Without ceasing

At the prompting of the "Paul" in my life, I'm trying out a new book for a devotional. It's by Charles Spurgeon, an English preacher from the 19th century. Anyhow, I'm reading through his "Morning and Evening" and God is really using it to both challenge and encourage me.

Here's a copy of this morning's entry:

"In looking back upon the character of our prayers, if we do it honestly, we shall be filled with wonder that God has ever answered them. There may be some who think their prayers worthy of acceptance-as the Pharisee did; but the true Christian, in a more enlightened retrospect, weeps over his prayers, and if he could retrace his steps he would desire to pray more earnestly. Remember, Christian, how cold thy prayers have been. When in thy closet thou shouldst have wrestled as Jacob did; but instead thereof, thy petitions have been faint and few-far removed from that humble, believing, persevering faith, which cries, 'I will not let thee go except thou bless me.' Yet, wonderful to say, God has heard these cold prayers of thine, and not only heard, but answered them. Reflect also, how infrequent have been thy prayers, unless thou hast been in trouble, and then thou hast gone often to the mercy-seat: but when deliverance has come, where has been thy constant supplication? Yet, notwithstanding thou hast ceased to pray as once thou didst, God has not ceased to bless. When thou hast neglected the mercy-seat, God has not deserted it, but the bright light of the Shekinah has always been visible between the wings of the cherubim. Oh! it is marvellous that the Lord should regard those intermittent spasms of importunity which come and go with our necessities. What a God is he thus to hear the prayers of those who come to him when they have pressing wants, but neglect him when they have received a mercy; who approach him when they are forced to come, but who almost forget to address him when mercies are plentiful and sorrows are few. Let his gracious kindness in hearing such prayers touch our hearts, so that we may henceforth be found 'Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.'"

In thinking back over my personal walk with Christ through the years, these words do ring true indeed. How much more readily to I run to Him in times of crisis versus times of peace and celebration.

Do you find these observations to be true in your own life?

Use the force

I was on a conference call for work. It pertained to a fundraiser that we're putting on later this week. We were initially going to have a cardboard cutout of the CEO for people to take a cheezy picture with.

However, the corporate offices wouldn't let us do that. So instead, someone had the idea to get a Star Wars figure for the pictures. The discussion began about who might have a Star Wars character readily accessible. It went something like this:

Person 1: "How do we get a Star Wars character there?"
Person 2: "I don't know. What about a costume?"
Person 1: "We should as the developer guys - they're fanatics!"
Person 2: "Yeah, they might even have a statue!"

Not to stereotype or anything...

The armpit of Texas

This weekend was all sorts of goodness. Except for the fact that I was in the geographical armpit of Texas. Yep, the Houston/Galveston section of this great state is just a little too damp and smelly for my taste. However, some of my most favorite people live down there, so I decided to forego my aversion to humidity and traffic and spend some quality time with them. It was well worth it.

Signs that life is moving faster than I realized:

• Last Saturday, the girl I spent two years sharing a room with got a brand new, shiny diamond ring for her left hand
• Last Monday, a girl I spent a year living with (and several years serving with) found out that she is going to be a mommy in February
• This Saturday, a boy I spent several years making fun of (for being exceptionally pretty) became a husband
• This morning I got to my desk and my bamboo plant was sprouting another leaf

Ahh, yes. Life - it's good to be reminded of progress every now and then. Best of luck to all of you with big life news! I love each of you dearly...

I'm a slacker

Sorry kids, I've been slacking off on this here online journal. So to catch you up on what's been going on....

The personality tests keep on coming. We were asked to take the Myers-Briggs test for our church leadership group. I've taken this test before, and have previously scored as an ENTJ or an ENFJ. An ENTJ is a Fieldmarshal (Rational), and an ENFJ is a Teacher (Idealist). However, this time I scored as a ESFJ, a Provider (Guardian). Apparently, I arrange for the health and welfare of others. That's ironic, as I'm currently fighting off some respiratory crud that's been attacking me for the past few days.

So, I'm about all finished with personality tests. I've taken 5 in the last 4 weeks, and that's enough for me. I'm now fully analyzed. I can now be described in a multitude of adjectives that PhD students use in normal conversation. Hooray for me!

Work is work. Sometimes work is fun, but if work were fun all the time, they'd probably have to rename it.

What else...hmmm...I'm trying the NyQuil/DayQuil combination of medication. I really dislike the way that it tastes. Some people seem to enjoy it, but those people are weird.

And I recently found out that I'll be in another wedding. Congratulations Julie!!!

And then it hit me

First of all - welcome any new readers we may have picked up here at "chynmburli." A fine welcome to you indeed. I hope you enjoy your stay. Please feel free to post comments, as our staff will attend to any needs you may have.

Now, on with the show.

By now, most of you recognize that I am an ogre. Most of you, in fact, have probably just been waiting for me to recognize that I am indeed an ogre. And now we officially have the test results to prove it.

I'm kidding, of course. There is no greater humor than that of self-deprecation. And I'm no stranger to that. It has earned me many a dollar in my seasoned career. Ok, well, maybe not, but it's fun to make people smile at least.

To those of you who realize that I can be a hostile, inhibited, depressive, nervous human being - thanks for your patience. To those of you who think I must have swapped test results with some tribal warlord of a far off jungle, thanks for your support.

(Now let me take a minute to attempt to be less "inhibited" than I apparently am wired to be): I got a "C" in my freshman psychology class. It was the first "C" I had ever received (the recent test results also indicated that I'm an over-achiever, and a proud one at that). And I remember thinking that my professor, who strangely reminded me of a lab rat (and I mean that in the nicest of ways), spent too much time professing on the boring side of psychology (numbers, means, sample sizes, zzzzzzzz - sorry, I must have dozed off) and not enough time on the fun stuff - the personality stuff (thus, the poor grade). I am fascinated by that stuff. Birth order, Keirsey Temperaments, Myers-Briggs, Right-brained / Left-brained.....It's neat.

Until it grasps you in its claws and you have no choice but to submit to its painfully honest assessment of the type of person you are.

But no claws for me, thanks. I'm fine the way I am. Yes, even if I'm apparently hostile, depressed and nervous, I'm ok with that. Why? Because I am more than dots on a piece of paper. More than a line charted on a graph indicating that I'm WAY outside of the "normal" range. I don't want to be normal. That's boring. Chart my line wherever you want, and I'll look at the graph and chuckle, knowing that Taylor Johnson and his test can't box me in.

I've quoted him before, and I'll do it again. Funny how this was yesterday's posting:

"If Jesus ever commanded us to do something that He was unable to equip us to accomplish, He would be a liar. And if we make our own inability a stumbling block or an excuse not to be obedient, it means that we are telling God that there is something which He has not yet taken into account. Every element of our own self-reliance must be put to death by the power of God. The moment we recognize our complete weakness and our dependence upon Him will be the very moment that the Spirit of God will exhibit His power."

Thank you, Lord, that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

In a nutshell

Nervous

• Tense, high-strung, fearful, inability to concentrate, undue worry, excessive worry about health
• Vulnerable to noise and time pressure, confused easily, has loss of composure
• Excessive smoking, eating drinking, and nervous mannerisms; piles up problems
• Contributes to depression, inability to cope

Depressive

• Pessimistic, discouraged, dejected, apathetic, despondent, disillusioned
• Dwells on past problems and misfortunes, and assumes the future will be the same; emotional and physical exhaustion, contemplates suicide
• Feelings of being unwanted, of not belonging, of being unimportant, of being unappreciated; fearful, easily upset by criticism
• Easily discouraged due to lack of self-confidence or sense of inferiority
• Depression tends to damage or destroy the sense of well-being and lowers potential social, scholastic, and job effectiveness; reduces hope, ambition and motivation

Inhibited

• Restrained, unresponsive or repressed behavior
• Inability to express tender feelings

Objective

• Fair-minded, reasonable and logical
• Able to be analytical, impartial, dispassionate and not to be overly introspective or preoccupied with internal doubts and fears

Dominant

• Confident, assertive and competitive
• Ego-strength, in the sense of self-assurance, confidence and leadership
• Able to influence others, or the desire to influence or change the thinking of others
• Shows initiative; to be firm, definite, emphatic; to be competitive; to speak in public and enjoy the challenge of a debate; and to stand up for one's rights

Hostile

• Critical, argumentative and punitive
• Tendency to be critical, thoughtless or overtly inconsiderate
• Inclination to be impatient, sarcastic, angry, argumentative, unreasonable; as well as the existence of hostile attitudes or reactions to others, an intolerance of weakness in others, and a superior, overbearing attitude and manner

That's right. Don't mess with me.




But the good news is that my CDs came yesterday. Fun!

Traffic stinks

One of the many reasons my commercial driver's license is not frequently used for its intended purpose: Cows

This would most certainly not have been pretty. But it does bring to mind several jokes about cows. I could be crass and start you off with a "why did the cow cross the road" joke, but I'll spare you.

Weekend Update

In review, this was a good weekend. Enough "up" time and enough "down" time. I got to spend time with family and friends both days, which always makes me smile. We also had no Sunday morning church, but opted, instead, to have an evening service. Going into the weekend, I didn't think that schedule change would be so big, but it made the weekend feel so much longer! Bonus!

By 11:30 AM on Sunday, I had done the following: woken up, made coffee, had my quiet time, swept the living room, swept the kitchen, swept the laundry room, done 2 loads of laundry, taken the dog on a walk, showered, readied myself for lunch, and read a chapter in a book. I felt really good about all of that!

Weekend highlights:

• Breakfast with my grandma
• Organized a friend's linen closet
• Lunch with parents
• Made some progress in my book
• My CDs (here and here) shipped from Amazon
• Played spades - got schooled
• Really productive Sunday morning
• Quality time with guitar + boyfriend
• Tried a new coffee drink - yum!

And, if that wasn't enough, I saw a hot air balloon on the way to work today. It made me smile. I'm not sure why, but it did.

All in all, a good weekend. How was yours?