Real life

What do I really want?  

What does God really want for me? 

 

What does God want for my kids, my neighbors, my family, my friends? 

 

I think the answer to all these questions are the same: 

I want to live.

God wants me to live.

God wants all people to live. 

 

Here. Now. With all our senses engaged. 

He wants us to touch, taste, smell, see, and listen. 

He wants us to experience Him – to experience Love and Life – even in the midst of this crazy, upside down world.

Even in the midst of pain, heartache, and disappointment, we must stay awake to our own life. If we don't, then we also miss the experiences of joy, love, and God.

 

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One of my biggest struggles with social media, the internet in general, and video games, are that they dull our experience of the world around us. Unlike an occasional good movie, which can heighten our awareness of things around us after we watch it, instagram, facebook, video games, and surfing the internet do the opposite… they suck us in by promising more… but they never deliver. These things are created to be addictive, and they are created to absorb our senses so that we disengage from the real world around us. They are created to sell, and we are selling ourselves to them. 

 

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Oftentimes, I want to just throw it all out. To not let my kids ever play video games. To delete my social media accounts. To not add to the noise. To encourage engagement with our real lives in front of our eyes. 

 

So why don't I? What stops me? 

 

I want a place to share my writing. I want a way to share and engage with people who are thousands of miles away from me. 

 

But can I use social media well? I’ve tried for so many years and I always end up scrolling more than creating, escaping more than engaging. 

 

Honest answer to if I can use these things well? I don’t know.

 

I’m going to try one more time. 

 

I’m going to use social media to promote this blog, while focusing on writing here and in monthly email updates. If you want to sign up for our monthly emails, send me an email or message. Occasionally I might post cute pictures of my kids, flower and nature photos, or highlight friends. 

 

I don’t know exactly what this will all become.

 

But I’m doing my next right thing: start sharing the work I’ve been doing for the past several years behind the scenes, in the hope that it can even slightly encourage another human being in their pain, their suffering, their joy, and their gifts. 

 

Live your real life now dear friend. 

 

For us, in Kijabe, Kenya, today:

It looks like hosting a small neighbourhood goat roasting.

It looks like playing qwirkle with my son. 

It looks like letting thoughts flow from my body to my pen.

It looks like squeezing in a quick hike to breathe in nature. 

It looks like walking my kids home from school, helping in the kitchen, and posting this blog before my computer battery dies from no electricity. 

 

What does living look like for you today?