At the women’s conference my mother and I attended on Saturday she purchased a book by Kerry and Chris Shook called One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life. I had seen the same title as I perused the bookstore, but passed it by without even reading the dust jacket. Well, my mother has a gift of seeing the potential in things that I tend to overlook (I say that here and freely because she does not read my blog!), and this book was no exception to that rule.

The book is broken down to be read over thirty days; today I read Day 1. I like it. The authors are a husband and wife team, and the husband is a pastor. Over the years he has counseled many people who were faced with imminent death. He noticed that most of them made drastic life changes for the better upon hearing the news that their lives are almost over. “What if,” the author wondered, “we lived our lives as if we only had thirty days left to live?” He challenged the ministry team at his church to live this way, and the results were incredible! The team members rearranged their priorities, spent more quality time with loved ones, and fulfilled lifelong goals and dreams. The challenge to the reader, then, is clear: Live like you’ve only got one month to live.

One of the first exercises in the book is to make a list of five things you would like to accomplish within the next thirty days. My very first reaction is that if I only had a month left, I would want to finish my book in that time! Not completely finish—the revision process is more grueling than the initial writing—but I’d love to have a working rough draft in thirty days time. That will require a lot of writing! But if I rearrange my priorities, watch a little less Bones on Netflix Instant Queue, I think it could be done.

Here’s my list of five things:

1. Finish my book
2. Clean my room and bathroom and keep them clean!
3. Spend more time connecting with loved ones
4. Do daily devotionals/spend time with God/write/journal/blog
5. Buy polarized sunglasses

So far, I completed #5-- I got the sunglasses on sale for $30 at the Wal-Mart Vision Center! Why sunglasses, you might wonder? Because, as I told my father earlier today, if I only have a month left to live, I’m gonna live it in polarized lenses.

I’m going to try to blog every day as part of my spiritual and writing disciplines to discuss if/how this book makes an impact in my actions. So don’t forget to stop by soon to check in on my progress (or lack thereof)!

Cheers!

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Jenna

It’s been over three months since my last blog post! What has changed in my life in the intervening months? I wish I could say that I landed my dream job, I won the lottery, or that I’ve met the man of my dreams, but I’d be lying if I said any one of those things. But I’m left questioning exactly what those things mean, anyway. I feel like those dreams are ideals that society expects me to have, and so I feel pressure to have them, or at least report my “dream status” to you. But, darn it all!, those dreams aren’t really true to my heart anymore.

At Easter, some of my family members came over to the house after church. We shared a delicious meal and afterwards went for a walk along the Cape Cod Canal. Eventually, my work situation came up as a topic of conversation, as it does at most family gatherings. Naturally, I’m sick of this topic. I’m sick of hearing suggestions from well-meaning relatives about what I may be doing wrong in my search, how to better use my talents, and describing to them in detail the number of shifts per week I get at the restaurant and how much I gross in tips. I find this line of questioning offensive for two reasons: first, it’s none of their business, and second, I no longer define my success in the conventional way.

I’ve stopped looking at my current employment situation as a have-not, and begun looking at how God might be using this time in my life to show me more about myself—about the path I’m on and where I want to go. And it’s been quite illuminating! I’m working on a book right now, a project that I feel called to do but wouldn’t have much time for if I was working forty hours a week. I also wouldn’t have time to do as much soul-searching.

Yesterday I went to a women’s conference called Faithlift at Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA. For those of you who may not know, Grace Chapel is one of the few mega-churches of New England, with around 3,000 members. In the morning after the first worship session, all 700 women in attendance dispersed into various workshops. The workshop I attended, First Things First, was about time management and purposeful living. One of the exercises we did in workshop was to begin to create a statement of purpose for our lives, based on our roles and values. I realized that right now, first and foremost, I identify myself as a seeker—not of the Harry Potter Quidditch variety, but as one who seeks the Truth with a capital T.

This search for Truth has been a constant in my life, and I expect it to be a lifelong project; as my life changes and evolves, so does God’s Truth for me. My tools in this mission: a comfy chair, a pen, my journal, The Message//Remix: Solo, an Uncommon Devotional, and prayer. From these things, a picture is starting to take shape in my mind and heart of how God may be calling me to engage my talents in the future. This vision is not a conventional one (I have never been a conventional person—if you don’t believe me ask my mother) and it begins by embracing my life. Exactly as it is.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Jenna