The Harder You Work

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."

There's some debate about who first made this statement. Ben Franklin apparently once said “Diligence is the mother of good luck," although more recently people think of legendary South African golfer Gary Player as the person who coined the phrase. That's probably how it was eventually passed along to me, as my Dad started teaching me ...

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Best Advice: Live The Questions

 

Success, he said, doesn’t just happen. It requires daily effort. And he began to list the things that went into it. This list seemed endless and impossible to achieve. He described physical, mental and emotional discipline, ranging from daily exercise to regulating passionate reactions to circumstances beyond my control. It was pouring by then, and the world outside the window was a spangled gray mass of teary rectangles, crying with me. I was overwhelmed. I wished I’d never bothered to send him a letter. He knew this, so he gave me a copy of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet:

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”

In the days that followed, I realized that maybe I would never achieve mastery of every item on the long list of advice that had been presented, but my life would only improve if I tried.

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I was quite excited to run across this today. Rilke's thought is one of my favorites, after a period of my life where I needed to learn the beauty of this kind of living.  I have it on my desk in my office.  Years ago, I tediously painted some of it on one of the walls at our church...that process sank it's truth deeply into me.  It is the voice of God to me.

Advice I Wish Someone Had Given Me for My First Job

Revel in working hard no matter what the job is. You might be smart and clever, but a solid work ethic is the main thing that'll separate you from all the other viable candidates. You may start with a bunch of grunt work, but you can't be an oversensetive employee. If you're not learning anything, it's time to look at yourself and...

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Want To Be Taken Seriously?

Want to be taken seriously?...become a better writer.

A tourist in New York asked a woman on the street, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” and she replied, “Practice, practice, practice.” The truth is, the best way to get better at anything is to do it repeatedly.

So it is with writing...

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I Asked

Prayer of an Unknown Confederate Soldier, The Creed for the Disabled

I asked God for strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things.

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

Thanks, Jake, for sharing this with me.

Goals

Long-range goals keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.

-- James Cash Penney

I was talking to a friend yesterday about his observation that this (his) generation doesn't reflect very much, they just live in the moment.  There is always a risk of over-generalizing, but I found it fascinating.  It seems to me that this is quite a by-product of our times.  In reaction to something, we have really pushed culturally the importance of 'the moment'...and perhaps succeeded.

We talked at length about this.  Thinking about the future really isn't much on the radar...almost an ambivalence to it.  Is it masking a fear -- too much to take on, to truly consider?  He also mentioned the role of consequences...or the lack of it.  'Just do it' seems to prevail (wonder where we got that one?).  Further into the conversation, he reflected on how important the realization is that one thing in life leads to another...in essence, that we have to be thinking ahead.  He is seeing a connection between his action and his opportunities...especially now that he sees something that he clearly wants (which may be the key anyway).

He has a goal...and 'the moment' doesn't need to prevail.  Fun to watch and to reflect on.

The Veil

It feels like I can't punch through a veil today.  It seems like there is a veil between me and God...like a bubble or a force-field surrounding me.  My prayers just seem to stop and vaporize.

Thinking about it, I realize that my mind keeps wandering.  Wandering to all the things that keep filling my mind, things I'm working on.  Things I need to get done.  Things that aren't right.

I am reminded of a book I read last year during Lent about simplifying the soul.  Given the above, I'm guessing my mind is too full.  I need to simplify, to stop the 'so much going on' in my life so that I can simply pray.

...so the veil can vaporize and I can just 'be' with God again.

The Goodness of Work

"...they have enjoyed earning and spending that money far more than they have enjoyed their allowance or birthday money."

The boys are not working to get good grades, or to get into a good college. They are working because working is good, in and of itself. And working can be good because it allows you to buy things, for yourself and for others, that are good. And working is good because it allows you to produce things, for yourself and others, that are good.

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The Honest Rich

The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.

-- G.K. Chesterton

Getting Even

Getting even...has never healed a single person.

In Medias Res

 

For more pics, click here

Satisfied

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.

-- Matthew 5:6

Deeper and Closer

What is the purpose of grace? This is what all the work of grace aims at—an even deeper knowledge of God and an ever closer fellowship with Him.

How does God in grace prosecute this purpose? He does this by exposing us to burdensome and frustrating circumstances so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely. This is the ultimate reason why God fills our lives with trouble and perplexities of one sort or another — it is so ensure that we shall learn to hold Him fast.

The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak, is that God spends so much of His time bringing home to us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and we dare not trust ourselves to find, or to follow the right road. When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, as likely as not we shall impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm getting up and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us, we shall thankfully lean on him.  And God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn thankfully to lean on Him. Therefore He takes steps to drive us out of our self-confidence and away from the things of this life to trust in Himself.

-- J.I. Packer

...for God.

Ultimately, to fast means only one thing - to be hungry - to go to the limit of that human condition which depends entirely on food and being hungry, to discover that this dependency is not the whole truth about man, that hunger itself is first of all a spiritual state and that it is in its last reality hunger for God.

-- Alexander Schmemann

...thanks, Veisa, for sharing this!

Hunger

Hunger in the midnight, hunger at the stroke of noon
Hunger in the mansion, hunger in the rented room
Hunger on the TV, hunger on the printed page
And there's a God-sized hunger underneath the laughing and the rage

-- Jackson Browne, "Looking East"

Thanks, Jim, for this one!

Ash Wednesday - Revisited

It has been said that forgiveness is among the more powerful forces in life.

Yet even its glory cannot be realized without a personal acknowledging of that which even causes it to be necessary. Ash Wednesday is a reminder of this, of who we are or of who we have become because of our sin.

It marks the beginning of another opportunity for me to recalibrate myself to what is true about me.  To pray out of it again this prayer from last year and into hope.

The purpose of Lent is not to force on us a few formal obligations, but to soften our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the Spirit, to experience the hidden thirst and hunger for communion with God. The sadness of my exile, the mess I have made of my life and the brightness of God’s presence and forgiveness, the joy of the recovered desire for God, the peace of the recovered home. Such is the climate of Lenten worship.

-- Alexander Schmemann

No One Can Truly Innovate

No one can truly innovate based solely on the contents of his or her own head. You have to close your laptop, get out of your chair, and take what I call “innovation trips” to explore new places and meet people who are doing your thing differently – and maybe better.

-- Delos Cosgrove, CEO and President at Cleveland Clinic

Awareness

A leader has to be aware of other people and quite often aware for other people. That is, he anticipates what the group is thinking and feeling. Ego blocks this kind of awareness, and so does ambition, selfishness, and competitiveness - if you let them stand in the way.

-- Deepak Chopra

Be Still

Be still, and know that I am God.

-- Psalm 46:10

One of the implications here appears to be that there is an integral link between our ability to know God and our willingness to be still. Is it conversely true, that there is a part of knowing God that cannot happen unless we are willing to stop?  ...to stop our rushing around, our clamoring, our grasping for things, our busyness that we use to keep us from embracing the ache within us.

Perhaps it is our being still that affords us the opportunity for our ache to take us somewhere truly satisfying, rather than simply continuing to chase all the activity that essentially only numbs us.

A Bird & Strengthening

We so often try to strengthen ourselves by 'being strong'.  More often than not, though,  it seems we are actually strengthened when we acknowledge our weakness.

This is not the way of our culture or the imagery that is often promoted to us in realms of achievement like sports, the military, or business.  But even there the benefits of this truth are being acknowledged.

A bird flew into our garage the other day and it relentlessly tried to get out by flying its way through a window pane...to no avail.  I opened the garage door a day later thinking he had made it out somehow, only to find the bird continuing his beak-bruising efforts.  I left the garage door open again and tried to shew him towards it, but he would have none of it.

I had to go, so I just left door open...figuring eventually he would notice the much larger opening behind him and take the opportunity.

I think this is not unlike our cultural beliefs about strength...and especially that we can't afford to acknowledge our weaknesses because we have to 'be strong'.  The truth is that we actually aren't that strong.   But by acknowledging them, we gain access to an opening of True Strength that is always available to us.

...like a big garage door open behind us.  Why would we continue to believe that our only way is try harder to fly through a window pane?

...and, sometimes, all we can do is leave the garage door open and wait for others to see it.

The Need for Silence

We need silence in our lives. We even desire it. But when we enter into silence we encounter a lot of inner noises, often so disturbing that a busy and distracting life seems preferable to a time of silence. Two disturbing "noises" present themselves quickly in our silence: the noise of lust and the noise of anger. Lust reveals our many unsatisfied needs, anger or many unresolved relationships. But lust and anger are very hard to face.

How do we befriend our inner enemies lust and anger? By listening to what they are saying. They say, "I have some unfulfilled needs" and "Who really loves me?" Instead of pushing our lust and anger away as unwelcome guests, we can recognize that our anxious, driven hearts need some healing. Our restlessness calls us to look for the true inner rest where lust and anger can be converted into a deeper way of loving.

-- Henri Nouwen

Behavior and Reflection

Charles Duhigg’s excellent book The Power of Habit cites a Duke University study that says at least 45 percent of our behavior is habitual. In other words, almost half of what we do, we do unthinkingly.

    You have to create the time and space
    to reflect on how you behave.

-- Michael Bungay Stanier

Not A Reward

Love is a gift, not a reward for service!

-- Jack Winter

Marriage - Cont.

It is not your love that sustains the marriage --
but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.

-- Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Marriage

This is how to make love out of a marriage:  Love lays down it’s own wants to lift up the will of another.

Love lets go of its plans -- to hold on to a person.

-- Ann Voskamp, How to Be a Better Lover

White As Snow

"Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow..."

-- Isaiah 1:18

I thanked God in the middle of all the woody white this morning when a voice within me said, "YOU can't thank God. You sin one day and then pretend to thank Him the next! That is not right. You are not worthy to imagine yourself in a relationship with Him." I felt stung, partly because the Accuser's words were true. I am not worthy. I said that to myself in response. I am not worthy.

"...but, that is not the basis of my love for you", said another Voice. At this, I could almost feel the snarl of indignation from the former voice as it vaporized from the scene. It felt as if he couldn't slay me with the half-truth he was using against me, he would leave silence to linger around my response to see if I really believed it, really accepted it. It was odd that something so loud could grow so quiet, and so quickly.

I thanked God again for the beauty of the morning, for the snow, and for the gift of knowing that I will be as white as it is.

Good to Complain

One of our more common and basic complaints at one point or another is that our needs are not being met. They can become a general view of things, or more often than not, they can take the form of what we believe about another person -- a spouse, an employer, a church, a friend, a family member. Whether directly or passively, we operate from something as we complain about what we feel we need...that someone else is not giving us.

I caught myself in this the other day. And, it took a good run to sort it out. In the end, through my complaining, I realized that the evidence I had been accumulating was highly selective. The conclusions I was reaching for based on that evidence were leaving quite a bit out. Because the truth is...my needs have been met. Not always...and not completely by another person, but even in those cases a lot has been met that I tend to forget about.

I rediscovered that ultimately, what I really need has already been met and I don't need to require of others that they keep meeting them in order for me to be happy. They don't need to do it and I don't need them to. Everything I really need has already been given to me. I am free to live out of that truth and to give to others without getting everything I want back. When I live this way, something unexpected happens...what I need is met again.

...sometimes, it's good to complain. It exposes some things that I have forgotten, about what is true.

Expertise

Expertise, it seems to me, is built on repetition.

I was introduced to someone the other day.  I didn't think much of the person's name at the time.  A couple of days later, I saw that person again and tried to quickly remember the name.  It came at the last second.  I repeated it as I walked away and I realized that by making a mental note the third time, I would probably remember the name.  One might not be viewed as an 'expert', if he or she remembers people's names, but we do admire people who can do it well.

The more I thought about it, the more this technique seemed true in other areas as well.  Finding ways to repeat things, helps me learn.  The things I do over and over are things I become pretty good at.  Experts, in fact, seem to be those who have done something or looked at something enough that they seem to understand it or do it very well.

Some examples come to mind: studying for a test, learning to ride horses or a bike, learning a language, scientists who pour over data again and again, athletes who perfect their skill, becoming a musician or a great cook or a writer, counselors who listen to many people, etc. all use repetition.

At some level, this observation doesn't seem all the revolutionary.  Perhaps it's not.  But, in our culture, we often think of repetitive things as boring or that we want something new or different.  The real 'perhaps', however, might be that it is through repetition that we truly become able to learn something deeply, out of which we can then offer something of significance to another.


Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.

-- Winston Churchill

Be Yourself

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

-- Oscar Wilde

Things We Desire

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.

-- Brian Tracy

One might debate what 'success' means (which isn't offered here). But, the main point, it seems to me, is that it is what we focus on that is important. Reminds me of Philippians 4:8.

To Love At All

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket -- safe, dark, motionless, airless -- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

-- C.S. Lewis

Thanks, Randy, for sharing this.

Does God Answer Prayer?

I believe more firmly than ever that He does (answer prayer).  He just doesn't confine His answers to the ways we envision, nor to the precise moments we demand.  ...not to mention that many of our prayers are rather preoccupied by self.

I prayed recently for the opportunity to love someone the way God would. I didn't expect the opportunity He provided...in His answer.

God is always thinking beyond what we pray for...He wants to answer in bigger ways than we tend to imagine.

Shielded

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

-- 1 Peter 1:3-5

Dead or Dormant?

What is the difference between being dormant and being dead?

Seeing trees this time of year has reminded me that being able to tell the difference is not very easy, at least when looking from the outside. A dormant tree looks an awful lot like a dead tree...in the winter. Generally, the view from the outside may not give you the answer to whether something is dead or not. It will either take a view from the inside (which is a bit hard to do from a tree) or a waiting until another time of the year...like spring.

You can't always tell the state of something, by looking only at the outside of it. You have to allow for the possibility of other factors, like the season.

This seems possible when it comes to people as well. Not unlike water when it's not moving, knowing what is or is not happening for someone may not be fully knowable by simple observation from the outside. Things may look quite dormant, and for a long period of time, but that doesn't mean there is no life there.

So as we struggle with this reality in someone else, or even in ourselves, it is helpful to know that sometimes life is seasonal, including the signs of it. It takes a kind of faith to believe that something is there, even when it doesn't necessarily look like it.

This time of year, I essentially have to trust that the trees in my yard are still alive. I have to believe that this will be more evident when Spring arrives and they again do 'their thing'. So it is with people, a deeper confidence (faith) is helpful when they don't manifest all the signs of life. I have to believe in a Spring that is yet to arrive.

After all, being dormant may be just as necessary in our lives as it is for trees.

Life to Live Over

If I had my life to live over, I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.

-- Don Herold

Thanks David!

Umpires

Most of us are umpires at heart; we like to call balls and strikes on somebody else.

-- Leo Aikman

Quality of Mercy

When I decide to help someone -- personally, professionally, wherever -- it’s easy to think about what I want to do, even if I'm willing to do a lot. It’s a lot harder, and a lot more important, to think about what that person needs and can accept.

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Mystery of Grace

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace--only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

-- Anne Lamott

Compassion is Listening

Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him.

-- Simone Weil

True Dependence

True dependence is not simply asking Me to bless what you have decided to do. It is coming to Me with an open mind and heart, inviting Me to plant My desires within you.... Thus begins your journey of profound reliance on Me. It is a faith-walk, taken one step at a time, leaning on Me as much as you need. This is not a path of continual success but of multiple failures. However, each failure is followed by a growth spurt, nourished by increased reliance on Me. Enjoy the blessedness of a victorious life, through deepening your dependence on Me.

-- Sarah Young, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence

Thanks, Bev, for sharing this with us.

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

-- Jude 20,21

Our Relationship with Money

A most fascinating little reflection on the power and role of money in our lives:

I'd been ignoring the task of addressing my ideas about money for years, hiding behind an image of myself as Bohemian, an artist, a spiritual aspirant. Money seemed something too concrete to factor into my flights of fancy. Even as an entrepreneur I never stopped to think much about money. I worried when I wasn't making it and was jubilant when I was...it was a roller coaster.

But it wasn't until an incident this summer illuminated a specific hang up of mine that I began to understand how deep the tentacles of this question of money in our lives runs. 

At first, I had a hard time noticing anything about my relationship to money. So deep were my habits and so ingrained were my views about spending, saving and earning, I was on autopilot most of the time. Even when an insight started to glimmer on the edges of my consciousness, some aspect of my self-preserving ego would erase it or color it over in washed out tones of self-soothing...

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...thanks David for sharing this piece.

Little Things Lead to More

When my brother and I first started out going door to door to our neighbors' homes with our push lawnmower and rake (I was only 9 years old), my dad would always say, "Do more than what they pay you to do and one day they will pay you more than what you do!!"

-- Mark R.

Not Seeing Things Correctly

Our parents were well intentioned but wrong: We can’t be whatever we want to be. We can all achieve amazing things, but we can’t do anything we set our minds to. Genetics, disposition, and luck play a part too.

…

Most of us do everything we can to avoid failure. That's a natural instinct with an unnatural by-product: We start to lose the ability to question our decisions.  And we lose the ability to see our ourselves from another person's point of view. The ability to work with and lead others is compromised when we lose perspective on what it's like to not have all the answers - and what it's like to make mistakes.

-- Jeff Haden

Choosing Strength

Every time you resist temptation, you grow stronger. Every time you choose to avoid areas that offer you temptation, you grow stronger...and create opportunity to gain more strength. When I don't do this, I weaken myself.

I chose for the habit of strength this past weekend.

Every time I make this choice, I gain some strength...every time.

Every time.

Vision, not Fear

Motivation comes from vision, not from fear.

-- Geoffrey James

Loves Flows Like Water

Love is like water. It flows. Sometimes like a flood, sometimes like a trickle, but it flows. It's always moving downward, seeping through the cracks. Even when it looks like it just sits there for long periods of time, it never stops. And, just when you're not so sure that its direction isn't just escaping you, it dumps on you again.  What you do with it can perpetuate the same for others and then again from them to others beyond...and so on and so on...love flows. Never drying up above you, it provides no reason for it to do so below you (or from you, if you like that phrasing better).  You can't out-give love.  It always out-gives you.

At times, we want it to bubble back up our way a bit ('just a little', we say). And, perhaps, you can at times find evidence that it does so.  But, not primarily.  Because it is a flowing thing and it is much bigger in scope and reach than the reverse-ripple we might be tempted to try and create out of it for ourselves.

In the end, there is much more than enough and if we keep ourselves focused on its designs and directions and reaches, we lose pretty quickly our temporary grasps for our little wishes for simple returns.

Love is an unending fountain...that never stops...flowing down over us, through us, and beyond us...like water.

Aggressive Forgiveness

But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

-- Romans 5:20-21, The Message

Thanks, Jerry, for sharing this with us today.

Self-Control & Habits

People with good self-control avoid temptations and problem situations, rather than battling with them. ...research confirmed that self-control works most effectively by means of controlling habits, rather than by using willpower for direct control of one’s actions in the heat of the moment.

...new evidence suggests that self-control is most effective when it operates through habits. People use their self-control to break bad habits and establish good ones....

Viewed in that perspective, virtue is best achieved when self-control is exerted so as to establish habits of good behavior. Part of the reason is that using willpower to resist temptation is a strenuous, costly business with unreliable results. Habits are far more reliable than that.

-- Roy Baumeister, Can Virtuous Habits Be Cultivated?

Continue Reading this rather fascinating little article.

Over the last few years, I've noticed some strong correlations in my life with regard to habits, so this stuff has captured my attention a bit.  Recently, I've noted these thoughts on 'habits':

Practical Advise on Habits in Our Lives

Habit of Turning, Strength

Habits

Thinking & Feeling

Unlearn

You must unlearn, what you have learned.

-- Yoda

War with your Vices

Be at War with your Vices, at Peace with your Neighbours, and let every New-Year find you a better Man.

-- Benjamin Franklin, 1755 Poor Richard's Almanac, December

The Truth Is That US Taxes Are Relatively Low

Obviously, no one likes paying taxes.

And everyone wants someone else to pay all the taxes.

But it's impossible for a government to provide all the services that the U.S. government is providing now without taxes being even higher than they are today--because we can't run our current budget deficit forever.

So, ultimately, this is a philosophical debate about what services the government should provide.

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Believe It

Luke:  I can’t believe it.
Yoda:  That is why you fail.

Personality

It is hard not to notice that we respond to 'hot' personalities - those that require attention.  ...especially in the short-term.  But, perhaps overall, too.

Our responsiveness may not always be best or what is needed, but we respond.

Like Those

More often than not, man becomes like those he spends the most time with.

Expressing Itself

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

-- Galatians 5:6

My wife wrote this on one of our windows...I am so thankful for that now regular reminder.

Little Attention to the Whole

The desire for immediate relief from specific problems has driven Christians and psychiatrists to seek and prescribe quick solutions with little attention paid to the whole person. These forces have led Christian counselors and psychiatrists to ignore or deny the existential dimensions of severe emotional suffering, neglect the life story of the sufferer, uncouple the life story from the Christian story, trivialize the Christian community as a source of healing, and superficially accommodate each other rather than engage in meaningful discourse. Psychiatrists and Christians have, in large part, drugged or denied pain and suffering and de-emphasized the importance of embedding the often-troubled stories of our individual lives within communal life.

-- Dan Blazer M.D., Freud vs. God: How Psychiatry Lost Its Soul & Christianity Lost Its Mind

Letting Them Go

If a litany of naming all things good and beautiful directs us into grace, then a litany of complaints deforms us. I have been cataloging my complaints and I am afraid they are becoming ingrained in my living. But counting faults and keeping score is tiring. And I don’t like the fact that I so willingly spend myself on counting and collecting injuries, when I could find freedom in simply letting them go.

-- Stephanie Smith

Be Not Afraid of Growing Too Slowly

How do you become better tomorrow? Be not afraid of growing too slowly. Be afraid of standing still. Forget your mistakes, but remember what they taught you.

-- Benjamin Franklin

Make Up Their Minds

Most folks are about as happy as 
they make up their minds to be.

-- Abraham Lincoln

Hope for a New Year!

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

-- Jude 24-25

Someone shared these verses with me recently.  I was a bit stunned at their import...the implications are both wide and deep, worth some time to unpack and consider. Reminds me that what is going on is really about Him, not us, and that it is His zeal that will accomplish it.

I can't think of a better way to express why we can be free to live in hope in a new year...whatever it may bring.

Practical Advice on Habits in Our Lives

I ran across this reading recently and these 3 things in particular stuck out to me; I think they're helpful advice for daily living.  And, I like the suggestion that they become habits, perhaps over the new year:

Let go of your results.

The big enemy of happiness is worry, which comes from focusing on events that are outside your control. Once you've taken action, there's usually nothing more you can do. Focus on the job at hand rather than some weird fantasy of what might happen.

Turn off "background" TV.

Many households leave their TVs on as "background noise" while they're doing other things. The entire point of broadcast TV is to make you dissatisfied with your life so that you'll buy more stuff. Why subliminally program yourself to be a mindless consumer?

End each day with gratitude.

Just before you go to bed, write down at least one wonderful thing that happened. It might be something as small as a making a child laugh or something as huge as a million dollar deal. Whatever it is, be grateful for that day because it will never come again.

-- Geoffrey James

Map or Guide

If someone tells you to go someplace and you don’t know where to go and, from what you have heard, it’s quite tricky in getting there because there are few if any well-marked streets, not much lighting, and a lot of rather large potholes, would you prefer a map or rather the person who has been there, knows the way, and is quite handy should things break down to go with you? The answer is obvious....

"I will go with you", says the Lord Almighty.

-- Kent Denlinger

This echoes a post I recently read called 'Why, God?'...it is worth the read, as it faces down one of the perennial questions of all time about God and evil. Having recently watched the most recent Les Miserables movie, I am confident that we are on to something here in this collection of thoughts on 'God With Us'. The priest in Les Mis puts it like this, 'To love someone is to see the face of God'.

Hope for a new year -- who knows what is in store -- but He is with us.

My Fast from Ladder Climbing

I love feeling superior, more influential, more important, and more noticed than everybody else. I cried about what a fool I’ve been...

-- Heather Holleman

 Continue Reading

Really worth the minute or two it will take to...and the hour or two it may create for personal consideration. Sobering and delightful. And before we whisper to ourselves something like, "I'm glad I'm not like that," consider the reminder to all of us, however we are going about being important...to ourselves.

Reminds me of things a friend said to me once, when I was struggling with the identity of my own self-importance.

Not Calculate

When one loves, one does not calculate.

-- St. Therese of Lisieux

Circumstances

Circumstances allow us opportunity to be shaped.

In our culture, circumstances (particularly bad ones) are often viewed primarily as something to get out of. In our media, circumstances are presented as something to overcome. But, I suspect that our circumstances really exist more for us as contexts in which we can be shaped, if we allow them to do so.

Space

We all need space. Sometimes, the best thing we can give to another person...is space. Space to think often gives me opportunity to feel. Sometimes what I feel gives me a chance to think about something. Space creates health; constant filling of it does not. It can lead us somewhere that is often neglected within us...to a needed grieving or to an important gratitude.

I realized today that I was hoping for something deeper with my wife in some recent interactions or lack of them. I was reaching for conclusions that would urge me to 'address' it with her. But, my instincts were nudging me back...toward not filling the space with my needs. A bit later she said she has really been preoccupied with news of her father's illness. I was shocked...certainly for him, but also for what I had been ready to do...to get something that I wanted. I wasn't considering that what I was feeling from her really had nothing to do with me, as I had suspected. I was grateful for the space I had chosen in my waiting, for her sake and for mine.

She needed some space. She needed for me not to fill hers with me. I needed the space, too.

Give yourself the gift of space. Give it to someone else.

Forever

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

-- Isaiah 9:7

Where We Least Expect Him

Those who believe in God can never in a way be sure of him again. Once they have seen him in a stable, they can never be sure when he will appear or to what lengths he will go or to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation he will descend in his wild pursuit of man….

This means that we are never safe, that there is no place where we can hide from God, no place where we are safe from his power to break in two and recreate the human heart because it is just where He seems most helpless that He is most strong, and just where we least expect Him that He comes most fully.

-- Fredrick Beuchner, The Hungering Dark

Peace That Empties

When we are at peace, we find the freedom to be most fully who we are, even in the worst of times, we empty ourselves so that God may more fully work within us.

-- Joseph Cardinal Benardin

His Law is Love

We don't often see ourselves for what we truly are...either direction...as bad as we really are or for the goodness that is truly within us.

Regarding the former, we are richly deserving of consequences for the sin embedded within us.  At times, I actually forget how true that is.  I reflected recently on a time in my life when I thought I was deeply wronged in an employment situation.  I may have been.  But, it was also true that there were things in my own life at the time that were also deeply wrong and God used the employment situation to get at them -- for my sake, for others' sake, for His sake.  In one sense, He saved me from the end those wrongs were leading to...through this disruption of my life.  He used Pain to reach me, to teach me.  I did not see myself accurately.  I still don't.  But my reflection has allowed me to realize a bit more that I did truly deserve something because of the sin in my life.

But pain goes away with time, not as quickly as it arrives, but it does taper away.  And, so, what struck me this week was that what has really solidified His 'teaching' in me has been...Grace.  Grace has shown me the longer truth that God is really about resurrecting the good that He has put in me by making me in His image.  This is why He is (and we are) so hurt by our sin, because we forfeit this goodness which is designed to be given to others, like He gives to us.  Grace comes along after Pain and shows me that I have not received what I fully deserve...that some of those consequences have been borne by Someone else, on behalf of me.  Grace brings Gratitude to my door and introduces me to her.  Grace is what makes me realize that I don't really want the path of sin after all and that breathes the life into me that doesn't want to reject the goodness I have been offered, in spite of my sins.  So, the final teacher, in my view is Grace.  Pain and Grace both teach me.  And, Grace's voice is often hard to fully hear before Pain's instruction.  But, Grace wins, as it does its final training work in me...to lead me to be what I am designed to be, to who I've been made to be.

Though the verses of this week's posts have pointed me towards something I want, this Christmas season I have felt a strange absence...the absence of something that captures me like a great gift.  Something has felt...pending.  But this reflection on the above has now ushered the great gift right up to my door.

One of my favorite favorite carols puts it nearly perfectly:

       Truly He taught us to love one another,
       His law is love and His gospel is peace.

He loves us too much not to remain firmly committed to our deepest good, that which He put within us.  His love, in that way, is law.  It is hard and fast...and for our sake, it won't budge.  The good news is that through His Teachers and the training process He takes us through in this life, we are also being offered Peace.

Thank God for His many and wondrous gifts to us this Christmas.  It is enough to enjoin me this time of year to Hallelujah!  ...I have not audibly heard this 'chorus' yet this year, but I'm still hoping for the tears of joy it brings!

12/21/12 - Forecast

 

As You Trust

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

-- Romans 15:13

He Will Not Fail

The Lord will lead you. He himself is with you. He will not fail you or leave you. Don’t worry. Don’t be afraid!

-- Deuteronomy 31:8

Now...is the time of Grief

Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

-- John 16:22

Overcome

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

-- John 16:33

Union

Whenever my husband and I hug each other in the kitchen, my 3-year-old daughter is inevitably there within two seconds. She squeezes through our legs until she's right in between us, at which point she announces: "Family hug!" She sees our love for one another, and she wants in.

Because of our union with Jesus we can join the Trinity's family embrace: "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them …. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them" (John 14:20-23).

...

But if I am in Christ, I can expect suffering to be a normal part of my discipleship. It is not a detour from Plan A, but an expected component of life with Jesus. In fact, it is an opportunity to participate in Jesus' life, to share in his sufferings (for he suffers with us), and to have his resurrection made known in my body (2 Cor. 4:10-11). That can radically change my experience of suffering.

Our suffering is not a pointless impediment to our productivity or fruitfulness. It is something we share with Jesus, for the good of our souls and of his kingdom.

-- Sarah Lebhar Hall, The Key to a Purposeful Life

Click pic to Continue Reading

Second to Last

Pain is our second-to-last teacher.

This begs the question, if suffering is the second to last teacher, what is the last one.  ...more soon.

Violence: have we finally had enough?

Where? How many? How young?

What terrible questions for a society to have to keep asking itself.
No, our violence-rich culture does not make murderers of us all. But cigarettes don't give everyone lung cancer. That does not make them non-lethal.

Have we finally had enough? It must not start with just gun control. It must start with us. 

Continue Reading

...thanks Statons for forwarding.

Best Apologies

Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.

-- Tryon Edwards

More Immoral

The more immoral we become in big ways, the more puritanical we become in little ways.

-- Florence King

Mirage

I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage.

-- C.S. Lewis

Want to See

We tend to see what we want to see.

...perhaps worse, we tend not to see what we don't want to see.

Babel Sounds & Angels

Every year now, it seems a new old Christmas carol sneaks up on me. This year, so far, I am a bit overcome by the quieting power and glory of this seasonal favorite:

It Came Upon The Midnight Clear

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold:
"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men
From heavens all gracious King!"
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled;
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world:
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

O ye beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow;
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
Oh rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophets seen of old,
When with the ever-circling years
Shall come the time foretold,
When the new heaven and earth shall own
The Prince of Peace, their King,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

-- Edmund Hamilton Sears

...the all encompassing view of time and its unimpeded, glorious end are a compelling vision for me. And, the blending of all things I know with things I don't know that much about (like angels) creates an unusual and often surprising sense of something much greater and more wonderful that I too can join...an unearthly Peace.

I now realize afresh why we decorate our home with carolers this time of year...what better response to something so glorious than for man to join the heavenlies in such a singing.

The Innkeeper

I am moved by this presentation of the pain that surrounded what otherwise is celebrated this Christmas time of year. There is, in fact, great cause for celebration...but the context of our need for it often seems to be shoved away under a bunch of wrapping paper.

Hope for the Hurting this Christmas

Click the link for some background or the video above to watch directly (just a bit over 11 minutes).

Daily Rituals

It would seem a bit large of me to claim that I can tackle 'everything' that comes my way.

Every day I need physical energy, mental clarity, and emotional balance to tackle everything that comes my way. Self-care is the secret to performing at the highest level.

-- Mike Del Ponte

But I do concur with several of the basic rituals he goes on to recommend here. The ideas he identifies are ones that I've discovered too in recent years. I may not do them exactly as he describes, but I've found that these basic elements do go a long way toward providing me physical energy, mental clarity, and emotional balance.

Mirror

Gotta say, if a sunrise like this morning's doesn't 'wake you up', I'm not sure what will. It was fabulous beyond description, from east to west, each reflecting in literal ways something bright emerging onto us. I was again inspired...to act this day reflecting just some of the glory of this morning's voice calling out, 'Join Me!'.

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.

-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Worry

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.

-- Corrie ten Boom

Thanks, David, for this one. Reminds me of this one.

On the Crowd

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

-- James Crook

Pessimist

A pessimist is a person who wants to be an optimist, but has a grasp of the facts.

-- Norman Augustine

Sunrise

I have come to rather relish the notion that a sunrise (like yesterday's) is an indication -- if not a heralding -- that God has been up a while and is rolling out another day of His glory.  Over my life, I have learned to look east with anticipation.  What does He communicate to me through this ritual exercise that is similar, but never exactly the same?  What does this tell me about Him?  And, how does that free to me to experience the ensuing day with a different and fresh perspective?

...I think it does just that and to be about doing the same thing.  It prays this prayer for me:

Lord, take me where you want me to go, let me meet who you want me to meet, tell me what you want me to say, and keep me out of your way.

-- Prayer of Father Mychal Judge

What Is

We can so easily become focused on what isn't in others. Perhaps serving our own self-promotion, we use what 'should be' to overlook what is...in them.  ...or, more importantly, what could be in them, especially in time.

Lifelong Learning

The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning.

-- M. Scott Peck

This is one of those that at first appears rather self-evident.  But, what struck me about it (other than the reference to learning and other thoughts posted this week on the 'the mind') is that I don't believe, for the better part of my life, I viewed it that way.  Spirituality, for me, had been more of a construct of principles of some sort. One either did or did not work their way through the pile of them, but they were available for acquisition, if one were so disciplined.

Now, however, I see the developmental nature of spirituality, perhaps because of the same nature I see more and more of in all realms of life.  In other words, to grow (in any respect), we must engage the process of learning.  And that is a whole-being exercise...that is never over.

Goal of Teaching

The goal of teaching is not to teach; it is to create learning.

The key to learning is engagement.

The key to engagement is creativity.

The key to creativity is effort.

So, teaching well requires a lot of effort aimed at learning.

If learning does not occur, then we are just sliding a bunch of information around...often over and over and over. Who needs more information?  Learning is a holistic experience.

Transformation

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

-- Romans 12:2

I am intrigued by this verse, especially in light of yesterday's post.

The Mind

The brain may be located in the cranium, but the mind is located throughout the body.

-- Candace Pert

What Is & What Ought To Be

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.

-- William Hazlitt

Habit of Turning, Strength

Forming a habit of turning to God in our lives is like developing muscle.  It has to be worked, stretched, exercised regularly or it becomes weak at best.

Perhaps the greater of the habits of our lives can be 'living with' God in our everyday details...good and bad.  This is an availing ourselves to our true strength, for otherwise we are simply rather weak and self-absorbed. The story of my life, among other things, is a battle over the development of this muscle.  When I am regularly exercising spiritually, not unlike physically, I am simply stronger than when I'm not.  I'm not sure there is a greater habit we can form than the habit of turning to God.  Life will still 'happen', so doing such things will not prevent bad things from happening.  The issue has much more to do with how I face them, with what I face them, with Whom I face them.  This is the true strength we can develop, through the spiritual habit of turning to God in our lives.

God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

-- Psalm 73:26

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. 

-- Psalm 28:7

In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength...

-- Isaiah 30:15

...but those who hope in the Lord

    will renew their strength.

-- Isaiah 40:31

We are shaped by our habits.

Rivalry Rebooted

 

POST GAME Review: What was true in Bo and Woody's time is still true today; you can't win Big Ten championships if you don't win key games on the road. And you can't win those games if you don't avoid turn-overs and big mistakes.

...true again today. And, seniors are the ones who need to lead the way.

Songs

Songs can help us take a few steps toward healing. Songs are safe containers for the best and worst that life has to offer.

-- Linford Detweiler

Thanks Giving

Thanksgiving: We all have so much for which to be thankful, especially when we don't confine our gratitude to possessions.

The dirt of our brokenness leads to a true experience of Grace. And gratitude is the flower that grows from her soil.

It is striking how illusive gratitude is when we're avoiding brokenness...and how overwhelming it is when we're not.

Happy Thanks Giving!