Been a Long Time, Been a Long Time, been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.

I never intended to be absent from this blog for so long, but time has a way of speeding up over the summer. It's not that I have a readership to account for (I don't, I really do this for more for self-reflection), but I would like to remain consistent at things, writing being one of them. There comes a time that when you don't challenge your mind in the areas of art, writing, argument, reading, et al. that you begin to lose yourself. Not to mention you aren't getting any smarter. I know it sounds slightly pretentious, or a better word for it, elitist, but I've found the further I get away from schooling and into a job that I did not spend four years spending money to train for, the less intellectually stimulated and more complacent I get. I like the flavor vanilla, but not when it's applied to my life...

Our lives were created to have meaning and purpose. This is not something we just thought up for the heck of it, but rather to keep us going. It is something outside ourselves that happens when we eventually realize we never had the power to conceive of the thought in the first place. This can mostly be applied spiritually in an absolute sense, but also in the sense that our giftings spill over into our personal lives. I like the thought of it, but I do not always 'get' it. The publishing job that I will get in some obscure "tomorrow" is not the goal like I think it is, but rather a chance to exercise a talent given to me by God. Hefty and bold language for sure, as I could wake up tomorrow and decide "Oh, He didn't have that for me after all," but I always say your thoughts come from somewhere. I could be a terrible publicity assistant after all, but I would never know it if not for trying. This economy has made me think a lot. I'm sure many, like me, have attributed their value to what career goals they're not progressing towards. Career coaches would say "you can't be too hard on yourself, it's a different time," but they are missing the key issue.

No matter the time or situation, our worth is not in our paycheck, or in what we do for a living. Once this recession fully recovers, I wonder if we'll remember that.