Why Can New Parents and Residents Survive?

Why Can New Parents and Residents Survive?

So, have you ever wondered how some people can get by with very little sleep and others seem to need a lot? Ever wondered how at some points in your life you seem to need more sleep and then other times (like when you are a new parent) you can get by with very little and be tired, but still be ok?

People always say that you can't "make up" sleep, but it sure does seem like you can miss almost a while night or even more and somehow get a whole lot less than a "night sleep" and still be somewhat functional the next day! Something here does not make sense!

Well, I went to a conference over Spring break and heard someone talk about this - this guy was a good speaker, entertaining, interesting and all, but he was kinda clueless. You see, he just didn't see the Truth in front of him.

He have his talk about sleep - as you may or may not know - sleep has different stages or pasts to it - Stage 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM or Rapid Eye Movement. We progress through these phases through the night as we sleep and we need certain portions of them to consider ourselves rested and functional.

Well, here's the amazing part, the part Mr. Fancy Lecture Guy totally missed out on, if you miss sleep, like a night, for whatever reason, the baby's crying, work is bugging you, you are stressed out, whatever, your sleep cycle automatically adjusts. You cram the phases of sleep into a much smaller time frame. If you can get what is called "core sleep," which for most people is about 5 and 1/2 hours, you actually get the functionality of the full night sleep - and here is the amazing part: you are made to adjust this automatically. Now, you may not feel like a million bucks after just core sleep, as opposed to your usual, but literally the stages of your sleep adjust on their own!

Now, what did Mr. Fancy Lecture Guy miss out on? He missed God in this! He taught this like it was just an odd coincidence! Ludicrous! God made you this way! He made yo to be able to survive child bearing and me to survive delivering babies in the middle of the night and us to still be able to function in our lives. You see, HE knew that sometimes, some people, would not be able to get the full 8 hours of sleep consistently, and He also knew that people and life depended on those people (like moms and doctors and firefighters, for example) still being able to do all they do and well they next day or 2. So, He made a system where everything auto-adjusts. You don't have to say to your sleep when you go to bed - "now i want you to adjust my stages of sleep tonight" - in fact most of you had no idea how you survived those times in your lives when your sleep was majorly disturbed before you learned this - i sure didn't!

But, consider this: If there is a great big God, who is big enough to make you adjust like this. If there is a God who loves you and your family enough to cover you when you are tired. If there is a God who sees into our needs and world so perfectly that He gives gifts like this to us and we don't even know about them. Then, isn't it possible that He is there with us each step of the way in our lives? The answer is yes, a loud and consistent yes!

You see, He loves you very much! He made you!

So, the next time you are laying there in bed, getting ready to go to sleep, or even struggling to sleep, getting up with a sick kid, or having to go in to work, would you consider noticing? Notice that you are made this way! Thank God that He made you this way. Invite Him to join you in your night, your life, your day. Relish the fact, that while life is hard, we are not abandoned to the hardness of it - we have a God who wants to go through it with us, to help us.

If you would begin to notice and invite God into the moments of your life, you will begin to see life differently. You will begin your exit from "life as usual" in the American dream.

If you are sick of the get more, buy more, achieve more, satisfy more, eat more, exercise more, religion more, success more, society we live in. If you have tried it all out and found out that you still feel empty and lost. Please consider joining us Thursday night, the 21st of April, at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, 6:45-8:00PM. We spend our time trying to move out of the "more" of usual life and into the "More" of the One who made mom's get enough sleep! We notice people and how amazing they are and we appreciate them. We also notice their pain and hurts and troubles - we do not ignore them - instead, we care about them - we come beside them and help in any way we can. And we would love to share this with you - it is great way to live! Hope to see you there!

update

So, last Mtm, on the 24th, went wonderful - it was great to be able to really help someone out, for no reason other that the fact that they matter - if you were there, tell someone about it and if you were not, you missed a great chance to give something of yourself and get a heart full of joy.

I just wanted to remind you all that we will be hanging out this Thursday night 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette - it will be a great time to hang with the kind of people who go to people's houses they don't know and help them out, for no reason except that they believe in something More in life than the everyday grind of American life!

hope to see you there!

Next Thursday

Ok - so, as you have read, we will be out in the community next Thursday, helping someone out who could use a hand (or 30!)

Here is the address:

8228 S. 350 E.
Lafayette, IN
47909

we will be there from about 6:45 til 8:00PM

We will then be back at McAllister 2wks from Thursday - 4/7

One final note, the place we are helping is not safe for kids - it is near a creek and has a lot of old equipment laying around - so we are asking, JUST FOR THIS WEEK, no kids.

We always want your kids, any other time...we just want them to be safe too!

Hope to see you soon!

More along those lines...

Fear.

Well, it seems to be everywhere.

As I noted in my last blog entry, my fear has shaped me remarkably. But, have you ever thought about what happens to you when you are afraid?

Your pupils dilate to take in more light and see things more clearly. Your ears get more sensitive to hear every sound. Your body moves blood from the gut to the brain (to think quickly) and the major muscle groups (to react and defend or run). You may even get more aggressive.

Here’s the cool part: Do you stop when you are afraid and think to yourself, “Ok, I’m afraid now, let’s dilate the pupils to take in more light and get the ears perked up and the muscles ready and…?”

The obvious answer is no – you don’t. It all happens automatically! You see, even though fear is complicated and many times distorted in the way we use it, it is a wonderfully made, automatic self protection mechanism that God has given you! It all happens without you even noticing!

Why did He spend so much time making this? Because He loves you! He wants you around. This is a way for you to protect yourself!

It is fantastic…and we take it for granted at every scary movie, every near miss in our cars, every time we get scared.

So, as much as you may not like being scared, the next time you are, don’t just let it slide by – recognize that God made you amazingly well and that when He did that, he was saying how much He cares about you. And if He cares about you that much, then He will not abandon you…ever. Notice His love for you in that moment. Thank Him for it! Invite him into that moment with you and ask Him to be part of your life – right there. Notice the connection point with God and your life will begin to change a little. Your perspective will begin to change.

If you are sick of life as usual in this life, always trying to get more, become more, achieve more and you would like to have a different type of life – one that notices like this – we would love to have you join us!

We get together every other Thursday night – the next time will be 3/24 – 6:45-8:00PM. This next time will be different than usual though – we will be out in the community, doing something to help someone! It will be a fantastic time! Stay tuned to the blog (www.morethamoremtm.blogspot.com) or email (if you get them) to find out where. There will probably not be childcare at the outreach night and so you will need to plan to watch your kids if you come, or get childcare (too hard to watch the kids where we are going to be).

The time after, 4/7 – will be back at McAllister Recreation Center- just off 20th and Schuyler in Lafayette, 6:45-8:00 PM and there will be wonderful and free childcare for that night!! Hope to see you there!

So, what are you afraid of?

So, my wife and I were talking the other night about something she has been reading and studying and talking about with some friends of hers. The entire discussion was about fear. Seems fear is something that is present all over the place in our society. I deal with it often in my office – it manifests itself as anxiety in the lives of thousands of Americans and seems to suck the joy from our lives.

So, she asked me, “What’s your greatest fear?” “Woa, hold on a second,” I thought, “I know this is marriage and all, but do you have to get so personal.” Well, after a second of adjusting to the question and the fact that I really did not like thinking about it or dealing with it, I decided on an answer and here it is:

I am most afraid of failing.

When I type them out on the screen, they seem so small and insignificant, but when I say them, even as I’m typing them, they conjure some senses deep inside me that cringe, even feeling like I am being prepared to be hit or something (and as far as I know no one is lurking around me ready to smack me!).

The thing is that this seemingly insignificant 6 words have shaped my life massively over the years. You see, I am an analyzer – I try to think ahead of everything, anticipate everything and figure everything out before it happens. This tends to drive those I love crazy sometimes (it is not unusual for my wife to say, “Quit analyzing me!”) There is no question that this fear has also been responsible for many, if not most, of my decisions in life. So, just imagine with me, someone comes up to me with a great opportunity, but a lot of risk, what am I most likely to say? Of course, I tend to be extremely conservative in my decisions (not politically necessarily, another discussion). I am too afraid of fear to really risk very much! This also has negatively shaped my relationships – imagine what it is like to be most afraid of failure and to grow up in a home where the 2 adults could not get along – where marriage was not harmonious to say the least. I have been afraid of failure forever in my marriage and relationships! This has handcuffed and imprisoned my marriage in a cell of my fear for most of our lives. And this is just a couple of examples.

In fact, last night when my wife and I and the kids were driving back from Indianapolis and talking, I told her that I remember back in the younger days of our relationship that I was happy, but not like this – there was so much i didn’t understand, so much frustration and hurt and anger at myself that even though I loved Melissa, much of my joy was sucked away. But now, my joy seems to leap from my life. Things have changed.

You see, I figured out the fear inside me was responsible for much of the good in my life – like driving me to be good at medicine and parenting and all, but that it was also a terrible thing for me – sucking the life from me – the joy. Then, I began to realize that this fear was really just my way of protecting myself from what might happen next – anticipating failure so that it would not overwhelm me when it happened.

But, how did I find freedom from this, or at least begin on the road? Well, I began to see that succeeding did not validate my life – it was nice, but there was never enough success to keep me happy! And I began to see that failure was not nearly as bad as I thought it was – usually when I failed I learned something amazing and life got better from there. I began to realize that my true value and my future and accomplishments and successes were controlled by God. He was the One who gave me success and the ability to gain it. He was the One who gave me value in success or failure, regardless. He accepted me either way. And, He was the One who controlled the outcome of the decisions I was making (as long as I was keeping Him in my life and not shoving Him out) – there was no need to fear failure, when the One who created all that exists was the One who was in charge. Now, it has taken years and years of trying and failing to get to the point where I trust God with my identity and my future, but as I look around me, I see no handcuffs! I see little bondage to my fear anymore. Of course, sometimes it rears its ugly head again and I slip back into my self-proving life, but mostly, I live full of bubbly joy, not because of what I have done, but because my life is about something different than it ever was before!

This is what we are all heading toward at More than more – we are joining together to begin to see this freedom of life and spirit that is found in the release of our fears to the One who made us. We are on this path with many others, who remind us of our journey and encourage us along the way. They accept us for who we are, not who we prove ourselves to be! It is a wonderful thing!

If this sounds nice, and you are tired of being ruled by drives inside you that you do not understand and cannot seem to get around, if you crave peace – I wish you would join us – it will not be a magical insta-fix, but you can come alongside us, and we will help you see what we are already seeing – something More…than more.

We will be hanging out tomorrow night, 3/10/11, 6:45-8:00PM, at McAllister Recreation Center, Lafayette, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, and of course there will be free, excellent childcare available – we want your kids to be safe and have fun too!

What's in the Sound of Voice?

Hey everyone! Do you ever think of voices? They can destroy us in pain with just a few words...they can raise us to near ecstasy in another. They can use words to motivate us or music to soothe us.

Out of this one thing comes all communication related to speech. All languages are simply differences in the way this voice is altered in one way or another.

And what is more frustrating than when your ears are plugged up and you can't hear someone or when someone cant hear you and keeps saying, "What?"

In short, voices are amazing!

But, have you ever stopped to think about how all this works?? Truth? Voices and all their sounds are made by 2 little cords of tissue called the vocal cords - and are they a great creation!!

Check out this Utube video that we watched at Mtm last Thursday (we did not produce this, just watched it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajbcJiYhFKY


Amazing!

So simple - 2 little cords of tissue, vibrating against each other - making all those sounds, all those languages, all that significance to our lives!!

So simple, yet so complex! So wonderful and unbelievable and yet so easy!

We can make some sounds by manmade methods, but they are not so simple and easy to confine - they just would not work on the space of the throat!!

You see, God made your voice so amazing and wonderful and He made all of us to respond to voices so profoundly! He did this special, for us. We are amazing and complicated and yet simple - and God is the mastermind of it all!

He loves us very much! Now, does that make everything simple in life? No. Painless? No. But, it can help you remember that thre is More to life than just the usual American get more become more achieve more that we usually see!

My advice? The next time you hear your voice, or someone else's, take a second to notice - enjoy the amazingness of it all and invite God to join you in the moment- thank Him for making you so wonderfully snd ask Him to join you in your day! See if this doesn't make a little island of wonder in the craziness of your day!

By the way, at More than more we are totally commited to living this way - trying to get out of the usual and into the ordinary amazingness that is around us all the tmie. And we do not deny the pain of life, instead, we choose to care about each other through the pain - not to run from it and not because of what a person may have to offer the group, but rather, we love each other, just because.

If this sounds good to you, if you are curious, or if you are fed up with the usual of our world, we would love to have you join us - we will be hanging out next Thursday night, March 10th, 6:45-8:00PM, at McAllister Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, with free childcare, as usual.

Hope to see you there! In the meantime, enjoy your voice!

So, what about Joy??

So, if Joy is clearly not the same as happiness, but something deeper and fuller and less dependent on our circumstances - it seems we can imagine feeling some joy, even in the midst of difficult times...

Joy seems to be connected with several things - First is what we are going for - if what we are shooting for is temporary and short range, we seem to get happiness, but if it is bigger than us and more meaningful than just something we can buy or get (which seem to lose their significance in a short period of time)or some individual person (who can betray us or may not always be around - like kids growing up or marriages failing or friends hurting us) - if it is bigger than this, more lasting than this, then we seem to get joy as we find it.

Second is that joy involves hope - it seems to be attached to the fact that tomorrow may bring all kinds of things, but it is likely that there will be good in it. There may be tons of pain too, but that there will be good working in our lives too.

At More than more - we are learning the really joyful parts of life that most of us would name, if we thought about it for a while, would not be the things we spend most of our time dwelling on, working for, shaping our time around, etc. Rather, we spend most of our time for other things - and then miss most of the joyfulness on a daily basis - this is the shape of our society.

But we are choosing to try to notice the things in life that point us to real joy - that help us find deep meaning and wonder in life - we are choosing to find God in life and that is giving us joy - many times in the midst of the most severe circumstances. We are daring to leave behind the rush around days of American life and instead in the midst of our rushing (we are busy people) we choose to let go of the schedule sometimes and notice the wonder and amazingness of life around us and people around us and savor. We are inviting God into those moments and He is coming into our lives and helping us see what's really important! And this changes everything. Life is still hard, but like one of the folks said the other day, "I have had one of the worst years of my life, but it hasn't seemed as bad as I thought it would have." This is because of God in our lives - He makes all the difference.

So, if you are racing francitcally through life - and feel no joy. If you reach your goal and it seems to wither in your hand, happiness fading. If you have invested and invested in someone and they have become your world and they have betrayed you - realize that there is still hope - it will still be painful, but there is hope and JOY.

We would love to have you join us - we will be hanging out tomorrow 2/24/11 - 6:45-8:00PM McAllister Recreations Center, Lafayette, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, free child care, as always.

hope to see you there - have a joy filled day...