just got back from snowboarding. man! what an experience! first of all, going up on a monday means NO PEOPLE! sooo much room (good, especially for someone like me who's only going boarding for the second time). wonderful snow, and we even tried night skiing! soooo cool.
i'm crazy tired, spent, and sore (already!) but it feels great.
as for 'learning' - boarding so far has been a good lesson on the boldness required in life. when it comes to turning, you can't do it quickly unless you lean a bit on the front foot (i.e. the foot leading you in the direction you're going before your turn). but whenever I was headed toward something I didn't want to get to (tree, cliff, fences, etc), my instinct was to lean back - thus making it harder to change direction, and effectively requiring me to fall in order to not hit something (some option, ay? fall down hard or hit something). I learned today that in order to make that turn, I have to lean forward, INTO the turn. It's amazing how quickly and smoothly you can turn when you do that! It's SO counter-intuitive for me, but it's amazing.
just like the outward bound programs: "if you can't get out of it, get into it!"
yeah, baby.
I felt God's pleasure at times today. All alone, pure white around me, speeding down just having fun. Doing nothing 'productive', accomplishing nothing (in the typical sense). Just enjoying the gifts (mountain, snow, creation, time, health, able body) and the Giver - believing this all may be for me - both for me to enjoy utterly selfishly as well as to reflect His glory, both within and to others.
[I've probably shared this before, but it struck me anew today]
Too often, I haven't believed or allowed myself to enjoy God's gifts, nor to regard them as "for me". Instead, I tend to deflect complements, feeling underserving of them or gifts, not allowing them to soak into my heart and receive them as expressions of love (and then feeling resentful later from feeling a lack of love!). In our zeal for God's glory (so-to-speak), we've almost made "me" a bad word. SoliDeoGloria - yes! But I don't think that total loss of self is the way to do it (I don't think anyone teaches that, but I allowed myself to think this way). Scripture says that God came so that we might have life, and an abundant one at that. While I know it's not the ultimate end, it is a 'stop' (as in bus-stop) to have God's delight in me, for me. I don't want to try to systemize the whole co-existence of God's glory and man's needs save to share Piper's analogy/observation that one of a parents' greatest delight and glory is in meeting the needs and guiding the development of their children. Well, I'm that child and it's time to love and grow up.
i'm crazy tired, spent, and sore (already!) but it feels great.
as for 'learning' - boarding so far has been a good lesson on the boldness required in life. when it comes to turning, you can't do it quickly unless you lean a bit on the front foot (i.e. the foot leading you in the direction you're going before your turn). but whenever I was headed toward something I didn't want to get to (tree, cliff, fences, etc), my instinct was to lean back - thus making it harder to change direction, and effectively requiring me to fall in order to not hit something (some option, ay? fall down hard or hit something). I learned today that in order to make that turn, I have to lean forward, INTO the turn. It's amazing how quickly and smoothly you can turn when you do that! It's SO counter-intuitive for me, but it's amazing.
just like the outward bound programs: "if you can't get out of it, get into it!"
yeah, baby.
I felt God's pleasure at times today. All alone, pure white around me, speeding down just having fun. Doing nothing 'productive', accomplishing nothing (in the typical sense). Just enjoying the gifts (mountain, snow, creation, time, health, able body) and the Giver - believing this all may be for me - both for me to enjoy utterly selfishly as well as to reflect His glory, both within and to others.
[I've probably shared this before, but it struck me anew today]
Too often, I haven't believed or allowed myself to enjoy God's gifts, nor to regard them as "for me". Instead, I tend to deflect complements, feeling underserving of them or gifts, not allowing them to soak into my heart and receive them as expressions of love (and then feeling resentful later from feeling a lack of love!). In our zeal for God's glory (so-to-speak), we've almost made "me" a bad word. SoliDeoGloria - yes! But I don't think that total loss of self is the way to do it (I don't think anyone teaches that, but I allowed myself to think this way). Scripture says that God came so that we might have life, and an abundant one at that. While I know it's not the ultimate end, it is a 'stop' (as in bus-stop) to have God's delight in me, for me. I don't want to try to systemize the whole co-existence of God's glory and man's needs save to share Piper's analogy/observation that one of a parents' greatest delight and glory is in meeting the needs and guiding the development of their children. Well, I'm that child and it's time to love and grow up.
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