Shannon Kropf
Dealing with Overwhelm

But here's the thing: I realized that my own sanity is more important than work. I don't want to miss out on time with my family, especially since my mom still lives with us and we take care of her. So, I decided to take a step back and not work as hard anymore. Easy…right?

Dealing with Overwhelm
Musings
Shannon Kropf
Falling Face-First

And I feel like we’ve missed the chance to learn some profound truth, that we’ve turned away from some universal doorway that led to a better place. Everybody wants to get back to “normal,” and I can’t shake the feeling that “normal” just ain’t that great.

Falling Face-First
Musings
Shannon Kropf
Traffic and Assholes

It seems unlikely that anyone would thrive in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, and yet here I sit, and here I grow, a lot like that pesky weed that keeps cropping up in the crack in the sidewalk. In the most odd environment, life is present.

Traffic and Assholes
Shannon Kropf
It’s Been a Year

The gentle rocking of the universe and the lullaby that sings, “I am here. You are safe.”

It’s Been a Year
Blog
Shannon Kropf
...Elsewhere

Death is an incontrovertible part of life. 

Why do we struggle so? What is it about this final veil--the veil which separates forever the living from the dead--that causes us to beat our flying fists against it so firmly, so resolute with no result? If death is a part of life, why does it hurt so much?

...Elsewhere

thoughts

OMENS AND THE BIG, ANGRY GOD

Hmm. I just wrote this long, lovely post and lost it. "I guess God didn't want me to post it after all." HA! Interesting how much I hear things like that. It's true, I did just lose this whole post. And I had a much more eloquent and thought-provoking lead in, but who wants to retype thoughts a second time? I've already thunk them.

But I hear that sentiment all the time, mostly from people who are driving themselves mad trying to stay firmly in God's will. So many times these folks have a decision to make - yes, even huge, life-changing decisions! - and they tear themselves to shreds looking for God's bread crumb trail so that they don't stumble blindly out of God's will.

The thing that's got me musing here is that they elevate GOD'S WILL to some sacred, unfathomable, unattainable, angry thing that will immediately curse them for the rest of their puny little mortality if they take the wrong job, or stay in school too long, or rent the wrong apartment, or sing the wrong song during worship. This tells me that somewhere, way down deep, they might just think that God is ticked off and ready to squish them at a moment's notice, or worse yet, that they have to work to get God's approval of their lives. At the very least, it reveals a mindset that mistakes are NOT permitted. None of these things are true!

OK, I might get kicked out of the Good Christian Club here, but I believe that God may just want us all to relax a little bit. When we get wrapped up in the mindset of "I have to struggle and strain to get God's answer to this to the point of driving myself crazy and if I don't get and answer I won't do anything and I'm so desperate for an answer that I'll take the tiniest little thing that goes wrong (or right) to be an OMEN OF GOD'S INTENTIONS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!"...well, I think God just wants us to chill out and trust Him.

I have a new favorite Proverb, and it goes a little something like this: "A man's steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand his own way?" (Prov. 20:21)

In those simple words, God assures me that He knows what's up. Honestly, the absolute best things that have ever happened to me are when I have been confused, restless, and unsure of my decisions. I have wound up in places I simply never expected, in better situations than I could have dreamed (better does not equal easy!). I could never have understood what God was doing, and yet He did it anyway.

You see, it's a built-in part of the plan. Seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all the stuff we worry about (food, clothing, a place to live, a way to make a living...and life!) will be given to us, freely and abundantly, by God. We should ask for one thing: His presence. He will be happy to direct our steps!

Yeah, so I've got too much going on in my life, and some big decisions on my horizon. I think I'll go seek after God's presence, and leave the driving to Him.

Psalm 1

You don't often hear anyone say, "Turn to Psalm 1 please." It seems that with the grand exposition of the glories and downfalls of humankind, with the declarative exclamations, praises for and pleading with God that follow this humble Psalm, it is often overlooked. But this small Psalm, a simple setting of God's feeling toward the righteous and the unrighteous, gives a compelling frame of reference for the entirity of the Psalms. Much like the familiar beattitudes in Mark 5, Psalm 1 begins "Blessed is the man who..." Right from the start, God desires to reveal to us his love for us. Like a proud father, like a husband glowingly gazing at his bride, the Lord says, "Blessed is the man!"

In a move that makes my heart sing, God doesn't say, "In the future, the man will be blessed..." or "The man will be blessed if he can acheive great things..." Two glorious words begin the Psalms, the greatest poetic expression of the heights and depths of man and the wonderous unfolding of God's character. These two words are present, and always: Blessed is.

Ahh.

-S