...we rest.
Happy St. Patrick's Day...his is a story worth reading.
17 March 2012
16 March 2012
The Problem With Our Filters
Our car air filters protect the unit--the engine--from unwanted debris. But no matter how effective the filter, it cannot make a faulty engine run better.
The unit we run on is our decision-making. Everything we do today will be based on a prior decision. Let's try this out.
I have decided that you (boss, friend) have my best interest at heart. Therefore, when we interact today I will hear you and respond to you with love and respect, even if we disagree. I can be comfortable with the fact that you are my * (boss, friend) and be content in my matching role.
Or...I have decided that you (boss, friend) are unjust or foolish or deceiving. Therefore, when we interact today I will hear and respond to you with trepidation or doubt or hostility and more than likely disagree with any position you take. Though I am, for now, "stuck" with the fact that you are my * (boss, friend), I am far from content in my matching role.
In that relationship today, the filter that protects the unit is contentment or discontent. Contentedness and discontent gather the debris of inevitable, yet healthy, disagreement. A filter of contentedness will allow the unit and thus, the relationship, to move forward smoothly in the face of this disagreement and compromise will be reached. A filter of discontent will be a warning system of sorts that prevents the relationship from moving forward. If the unit (my decision-making) is accurately assessing that the person is unjust or foolish or deceiving, then a filter of discontent would tell me to change my matching role somehow--do I need to move away from you being my boss or my friend?
Here's the tricky part. The unit could be faulty. My decision that you are unjust or foolish or deceiving could be wrong. Then the filter of discontent that is "protecting" the relationship will in fact, prevent the relationship from moving forward. Filters are effective only if the unit of decision-making is correct.
If there is a relationship in your day that has a filter of discontent, ask yourself if your decisions about that person are accurate. Sometimes our engine of decision-making needs a critical tune-up.
The unit we run on is our decision-making. Everything we do today will be based on a prior decision. Let's try this out.
I have decided that you (boss, friend) have my best interest at heart. Therefore, when we interact today I will hear you and respond to you with love and respect, even if we disagree. I can be comfortable with the fact that you are my * (boss, friend) and be content in my matching role.
Or...I have decided that you (boss, friend) are unjust or foolish or deceiving. Therefore, when we interact today I will hear and respond to you with trepidation or doubt or hostility and more than likely disagree with any position you take. Though I am, for now, "stuck" with the fact that you are my * (boss, friend), I am far from content in my matching role.
In that relationship today, the filter that protects the unit is contentment or discontent. Contentedness and discontent gather the debris of inevitable, yet healthy, disagreement. A filter of contentedness will allow the unit and thus, the relationship, to move forward smoothly in the face of this disagreement and compromise will be reached. A filter of discontent will be a warning system of sorts that prevents the relationship from moving forward. If the unit (my decision-making) is accurately assessing that the person is unjust or foolish or deceiving, then a filter of discontent would tell me to change my matching role somehow--do I need to move away from you being my boss or my friend?
Here's the tricky part. The unit could be faulty. My decision that you are unjust or foolish or deceiving could be wrong. Then the filter of discontent that is "protecting" the relationship will in fact, prevent the relationship from moving forward. Filters are effective only if the unit of decision-making is correct.
If there is a relationship in your day that has a filter of discontent, ask yourself if your decisions about that person are accurate. Sometimes our engine of decision-making needs a critical tune-up.
15 March 2012
To Err is Moses
Whether you are an avid or occasional reader of the Bible, its stories can be troubling. It seems God wants us to wrestle with the events that transpired in the lives presented to us.
Year after year, I read the Bible and year after year, I am troubled that Moses, after all he endured getting the stubborn Israelites to the promised land, was denied entry by none other than God Himself, who seemingly had been his biggest fan.
The reason was the rock incident in Numbers 20. The grumbling Israelites, thankless as always (like us), were wanting not only water, but their past life as slaves in Egypt (!). God, in response, told Moses and Aaron to take the staff and speak to the rock, out of which would come water for the people.
Moses, in a fit of anger, said, "Listen, rebels! Do we have to bring water out of this rock for you?" Then he struck the rock not once, but twice. God followed with, "Because you didn't trust me, didn't treat me with holy reverence in front of the People of Israel, you two aren't going to lead this company into the land that I am giving them."
One incident, after all Moses endured? For some reason, that didn't add up. My pondering (and pestering God), year after year, may have uncovered something new. If it is true, God gets the credit. Continuing the journey, Moses remarks more than once to the Israelites that he was being denied entrance into the promised land because of them.
Hmm...we've heard that before. Adam says to God, upon His demand for an explanation has to why he and Eve ate from the Tree-of -Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and yes, I ate it." Pretty much, she caused me to do it.
That's us today, usually looking for a someone who made us do something that has consequences we aren't happy about. It is an error in judgment to not take full responsibility for a course of action in which we had a clear choice.
Alexander Pope, an English poet, wrote, To err is human--to forgive, divine. Moses, one of God's greatest servants, found himself blaming others for his loss. That is our fully human quality, the break in our spirit with the Living God. The price Moses paid for this humanness inspires me to be vigilant in considering what is my full responsibility when I err often and thus--often--need to seek that which is divine.
Year after year, I read the Bible and year after year, I am troubled that Moses, after all he endured getting the stubborn Israelites to the promised land, was denied entry by none other than God Himself, who seemingly had been his biggest fan.
The reason was the rock incident in Numbers 20. The grumbling Israelites, thankless as always (like us), were wanting not only water, but their past life as slaves in Egypt (!). God, in response, told Moses and Aaron to take the staff and speak to the rock, out of which would come water for the people.
Moses, in a fit of anger, said, "Listen, rebels! Do we have to bring water out of this rock for you?" Then he struck the rock not once, but twice. God followed with, "Because you didn't trust me, didn't treat me with holy reverence in front of the People of Israel, you two aren't going to lead this company into the land that I am giving them."
One incident, after all Moses endured? For some reason, that didn't add up. My pondering (and pestering God), year after year, may have uncovered something new. If it is true, God gets the credit. Continuing the journey, Moses remarks more than once to the Israelites that he was being denied entrance into the promised land because of them.
Hmm...we've heard that before. Adam says to God, upon His demand for an explanation has to why he and Eve ate from the Tree-of -Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and yes, I ate it." Pretty much, she caused me to do it.
That's us today, usually looking for a someone who made us do something that has consequences we aren't happy about. It is an error in judgment to not take full responsibility for a course of action in which we had a clear choice.
Alexander Pope, an English poet, wrote, To err is human--to forgive, divine. Moses, one of God's greatest servants, found himself blaming others for his loss. That is our fully human quality, the break in our spirit with the Living God. The price Moses paid for this humanness inspires me to be vigilant in considering what is my full responsibility when I err often and thus--often--need to seek that which is divine.
14 March 2012
Yourself
I feel out of sorts this morning. That often means I have some confessing to do with God but today feels different. Have I broken faith with God somehow? I can't put my finger on it.
And then, this stirring thought...Don't break faith with yourself.
Lately, I have been wondering--maybe wandering is the better word--whether I am on the right track with what I pour my life into, how I interact, where all this is headed. We all know Doubt Days but the real danger is when those days have a louder voice than the One we normally follow.
As I am pondering the admonition, Don't break faith with yourself, I "hear," Be gentle you.
My thoughts toward myself feel anything but gentle. Am I to conclude that there is a faith journey not just with God but with ourselves? Is it as tempting to walk away from as it can be to walk away from God?
Do we need to nurture our faith journey with ourselves with the same time investment and loyalty that we reserve for God? Would that make Him nearly as joyous as our faith walk with Him?
As parents, we desperately want our children to know how uniquely and wonderfully they are made for this world. Does God want us, on our Doubt Days, to remember that above all?
Today, I will try to remember...be gentle you...don't break faith with yourself.
Today, will you try to remember...be gentle you...don't break faith with yourself?
And then, this stirring thought...Don't break faith with yourself.
Lately, I have been wondering--maybe wandering is the better word--whether I am on the right track with what I pour my life into, how I interact, where all this is headed. We all know Doubt Days but the real danger is when those days have a louder voice than the One we normally follow.
As I am pondering the admonition, Don't break faith with yourself, I "hear," Be gentle you.
My thoughts toward myself feel anything but gentle. Am I to conclude that there is a faith journey not just with God but with ourselves? Is it as tempting to walk away from as it can be to walk away from God?
Do we need to nurture our faith journey with ourselves with the same time investment and loyalty that we reserve for God? Would that make Him nearly as joyous as our faith walk with Him?
As parents, we desperately want our children to know how uniquely and wonderfully they are made for this world. Does God want us, on our Doubt Days, to remember that above all?
Today, I will try to remember...be gentle you...don't break faith with yourself.
Today, will you try to remember...be gentle you...don't break faith with yourself?
13 March 2012
The Handicap
You are magnificent. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, unique in this world and in the sphere you serve. You change lives with your love and service. You impact someone with your personality and devotion. Earth without you would be like It's a Wonderful Life without George Bailey.
But you have a handicap. It's a callous--an insensitivity, a fear, a secret, an irrational anger, an entitled viewpoint, a thundering malice, unspent grief, ever-deepening inexplicable sadness. The one of these that belongs to you is a callous because it threatens to move you away from your magnificence. The two cannot co-exist easily.
If you are grooming one, you cannot be grooming the other. A callous is hardening your heart, handicapping it from feeding life and strength into your magnificent self that the world so needs.
Are handicaps permanent? Some of them often are--physical ones, to be sure. But the calloused areas of our heart can be shaved away with intent and care and time and oxygen.
Time with God breathes oxygen into the calloused area, softening it with His care and His intent to get you fully into your magnificent self. We do the work of receiving His offer of help.
Maybe a better way to say it is that our true handicap is No...to God and His unveiling of our magnificent selves.
But you have a handicap. It's a callous--an insensitivity, a fear, a secret, an irrational anger, an entitled viewpoint, a thundering malice, unspent grief, ever-deepening inexplicable sadness. The one of these that belongs to you is a callous because it threatens to move you away from your magnificence. The two cannot co-exist easily.
If you are grooming one, you cannot be grooming the other. A callous is hardening your heart, handicapping it from feeding life and strength into your magnificent self that the world so needs.
Are handicaps permanent? Some of them often are--physical ones, to be sure. But the calloused areas of our heart can be shaved away with intent and care and time and oxygen.
Time with God breathes oxygen into the calloused area, softening it with His care and His intent to get you fully into your magnificent self. We do the work of receiving His offer of help.
Maybe a better way to say it is that our true handicap is No...to God and His unveiling of our magnificent selves.
12 March 2012
Monday!
The first Monday after the drastic loss of an hour is not just Monday--it is Monday with an exclamation point.
So I'll keep this super short.
You have a magnificent self.
And, you have a seedy self.
We'll say more about it when we catch up on our "tired," but for today, Monday, ponder how you are magnificent--how only you can love and magnify the beauty of those around you.
They are counting on you to believe that you are magnificent so they can believe the best about themselves. Oh, they so want to believe.
If you lead the way, then it can become Monday with a :-).
So I'll keep this super short.
You have a magnificent self.
And, you have a seedy self.
We'll say more about it when we catch up on our "tired," but for today, Monday, ponder how you are magnificent--how only you can love and magnify the beauty of those around you.
They are counting on you to believe that you are magnificent so they can believe the best about themselves. Oh, they so want to believe.
If you lead the way, then it can become Monday with a :-).
11 March 2012
The Short List
Is today one of your least favorite days? For most of us, we just entered the six months in which we are short one hour.
If you are a bit of a "to-do" freak like I am, your list gets a bit more challenging; how soon can autumn come when that precious hour returns?
But the real thought for the day might go more like this: wonder if God motivated this loss of an hour--on a Sunday--to see where we put Him.
Is He on the short list? That is, I'm short of time today so anything I might have done in relationship with Him is crossed off before it happens?
Or is He on the no-matter-what list? That is, regardless of time or events, I will spend time with Him today somewhere, starting in my heart.
So here's to the real list--the one that we make time for every day. I'm sure God would like to at least be up there with our toothbrush.
Don't forget to set up your clock. Bye-bye hour.
Hello sunshine.
If you are a bit of a "to-do" freak like I am, your list gets a bit more challenging; how soon can autumn come when that precious hour returns?
But the real thought for the day might go more like this: wonder if God motivated this loss of an hour--on a Sunday--to see where we put Him.
Is He on the short list? That is, I'm short of time today so anything I might have done in relationship with Him is crossed off before it happens?
Or is He on the no-matter-what list? That is, regardless of time or events, I will spend time with Him today somewhere, starting in my heart.
So here's to the real list--the one that we make time for every day. I'm sure God would like to at least be up there with our toothbrush.
Don't forget to set up your clock. Bye-bye hour.
Hello sunshine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)