Maybe you've experienced it.
The moment in time when you can hardly breathe because of the boulder of grief that is set against your heart.
I think God orchestrates that moment and means for us to let Him help us with it.
We accumulate wounds from our pasts: our long ago pasts, our recent pasts, past people, people still around with whom we have had disturbing recent pasts.
The power of cumulative, in the wound department, steals life and joy and the energy to give and receive love.
When the boulder in my own heart began to block my very breath, I sensed one night that I was being invited by God to go out on my deck and under the brilliant stars, recall every single incident of pain that made up the cumulative grief.
As each memory came into view, I was to deliberately give it to God. To not consciously give it to Him would be to give that particularly memory permission to rebury itself in my heart.
Something remarkable happened. That collection of grief moments seems gone forever.
Perhaps I could dredge up this or that, but I don't even have the inclination.
God always seems to be about letting go, thereby experiencing His increase.
When your moment comes, I hope you give yourself permission to let go with God, so that life and joy and the energy to give and receive love return to your heart.
25 August 2012
24 August 2012
The Gravelly Side of Contentment
When someone tells you to be content with what you have, what if you have a bucketful of troubles, and I mean a bucketful!
For some of us, when we are feeling particularly entitled or spoiled, our bucketful of troubles is really more like a few inconveniences and minor complaints. Then we should retrench our line of thinking and simply consider how very many things we can count as blessings.
But some of us are in dire straits and are not sure what tomorrow will bring. We can't see hope or solution unless it comes in the form of a miracle of some kind. Hopeless.
Where do we find contentment in that?
I can only conclude that contentment sometimes means refusing to give up.
It means sitting with God at least 15 minutes a day and asking Him for each next step, then pausing to listen and praising because you are helpless to do anything else.
That is the gravelly side. It feels rough and a waste of time.
I am going to contend that it is your most productive 15 minutes of each day.
That bucketful of troubles belongs to Him, too. He promises to help us.
But we have to be serious in the time we spend to share it with Him.
Contentment is time spent, refusing to give up, even in the gravel.
For some of us, when we are feeling particularly entitled or spoiled, our bucketful of troubles is really more like a few inconveniences and minor complaints. Then we should retrench our line of thinking and simply consider how very many things we can count as blessings.
But some of us are in dire straits and are not sure what tomorrow will bring. We can't see hope or solution unless it comes in the form of a miracle of some kind. Hopeless.
Where do we find contentment in that?
I can only conclude that contentment sometimes means refusing to give up.
It means sitting with God at least 15 minutes a day and asking Him for each next step, then pausing to listen and praising because you are helpless to do anything else.
That is the gravelly side. It feels rough and a waste of time.
I am going to contend that it is your most productive 15 minutes of each day.
That bucketful of troubles belongs to Him, too. He promises to help us.
But we have to be serious in the time we spend to share it with Him.
Contentment is time spent, refusing to give up, even in the gravel.
23 August 2012
Isaac and Isaac
Two completely different Isaacs have something in common.
Long ago, Abraham took his beloved son, Isaac, up the mountain at God's command and laid him on an altar. God had told Abraham that Isaac was to be the offering. In an act of stunning obedience, Abraham put something powerful into play:
Today we track tropical storm Isaac, and today's early dawn models show a possible path over Port-au-Prince, Haiti, still devastated by the January, 2010 earthquake, and/or the Gulf Coast, even today recovering from massive damage during Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005.
Can we put in place Abraham's posture? Can we go forward these next few days and pray:
Long ago, Abraham took his beloved son, Isaac, up the mountain at God's command and laid him on an altar. God had told Abraham that Isaac was to be the offering. In an act of stunning obedience, Abraham put something powerful into play:
He trusted God's mercy toward Isaac.He had no idea as he raised his weapon to kill Isaac that God would provide a substitute--a ram in a nearby thicket--at the last possible second. To trust God's mercy was to believe that God knew what He was doing, regardless of the outcome, and that He was merciful.
Today we track tropical storm Isaac, and today's early dawn models show a possible path over Port-au-Prince, Haiti, still devastated by the January, 2010 earthquake, and/or the Gulf Coast, even today recovering from massive damage during Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005.
Can we put in place Abraham's posture? Can we go forward these next few days and pray:
Lord, we trust in your mercy toward Isaac.Funny how God connects the dots if we let Him.
22 August 2012
Hatred Is So Effective: Day 3
Hatred is so effective in...
You suffer, mainly silently, but agonize over why God allowed it to be this presence in your life.
We have this secret competition with ourselves to be better, smarter, more good-looking, more successful than...we are.
Because we can't meet our self-imposed standard, which is usually ridiculously high, we punish ourselves with hatred and constant admonishment. It is exhausting to hate something about yourself.
I came across this quote:
What if each day begins with:
sabotage when it is directed at something about ourselves.Let's say you hate that thing about yourself that others have made fun of or otherwise called attention to for your entire life.
You suffer, mainly silently, but agonize over why God allowed it to be this presence in your life.
We have this secret competition with ourselves to be better, smarter, more good-looking, more successful than...we are.
Because we can't meet our self-imposed standard, which is usually ridiculously high, we punish ourselves with hatred and constant admonishment. It is exhausting to hate something about yourself.
I came across this quote:
My goal is to be faithful, not successful.What if God allows this thing you hate to be present in your life to lead you into faithfulness?
What if each day begins with:
Lord, help me grow faithfulness in place of this hatred toward myself.God made the rose along with the thorns, but I bet He intended us to focus on the beauty of the flower.
21 August 2012
Hatred Is So Effective: Day 2
Hatred is so effective in...
You can list a fortress of reasons as to why the other person is the cause of the break in relationship.
That fortress is the problem. You are so entrenched in that fortress that you can't be led out into the light of solution.
If you like the misery of your fortress, stay right there. But expecting things to improve while continuing in your fortress is the mark of insanity. Your call.
If you are ready to take at least a tentative move into the light of solution, consider taking these steps.
(1) Write out all of the reasons the other person is to blame and then put that list in a drawer.
(2) Promise yourself that you won't call attention to any of those reasons for three weeks--21 days.
(3) On a fresh sheet of paper, write one thing that you need to do differently and do it everyday for that three weeks. Mark your progress on a calendar or the refrigerator or your smartphone--wherever you can cheer your progress.
(4) At the end of the three weeks, pull out your list of the other person's faults and see if at least one of their actions has moved in a positive direction.
(5) Realize that the only person you can change is yourself.
(6) Decide how best to continue to change yourself. Give the other person time to adjust to the lighter, freer you.
A litany of hatred against another person is a sure sign that you are the one trapped in the fortress of unproductive behavior.
But then again...hatred is so effective in keeping us trapped in our misery, and for some crazy reason, a few of us choose to stay there.
preventing us from fixing broken relationships.A relationship is broken? With your spouse, your teenager, your co-worker, your extended family member?
You can list a fortress of reasons as to why the other person is the cause of the break in relationship.
That fortress is the problem. You are so entrenched in that fortress that you can't be led out into the light of solution.
If you like the misery of your fortress, stay right there. But expecting things to improve while continuing in your fortress is the mark of insanity. Your call.
If you are ready to take at least a tentative move into the light of solution, consider taking these steps.
(1) Write out all of the reasons the other person is to blame and then put that list in a drawer.
(2) Promise yourself that you won't call attention to any of those reasons for three weeks--21 days.
(3) On a fresh sheet of paper, write one thing that you need to do differently and do it everyday for that three weeks. Mark your progress on a calendar or the refrigerator or your smartphone--wherever you can cheer your progress.
(4) At the end of the three weeks, pull out your list of the other person's faults and see if at least one of their actions has moved in a positive direction.
(5) Realize that the only person you can change is yourself.
(6) Decide how best to continue to change yourself. Give the other person time to adjust to the lighter, freer you.
A litany of hatred against another person is a sure sign that you are the one trapped in the fortress of unproductive behavior.
But then again...hatred is so effective in keeping us trapped in our misery, and for some crazy reason, a few of us choose to stay there.
20 August 2012
Hatred Is So Effective: Day 1
Hatred is so effective in...
We are so armed with our viewpoint that even God can't insert an argument.
Our hatred of the other side, probably handed down, inbred, and rarely challenged by our own thinking through of actual data and truth, spouts off at the mere mention of a name, a party, a platform.
Hatred doesn't listen to facts. It breeds the no-listen, no-respect-for-each-other agitation that erupts and clamors for the last word.
I hate the hatred. It makes me feel small and powerless even when I see truth being ignored. Loving God and each other means journeying together to find truth in leadership that carries us toward what honors God. The journey needs an intersection of biblical truth, data, and a release of our own position long enough to listen to others. Our country, our state, our towns depend on the accuracy of journey.
Lord, don't let us sit behind our hatred. Give us a hunger to know the truth, even if our name, our party, our platform need adjusting in our minds. Please insert Your arguments so we head in Your direction.
talking us into giving the wrong people the benefit of the doubt.'Tis the season for the rancor of politics.
We are so armed with our viewpoint that even God can't insert an argument.
Our hatred of the other side, probably handed down, inbred, and rarely challenged by our own thinking through of actual data and truth, spouts off at the mere mention of a name, a party, a platform.
Hatred doesn't listen to facts. It breeds the no-listen, no-respect-for-each-other agitation that erupts and clamors for the last word.
I hate the hatred. It makes me feel small and powerless even when I see truth being ignored. Loving God and each other means journeying together to find truth in leadership that carries us toward what honors God. The journey needs an intersection of biblical truth, data, and a release of our own position long enough to listen to others. Our country, our state, our towns depend on the accuracy of journey.
Lord, don't let us sit behind our hatred. Give us a hunger to know the truth, even if our name, our party, our platform need adjusting in our minds. Please insert Your arguments so we head in Your direction.
19 August 2012
Translating Our Baggage
Our baggage, the drag of our past that we carry around in our heart, speaks the language of heartache.
We listen, interpret and feel the pain over and over, just like an ongoing conversation.
It's like the replay of the heart video that we want least to view.
So how can we translate the baggage of our heart into a new song?
Great counsel from others is a huge help.
But, at the end of the day, the most powerful translator is God and time spent pursuing Him somehow sets up a mysterious exchange--our baggage for delight in Him.
Psalm 37:4 tells us to delight ourselves in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our heart.
One of those desires is to translate our baggage into a new song: one that we always carry but only lightly, to be sung only when needed and only for a moment. Songs are stored and carried with ease.
Painful baggage into new song--the magnificent work of Translator God.
We listen, interpret and feel the pain over and over, just like an ongoing conversation.
It's like the replay of the heart video that we want least to view.
So how can we translate the baggage of our heart into a new song?
Great counsel from others is a huge help.
But, at the end of the day, the most powerful translator is God and time spent pursuing Him somehow sets up a mysterious exchange--our baggage for delight in Him.
Psalm 37:4 tells us to delight ourselves in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our heart.
One of those desires is to translate our baggage into a new song: one that we always carry but only lightly, to be sung only when needed and only for a moment. Songs are stored and carried with ease.
Painful baggage into new song--the magnificent work of Translator God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)