the fourth

I can't get over how awesome of a weekend I just had! Seriously, it was a gift from God to be able to get away from the business of life and rest with friends for the 4th of July. I had a couple thoughts and wanted to share them with hopefully someone:

I went up to Ojai (near Ventura, CA and not short for Ohio) for the weekend with friends from school. First off, it was huge to get out of Yorba Linda and breathe a bit. I had been feeling trapped in a routine and so getting away=very good. Second, I chose not to take my watch up with me and left my phone off for a good chunk of the weekend. It was so nice to feel detached from reality.

I don't really think the weekend was so awesome because of what we did (which was lots of fun) but because of spending quality time with close friends. These are (some of) the people who I've grown to respect and love over the last three years of school. It was fun to talk with them, see how far we have come, dream of the future and even get to know each other better.

I found God in some unique ways through this time:

1) Rest is key. I was able to experience and hear God better when I wasn't stressed and busy.

2) The future is His. I can't know or plan for my future, but I can let him control my life and it will be great!

3) I'm a relational being, just like my heavenly father. I must pour into relationship with God just like I need to pour into my relationships with friends. I felt rejuvenated by spending time with friends, how much more by spending quality time with my creator?!

There's so much more, but I'm not the best communicator so I'll leave it at that and continue to smile on the inside at the rest.

rest

Not something I tend to like to do. I’m the guy that pushes and pushes and pushes…and then crashes. I have a constant need to be doing something, working towards a goal, accomplishing something, and this need gets in the way of rest. I was thinking about this last night and I wondered why this is. Why do I neglect sleep, self-maintenance, and my personal needs in order to keep on doing and accomplishing?

I think part of the reason is because I don’t ever think what I do is good enough, and maybe if I do more it will be. I have a constant list of goals in my mind at all times; goals for me personally and goals for my work and education. Don’t ask me what they are because I can’t actually tell you, they are just there…in the subconscious.

But I can only sustain a fast paced, no rest life for so long. In my life I have noticed a pattern…a pattern of great hi’s and not so great low’s. A low always follows directly after a hi. I wonder (comment if you have thoughts) if I was to do a little less and not push quite as hard, would I be able to sustain longer and more consistently a life of hard work and devotion to my heavenly father? It seems reasonable to me to think yes, now the hard part for me is to try and not push so hard.

My first step in not pushing so hard began yesterday. After 8 hours of work and a school meeting I decided to just stop everything. Rather than hanging out with friends, working more, or thinking about my future I went to the driving range and watched a movie by myself at home. So nice! And I’m ready to work and pour into it today. Let’s see if it works out.