Do You Feel Busy???

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Do you ever feel really busy? I've been thinking today about how busy I feel lately. A friend recently said "May is the new December" and we all agreed. However, June is pretty busy in itself. I was thinking how easily it is to get caught up in all the things of life and lose control of our time and priorities .

I was telling one of my closest friends last week. I feel spiritually drained. I have a lot going on. All good things. All things that are good Christian things to do. Things that are good for me and things that allow me to help others. Lots of great stuff.... but I feel drained. Do you know why? All of these things compiled together are keeping me from quiet time with my Savior. I get so busy doing "stuff" that when I have time to sit down and rest.... I sit there feeling like I should still be doing something else. I have forgotten how to just be still before my Savior.

Do you ever feel the same way? You are busy doing good things. You work hard, you do things for your church, you do things for your family, you do things for your friends. Maybe, you even do things for others in the community. All good and enjoyable things. Yet you feel tired and drained?

Are any of you like me... you are so busy doing all the right and important things.....that you are missing doing the most important thing? Are you spending enough time alone with your Savior? Are you seeking him more importantly than any of the other stuff you do?

My friends, it is so easy to get so caught up in doing that we quit just "being". We were made to "be" in his presence. We were made to seek him and spend quiet time in his presence. There is nothing wrong with doing things for God, or our families, or our friends. There is even nothing wrong with being busy. However, when it keeps us from spending daily quiet time in the presence of our Lord and Savior....we may need to examine our priorities. We were made for him and by him. He seeks daily alone time with us. We were made for his pleasure. We do not give him pleasure when we give all of our time to other things...no matter how good. We are called to come into his presence daily and seek to know him on a very personal level. He seeks an intimate relationship with us. We need to spend time in the word. We need to spend time talking with him and sharing our heart. We need to spend time just being still before him in worship and adoration. Friends, we also need to just spend time listening to hear what he has to say to us.

If we don't get our time with him we cannot be all he called us to be. We cannot walk in our own strength and try to do all the things we all called to do. If we do can you guess what happens? We end up feeling spiritually drained. We end up weak and easily attacked by our adversary and by the world.

May we all take time this week to get into his presence. He is the renewer of of our hearts, minds and spirits.

I love you guys,

Tammy

For The Sake Of The Call

Have you every gotten a call out of the blue that just changed the mood of your whole spirit?

The other day I got a call from someone I didn't know inviting me to work the Tres Dias weekend coming up in July. It was an unexpected call and it took me by surprise. It lifted my spirit up so much to be invited to do this because I know how much these weekends change peoples lives. It's great fun to be a part of something like that. I'm so excited to get to work the coming weekend because I am getting to work a job that involves one of my favorite things...Prayer. If I could do any job it would be just what I got asked to do. I'm not giving many details on that because I know some of you have not been through Tres Dias yet and I don't want to take away any of the surprises of what goes on there. If you ever think that Tres Dias is a lot of secrets....let me just give you a heads up and say.....there are no secrets...none at all....just an incredible weekend filled with life changing surprises and a intimate encounter with Christ our Savior.

This post is actually not about Tres Dias....however, there probably will be one about that someday. If any of you ever have any questions about it....give me the opportunity to tell you about it. My Tres Dias weekend showed me my Savior in a way I had never ever seen him before...and it completely changed my whole life.

This post is really about "Answering the Call". Getting that call really lifted my spirit and got me to thinking about how sometimes calls change our lives. Sometimes we get calls that take us by surprise. Some are good news and some inevitably are bad news. All are an opportunity for us to be Jesus to someone.

Don't you just love it when you get a phone call that brings good news? Doesn't it just lift your spirit and make you want to dance inside? Don't you automatically want to share your good news with everyone....right away? I do. I'm wondering....do you or I before anything else stop and say "Thank You" to God? All blessings come from above and from our God alone. When those good news calls come....do we say to the bringer of the good news...."This is a blessing from God and I am so thankful" ? We should. We need to give glory to God at every opportunity. Especially if they are not a Christian. We may be the only Jesus they ever see.

Don't you just hate it when a call brings bad or sad news. I just hate it when that happens. I just want to whine and complain or cry about the injustice of it all. I only want to think about me and how it effects me. I have been thinking that I should try to remember in those times that God is still on the throne and he is still in control. Nothing happens on this earth without his permission so who am I to judge what he has allowed. And even more than that...what kind of an example am I to the one who brings the bad news? Do I come across as self-centered or shallow? Or do I make a statement that shows that even in that moment ....I still trust my Savior no matter what?

Sometimes it may not be an actual call to tell us something. Sometime it may be a friend or stranger...challenging us to "answer the call" to do something we don't want or feel prepared to do. Sometimes it is a call to help others...or to step out in faith and make a difference in the world around you. Sometimes those calls challenge us to get out of our comfort zones and take a stand for right. Sometimes it is even "The Call" from God...to become a minister or a leader in the church.

There are all types of calls. Some are actual phone calls and some are "The Call" from God or others. Whatever the type of call....how we respond is very important. Sometimes the response we give may be the only vision of God that some people ever see. That has really been on my heart this week. I want to answer the call....whether it be good or bad or a call from my Heavenly Father...in a way that will glorify him to everyone around me.

Sometimes I think it comes down to this. How we respond to a call may make a lasting impact on how some people around us view God. May we always answer in a way that they will see Jesus in us.

I was thinking of the old Steven Curtis Chapman song "The Sake of the Call".

Some of the words go like this....

We will abandon it all
for the sake of the call

No other reason at all
than the sake of the call

Wholly devoted to live and to die
For the sake of the call

I pray that we may we be wholly devoted to bring glory to him as we answer the call.