Constant

​We want things to be constant, not ebb-and-flow. But, this cuts off a basic element of our humanity,  from the Spirit within us, who works best with us when we are aware of the nature of things -- always moving.  Emerge, recede.  Repeat.

I'm thankful for this awareness today. This is not something to fight, as much as it is something to work with; perhaps even, actively join.

Most Alive

​I've noticed...that I am most alive, when I do.

LT: How Can You Tell Someone Has True Leadership Skills? This Famous Study Narrows It Down to This 1 Rare Trait

The secret formula? Collins found they had exceptional leaders displaying a paradoxical mix of intense professional will and extreme personal humility. They were described as modest, with a determination to create results by shifting the focus away from themselves and continually recognizing the contributions of others.

1. They let other people talk.
2. They admit being wrong.
3. They rarely impose.
4. They seek input.
5. They give their people credit.
6. They speak their truth.
7. They are teachable.
8. They involve others.  Continue here....

-- Marcel Schwantes

Make Room

As I contemplate the notion of enough vs full, it seems to me that in the world (system) we live in, one of our tasks now may be to make room.  Perhaps, we need to make room, to create space, for the possibility of not just something different, but for something that can flow in and out of us again each day.  When we're constantly full, or seeking to stay full, not much gets into or out of our cup, the pouring just runs over the brim.

We need room or space within us to breathe with God for ourselves and for each other.  Otherwise, perhaps like at the time of Jesus' birth, He may just have to be born outside (of us).

Make room.  Where do I need to do that today?

Why Churches Lose Their Way

I used to be in really good shape. I ran a lot, and I was much lighter. And the result of being in shape was that I had a lot of freedom to do and to be what I’m supposed to do and be. I felt great! But over the years, I stopped running and I stopped eating well. Now I’m fat and tired and I have headaches all the time. And as I continue to age, my muscles atrophy. Many churches are like the out-of-shape me. They started out well, but they’ve lost their way. They get sidetracked by good issues that become their priority rather than the gospel and the task of making disciples. It’s easy to focus on secondary issues and lose sight of what’s most important. We all need to return to the basics again and again...continue here.

-- Joe Thorn

Mercilessly

​We are either a people who love, embrace, and enter into a caring posture with our family, friends, neighbors, strangers, and even enemies (real or imagined) or we will spend our lives mercilessly trying to define who is lovable and who is not, who is worthy and who is not, who deserves my attention and who does not. Inevitably, we will end up loving people who look like us, think like us, and pledge allegiance to the same flag—and we will exclude the rest. In this truly useless pursuit, we will separate ourselves from God (through tribal worship), from the world’s good (by avoiding healing and restoration), and from our very souls (through self-pre­occupation with ego).

In effect, the wisdom of Jesus describes the powerful, but often neglected, bridge between spiritual insight and social action/real compassion. In fact, the wisdom of Jesus seems to suggest that the link is even more intimate than a bridge; it is the collapse of the two categories altogether. The separation of spirituality from action is a false one. In other words, we are not called to do spiritual prac­tices—prayer, study, meditation, retreat, ritual—and then make our way, now inspired, to the work of mercy and justice. In fact, it might be argued that, if anything, it’s just the reverse: Love those who strug­gle with poverty and suffer abandonment and the effect is that we will find ourselves on a path that leads to maturity, prayer, wisdom, and Christ-likeness. If, however, we choose to avoid engagement and community with those who suffer, we will certainly live an incom­plete life, including an incomplete spiritual life.

To put it rightly, I think, the practice of prayer and the practice of compassion are both necessary and complementary spiritual practices. . . . We are called to be both activists and mystics, missionaries of love and contemplatives, great lovers and deep thinkers. And, in all of that, the spiritual journey can happen; in all of that, we can be made whole; in all of that, the world can be made whole. . . . Personal transformation and social transformation are one piece. . . .

-- Jack Jezreel

Merry Autumn

Poem for the week -- "Merry Autumn":

It’s all a farce,—these tales they tell
     About the breezes sighing,
And moans astir o’er field and dell,
     Because the year is dying.

Such principles are most absurd,—
     I care not who first taught ’em;
There’s nothing known to beast or bird
     To make a solemn autumn.

In solemn times, when grief holds sway
     With countenance distressing,
You’ll note the more of black and gray
     Will then be used in dressing.

Now purple tints are all around;
     The sky is blue and mellow;
And e’en the grasses turn the ground
     From modest green to yellow.

The seed burrs all with laughter crack
     On featherweed and jimson;
And leaves that should be dressed in black
     Are all decked out in crimson.

A butterfly goes winging by;
     A singing bird comes after;
And Nature, all from earth to sky,
     Is bubbling o’er with laughter.

The ripples wimple on the rills,
     Like sparkling little lasses;
The sunlight runs along the hills,
     And laughs among the grasses.

The earth is just so full of fun
     It really can’t contain it;
And streams of mirth so freely run
     The heavens seem to rain it.

Don’t talk to me of solemn days
     In autumn’s time of splendor,
Because the sun shows fewer rays,
     And these grow slant and slender.

Why, it’s the climax of the year,—
     The highest time of living!—
Till naturally its bursting cheer
     Just melts into thanksgiving.

-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

Thanksgiving - Indescribable

Thanksgiving Day:

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

-- 2 Corinthians 9:15

His gift frees us to live.

Enough vs. Full

Full vs. Enough

One of the lessons of Thanksgiving is that we eat too much. We eat until we're full, experiencing the sensation of too much.

It's easy to confuse our desire for that that feeling with the feeling of 'enough'. Enough doesn't feel like full, but that's okay.

Too often, we've been persuaded by marketers and other maximizers that the only satisfying state is 'full'. Not just in what we've eaten, but in what we own, control or receive.

In fact, full doesn't last and full isn't desirable. No thanks, I've got enough. It's better that way.

-- Seth Godin

The Secret

Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.

-- Anne Lamott

Deeply Awake, Grateful Awareness

All of us are here (wherever we may be), right here. But the degree to which each of us is here right now—in terms of a deeply awake, grateful awareness of the gift and miracle of being here—varies greatly from person to person. 

-- James Finley

What Kind Of A Church Would We Like To Be?

Vision is essential to a church. However, unlike the values, mission, and purpose, the vision is more subject to change. It is dynamic, not static. Over time, the vision must be renewed, adapted, and adjusted to the cultural context in which the congregation lives. The change takes place only at the margins of the vision, not at its core. The core—the Great Commission—does not change. The details of the vision and the words used to convey them will change. The vision provides us with a picture of what the mission will look like as it is realized in the community:

A Vision Encourages Unity
A Vision Creates Energy
A Vision Provides Purpose
A Vision Fosters Risk Taking
A Vision Enhances Leadership
A Vision Promotes Excellence
A Vision Sustains Ministry 

...continue here.

-- Aubrey Malphurs

Strengthen or Weaken

​I wonder how we are strengthened or weakened by the smallest of our choices.

Every once in a while, the implications of small choices become more clear. The smallest of decisions can really impact the course of a whole day. And, the course of a whole day can affect a week, and so on...until it becomes clear that such things are adding up in some kind of way. Sometimes our choices are so small, or so familiar, that we don't even detect them. I've noticed this particularly with food. A choice early in the day (conscious or not) about what I eat can set a whole chain reaction of 'hunger'  (bad or good) in motion throughout the rest of the day.

I suspect that thought patterns may not be too different. What I choose to think about or how I choose to dwell on something, may have far-reaching implications.

So, what kind of habits am I forming through awareness of my smallest choices?  And, how am I strengthening something later, when I say 'no' or 'yes' to something right now?

Epistemology

Poem for the week -- "Epistemology":

Mostly I’d like to feel a little less, know a little more.
Knots are on the top of my list of what I want to know.
Who was it who taught me to burn the end of the cord
to keep it from fraying?
Not the man who called my life a debacle,
a word whose sound I love.
In a debacle things are unleashed.
Roots of words are like knots I think when I read the dictionary.
I read other books, sure. Recently I learned how trees communicate,
the way they send sugar through their roots to the trees that are ailing.
They don’t use words, but they can be said to love.
They might lean in one direction to leave a little extra light for another
          tree.
And I admire the way they grow right through fences, nothing
stops them, it’s called inosculation: to unite by openings, to connect
or join so as to become or make continuous, from osculare,
to provide with a mouth, from osculum, little mouth.
Sometimes when I’m alone I go outside with my big little mouth
and speak to the trees as if I were a birch among birches.

-- Catherine Barnett

Some Do, Some Don't

​Some get it; some don’t.  The ones who do, seem to have joined the parts of life that are bigger than themselves.

Assumptions

​I've noticed...that I need to test my assumptions; at least, try to be aware of them.

LT: Not Any Harder

Most of the time, people will not do any more than their leader does.  But, if a leader works hard, literally or figuratively, they will, too.  Leaders set the pace by example, especially when it comes to effort because effort is often translated as evidence of vision, belief, and commitment.

Change The Ending

​You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

-- C.S. Lewis

Mistake About God

Any mistake we make about creation will also be a mistake about God.

-- Thomas Aquinas

Entertain Me

​In our marketing-based economy, we seem to have moved into an 'entertain me' culture. Most of our lives look preoccupied with consuming content and evaluating whether or not we were adequately entertained -- good commercial, good show, good movie, good album, good game, good World Series, good sermon or "eh...it was OK, I guess".

Everything starts to feel like it has to out-do the prior version, be more awesome, etc. despite that we can almost smell the edges of all this entertainment as really not satisfying.

Joint Message of Pope Francis And Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the World Day of Prayer For Creation

The story of creation presents us with a panoramic view of the world. Scripture reveals that, “in the beginning”, God intended humanity to cooperate in the preservation and protection of the natural environment. At first, as we read in Genesis, “no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up – for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground” (2:5). The earth was entrusted to us as a sublime gift and legacy, for which all of us share responsibility until, “in the end”, all things in heaven and on earth will be restored in Christ (cf. Eph 1:10). Our human dignity and welfare are deeply connected to our care for the whole of creation.

However, “in the meantime”, the history of the world presents a very different context. It reveals a morally decaying scenario where our attitude and behaviour towards creation obscures our calling as God’s co-operators. Our propensity to interrupt the world’s delicate and balanced ecosystems, our insatiable desire to manipulate and control the planet’s limited resources, and our greed for limitless profit in markets – all these have alienated us from the original purpose of creation. We no longer respect nature as a shared gift; instead, we regard it as a private possession. We no longer associate with nature in order to sustain it; instead, we lord over it to support our own constructs.

The consequences of this alternative worldview are tragic and lasting. The human environment and the natural environment are deteriorating together, and this deterioration of the planet weighs upon the most vulnerable of its people. The impact of climate change affects, first and foremost, those who live in poverty in every corner of the globe. Our obligation to use the earth’s goods responsibly implies the recognition of and respect for all people and all living creatures. The urgent call and challenge to care for creation are an invitation for all of humanity to work towards sustainable and integral development.

Therefore, united by the same concern for God’s creation and acknowledging the earth as a shared good, we fervently invite all people of goodwill to dedicate a time of prayer for the environment on 1 September.  On this occasion, we wish to offer thanks to the loving Creator for the noble gift of creation and to pledge commitment to its care and preservation for the sake of future generations. After all, we know that we labour in vain if the Lord is not by our side (cf. Ps 126-127), if prayer is not at the centre of our reflection and celebration. Indeed, an objective of our prayer is to change the way we perceive the world in order to change the way we relate to the world. The goal of our promise is to be courageous in embracing greater simplicity and solidarity in our lives.

We urgently appeal to those in positions of social and economic, as well as political and cultural, responsibility to hear the cry of the earth and to attend to the needs of the marginalized, but above all to respond to the plea of millions and support the consensus of the world for the healing of our wounded creation. We are convinced that there can be no sincere and enduring resolution to the challenge of the ecological crisis and climate change unless the response is concerted and collective, unless the responsibility is shared and accountable, unless we give priority to solidarity and service.

Why Incompetent People Think They're Amazing

Not Entitled

​I wonder sometimes, if we’re not all wanting something we’re a little bit not entitled to.

LT: Common Vision

​Part of leading is helping a group of people stay together.

Groups often disintegrate over time.  Helping them stay together is often best achieved through building and fostering a shared commitment to a common vision.

99

"Happy Birthday" will be on the lips of well-wishers around the world as evangelist Billy Graham celebrates his 99th birthday Tuesday.

"Nov. 7 will be a big milestone for my father as he turns 99 and enters his 100th year. As a family, we are just so very grateful that he is still with us. His mind is good but he's quieter these days. He can't see or hear well, but his health is stable," Franklin Graham, president, and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said in a statement.

The elder Graham spent three-quarters of his life preaching the gospel to millions of people around the world. Although he has been out of the public eye, according to his website, he is still one of the most admired men in America.  Continue here....

For All Its Horror

This is the central Christian mystery. Life has, for all its horror, been found by God to be worth dying for.

-- Flannery O’Connor


If this 'Fall Tree Of The Day' could be included (in this worth):

...imagine what God sees in the human soul.

Successful Career Women Finish the Phrase ‘If Only …’

The next frontier of gender equality is tackling unconscious bias in organizational structures, processes and environments. Research shows that individual-level stereotypes and prejudices are incredibly difficult to eradicate.

More observations and wisdom here....

Rose of Jericho

Poem for the week -- "Rose of Jericho":

I’m not sure about this gift. This tangle
of dried roots curled into a fist. This gnarl

I’ve let sit for weeks beside the toaster
and cookbooks on a bed of speckled granite.

What am I waiting for? Online I find
Rose of Jericho prayers and rituals for safe birth,

well-being, warding off the evil eye.
At first I thought I’d buy some white stones,

a porcelain bowl. But I didn’t and I didn’t.
I don’t believe in omens. This still fist

of possibility all wrapped up in itself.
There it sat through the holidays, into the New Year.

Through all the days I’ve been gone. Dormant.
But today, in an inch of water,

out of curiosity, I awakened
the soul of Jericho. Limb by limb it unfolded

and turned moss green. It reminded me
of the northwest, its lush undergrowth,

how twice despite the leaden clouds,
the rain, I found happiness there.

From tumbleweed to lush fern flower,
reversible, repeatable. And what am I

to make of this? Me, this woman who doesn’t
believe. Doesn’t take anything on faith. I won’t

let it rot. I’ll monitor the water level. Keep the mold
at bay. I tend things, but I do not pray.

-- Cindy Veach

Nuanced and Multi-Dimensional

You are far far bigger, more nuanced and multidimensional than who you think you are, the story of you.

-- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Over Time

I've noticed...there seems to be kinds, even phases, of recognition - what and when I recognize things about life, the world, myself. And, it doesn't always seem to work in the same order or at the same pace. I might, for example, only be able to recognize something cognitively, before I feel it. At other times, it may be the other way around. The good news is that, over time, recognition seems to grow, occuring at multiple levels.

I am continuing to learn to trust the process.