Back in the states...

I am pretty sure most of us have got it all backwards.

Why do we work so hard to have time to do nothing?

What is rewarding about nothing?

I am not sure that this blog will make sense but I will see where it goes...I went to a bootcamp class this morning. All these women are in the class with me - as we started working out - I started thinking about how here in America we have the freedom to go to school, get jobs, to make money, so that we can afford to eat where we want(and eat too much) and then go to a gym. I just spent a week in a country where I never saw a gym. But who needs a gym when you have to go outside and get your own water from a public water spigot? Who needs a gym when you have to get your groceries daily because there is refrigeration where you live - so you do only eat what you need.

The thing I missed the most last week while in Nigeria was my cell phone. Isn't that crazy? Okay, not really the cell phone but the instant connection I have with the people that I care about because I have a cell phone. The entire last hour on the plane(and I had been on that plane for 14 hours) - I was ready to turn my phone on. I think I sent a text to everyone that I could think of to say I was back in the States.

But yesterday at church...I spent the entire day there because I had two meetings in addition to our normal Sunday schedule...I struggled with the realization of how easy it is to miss God's still small voice when I am home. When I am in America. America is loud. We demand to have all of our needs met and we want them met instantly. We have t.v., internet, radio, ipods, smart phones, bill boards...it's all just noise! Loud noise.

I think I crave the time I had on the Appalachian Trail for six months. Six months of very little external noise. And anytime I get a taste of that - like I did last week in Nigeria - I yearn for it again. I always say I learned how to breathe deep while hiking...I had to. And I am so thankful for it.

I am my own worst enemy. It's not America's fault that I buy into the noise. I don't have to get online the minute I get home. I try really hard to not keep my cell phone with me all the time, the t.v. stays off more and more these days...but the internet is where I spend my time.

So here's to less noise.

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”
Frederick Buechner