Learning Along The Way

What Does Showing Up Look Like?

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I don’t know you noticed, but summer is slipping away. It’s August. I used to be a classroom teacher and this is the month it all starts up again. Just look at the Dollar bins at Target. School supplies are everywhere. I want to squeeze more fun out of summer before the seasons change again.

Ever feel that desperate feeling? That frantic ‘I’ve got to make the most of this time’ kind of feeling?

I tried an experiment this summer.

I challenged myself every day in July to

 

I asked myself the question: What does Showing Up look like?

I realized a few things. To show up during the lazy days of summer is different than what it looks like to show up during the work week (or school year as it were).

Less routine is beautiful…for awhile.

Parents start longing for school to start, kids get tired of seeing the same few faces every day. Teachers never have enough time at the end of the summer to prep for all their new ideas.

Routine helps everyone. There is comfort in predictable but not suffocating schedules. How do routines and schedules affect the idea of what it means to show up?

Glad you asked.

In my July experiment to Show Up I had great plans for what I would put in my days. I planned to write and be creative everyday. I planned to read three books, plus make time to garden and attend to all my responsibilities. I’ve been blessed with lots of discretionary time; flexible work schedule and opportunities for creativity or reading or beach/pool time, whatever. Wow! What a gift!

I started well, doing all the things a little every day. Then, a change in pattern happened, and it threw me off balance.  I didn’t make the shift back to a daily checklist. I had created a stressful scenario that wasn’t what fit with my reality. I told myself I had failed. Where did that come from?

It was the story I told myself. I hadn’t stopped showing up; I was showing up differently. I recognized my temptation to have a mean-spirited internal dialogue running. I made some choices. Instead of hating on myself I decided to pay attention to what I was choosing to do.

Instead I began to notice my actions.

I sat quietly to listen to the birds longer in the morning. I lingered over coffee with my husband before he left for work. I slowed my rhythm to a pace that matched my soul.

What if showing up for yourself means paying attention to how your soul wants to move and breathe?

What if learning to live in the unforced rhythms of grace means leaving room for a last minute invitation? Or adjusting plans to be able to help a friend? Or simply sitting still to notice the activity of Creation?

What I’m learning about what it means to show up in my life is a lot less driven and a lot more grace-filled.

How about you?

 

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.

Adjusting the Rhythm

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On Monday when I first posted about Rhythm I left you with two questions:

What are “these” that Paul was referring to?

What are the things on your list that don’t work for you any longer?

I’ve been spending lots of time with these two questions; since July just about.  I had the privilege of preparing to teach our women’s Bible study this fall from chapter 4 of Ephesians.  And as is always the case, I learn more than I am able to share in one lesson and  I am challenged in my spiritual formation.

So the “these” that Paul was referring to in his letter to his friends,  were the ways of living that they had been involved in before they came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Paul names some of “these”: futility of mind, darkened in understanding… Paul tells us “in reference to your former manner of life, lay aside the old self, …be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self…”  What are the ways of living that you were involved in before you came to faith?  I smile at this question because I know some of you came to faith at 4 so you might laugh at this question.  But this question is not just about the outward actions as a way of life because the context is ‘the mind’.  Paul is challenging us to recognize that the way we think needs to be changed not just the outside.  In fact, Jesus tells us that it’s what is in a man’s heart that defiles him not what goes into the man.

Identifying your patterns of thought that don’t line up with Truth can be tricky because we can be deceived!  Sometimes you need to get a trusted friend or a counselor to talk with and help you identify your harmful, destructive patterns of thought.  Things you tell yourself when you make a mistake are a great place to start. “I’m so stupid!” “I’m an idiot!” “I’m such a loser!” You may not even be aware of your self talk.

It might not be the way you talk to yourself; it may be in how you think about those who have wronged you.  It could be how you view your siblings, or parents or spouse.  Because you’re human and your inherited nature is going in the opposite direction from God, there is something you don’t think rightly about.

Bummer.

But that leads to the second question: what are the things on your list that don’t work for you anymore?

Once you have identified the thing (or things if you’re anything like me!) that belong to your “former manner of life” then you have something to work with!  Now the fun begins!  Your current rhythms can be adjusted to fall in line with a rhythm that is life giving to yourself, to others and is glorifying to God.

If you haven’t taken time to label your answers to those two questions, I’d recommend the time.  What comes next won’t be useful to you without real adjustments to make!

 

Rhythm of Life

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When I asked my husband, who is a trained percussionist, this question: How important is rhythm to being a percussionist? He looked at me with this quizzical expression, but he humored me and responded seriously, “Rhythm is essential.  You can’t be a successful percussionist without a good sense of rhythm.”  I pressed a little further: Can rhythm be learned or is it innate?  He said, “No one gets all the variations of rhythm without practice.  Rhythm takes practice.”

Rhythm provides the structure to music that all else in the piece is built upon.  Interestingly, what is true of music is true of our lives.

Our pastor uses the phrase, “Rhythm of life”.  I’ve pondered the meaning and implications of that phrase for awhile now.

Rhythms can vary.  Just like seasons.  But even in the repeating of the seasons there is rhythm and it is comforting to our souls.

Rhythm to your day, the regular habits of thought and action that turn your mind and heart toward God are what the phrase is about I think.

It’s a pattern but not a rigid pattern; not a legalistic way of going about your day. Although there are those individuals who are very disciplined and their structure does not vary even to the minute.  That’s not what I am talking about here.

Rhythm of life is more about the big ideas, elements, that fill your days.

Ironically we often move through our day driven by the clock, the external keeper of  rhythm rather than by an internal intention or rhythm.  Time and again I hear people say things like: ‘I just don’t know where the time goes’ or ‘I don’t have time for …’

We are all given 24 hours to steward.  What we do with the time is up to us.  Of course there are fixed and variable elements in our lives that must be attended to: people, work, sleep, food; but it is often the intangible elements that give us pause when they’re missing: time with God, creativity in some form, mental rest.

If you are feeling out of sorts or driven by the clock without a break, I encourage you to make an assessment of your days.  Write down how you spent your time at the end of the day.  Do that for three days.  Look at what fills your time.  Now comes the hard part.

Change.

If there are things in your day that don’t have to be there: tv watching, internet surfing, excessive texting or tweeting, excessive time on the phone; make some changes.  To make rhythm adjustments change has to happen.  To make room for the intangibles some tangibles have to go.

In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus he tells them about change.  “These former ways of living, don’t work for you any longer.  Put those off.  Instead, put these on.” (the Message)

What are “these” that Paul was referring to?  What are the things on your list that don’t work for you any longer?

 

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