HOW TO LIVE…THANKS MOM !

my mom recently told me that she is part of anew bible study and that they are going to study Romans 12 because it is one chapter in the bible that basically tells us “How to Live”.  Intriguing….one chapter  to do all that?

so , not wanting to miss anything so important as “How to Live”  i had to have another look at this ancient letter.

I started out great , flipped open my tiny print bible and WITHOUT my left contact in, read:

” I appeal to you, by the mercy of God, Live present in your bodies”

Live present in my body…. I like that…never read it that way before.

And i was immediately reminded of a recent video i watched of two young kids buckled in their car seats, as they were being chauferred down the road.  There was a powerful worship song playing in the car stereo system , and these two kids..maybe 5 and 3 years old were singing…not getting all  the words right, but singing with all their strength….belting it out, straining at the cords.  Giggling at the sound of their voices, yet serious in their intention, employing their whole little bodies to simply SING.  And i thought,”When was the last time i sang like that?”

All out. Present in my body and using it to sing like i mean it?  Does it really matter that mine is not the best tuned voice in the family???

So after this strange new look at romans 12 : 1 , and conveniently after everyone else had left the house… i cranked up some tunes and let her rip!

LOUD, crackly, missing some of the words and alot of the notes, i sang and walked through the room, present in  my body, to agree with my heart about how completley beautiful God is and how outrageously kind and generous He is to me.

And after only a few minutes,  something happened,  something broke: like a dam that could not contain such love. i began to weep.  And sing louder  my love and shout and laugh at myself and how really funny i sounded but how much i really really meant the words i sang.   Like those beautiful kids in the backseat of the car.

And i began to pray like i have not prayed in quite a while.  I prayed with so much love for folks, i could see their true beautyness.  I prayed through our lovely, quirky, magnificient farm house and felt the atmosphere shift. I prayed for Haiti that i love and for Sudan and its leaders, i prayed for my husband and our children, all 100 of them!  I prayed with my whole body present.

it was a sweet time. Maybe not as sweet as the video of the kids…i am forty eight, but sweet, nevertheless!

so i have to tell my mom , there may be something to this romans twelve,” How To Live”, idea.

Present in my body.