"success" success? success!

music of the moment...
she's one of my favorite gals to sing along with.
so good.


welp, i've had my notions of "success" SERIOUSLY challenged again as of late.
like, big time.
i've felt God ushering, inviting, even lovingly luring me into a new level of simplicity.
we're talking MAJOR simplicity folks.
for some many months now, the days of my life have been composed largely of filling out my pocket calender with teaching jobs; coffee dates/bible studies with various family & friends & strangers; baby watching; occasional ministry trips comprised mainly of simply encouraging/song leading/conversations; cooking; listening/being still; jogging; music; outdoors time; reading; exploration & asking God to continually teach me how to love the humans that He's decided will comprise my life nearby geographically & far away geographically.
simple. insanely simple.

it's been one of the most humbling, cleansing, delightful, excruciating, freeing junctures of my journey with this God.
i think it has partly to do with a clashing of unnamed preconceived notions & sowing more into the unseen than the seen.
i'm beginning to see He's removing yet another layer of the disgusting Americanized Christianity that has lived inside me, somehow rather unbeknownst to me, for some time. it's that "selfish ambition" that Paul talks about. it's that go, go, go- find identity in busy-ness & productivity instead of in your God thing.
its that $$$ = fake comfort thing.
it's that house with a mortgage/2 cars/fatty bank account = i've "arrived" or something thing.
stuff that i've always found myself clamoring for, without quite knowing why.
[for an interesting take on this, give "The Overspent American" a looksee.]

and then there's this.
this unsettling, yet remarkably freeing passage in the Bible:

Philippians 2

He Took on the Status of a Slave

^1-4If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. ^5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.