Into Action

Aghhhh far too many distractions and things to do! My bookshelf is more a burden than a delight with its far too many unread books... My sax, guitar and clarinet are gaining weight in dust... My body and hockey skills are demanding more attention always... My Twitter and Facebook and friends' blogs want reading, my room and house want cleaning, hair wants cutting, sketch book wants sketches drawn, journal wants writing, youth group wants leading, budget and organiser want work done (as does my mum's design business), friends and sponsored child want letters sent and emails replied to, my trip to India wants planning, family, flatmates and friends want attention... You get the idea! And I want to do it all, but I don't know where to begin. It all excites me heaps (some things more than others of course), but I don't know where to start! I literally have piles of things to do, and I love the thought of getting into it all. Maybe this blog will be the trigger, the thing to set me in motion to start ticking boxes! But some of these boxes can't just be ticked... Practice makes perfect, but so many of these things require that! Perhaps some boxes with their tasks must simply be removed... Priorities must be set! I'm going to try prioritising where I spend my time, with whom, on what. Organisation to achieve efficiency. But it must all be with love. Love must be at the core, otherwise it simply becomes cold, organised efficiency. A bit like spiritual disciplines I think. Without the 'spiritual' it's just a discipline, and that won't achieve nothin' other than a false and orderly faith. Passionless. But without the discipline it just doesn't happen. Ok, here comes an attempt at a go-getting, organised and hard-working Elliot, who can still remain free, spontaneous and loving. Fully engaged, enthralled, enjoying.

Some Jill Rice wisdom

This is my mum's response to my previous blog post. She's so wise and thoughtful. This helped me heaps, some good stuff for me and hopefully y'all to think about regarding living life - together! Not solo.

28/06/2011

Dear Elliot

Found your latest blog post. Made me cry! If I am allowed to comment, this is what I would like to say.

Bud, I applaud your honesty. It’s good to own those feelings, but not to wallow in them. They are very real.

Yes, I think we are made for co-dependency. I don’t think we are meant to go solo. God our father is the 3 in one, and we are made in his likeness, to be like him. God is also not separate from humanity – he is very much in it. I think our trust in God and love for God is shown in our love and trust of those around us.

He said, whatever you do for the least of these you do for me, whoever welcomes one of these little children welcomes me (Mark 9:36), whoever receives you receives me, he who receives me receives the one who sent me (Matt 10:40), the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me (Rom 15:3) etc etc – we’re all together in this. It’s not just about you and God, it’s about us, because God is in us. We are interconnected. Where 2 or 3 come together in my name there I am with them (Matt 18:19). When you hurt, we hurt (1 Cor 12:26) etc etc. We are not islands, but more like an archipelago (!), together, with God, through each other.

No human relationship is going to completely fulfil and yet somehow that is God’s plan – that we are completed by each other. As we fail each other and then reach out again and forgive and trust each other again, in this way we are God to each other. God uses the imperfect to show himself to us, the weak to shame the wise, the last to be first etc etc. We recognise our frailty and in so doing, through faith we are made strong.

Jesus also felt lonely, and let down, by God his father, and by those around him, in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 20:36).... And yet he also kept trusting, not just in God directly, but in his human friends – kept relying on them to be there for him, to help him do his work and to spread his message - to love him. I love that he told Peter, after he had let him down 3 times, that “on this rock will build my church”.

So yeah, I think God is reaching out to us all the time, through e-mails, texts, phone calls, facebook, blogs, invitations of various kinds, and we do have the choice all the time, to respond or to reject. I think the answer to loneliness is to keep on choosing to do the former. And yes, that is an action.

I love you so much. Thanks for trusting us with your deepest, most personal thoughts. God bless.

Mum

Preach it mum. Love you too :)