God is banging on my life again, trying to get my attention - about time.
As I have come to figure out my schedule here in New Home, and begun to realize the issues of reconnecting the parts that have been disconnected, I realized that 1) I'm not spending the amount and quality of time with God that I should for what I profess, and 2) I'm not spending the amount and quality of time with my family that I should (having been disconnected by distance).
And now, looking at the time that exists combined with moving, it begins to become clear that there is not all the time in the world and that some hard choices have to be made at this juncture.
Three of the choices - My relationship with God, my relationship with my family, and health (i.e. exercise and nutrition) were not at all difficult to make, as they are truly critical (even the health - if you lose that, you can do so much less). The difficulty came when I started looking at the other things.
I gave myself a limit of five: five things to focus my life around and on. Leaving the three aside, I came up with four more for two positions: an independent lifestyle, Japanese (language), writing (for a book), and playing the harp).
The independent lifestyle - financially, and to the greatest point possible materially, took position number four. We - I - need to get serious about that, especially since it is my earnings that will largely be responsible for my family's future, and it gives me the opportunity to practice being more independent.
Which left the one and the three. I have wrestled with each, measuring pros and cons, what do I like to do, what would be the most beneficial to do. And then the thought occurred: Why not let God decide?
So I have given it over to Him. I'll try to do all three just to try but I'm in no hurry; the biggest thing is to continually pray and reflect on them. If I get more than one, great. If I only get one - and that one is what God wants - then that's okay too.
Which of the remaining 3 would (or be used to) glorify God the most?
ReplyDeleteHmm. I fine question indeed; in fact, one that I have been puzzling over since I wrote the post.
ReplyDeleteLet me start with a general statement: all three would be possible to do, but I would only be able to truly concentrate and skilled on one (i.e. I could continue to blog, practice Japanese a little in the car and at home, and practice the harp for 30 minutes, the minimum you should really do anything to get better at it.).
So that said, let me take each in turn:
1) Japanese: Probably the least glorifying to God (unless I was going to be a missionary), but involves some general good learning disciplines and could have career benefits.
2) Writing: That would mean a book, truly. I struggle with the fact that there is a dearth of pre-teen/teen Christian based fantasy (since C.S. Lewis, anyway, although an argument could be made for Madeleine L'Engle, I suppose). Based on the idea that I can write fantasy, which sort of has yet to be shown. Long lead time, probably the most isolated from family and friends of the three. Also, for writing I've no independent evidence that I would be able to succeed as I wish and that my "call" to write may simply be that: mine, not God's.
3) Harp: Could be directly useful both in terms of continuing general music knowledge and possibly providing performances. Again, isolating for practice from family and friends, but not for performance.
If I had to rate based on what I've just written, I might say 1) Harp; 2) Japanese, 3) Writing (which essentially would be reduced to blogging).
But it means greatly reducing the other two, which I have always hated doing. I hate limiting my options - but then again, trying to do many things means mastering none...