Cities and Stuff

On June 17, 2024June 17, 2024 By Ashley GatewoodIn Bread & Butter MorselsLeave a comment

Boston

I recently returned from a trip to Boston. I love big cities. They are always awake and always open for business. I also like the way of living far more than small town – each has its advantages I suppose – one offering a slower pace to life and one engaging and always beckoning attention and involvement.

I never clocked less than 10K steps a day while in Boston, and that’s without any extra dedicated time. In small towns, there’s no great possibility of walking or biking. Stores and destinations are just too far apart. In many instances, biking and driving took the same amount of time in Boston. Even in small ‘cities’ like Lexington, there is no decent public transportation that runs frequently enough without wasting an hour and a half waiting at bus terminals. A fifteen minute car drive is the only alternative.

_{We’re walking through the MIT tunnels to catch the rail to a 5K, not mine, just to be clear.}

I was talking with a friend up there who stated it quite perfectly. He said that there’s an energy you can feel when walking the city. You always have other people bustling about, things are happening like deliveries, events, shows, students, other runners or cyclists on the city streets with you no matter the time of day. But to walk to a friends house in a suburb of a small town, all the houses shut up, curtains drawn, lawns are the same, row after row – it’s just an excruciatingly boring walk.

It’s true!

I do my best to walk daily – which I have to make time and drive to the park. But I have to work much harder to get 10K steps whereas the city seems to provide ample opportunity for healthy living without even trying.

Anyway, I guess I want too much just in general. Maybe we all do. We want everything that is good about all we’ve experienced combined for a perfect life. It’s just not going to happen.

I daydream about living in a big city. Who daydreams about something so mundane? Maybe I’m seeing a vision, this happens to me sometimes. Will have to pay more attention to these daydreams.

Motivators

I have to consider why something is being done, why I’m taking a particular action. Shouldn’t we all consider why we are doing certain things in our life? Jesus said to lay up treasures for ourselves in Heaven because the treasures of this world rot and disintegrate and pass away. Entropy. Even ideas that seem to propagate suffer deterioration if they aren’t of any eternal value.

I’ve noticed how much the wrong ideas about God propagate on social media. People who are Christians saying that what makes a shepherd inadequate is not preaching the goodness of a particular political party to their congregations. In other words, not using a position given by God to push your own political agenda is unacceptable as a Christian Pastor. Like, what kind of Hell-talk is this? Who is embodying the essence of the great Accuser of the Brethren here?

How is it that Christian influencers are falling into this treacherous language against Christ?

And then, as if just speaking it isn’t treacherous enough, we have loads of ‘avatars’ liking the post, not because they are Christians necessarily, but because their agenda lines up with the poster’s comment.

These Christians influencers will be held accountable.

Anything we say – especially if we have followers on a massive level – will be solely our responsibility come the Judgement. ‘But someone else taught me that!’ This argument, my friend, will hold no water with God almighty. He has already warned us, ‘My people perish for lack of knowledge.’ This is why I am so adamant, esp with those God has laid on my heart, in correcting when someone is going down the wrong path. I care for them AND I care for all those children of God they are leading astray. I say children because they may be the few who are exempt, though still they will perish at the hands of ill-informed leaders, if they are never correct and taught proper biblical truth.

This is why leaders will be judged with far more weight than the children they are leading and influencing.

Hence this warning given: ‘Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.’

Now we just as easily can put ‘influencers’ in place of teachers. Same thing, same process of passing along the wrong information about God in this example. Do I know everything? Of course not! Which is why I’m grateful (though maybe at first quite irritated) when I get corrected. Correction, admonishment, saves our lives!

Now that alone keeps me from stepping out as much as I might be, it’s a grave thing to have great influence and be dead wrong about something so grave as life and death of a person’s soul and body. That’s my issue I must overcome.

The Wicked Won’t Win, Even Though Now They Appear To Prosper

The wicked shall not prosper. There’s a verse that admonishes, ‘do not envy the prosperity of the wicked.’ And it’s easy to do that. This life on earth has many interesting and pleasurable things we could use our vessels to indulge in, yet this assuredly brings death. God knows the human’s psychological makeup better than anyone or anything. Even Satan understands human psychology better than humans do, duh..

Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37.1-3

Everywhere I look anti-Christ organizations, corpse-porations and blasphemous God-haters seem to garner praise, financial gain and worldly clout. But like, who wants that kind of ROI?

Death of self would be our aim today, in this world of indulgent pleasures, including dopamine kicks-and-giggles that social media tends to deliver to our starving central nervous receptors. Sometimes I wonder if Christians aren’t saying these ridiculous things because they believe the more social media likes and praise they garner means somehow they are doing the right thing and are approved of God.

My God, people! This is such a trap. All of this misdirection must burn away. Self-centered ambitions must burn away. I know, far easier said than done – and I don’t have thousands of followers…God help me if I ever do. I might run away, which would result in zero benefit to anyone.

And there are always whales at-the-ready for servants of God who run….fantastic…

It’s a problem of space and time for me, I think. It’s a problem of losing. Losing things. And I hate losing things. I hate losing time and options. I need an eternal view, not a here-and-now view. Many who are smarter than I, keep correcting my thought on this: I must narrow my path which sacrifices all other paths I could walk and proceed with all focus in one direction. This is excruciating for me even though I know that to do otherwise just keeps the wheels spinning unproductively.

Everyday Witnesses Through Their Gifts

The Lord has been bringing unique individuals to my attention. People I would never find in the circle of interests I have, and these people are full-on dedicated to the work of God’s kingdom here on the earth. They aren’t formally in the ministry at all, they are chefs, or skateboarders, or comedians – all manner of professions but they never miss a beat to talk about God during an interview about their chosen profession or craft. It’s a beautiful thing to see.

And quite frankly, they speak with much more profound depth and authority about God than those who are in positions of prestige or power within the church (noun, place) today. I became disillusioned about the structure of church organizations and institutions since the mid-2000s.

_{Indeed, we all wrestle with God at some point.}

God always calls the Gideon, or the David, or the Esther when they are known by few and obscure. I think this is amazing and I love to watch it unfold in a life; how the seemingly smallest is made the greatest among us, not by their own hand of power, but by offering all their strengths to God to use for His glory.

This kind of wrestling is among the most difficult because it is our weaknesses, the self, the ego, the intellect like Leviathans pushing forward within us for control when, perhaps one might say, the hero overcomes them to submit his or her vessel with all its inadequacies to the will of God, as Jesus did. It’s nothing short of miraculous. Indeed, without the Spirit of God, we could not possibly do it. Faith is a powerful thing when it’s witnessed working through an individuals life.

I’m seeing this more and more, in the most far away corners of the world; God’s people lighting up and flashing a signal, as it were, that God is ever present and available to save and guide into a more abundant and rewarding life. That is, if we can pay the price. There’s always a sacrifice.

God’s Refinery

God’s fire is all consuming. And whatever is not of Him burns off of our lives. God help those of us who have built much in this world but little in the kingdom of God. It’s no fun to walk through the fire, but in the end we are certainly better for it. The continual regeneration of life is an unmistakeable attribute of God. Without Him, there is no life-force. I can’t take this train of thought too far here, it’s one blog post, but it ties in with so many other aspects of the human-Christ-eternal dynamic.

_{MIT tunnel graffiti, hallway art.}

If anyone abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
John 15.6

The above scripture is exactly how it is. But there are other scriptures which indicate that what isn’t burned up, remains.

Paul says that if our work is burned up, we will suffer loss – there’s my loss hang-up – though we will be saved, but only as through fire. So I would even go as far as saying if anyone doesn’t subject themselves to the fire to burn away what should not be there, then they themselves cannot be saved. Either we chose it voluntarily and in doing so we pass through it, or we succumb to it involuntarily and lose our lives as well.

Peter tells us that everything that makes up the universe will burn and be destroyed and that heaven will pass away. This informs the reader that everyone will pass through that fire; but some things aren’t burned up but remain, continue, live on. And in the case of Christ, that living is eternal.

And again, Paul states that there is coming a great shaking and everything that can be shaken will be. But what is of God and eternal will remain. So this ‘passing through’ is a phenomenon we all must subject ourselves to, I think it’s voluntary, first. But if we don’t do this, run from it or deny God, the fire still must be passed through and we will also lose ourselves, our inhabited vessels even to the flames.

Now let’s think about our lives and how much will be consumed by the fire, how much we’ve done for our own self-centered ambitions and striving to impress other humans in this world. That’s a difficult thought experiment. But let us importantly remind ourselves of this, we are saved not by our own hand but by Christ.

This is so because we are in Him, we abide in Him and guess what? He had no evil in Him so that when He passed through the flames of Hell taking the keys of death Hell and the grave from that pesky Cherub, everything who was Christ rose again. In other words, His body also, being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing could hold Him, not even the death which was appointed to all of us to suffer, once. So indeed God’s words were true, Jesus suffered death, once as appointed to every man. But again,

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Acts 2.24

And again, this is one portion of our promise, having been adopted by Him as His own children, a prophecy that is the Spirit of Christ, we shall inherit life eternal:

…because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
Psalm 16.10

The grave couldn’t hold Him, nor will it hold us, dear brothers and sisters.

Okay, I can’t help but think how long it took me to write this one post. How does one measure time wasted or time spent productively?

Have a beautiful week, all you curious people. Or if you’re feeling adventurous; have a curious week, all you beautiful people~

Featured Image: Snapshot of more MIT graffiti, taken by yours truly~

Unconventional Thinking and Following Your Call In Life

On July 26, 2020February 13, 2021 By Ashley GatewoodIn How to Follow Your Dream, Unconventional ThinkingLeave a comment

Being unconventional can get you into a load of trouble with humans. It can also be a powerful tool in a boring, (even dangerous) lemming-like society.

I’ve never been one for following the crowd, and as long as I am quiet everything is fine. But I’m usually not quiet. And when you begin blazing a trail in the opposite direction, and those conventional humans start seeing it, (even seeing you doing well at it) you’ll receive plenty of flack.

Many people choose to follow the mainstream because their parents and grandparents did. If it worked for them and they are happy, then they made the right decision… for their life!

I. Never. Wanted. That.

The problem is, I see people resigning their lives to the pressure of the mainstream. That’s different than making a decision to do so. Mainstream is intolerant of unconventional ideas and ways of thinking.

Seventy-five years ago in 1945, getting married, having children, holding down a good with a pension, (or if you were a woman, keeping house and husband and kids at the expense of your own desires), was all the rage. It’s what a contemporary American family looked like. No more. And I like to challenge people and why they believe the way they do and why they’ve made the choices they’ve made – oh boy! That’s a crowd pleaser, let me tell you!

But I do care. I care that people 1. Get out of this way of thinking if they want to, but if not 2. Don’t impose this way of thinking on others, which decreases one’s value as an individual person and limits people’s potential.

It is a difficult balance to keep: not caring what people think about me and yet, showing people that I care for them. Fortunately, I did a pretty good job of staying out of the clutches of traditional, conventional living.

Alas, but not quite.

Here I find myself – again – in a daily corporate grind. It is an unhappy place for me. Think about this: eight hours of the best part of the day spent making someone else lots of money. Pushing papers. Calculating totals, Excel spreadsheets, emails, phone calls….working for a paycheck is not freedom. Just try to leave at 2 in the afternoon and go enjoy a hike for the rest of the day without telling anyone. Just try sleeping in until 8am, then instead of getting in your car and rushing to work because your late, you head to the park, or shopping or anything – you’ll be getting a phone call. Or your ears boxed tomorrow.

Or maybe even a pink slip.

Oh, you can do whatever you like, but there’ll be consequences for it.

Lack of freedom is anyone or anything capable of dictating to you how your time is to be spent without you having a choice to agree to it or power to refuse it.

Work is important. Very important. But so is satisfaction and especially what you are called to do in this short life you’ve been given. God’s Calling over your life isn’t to be taken lightly. It’s serious business..

The Calling is a pull – a steady desire of your heart that you want to fulfill or that you feel drawn towards. It could be broad or specific but it will not let you go. The sad thing is, many people let the Calling go because they see no other way to get out of societal judgment, the corporate grind, the conventional machine, the daily slog of humanity to make a living.

Forget. That.

I found my way out once with God’s help. I’ll find my way out again.

Let me also say here, that sometimes there are silent, unnoticed seasons God will take us through to prepare us for the Calling over our lives. We’ll talk more about this later, but the Bible does say, ‘despise not small beginnings’. The critical issue is not giving up your dreams because you see no way out. Determine in your heart that giving up is not an option for you! God will show you how to overcome the situations you encounter so you can move into the blessings He has for you.

The problem can sometimes be people, especially when they don’t think like you. Most people find unconventional thinkers an affront to their carefully indoctrinated, socially-accepted lives. But when these people are our friends, family or mentors, we’ll listen to them, be made to feel guilty by them, have our value decreased or be made to feel foolish or selfish and before we know it, bam!, right back into the slog we go…

After all, who are you to have something different and better? Or maybe they don’t understand that their ‘happy’ is not your ‘happy’? Or perhaps they had to give up their dreams to fit in, and their hope of a better happier life in order to be socially accepted — so you should too! Because what does that say about them if you get out and blaze a better trail when they did not? You should suffer the same way they still suffer…

No. Way.

I just cannot accept less than what my heart is longing for – it’s what God put there to begin with and I must find it. Is your heart burning for something more powerful that will impact people’s lives in a great and meaningful way? Don’t forsake that desire in your heart. It’s probably your Calling.

Time. Oh Lord help me. I am starved for time. My energy is taken from me during the 8-5 workday, performing for something other than what my heart desires.

When I was in my 20s and 30s I had time and plenty of left over energy! Not so much anymore. Listen, isn’t your time more valuable than sitting behind a desk helping no one in any meaningful way? Time affords us the ability to think, invent, write, encounter, discover all kinds of things which in turn, brings the world around us to a better place. Try doing all that behind a desk, pushing papers and trying to figure out which cell has the wrong formula in that God forsaken Excel spreadsheet…there are only so many hours in a day, and even less productive hours…

Remember, what ever it is you’re working to obtain is also what you are exchanging your life for.

Think about this: how many years of your life did you exchange for that car you are driving? How about the phone your holding in your hand right now?

If you made $50,000 last year and your car cost you $50,000, well then, every hour of every day you worked for a solid year was exchanged for that car. It doesn’t matter how many months you spread the payment over.

It seems unfair, but it isn’t – some people can work one month, earning fifty-thousand dollars and exchange one month of their life for a car. It’s just how the world works down here.

The choice then, that we all have is this, “what can I do to make my life more satisfying and rewarding right where I am?”

Trust me, you don’t need to be rich to be satisfied and live a fulfilling and rewarding life. Listen to King Solomon when he said that much wisdom can bring much sadness. Money can also bring its own oppression.

Because money isn’t the answer. Freedom is the answer.

We also must face the truth that in many ways, money is freedom. Or it can at least buy you financial freedom to pursue what you want. But many get slogged down and miss the beat. Money can work for you or against you. And you don’t need money to find your Call or work in a field that is fulfilling and satisfies you personally. Understand that money is only a tool and half the battle is won.

Hold on tight. We’re going to get into a lot of unconventional thinking in the next several weeks/months that encompasses more than just work and the daily grind. Is your work fulfilling and satisfying and at the end of the day helping others and pushing the envelope to make this world a better place? Then thank God for that! We will all benefit from your valuable time being spent doing something awesome for the world. But let’s not stop there because God has so much more for us! And when we are done, we may just find ourselves a little more free and a little closer to living in the Call of God that is over our lives. Until next time…

Be well, be free~

Feature Photo by Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash

The Tapestry of Life

On December 31, 2017February 13, 2021 By Ashley GatewoodIn Love:: Lifestyle:: HealthLeave a comment

Here we are at the cusp of another year ending and a new one beginning. Even though it’s a day just like any other, there is something more poignant about observing the calendar change from one year to the next.

It’s a time when many begin to reflect on the previous year and try to summarize its overall theme. If only life could be like that – where we could take certain times and seasons and leave others behind. But our lives are cumulative where each experience, every emotion and every circumstance adds to our life and our character. Sometimes life doesn’t always imbue a celebratory reaction from us, especially when we’ve suffered loss, setbacks, depression or other difficult circumstances.

In a way, our lives are like tapestries where everything and everyone we experience are woven into the fabric and as time passes, the colors change and the work of art expands and begins to show the intricacies of God’s hand in our lives. People are woven in that continue in the tapestry for the whole of our lives. Others are woven in only for a few seasons, and then their thread ends. Sometimes when we go through the rough patches in life, we can’t see the whole picture, we don’t fully understand how it could be of any use to us at all to lose things, to hurt, or to experience difficulties.

And really, God has given us every means of getting through this life while keeping joy, peace and love close to us, surrounding us and keeping us through all the darker hours of our life. But I will be the first to admit, this is difficult in and of itself. I have at certain times in my life clung tightly to joy so as not to drown in sorrow; but alas, I drowned anyway.

But isn’t this life? Isn’t life a choice? If so, then we need to choose life. God never said we wouldn’t have to endure suffering; but he doesn’t at anytime say depression, darkness and fear are things we have to live with. No. That is the Good News of the word of God, that we do not have to fall prey to these things. We will have to work through them, but the promise is that love, joy and peace can be had throughout our suffering. The promise is that Jesus has made the way for each of us to commune with God having paid that price for us. And with God, all things are possible, this instills hope, which in turn increases joy. And suffering won’t last. To everything there is a season, as Solomon said, so just know that your season of happiness and peace and freedom are coming.

If it’s one thing that should be remembered, it is that we should never feel guilty about our emotions and how we work through them. It is never acceptable to hurt others because we cannot control our own emotions. But don’t feel guilty if you are in a place of mourning, or sadness or regrouping and getting your life back on track and it’s taking you longer than you thought. Your true friends will always be there to encourage and help. (But if anyone is hurting you because of their inability to take responsibility for themselves and their own emotions, then think long and hard about why you are allowing this person to stay in your life.) Sometimes moving forward and making positive changes means walking away from someone who is hurtful to you.

Trials make us stronger. They dig into the deepest part of our soul and challenge us to rise up and overcome. Don’t get down on yourself if you are unable to rise immediately to the task. We have all fought many battles that have taken multiple attempts to first understand, then overcome. Sometimes the hardest part is first realizing our situation and circumstance, then finding the courage to take action and do the right thing.

Life is about people – but don’t forget you are a ‘people’ as well. Don’t forget to look after you. After all, if we don’t know how to love ourselves, how can we effectively love anyone else? If we don’t know how to overcome self-doubt, fear, loneliness, hardship and suffering, how can we help others do the same? These are the lessons, it seems, that are the most colorful in that tapestry of life we were talking about earlier. They are the hardest to work through and overcome but the pigments are the brightest and most elaborate because they are the fabric of our existence.

Let me say that once more: The harder lessons are the pigments that shine the brightest and are most elaborate because they are the fabric of our existence – because we have that choice remember? Choose life so that others can see what you’ve overcome and take courage to do the same in their own difficult circumstances.

These are the stories that resonate most with others, pulls them up out of the pits they’re stuck in, shines the light into the world’s darkness so that others can find their way out of a tough time. Don’t ever think that the hardships that befall you are for your demise. No, instead they are for your victory that you might rejoice in God and others also may see you and gain triumph over their circumstances as well.

Looking into 2018, let’s not make resolutions. Instead let’s make peace. Peace with ourselves, with others and with life’s twists and turns. Let’s decide that no hardships or troubles are going to be the end of the story for us – but instead let’s trust that God will work those times into our tapestry of life so that they shine brightest that others may follow. We have a choice, as hard as it can be to rise up over difficult circumstances, we have a choice to be joyful or let it depress us. Let’s choose to be at peace with ourselves and others, forgiving and moving forward with love in our hearts. Let’s forgive ourselves for not living up to our own standards or others, and let’s take courage to not live blindly and comfortably but instead to branch out into the unknown, fully trusting God has us in his very capable hands.

Let’s dare to be great.

Happy New Year to you all~

If you have questions or need direction on how to begin to make a change, don’t hesitate to contact me. Leave a comment or email me – you can also reach out on social media like Linked In.

Love will get you to where you need to be~