Labor Day Fun

It’s sort of ironic that everyone rests on Labor day.  But it’s fun.  It offers us an opportunity to be in the moment, and enjoy a simple, 24 hour holiday that would have otherwise been a typical, mundane sort of Monday.  I certainly enjoyed the day~I got to play around with my new camera, a Nikon D40 SLR digital, and my awesome, 55-200 zoom lens.  Dad and Mom generously bought it for me as an early graduation gift, after I decided to sign up for Photojournalism this semester.  It is an amazing camera, and I love it already!  It will also serve me well in Africa.  See this link for the slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emjansen/sets/72157601859515088/show/.  These pics are from our BBQ and another little outing I took on Sunday to the Harris home. =)

 Thoughts for the day: 

“Contentment is not satisfaction. It is the grateful, faithful, fruitful use of what we have, little or much. It is to take the cup of Providence, and call upon the name of the Lord.”

 This is a quote that my friend, Jen, sent to me about a week ago.  It immediately reminded me of how Jim Elliott once described contentment: “Wherever you are, be all there.  Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” 

Surely, this is ‘fruitful use of what we have,’ according to the current season that God has designed for us.

Jim’s words are similarly echoed in his wife’s words.  In her book, “Let Me Be a Woman,” Elisabeth Elliott writes, “The life of faith is lived one day at a time, and it has to be lived–not always looked forward to as though the “real” living were around the next corner.  It is today for which we are responsible.  God still owns tomorrow”  (p. 31).

It is easy for me to think that the “real” living is ahead.  I forget how important it is to glorify God today, to make my words gracious and loving today, to work diligently and faithfully today, to delight in my singleness today.  But, when I do, I am always amazed at how much joy is produced in my heart, and how my attitude changes from fear to faith.  Perhaps, like the apostle Paul, we are learning in just a small measure, ‘the secret of being content.’