Last night I returned home from a three-day trip with our county's high school academic teams.

Spending time with these students and other teachers from our county was a great escape from everything "normal" in my life.

We laughed.

We ate.

We competed.

We talked.

We walked.

We ate.

Picking the next fun restaurant seemed to be the conversation of the day,

and the walk to and from these dining places was half of the adventure.

At one of these meals, I learned that one of the teacher's sons was a computer expert.

I don't just mean "he knew a lot," I mean "he knew more than any high school student I've ever met."

As we talked about hard drives and all the things that make a computer run smoothly,

I realized I was in the presence of someone who could help me with all the problems I have been experiencing with my laptop.

So after dinner, I asked if he would take a look at mine and he did!

As I watched him run searches and open the control panel over and over again,

I was amazed at how many things needed to be "uninstalled" on my computer that were "unnecessary" and "slowing my laptop down."

I feel like I have a brand new computer this morning!

I told my friend several times throughout the weekend,

"Your son has changed my life!"

He even helped me organize my IPhone and get rid of my some unnecessary apps.

I was thinking about all of this as I was reading my Bible this morning and as I was reading a book I just started over the weekend,

I realized life gets cluttered too.

We just "add apps" and "install" so many things in our daily life that we begin to run slowly.

As I read about Gideon being asked to reduce the size of his army before going to battle and about the power of solitude in my latest favorite book,

"Sacred Rhythm,"

I felt God asking me

"What do you need to reduce or uninstall in your life so that you can run more freely the race I have set before you?"

That's a big question, isn't it?

It reminds me of the moment on the trip this weekend when I was trying to pull my luggage into the hotel along with someone else's whose hands were full.

I remember thinking that "carrying our own baggage through life is really more than any of us can handle."

So, maybe today God is calling us to let go of someone else's problems that at are out of our hands and simply pray.

Maybe He's calling us to let go of our own baggage and simply allow Him to be our spiritual bellman.

I'm listening today and trusting God to make very clear all the things in my life that are slowing me down from being all He wants me to be.

I hope you'll listen too.

I am so thankful for a personal Savior who looks deep into my soul and longs to be my "control panel."

He wants to be yours too.

Not so He can make us do this or that, but so He can help us learn to keep what we need to keep and let go of what we need to let go of........

Life can be such an adventure when we share it with God.

No matter where you are today,

know that He is there too,

quietly waiting for you to ask Him to enter every part of your life!

He will not force His way into your daily activities,

but He is there.

Like a good shepherd, He gently guides us.

He loves us.

He knows us.

He wants to help us let go of things that are slowing us down so that we can run freely with Him.

He longs to speak to us,

but He speaks softly.

Listen for Him today

and follow.

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me."

John 10:27