Sacred Mundane: The Blog

To “get set” in a race means positioning yourself into the starting blocks.  It’s getting your entire body in ready position so you can get a strong start to the race. I think this is a fairly obvious analogy to the Christian life, right? We all know that we should “get set” and fix our eyes on the goal. But perhaps where we get confused is …

What is the goal? 

See, can you imagine how ridiculous it would be if an Olympic track runner went out and set up his blocks facing sideways?

What if he set them up so that he was running in the wrong direction? 

See, someone can be a great athlete. They can train their entire life, for hours a day. They can qualify for the Olympics. They can be sincere. They can have all the right motivations and give their heart and soul to competing in this race … but if the blocks are set in the wrong direction, they won’t win the race. In fact, they won’t even be part of the event.

See, my greatest fear in life isn’t that I’ll fail. My greatest fear is that I’ll succeed at things that don’t matter.

That is, that I’ll spend my life racing in the wrong direction. 

I might be the fastest runner in the pack. I might train the most. Might build up my endurance more than anyone. But if I run in the wrong direction, there is no point.

Earlier this week I was fretting about something. Praying about it. Talking to God about my goals and desires regarding it. And then He interrupted me (Yes, I wasn’t listening so He actually had to interrupt me.) His words: “Kari, is that my goal for you?”

Silence.

See, friends, there are a million great things we can do. But in what direction do we need to set our blocks? On what do we set our minds? Each and every morning, when we rise and meet the day, on what should we set our minds? Colossians 3 tells us:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Our track blocks must be set in the right direction. As long as our aims are on earthly things — no matter how good and noble those things are — they will always fall short. If we use worldly methods and have worldly goals, we will never establish God’s upside down Kingdom here on earth. We can make a lot of noise, gather a lot of people, build great programs, but are we fixing our minds on things eternal? Are we making disciples? Are we spreading the gospel? Are we preaching hope? Are we loving people? Are we falling more and more in love with Jesus every single day?  A good question for us would be, concerning any particular goal or aim:

Someday, when I wake up in glory and see my Creator face-to-face, will I be glad I pursued this thing?

Things above. My heart is so prone to wander to shallow, surface, temporal, worldly things. I pray He will give us a greater and greater desire to pursue eternal things. We must set our blocks in the right direction. 

On things above. 

Thanks for reading.

I hated running track in high school.

I mean, I loved it and hated it. I loved it because I enjoyed running, and liked the the team. (Actually that’s not true; I just liked one boy on the team.)  But I hated it because the pressure of doing an individual sport was so intense it practically made me sick at every track meet. I can still remember the dread and feeling of panic every time my event would come, when I’d step forward and hear those words: “On your mark …”. Unlike basketball, volleyball, and softball, this sport only depended on me. I was the only one running the 400 meter dash around that track. I couldn’t depend on a teammate or inwardly blame anyone else if we lost.

I wasn’t that great at it either. I was just good enough to run Varsity medium-length events like the 400m and short and long relays, but not fast enough to really excel at any of them. I was pretty much a steady mediocre. Which made running alone that much harder. There was never any glory. Never any victory, never any time to shine. It was just me, all alone, running my tail off and always finishing right in the middle of the pack.

All that to say that as I’ve been watching the Olympic track events, all I can think about is how much courage it must take to step forward and compete for an event.  All alone. Especially if you know you’ll never win. It’s not like men’s sand volleyball (Really, why is that an Olympic event?) where you can blend in and blame failures on someone else. When you step forward on your mark, it’s just you.

Any other wimps out there, like me?

My point is this: Sometimes God calls us out. He calls us out individually and summons us to step forward and we clearly hear His call: “On your mark …”

It’s at that moment I usually start to panic, cry, or look for a bathroom to escape. Or, like last night, I just fall on my face on my bedroom floor and pray for mercy because only He can give the strength to obey.

“On your mark…”

He calls us all to different things. My race might be the 400m and yours is a marathon. You might be called to a relay race and I might be called to run alone. But God is looking for men and women who will come forward and get on their marks. Who are willing to run alone. Who will obey Him in whatever weird or wild event He calls us to. To walk by faith. To take the first step. To enter the race.

Even if we know that particular race will never earn us any glory. 

Some of us (yours truly) prefer to only enter events where we can excel. But God calls us to enter events where we might be guaranteed obscurity. We may never hear applause or wear a medal around our necks. We might just blend in with the pack. Or, we might even come in last place. But He wants us to run. To obey Him. To just do whatever it is He’s asking us to.

And only He knows what that is. 

I believe there is something, even today, that God has been calling you to do. A step of faith. A response of obedience. And even now it comes to mind. Sure, you might have to do it alone. There’s a chance of failure. It might be scary. But, would you just do it? My simple prayer today is to obey His voice when we hear Him saying, “On your mark…”

Would you get alone with Him today and ask Him what it is He wants you to do? Thanks so much for running this race of faith with me. Have a great Monday; thanks for reading.

• Welcoming Leah Joy Seifer into the world!
• Celebrating baby girl Snyder.
• That three of my closest friends will now have 10 little girls between them … (Dutch will have plenty of choices for a prom date!)

• Happy kids.
• That we made it through a full week!
• Backyard full of toys, chairs, picnic tables. Evidence of fun.
• Garden growing.
• Freezer full of blueberries.
• Coffee with raw honey and half-and-half. mmmmm…
• Sleeping in.
• 7+ mile run with my man. Three weeks ’til Hood to Coast!
• Molalla friends. Always, always, like water to my soul.
• Melissa’s smile.
• Good talks.
• A dozen barefoot Littles in swimsuits, laughing, playing.
• Green beans straight from the garden.
• Psalm 63.
• All the dishes put away.
• Laundry on the line.
• Dutch & Daddy tackling house projects.
• Heidi & Mommy washing 40 lbs. of blueberries, icy cold water, warm sun streaming in through the kitchen window. Wanting to memorize that moment.
• Dirty faces.
• Being totally terrible at frisbee golf … but having fun anyway.
• Strawberry pie!
• Kids with smiling, sticky faces.
• Believing.
• That He is always constant.
• A friend’s understanding.
• Hugs.
• That all true ministry is His ministry.
• Looking ahead.
• A day of rest.
• That this is His world, His gig, His story.
• Getting to be part of it.
• Getting to be with Him.

{Have a blessed weekend (stay cool!) … thanks for reading.}

I remember on May19th, after speaking at a conference, I said to my friend, “I have no plans this summer. This is a summer to relax, lounge by the pool, read books, just REST.”

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!

I’m sure if I listened closely in that moment I could have heard God laughing out loud. 

It has been a full summer. I’ll share more details next week, but we’ve had a glorious whirlwind of activity that was unplanned by us but absolutely planned by the heart of God. He knew what the summer would entail, and I praise Him for it, but it’s been full to say the least. In fact, the reason this post is late is because I haven’t had any time to write it! But I love God’s timing, and just now when I sat down and saw the title planned for today, I had to smile.

Dumping my brain is exactly what I need right now. 

Why? Because the fact of the matter is, most of us wear about 13 different hats. There are so many different spheres in our lives, and each of them have “to do” lists and require attention. Even when I have a to-do list or a chore chart, it can still feel like a whirlwind of thoughts, ideas, needs, whirling around in my brain.

Hence the need to dump.

For example: This morning I needed to study for an upcoming conference, return a dozen emails, wash and freeze 40 lbs. of blueberries, turn 25 lbs. of apples into applesauce, water the garden, pick beans, plan my son’s homeschool curriculum, run 7 miles, prepare for a Bible study meeting, and wash and line-dry four loads of laundry.

Probably not going to get all that done today, right? Chances are your own list is just as long (and just as random), but as long as all these things are floating around in our mind we can’t move forward and get anything done. Unless I have them down, prioritized, and moved into a workable plan, all the things will leave me feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed.

Tsh suggests creating  a mind map (pictured below) so you can visually organize all the various items into categories, and then prioritize.

I’m more of a list/outline girl myself, so it helps me to create headlines at the top of the page and then list my dumped items under the appropriate category. Both ways are effective, it just depends whether you prefer a map or a list.

So whether it’s mapping or listing or sticky notes slapped on the wall and rearranged by priority, figure out a regular way of dumping your brain. Tsh suggests doing it each night, which helps you sleep better because you know everything’s been effectively recorded. It also helps you to prioritize and then create each day’s To-Do list. That makes sense to me–I’m sold!

Alright, friends. I’m off to dump, list, divide and conquer! Enjoy your weekend; and thanks so much for reading!