Who Are You?

Have you ever been driving your car, riding a bus, or walking around a grocery store and wondered about the other people you come across? Have you ever caught a glimpse of a face and wondered, "Where is that person going, both in the immediate travel and in their life? Are they happy?" Sometimes I do. Sometimes I wonder if I'm losing a good friend by not speaking to them.

Where I work (as a salesman and cashier at a store), I'm required to talk to people. But instead of assisting them in the most plain-vanilla way I can ("Hi - how can I help you? That's found over here, blah blah blah..."), I make them part of my life for however many moments they're in contact with me. My goal is to lighten the mood of at least half of the people I come across. I can't help it now. I just crack up with my goofy smile as soon as I walk up to people, and somehow that smile always makes them smile, too.

It's fun. YHVH has blessed me tremendously with this job. I've met new friends in customers just by being a warm and bubbly person. I may not know their names, but I know their faces, the sound of their laughter, and the joy of knowing I made just a little difference.

"Well, I'm Back"

So Rosemary and Cora Beth both demanded asked that I return to the blogosphere.

Maybe it would be fitting to write an "In 2011, I plan to..." list. Even though I deny the idea that it is 2011. I just got used to writing 2010 instead of 2009. New Year's Grinch - That's me!

So in this year, which I still call 2010, I plan to...

1. Help my neighbor in her quest to learn how to tan animal furs. She has contacts from which to get the chemicals (we looked in to doing 100% at-home DIY stuff with the corn flakes and battery acid, and that was going to be way too much work; who said wagon train women couldn't be just a little lazy?). Yes, as everyone off the 'nets asks, and I'm sure you're about to, I do mean real honest-to-goodness rabbit furs.
2. Practice making bread and maybe *gasp* become proficient at it.
3. Make myself a more valuable asset at my work.
4. Practice being humble and submissive. I tend to have a bit of a stubborn streak.
5. Finish that nasty evil wretched wonderful quilt I started for the Cowboy. Only 296 more dumb simple and easy pieces of evil strong and manly denim to cut out. *sigh* Anyone have any spare jeans? I'll need them... Has anyone mentioned that Cora hates quilting? She does. Cutting stuff up to sew into a blanket with tons of waste in seam allowances? Unthinkable! Yet here she is...

And the one that I know I will HAVE to do:
6. Learn patience. This summer will be very difficult for me unless I can learn to fully rely on the Lord. But He's been giving me reason upon reason to trust Him in this venture. I know the Cowboy and I will learn much and come out better in the end, so part of me is excited, but the other part is dreading when the Cowboy leaves.

I'm sorry for abandoning you guys. I've missed you a lot.
~Cora

Wins and Losses on July 2nd

I thought I'd count up today's wins and losses.

Wins:
Got another few pages written in my book. It was a very epic scene.
Getting three T-shirts and a bag of M&Ms for $7. The shirts were half off, and then I had a 15% off coupon on top of that. Yay!
Having a steak waiting for me at home. Yum!

Losses:
A chipmunk introduced itself to my truck's tire on my way to work. ;'(
It's difficult to wash your face in the shower while you're still wearing your glasses. *facepalm*

The Passion of the Christian

Find your purpose. Find your passion.

I hear those phrases said a LOT by unhappy, teen/twentyish Christians this last year or two.

Here's an example: I was listening to a young man who was telling me about a conversation he'd had years before with an elderly missionary. The missionary told him: "Now, you can get a good job, a great wife, and be very content and happy until you reach about 40, then you'll feel like there's something missing. Or you can do what I did and be a missionary." The young man told me, "I can see the first part coming true with me - I have that stuff... I'm afraid of eventually feeling like there's something missing."

Well, I thought on what to advise him. First I had to clear up something that struck me wrong. I asked him, "So... Being a missionary solves all your problems and makes you content?" Not that I'm against missionaries; believe me, I hold them in high respect. But if you're going to be a missionary for the wrong reason, it is WRONG. Be a missionary to spread the Word, not to be your fix-all pill.

Then the young man said the phrase that grates on me like you have no idea: "That was back when I was trying to find my passion."

No. Hold the phone.

You don't find passion. Passion finds you.

There is such an emphasis on finding your passion/purpose/whatever among Christian youngsters in my current sphere of friendship. I blame this idea on people who want to write and sell Christian self-help books, and I don't understand it. Never before in my life had I heard it before going to college, and it struck me as very backward. Same as it grates on my when people ask, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Don't be stuck on the future, people! Be stuck on NOW. NOW is when you're alive!

Let's go back to my beloved book of James. James 4:13-17:

13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."
14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

That blunt enough for you? So what is "the good he ought to do?" How about Ecclesiastes 9:10: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."

Whatever your hand finds to do. Anything your hand finds to do. Everything your hand finds to do.

Live this moment for Christ. Think this thought for Christ. Pray this prayer for Christ. Share the Word for Christ. Be the temple for Christ. If you do, your passion, contentment, and peace will find you.