Saturday, November 04, 2006

Did You Know...

...a 24-year-old body doesn't bounce back from three hours of sleep nearly so well as a junior high body does? I'm getting old...

Had a great time on the retreat. Thanks if you prayed for me! I think the music went pretty well--the ladies seemed to appreciate the songs I had chosen (thanks to those of you who gave me input on that). It was fun spending extended time with women from our church and studying the Word together; Kay Arthur's messages on Philippians 2 were beneficial. I'll try to share a little more about what she taught soon. And then after the session Friday night, a bunch of us who were spending the night at the retreat center laughed really hard through rousing games of Catchphrase and Cranium. Six of us were up until 3 am or so, talking and laughing...needless to say, I came home and crashed and am minimally functional right now :)

Before choosing music for the retreat, I tried to think about stress from a gospel perspective. I think that at its root, stress comes from trusting ourselves. We have been trusting in our own ability--and we become stressed and anxious when suddenly we realize that our strength is insufficient. We can't accomplish or handle what needs to be done. So I think part of the answer to stress is to humble ourselves, to acknowledge that we ARE helpless. We ARE inadequate for the tasks/trials/etc before us. When we look at the cross, we can see what our best efforts amount to. But we serve a sufficient Savior. He completed the work God gave Him to do--He alone accomplished the awesome feat of reconciling us to our Heavenly Father. We trust Him, not ourselves. And, if we live dependent on Him, instead of in our own strength, He is the one who gets the glory!

I'll save my specific song choices for another post. (I often wonder how long my readers' attention spans are...do you read all the way through my long posts?)

1 comment:

Jamie said...

Yep. But then again, I am a speed reader, so it doesn't take me long :)