YOU: Leader of Your Body

All of the leadership courses in the world are summed up in 2 Chronicles 10:7:

 "If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they'll end up doing anything for you."

Let's make you the leader, your body the subject.

Are you a servant to your body?

Do you consider its needs?

Do you respond with compassion?

Do you work things out with it?

Does it want, in return, to do anything for you?

In 2 Chronicles, the king that received that advice shunned it, cast his people into hard labor and forgot the worship and wisdom of God in the process.

We shun the healing properties of whole food, plant-based eating that has been known for centuries.

We cast our bodies into hard labor by overindulging with processed foods and animal proteins.

We invest our bodies' God-designed healing properties into damage control rather than being freed up through wise eating and exercise to pursue God's course for us.

So, alas, it (our body) wants not...to do anything for us. It is too busy breaking down from breaking down what we put in.

We have a weekend to invest in leadership or foolishness. Work things out with your body.

Plan now for a Better Body Monday.

Sensing the Worth of Our Work

Assuming there are leaders and followers in heaven--some kind of work hierarchy--I've always joked that we will be working for the little old ladies who, for now, sweep their porches and pray continually and fervently for whomever God sets before them.

They sense the worth of their work. They work for an Employer they can't see but follow nonetheless. They are content and fulfilled with the scope and stature of their work.

They bloom where they are planted.

Isn't that the longing built into all of our hearts?

Turns out it is biblical.  Proverbs 31 says a good woman is one who senses the worth of her work.

The myriad voices that try to cram themselves into our heads tell us to be dissatisfied, long for more--that we are undervalued and underappreciated.

Years ago, I entered teaching with a choice of a big city job or one in a small town. I prayed for wisdom and felt a bit chastised at what seemed the answer: Do you think children in small towns are somehow less in My eyes than those in big cities? Are you too important to be with certain children or in certain communities?

Now who wants that on their God-resume?

Best advice: love your broom.

The Weight of All the Kindnesses

Last night, a group of moms beaded kindness into a bracelet, a takeaway for a young mom about to embark on a move with her family across the country.  Each of us offered a bead and a thought about what a lovely person she is--a remembrance both to wear and to hold in her heart.

Also last night, someone somewhere grated evil into another's life, leaving insult, injury or perhaps even death.

And, above it all, God knew each act and saw the whole of it with perhaps both a glad and a heavy heart.

His gift of free will leaves us largely responsible for what transpires under His watch.

So--the question: did the weight of all the kindnesses across the whole earth last night outweigh the acts of evil?

As long as we are of free will, it is up to us to keep shifting the balance toward kindness.

What Are You About?

People who know you...know what you are about.

Perhaps you quilt or cook spectacularly. Maybe you are a DIY-er. Maybe you read voraciously or sing beautifully. Whatever it is, you are about that either inside or outside of any regular job.

I recently came across a tantalizing thought from author Debbie Macomber. She kept feeling overwhelmed that she would never have enough time to write all the novels, knit all the sweaters or cook all the recipes that she had in mind to do. She says, "God reminded me that there were wonderful books in heaven waiting for me to write...and sweaters to knit and recipes to try." (Guideposts, January 2012)

Really? Have you ever thought that whatever you are about here is what you might be about in heaven?

Stunning. Hopeful. Challenging.

When what we are about stretches clear into eternity, our whole frame of reference changes.

Our tortoise training--one step at a time, never quitting--in this life is really, really purposeful and is carrying us to a finish line that, wow, never finishes.

So whatever it is, shine brightly. Pursue it with gusto. It appears your signature endeavor will be your spotlight in heaven.

Now that is something to be about.

The Road Away From Jesus

The road away from Jesus begins before birth.

We get locked into this humanness that has sin nature built in and the next seven or eight or nine decades are a battle within.

Jesus or the world?

Imagine our lives a timeline. Children still breathe Jesus so easily. The oldest people often seem so ready to leave. Can we be refreshed by stories on either end, reminding us that with heart and perseverance, we can stay on the road?

Yesterday morning, my friend's mom died. She was 92 and ready. But the sweetest part was that my friend's aunt died around the same time, and my friend was overwhelmed with gratitude at the thought of sisters entering heaven together, side by side.

And three-year-old Eden asked her mommy, "Can we listen to music about Jesus because it makes my heart go side-to-side?"

Side by side...side-to-side.

Be refreshed.

Fear of Human Opinion

Proverbs 29:25 (in part): The fear of human opinion disables.

How true. I know a lovely young mom whose extended family has been virtually accosting her with criticism and isolation. She was reeling from the emotion and the rejection, and the picture it was painting for her--of herself--was spiraling downward, even though her husband, daughter and friends saw her for the amazing person she is.

Today she embraces the better view of herself. What changed?

She traded the fear of human opinion for a new trust in God. That carried her to a threshold of saying, in essence, to her extended family, "I can't let you dictate how I feel about myself. I can no longer paint myself with your opinion of me--rather I will put my trust in God and my relationship with Him."

The most curious thing about this process is that her extended family has actually backed off, as if standing up to the bully statements began to extinguish the very hurt they inflicted.

I guess that's why the rest of Proverbs 29:25 reads: Trusting in God protects you from that.

There God goes again, knowing just what He's talking about...

Finding Your Eden of Beauty

Would God be blessed today if you found a meadow of wildflowers and paused to revel in its beauty?

Would He be blessed if you found a moment to speak directly to Him and, even better, to wait for His response?

There is a meadow of wildflowers somewhere in your view, waiting on your heart to pause and find its joy.

I hope you become the little girl in the meadow.

It's probably no coincidence that her name is Eden.

Photographer: Stuart Kime