Mikki's Blog - Living in the Grace and Love of God » Enjoying Life

Seize the Day!

Mikki — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:26:12 +0000

A few years ago the movie "Dead Poets Society" resurrected a Latin phrase, Carpe Diem, or Seize the Day, an exhortation to live life to the fullest, getting the most out of each individual day.

I thought of that phrase this morning as I read Ecclesiastes 9. Ecclesiastes is not on the top of my reading list, but I found myself there today. Throughout the book, Solomon struggles with issues like the vanity and futility of life. Not exactly the book you turn to in order to be encouraged. Yet that is what I found in this passage!

Solomon’s journey had taken him through seasons of pursuing God wholeheartedly to times of seeking his own paths. His wrong choices left him empty, broken, and dis.heart.ened. He had lost heart.

Solomon had great wisdom, wealth, and every whim of his heart was his, yet his long season of pursuing selfish desires had left him disillusioned. We believe he wrote Ecclesiastes toward the end of his life. He reflected on his life and on life in general and shared what he had learned.

“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?” … “I communed with my heart, saying, ‘Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge. And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 16-17).

Wow, that will stoke your fire, huh?

Chapter nine continues with Solomon’s exploration of how both good and bad come to all, “To him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner,” (vs. 3). And just when you think you want to close the book before you are overcome with discouragement, he offers these truths:

“Go eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart: For God has already accepted your works. Let your garments always be white, and let your head lack no oil. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life…Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going,” (cheerful, huh?) [verses 7-10].

And yet, there is a simple wisdom for us.

Enjoy the day. We don’t know what will come tomorrow. (Click post title to read entire post)
Be thankful for what you have. Enjoy it.
Know you are accepted by God.
Live in purity.
Pursue the fullness of God.
Find joy in your relationships.
Whatever you do, do it with everything within you!
Life is short. Make it count. Seize the day!!

I love the fact that God doesn’t sugar-coat His Word. He allows us to see the humanness of His servants. The highs, the lows. The victories. The failures. The times when they soar on eagle’s wings and the times when they fall in the pit. We can learn from others’ experiences.

And God whispers to us in every season that He is with us. We can find Him in good days and in bad days. And with Him, we can seize the day and find reason to rejoice, to enjoy, to live life fully, moment by moment, day by day.

Will you seize your day today?

Seize the Day!

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The Day I Brushed My Teeth with Preparation H

Mikki — Fri, 13 May 2011 13:41:00 +0000

Vision is a wonderful gift. I appreciate it more and more as I ‘age’. I began to complain a few years ago to my optometrist about the changes in my vision. He proceeded to tell me that I was one of the lucky ones who had never had any vision problems and that what I was describing was just normal changes that occur as we ‘age’. He informed me that I was just noticing these changes more than the average person because my vision had previously been so perfect which was unusual for my ‘age’.

That’s what I call a back-handed compliment that feels like a slap. You know, “You’ve been above average, but now, the inevitable is happening; you are getting old.” Being interpreted, your body is beginning to fall apart. How’s a woman to take such words?

So for me, recent years have brought the advent of reading glasses and contact lens. I’ve had to humble myself and admit that I can no longer read without help.

Anyway, I recently had a few fun days with my daughter while she was working a conference in Nashville. One particular morning, I was rushing to get ready for the day. I skipped putting in my contacts because, after all, it takes two minutes. No time to grab my glasses either.

I grabbed the travel size tube of toothpaste, loaded up my toothbrush, and began to brush.

Hmm. Strange. My brain said, “Something is wrong. Tastes weird. Feels greasy.”

I’ll admit I was processing a little slower than normal. I kept brushing.

I hadn’t slept much the night before. My hotel room coffee didn’t have as much kick as I would have at home. And my final excuse, I had left my own toothpaste at home and had to have the bellboy bring up a sample to my room. How could I be expected to recognize such a tube without my glasses or contacts?

I thought, “What kind of toothpaste is this?” But then, my neurons began to process a little better and I knew.

Embarrassment surged through my body. I blushed as I rushed to quickly rid my toothbrush and my mouth of the greasy material which was not intended for my mouth. It was not that easy. The greasy stuff had coated my teeth and tongue. I am quite sure my lips had begun to shrink already. I brushed and brushed – with toothpaste – and spit and rinsed. No wonder you can apply it at bedtime and know it will still be working in the a.m.

I rushed to hide all evidence of my stupidity. My instinct was to never admit, to my daughter or anyone else, what I had just done. After all, such a mistake must mean that I am an idiot.

I capped the Preparation H and moved it far away from my toothpaste.

Now in order to appear more dignified to you all because there must be some sort of shame in having hemorrhoids, I will tell you that I was using the Preparation H for the puffy bags under my eyes.

I read the suggestion in an article. (Those who know me are smiling; I am always quoting some ambiguous article as a source of truth.) Having tried other more expensive solutions without huge success, I have resorted to using Preparation H and I will tell you that it does help with the swelling of facial tissues, too!

I moved beyond my initial reaction to ‘never tell’, confessed to my daughter, and laughed with her at my human mistake.

As I evaluate my life at this ‘age’, I find that I have learned to embrace my humanity more than ever. I’ve almost quit pretending I’ve got it all together and am on a journey to accept that this ‘age’ carries with it two things for me.

One, a new kindness for my humanness, and two, a new awareness of wishing I had been more comfortable in my own skin much earlier. A grief of sorts. However, it seems that for most of us, that kind of acceptance comes along with the aging process.

I must admit that I am ambivalent about aging. I can’t really rejoice in diminishing vision, age spots, and aching joints.

I do so wish I had taken better care of my body when I was younger. You know, in hindsight, I should have avoided sun-tanning and jumping off human pyramids during high school probably was not so good on my knees (which complain now), but who cares about that when you are 16 and wearing a cute little cheerleader uniform? Now I just wish I could still get into the uniform; to heck with the climbing and jumping.

Much deeper though is the regret that I feel about the many years that not only did I not listen to my physical body, but I did not listen to my heart. I ignored the signals to slow down and honor the limits of my humanity.

So while I am struggling to accept some of the results of my physical aging process such as a change in my vision, I simultaneously rejoice that my spiritual and emotional vision is healthier. My heart and soul are more at rest. I can laugh at my humanness.

After all, I think my teeth are looking noticeably healthier, too.

The Day I Brushed My Teeth with Preparation H

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The Sacred Gifts of 2011

Mikki — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:00:45 +0000

Listening to the gentle rain falling outside, I sit quietly reflecting. It is early morning. Everyone else in my home is still asleep. With my Yorkie, Gabriel, curled up beside me in my chair, I sip my coffee and think about the New Year and the one that just ended.

New Year’s Day invites me to consider how well I’ve lived this past year. Did I meet some important goals? As I look back on my last year’s resolutions, I ask God if I’ve lived as well as I could in relation to those goals.

This day invites me to make new promises to myself and to reflect on what I hope the New Year will bring.

Prayerfully I release 2010, knowing that with its successes and its failures, it is gone. I thank my heavenly Father for the successes, the goals met, the progress made, and the victories won. I spend time grieving the failures, the goals unmet, the battles lost, and the ground lost.

In our humanity, we will have failures, incompleteness, bad days and even years we’d rather forget, yet God invites us to offer the completeness of our lives to him.

When we sit at Jesus’ feet in honesty with all our triumphs and all our failures, He receives us.

I think of how Jesus said that we must come to him as a little child. Most little children have not learned to live behind a façade. They are just who they really are.

I’ve found that Jesus does not despise the unfinished work in my life, neither does he deny it. When I offer the completeness of my heart to Jesus, he holds my heart tenderly, offering the compassion and understanding that I need to change.

So as I sit with him this morning and ask for direction for the New Year, I offer him “the good, the bad, and the ugly” for they are all part of me. I am thankful because I know that my Father has committed to me that He will continue His work in me until one day I stand before Him, complete and whole in Christ.

So as for me, my resolutions are…

To stay on the journey.

To humbly acknowledge the gift of each day.

To continue to learn how to love myself with my good, bad, and ugly.

To continue to learn how to love others with their good, bad, and ugly, too.

To live within the boundaries that God has purposed for me.

To daily step into God’s invitations.

To recognize the kindness of God and to extend that to others.

As you begin this year, could you spend some time with the Father, thanking Him for the ground gained in your life? For the blessings of 2010?

Will you offer Him your failures, your incompleteness, your very humanity?

Could you offer kindness and forgiveness to others? To your own heart?

May your journey in 2011 embrace the sacred gifts that God offers, to know Him, others, and your own heart more fully. Happy New Year.

The Sacred Gifts of 2011

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