Defragging, Rising Dough, and why we're tired after doing nothing

Yesterday was the first time in our 15 year history that a Love Shelbyville day was cancelled. What a testament to God's faithfulness in making a way for us to serve our community throughout the years! Also, a huge thanks to several folks who made sure that the groups that needed to be done were completed on Saturday before the storm! THANK YOU!!!

The Lawyers, like many of you I presume, spent a long weekend mostly indoors. Here's a few thoughts that have come through the ol' noggin on this cold, snowy Monday...

This weekend has personally felt like the old defragging process we used to have to run on our computers. 

Some of you won't remember that. You had to run this program that slowly put all the bits of information on your hard drive back where they were supposed to go. (That's laymen's terms of course.) As a young kid, I hated seeing that program on the screen. The computer was unusable while it was running and it felt like it took forever. On the flip side, you're computer was much faster and efficient on the other side of defragging.

This weekend felt a lot like defragging personally. A long slow weekend of letting things internally reset a bit. Feels like stuff like that always takes longer than it should, but on the other side, things are much healthier.

Time for Bread to Rise

Katelyn has been making bread this weekend; something we don't always do or have time for with our schedules. First, it's delicious. Second, it was fun to experiment with the time we let the bread rise. Baking it before it's all the way risen makes for an interesting loaf. It was pretty dense and a little doughy.

In reflecting, it dawned on me that much of our efforts to serve our like that loaf of bread that wasn't quite risen. We want to get things in the oven before the power of the yeast has finished doing it's job. Many times, we run ahead of resurrection power that prepares us for the works God has prepared for us in advance.

With some extra downtime on your hands this week, spend a little more time letting the power of Christ rise in you. Give a little more time to your devotions. Stop to pray more often. When you ask God a question in prayer, sit and listen for a few minutes. Give some time for rising..

The body is designed to move

In times like this, we often marvel at the fact that after doing what feels like nothing, we're still exhausted. Some quick internet searching brought some sweeping ideas about that. It talked about how the body was designed to move, and when we get stuck on the couch doom scrolling or binge watching, our body begins to take in less oxygen and blood flow slows. The result? You feel tired after doing nothing.

There's a ton of factors and effects, but the question becomes, "What should we do about it?"

Rest is needed. But also movement. Clean up around the house. Walk to the mailbox. If you've got stairs go up and down them a couple times. Say yes to a game of keepy uppy with your kid and a balloon.

Spiritually speaking, our body is designed to move. So don't let a Sunday off keep you from checking on one another, praying for one another, and connecting with neighbors that you might now always have the time to connect with. Go. Be. The Church. And I'll be praying Ephesians 3 over you..

Ephesians 3:16–21 (CSB)

¹⁶I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, 

¹⁷and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, 

¹⁸may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, 

¹⁹and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

²⁰Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—

²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.