Outliers and 10,000 hours

I am not an inherently quiet person and lacking introvert tendencies I am refreshed and energized by being together with people….. yet today … today I stole away.. not by myself mind you so when a mom of six says that she stole away it probably looks quite a bit different then most would think….. However I have had breaks without any children that weren’t as refreshing as today…..

Besides a quick trip to a school because one missed the bus I have stayed inside… turned off the phone (for the most part… ;) had some scheduled phone calls that were a must but other than those didn’t attempt contact outside of our home), turned off face book, turned off the computer (until two minutes ago) turned off and away and was home….

Today I have stepped back and while doing things that needed to be done I entered into a quiet place…… Brother Lawrence is such a “hero” of mine… washing dishes yet standing mightily in the presence of God….. my personal copy of “the practice of the presence of God” is so tattered and torn and in much need of tape but I leave it on my desk as a reminder of what is important… in its tattered and torn condition…. But the presence of God I am tattered and torn….. But His surrounding me I am nothing… reduced to less than nothing….. and there are moments that are just good to be reminded that without Him … well, Ecclesiastes puts it best… It is meaningless…..

Today was a good reminder of the essentials… of what makes me me and what I want to focus my life on……
A while back Jim and I started to read a book entitled Outliers… one of the key premises of the book is to master a skill or talent it takes about 10,000 hours….. when we started reading this book I was thinking about lots of things I could potentially do as my kids were getting older … Gregory was going to be entering preschool and Elizabeth would start next year and I was thinking about what my passions were and what I would want to do….. prior to reading the book I was heading down a specific path … as we read the book I started to think more and more…. Beyond thinking about it I entered into a season of prayer…. And what came out of my heart was that it wasn’t about a specific skill or talent …. I wanted to devote that time to knowing God….. not asking God for things… not letting Him know me…. but Knowing Him….

And I completely understand that there are obviously those that walk every avenue of life and know God… but in those moments I realized that I just wanted to sit at His feet …. I wanted to know Him and what He is like more than anything I could think of or imagine……

Hundreds of hours into this purposeful and intentional seeking out of His nature and His being and His character my life is utterly being changed….. and today was a such a good day to just remember my dreams and think upon 10,000 hours being spent getting to know Him…. And then I thought upon the last stanza of Amazing Grace :

When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.

10,000 hours… 10,000 years….. The presence of God will stand throughout time and eternity… what better task to put before myself than to spend these 10,000 hours upon Him……