i'm no fighter, but i'm fightin'

oh, so many things i'm thinking about right now! last week someone told me i think too much, which at the time i agreed to, but the more i think (heheh, i just can't stop!) about it, the more i wonder if maybe some folks don't think enough? okay, that may sound weird. let me use a song from wicked to illustrate. fiyero, this facy cool guy who gets kicked out of school after school shows up at shiz. he asks what the students do for fun, and someone tells him they study. his response is:

The trouble with schools is
They always try to teach the wrong lessons
Believe me, I've been kicked out
Of enough of them to know
They want you to become less callow
Less shallow
But I say: why invite stress in?
Stop studying strife
And learn to live the unexamined life

Dancing through life
Skimming the surface
Gliding where turf is smooth
Life's more painless
For the brainless
Why think too hard
When it's so soothing
Dancing through life
No need to tough it
When you can slough it off as I do
Nothing matters
But knowing nothing matters
It's just life
So keep dancing through

Dancing through life
Swaying and sweeping
And always keeping cool
Life is fraught-less
When you're thoughtless
Those who don't try
Never look foolish
Dancing through life
Mindless and careless
Make sure you wear less
Trouble and rife
Woes are fleeting
Blows are glancing
When you're dancing
Through life

and that's not to say that we should always go around thinking too hard about everything and not enjoying what's going on around us. but i do think we should be more in the habit of examining ourselves and our surroundings. a couple days ago i read 1 Timothy, and this stood out to me:
"Be diligent in these matters, give yourself wholly to them. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Perservere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." 1Tim 4:15-16

i digress.

and on to my recent thoughts:)
i'm still reading Three Cups of Tea, and there's a part where he actually has the opportunity to go and pay his respects to Mother Teresa in Calcutta shortly after she died.

"Safely back in his basement, during the winter of 2000, Mortenson often refelected on those few rare moments with Mother Teresa. He marveled at how she lived her life without the long trips home, away from misery and suffering, so she could rest up and prepare to resume the fight. That winter, Mortenson felt bone-tired." 237

i find myself wondering that a lot, too. how so many people who have made such an impact never seemed to become exhausted and drained like i so often feel.

i also recently read,
"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Galations 6:9

so then i'm thinking, okay, how does one not get tired of constantly being poured out? not to mention i don't feel very poured into right now... but that's another tangent altogether. :)

so this morning we discussed lent: the church's challenge for this season is to focus on justice, and, specifically isaiah 58. isn't it weird when people read things and it's eerily relevant? i love it.

Isaiah 58

True and False Fasting

1"Cry aloud; do not hold back;
^(A) lift up your voice like a trumpet;
^(B) declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2^(C) Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
3^(D) 'Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,^[a]
(E) and oppress all your workers.
4Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
5^(F) Is such the fast that I choose,
^(G) a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the LORD?

6"Is not this the fast that I choose:
^(H) to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps^(I) of the yoke,
to let the oppressed^[b] go free,
and to break every yoke?
7Is it not^(J) to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
^(K) and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8^(L) Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
^(M) and your healing shall spring up speedily;
^(N) your righteousness shall go before you;
^(O) the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
9Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
If you take away^(P) the yoke from your midst,
^(Q) the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10^(R) if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
^(S) then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11And the LORD will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be^(T) like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
12^(U) And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.

13^(V) "If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure^[c] on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the LORD honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking^(W) your own pleasure,^[d] or talking idly;^[e]
14then you shall take delight in the LORD,
^(X) and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;^[f]
(Y) I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
^(Z) for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

that's all for now.