MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2021 LESSONS I NEED TO RELEARN

 MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2021 LESSONS I NEED TO RELEARN

I think all of us from time to time need to relearn things.  Maybe it is like riding a bicycle, we can do it - but after a few years not riding your bike you just aren’t sure how much pressure to put on your brakes to stop, or how to change gears.

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I had a great trip to the Phoenix area to visit my sister and family.  (Now, that sentence is from the real Karen.  The adjective “great” is used not as a made-up superlative, but because it was great.  If you grew up around the time I grew up, Tony the Tiger told us that Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes were GREAT.  Maybe you have read “Good to Great” by Jim Collins - now a business-standard.  The concept is easy - “Good” is not good enough, we need to keep pushing through to “GREAT”.

Okay, let’s get into my first lesson this week I need to relearn.  Refreshing my batteries with God.

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When Karen is real, Karen is a Pollyanna - life is good (oops - life is great), the skies are blue, all is right with the world and with life.  A lesson that Karen knows - but forgot - is to keep grounded in God.

For three weeks in November, I didn’t participate in corporate worship (aka “Church”).  Thinking about that I can’t remember a time in my entire life that I “skipped” church three times.  It seems to be part of my DNA.  “Train up a child in the way he should go; Even when he is old he will not depart from it” Proverbs 22:6.  And my parents did this.  (I think I have lost them over the years - but I had medals for perfect attendance at Sunday School for K through 12!!)

In my retirement years, I think I have learned about God (or, maybe, God has been teaching me things, and maybe - I finally have been listening).

To me - God is so far beyond my understanding that I can only “touch the hem of His garment”.  God is infinite, all-powerful.  Whether it really is as the Bible describes it or not “God SAID” and boom the world started.  I can’t picture God in a lab with a microscope and a recipe book.  If that was true, I’d picture an old man with a white beard with this huge book turned to a page “How to create a man”.  

I believe that somehow all of us are created in the image and likeness of God.  But the Bible later says “God is Spirit and you must worship Him in Spirit and Truth”. If He (and I’m using the standard vocabulary of God as male today but God is male, female, all genders, all <whatever>) wanted 10,000 new stars today - he would think and maybe even say “Let there be 10,000 new stars”.  Boom - done.  If he wanted ten million planets that had some form of life on them, he would think and maybe say “Let there be ten million planets”.  

So, “Hey - no big deal” - I gave up three Sundays of going to Church.  I gave up three Saturdays of my intriguing Bible Study, with my new work schedule, I gave up my Wednesday night Bible Study.  

I’m thinking - “hey it is okay - I’ve been in over 4,000 worship / Sunday “Church” services over the years - three Sundays missed - that’s less than 0.001 of all the services.  God (He, She, It, The Force) knows my heart - (He, She, It, The Force) knows that this is just a blip on the radar.

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So, yes, I spent the first weekend with my friend helping with projects around her house to get her ready for Friendsgiving.  So, yes, I spent the second weekend with my friend again as she had a big Friendsgiving event.  So, yes, I spent the third weekend in my car driving home from Arizona.  (I can remember telling myself, I’ll find a radio station that has a worship service - and then I didn’t even try to find one.  I kept the Sirius XM radio on my car for this trip.  I KNOW there are good speakers that I could have tuned in to - and didn’t.  

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There have been a few times that I’ve not plugged my iPhone in at night.  I know that if I want to use my phone the next day, I have to keep it charged.  And - boom - I let myself become rundown.

YES - this week, I’m reflecting on letting myself get run down.  (What, Pollyanna Karen can do that?)  We’ve seen the Energizer Bunny going and going - but what the product doesn’t tell us - that hey - even though our batteries are good and maybe even great - they do need to get replaced sometimes.  

And, although smart enough to know when I am “burning the candle at both ends” (as one friend suggested) - I wasn’t smart enough to know how to stop and refresh my candle (or refresh my battery - or refresh my outlook on life!!!

LOVE WINS has been my mantra for a few years now.  I’ve even written on Self-Love and “loving your neighbor as yourself” which implies that you need to love yourself.  And, boom, I forgot my lesson!!!  

The good part is that I’m finally facing that issue.  Will I make that mistake again?  Pollyanna Karen says “No, I’ve learned my lesson”, but Real Karen says “I hope not>

More tomorrow!!!

LOVE WINS!!

Karen