Am I the truly the last one to the Rae Dunn Party? I have only recently discovered it\u2019s magical lure when my sweet friend gifted me a mug engraved with\u201cSing\u201d after she read my blog<\/a> on how I\u2019m struggling to sing.
\nApparently, RD is the latest craze and people are clamoring and clawing their way to select stores and clandestine gas station rendezvous to get their hands on more of this imperfectly perfect pottery.<\/p>\n

Now, much to my chagrin, I am too.<\/p>\n

Days after unapologetically jumping that pottery bandwagon, I\u2019m sitting in my car in the black, wee morning hours (which, if you know me, should already clue you in I\u2019m no longer thinking rationally) waiting for Home Goods to open their doors so I can rush in and deploy some rusty high school basketball skills and \u201cbox out\u201d any obnoxious Johanna Gaines wannabe\u2019s so I can beat them to the latest installation of Rae Dunn goodness.<\/p>\n

The longer I sit here in the parking lot, the more I feel something disturbing in my soul. I\u2019m feeling queasy about this shopping virus I\u2019ve caught. Honestly, the real me \u2013 the healthy me – knows this is not<\/strong> what I want to be about. It\u2019s not<\/strong> what I want to do with my precious time. It\u2019s not<\/strong> where I want to spend our money or my energies either.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, I need more cute mugs about as much as I need another hysterectomy.<\/p>\n

But as I wait in my warm car and contemplate all this I ask myself, \u201cSo if this is not who you want to be, then why are you really here, Cindy?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I should be\u00a0at home. I have a long messy list of people in real need waiting for me back home: several friends in the midst of difficult, serious trials who could all use a loving phone call, my junior-high discipleship girls begging for an afternoon of my time, my widowed mom needing a \u201ccheck-in\u201d because I just don\u2019t do that enough, a friend in Morocco hoping for a call as she faces a mountain of paperwork in an attempt to move their family to Canada, and a hard-working-tax-season husband who I desperately needed to reconnect with over a lunch date. And the list goes on\u2026<\/p>\n

People. All these people who are important in my life. People I love dearly and care passionately about their wellbeing. But yet, I\u2019m escaping the responsibility of caring for them to instead chase down some stupid Rae Dunn dishes.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

When our lives were flipped upside down \u2013 almost 20 years ago now \u2013 Paul and I prayed every day that our lives would better reflect that which we said we believed. Specifically, we wanted our lives to reflect that PEOPLE<\/strong> are always more important than THINGS<\/strong>. At that time, we knew we had been spending too much of our time on things (whether buying things, taking care of our things, saving for more things, scrolling and dreaming about things or just talking about our things) we KNEW this was not the way of the kingdom. So we fervently prayed God would flip that on its head.<\/p>\n

For the most part, He did.<\/p>\n

So what the heck am I doing here in the Home Goods parking lot about to buy more THINGS<\/strong> while PEOPLE<\/strong> who genuinely need me today wait???<\/p>\n

Many smart people have been able to hone in on this pervasive problem that is mine today and name it.<\/p>\n

Jon Acuff, the bestselling author of Do Over<\/em> and Finish<\/em> calls it a \u201cHiding Place\u201d \u2013 an activity you focus on instead of your goal or living out your true calling. Steven Pressfield in his highly acclaimed book The War of Art<\/em> calls it the \u201cResistance\u201d and describes it as a \u201ctoxic force that deforms our spirit\u201d and keeps us from our truest selves.<\/p>\n

That is definitely true for me. I’m hiding, resisting and avoiding. I\u2019m avoiding the \u201cmessy\u201d things in my life by running to a store. Because this is brainless, instant gratification. And, let\u2019s be honest, there\u2019s no REAL cost (because I believe if something costs you only money, it\u2019s really no cost at all). Shopping is just dang easy.<\/p>\n

The way of Jesus \u2013 the way of loving people with all of me – is rarely easy.
\nAnd as far back as Bible times, the earliest followers of Christ struggled with the same crap:<\/p>\n

^{15\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.\u00a0<\/em>17\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.\u00a0<\/em>18\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.<\/em>[<\/sup><\/em>a<\/sup><\/em><\/a>]<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.\u00a0<\/em>19\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do\u2014this I keep on doing.\u00a0<\/em>20\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.<\/em><\/p>\n}

Romans 7:15 -20<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The apostle Paul doesn\u2019t really go on at this point in the text to tell us how to respond when this happens, except to acknowledge it IS SIN living in us.<\/p>\n

And we KNOW that we cannot overcome sin on our own. It\u2019s just not possible.
\nWe sin. We need a Savior. Period.<\/p>\n

Holiness begins with knowing just how unholy we are. So that\u2019s where we begin.
\nWe acknowledge we are a sin-full people. We confess. We come clean.<\/p>\n

WASH. RINSE. REPEAT.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus \u2013 our holy washing machine.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m so thankful for a Savior who operates my rinse cycle \u2013 who puts my car in drive and pulls me out of the Home Goods parking lot so I can go home and do that which I know I\u2019ve been called to and made to do.<\/p>\n

Anyone else care to bravely share what things they do that they do not want to do? Are there things that pull you away from that which you know is right to do?
\n\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Am I the truly the last one to the Rae Dunn Party? I have only recently discovered it\u2019s magical lure when my sweet friend gifted me a mug engraved with\u201cSing\u201d after she read my blog on how I\u2019m struggling to sing. Apparently, RD is the latest craze and people are clamoring and clawing their way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,25,30,32,1],"tags":[51,81,93],"yoast_head":"\n