Take Up Where You Left Off, Retrace Your Steps if Necessary, Blaze a New Path

If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done. ~Thomas Jefferson (attribution).

I'm not certain that Jefferson really said this. But I am sure that it is true. It's also uncomfortable. We get so comfortable treading the same old paths, and that's not a bad thing, but it's limiting... sometimes that's the point.

Yesterday we had Emmy and Steven over for dinner. Got to talking with Steven about the South, how it differs from the North. I played him an excerpt from Rick Bragg's My Southern Journey, to help me better explain what I saw as stereotypical romanticized southern way of life. He agreed that Bragg was indeed a Southern gem and went on to tell me about his own sensibilities: 

You grow up seeing these things, seeing your parents, being in the woods, making meals for everyone, you see this kind of life, and when you get to be an adult you say, well, now it's my turn to do all of those things. ~Steven Carroll

It's a beautiful sentiment, and clearly the key difference between the South and the North. In the South you seek to retain something so it's not lost, in the North you seek to grow into what you've never had before.

Right or wrong, my sensibilities are much more Northern: To do new things, to grow, to stay on top of the current, to make a new way. And yet, I see the value in growing, doing new things, and allowing the current to be background (while sipping an iced tea from the shore), in following the old ways.

That's what the South has shown me, that following the old ways is really the smart way. Why abandon centuries of learning for the quick fix of what's happening now? And yet, you can't ignore the present to feel continuity with the past. We still have something to grow into. And, at the very least, an adaptation must be made in the present to accommodate the ways of the past.

Today, I'm considering Connecting with God (CG). Specifically, Living with God. Frank Laubauch, an early 20th Century mystic, wrote about consistently, moment by moment, seeking to be connected with God. I remember reading about him in Greg Boyd's work on practicing the presence of God. So, as I go through the text, I'm thinking, "I've read this before, I've been down this path before". But applying the principle of "getting what you've never had" I have to ask myself, "what have I never done?"

It's unnerving considering doing what you've never done. Fatiguing might be a better word. I want to sit in my rocking chair and write. But are there different things that I need to be doing? Are there different things that God is calling me to?

Lord Jesus, there is a lot I am trying to synthesize right now. I'm thinking about Awaken the Giant and beliefs becoming convictions, and disempowering beliefs. About how we change (that so much of it happens in preparation for change). I'm thinking about prayer and paths I've previously tread (and wondering how "successful" was I?). About Christ City and is that the place for us? Lord, help me in these moments to simplify, to look at one thing. Today, that's connecting with You. Help me pay attention to the ways we are connected. To reaffirm old ways that I felt close to You, and to pay attention to new ways that You might be guiding me toward. Lord, I love You, and I'll live for You, if I can just get out of my own way.

In Jesus Name,

Amen