Idle hands

OK, as I posted on Nov 30th, I said I would "attempt" to abstain from ALL secular influence! "So no secular music, no TV at ALL, no magazines, no movies and (the hardest) NO INTERNET!" ok I am 5 (out of 7) days into it and its confession time! I dropped Sheila off at the airport on Wednesday and came home and said goodbye to all my worldly media...So I thought!
confession #
1) Wednesday night I turned on music to sleep to and in the morning...I realized that it was country music!!!
2) Thursday, I am restoring my computer and needed to download drivers from the internet (its not entertainment so is that ok?)
3) Friday Brent ALMOST tempted me with Ultimate Fighting on PayPer View, but I resisted...Barely!
(turns out it wasn't on anyway (according to Jason...Cause I couldn't check online!)
4) Sunday night I went to eat with Randy and Jason after youthgroup and the restaurant had rock music and TV's playing everywhere (all though only sports was on but still!)

Over all I am not doing too bad, I have had No TV, no games (my psp feels neglected (although I do have the Bible on it so I read Gods word on my PSP!! How cool is that?)), no magazines, no movies, no websites (other than the above)(BTW, this is the hard one!), no newspaper (sorry Sandy & Jennifer, I will have to catch on the news later) and I haven't even been reading in my secular books...Oh wait...I DON'T READ! I haven't even gone through the mail.

So that's how that part went. This is what I said I would do "I want to spend this time, undisturbed, with God in prayer, reading, listening and seeking him". Ok, I didn't do great in the prayer even though I have been talking to God all day, I only had one night of "stillness" and by far it was the best night yet! Reading his word, all week long, I have a Bible in EVERY room and read every chance I got. The listening part was ok, I feel that without all this junk, it is easer to focus on God.

The rest of the time I had my work with M & C, Church to prep for and I made a little something for my wife out in the wood shop:

don't tell her, its a secret!

sorry about the poor phone pics, Sheila took the good camera with her

this is my little helper, he picked up the little pieces of scrap wood and took them off!

dang, now I have to mow around this thing!!!

Could I live this way? I don't think so! I could "do without" but avoiding it is very difficult. The "world" is all around us! The influence is too abounding and strong! We are supposed to live in this world but not be OF THIS WORLD. Living "in it" is dealing with all this junk and seeking God while being "of it" is loving this junk and choosing it over God, our family's and even ourselves sometimes.

Could you imagine, if all this secular and worldly stuff was replace by God's influnce and greatness, what this place would be like? I can...Heaven! And this is what we can expect "when we get HOME!"