Green - John 15

It's 80+ here in the Atlanta area. And today is the first day I have noticed humidity. Honestly, I am not that excited about the summer heat, humidity and haze. But, I'll work through that on a different day.

I was encouraged to check out John 15 from the New Testament. Love that chapter, but was able to read it differently. Before verse 11, there are 10 references to "remain." REMAIN (according to the KMUD - Kristine's Made Up Dictionary) is about stopping, staying, and submitting. 10 references about how God is the Source, and we are to stop, stay awhile, and submit to Him. What's also interesting, is that we are not coached to remain behind, remain alongside of, or remain somewhere close by. NOPE, we are to remain IN God. WOW. It makes sense, being that the Holy Spirit indwells Believers (it's not scary, but is real: our conscience, moral compass, and thoughts have a commentator) that we should also REMAIN IN. And then, taking it further, how beautiful that is because we are then remaining IN the entire Trinity. We can dance with the Father whose hands fashioned all things, we can make eye contact with Jesus Christ, the Savior; and we can be consistently inspired by the "voice" of them all. It's a beautiful thing to remain. BUT, I don't do that well. I am not really known for being a mellow, patient, or reserved person. No - to the contrary I have been called gregarious, enthusiastic, peppy, a bubble of energy, and a Drew Barrymore look-alike (no charlie's angels stunts for me, I am a total wimpy wimp). So, to sit still, relax, and stop is NOT AT ALL easy (I act more as a go getter nearly obsessing on things like this endeavor: John 17:4, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do"). But remaining IN is what these past few months, and this season of life is about for me. NO, that doesn't mean that I am sitting as a bump on a log. I chase kids around all the time, volunteer time to worthy organizations, keep in touch with friends and family back in MN, go to church, and spend time with quality individuals. But, rather than striving to fix everything under my control (presumably), I have discovered that I should not take that task on. So, I am waiting. Listening. Asking. And playing.

Speaking of play...

Yesterday was Earth Day. Jaycee and I celebrated by making "Litter Bugs" and "rain sticks" and "dirt cups." I caught myself thinking about how dad would take Megan and I outside to clean the ditches around our house on Earth Day. And then I began to think about the unique kind of playing we did...there was a HUGE construction project on the state highway in front of our house one summer, dad would take us out in the mud and dirt to climb ALL OVER the big bulldozers, catapults, and back hoes in the evenings. Do other families play by cleaning ditches and playing on state owned and operated construction material? I guess we were curious. And green long before it was "cool" to be green. In fact, dad pulled carpet out of dumpsters (often with Megan and I in the car) in order to recycle it for some use @ home. I think the three rules in our house were: "Recycle, Educate, and Don't hit your sister." Ahhh..memories...