Make Time To Be Blown Away

I recently heard a song by singer/songwriter Josh Wilson which captures what I try to get across in my book, Living More Than OK and this blog. Our life is to not be settled or stuck in ordinary okness or stuck in a serious frenzy of hectic mundane activity. We are meant to live in a continual growth cycle of moving higher up into new levels of abundant living. We are to be refreshed by mindfully appreciating the little miracles and beautiful moments God brings into our pathways but we are often too busy to notice.

The song reminded me of years ago when I was listening to lectures on Positive Psychology by Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar. There was one lecture where he was reminding the importance of slowing down to notice the little beauties in life, “stop and smell the roses”. The thought is simple and in reality; taking note of the little treasures in life would add so much in relieving the stress in our days but we choose not to break out of our hectic rush mode.

Take a few moments to listen to Josh’s song and read my reflection on what I felt was important in the song.

Blown Away by Josh Wilson (click on title for song video)

She's dancing like a crazy fool
From the kitchen to the dining room
And she tells me, 'Baby, life is way too short to be too cool.'
She says, 'When did we get so serious?
Can we just all stop acting unimpressed?'
There's a hundred million miracles in front of us passing by

God open my eyes
I wanna be blown away!
By your extraordinary grace every ordinary day
Blown away!
By your great big love in every little place
I wanna slow down look around
God please show me how to stop and be amazed

I wanna be blown away!
Blown away!
I want to see a sunset
And have to stop and catch my breath
O I never want to forget
How you take a dead heart and bring back to life again
When did we get so serious?
Can we just all stop acting unimpressed?
There's a hundred million miracles in front of us passing by

God open my eyes
I wanna be blown away!
By your extraordinary grace every ordinary day
Blown away!
By your great big love in every little place
I wanna slow down look around
God please show me how to stop and be amazed

I wanna be blown away!
Blown away!
The Earth is full of heaven
Cause you're always breaking through
Put the wonder back inside these eyes
God, I don't want to miss you
When did we get so serious?
Can we just all stop acting unimpressed?'
I wanna be blown away!
By your extraordinary grace every ordinary day

Blown away!
By your great big love in every little place
I wanna slow down look around God please show me how to stop and be amazed
I wanna be blown away!
Blown away!
I wanna be blown away! Blown away! Yeah!
I wanna be, I wanna be blown away.

The first set of lines in the lyrics catch my attention where we are challenged with the shortness of life so why do we spend so much time being serious and unimpressed instead of enjoying the journey. That hit home to me with my health, as I just took a heart scan the other day that reminds me of high calcium buildup in my heart arteries. So I am reminded of the shortness of life. So why just keep moving in OK mode of just getting by. The time I have left on this earth I should listen to the call of the song to be blown away with enjoying life.

The question I think of is how can I be blown away? One important way for me came in the lines, “I wanna slow down look around, God please show me how to stop and be amazed.” Take a mindful approach to life of being aware of the miracles in each day, the beauty of creation, loving acts of grace in relations with people around me. The song writer is calling out to God to help him with this. That is actually a good prayer to pray each day. If we are mindfully aware throughout the day we will be impressed and amazed with all that has happened instead of unimpressed and stressed out.

Consider the savoring of enjoying God’s creation in the lines, “I want to see a sunset, And have to stop and catch my breath.” Sometimes if I have finished seeing clients for counseling and am driving home when there is a beautiful sunset I will get off the highway and take the backroads. That way I can drive and enjoy the sunset as it helps with the commute home.

Those are just a few thoughts that stand out to me in the song. Now it is your turn to think through what were the important points that touched your heart and mind in the song lyrics. How do you want to wake up each day? Do you want to wake up unimpressed with a sense of dread “Oh, another day!”? Or do you want to wake up with a “I wanna be blown away” attitude looking at your day with a sense of amazement and wonder? The choice is there for each of us!

Reflection: What parts of the song stood out to you? What does it mean to you to be “blown away”? I mentioned Dr. Tal Ben-shahar in the beginning of the article – take time to go to his website www.talbenshahar.com on the home page click on videos and watch one of his videos. Think through what he says about happiness and positive psychology. What do you think about it?