Learning Along The Way

Why Would I Wear a Yoke?!

By

How is meditating and memorizing this passage from the gospel of Matthew going?  I am so appreciative of those who have encouraged us with what they have gleaned from the passage so far; praying that others of you are deepening your faith and trust in our great triune God!

This week let’s take a look at the beginning of Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you…”

Not growing up a farm girl (although I have longed for that focused lifestyle many times!) I needed to get a good picture in my mind of what a yoke is.

An interesting thing to know: when a young ox is being trained to wear the yoke and pull its weight, it is yoked with a stronger ox that actually carries the burden while the young one is learning to simply wear the yoke.

The yoke was a very common, visible word picture for those listening to Jesus. Not only was it common but it also held religious significance to those in first century Palestine.

* A yoke was a symbol of a Master-Servant relationship

* A yoke was referenced within the early teaching of the Mosaic Law. There are two yokes: the Yoke of the Kingdom of God, and the Yoke of the Commandments (Law).

How can this background information influence our understanding of what Jesus is talking about? We have to dig a little deeper…

From a rabbinical teaching about the Yoke of the Kingdom of God:

If we believe all *this to be true, then the opportunity to show our allegiance to the will of God— accepting the yoke of God’s kingdom—may be understood as a gracious gift.

If we accept the mitzvah (command) of making this God our God, not just symbolically or rhetorically, then we must also accept the rule of this Sovereign. 

  However, to be in this harness, to take upon ourselves this yoke, is not to be enslaved, but to be enabled, given the opportunity to make all life flourish. 

*(all this- is referring to the belief in God as He reveals Himself in Scripture)

From Matthew Henry’s Commentary regarding taking on Jesus’ yoke:

It requires self-denial, and exposes to difficulties, but this is abundantly repaid, even in this world, by inward peace and joy. It is a yoke that is lined with love. So powerful are the assistances he gives us, so suitable the encouragements, and so strong the consolations to be found in the way of duty, that we may truly say, it is a yoke of pleasantness. 

So we are back to Jesus’ telling us to “take My yoke upon you…”

Am I willing to be in a harness with Jesus? To walk with Him at His pace, doing the things He has in mind for the day? What does this cost me? What do I gain? Click To Tweet

Are you?

cleardot.png

What is Filling Your Thoughts?

By

How is the memorizing going so far? 3 short phrases that can be fit together now:

Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

I’ve spent some time investigating rest, learning about it and, dare I say, practicing it. I’ve learned to appreciate the gift that rest is. I’m not talking about a weekend away from the routine; that’s more like a retreat. This verse is meant to take place in the everyday busy-ness we encounter.

There isn’t a mystery of interpretation to this phrase. But it is pregnant with meaning.

The word I is a personal pronoun attributed to the speaker, who in this case is Jesus.

Rest means what it says. Rest. Ceasing from activity.

Photo by Marko Kovic on Unsplash

 

Jesus will give you rest.  He sees how busy we are. He knows how physically tired we can get. He knows what it feels like to be thirsty, in pain, lonely; whatever you are dealing with today. He knows.

And He will give you rest.

How you might ask? Is He going to come babysit? Or take care of my ailing parent? Or, or, or,…

You know by now that I am a context girl so stopping at this phrase without putting it together within the context is hard. I don’t want to run ahead to the weeks to come but I do want you to know, to become aware of, the comfort this sentence can bring.

Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.

It is an invitation.

If we slow our racing thoughts; if we slow our frantic pace; if we actively pause and look in His direction, He is waiting in the wings of our lives to give us that comfort & rest. A sigh. A deep breath. A slow exhale. Click To Tweet

Maybe you need to hide in the bathroom to make that rest happen. Perhaps it’s simply a pause of thought and action even as you read this post.

Jesus knows. He sees. He cares. He comforts.

He gives rest.

Let us know how you practice pushing the pause button in your days. We all need encouragement to find ways of practicing. Using that word is a reminder that we are all learners.

I highly recommend pushing pause daily.

Are You Weary? Burned out? The #1 Way to find Relief

By

I hope you’ve been pondering the invitation Jesus spoke that is recorded in the gospel of Matthew chapter 11 verses 28-30. Looking back: Come to Me…

This week’s phrase is “…all who are weary and burdened…”

The invitation is comprehensive. ALL. There are none who are excluded from this invitation to Come. Every.Single. Human. Being. Throughout. History and in the Present and Yet to be born. ALL.

This reminds me of a concert verse ( a verse that speaks of this topic in another way, enriching the meaning and reinforcing the message)

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The concert term? Whoever. It’s another way of saying ALL.

(on a side note: a search for the word ALL in scripture is time consuming but has had a lasting impact on my understanding of the character of God)

Weary and burdened may seem redundant but they actually emphasize different aspects of tired and weighed down.  Weary is a present tense verb, which can also be translated exhausted. Exhausted with trying hard to live up to expectations. Exhausted with trying to solve problems, do good work, be the best version of ourselves…all in our own strength.

Photo by Yolanda Leyva on Unsplash

 

Anyone?

Burdened in this context is the word for putting something on the back of an animal to carry the weight. Jesus was speaking specifically about the religious rules that the Pharisees had added to the Law; these burdens were unnecessary to say the least. Here Jesus is telling the people He sees they’re exhausted from trying to deal with all the brokenness in their lives and He sees the unnecessary performance rules put on top of them by the Pharisees.

What about us today? Where are you weary of the try-hard-life?  What unnecessary burdens from a broken understanding of Christianity do you bear?

Jesus sees. He cares.

Come to Me All who are weary and burdened…

cleardot.png

Monday Motivation: Meditation to Action

By

It’s Monday. I’m facing it down and showing up. I’m also choosing to find motivation from my meditations. In my mind this is where the rubber meets the road, where my feet walk out what my heart is leaning toward. My attitude and action are under my control. For a recovering Control Freak that is an important awareness. I do have control over some things!!

Our attitudes are our choices.

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

We can choose how we respond to any given situation. We have control of our response. We also have control of our thoughts. You may struggle with “monkey mind” like I do as an Enneagram 7 but even our thoughts can be captured and wrangled into submission. In coaching we talk a lot about mindset. It’s not touchy-feely, it’s neurobiology-a field of science that studies how our brain works, learns, how our feelings impact brain function, and so much more!

You don’t have to stay stuck in a rut in your thought pattern. You have the power to choose.

Let’s use a fairly common internal dialogue as an example: You make a mistake with someone’s name. In your thoughts you tell yourself a story about your memory. It’s not a nice way to talk to anyone, but you call yourself a name and pair it with how your memory works. You have just created a neuropathway about your ability to remember names.

Guess what? Your brain looks for connections to string thoughts together in order for the brain to work more efficiently. The pathway gets strengthened every time you tell yourself that story. This is how your thoughts get formed and you get in a rut of stinking thinking.

How can you change that pattern?

Step 1: Pay Attention. Listen to the way you think about a circumstance.

Step 2: Stop it!

Photo by Luke van Zyl on Unsplash

The moment you recognize you’ve had a repeat thought that you want to change, you stop, acknowledge the negative thought as the “old way” of thinking.

Step 3: Immediately tell yourself the new Truth you want to replace the old thought with. It’s helpful to actually say it aloud if your circumstances allow.

Ancient wisdom tells us much about our thoughts. We can be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We can let our minds dwell or camp on Truth not on lies.

I’ve been sharing my meditations on Matthew 11:28-30 on Wednesdays this month. You can read the past ones here and here. There is ongoing benefit to meditation with your brain function too, but I won’t overload you with neuroscience! Just know that there are a multitude of benefits for meditating on God’s Word, one of them being transformation.

As a coach, I’m all about transformation. I’m pretty sure that’s aligned with God’s heart for us since we’re called to grow in Christ-likeness. Learning how to let go of thoughts and habits that keep us from being all we can be, learning to lean in with Jesus is worthy life work.

Let’s make meditation transfer to action. If you have questions about what the process of coaching with me is like, let me know. I’m happy to address your questions here or any of the other places you can find me: online or on the phone!

Learn a new Way. Take a step forward. Reach out for help & accountability.

 

Sharing is Caring: Sound Advice

By

 

Slowing the pace of life to learn the unforced rhythms of grace is a challenge in every season. Click To Tweet

I think we need all the help we can get to develop habits that reflect our time spent in quiet.

That’s why I’m excited to share about the work of Alan & Gem Fadling. They have a podcast called  Unhurried Living.

These are their words of explanation:

Many of us feel hurried, and hurry is costing us more than we realize. Unhurried Living provides resources and training to help people learn to live and lead from fullness rather than on empty. Great influence begins on the inside, in your soul. Learning healthy patterns of rest and work can transform your life–your daily influence. 

I don’t even remember how I came across their work but when I did I knew I had found a place to breathe, to hear wisdom for life and learn a few things along the Way.

This is a feeble screen shot of my Stitcher account so you could see the artwork to look for when you search for them.

Of course, you can always go to their website  Alan and Gem have developed so many quality resources for developing habits that give your soul room to breathe.

One of my favorite episodes is a very practical place to drop in if you’re a first time listener to Unhurried Living. It’s called 9 Practical Challenges to Living Less Hurried 

It was comforting to know that I’m not the only one who has had (and continues to have) challenges in developing spiritual practices.

I hope you’ll check them out; let me know what you think!

It’s Fri-Yay!!

By

It’s nearly quitting time on Friday afternoon. At least it would be if I worked a regular job. To be honest, there’s very little regular about me; even when I did work for a regular paycheck I didn’t do my work in a regular way.

In fact, I don’t think like a regular person. I’m far too out of the box and I’m pretty sure God is delighted with the way He’s made me. (see Ps. 139)

I am an Enthusiast. I’ve been in hiding thanks to many hard things in life, but God has brought me back to center. And it’s been a crazy journey of unlearning and re-learning along the Way!

One of the many learnings over the recent part of this journey has been learning to see God’s handiwork in creation with eyes of faith.

I’ve begun keeping an eye out for how God surprises me with reminders of His love. As often as possible I take pictures of the heart shape that appears in random, unexpected places.

This morning’s raspberry on my Rice Chex

The coffee sludge that I rinsed out and set aside to wash later.

The leaf along the path

These are so fun to find!

I’m wondering if you have seen random heart shapes around in your days? Do you notice?

One of the best outcomes of this part of my journey has been the practice of contemplation. Becoming contemplative is the result of spiritual practices of silence and solitude. I ran from those two words for most of my life! I told myself, “ain’t nobody got time to sit still.”

For two decades Silence was filled with the wonderful noise of family. The only silence I found was early before anyone got up. I tried to do that daily, to fill my mind & soul with God’s Word and what Oswald Chambers had to say each day. Those quiet times set the foundation for my soul; they weren’t long times, maybe 30 minutes. But I shudder to think what life would have been like for me when I lost both my parents suddenly, had I not already had the foundation of my soul built on God.

Solitude was thrust upon me when we moved. All the new was overwhelming and I reeled at the disorientation. I struggled with the compounding losses: parents, home, roles, familiar places; everything that had been regular was gone. Solitude became my familiar place. It was hard for awhile, lonely at times, but Solitude is one of the greatest gifts because I learned I am never truly alone.

Now, ten years later, I can spend hours in silence and solitude and not lose my mind. (that actually may have happened long ago, but I digress) Instead of going nuts, I have learned to listen and to see. These are gifts from the Giver of all good gifts.

In this month of personal challenge to

I’d love to have you join in. Keep an eye out for heart shapes in random places. Notice God’s handiwork, like sunrises, sunsets, cloud formations, the smiles of children, birds singing, whatever.

Let’s collect them and share them.

 

What 3 Things are on Your Thankful List Today?

By

Last week on Thursday I was with our son & family; going to the Library with our grand-daughter, playing and simply enjoying time as an extended family.

So thankful.

 

Today I’m back in the Bay Area, meeting a young friend for coffee and encouragement, and attending a writing/planning event for creative entrepreneurs, which I guess I am.

But in the in betweens? There have been thoughts of you, dear reader. I’ve thought about what your life is like today, what you’re able to pay attention to, what the time is revealing, if you’re feeling hurried and behind, or relaxed and care-free.

You see, I pray for you. Even if we haven’t met and I don’t know your face in a crowded room, God knows and sees and cares. I don’t need to know the details you want prayer for; God knows.

So I’m curious, what are three things on your Thankful List today?

Why 3? I love 3 because it reminds me of God who exists in 3: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Three is also a short list which is do-able right? I also know that once you slow to count three things or experiences or people that you are thankful for, the chances are you’ll go past three!

Let’s keep showing up each day; developing the habit of thankfulness and paying attention to the Presence that is eternally with us.

What’s in it for You? Come to Me

By

Last week I shared the benefit I gained from meditating on a passage of scripture. Being an Enneagram core type 7 I thought it would be fun to encourage you to practice meditating on the same passage from Matthew 11. If you missed last week’s post you can read it here.

Wondering what version you found most resonant for your study of Matthew 11:28-30?

This week we begin looking at the passage one phrase at a time.  I promise you this: if all you do is meditate on each phrase for a week, allowing the words to weave through your thoughts and permeate your mind, the passage will be memorized and taken to heart in a new way without a lot of trying to memorize!

“Come to Me”

This can be read with an inflection of a parent to a wandering child: Come to Me!

In this way it takes on a command. An imperative telling you what to do.

In fact, the Greek word for come in this case is deute and is just that, a command. But if we only look at that word definition and then say Jesus is demanding our attention, our obedience, then we are taking the word away from the intent and limiting the full impact of the passage.

I have heard teaching that has done just that. I will tell you that way of seeing is incomplete and taken out of context.  Let’s go deeper.

“Come to Me.”

In it’s full contextual setting, this phrase is an invitation.

An invitation to be. To be with. To be with Jesus.

*sigh*

A place of relief. As we will continue to see, a place of rest.

This links in my head with several other passages of Scripture that I’ll just give references to:

Ps 23; Ps. 46:10; Ps. 91:1-2; Isaiah 26:3 just to name a few.

This phrase is spoken by the Good Shepherd who sees His weary, burdened flock and feels compassion for them.

Jesus, walking from the upper room after the last supper up toward the garden of Gethsemane pauses, looks back over Jerusalem and says

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

Jesus gave an invitation to come to Him. He was rejected.

Where do you find yourself today with that invitation? 

For those without the Savior, it is equivalent to a call to believe in Him.

For those who are already believers, it is a call to follow Him as a committed disciple; it is a call to completely turn their lives over to Him.

Here’s some more digging deeper:

“To” is the preposition pros, a preposition expressing close proximity and intimate fellowship. It is used of the fellowship of the Son with the Father.

We have here a call to an intimacy of fellowship.

“Me” is a personal pronoun, me. Note that the Pharisees basically said, “do as we say, obey our system,” but the Lord Jesus said, “come to me.”

What’s His Point?

This is one of the great concepts of Christianity that must be taught and grasped. Christianity is a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. This is not a call to a program, nor a system of religion, nor to a church, and certainly… Click To Tweet

Too often disciple-makers end up cloning subordinates rather than helping people develop Christ-likeness. They draw people to themselves and reproduce graven images. In essence, they say, “agree with me, think like me, dress like me, teach like I do, act like me, and you will have success, or have a successful ministry.”

While God uses churches, people, and theological systems, Christianity is intended to be an intimate, personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.

Lots to ponder in three words.

cleardot.pngAs you ponder, I’d love to hear your musings. Perhaps this stirs up questions you’d like to have a safe space to explore. Any comment or question you post can remain private if you let me know. Your comments here don’t automatically post; I read them first!

Sabbath Reflections

By

Have you ever signed up for being critiqued? You said to yourself, “I want to get better at ______; so I am going to ask others to tell me how I can improve.” Have you done that with someone who is a professional in the area you want to improve?

I get a sick stomach ache when I think about it.

I did that. I attended a Writers’ Bootcamp in 2016 and asked for critique of my writing. I submitted myself to another’s examination and judgment. What I found was not only helpful but encouraging.

That person has included me as part of his launch team for his soon to release book, Learning to Speak God from Scratch.

His work is a thoughtful examination of words that have been deemed sacred in various religious practices and have become words tossed about without the sacrosanct respect said words deserve.

Sabbath is one of those words for me.

I grew up in the ‘Chr-easter’ tradition: parents who attended church as children without developing much faith around the practice of going to church, and who chose to raise their own children with knowledge of the two “important” Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter. I heard the important stories of God and Jesus, but missed the why of value in knowing about them.

Head versus Heart. Religion versus Faith.

I came to faith in Christ at 23 after a lot of searching for love in all the wrong places. I was standing outside at Aztec Center near midnight, sweeping the patio and emptying trash cans; the duties of a night job I had while I was pursuing my teaching credential. I stood silent on a cold February night looking up at the stars and simply asked, “If you’re real God, would you let me know?”

The response was equally silent but immediate: two stars that were parallel and looked liked eyes looking at me, twinkled. And my heart expanded and I believed. That was it.

I remember that day like it was yesterday. The exact date? Nope. But the fact that I asked for a sign and got a response was enough to convince me.

The people I knew who were Christians also practiced a literal religion; do what was spelled out in the Bible and all of life will go well.

I’ve never been very good at following people’s rules; I wonder, what about all the other possible responses? Click To Tweet

Learning to love Sabbath was one of those to-dos.

Where are you with practicing Sabbath?

Is it a burden? A religious convention meant for others to follow? An old-fashioned word that has little meaning in today’s immediate-oriented and production-driven culture?

My learning along the Way has shown me Sabbath is a gift of rest.

I tried to make it a ritual and hated it. I prepped all the meals the day before, I made sure all the clothes were ready for church the next day, I ran myself ragged in order to rest. I wanted Sabbath to be a wonderful practice but how I was approaching it wasn’t working. When I recognized it to be something to help me slow down, to notice God at work and take time to re-create, the meaning of Sabbath was transformed for me.

In my month of Showing Up I am trying to put into practice things I’ve attempted and dropped at various points in life. I invite you to join me in this week’s challenge. I’m going to sort through ideas and stuff to begin getting rid of what doesn’t fit anymore.  What ideas, what stories, what things, don’t work in this season of life?

The stories I tell myself, the items I hang on to, the clothes that I keep for that ‘someday’ are all going to be critiqued and evaluated; looking for what is valued, deemed worthy of keeping and what needs to be given away.

Practicing Sabbath rest has given me room for reflecting on what is important and what is no longer of value for me.

Are you willing to take inventory? Have you already made this a practice in your life? I’d love to hear how practicing Sabbath rest has opened up your awareness.

Sound Advice

By

One thing I have appreciated with the digital age is the freedom of choice of what I listen to; commercial radio is a thing of the past for me. As an avid learner I find listening to podcasts my go-to when driving; where I live a trip of 3 miles can take forty-five minutes depending on the time of day, so I make sure my favorites are downloaded daily!

I use Stitcher for my podcasts; it was recommended to me, it’s free and it’s super easy to use. Podcasts are awesome because you can find topics you love, topics you don’t know a lot about, ones focused on humor, or storytelling like old-time serial radio shows when television didn’t exist (which pre-dates me, by the way) I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorite podcasts with you on Saturdays; I’d love to have some recommendations from you as well!

My list is long; thankfully they don’t all update daily, otherwise I’d be woefully behind. I have favorite podcasts for leadership development, life as a creative entrepreneur, faith-focused podcasts, parenting, being a woman in this era and more.

My go to podcast lately is Typology by Ian Cron.

Ian interviews friends, who are also famous people, discussing life through the lens of the Enneagram. Have you heard much about the Enneagram? If not this is a great intro to the tool.

I became certified as an Enneagram coach this year so I am happy to be listening to interviews of different people sharing how knowing their Ennea core type has benefitted their work, relationships, and faith. Ian’s interviews aren’t always what I consider other-focused but he is an Ennea 4, so it makes sense.

I’ve mentioned I’m an Enneagram 7; I’ll unpack the amazing tool it has been for my emotional and spiritual well-being in another post, but suffice it to say, learning more about the Enneagram through listening to Typology podcast has been a lot of fun.

What podcast is keeping you smiling, thinking or thriving?

More “Sound Advice” I want to share is from one of my playlists on Spotify.

If you’re not using Spotify that’s ok, we can still be friends! If you are, did you know you can share playlists with your friends? I created one that I call Arena Anthems . It was actually an assignment when I was working through a semester of Daring Greatly with Brene Brown. The songs I have put on the playlist are ones that remind me to get back up when hard things have been thrown at me when I’ve been in the arena, daring greatly.

Do you know that reference? It comes from a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt, at the Sorbonne, Paris, France in 1910. For your edification, here is the quoted portion from his speech.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. 

Reading this again reminds me that my everyday work may include facing the hard things of life, getting out into ‘the arena’, which for me is offering my words to ‘the worthy cause’ of encouragement and trusting that I will be understood and accepted by a few. But those few who do hear and understand are the ones for whom my offering is intended.

Very esoteric I realize. Every once in a while I like to wax philosophical. The songs on my playlist are not all philosophical or faith-based, but all encourage me to continue, remind me to keep showing up no matter the outcome.

Life is hard sometimes; we can feel overwhelmed and under supported. Music has a way of helping bridge the gap that hurt inflicts; music can give support to be courageous in the face of hard things.

What music do you like to listen to when you need to get back up and help you

 

 

 

 

Follow Me…

Categories