Refresh Everything

"Woe to the complacent, to the overconfident, those favored from the first!"
-Amos 6:1

When I go over the Biblical readings for the day, it's hard to say whether what I read makes me think of something that relates to my life or whether what's going on in my life makes something I read jump out at me. My intent is to read with an open mind, but I have a feeling that some of my posts stretch to find an reflection that best fits what I want to say versus being open to what God wants me to write. This is where complacency and overconfidence come into play.

After drumming up as much support for a book on faith last week, now I am drumming up as much support for a Pepsi Refresh Everything grant for my students that is voted on by the public this month. The book, which had been posted since March, tripled its audience in one week from over 200 to over 600. My students will need more than those 600 votes to secure the grant, so no one is being complacent or overconfident about promoting our cause: http://www.refresheverything.com/oblock.

So, in this case, even though I naturally want to promote the cause, I don't feel it's at the cost of denying what God wants me to say. I often pray that my will be united to his because I want to want what he wants. Of course, I have to be vigilant in discerning whether each of my desires is one from God or from my own human ambition. In this case, I feel like praying for the success of my students' cause is like praying to win a football game. It's okay to pray for success, but we won't be upset if another worthy opponent is successful over us. We even partnered with four other organizations (http://www.refresheverything.com/mobilelearninglab,
http://www.refresheverything.com/sandyrollman,
http://www.refresheverything.com/middlecreekareacommunitycenter, and
http://www.refresheverything.com/roboticslearningcenter#)since individuals get 5 votes a day, but only 1 vote per idea a day. Hopefully, we'll all win, but doing your best will always make you better down the road whether you win this particular battle or not.