What Will Half Way Get You?

I went camping this weekend and experienced the “joy” of climbing into a cold tent and patiently waiting for my body to reach that “snug as a bug in a rug” status in my sleeping bag.  Anyone who knows me knows that while I LOVE to go camping I HATE to be cold!!  The next morning I woke up all snuggly in my down sleeping bag and realized that I would have to leave this new found heaven if I wanted any coffee.  Coffee was on the OTHER side of that tent door.  You all know what happened….coffee won!

As I drank my coffee I thought about my cozy bed at home and I remembered that I had a magic blanket in the closet and it was now time to pull that baby out and bless my bed with it.  That night I setup my favorite electric blanket and turned the controller to HIGH. I walked away smiling to myself thinking about how amazing it was going to be to climb into a nice toasty bed.  A little while later, with a smile, I climbed into my wonderfully WARM….I mean COLD bed!!  What had happened?  The remote had batteries, the blanket was plugged in…..ahhh, then I remembered.  I had one of those blankets which could either be turned all the way on or set to only heat half of the blanket.  Mine was set to half…and it wasn’t the half that my sleeping spot was on.  I laughed at my mistake and quickly fixed the error….and patiently waited to reach warm bliss.

This morning I pondered what half way does to us.  How frustrated, unfulfilled, anxious, and disappointed we can become when we only apply halfway to our lives.  When we halfway pray to God to help guide us, we apply half of our abilities to our job, we halfway parent (giving the fun but not the discipline), and the notorious expectation that relationships are 50/50….right!!  What is the view from halfway up the mountain??  Often a view full of trees.  In order to see all of God’s beauty in His creation we have to strive to go ALL of the way to the top.  In the same sense, we have to strive to have full prayer lives and provide all of our trust in God.  Give all of our efforts to our job.  Parent our children when it is easy and when it is hard.  Finally, we have to remember that the most important relationships are 100/100…and give our ALL.

Today I pray that each of us commits ourselves fully to every aspect of our lives.  One of my favorite phrases is “anything worth doing is worth doing right”.  Buckle down, commit, and complete it all of the way!  And, then enjoy that snuggly feeling of Heaven!!