It Has Been A While...

This has been a busy summer - too busy for my liking. Luckily I won't be helping to organize a 10-year high school reunion every summer; that's how the busy-ness started. I'll still be volunteer coordinating at Folk Fest, but I'll book time off my real job as soon as 2010 begins so that I don't get completely overwhelmed during the 2nd week of August. As for the hot dog stand, I can't let go; the money is too big. I'm going to cut back though... or I'll cut back on my real job... because I might be taking a class or two during the spring/summer semesters. Who knows, who knows. This is exciting though.

I haven't read a real book from beginning to end for a year or so. I have a pile of 8 books (at least) beside my bed and I read a chapter or two from one of them every so often. I've read a lot of graphic novels over the past year, and I really like them. Some of them are pretty meaty and give me lots to chew on, but some of them are puny and pointless aside from providing an hour of entertainment. I haven't even read blogs as much as I would've liked to; there's some good ones out there, and they're better than people's status updates on Facebook. (Why do I subject myself to that crazy networking website? I over-do it. Sometimes it makes me want to barf.)

Tonight things changed. I read two chapters in a book called "Prayer" by O. Hallesby. It's really simple and basic, but I need it because I think I have forgotten how to pray and how important it is. Conversing with God is benificial to/for all of us. Here's a quote from chapter 8:

"My little boy came in one day and stuck his little head into the doorway of my study. Now he knows that he was not supposed to disturb me during working hours. And his conscience troubled him a little on account of this. But he looked at me nevertheless with his kind, round baby eyes and said, 'Papa, dear, I will sit still all the time if you will only let me be here with you!' ... Is not that just the way we often feel with regard to our heavenly Father? We do so love to be with Him, just to be in His presence! Moreover, we never disturb Him, no matter when we com nor how often we come!"

I also read Jon Coutts' blog, and he quoted Matthew Wilkinson's blog. Their's are some of my favorites and they're constantly writing on them; we should all read them more often. Here's what hit me from both of them:

(Jon's blog, a reflection on his newest quest for education)

"I am heading off to study God as revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. By grace I have as my subject the Creator who so loved creation that He gave Himself to it in freedom, that it might love Him in freedom!"

(Matthew's blog, the fictional story of Hafford, Saskatchewan... I think I'll have to give myself a day to read the whole thing because I've only heard about Matthew's latest blog from Sarah, and now Jon.)

"It's just that we live in a time when you can't do heroic stuff. Y'know? Unless you join the army or something there's no big moment where you get to discover if you're a coward or whatever, and so I've got to look at the way I walk to the grocery store or behave with my friends, and try to discern the same information. Am I doing these things well? Am I living well generally? How do you live well in a quiet world where nothing changes and people are mostly pretty content? Should I be out looking for injustices?"

(Oh to live in a peaceful small town in Saskatchewan... and to have to look for injustices. Life in inner city big city Alberta is full of injustices... sigh...)

I love reading. I was feeling pretty distraught and depressed when I started reading tonight. After reading 3 paragraphs of Hallesby's book I was clear-headed and calmed. Was that reading, or was it the reminder that there is One who is always listening to my heart, whether or not I am?

Whatever it was, reading is an enjoyable activity and from this point on I will be doing more of it.