Learning Along The Way

Seeds of Change

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I think in metaphors.

It may be due in part to years of teaching children.  Perhaps it’s because this is a way God helps me understand big ideas.  In any case this image is one that really speaks to me.

Lent is the season of change.  Of letting go. Of opening up. Of embracing.

This morning I read about forgiveness.  No big deal.  Ha!

Trying to wrap my head around this big idea, the image of a seed came to mind.

Confession is like the seed.

Forgiveness is the soil.

Grace is the rain and sun that causes the plant to sprout and grow.

When I tell someone I know I wronged them and ask for their forgiveness, that is a step toward growth and change for our relationship.

If they accept me and forgive, that is God’s grace at work.  I certainly don’t deserve it.  I really haven’t earned it.  But the result of forgiveness and grace is new life. Renewed love and care.

You hold the seed of change in your hand.

Who is it that you need to hold out the seed to?

Why Lent?

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I have a confession: I am undisciplined.

I look at DIY blogs and Pinterest, and Facebook and tell myself not so nice things about how I take care of our home, or time, or…

I have no shortage of ideas of what to do or how to do them!

What I lack is discipline. Follow through. Commitment. Perseverance.

Truth be told, some of those words make me cringe, like a bright light being shone into dark places, revealing what was hidden.

Why Lent?

For this very purpose: confessing what is out of whack and doing something about it.

For nearly two millennia Christ followers have been emulating what Christ must have gone through in the 40 days in the wilderness during the period of time prior to the celebration of the Resurrection.

The remembrance of that time period begins today.

You may not have grown up in a faith practice where the season of Lent was even considered.  You can learn more about the history and faith practices around Lent here.

But I will tell you this, slowing down, considering honestly who you are and where you are compared to who and where you’d like to be in your personal growth and spiritual formation is always valuable.

Doing something about what you see is even more valuable.

So for the season of Lent this year, I am going to be journeying publicly, here, daily writing.  Yep. Daily. Writing. Here.

Working on the discipline I lack and sharing the process.  Being in the work not just in my head.  Sharing my process as I learn along the Way.  My hope is that you benefit from my journey; that you are encouraged in your own spiritual formation practices and that you’d share some of what you’re growing through with me.

What’s the Difference?

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Life can be so, well, daily.

Routines help get tasks completed. Planning gets more tasks accomplished. Schedules make order of the day. (thanks to ebby for his photo)

That sounds fabulous if you are a do-er.

But what if you’re a feel-er?

 

You get up when you wake up. You look in the cupboards and fridge for what looks good to eat. You don’t feel like doing the laundry because it’s sunny and you’d rather be outside.

Do-ers read that and respond with the Nike slogan: Just Do It

Feel-ers sense judgment for not being like Do-ers

Do-ers may experience an emptiness, a drudgery to the daily routine.

Feel-ers may experience overwhelm from all that isn’t yet done and not knowing how to get started.

What’s the Difference?

In these examples both Do-ers and Feel-ers have moved away from the balance point.

But what if…

Do-ers schedule “free time” to enjoy a bit of unstructured play?

Feel-ers commit to one regular 10 minute activity every hour; like starting a load of laundry?

What’s the Difference?

Intention

If we look at the reality of our day, make one intention for change and take action, then life could slowly come to the balance point of work and play.

Jesus invites us to be intentional in relating with Him. Sharing the stress of the schedule or the frustration with not getting something accomplished is part of that relating with Him.

Learning to lean on Jesus throughout our day is what makes all the difference.

It’s a process of learning along the Way.  Are you in process?

 

 

 

What would you do?

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Two days ago, the 3rd Sunday in January, was Sanctity of Life Sunday.  Our pastor challenged us to think beyond the focus of Roe v. Wade to see the how the sanctity of human life is being threatened in so many areas in our culture and the world.  We as Christ followers have the call to champion the needs of these who may not be able to defend themselves:

  • the unborn
  • orphans
  • the exploited and impoverished
  • those with special needs
  • the elderly

His Sunday message can be heard here.

Today, through Twitter I learned of someone who recently took a personal risk to defend the defenseless.  His story is quick and to the point and definitely worth linking to:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8959527

Heartwarming for sure.

But my question to you is personal: What would you do?

From this point on, we will have opportunities to champion the rights of those who are not able.

You may not be in a season where you have the time to be a volunteer or in a place financially to add another donation to your list of giving, but you are able to pray.

Ask the Lord to lay a need on your heart: what breaks your heart that breaks the heart of God?

Then begin to do what we as Christ followers are given to do: pray.

Pray for opportunity

Pray for physical protection

Pray for financial support

Pray for people who can serve

Pray. It’s not “the only thing” you can do.

It’s the primary thing to do.

Dr. King & Tuning Forks

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Midway through the school year, the year of fifth grade, I came running in the house from playing outside after school to find my mother seated at the table, television on and tears streaming down her face.

She couldn’t speak, just pointed to the TV when I asked what was wrong.  There I saw the news: Martin Luther King Jr was shot on the balcony of his hotel.  This was a horrible tragedy.  My mother, the English teacher in a multi-racial school, was very clear with us that all people are created equal.  She valued and espoused the ideals Dr. King spoke. His famous “I have a Dream speech”, spoken on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963, was a speech my mom referenced in her English classes alongside President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

MLK Jr.’s death was a tuning fork in our family.  Why a tuning fork? A tuning fork uses resonance to find the common tone in a piano, a guitar, as well as the human voice; thus allowing pitches to be matched to the common resonant frequency.  How was his death a tuning fork?

The resonant frequency was loss; my mother’s only brother was killed in Vietnam in Dec 1967;  only 4 months earlier.  The sudden loss of my uncle tore my family apart; grandparents, aunt, cousins, mom, all losing a very significant person in a tragic way.  Now the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr resonated in our family at a far deeper level than just a piece on the nightly news.

I remember standing there staring at the TV, and then in a childlike innocence, going to my mom and patting her on the back, again and again.

How do we offer comfort at a time of deep loss?  Jesus modeled this well: He wept.  He didn’t say ‘don’t worry everything’s going to be okay’; He didn’t say ‘why are you crying?’  ‘Don’t you have faith?’  No.  He wept with His friends who were suffering the loss of their loved brother Lazarus.

We can do well to follow that precious, simple model.  Be with those who are suffering.  Weep with them.  Sit silently with them.  Hug them.

Then in their rebuilding process, listen to them speak their memories.  Laugh when they laugh.  Help them honor the memories.  Do something alongside them to commemorate their loved one’s life in some way.

This national holiday was established to honor the memory of Dr Martin Luther King Jr but also to commemorate his life through service.  Serve your family, your neighbors, your community.  Just don’t focus on yourself.  His life was spent in the betterment of others.  We would do well to follow suit.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

 

House of Bread and Busy-ness

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I love words.  I love seeing connections and sharing what I see.

Today I have been pondering how to push back against the busy-ness this Season often brings. Well more like how to push back and not feel bad about saying No or choosing Not to do something.

I’ve been pondering the simplicity of the night when Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem.  You may know the story well.  Two young newlyweds traveling to his home town to register for the Roman census. They lived in a time when distractions were few but the effort to simply live was huge.  Every aspect of life was more work than we are used to in this present day American culture.  Food, transportation, and lodging all took a lot of time and physical effort.  Simply living truly meant staying alive.

Bethlehem—House of Bread.  Bread of Life.  Basic, foundational needs.  Met simply that we might simply live.

To slow down and take time to reflect is almost an oxymoron in the midst of the busy-ness this Season of the year usually holds.  The end of the year brings its own demands: change in weather, planning for taxes, end of term in school, work parties, school plays, musical performances, shopping for presents, planning for guests coming; I could go on but I’m getting weary reviewing all this!

Today, we are far from simply living as in the journey to the House of Bread for Joseph & Mary and turning the phrase to living simply takes on a different meaning.  It means less stuff, less distractions, and more opportunity to have margin.  We have more freedom to choose today than those young newlyweds had.  But do we use it or do we allow externals to control our internals?

Living simply allows your choices to be choices rather than obligation driven.

How do you get to living simply?  Away from busy-ness and toward the simplicity of Bethlehem?

Examine your motives for saying Yes to things this Season.  If you are feeling driven by externals, by the busy-ness, you may be doing things for the wrong reasons.  It’s okay to say No once in awhile.  Give yourself permission to live simply.  You just might have space to ponder the peace and joy that entered the world at the end of Joseph & Mary’s journey.

If you’re not sure how to start, or want to talk it out, click over to the Contact Me page on my website and we’ll start a conversation to simplify your life!

Skin in the Game

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Interesting thought: to be really invested in something requires at least a piece of yourself. Skin in the game.

This morning as I read through the devotional entries and the Advent devotionals (yes plural) I saw something I had not put together before.  You may have already made this connection but I didn’t see it this way until today.

Way back, at the beginning of the Story, when our great-grandparents, Adam & Eve, made the choice to believe Satan’s lie, God came looking for them and asked “Where are you?”

It’s not like God didn’t know where Adam & Eve were.  He knew.  He questioned to allow them to confess.  When they did, God sacrificed a piece of Himself, His creation, and made coverings for them.

Fast forward to the Cross.  Jesus, the perfect, unblemished Lamb of God, sacrificed Himself for ALL humanity so that we can come home; home in the Presence of God. Wearing the covering He made through the sacrifice of Himself.

God has had skin in the game of Life since the beginning.  His plan is for us to be with Him.  Being in the game of Life with Him will cost you something: pride.

Are you in?

Family Flashback Friday

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Alliteration is fun.  Having words start with the same letter can be helpful for memory’s sake.  If you use Instagram with your smart phone or tablet, you may have seen friends posting older pictures.  It’s fun to see younger versions of my friends.  There’s Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday.  I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon sort of, by putting this particular photo both here and on Insta.

I am in this picture.  If you know me, you know which one is me.  If you don’t yet know me, look on my website to see a recent portrait of me and you’ll know which one is me right away.  This has always been a favorite picture for me; my grandparents holding my brother and two cousins at Christmas in 1962.  That’s right, 50 years ago.

That’s a flashback.

By no means would I take the time here to flash forward through all of life that has been lived; that would be a volume not a blog post!  Suffice it to say, there are lots of joys and sorrows that have been lived in each of the lives represented in this photo.

At the center of it all, the girl with the big smile has hung on…to Hope.

I am happy to say that gift of Hope is one thing that has helped me, like a beacon of light for a storm tossed boat; there is a grounding, a solid place that the storms cannot destroy.  My Hope.

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness”  The Solid Rock.  He has been in this with me and for me even when I wasn’t in it for myself.

“I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”  People let you down.  People who say they love you can hurt you, intentionally.  Knowing full well they’re hurting you.

“When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; in every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.”  When terrible things happen, where do you turn?

“His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood; when all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.”  When the bottom falls out of life, where is your grounding?

I didn’t work at this Hope.  I didn’t muscle through tough things with a dogged determination to be hopeful.  It is a gift I have received from the Generous Giver of all good gifts.  Even as a child when I didn’t fully understand, He was hovering and protecting me and giving me Hope.

He longs for you to receive His Gift.  We have been practicing Thankfulness for a season and now it is the season of giving and receiving gifts.  This is a Gift for which you can be eternally thankful!  Won’t you receive the Gift of Hope today?

The Life of Joseph and The Rhythm of Life

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Here’s a word association: The Life of Joseph, the Rhythm of Life, and Bingo.

What do all these things have in common?  At first blush, common threads aren’t obvious but there are a few actually.

When I was a child there was a game show on TV (black & white back then before God invented color, according to my sons!), whose name I don’t remember (age issues showing up again) and there was a clear drum turning with ping pong balls bouncing around.  Each ball had a letter and number on it, somewhat like a Bingo game.  Every once in awhile one ball would roll out of the drum and down a ramp to where it could be picked up and identified.  In recent years in California, a similar system was used for one of the many lottery games.  The anticipation of waiting to see what the ball said was exciting.

My mind has been a lot like that drum lately.  The ideas in my head have been a lot like the ping pong balls bouncing around waiting to roll down the ramp into the foreground of my thoughts to be identified.  The anticipation of what the thoughts mean is almost as exciting as the game show was.

So here’s where The Life of Joseph comes in.  Our pastors have been teaching about the Life of Joseph all through the Fall.  I love how much depth and application these men show us each week.  You will definitely learn a lot if you click the link and listen.  But there has been this random ping pong ball idea bouncing around in my head that has formulated itself into a question.

Here it is: If Joseph could trust God so thoroughly, why can’t we?

He didn’t have the Bible in print or on his computer, smart phone or tablet.  He didn’t have Bible studies or small groups or the fellowship of other believers.  He didn’t have commentaries to study or a plethora of books to read about Who God Is and How to Know God.

He simply trusted.

Perhaps God was more obvious to Joseph because he had less-distractions?  He was in a pit and in prison for quite awhile.

How can we have less-distractions in this day and age? This is where the idea ball named Rhythm of Life comes down the ramp in my mind.

If we make time alone with God a priority and we plan for this time in each day as an appointment on our calendar, then we are actively choosing to make God a priority and push back against the tide of distractions that threaten to overwhelm us daily.

My google calendar says Coffee with Jesus from 6 am to 7 am daily.  It is a starting point.  Pick a time that you like.  Make it a date.  Write it on your calendar.  Show up.

Guaranteed He will too.

Focus. Practice. Sacrifice.

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A constant focus on adversity defeats many Christians. They walk through a day that is brimming with beauty and brightness, seeing only the grayness of their thoughts. Neglecting the practice of giving thanks has darkened their mindsIt’s Monday. Sometimes just saying ‘it’s Monday’ can bring a deep sigh; a ‘here we go again’ mindset about the daily grind. After a longer break from routine for most, this Monday may have more challenges than usual. This morning I read the day’s entry from the devotional Jesus Calling by Sarah Young and was reminded of a few things.
* Giving thanks takes focus give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thess. 5:18)

* Giving thanks takes practice … and be thankful; …with thankfulness in your hearts; …giving thanks to God (Col.3: 15,16,17)

* Giving thanks is a sacrifice Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. (Heb. 13:15)

Focus. Practice. Sacrifice.

These are words that are associated with training, with work; and work takes effort.

Many friends have made the effort and used social media this month to name what they are thankful for on a daily basis. I have been blessed and encouraged by their posts. You may be one of them. I am thankful to God for you as you live out …let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24)

So if today you’re focusing on the drudgery of your responsibilities, may I suggest a shift in focus? Look for things to be thankful for. Name them. Thank God for each one.

Practice thanking God for the little things. This work has a promise attached to it:
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:7)

And who among us couldn’t benefit from a peace that passes all understanding in the middle of our day?

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