Spiritual Disciplines

Word on Wednesdays

July 4, 2018 By Lisa Lewis

A couple of years ago, I wanted to learn to meditate and memorize three verses. I’ve memorized a lot of verses over the years but I hadn’t dug in, slowed down and let them marinate into my soul. This was a new practice for me.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

This is the passage. Three verses packed with meaning beyond our English translation. Three verses that as I began to sit with them I realized I wanted to slow down even more and consider them phrase by phrase, not all of the three verses together.

What I learned from doing this slow, meditative practice has reframed my relationship with Jesus. That is saying something. I loved this experience so much I want to share it with you on Wednesdays for the rest of the summer. Beyond this month of Summer Fun!

This is another Way we can practice how to Show Up every day.

My desire is to encourage you to meditate on these words, phrase by phrase, allowing them time to get into your bones. Once there, they will transform you from the inside out.

It’s not magic but it is Mysterious; how does a passage of the Bible have the power to change the way we think and act? I wish I had the full answer. I do know there are countless examples of scripture transforming minds & hearts but perhaps as many of scripture being used out of context as a weapon of hatred and control rather than being wielded with grace. My question becomes “what was the context and its intent?”

As we study this passage we’ll get to see photos of the region where He was when He spoke these words, hear more about His audience and what their lives were like, and look for what this means for us as Christ followers in 2018. I hope each of you will reply with questions or additional things you learn as you study on your own; we are all in this together! Please share. You don’t know how your question or learning may benefit someone.

For this week I’d like to encourage you to do a comparison reading of this passage in several translations. As you read, ask the Holy Spirit to bring these words to life in your mind and heart. Choose one version that resonates as you read it and then begin to memorize the passage in that version. You have the rest of the summer!

Summer Fun!

July 2, 2018 By Lisa Lewis

I’ve been quiet on the blog for quite awhile. I’m such a word nerd; I love using quiet and quite in the same sentence. They gave me fits as a student, but I digress.

There was a protracted season of my life that was very hard (think grief, loss, ugly crying) whose good intent was to develop stillness. Like a child on a time out chair or one who has a secret, I didn’t sit still well. The season necessarily was extended until the stillness settled down, seeping into my soul. This became my way of being. A beautiful gift that was uninvited, undeserved and definitely rejected before being accepted.

I grew so enamored with the stillness that I withdrew from people in order to be quiet, to read, pray, and reflect. But like the Dead Sea which is dead because there is no outflow of water, I was stagnating in my own stillness. Not a pretty picture.

I sought outlets to serve; places to encourage, engage, uplift. There were glimmers of response but nothing shone bright enough to hold my attention. I was used to being alone now, had I lost how to be with people? Not this extrovert! I had lost my sense of place. I got quiet outside of myself because I began to believe a lie: I was not needed. My age & stage was sidelining me. Somehow I began to believe I was to grow content with looking at life in the review mirror rather than out ahead through the forward facing windshield.

I tell you these things that have made me sigh for months to set the stage for why I’m speaking up now.

As I’ve turned my face forward I’ve realized that I have a lot of ideas. I have a lot of connection points I’ve seen through this season, connections that are meant for others, not just me. I’m eager to share, to encourage, to point out resources, to create!

My raison d’être will be revealed through my words. I want you to be a part of the fun of discovery!

Here are my plans for the next 31 days.

Have fun

Observe the World

Write Daily

Unpack big ideas

Post fun and engaging stuff here.

In other words: SHOW UP

I invite you to engage here and all the Social Media places. We’re going to have fun learning along the Way.

How Do You RSVP to This Invitation?

October 3, 2016 By Lisa Lewis

wheatfield-glenn-carstens-peters

(photo credit: Glenn Carstens Peters via unsplash)

When I discovered this photo a tonic chord resounded in my soul. I saw it and sighed. There is such peace, such calm, a connection with the land, provision & possibility, I knew I needed to make use of it.

I spent the summer meditating and digging into three verses from the gospel of Matthew. This passage is often quoted and for good reason. It holds a beautiful invitation into this With God life:

wheatfield-glenn-carstens-peters-copy

Simply the first 3 words of Matthew 11:28-30. And yet there is no simplicity in the RSVP to this invitation.

In an RSVP we either say Yes or we say No.

Yes I will Come to You Jesus. I will come in the morning and hang out with You in silence with my coffee. Yes I will come to You when I drive on the freeway or when I take the kids to school or on my run or as I do dishes, laundry, answer email, wipe noses, change diapers, clean the house, whatever.

No I can’t come to You Jesus. I’m too busy. I’ve got to take care of all the things before I can consider sitting down to read my Bible.

This invitation isn’t the Salvation invitation. This is the How You Live Your Day Invitation.

Theology calls it Sanctification.

How do You RSVP to this invitation?

If you’re anything like me, the answer changes moment by moment. Sometimes Yes Sometimes No I’m off doing my own thing.

I pray that I am more like Jesus today than I was yesterday and that I will become more like Him tomorrow than I am today. But I am easily distracted. In fact, I am convinced that I can distract myself! I don’t need anyone else to do that for me.

I desire to be saying a sincere Yes to this beautiful, simple and yet incredibly challenging invitation.

How do You RSVP to this invitation?

Speaking of invitations, I am taking the #Write31Days challenge again. This year I am writing daily over at Lisa Lewis Coaching. I’d love to have you visit and of course, share your thoughts.

Why 10 Isn’t Enough

June 24, 2016 By Lisa Lewis

This summer I’m engaging with one passage of the gospel of Matthew. Yep. Just one.

For 10 weeks I have purposed to dig deeper into one passage, phrase by phrase.

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Context

History

Audience

Original Languages

Cultural References

Cross References

All in effort to unpack what Jesus told His listeners (which includes us).

Sometimes the most familiar is overlooked. We know but we don’t see.

Like Mall Confusion. You see everything and nothing at the same time. Lots of noise, people, lights, smells and it’s all overwhelming. Reading through a familiar passage of the Bible can be like Mall Confusion. All and Nothing at the same time.

Unless you slow. your. pace.

10 weeks. One phrase a week. Working to memorize in a different version than I know, to be able to see it again.

Week 6…”learn from Me…”What does that even look like? Learn from Jesus? Of course the curious among us do this:

google it.

Learn from Jesus. Google has some interesting hits with that one. The top 3 were very helpful giving me a total of 36 different things I can learn from Jesus right off the bat. If I take one a day starting today it will be 5 weeks from now when I’ve finished just looking at the things I can learn from Jesus. That doesn’t include the time it will take me to actually learn them. To get each thing into my bones kind of learning.

That’s why 10 weeks isn’t enough. I’m pretty sure I can spend the rest of my life learning from Jesus.

Oh. Right.

Learning Along the Way.

Want to join me? I’d be happy to share what I’ve been learning. Let me know in the comments. Or message me on Facebook.

Practicing Sabbath During Lent

February 14, 2016 By Lisa Lewis

Beauty in the weeds.

It’s in simplicity that we learn to appreciate small things. Slowing down, really seeing what is around us, paying attention; these are elements that can become a part of our daily life with practice.

Practice implies doing something more than once; doing something imperfectly, but doing something with the hope of improving.

Practicing Sabbath during Lent is going to challenge me. I’ve fallen into a rhythm that uses Sunday afternoon as a “get caught up” time rather than a time of slowing down and paying attention.

What needs attention? The house, bills, laundry, groceries all call for attention. Quietly though, I begin to feel something else needs attention. My soul. I start to feel stretched when there has been too much going; too much serving; too much doing; too much listening to others. Without refilling I have nothing of value to give. My soul needs rest from all these things. My hope is that by practicing Sabbath during Lent this draining rhythm will reset.

“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” Mark 2:27

God instituted rest for our good. We’re the ones who think we must fill the days with busyness. We fill and over-fill our calendars and keep going beyond what we’re really able. And our souls dry up from the drought; a lack of watering will cause all living things to suffer.

Reading. Reflecting. Resting. Refilling. Reset.

Practicing Sabbath.

I may just see beauty in the weeds of life…

40 Days of Learning to Let Go & Lean In

February 10, 2016 By Lisa Lewis

Quiet chords from the organ float through the air as I sit staring at the huge wooden cross at the front of the sanctuary. It is indeed a sanctuary; no loud voices or even footsteps confront my thoughts. I study the 13 pieces of rectangular turquoise glass that allow light to filter through from behind the cross. I wonder why 13?

The light outside is fading; the west facing windows are darkening their stained glass images fading. I wonder about a lot of things on this evening of Ash Wednesday. Candles on the altar are lit and someone slowly brings the dimly lit sanctuary into more full light. We’re told to open our Wesleyan hymnals to And Can It Be? My ten year old perspective on faith is youthful and full of questions: why did Jesus die? And why for me?

Today marks 48 more trips around the sun since that evening long ago. I haven’t always marked Ash Wednesday with questions and reflection but this year 2016 I want to be intentional and ask questions.

Perhaps you have asked them too?

The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, a day of remembrance and confession. We remember what Christ came to do and has accomplished on the Cross in our place. We confess the many reasons that awful punishment was meant for each of us; but because of mercy and love we receive grace instead. Some fellowships will mark the foreheads of believers with a Cross of ashes (usually from the burning of last year’s Palm Sunday palms) as a remembrance that our physical body will undergo death and decay while our soul will live on with God.

And can it be that I should gain

An interest in the Savior’s blood?

Died He for me, who caused His pain—

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be,

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Let’s spend the next 40 days Learning to Let Go of so much…pre-conceived notions and mindsets; old hurts; unforgiveness; physical items that don’t bring joy; you name it! Let’s spend the next 40 days Learning to Lean In… toward the freedom offered us as we respond to God’s Word-Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

I’m going to present a daily challenge, a new way of being perhaps, for each of us to practice. They will be fun, creative and will hopefully draw you closer to Jesus. Lent isn’t intended to be an add on to your full life; it’s intent is to bring your awareness of God more regularly in view within your regular life. Pretty regular, eh?

So here’s a regular challenge: look around you right now. What is one item in your view that you can see that reminds you of an act not yet taken care of? Confess it. What is another item in your view that brings a smile to your face? Who can you thank for it?

Moving Forward is by Being Still

October 26, 2015 By Lisa Lewis

It’s Day 26 of #write31days and as I have reflected daily on really what I’ve learned from the #LivinginTandem metaphor is a paradox;

We move forward by being still.

Yesterday when I spent some time listening to God through the reading of His Word, I heard a refrain I’ve heard and ignored before:

Be Still. Be Still.

In all my focus on to do lists and thinking I have to keep doing, keep accomplishing, the result is always stress & anxiety. The refrain is

Not Enough. Not Enough. Like this glass that is half empty.

Or is it half full?

But God whispers again

Be Still and know

So I sit to listen again to the heart of Paul’s letters…

Grace

Peace

Christ is all and in all

Christ in you the hope of glory

And I see. I hear.

Lay aside the old way. Be renewed. Put on the new self. (Col. 3:12-17)

Daily be transformed by the renewing of my mind. (Romans 12:2)

By the mercies of God. (Romans 12:1)

Moving forward is by Being Still.

Being still seems counter intuitive to being productive. But God consistently gives me wisdom, strength, encouragement to share, and most of all, the peace of His Presence when I have set aside my demanding to do list to sit quietly with His Word open and my heart ready to listen.

Laying aside old ways, being renewed day by day and putting on the new self as Paul defines in Col. 3:12-17 is a process, not a one time event. We are complex beings with many facets. We are created in the image of God you know. So this journey, this living in tandem with God is full of ups and downs, hills and valleys. But the best news? You’re never alone.

Sabbath Listening

October 25, 2015 By Lisa Lewis

“In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest.” Wayne Muller

One of the greatest benefits of this empty nest season of life is open calendar space. I have learned to love whitespace on the calendar. Ironically the Hubster has asked for this open calendar space since we were married 24 years ago. I am unfortunately a very stiff-necked rebellious woman who wants her own way most of the time. This may or may not be the reason I memorized this verse 15 years ago.

“Who is wise? Let them realize these things.

Who is discerning? Let them understand.

The ways of the Lord are right;

the righteous walk in them,

but the rebellious stumble in them.” Hosea 14:9

See this lifeless tree in the middle of the photo? This is a symbol to me of drying up by following my own way of doing things.

It hasn’t been easy for me to let go of my own ways. Sometimes it’s still hard. But when I slow myself down and listen to those words again, my rebellious heart is reminded that the ways of the Lord are right. His ways are higher than my ways.

In quietness and trust is your strength…

Sabbath listening is a discipline. The practice of listening makes me stop doing things like laundry and web surfing to sit with God’s Word open, with my heart open, and listen to what the Spirit impresses on my heart & mind as I read and ponder.

It has become my favorite day of the week.

Saturday’s Soul Food

October 24, 2015 By Lisa Lewis

Our community group had homework this week. I wasn’t there that evening (I was attending an event in San Luis Obispo), but the Hubster went and he took the homework commitment seriously (he’s a first born by the way).

In Gary Thomas’ book Sacred Pathways, he identifies nine different ways individuals typically find connection with God. Each way is explained more thoroughly in his book but here is a brief list with identifying characteristics. Connecting with God is a form of worship.

Naturalists. Loving God Outdoors

Sensates. Loving God with the Senses (music, art, cooking, etc)

Ritualists. Loving God through ritual and symbol

Ascetics. Loving God in solitude and simplicity

Activists. Loving God through confrontation

Caregivers. Loving God by loving others

Enthusiasts. Loving God with mystery and celebration

Contemplatives. Loving God through adoration

Intellectuals. Loving God with the mind

Thomas provides the thought and explanation that we will have a preferred way of connecting with God; loving God, that we typically gravitate toward. Each one is an aspect of worship. Developing your awareness to your preferred way of connection is good because then you can readily seek that out when you are potentially feeling disconnected from God.

The challenge for us in our community group was to be intentional to either connect with God this week in our preferred way or to make effort to connect with God in a different way than we might typically.

The good news for me? The Hubster wanted to try to connect with God differently which also happened to be in the way I typically experience His Presence; outdoors.

So our Saturday afternoon included a picnic and a hike in an area he had seen on a bike ride and thought I’d appreciate.

He was spot on.

It was quiet. We saw no other humans. We walked in silence, listening to the birds and the oak leaves crunch under our feet.

We stopped on the trail to examine this particular tree…

It looked dead. But there were these pods at the ends of some of the branches. I said I think it is some kind of nut tree. So of course, I pulled one off and peeled it apart.

Chestnut.

It’s fall alright. Even though the temperature is still low 80s here, the chestnut trees know what they’re supposed to do at this time of year.

Being outdoors and witnessing seasons; being reminded that change is a part of God’s plan for us here on earth was food for my soul.

The jury’s still out whether the Hubster found connecting with God outdoors satisfying.

How do you like to feed your soul?

What is Enough?

October 10, 2015 By Lisa Lewis

The sun is just up over the horizon, the house is quiet, the only noise the hum of the refrigerator. Outside is a different thing.

Birds of countless varieties are moving and chattering; calling out their finds of bugs, worms, seeds.

Beads of dew on blades of grass catching new light as if a thousand diamonds grace the ground.

All is quiet for a moment; a hush of new day awareness.

A mockingbird begins its litany of imitations with the loudest voice in the yard and the chorus begins anew.

A hummingbird swoops into view, hovers near the lemon tree where the fragrance of the tree draws in search of a blossom to dip into to.

This moment is enough.

What does that even mean?

In a culture that looks for the next best thing, seeks more than what is and uses “never” to pair with enough, it’s hard to imagine that something that simple and quiet can be called enough.

And yet, it’s moments like this our soul finds satisfaction.

How can we capture moments? How do we learn to see them in the first place?

Practice. It’s possible to learn to see, learn to hear. Jesus said let them who have eyes to see, see. Let them who have ears to hear, hear. That seems to me to be an invitation to ask for that to be true for me. For each of us.

Some call it mindfulness. Some use the phrase living with intention.

I call it Living in Tandem.

Living in Tandem with the One who offers the gift of each moment. It’s learning to live aware. Aware of subtlety. Aware of the expanse hidden in a seed.

Aware of His abiding Presence.

One of the greatest tools I have come across for developing this awareness of God’s Presence is the little book Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.

Brother Lawrence was a Carmelite monk in 17^th century Paris. Before he joined the monastery he served in the army because he was so poor he knew he would be fed and clothed in turn for his serving. While in the army in the dead of winter, he saw a tree which was of course without leaves or fruit. He realized the tree as a symbol of hope for new life. It was at that moment “first flashed in upon my soul the fact of God”. This point of conversion led him to eventually join the Carmelite monastery in Paris.

Brother Lawrence was a simple man without advanced learning yet his simple awareness of God’s abiding Presence was noticed by all who encountered him. We have Abbe de Beaufort to thank for having conversations with Brother Lawrence and writing them down for us to be able to glean for our own spiritual growth. If you have not yet read this thin book I highly recommend you do.

Developing awareness of God is a life long practice. And yet God wants to be found by us, to have our hearts turned toward Him, to learn to trust Him.

What is enough? You are. As you are. Because if you love Christ and are on the journey with Him, He lives in you. See? You actually are MORE than enough.