Imperfect People

In the book “7: An experimental Mutiny against excess”, the author takes 7 areas of her life; Food. Clothes. Spending. Media. Possessions. Waste. Stress. They would spend thirty days on each topic, boiling it down to the number seven. Only eat seven foods, wear seven articles of clothing, and spend money in seven places. Eliminate use of seven media types, give away seven things each day for one month, adopt seven green habits, and observe “seven sacred pauses.” 

Totally inspired, I decided to give “Seven sacred pauses” a whirl.

Out of the 7 I thought this one would be an awesome way to make me be more intentional about my day. And to be quite honest I cannot possibly imagine eating only 7 foods.

Here is how the seven sacred pauses works:

Each day 7 times a day there are distinctive things to enjoy, celebrate, and pray about. There are three psalms listed for every pause yet you only read one at a time.

Here are my notes for each prayer time:

1)Awakening hour: Thankfulness for a new day. As the sun rises so does his new grace and mercy. Today is a new day. This day is yours Jesus. As the sun rises may I remember I am a light for you.

Psalm 19,95,147

2)Blessing hour: Before the day gets away from us, invite the spirit in. Remember that my work is an opportunity to show love. We are carriers of the spirit of Christ and our work is sacred. No matter what you do, do it to the glory of God. (this one was huge for me)

Psalm 67,84,121

3)The Hour of Illumination: When the sun is brightest in the sky. We pray for light. Light piercing through the darkness of our hearts. Unforgivness, bitterness, fear, worry, and addiction. That light will bring joy to a dark world. (I also used this time to pray for friends.)

Psalm24,33,34

4)Wisdom hour: Mid afternoon, the time of day Christ died. We use this time to remember life is temporary. Perspective on the short fleeting day.

Psalm 71,90,138

5)Twilight hour: As the day is drawing to a close. Reflect on gratitude. What where your great blessings of the day? Psalm 34,139,145

6) The great silence: Before bed, when the day is getting quiet, reflect on strengths of the day. Remember we are loved sinners covered in grace. Look forward to tomorrows opportunity to walk in more obedience than today. Darkness; we pray for protection from the enemy and our innocence in Christ. We pray for our children sheltered under gods wings. Intervene for those suffering in darkness. Let go of the day and enter the great silence.

Psalm 23,91,134

7) The night watch: this pause is around midnight. This is the time we inteceed for others. This is a deep prayer for those suffering, abandoned, lonely, abused, or waiting in the ER. Intercession for those you know and or those you don’t.

7 daily, intentional pauses all with a beautiful purpose.

At first I thought I didn’t need a reminder and I would notice the time of day, and remember to pray….not a chance. It is amazing how quickly awakening hour turns into high noon! Yet another reason I was interested in this “exercise.” I can’t stand the idea of life getting away from me without putting purpose to my days.

Enter in, cell phone reminders! Thank you siri for you help on this. With each “chime” of my phone every few hours I was reminded of a sacred reason to PAUSE.

It is much harder than I thought to get ALL 7 pauses in every day. I find I do more some days than others. At the very least at each chime reminded me of the sacred time of day.  And about that midnight prayer time?  That is typcially right before I go to bed…not at midnight.  (I never said I was perfect)

It’s amazing what happens when God’s people pray. I am loving this little experiment.

I would love to have you back! Click here to subscribe via email.

When everything is going great and people are healed we say, “Praise God!” But what about when people are not healed? What about when horrible things happen? Is God still good? With the news of car accidents, shootings, and hurricanes,  we can’t help but ask ourselves this question.

Wrestling with the question myself from time to time, I have done some, (ok a LOT) of research over the years. I have read some books, searched the scripture, listened to people a lot smarter than me and did a lot of praying.

I think I was hoping for a simple, yet eloquent answer tied up with a pretty bow. But if I found something like that I knew I should be cautious. A far more detailed answer was much more likely.

In effort not to write a 100 page dissertation I have highlighted 6 points that give me peace when I see suffering, calm when I am worried, and give hope for tomorrow.  I hope this helps you deal with the hard things in life.

1) It didn’t’ start out that way

In the beginning God made man, His most prized creation, in His image. Man was made without disease, hereditary predispositions, sickness, or fault. In fact adam lived until he was 930 years old!  All of creation was “good” there were no hurricanes, drought, tsunamis…and although I can’t prove this, I am betting there were no mosquitos.

God made everything, and it was GOOD.   But because our God loves us so much, he also gave us freedom. He didn’t create us like robots programed to “do right” and never have a mind of our own. He gave us choice…a will.

Genesis 3:4:” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows
 that when you eat from [the tree] your eyes will be opened,
 and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

God didn’t want us to know of evil, He wanted to protect us, but we thought we knew better than God..the oldest and still most active sin in the book.

Because of sin we have selfishness, discontentment, hate, murder, natural disasters, and sickness.

ALL creation is groaning for His return Romans 8:23

2) God isn’t fair

When I hear about babies dying, or random shootings my first instinct is to say, “That isn’t fair!” And technically I would be right, it’s not fair. But God is not fair….and I’m thankful.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
Romans 6:23

Sin is so bad and so ugly to a Perfect and HOLY God that it HAS to be punished.  And we have all sinned.  But remember, we are also His most prized creation.   He wants to have a relationship with us.

Sin made too large of a gap between God and man.  There was no way any one human, or millions of them for that matter, could have possibly bridged the gap.

In the most astonishing display of love the world has ever seen, God sent his only son to pay the price we couldn’t pay.

Jesus was perfect, we were not. We deserved death, yet Jesus suffered it all, because of love.  I have sinned. Meaning my punishment is death…eternal death. Yet because of God’s grace, because I believe in an amazing God that is so much bigger than what I see, I will get the opportunity to one day see him face to face.

3) God never waste a hurt

When bad things happen, God always uses the hard stuff for amazing teaching opportunities, both for us and others.

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience,
but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world
 -C.S. Lewis.
Every tear we cry he hold's in his hand -Casting Crowns Psalm 56:8

Think back on some of the most amazing times in your life, most often the awesome stuff in life is a result of a hurt.

4) Be present

This  point is, to me, the most essential. I tell myself this innumerable times every day.

I want to KNOW that my family and I will live a long and healthy life, but I am simply NOT given that promise. There are (roughly) 999,999,999,997 things to fear (not that I have counted).

Crazy, unexplainable things happen! Even the most cautions of people simply can’t avoid bad things. Trying to do so would be exhausting and your life would be totally boring.

When I hear of death of course it is natural to mourn but I wonder if it is also a call to remind me of the joy of each moment.  Life really and truly is precious and oh so temporary.

I don’t want to lose sight of how i can never get yesterday back.

When I realize the value of each fleeting moment that is when I am truly living.

5) You were made for more

When there is a devastation to a population of bugs a few environmentalist take notice but the general public really doesn’t care (sorry bugs).  But when there is a devastation to people…we care.  We all have something in us that makes us realize human life is of great value.  This is because you were made IN HIS IMAGE.  In the very Image of God! Do you know how huge that is!  Nothing else that walks the earth has the thumbprint of God.

And He wants to spend eternity with us.

The apostle Paul said, "For to me, to live is Christ
 and to die is gain."
The message version is: Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger;
 dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life!
 I can’t lose. Philippians 1:2

I often hold on to life with everything I can. It is hard for me to realize that to die is truly gain. But his promise is true:

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
 There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain,
 for the old order of things has passed away.
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”
Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.
 Revelations  21:4-5

Ultimately we are all God’s children, bought for a price, yet free to choose. Our life, however long or short, is not ours, it is God’s. He and only He is in control of all of our tomorrows.  Give thanks for today.

In this life bad thing will happen, there is simply no way around it. This temporary vapor of a life is a precious gift.  Don’t waste time with worry, fear or unhappiness.  BE PRESENT, enjoy each breath we have.

And rest knowing He really does still have the whole world in His hands.