I stood there, shoulders hunched over the kitchen counter, mesmerized by music streaming out of my MacBook.

Like the creek near my house that runs dry this time of year, my days grew dusty with the monotony of routine.   I fell into a spell of staying up too late, like a little kid who whines at bedtime.  The time I spend as a night owl wasn’t all too productive either.

It’s kind of dead time, really — similar to emptying quarters playing skee ball.  You walk up with excitement in pockets full of quarters and walk away with your brain numb trying break the highest score.

The everyday work was starting to feel coin operated.  Even the play.

I was exhausted.

Too tired to type another word, I checked out a site my hairdresser recommended to me.

Pandora. It’s internet radio, customized with songs selected by me.

I punched in Yo-Yo Ma and instantly a new station was created.  A special sauce algorithm lined up music it figured I’d like best based on the artist I selected.

I liked it.  A lot.

Faith Genome

The research that enabled Pandora to analyze the musical identity of a song — the characteristics of “what each individual song sounds like” — was named The Music Genome Project.

It got me thinking.

Is there a “Faith Genome”?

What are the common and differing traits of this faith?

How does God use faith to shape an individual’s identity?

There are some things in life that can’t change or won’t change for awhile.

What can change is my faith.

Whitespace Plus Three

The Greek word genome (γίνομαι) means I become, I am born, to come into being.

Rather than focusing on why my life went monotone, I decided to brainstorm ways to nurture my faith and pick three to practice on.

It was very important not to come up with a goal or number.  No performance metric allowed.  I wanted to practice nurturing faith, not self-effort.

I began by first taking some long overdue Whitespace one Saturday morning. I drove to a nearby park in the mountains and hiked in until I found a quiet spot.  With my backpack as a barrier against damp leaves, I sat down and started to pray through a Psalm.

Then, out came my notebook and a brain dump of ideas started flowing, without evaluating any of it.

After a while, my writing drip dropped to a halt.

Nurturing Criteria

Inner thoughts get interesting once they’re written. Turns out I was more high strung than I realized —  wanting to get somewhere other than “here”.  There were things I wanted to do that were getting into the way of who I wanted to be.

My Personal Faith Genome Project got easier once I noticed this.

I settled on some criteria.  I wanted do things that nurtured my faith based on how much they encouraged me:

To Be Dependent on God (“more aware of my dependence” is probably accurate).

To Be Humble.

To Focus on what Jesus thought of me, more than others.

I’ve made some changes.  They’re so small, I hesitate to even mention them here.  But, the surprise is that the change in me has been big.

God breathed new life into me.  I’m still doing the same needed everyday things, but I’m sensing God doing them with me.  I hear more of His thoughts throughout the day and I share more of mine, especially the ones I didn’t think He wanted to hear.

I’m more aware of my shortcomings, but freer to invite God into them.

Life sounds a lot different.  There is harmony.

I hope to discover more about this faith genome God placed in me — and make my life as individually His as possible.

I know you’re here to join me and share in the experience together.

Faith. Live streaming.

And that makes me happy.

~~~~~

Make me know Your ways, O LORD;

Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

For You are the God of my salvation;
For You I wait all the day.

~ Psalms 25:4-5

~~~~~

What’s your personal “Faith Genome Project”?

How does God use faith to shape your individual identity?

Share a comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

No, they’re not sponsoring this post.  LOL.  But, God has used music there to bless me so much this past few weeks, I hope you enjoy it’s benefits as well.  If you’re already on Pandora and want to hear what I’m enjoying, let me know. Maybe I can share some selections.]

Share a comment - I'd love to hear your thoughts... I post my replies on the blog within a day... or two.
Thanks for adding your voice.  Be sure to check back!
Not regular subscriber yet? ....
SUBSCRIBE NOW to get updates from FaithBarista hot and fresh directly in your
mailbox via email (click here) or RSS (click here) news reader.

Photo courtesy of Photobucket.