it too? Has "that" story you keep telling been told one too many times? Then come on, join me in this.


 side note ---  I have a friend who's blogging and she is awesome so you should also read her stuff. She is the one who unintentionally and unknowingly motivates me to blog and to do a lot of other things good. https://stainedglasssecrets.wordpress.com

From my Brain to Yours

I know it might not always look think it but it takes me about 2 hours to write a post for my blog. Sometimes even 3 hours and on a highly efficient day 1 hour. I have no idea how that compares to other people but for me that seems like a lot of time.
  I write the intro/general idea, read and edit it, sit and think, write more, read again and edit more, sit and think, sometimes almost rewrite the whole thing, read and edit, write, read, edit, read, think, read again, spell check, preview the page, read again, pick a title, say to myself this needs a picture but I don't want to spend time looking for one, read it again, then if it doesn't need more editing I wait for a confident wind to blow by and click publish and read it again as a finished piece. Sometimes I still find errors and have to go back to edit stage. All this is done before you read it for the first time. I am way over working this.....ah well. It is a good feeling when all is written and clicked.

This one only took me 30 minutes.

Honest + Open = Vulnerable + Free

Why? Why do I open up my life on the world wide web? Why open up to anyone at all? Is there a difference in how open one should be, blogging or in person? What kind of openness, vulnerability or transparency is appropriate or acceptable on a blog?
or Maybe if you don't have a blog, how vulnerable or transparent should you be with others?

I find it funny that I have a blog were I talk about personal things, things that leave me vulnerable. Why? Why on earth would I tell you, strangers and friends alike, all this stuff about me and my life? Then I sometimes wonder, Where do I get off thinking people actually care about my writings? Do I really have anything worth while to say? --- don't answer that! I guess you are the only ones who know the answers to why you read but for me, why do I write my stories here for the world to read? Why am I honest about what's in my life? I started thinking about this when I had someone tell me that they would never share openly on the Internet, they just read other peoples comments on facebook and blogs, but they don't let people know where they are at; not their strengths or their weaknesses. I felt sorry for this person because the best thing, the most freeing thing, I have ever done in my life is to share my greatest weaknesses openly. I think being real and honest about life is very freeing and it does leave you vulnerable at times, but I don't have to pretend to be someone I'm not and wear a mask. For me blogging is part of this, it helps me feel free.
But that said I still don't write everything here.. **a grateful sigh is heard across the land**
This is how I decide what to write, I either am going about my day and I have a thought or an experience that I instantly know I need to blog or I know it's time to blog so I sit down, start writing until something worth posting comes to the surface. Not everything I want to say do I write ***another grateful sigh is heard across the land**
So I blog and that's for me .... Some of you don't, so why do you choose to be open and vulnerable with people in real life? Or why are you not open with people?(if you'll share) And some of you do blog, what about you? Why do you do it?
How vulnerable are you? Have you found that being real, becoming unmasked is freeing?

Emotional

So it's been a few months since I blogged and it's been on my mind to blog for a while but I really wasn't knowing what to write. Well today I have something.
Emotional - It has been happening in prayer lately or when I start to talk about God with someone, I start to feel emotional, even at just hearing his name. It is almost like I can feel the Spirit in the room and then like my senses converge and don't know what to do so I feel the urge to cry or like this morning I just flat out bawl my eyes out. I knew that was coming for a while because in a way I had been holding out on letting it all out, or was that letting it all in. I suppose it was both. So much has been going on in our church theses days, to put it mildly and I realize the task of faithfully serving and loving our church has never been more pressing, than at this time. Which means I need to be spending a lot more time flat out before God. and at times that just seems overwhelming.
There is so much more I could say about letting it all out and letting it all in but it's late and I'm going to bed.

I have no challenge today but to myself - Pray!

Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org