The Last Sane Moments Of The Year
As my friend Kenton always says about the last days of November, “These are the last sane moments of the year before the craziness of Christmas takes over.” And this year, I think I actually disagree with him because I did a very bad thing. I entered the vortex of Black Friday and Cyber Monday with a vengeance. Timmons sees a deal, and a way to be thrifty, and he can’t help himself (I’m talking in the third person of course to avoid responsibility). Hi, my name is Tim, and I am a deal-a-holic.
As I look at my calendar for the next season, there isn’t a free day through the 25th. I guess we just accept it for what it is or not, but the trick or invitation is to see Jesus in the midst of it all. How do we stay PRESENT all month long? Staying present WITH God, WITH ourselves and WITH others. Living in the moment as if Jesus was walking WITH us. As if Emmanuel, “God WITH Us” is a real thing. Sorry for the amount of all caps for the word: WITH, but this WITHness concept has really changed me and my outlook.
This season we are going to practice being PRESENT as much as possible. There is no shame when we forget this stuff, but when we remember or put things in our daily path that disrupt our daily rhythms, then we re-align back to being present WITH Jesus. Side note: If you’ve been walking with us 10000 MINUTES peeps for awhile now, some of these concepts may seem redundant, but I’ve found that we skip around from verse to verse, concept to new concept and rarely just settle in and become transformed by it. We are so set on learning stuff in our minds, but rarely letting it really seep into the fibers of our being.
Jesus practiced being PRESENT WITH His Dad all the time, so let’s practice following Jesus’ lead together! I am convinced, if we all did less learning about God our Father, Jesus and His Holy Spirit, and simply spent more time WITH Them, we’d be more joyful, rested, powerful, loving, patient, generous...etc. I double dog dare you to practice this with me! I am writing an “X” on my wrist everyday as a reminder to stay PRESENT WITH God as much as possible. Do whatever might jolt you out of your norm...Love you peopl,e and I’m so grateful to be on this Jesus journey WITH you!
10000 MINUTES PRACTICE:
BREATHE IN: EMMANUEL
BREATHE OUT: GOD WITH US
Text “10k” to “59925 if you want weekly text reminders to your phone. We’ll be sending out a few encouragements a week to help you practice Jesus all week long!
Originally Published November 27, 2018