What Are You?
I’m on the road this week, a sort of vacation, visiting a soul friend. I tugged the backside of the calendar a bit, stretching Thursday into Wednesday so I could take a meandering route and visit a few other friends along the way. Iowa crossed the border and met me for lunch along the Interstate, and then Nebraska welcomed me, inviting me to dinner, Lenten worship and an overnight visit.
These times with good friends are always deep reminders of why some of us, with our relational deficiencies, need to get out of the house a little more and spend this time.
A theme ran through all these conversations, whether across the table in a old church-turned-cafe in a small South Dakota town, or over coffee and ice cream (and, yes, okay, tea) on a cobblestone downtown street, or even in the wee hours a cozy living room: How do we keep all this straight? How do we balance what we’re doing, keep the right perspective on who we are and what really matters?
Yesterday, these sweet small bits with friends still fresh as I arrived in Kansas, I ran across this article by Shaun Groves. It’s too bad he wasn’t a part of the conversation.
I think we all could have used the reminder. I know I could.
Sometimes I can’t do all of this in the same season. Something gives. That doesn’t bother me at all if I remember what I am. When it comes to blogging, sometimes I don’t remember. Instead, I get scared. . . .
. . . What are you? You’re probably not a blogger. There aren’t many of those. You’re probably a counselor, encourager, teacher, leader, community builder, theologian, organizer, motivator, reformer, activist, creator…who blogs.
You can take a break from the internet and still be what you are. You have our permission.
Read the rest here. It’s worth a hundredfold the time it takes to slide over there.
So, you: Is there something you need to give yourself permission to do or not do? What is it that scares you?
So jealous you live that close to so many of my favorite people! But really, I’m glad you went.
I have decided to a break from blogging for two weeks next month when I combine work with more work (a press trip to Northern Ireland and the biggest magazine issue of the year). If I lose readers, so be it. ‘Tis the season.
2012/03/30 at 2:18 PM
I want to know more about that, Megan. Ireland? Tell?
2012/03/30 at 5:52 PM
IRELAND – you get to go to Ireland for WORK? Wow. Enjoy. We spent 17 days in Ireland (not northern Ireland – hopefully some day) and it was hands down on our top 5 list of beautiful places in the world. Oh, enjoy it – sneak away in a little car out on a country road and just look. Just look.)
2012/03/30 at 9:54 PM
I will not be jealous of you and your trip to Ireland.
I will not be jealous of you and your trip to Ireland.
I will not be jealous of you and your trip to Ireland…
2012/04/02 at 6:02 PM
I would enjoy it so much more if you could come, too! I’m so nervous.
2012/04/03 at 6:29 AM
i like the picture…pretty
2012/03/30 at 2:20 PM
Trying to balance all of it is hard. But hopefully we all give each other grace.
2012/03/30 at 2:44 PM
I don’t know what else I’m supposed to be at this point in my life. That’s what scares me. That and cellulite.
Appreciate the link to the Shaun Groves piece. Will take a look.
2012/03/30 at 5:47 PM
And I feel like I want to say just be what you already are. I need permission sometimes to just let things be what they are — not something else. Does that make sense?
2012/03/30 at 5:51 PM
Wow. Permission to take a break from the Internet. Thanks for sending us over.
2012/03/30 at 6:07 PM
Oh, my, Lyla – that is the question of the hour…of the year…of the past couple of years, actually. What am I now? Daughter/wife/mother/grandmother/friend/encourager/spiritual director/writer wanna be. And when I’m through day 40 of this insane (actually 47 day) Lenten journey, I just may take a break for a while. I need to do some real writing, without interruptions for email or facebook. And man is that hard to do these days because – you folks have become – outside of my family – my primary go-to community in these early months of retirement. How crazy is that?? Yeah, I know. Pretty crazy. Sigh.
2012/03/30 at 9:58 PM
Diana, I really want to tell you it’s okay to do that. Do what needs doing. But disconnecting is hard — we don’t all do it often and we don’t all do it well. But I think it’s an important thing. And maybe for some of us it’s not weeks at a time, but a day. Or an hour. And knowing that we are still who we are when we step away.
Community complicates things, you know? If not for community, it’d be a no-brainer. And yet, still, that’s how He’s made us to function. That’s what He’s made us for. And it’s complicated.
Darn it. But, then, again, it’s okay that it is.
2012/03/31 at 7:50 AM
amen.
2012/03/31 at 9:32 PM
I miss having you here in my living room. Reading this makes me cry – good, rich tears. You are a gift, Lyla.
2012/04/02 at 6:04 PM
So glad you had that time away with friends. What a gift. And I went over and read Shaun’s blog post and I am coming to that same conclusion recently. Letting some of what drives me fly away. It makes me smile that Shaun Groves worries about his audience when he doesn’t blog. Oh my! I just told my husband the other night, I am only as good as my last blog post to my followers. It’s all so temporal.
2012/04/03 at 8:17 PM
It can feel very fleeting, Shelly. The nature of the rapid, all day long changes and new things, and we just keep running between them. But I can tell you this — there are those times where we make a connection or share the right words at the right time, and something happens that is lasting. That’s the relationship, which is always the most unexpected (and most difficult) for me, but yet that’s the thing He’s doing out here.
And so, to that end, you’re far more to all of us than your latest blog post. I promise you that. I find that as much as we may even enjoy reading each other’s work and receive ministry and challenge through it, what really keeps us coming back (and waiting at home) is the person. No matter how good the last blog post is.
Rambling again…. This topic does it to me. Stay tuned.
2012/04/03 at 8:32 PM