short and oh so sweet.

A Reflection from Variable on Vimeo.

life and lazy runs.

This afternoon I went for a run. I have gone on tons of runs over the years, and I particularly enjoy longer distances (not always, ha). Through training for half marathons/marathons you really begin to learn about your body while you are running; how to pace yourself, control your breathing, when to push yourself harder, etc.
But in running so much, there are many days I run what I like to call "lazy runs". A lazy run looks something like this - you start running at an easy pace and then you just get numb. You maintain your pace, never really exerting yourself too much, your heart rate my not even be that high, breathing is very controlled, and you go miles and miles without even knowing what you're thinking about. Just running.

Today I had a lazy run. I mean really, I could've been napping while I was running!
I was sweating, but mainly because it was just hot outside. I wasn't even sure what I was thinking about - definitely not my run or anything of importance.
Well about 4 miles into the run, I stopped by my brother's grave site because it is on the loop that I was doing.
And I ran over and sat down, staring at my brother's headstone, barely even out of breath, and it just hit me.
Wake up, Tana!
Enough! Life is way too short for lazy runs. Run with purpose. Be aware. Get sweaty. Lose your breath. Go faster. Try harder.

I sat there and thought about my life. How many times do I go through life running a lazy run? I go through the motions, get complacent, never pushing myself to try something new or different or difficult.
And the scary part is...we can mask over our numbness because it appears as though we are doing something. Today, I was physically out there running and moving...but really, what was I doing? A lot of nothing. Yet I felt good about myself because I appeared to be. For a moment, I fooled myself that my going, going had some value to it...when in fact, it did not.

Too often I believe we fall prey to this type of thinking in our daily lives. I know I do.

Life may seem easier if we go through it with the lazy run mindset. But what worth does that have?
I want to wake up. I want to live life with intention. I want to end my days breathless, not because I seemed to be active, but because I really was. I loved better. Served more. Challenged myself. Got my hands dirty in the good, bad, and ugly parts of this world.

So today...on that run, you better believe I ran the rest of the way as fast as my little legs could go.

That's it folks. Let's leave behind our lazy run days.
Yeah.

irrationality makes us human.

The Beauty of the Irrational from The African Attachment on Vimeo.

“And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?

It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.

I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave.

Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.”

tonight's tunezz.

broken record?

If you spend much time with me, you have probably heard me talk about this idea a lot.
Not to sound like a broken record, but I can't stop thinking about it tonight.
Almost 2 years ago, I posted this quote...

“He wanted his people to ‘loose the chains of injustice’ and not just go to church on Sunday. He wanted His people to ‘clothe the naked’ and not just attend midweek prayer meeting. He wanted His people to ‘spend themselves on behalf of the hungry,’ and not just sing praise music.
Personal piety and formal worship are essential to the Christian life, but they must lead to lives that ‘act justly and love mercy’ (Micah 6:8).”

And I really do like this quote, but I was questioning how to do this, act this out, in every day life.
I'll be honest...when I posted that, I knew I would be leaving for Kenya in a few months. I knew I'd be living in a place where I walk out  my front door and extreme poverty hits you in the face. A place where I would physically see injustice, or see those that needed clothes, or those that were actually really hungry.
And that's easy. Yeah, I said it.
It's much easier to "act justly and love mercy" in a land where the desperation is so evident...where people can't mask their need, their hurts, their "poverty" with fancy things.

But here I sit, in America, and Jesus still wants the same things from me. But it's hard. 
And I'm not sure I've completely figured out how to do it best. 
But I do know, the call to act, to love the unloved, to provide clothes for the poor, to feed the hungry...it's all the same.
Here, there, in a house, with a mouse...it doesn't matter.

Talk is cheap. I should talk less. Do more.

love,
t-con

miss those faces.

Love Is Here - Africa from Check The Gate Films on Vimeo.

loving this video this morning.
watch it.
the photography is from the very talented kate magee joyce. i met her while living in kenya.