projects

and not just the ones downtown. I am talking about the last two weeks full to the brim with driving buses, designing business cards and websites, meeting with clients, countless hours on the phone booking flights, and driving people around who are from out of state and staying for a week. Dropping dead asleep every night except last week. Anxiety about starting my bus route again and the various projects I have yet to get to kept me wide awake.

I called a friend during this time and old her I was a bit stressed when she asked how I was. The first question out was "How are your quiet times?" I told her "short" as in I read my bible on the toilet (one of the few places I get peace and quiet). She said "That's not enough!". Oh really.

I blew it off. But it did get me started thinking on why "quiet times" are such an institution. It doesn't really mention them in the Bible. What it does mention are the times that Jesus went by himself to pray. Phillipians says to "pray unceasingly" and other places in scripture refer to meditating on scripture and memorization. I don't see anywhere where a "quiet time" is a set practice of time and ritual. I habitually read the bible and pray but it doesn't look the same from day to day. If one is abiding in Jesus, you are already communing with him. If one lives in the state of consideration and acknowledgement of their Maker, Savior, and Friend, the "quiet place is in the heart. In the knowledge and trust in Jesus. The peaceful place in the midst of the whirlwind of life.

Change of Subject:
My friend wrote a blog recently on sex and abstinence in the Christian life. It was timely as I was struggling through this very issue. My hormones have been in overdrive for the last few weeks and I started fantasizing about going out and sleeping with the first guy I met just to get some relief. lol. (you have all been there, stop staring) I began to really examine (again) why I believe that sex is reserved for marriage and not before. I began to remind myself of the emptiness and heartbreak and pain from relationships gone sour. That didn't help a whole lot. I thought to myself "I have been there before, I could do it again". The perspective in my friend's blog was the appropriate approach. Not to deny the power and beauty of sex, but understanding the good and proper context in which God intended sex to occur. Thank you my friend.