A Week to Unplug

This week, I am getting ready to send my son off to camp for the first time. He is going with a good friend of his and can't wait! While our boys swim, boat, and possibly brave the ropes course, my friend Anne and I get to join our friend Rebecca at her family cabin. Isn't it darling?

While at the cabin, I will brave my own little adventure: a week without Internet access or cell service. When Anne told me that we wouldn't have either, I must say I was thrilled. As much as I love connecting with my friends on Facebook, browsing the web, e-mail, and phones, lately I have felt the pressure to chained to them from morning 'til night. The opportunity to unplug feels like a gift from God. I decided to go for it full-on and leave my laptop at home. Any writing I do will be with pen and paper. (Remember those?) I plan to read, spend time with God, enjoy the speakers that we get to hear from in the evenings, take walks, and just enjoy being with my friends. I can't wait to see what God does during this break from technology!

Would you like to share in my challenge? How about unplugging from devices for a day or even half a day? Or perhaps you have done this lately already? I would love to hear how God uses it to refresh you.

How to Adopt Amish Principles . . . as a Teen

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Living in Montana for fifteen years I enjoyed being out of the flow of busy life. Montana is a destination. It's not someplace people "drive through" or "stop by." Life has a slower pace, too. Maybe because there is snow on the ground 6 months of the year. Maybe because the views of the meadows, mountains and lakes make you remember what's really important in life—God, family, nature—and not the to-do list.

Imagine my surprise when I traveled up to the West Kootenai area and discovered a slower pace still. My daughter Leslie and I had lunch in the West Kootenai Kraft and Grocery and noticed neighbors running into each other and sitting down for an impromptu lunch—Amish and Englisch alike. There were little boys driving four-wheelers and a few girls riding horseback down the country lanes. Another teen boy was mowing the field behind the grocery but his attention seemed to be drawn to the sky and the mountains on the horizon as much as the weeds he was trying to whack down. People in the store chatted about their gardens and yesterday's rain. I thought my life had been slow-paced in Kalispell, but being in the mountains of West Kootenai I felt like I'd taken my first deep breath.

Since writing Beside Still Waters I've moved to Little Rock, Arkansas. Things are busier here. There are more cars, more traffic, more things to do and see. The challenge for me has been not to get caught up in the flow. To remember that just because people around me have full schedules doesn't mean I have to do the same. It's something I'm still trying to figure out.

Yet being in the West Kootenai has taught me a few lessons I've tried to incorporate, and you can, too.

1. If you run into a friend, whether you're at school or at the grocery store, try to chat for even five minutes. Ask about that person's day. Ask how they really are.

2. Take a few minutes to enjoy nature. Yes, that means putting down the phone for a few seconds. Really stop and look at those beautiful vegetables you are bagging up at the grocery store. Pause to appreciate a flower bed at the park or even in front of your favorite store.

3. Take a big breath and sit back and enjoy lunch on a weekend with someone you care about. You don't need to be on vacation or spring break to make time for a friend.

4. Finally, appreciate God's handiwork in your area. He's created each place with joys of their own. Don't forget to thank Him for that today.

Simplicity, Beauty, and Transformation

Early summer, I traveled to attend a seminary class, which gave me the chance to hang out in one of my favorite areas of California, in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Mount Hermon. I had a little time before I arrived at the home where I would be staying, so I stopped at a deli to grab a bite to eat.

A shop next door looked intriguing. After I ate my dinner, I noticed the open sign still hanging, so I stepped inside and browsed through the unusual items, some brand new, some antique. I found a quirky but beautiful glass bowl and lifted it to the light. It was priced reasonably. I sat it down and moved on to explore the rest of the shop. In the end I bought the bowl. I knew just where I would put it in my home.

This purchase was part of a decision I had made just a few months before. I wanted to simplify and beautify my home in ways I hadn’t yet done since moving into the ministry house where we lived. My time and financial resources are limited for this project, so I decided to make one or two simple changes in a room, then move on to another, make a change, take another room, make a change . . . you get the picture. That way each room would receive some attention and all would gradually transform.

Sometimes the change involved throwing or giving away things we no longer used or needed. Sometimes it meant finding something new (at least for us), like the glass bowl. I’m not going for House Beautiful here. Just warm, welcoming, and an expression of who we are.

The plan felt do-able. As I began, I realized this was fun, encouraging, uplifting. Even as simple as each change was, I felt the subtle transformative impact on the overall look and feel of a room or my home.

I’m far from done. This will take a while. But that’s okay. I’m enjoying the journey.

This all sounds a bit familiar to me. This thing of changing a little bit at time is very much like what God has been doing in my life since I met him in high school. I’m so glad that when I quietly prayed to ask him to forgive me and change my life, he did forgive me entirely, and he changed my heart. Those were huge and noticeable as have been other changes where God has really dug into an area of my life. But many changes have come slowly over the years—a few in this area of my life, a few in that one.

And God’s transformative work goes on to this day. Getting rid of stuff not needed in my life. Simplifying what I’ve made complicated. Beautifying areas that are dingy or dowdy.

And I hear God say to me, “I’m not done. This will take a while.”

I smile and respond, “I’m okay with that, God. I’m enjoying the journey.”

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”

(2 Cor 3:18 NIV).

Have a beautiful, transformative week!

Jan

http://www.jankern.com/

http://www.choose2livefree.com/