Jordan Stones Blog

Painting pictures of Egypt— by Sara Groves These lyrics are so weighty—I  get all hung up on them like a tar baby when I hear this song.  It is such a fantastic metaphor of psychological and spiritual inertia. How there is a strong gravity magnetizing us to old patterns, a self that is not evolving, a spirit that is not fed. How we so keenly know where we are isn’t enough, isn’t where we need to end up.  But it peculiarly feels easier to stay where things don’t change... I don’t want to leave here I don’t want to stay It feels like pinching to me either way The places I long for the most Are the places where I’ve been They are calling after me like a long lost friend It’s not about losing faith It’s not about trust It’s all about comfortable When you move so much The place I was wasn’t perfect But I had found a way to live It wasn’t milk or honey But then neither is this CHORUS: I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt Leaving out what it lacked...

The idea of self care, self governing, is making self well from the capital “N” Nutrients that fill us up authentically. As a collective human condition, we are all over the map from rigid to lavish as we approach self care.  The middle ground is fertile with “Nutrients” that grow pure parts of our nature and identity. We feel the most like ourselves, the most pure, when we swallow this fuel.  Our “territory”—the plod over which we were given authority from the King Himself.  We have an essential charge over the goings-on in this territory He marked off for us. It reminds me of the metaphor of our God who graciously gives us territory to tend, “talents” to invest, an inheritance to claim…as a Lord in medieval times entered a covenant with a vassal and bestowed a plot of land in exchange for homage and loyalty.  Feudalism defined in medieval times the governing force over territory.  It was a relational and practical bond between a lord and a vassal.  So...

There is a continuum we are all somewhere on.  On one side, there is a militant, critical, rigid, over-ruled economy.  On the other end, we find a lack of boundaries, over lavish, over indulgent, “What’s one more?”, “Go for it—you deserve it!” So curious is the power this mental environment has over wellbeing. What needs to be keen to our senses is that Love and Care defined is found in the center of that bell curve with lavish on one end and rigid on the other. So remarkable is the reflection of upbringing on this mental contour that we bend toward. Considering that time ago when you were new and youthful, does you internal climate reflect a similar slant that is familiar from your upbringing? Or maybe you have crafted a mental environment in reaction to an approach in your childhood that you want to move away from—the antithesis? Lord, help me to govern myself with balance: grace and order.  Wake me up and help me to smell the fragrance that is sweet when I tune in and...