The Lazarus Experiment Day 15

Space. The final frontier.

I'm not talking about a trek to the stars. I'm talking about the space in your clock; in your calendar; in your day. It's the final frontier because everybody seems unfamiliar with the territory and afraid to go there. Those who do go there are labeled as lazy or crazy.

Space is all the holes we think we must fill or die trying. The twenty minutes in our day that is not scheduled. The one evening this month where you're Daytimer is blank. The rare minute that may slip by without a detailed agenda for its budget.

You are overbooked. Overstressed. Over-planned. Over-scheduled. Overdone.

And overwhelmed.

Lazarus would have tossed his watch and his calendar in the Dead Sea.

"But," you say, "what about redeeming the time, making most of every opportunity? Doesn't Jesus demand that we stay busy for the Kingdom?"

It never ceases to floor me that Jesus needed space. Sometimes he just dropped everything and took off. He even dropped his closest friends and went alone, because friends take up too much space.

We have been taught that idle time is the devil's playground. What if he claimed it because he knew that we needed the space to connect with God?

In our busy-every-moment-or-we-will-fail-like-a-toothless-bum-in-the-gutter-of-life world, space makes us feel guilty, like we're not doing anything.

THAT IS THE POINT.

We even go to great measures to plan our free time, so that it's not free anymore -- it's planned! Booked! Spent! Expensive! Not Free!

When is the last time you just sat and looked out a window. No book. No computer. No friend. No pet. No music. No TV. No Bible. Space.

Lazarus, to his administrative assistant: "Cancel my appointments. For the rest of the day I'm doing nothing. Not one thing." Do the same. Boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before.

****

Suggested Scripture For Today: Psalm 131

Suggested Ideas:
1. Carve out 15 minutes a day for a week and do nothing during them.
2. Take off your wrist watch for a week.
3. Go camping alone, or take a long walk without your iPod.
4. Sit in a coffee shop where you can see the door and pray specifically for every person who walks in.

Don't be discouraged, friend. We're getting into the hard part of The Experiment. It would be easy to give up. Don't. The best rewards are yet to come. Hang in there and fight it out to the end. You can make it.

My day 15

A glorious day. Church was awesome and spoke right into my not so little boy's heart. Which he admited and agreed he and I had both let distractions take us away from God and were letting the evil one get closer to getting a hand on our ankles. (remember my temper tantrum at the yard sale - yeah - like that... shaking my head...... tut tut tut..). We went to lunch after church and had a whole day together.

The Laz moment came as we were walking to church. We had fought all morning about whether or not he could wear his cleats to church. For the life of me I couldn't imagine why he wanted to wear his cleats. Um NO! Wear your shoes - it's not only because it's not church on the field but it's a safety issues = cleats on polished floors is a recipe for disaster - slipping and seeing little noggins busting on the floor.

He finally said he wasn't going - which did not sit well with me at all and I furiously gave him till I got to 10 to get his shoes on and get into the car. The GRUMBLES and GROANS (from both of us) were relentless. We were holding hands and walking into the school (we're a new church meeting at a local high school for now) and he was limping. I asked him if he were hurt. He says, no why? I remarked about his limp. He said, "Oh, it's okay, When I got all that oil on my shoes it broke down the inside of my shoe and it's like I'm walking right on the ground. It's just uncomfortable".

Well now why didn't he say that at home? We never would have had words if he had said that at home. So right after church, when he thinks we're going hom, we went to the shoe store and bought him new shoes (can his feet stop growing soon please?). He snuggled up to me on the stool at the store and said, "Momma, we both let the devil get a hold of us this morning and he became a distraction. I don't want that to happen any more. We need to work together more don't we."

I love it when they get it.... and I even didn't mind it when I got a V-8 smack in my forehead.
Then home to relax together. It was a fantastic day/nigh