"To Look or to Be"

As I was having my daily morning reading time, which is one of my perminant goals for the rest of my life started this year, is to go to bed earlier, wake up earlier, before the sun rises, and to get into the word, to read, and to set my list of traits and qualities i want to BE for the day, based on what I'm currently struggling or desiring to overcome. All of us have

George MacDonald rightly said, "half of the misery in the world is caused by people trying to look rather than trying to be."

Below is my background picture, its taken outside of LAX as I we were landing, coming home from a flight from Cabo San Lucas last year. When I look at it, I think about the big picture of the rest of my life. I wish I could see things from this high up, the eternal perspective, and think about how I'd live my life differently. Thankfully, I get to live it one minute at a time, one foot in front of the other, and when I get caught up trying to look a certain way, or do something someone else is doing, or worse yet, compare myself to someone else(not considering what they had to sacrifice or possibly compromise to get there) my morning devotions re-direct me and keep me grounded, stable and consistent. Those are the traits that others value in me the most. Don't get me wrong, I passionate and a fanatic about the things in my life that are essential, but if I'm not grounded in what My God calls me to be, that which is the most fulfilling. Thus, this gives me the freedom to live pursuing the desires in my heart, otherwise I'm in bondage to always searching and trying to be things I'm not, buy things that rot, and that is the biggest trap, the biggest lie I've ever been suckered into.

I dropped cable to stop wanting what I was being sold, in between my favorite shows. I don't get a paper, because the ads kept my christmas list going year round. Not that these are bad for everyone(I'm not a legalist), but for me, freedom is more to tame a desire for everything and stop a constant searching, and be content with what you have rather than the opposite; to be able to go after everything and to only find that doing everything is tiring and not going to fulfill me as much as doing what God calls me to do in my life.

Now, this week, I sit here and look at my business from the numbers angle, something I don't always do and I look at whats really worth my time, and what is not. Its such an eye opening experience, and something I'm thankful my parents who are great at business can help me with. Something that forever, I'm gonna challenge the photographers that I'm blessed to help, to prioritize this process of looking at their business.