Seek wisdom....

IF your hope is low today, take time to notice the sunset.  I almost missed this one!

Processing

Have you had those moments where you pull back and contemplate life?  It is good for all of us to step back from the hurried pace of life at times and reflect.  I am finding this to be more and more of a necessity for me to keep my focus clear and on track.

I have not posted a new blog this week because I have been in that process.  I have one written and ready but I also know that timing is important.

Last week I published an Ebook on Amazon entitle "Audacious Hope".  I used some of the ideas from earlier blogs here and expounded upon those ideas.  I have been truly amazed to watch this process of touching lives unfold.  My yearning is to ignite a passion in people to reach for Hope once again.

Life has a way of dehydrating our hope.  When I am thirsty I rehydrate with water or with some drink with electrolytes.  When your hope has run out how do you build it back up?  This is truly something to think about.  Many people continue in business and fail to address the deficit.  Some will add a substance to medicate the emptiness.  Others sink into despair.  What if you gave yourself permission to try something new?  

Here are some ideas that I use:  

1.  Going for a drive with my dogs into the country where there is no noise, finding a quiet place to pull over and sitting with them in the silence while paying attention to the sites and smells.  I often drive near the giant wind machines because of the peacefulness there.

2.  Go to the river and walk along the water on the walkway there or simply sit by the river.

3.  Find some soul building music and let it play softly while I sit and focus on the music and the words.

4.  Reading something uplifting.

5.  Petting my dogs.

6.  Allow myself to envision life 3 or 6 months from now being at peace, full and calm, filled with lovely people and lovely experiences.

7.  Begin to dream again.

You see I believe hopelessness is birthed when we stop reaching, stop dreaming, stop quieting our mind.  Our lives and minds resemble a 5 lane interstate at rush hour.  We can all drive in that traffic for a bit but if that is all there ever is then at some point we will start on the decline toward hopelessness.  We are not created to be in 5 lanes of traffic at rush hour for long periods of time in our minds and our lives.

If you find yourself in a place of hopelessness check out my ebook or simply keep reading this blog.  We will continue this journey together of reigniting hope. 

Talk to you soon....

Blog 7

In  blog 5 I briefly mentioned ‘grace’.   I began to wrestle with the term “Grace”.   So many teachers have warned of the ‘grace movement’ that gives ‘freedom to sin’.  I never took the time to try to understand grace from Jesus point of view until recently.  What I found was that rather than grace ‘giving a license to sin’, it called me into a real and personal relationship with the One I had committed my life to so many years ago.  For the first time I began to understand that grace gave me the strength and freedom to live my life for the One Who gave me life and to do that in His strength, with His power and by His leading.  Grace, rather than leading me to unrestrained sin, introduced to me to a Love that set me free from the bondage of rules based living.  That Grace that previously was the ‘enemy’ became the Friend.  Rather than having a desire to sin, the desire was birthed in me to live my life in a way that honored the One who gave me life.  It was a radical shift in my thinking.  It was the catalyst that propelled me toward audacious hope.  We will continue this journey of discussing audacious hope, excellence, embracing resistance, thinking for yourself and the true walk of grace in the future.

Something I have been thinking about is how to maneuver and recover when life crushes me with a grip of unexpected life events.  I journaled recently: “When I feel like I am drowning from the heaviness of life You reach your hand to me and lift me above the raging torrents of life.  You alone can restore me, hold me, and comfort me.  I cling to you.”  I think of someone overboard in a raging sea that has been thrown a life ring.  My life ring is my relationship with my Creator; the life line is His Word to me in the Bible.   

There are days that feel like life is caving in.  How do you manage those days?  What do you hold on to?  Where is your safe place?  I recently dissected Psalm 91 and looked up all the Hebrew words to get a feel for the original meaning of the Psalm.  Something that I have started to explore more in-depth is: “He that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. “   Have you ever given any thought to what it means to “Dwell”: remain, sit, abide, to be set, stay.   Abide means: remain, rest, dwell, lodge in, continue in. Fortress: strong hold, castle, defense, strong place, protection.    

 

Here are the first few verses with the original Hebrew meaning of the words: I will remain and stay under the covert covering of the Most High God, Elyon, in a place where I cannot be seen.  There I will lodge in and rest in His protection, the protection of El Shaddai, The Most Powerful.  I will utter that Jehovah, The Existing One, is My Shelter from rain or storm or danger, and is my stronghold, my Ruler and Judge, Elohem.  I have confidence in Him.  Surely He shall snatch away, deliver, rescue me from the trap and from the bait layer and from the engulfing destructive  ruin of desire, and destruction and death.  He shall cover, hedge, fence about, block, overshadow and stop the approach of and protect by weaving together a hedge with His wings such as that of an eagle and under His cover I will seek refuge and flee to for protection.  His faithfulness, stability and reliability shall be thy shield and buckler. Wow, if you never read another thing in the Bible, those verses alone could sustain you.  

I like questions that challenge me to excel and I like to avoid regrets.   In a book by Mark Batterson, In A Pit With a Lion on a Snowy day ( Colorado Springs, Co, 2006) 27,   here is a question that challenged me:  “Maybe we underestimate our freedom in Christ.  Maybe it is not just freedom from sin.  Maybe it is the freedom to do the extra dimensional. 

What in your life would be extra dimensional?  Think about that this week and we will discuss it more next time!

Have a great week….

Pause or Play

What do you do when you are in the middle, the 'pause' moments of life?

 Do you hold steady or waiver?  

When you are in the middle and feel like you are on pause, 

 hold on, keep looking vertical and

 Do Not Quit!

Blog 6

The last blog ended with a challenge to think about how it feels to follow a set of rules to achieve the right behavior to be accepted or acceptable.

Maybe you are way past me in your understanding but I did not realize I was still living a set of man-made rules to try to please the One I acknowledge as God.  Have you ever felt like you were suffocating emotionally but did not know why?  What if it is because you are trying to live a performance based existence to achieve something that is only achievable by casting off the restraint of a rule based existence and choosing to step into the arena of applying living Words in a faith based existence?   Most of us know how to defrag our computer but do you know how to defrag your faith?   I was taught all my life to follow rules.  That type of existence is not difficult however if that is all there is then it is extremely unfulfilling and leads to the ‘bane of mediocrity’ mentioned earlier.  It leads some, like me, to the thinking that for me, “There must be something more.”

In previous blogs I discussed excellence, embracing resistance, living Words, taking a gamble on statistical odds, taking the ‘red pill’, congruence.    How do all of those descriptive words come together to create a platform to launch into the unknown territory of audacious hope?

First, it is important determine if you have merely adopted the belief system of others who have interpreted these words for you in your past or if you have your definition.  If you have taken the time to explore your own beliefs about these concepts then read on.  If you have not, would you take the time to wrestle individually with each of the thoughts in the previous paragraph?   What do you believe about the definitions for those words?  What do you choose to apply to yourself from those definitions?  How can wrestling with them bring you a new sense of freedom?

One of the ways I began my journey of ‘thinking for myself’ was by reading and studying opposing views of a topic.   I had predetermined that my demarcation line for truth was/is the Bible, which is self-described as a living Word.   I am aware that many do not consider this a valid line of demarcation and I am not telling you to adopt my belief system.  I am simply stating the way I determined what I would judge information against to determine what I believed as I “thought for myself.”

 

George Whitefield said:  “Press forward.  Do not stop.  Do not linger in your journey but strive for the mark set before you.”

Keep striving for the answers you are seeking.  We will discuss this more in the future.

Thanks for reading Blog 6.  Hope you join me as we continue this journey together!