10,000 hours of evil

yesterday i was in jeremiah for my daily reading. chapter 4, verse 22 says,

"For my people are foolish;
they know me not;
they are stupid children;
they have no understanding.
They are 'wise'—in doing evil!
But how to do good they know not." (Jeremiah 4:22 ESV)

wise in doing evil. ouch.

i read this book called outliers that said research shows that in order to become an expert in something - like the unusual genius kind - you have to put in at least 10,000 hours into it. that somehow that is the magic number - that much time - is what separates the 'greats' from the rest of us. all the 'greats' have put in the time, from musicians to athletes to software engineers.

and in order to put 10,000 hours into something, i would think your life would show it. like - you would appear obsessed to others. they would see you pouring so much time into something and be like - dude, get a life.

so when i saw where it said they are wise in doing evil, i thought, hmmmm. i wonder if they are so wise in it because they have spent so much time in it. i wonder if they have spent 10,000 hours doing evil and that is how they know it so well in order to be wise in it.

and i thought about my own life. as of today i have lived 14,942 days. that's 358,608 hours. out of those let's say i was awake for 239,072 of them (figuring i slept 8 hours every night).

239,072 hours is plenty of time to put in 10,000 hours of evil (sinning). i am certain i have. does that make mean i am an expert at it? i've put in the time!

my prayer then, is to reverse that horrible damage... to put in the time to become an expert in obedience to God. i want to be wise in righteousness, not in evil.

that means i gotta put in the time, log in those hours. i can't just stuff a prayer into my 15 minute commute every day and say, i'm radically following Christ. no... there's a commitment that is deeper than just living the way we want under the title of Christian.

Father, may i be willing to always put you first over other things that demand my attention and focus. may i pour out myself for you - give you my time, my thoughts, my life. may i learn You and your ways so much that people thing - dang girl, get a life. and i pray they would know that You - YOU! - are my life.

the brightest reflection

this morning i was reading in acts 19 where it talks about God doing miracles through paul, so much so that in verse 12 it says that,

even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them

sometimes i get crazy amazed and filled with wonder all over again when i see a bright moon shining down, alighting the night. my husband probably gets tired of hearing me say, "isn't that amazing?.. that's the SUN making that moon so bright. it's because of the sun's light reflecting off that moon that gives us light in the night. isn't that amazing?!?" he's heard me say it at least 50 times.

but it's because it seriously blows me away. you know those nights, right? where the moon is shining so bright you can hardly look at it and it lights up the night like you've got a lamp turned on. the sun is THAT bright. man oh man.

well, when i read that verse about paul, i thought. wow - that blows me away, that God is THAT powerful, he is THAT miraculous that his power and healing are reflecting off paul and lighting the darkness around him. so much so that people don't even have to come into contact with him, only with things that he's touched!!!

it's like God is the sun reflecting off the paul-moon. and then paul becomes a sun himself, reflecting off all the things he touches that get carried to others who get healed by them. a reflection of a reflection. God is THAT bright that his power is still healing after two iterations of reflections.

doesn't that kinda blow your mind?

and we get to participate. we get to reflect Him.

hunh. pretty rockin'

my portion

i woke up this morning to a scripture my cousin texted me. it's in psalm 73:26

my flesh and my heart my fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever

and it got me to thinking - what is a portion, really?

i asked God to help me understand what that really means and i started looking through some commentaries on logos bible (great resource!) and to sum it up they basically refer to God being our inheritance. our FULL inheritance. that he is the portion of what we will receive. but don't worry - you'll get plenty! this isn't some weight watcher's portion. you are getting the almighty, holy, dangerous, beautiful God of the universe as your portion. that's a portion that won't fit on your plate!!

he is our daily supply. he is sufficient for anything we might need. he covers it... and then he overflows it. we get ALL of him (not only his grace, not only his love or his promises. we get Jehovah himself!) and he is ALL our portion (within the circle of all that we possess or desire, there is none but him. he isn't just part of my portion, he is my portion). he holds nothing back and we need nothing else.

some others may have their portion elsewhere - in their money, their success, their children, their dreams... but when we have God, in him we have more than any of that can give us. there are griefs in this world deeper than any money can alleviate. but God!... oh he is more than what we need when we hurt or grieve or weary or run. he is more than enough.

when we declare that the Lord is our Lord, we really should continue to keep that in mind and take comfort of it. and live up to it.

yesterday in cgroup, my dear friend lynde challenged us to spend 70 minutes with God (10 minutes a day for 7 days) and to journal about it. i thank my friend for caring about us so much that she gives us a challenge that will put us right into the midst of God every day, to soak in his words and let them change who we are. to fall deeper for him and to recognize that he is all we need.

while reading through commentaries on my quest to understand "the Lord is my portion" i came across this...

great blessing belongs to those who read and understand the word of God, and more blessed is the man whose life is the practical transcript of the will of God as revealed in the scriptures.

oh, that my life is a practical transcript of the will of God, and that i remain in his word in order to know what that looks like. and that i immerse myself in him and that nothing less will satisfy me!

the Lord is my portion. i am rich indeed.