Monthly Archives: June 2008

Tonight I sat around a campfire, on the beach, with the crashing Pacific Ocean waves just yards away.  No annoying wind, just a crackling fire nestled down into the sand, with sitting logs on three sides.  My brother, Kris, and Jeff built the fire, scurrying around like boys, eyes dancing, collecting sticks and engineering the perfect fire.  Once the fire really took off, we tore open the bag of marshmallows, procured the necessary sticks–not too short and not too thick–and began roasting.  I sipped my hot chocolate and pulled my blanket tight around my shoulders, although by now my shins were getting hot so I laid down next to the fire, in the sand, gazing up into the darkness, savoring the sweet moment of forgetting the job search, the morning sickness (almost forgetting it until I tried to eat a marshmallow and remembered that nothing tastes right), the need to find a place to live, the upcoming arrival of baby #2 complete with financial needs.  For a little while I was back in college, eating marshmallows with my brother.  I was again a newlywed, walking hand in hand with Jeff through the sand. 

We’ve been here, at the beach, for the past 4 days. We leave Wednesday, and I am just reminded again how sweet it is to get away.  And this is my idea of a vacation.  A beach house (paid for by my parents…this is key), a stone’s throw from the crashing waves, and walking distance from the Alsea Bay, where we can use the paddle boat and Dutch can play in the shallow water.  Walking distance from a little mart where we can get milk and cheerios if need be.  Walking distance from the point where hundreds of seals gather, where we can take Dutch and watch with delight as he “Whoa!”s and points in awe.  This is the place where we can cook our own food, eat like Kings (healthy ones), and savor delicious dessert every night. This is where I can curl up in the huge wicker chair with the cream cushions and put my feet on the windowsill and look out over the ocean, lost in thought, or read for four hours straight, like I did today.  This is where I can turn on the dryer to muffle out the noise while Dutch sleeps. 🙂  This is where the huge family dining table can seat all of us, my brother and his wife and daughter and my parents and us and Dutch.  This is where we can all curl up and watch a movie together.  This is where Jeff and Dutch can bike, where Kris and Nikki and Jennika can take off in the afternoon for a hike. WHere Kris can surf (he really did!) and the boys can fly their kites and Mom can have pneumonia but still somehow enjoy the whole trip from the solitude of her room, listening to the joy and watching from the huge bay windows in her room.  This is where we have that beautiful balance of together and alone time…the mix of freedom and belonging, which is one of the strengths of this family that I will always appreciate. 

ANd this, mixed with the forced change of pace that pregnancy brings, has been good.  With pregnancy, I have permission to nap (today I got up at 6:30, walked on the beach with Jeff and Dutch, then came back, ate a bowl of Cheerios the size of a mixing bowl, then went to bed and slept from 8:30-10:30.  How awesome is that?)  With pregnancy I have permission to break all the rules of eating at appropriate times. After my Cheerios, and a big lunch, I went back at 2pm for another 1/2 a chicken salad sandwich, then at 3pm I polished off the strawberry shortcake, then at dinner I didn’t touch anything except the chicken, but filled up on Tillamook Mudslide ice cream afterwards.  I actually really enjoy the freedom…you can always just play the “I’m pregnant” card and pretty much anything goes. 

The other thing I love about pregnancy is that it allows you to be weak and to accept help.  My sister-in-law has been an absolute dream on this trip.  The very day we got here my mom came down with pneumonia, and after a trip to the hospital, has spent the entire vacation in bed.  I was in charge of planning all the meals and bringing the food, which I did, but that was before morning sickness, so now that we’re here I want absolutely nothing to do with preparing raw chicken and sauteeing onions.  She has swept in and joyfully prepared meals that I planned (that’s never as fun as preparing your own planned meals), and doing dishes, cleaning. SHe’s been a dream. ANd it’s been so freeing to just say, “Here is the recipe. Can you help me? I can’t do it tonight.”  It’s been good to say, I”m sorry, I’m a disaster right now and I’m so tired I can’t think.  Please forgive me for being a bear.  As always, she understands.  After all, she was pregnant once too.

So, this long and rambling post is basically telling you that it’s so good when life is interrupted and we’re knocked on our back a little, knocked into a soft chair with a good book and a view of the ocean. I admit, I still fall into panic mode: “We need a JOB and a place to LIVE and we have a BABY on the way!” But most of the time God is gracious enough to allow me to remember that today is today, and it is all I have.  He holds my tomorrow.  So, tonight I sit here, in a dark room, listening to my toddler son breathe noisily through his stuffy nose, and my husband breathe quietly next to me, his chest rising and falling in soft rhythm.  Across the wall sleep my brother, his wife, their daughter. Across the hall sleep my mom and dad.  Outside the waves are still crashing.  Tragedy is happening somewhere.  Rejoicing and celebrating are happening somewhere. ANd the waves are still crashing.  And God is still God, and allowing me this sweet vacation, this rest for my soul and body.  Thanks, God.  Thanks.

How much things can change in a week!  Last week I had thought I’d be able to write pretty authoritatively on the topic of exercise and physical energy, embarking on my Hood to Coast adventure with high hopes and fresh legs.  Well, as you know I was relieved of my running duties, which was a relief indeed, but what you may not know is how sovereign God is in all of it, because the very next day I found out that–surprise!–I’m 6 1/2 weeks pregnant.  Yeah, there’s a curve ball for ya!  So, needless to say, in one day my world turned upside down.  Instead of running 15 miles a week, I’m sleeping every chance I can, living on toast and crackers (morning sickness always kicks in for me right at 6 weeks), and let’s just say that having defined muscles and improving my mile time is the last thing on my mind.  How things change in a week. 

However, the beautiful thing is that even though some things change, in a way nothing’s changed.  My husband always likes to remind me that life has rhythm.  We always think of things in terms of balance, but really it’s an ongoing, continuous rhythm of life.  There is a time for everything.  A time to race, and a time to sleep.  A time to run Hood-to-Coast and a time to eat toast every morning.  Neither season is more important than the other, the key is that we are in tune to God’s rhythm for our lives and that we respond by making the appropriate margin in our lives for the season we are currently in.  If we live in constant defeat thinking that we “should be” doing something that’s for a different season, we will never be content. So for me, my season is to get rest, get plenty of mild exercise like walking, and eat nutritiously and take my vitamins.  It might be your season to kick butt and take names by running a marathon or studying for the bar exam (although I pray I am never in those seasons).  That’s up to you and your God…

But Margin in our physical lives, enhancing Physical Energy, is essential no matter what the rhythm of our life is like right now.  You don’t have to look far to see that in our country lack of exercise, sleep deprivation, and obesity are absolutely rampant.  We are overfed, under-slept, and under-exercised.  So what can we do: Get Marginalized!

Numerous studies have shown that the less you sleep the more likely you are to be overweight.  Good sleep habits help breed good nutrition and exercise habits. When we’re tired, we’re more likely to eat and less likely to exercise.  When we’re rested, we’re more likely to exercise and eat nutritious foods because we’re not running on empty.  It can be a vicious cycle, but when it’s broken, there is a health and vitality that is so powerful! 

So how is this related to progress?  We’ve been discussing that progress leads to shrunken margins.  Well, progress has provided electricity and artificial lighting, which is wonderful, but now we don’t have to sleep when it gets dark.  We can stay up all night working.  We now have food in overabundance, without any regard for requirement and without any labor to gather it in.  We have transportation and convenience, without the thought of the need for physical exercise.  I was sickened on our last visit to Boston to see Drive-Through Dunkin’ Donut shops!  Drive-through donut shops!  Get out of your stinkin’ car and walk in to the place, or better yet, don’t!  Walk to the store and buy an apple!  Oh, sorry, got a little out of control there.

Evidence of this?  Americans today get 2 1/2 hours less sleep per night than they did 100 years ago!   Only 15% of teens get the minimum recommended 8.5 hours of sleep they need per night.  Sleep deficit, as mentioned before, has been linked to obesity, attention deficit disorders, and depression.  Then, 55% of American adults of overweight or obese! The majority!  That is astonishing.  The progress of our great nation has taken us out of the fields and out of our beds, and onto the couch where we sit up all night watching TV and eating Doritos.

So, how can we respond? How can we LiveDifferent by getting marginalized in this area?

1. Take Responsibility: No one can change your life for you.  Yes, there are seasons (new motherhood, studying for the bar exam, (that’s for you Megs), etc. )but think longterm and make changes that will benefit you over the long run.

2. Value Sleep:  God gives His beloved sleep.  Choose to get enough rest. Step out of the rat race and determine how much sleep you need to be at your best.

3. Develop Healthy Sleep Patterns: go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning (by the way, evening sleep is more valuable than late morning sleep–so Benjamin Franklin was right. Personalize his quote for whatever it is you’re striving for (i.e. “godly” instead of “wealthy”): “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, ________, and wise.” Don’t eat within 2 hours of sleeping. Limit caffeine. Turn your clock to the wall. Give yourself time to unwind. 

4. Avoid overeating.  This is the easiest way to shed extra pounds without even thinking about nutrition.  Just cut your portions in 1/2. It’s actually easier than you might think.

5. Avoid processed food, instead buy fresh fruit, vegetables, and stuff without packaging. My goal when I’m grocery shopping is to get the least packaging possible.  It’s an easy way to keep things healthy.

6. Drink lots of water.  At first you might have to force yourself, but it does become a habit.

7. Exercise for health. I think that a huge pitfall we fall into in America (and I do it!) is that we exercise for vanity.  As long as we exercise for vanity we have the wrong motives, and I maintain, God is not pleased.  Our goal is health, to benefit our hearts and live well so we can serve God and bless His people. It is not to have the 6-pack that others will envy, the defined horseshoe triceps on the back of our arms, or the to-die-for-delts.  Yes, Jeff and I certainly do have the goal of keeping ourselves fit and attractive for each other, and there is definitely nothing wrong with that, but is the goal to please each other or for vanity?  The best way to benefit your health through exercise is through building cardiorespiratory endurance.  This includes simple exercises like walking, jogging, swimming, or bicycling 30-45 minutes 3-4 days/week.  No gym membership necessary.  Strength and flexibilty is helpful too, but if you only focus on one area, focus on your heart.  This is the key. 

So these are just some simple ways to build Margin in to your physical life.  Just like last time, I’d love to hear your ideas too on how you’re are currently or will in the future implement these or other ideas.  I passionately believe that we are whole beings, connected in body, spirit, soul, emotion, and mind. When we take care of our bodies, we are more likely to take care of our spirit and mind.  They’re connected.  This is just one piece, but it is crucial.  And it’s an area where we desperately need some work.  Let’s LiveDifferent this week…even if that just means going to bed a little earlier tonight and maybe, just maybe, skipping that second brownie.  Thanks for reading.

…but I promised that I’d let you know when I finally got an article “published” on the E-zine Suite101.  Here is my first article, nothing spectacular, but it’s there: Investing Time Makes Marriage Work. 

Also here are a few of the latest articles for goingtoseminary.com.  Again, please don’t feel obligated to read them, but I promised I’d give a heads up. 

Is Seminary Highly Competitive?

Resisting Sedentary Seminary

Happy reading!  Stay Tuned for LiveDifferent Challenge (14): Get Marginalized! (Physical Energy)

Well, three days into my vigorous 10k training (only one of which I actually ran) :-), I found out that they found someone else to fill the Hood-to-Coast spot.  So, I am now the relieved runner.  I’d still like to do the 10k training because I think it’d be a great way to motivate myself to get in shape, but it is definitely a relief to not have the race hanging over my head.  So, it’s bittersweet–I’m a little disappointed and a lot relieved. 

Today Dutch and I had an unexpected treat. Jeff asked to go to a church kids’ sports camp at a church in West Linn in order to get ideas for a similar camp at our church next summer.  My dad was supposed to go with him, but wasn’t feeling great, so this morning about 45 minutes before departure time I got a wild idea to pack Dutch up and go with Jeff, figuring Dutch and I could explore the West Linn parks while Jeff jotted down camp notes and helped kids with their form. 

What a great time!  We first went to a huge state park right along hwy 43, with trails that led all the way down to the river.  We went down to the river, which of course looks nothing like a river compared to the rushing rapids outside our back door, and more like a giant lake with water lapping up on the sandy beaches. But Dutch had a ball: “Whoa!”  was all he could say. After that park, we found a kid’s park compete with the works: slide, swings, climbing structure.  He could have stayed all day.  Gotta love parks. I sipped my Starbucks and thought about how I wanted to kiss whoever thought to create public play structures.  It had to have been a mom. 

Now we’re home.  Dutch is sound asleep in his new room, the sewing room.  We’re so excited to have my brother and his wife and their daughter coming tomorrow to stay here at Mom and Dad’s for the next three weeks.  So Dutch moved into the sewing room!  It’s really just a big closet, just big enough to hold a crib and room for a person sucking in their stomach to stand beside the crib.  It’s perfect for a toddler!  He’s loving the change of scenery and is sleeping great in there already.  Jeff and I have been just marveling at how good God is to let us spend the past year here.  I know I’ve complained a lot, and I do regret how often I’ve griped, because the truth is we have been so blessed here.  We’ve saved oodles of money, we’ve gotten to watch Dutch explore with awe and wonder the majestic outdoors complete with river, horses, dogs, tractors, pool, grass, trees, you name it.  And we’ve gotten to see Dutch develop an amazing relationship with his grandparents, Oma and Papa.  It’s definitely an unusual circumstance, but how sweet it’s been to see Dutch on the tractor with Papa or reading a special book cuddled on the couch with Oma.  Definitely memories we will treasure always.

So, how’s that for a post that all over the road? Relieved of running duty, enjoying parks, and thankful for our home.  Just a day in the life of Kari…thanks for reading.

“All the things that make for the enriching of this present life are sacred gifts of God, but we spoil them by our misuse of them. If we want to know the reason why, it is because we are always entertaining the delusion that we will go on forever in this world. The result is that the very things which ought to be of assistance to us in our pilgrimage through life, become the chains which bind us.” -John Calvin

I just got done running two miles.  I know, not a lot. But it’s a lot for me.  You see, I’m a “Runnabe”…a wannabe runner.  I like to think of myself as someone who likes to run, but the bottom line is that I like to, well, walk.  So, Jeff and I have been talking about how much we need to make it a priority to get more exercise, as “sedentary seminary” has taken its toll and we just want to be healthy and have an active lifestyle. So, he’s been riding his bike to work each day, and loving it.  And as I mentioned, he is taking the 100 push-up challenge.  This week he did 181 push-ups total.

So in the middle of this new motivation, I get a random email from my dear friend Candi (from the Road to Santa Clara) saying that they had a runner drop off their Hood-to-Coast team and she wanted me to join. (Hood-to-Coast is the largest running relay race in the world, 197 mile relay from Mt. Hood to the Oregon coast).  Ok, I will admit that I once said that I wanted to do Hood-to-Coast, but that was pre-baby when I was actually running regularly…a long time ago!  And, most people train for months and months, but the race is only 2 months from now!  So immediately my response was Absolutely No Way.  No way did I want to give up my summer to train for something that would absolutely certain to hurt…a lot.  Any amount of running that causes thigh chafing and loss of toenails does NOT sound like a fun time to me.  Plus, I don’t have that competitive edge anymore.  I am completely content these days to sit and sip iced tea while the world around me competes for the athletic prize.  But I told her I’d sleep on it and pray about it.  And I did.

And it kept nagging at me. Again and again.  And again. I hate that! I hate it when you feel like maybe God wants you to do something and so you can’t quit thinking about it and no matter how many reasons you think of against it, you still feel like it’s what you’re supposed to do.  I hate that. So I came up with a million reasons not to do it. It’s the same day as my 10-year High School reunion that I was actually really excited about attending.  I don’t have a great place to run, other than just laps up and down our driveway.  I’m breastfeeding.  And, the biggest reason: I’ve never ran a 10k in my life and this relay would basically be 3 of those in one day.  Totally out of my league.

You probably think I’m blowing this way out of proportion, but I’m telling you sometimes I get this feeling like something is a big deal, like God wants me to do something and there’s something at stake, which makes me not want to do it more than ever. So I was laying in bed one night, praying about it, and I had this picture in my mind of God dragging me by my arm like a toddler off the playground, and me shaking my fists like a spoiled brat and shouting, “But I’m not a runner! I’m not a runner!” (I know, that’s probably a symptom of some disorder).  But then I began to get this sense that God has something for me in this.  I don’t care about my mile times or proving anything or getting a t-shirt. I do care about getting to do something totally bonding with my precious friend Candi, which I think will be the highlight. But most of all, I think maybe God wants to teach me some stuff, definitely challenge me, maybe bless me. I don’t know, and I actually haven’t made my official decision yet…but I can feel my resistance starting to crumble.  I know it sounds totally dorky to say I’m running for Jesus, but that’s the only way I know how to articulate it.

So this morning I started “training” with a big whopping 2 mile run.  I am the reluctant runner, but I’m trusting there’s a reason God’s dragging me onto the track. He’s so good, so trustworthy, and I guess He’s promised to run with me, right?  I don’t know.  I’m still a little scared…

If you asked me what one area of ministry most fascinates, intrigues, and energizes me, I would without a moment’s hesitation respond: Soul Care.  I really believe that the nourishment and care of one’s soul is presently one of the most neglected areas of life.  We spend our time, energy, and resources tending to the things that are visible.  I often spend more time washing, dressing, and making presentable my body than I do cultivating my inner soul each morning.  I have countless times been convicted realizing that I have entered the house of worship to sit before the King of Kings, and have spent more time contemplating my clothing that setting apart my spirit for the presence of God.  Basically, our souls are too often neglected.

By soul I am speaking generally of what some would refer to as both the spirit and the soul. I mean the spirit, intellect, emotions, basically all that is unseen and incapable of measure.  Of all the four areas we will examine (emotional, physical, time, and financial), this is by far the hardest to quantify.  While we can objectively look at our checkbook and determine whether our financial margin has disappeared, who can so easily sit down and look at one’s life and determine that the emotional reserve is eliminated and overload is imminent?

So how do we know if our emotional margin is gone?  I remember situations in ministry where I was overjoyed when someone canceled our appointment.  That should have been a sign.  I have personally seen pastors leave ministry, even abandoning their wives and children, because they didn’t recognize the dangerous symptoms of burnout.  Depression, anxiety, substance or other kinds of abuse, compulsive overeating (or compulsive anything), are all symptoms that something is not emotionally right.

I feel a bit of freedom in this area right now because of my circumstances, so I must confess that this is not a huge area of concern for me at the moment. However, I have lived without emotional margin, and it’s HARD!  Circumstances change, so my prayer is that when my circumstances do change (i.e. we’re back in “full time” ministry), I will have already set up the emotional margin in my life, so that I know my limit and can keep a good 1.5″ away from the edge of the page.

So what are ways that we can promote our emotion margin, so that when crises do come, when someone does need help, when God knocks and has a challenge for us, we can respond with grace, easily drawing upon the emotional reserves, rather than collapsing and breaking down, unable to muster up any emotional energy.

Here are our LiveDifferent Challenges this week for restoring Emotional Margin:  Choose one or two to focus on; and I’d love to hear responses or other ideas.

1. Reconcile Relationships: “Broken relationships are a razor across the artery of the spirit.”  Unforgiveness drains your emotional energy.

2. Serve: Of 2,700 people studied for over a decade, “those who performed regular voluntary work showed dramatically increased life expectancy.  People not involved in such altruistic activity had 2 1/2 times the morbidity than those who volunteered at least once a week.”

3. Rest: Relax, sleep in, take a nap, turn off your phone.

4. Laugh & Cry:  People who laugh more heal faster.  Try laughing every four minutes (how often children laugh), you will be astonished at the results.  Similarly, cry.  Those who cry more get sick less often. That’s amazing!

5. Grant Grace: Judging others is a weighty emotional burden–“it is a form of emotional and spiritual suicide–like chopping a hole in the bottom of your lifeboat because you dont want the other person to be rescued.”

6. Create Boundaries: Try not answering the phone at dinner. Learn to say no.  Not with selfish motives, but for the sake of soul-care.  Protect your family.

7. Envision a Better Future: This isn’t about the power of positive thinking, it’s about knowing where your hope lies. We don’t hope in a better economy, world peace, or the end of hunger. We hope in the coming of Jesus Christ who will make all things new.  Know where your hope lies.

So this week, consider one or two of these areas and let’s counter our culture and refuse the temptation to run on Emotional Empty.  Let’s add Emotional Margin to our lives.  Let’s tend to our souls and cultivate the inner health of our emotions.  We’ll then we healthy, whole people, fit for the Master’s good work.

Ok, so three quick successive posts on margin is really not going to work.  This concept is so much more huge than I thought…we’re going to take the next four LiveDifferent Challenges to tackle it.  It’s so exciting! I would still really suggest buying the book.  Trying to sum it up in a brief blog entry is daunting…but we’ll try.

So, Wednesday we talked about the fact that we have reached an all-time high point for depression, anxiety, suicide, stress, burn-out, abuse, and divorce.  While life-expectancy is at an all-time high, perhaps quality of life, that is happiness and contentment, is at an all time low.  Something is wrong. As I suggested last time, perhaps it is that we have reached a limit and we’re in desperate need of margin.

Margin is defined as the space between your load and your limit. On a piece of paper, the margin is the white space between the written words and the edge of the page.  As a grader in seminary, let me tell you that my #1 pet peeve in grading is opening a paper and seeing that the student has done one of three things:  used size 10 font instead of 12, snuck in 1.75 line space instead of double, or changed the margins ever so slightly so the words creep over dangerously close to the edge of the page. They might think I don’t notice…but after reading 25 of them, I notice!  And far from being impressed by their covert ways, I am annoyed because what this tells me is that they were incapable of completing the assignment in the given space.  So, they have to cheat by doctoring margins.  That bugs me.  I have been known to write across the top of the page, “Ah!  Give me some white space!”

So we have done this with our lives. In the name of diligence, we have clicked on those margins and dragged them closer and closer to the edge of the page, instead of simply acknowledging the appropriate boundaries necessary for mental, emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual health, and respecting those boundaries.  Instead we have arrogantly assumed that the rules of margin aren’t for us, and we’ve packed our lives to the point of breakdown.

If you’re not convinced that this is an epidemic, check out these stats from the doctor who authored the book:  “Adjusting for population growth, ten times as many people in Western nations today suffer from unipolar depression, or unremitting bad feelings, without a specific cause, then did half a century ago.  Americans and Europeans have ever more of everything except happiness.”  In one morning, nine of the eleven patients this doctor saw where on antidepressents.  We are truly living in a “deteriorating psychic environment.” He observes that “millions of suburbanites seem to find that ‘the good life’ is only endurable under sedation.”

Not only are we sad, we we are overfed, under-exercised, sleep-deprived as well.  We are in more debt than ever before.  We have less leisure time, even though it was predicted in the early 20th century that by this time we would be down to a 2-3 day workweek because we could produce all that we “need” withing that amount of time. Ha!  Whoever predicted that took no classes in human behavior.  We don’t work for our needs. Instead, the workweek has risen rapidly over the past 20 years:  “The average work year for prime-age working couples has increased by nearly 700 hours in the last two decades.”  Exhaustion, burn-out, stress, and mental breakdown have become the norm.

So, what better way to LiveDifferent than to Get Marginalized and introduce some sanity into our lives?  God is the one who created the Sabbath, He’s the one who set up the delicate balance of work, stress, rest.  Let’s say no to the rat race of always wanting more, and say yes to God, who wants health, wholeness, and vitality for us!  We will examine four areas: Margin in Emotional Energy, Margin in Physical Energy, Margin in Time, and Margin in Finances.  I really feel as I’m reading this book that it is a profound secret I want to share.  Again, I’d love to encourage you, if you can, to read the book yourself.  It’s counter-cultural to say the least.

So, tomorrow tune in for Get Marginalized in our Emotional Energy!  I’m off for a bike ride in the sunshine with my son…

These LiveDifferent Challenges are starting to take over my life.  In a good way! What I mean is, I feel like each week something starts brewing in my mind and I can’t wait until Friday.  So whenever this happens I figured I will just start tossing out ideas, so I can get feedback from ya’ll before the official Challenge on Fridays.

So the last few nights in bed my dear husband has been been unable to contain himself while reading and started reading aloud exerpts to me from this book.  Well, since when I’m writing I am completely in the right-mind creative zone, I am absolutely incapable of pausing or even entertaining the smallest consideration of another thought at those times.  So, dear Jeff reads an amazing quote by William Wilberforce, and I completely ignore him.  Last night he was reading a quote about limits, and he finished by “reading”: “And there is always such and such a limit for humans, as in the limit of my wife’s patience when I am reading to her while she’s trying to write.” That got a smile out of me and I did pause long enough to thank him for his sensitivity.

But today, after writing my Much Ado About Nothing post, which you yawned through, I looked around for something to stimulate my sluggish mind and saw the book that my husband has been raving about: Margin. (BUY IT HERE)  A little reluctantly, I picked it up, made myself a big mug of green tea, and settled into the LazyBoy and began to read.  Whoa! No wonder Jeff was overcome with wanting to read aloud to me!

I will likely post 3 entries about this topic, concluding on Friday with the official LiveDifferent Challenge.  The book, written by Medical Doctor Richard A. Swenson, is divided into three sections: The Problem, the Prescription, and the Prognosis.  The Problem is Pain.  We are experiencing the pain of progress at an exponential rate.  Simply glancing through the appendix of this book reveals that life is coming at us in exponential proportions.  Population, Mail, Health Care Costs, Home Prices, Volume of Advertising, Number of Prisoners, Life Expectancy, Bankruptcies, Federal Debt, and Number of International Telephone Calls are ALL increasing exponentially.  And with this increase comes an increase in pain.  We are seeing divorce, depression, anxiety, debt, crime, alcoholism, drugs, suicide, all climb to epidemic levels.  So if we have bigger houses, more cars, higher salaries, and more exotic vacations, why are more people than ever choosing to end their life or escape through drugs, illegal or prescribed?

Progress, Swenson insists, is not evil, but we must realize that somewhere, in the midst of all of this progress and increase, there is a limit.  While athletic records are being constantly broken, there are limits.  A man may run the mile faster than ever before, but there will be a limit.  A man cannot run the mile in one second, nor in one minute, so there will be a limit.  For 2000 years, the slowly climbing linear progression of change has meant that the danger of exceeding limits was still far off. But today, look around at the foreclosure signs and tell me that perhaps we’ve failed to recognize our limits.

WHen we fail to recognize limits we overload.  What is obvious in physical overload is not so obvious in the performance, emotional, and mental realm. We would never try to crowd 3 cars into a 2-car garage.  I don’t pour two cups of milk into my 8 oz. measuring cup. Physical limits are obvious.  But we have a harder time recognizing limits in the performance and emotional and mental realm.  Where is the limit of too many friends? Too many commitments?  Too much work? Too many emotional draining relationships?  We are not unlimited in our resources, even if we do have streams of living water flowing through our lives.  We are not God.

Lately, I’ve been lifting weights.  I have always had 5 lbs. hand weights, and I love them. But after having them for several years now, I’ve noticed that with curls and chest press, I really needed to use 8lb. weights in order to overload my muscles and help them become stronger.  However, there is a limit.  I don’t want huge muscles.  I want to be fit and in shape, but body building is not my goal. So, there will a limit that I put on how heavy of weight I will use and how much I will lift weights.  In my workout video, the instructor says at one point “You are unlimited in your potential.”  I always kind of shake my head at that point. Uh, that’s not true, Gari Love.  I cannot lift up our car.  I cannot bench press my husband.  So, there is a limit to my potential and acknowledgment of that limit is the key to mental health.  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” is not an invitation to embrace absurdity.

So, I guess I’ll leave you with this for now.  Step one, we recognize that there is a problem.  We need more than a one-week vacation to Hawaii to deal with the stress and pain of life.  With ever increasing frequency, people are snapping, resorting to drugs, divorce, drinking, debt, death…because we’ve embraced “progress” and forfeited our souls.  What needs to change?  We need a little margin.

I’m going to practice what I preach and write some trash…because this afternoon I am just so tired, and cold, so I don’t feel like doing much other than pulling the blanket a little closer up to my neck and sinking down a little lower in the couch while Dutch takes his nap.  So, I’m writing just to write. My brain feels like mud today. Not much creativity.  The gerbil in my mind has ceased running and is now lying down on his wheel with his little gerbil arms and legs hanging over the sides.

Maybe I’m tired because I’ve actually begun, yes, exercising again.  Sedentary Seminary has taken its toll and both Jeff and I are ready for some fitness.  I started running (ok, jogging) a couple weeks ago, just a couple miles a couple days a week, and Jeff has been doing awesome riding his new bike, the “second car.”  He’s ridden it in all week this week to church for work–that’s 16 miles a day!  Woohoo Jeff! Jeff has also accepted the online Hundred Pushup Challenge.  So this morning after my run (that sounds so much cooler than “jog” even though I’m certain no one watching would ever qualify it as running), I collapsed on the couch and read my Bible while Jeff did his push-ups.  Way to go, hon!  He is LOVING riding his bike–he’s always wanted a new bike, and it’s so fun to see him get so excited about more than an hour of grueling exercise each day.

Nothing much on other fronts.  We’re trying to eat healthier, which lasts until after dinner when the dessert demon calls my name and insists that ice cream and cookies are absolutely necessary.  Dutch is now in love with graham crackers and makes his pitiful little “please” sign rapidly with desperation in his eyes as he points up to the cupboard.  He’s now feeding himself, which is great.  We spend lots of time sitting down at the river, letting him throw rocks, hundreds and hundreds of rocks into the water.   I’m LOVING summer, and thankful that Jeff is only working 1/2 time, so it makes for sweet mornings and afternoons together.  Last night he and Dutch watched the NBA finals so I had some sweet time alone to…well, I actually cleaned the closet. But that’s fun for me!

Ok, this post receives the all-time award for most-boring, nothing-of-significance blog entry.  Things are really great, my brain is just tired.  God is good.  If any of you have inspiration for the LiveDifferent Challenge this week, I’d love to hear it.  Actually, I do have an idea rolling around (slowly) in my mind…Increasing Margins. Hmm.  Think about it…