Ever have one of those nights where you either have a very hard
time going to sleep or where you wake up to do something and then can't fall
back to sleep? Like everyone one else, I have nights like that from
time-to-time. Sometimes when I can't fall asleep or go back to sleep, I spend
time in prayer. Other times, I contemplate things that I have done
recently or haven't done in a long time. Other times, I just let my mind
wander. Sometimes, though, my mind seems to want to go on a journey all of it's
own. This morning was one of those times.
At first, my mind was just
wandering about the events of this past week and about today. I have a dentist
appointment this morning to get a number of fillings replaced and is the last
day of my 'stay-cation.' That is, a vacation spent at home. In some ways, this
stay-cation has been fairly productive for me. In other ways, it was not very
productive at all. So that our two kids can each have a bedroom to themselves,
Sharon and I have been moving our bedroom from downstairs to the upstairs. A
priority for my stay-cation had been to move my office from one part of the up
stairs to another so that we would have more room for our new bedroom. But, I
haven't spent nearly enough time working on that.
Instead of dwelling on what I
hadn't finished up here, like my mind usually does, my thoughts went quite a
different direction. And, it was a very surprising path in some ways. I initially
started thinking about my time growing up in Kansas and all of the things that
I did back then.
I grew up in a medium sized
town called Marysville, Kansas. Being a pastor's kid, we didn't have a whole
lot, but we lived a fairly comfortable live. Like many boys, I grew up playing
with Star Wars action figures, G.I. Joe figures, Transformers, etc. Yeah, I am
a kid of the 70's and 80's. I can remember back when we rotary dial phones were
standard, standard cable (if you had it) was between 13 and 20 channels, most
channels went off the air sometime between 10 PM and midnight, etc.
I have always been more
introverted than extroverted. So, while growing up, I never had a large group
of close friends, just a couple of close friends that I would do things with on
occasion. I spent a lot of time while growing up reading books and playing with
my toys. I also would draw quite a bit. And, probably around age 12 or
so, I started journaling. While in high school, it was not uncommon for me to
devour a whole novel within a weekend, and I started taking art classes from
6th grade on to develop that talent. I am not a Van Gogh, Albrecht Durer, or
Raphael by any stretch of imagine. But, I have become good at drawing,
especially with pencil and pen-and-ink.
During my high school years, I
developed a fascination... No, love is a better word, for the German language.
My dad, whose ancestors came from Germany, started taking German once a week
when I was about seven years old. At that time, I didn't care about studying
the language, but I did think it was cool (and fun) to learn some words and
phrases. It wasn't until I was 14 that I sent to Europe with my parents for the
first time. In spite of some very harsh culture shocks at the time (an
excellent example from my first day: Being hungry and tired from flying from
the US to Germany, not sleeping on the airplane, and then sitting down at a restaurant
to eat. I picked up the menu and immediately slapped it back down on the table
with great frustration, saying, "I can't read this!"), the trip soon
awoke a great love for the language, history and culture of that country. So
much so, my college major was German studies (language, culture, etc.)
Today, I still have lots of art
supplies, lots and lots of books, and my interests in languages has expanded
from just German to biblical Hebrew (which I have decent skills in), biblical
Greek (which I really struggle in), and Arabic. Over the years, I have filled
at least five journal books, and I still have most of time. There were times
where I went for a year or more without making an entry. Other times, I would
write at least one entry a week, if not more. All of these things are things
that I absolutely love to do. But yet, today, much of these things are just
collecting dust or boxed up and the boxes themselves are collecting dust.
As I thought about that, my
thoughts turned to this past week and how much time I spent on social media,
especially Facebook. I didn't write down how much time I spent, but between my
laptop, smart phone and tablet, I spent a lot of time just surfing the internet
or just on Facebook. As the old saying goes, "Take look at what you spend
your money on, and you will see what your priorities really are." The same
can be true concerning what we do concerning social media, playing video games,
etc. How much time we spend on things like that reflect how important they are
to us. If one were to compare how much time a person spent on social media
verses reading a good book, doing devotions, etc., one might be surprised with
what it shows.
On a side note... I did start
this blog post over a month ago, sometime early in the morning. I wrote most of
it at that time. However, I did not finish it. It is now over a month later and
in the middle of the day. Even though I have thought about it on occasion,
there have been other things that have been a priority. Work, Drill, children
and family, etc. So, I guess this entry is finished and I can move on to
others...
RC
