Thinking New Years Resolutions Think Intention

December 29, 2014

Most of us throughout the world will be reflecting on 2014 and planning for 2015 this week.

We all know that New Year’s Resolutions don’t work. I teach a Yoga class at the local YMCA. In a couple of weeks, my class attendance will leap from 12-14 to 25. Two weeks later–back to 12.

The fitness center will be busy–for about a month. Then back to normal.

We’ll read books. Dream of starting businesses. Find love. Become nicer people.

Except–we won’t.

What if we started with what sort of person we wanted to be? What would be our character? How would we treat people?

Then, what if we prayed daily intentionally for God to bring a new opportunity to serve into our lives? What if we prayed intentionally for new people to come into our lives?

I have experienced that. I’m now living it.

But I’m not through. I’m still praying intentionally for my ministries. I’m still praying for God to bring people into my life. Maybe they will minister to me. Or, maybe they are there for me to minister to.

I have not made resolutions or set goals for many years. I pray for opportunities and for the wisdom to recognize and act on them. It works much better.

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Posted in Disciplines, Service | 1 Comment »

Might As Well Relax

December 24, 2014

It’s finally here. Christmas Eve. All the worrying about did I get the right present for someone (or did I get presents for everyone I should have). The stress of coordinating family visits. It might as well be over. It’s too late now to worry anymore.

If you have little children around, just relax and enjoy their anticipation. They will be past that soon enough.

I have already gone to my Christmas church services. Maybe you’re heading out for Midnight Mass (I assume Catholics still do that–the church who ran the school I taught in one year was known throughout the area for its beautiful one). Back home, they’ll have a candlelight service with much singing.

If so, just relax and enjoy.

There’s a scene in Christmas Vacation where Clark’s dad says he got through the dysfunctional family gatherings “with a little help from Jack Daniels.”

Perhaps you can get by with just a few deep breaths.

There are readers of this blog who live in areas where the greater stress is not just family bickering but personal safety. I pray that your celebration is safe, as well as meaningful. It’s amazing to me what Christians in the US think is persecution which is so insignificant when compared to so many other countries of the world.

One of the titles for Jesus is Prince of Peace. As followers, let us all work toward fulfilling that promise of peace.

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The Glory of God Shone Brightly

December 23, 2014

Remember when Moses saw the glory of God? His face shone so brightly reflecting that glory that the Hebrews could not stand to see it. So they asked that Moses hide his face behind a veil.

The Glory of God was said to inhabit the Ark for years. At some point, evidently, the glory sort of faded away.

Solomon built a Temple so that the Glory of God could “rest”, that is inhabit, with the people. It was said that God’s Glory filled the Temple.

If there is one overarching theme to the Old Testament, it is that the people of God draw close to God and then abandon Him. This theme recurs often continuing over centuries.

Then with the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians and the second major exile of the Jewish people, God’s Glory was withdrawn from the land. Even with the building of the second Temple, there is no talk of God coming to dwell in it. This temple was not built with God’s blessing and instruction.

The conclusion of that cycle of glory and disengagement ended when God decided to “build” His own Temple. He revealed His glory, not through a stone building, but through a human being–Jesus of Nazareth.

Paul even calls our own bodies temples of God’s Spirit. That was, and is, a pretty radical statement. No wonder the Jews at the time beat him and stoned him.

Even so, we celebrate the return of the Glory of God to Earth at this time of the year. We participated in a wonderful celebration of the Advent Sunday with music, story, sharing.

Merry Christmas.

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Posted in Christianity, Worship | 2 Comments »

Measure Your Priorities in Life

December 22, 2014

Jesus told us to watch what we do with our money, wealth and possessions. Their use is an indicator of the status of our heart.

This is probably a good time of the year to pause our hectic holiday activities and search out what our priorities are.

Where are your priorities? How can we know? This time of year, commercialization grabs center stage. Yet, also, there are opportunities to donate to any of seemingly a million causes. Do you pick some causes important to you or your understanding of mission? Do you donate? Or is your spending ruled by yourself?

Christmas is a boom time for luxury car sales. Those must be presents for oneself.

You can apply this to other areas of life. Take a look at a church budget and divide into two buckets. Take a look at your personal overall budget and put into two buckets. Check out your Christmas budget. Yep. Divide into two buckets. One bucket is for your personal (or the church’s internal) use. The other is for outreach/mission/evangelism/other-focused. What is the proportion of one bucket to the other? If it is greater than 50/50 weighted toward inward/personal, what does that say about you?

Pause, reflect, take appropriate action. Don’t be a Grinch. Help others have a happy Christmas time.

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Pause to Find Self-Awareness

December 19, 2014

Everywhere are conversations among people this week, “Are you ready for Christmas? I have so much to do. Not enough time to do it.”

We hurry from work to shopping to wrapping to parties to work. It’s all a big blur.

We don’t have time to “feel the Christmas spirit” because we don’t have time to notice.

Gene Appel, senior pastor of the Eastside Christian Church in Orange County, California, drew a lesson from one of Jesus’ stories to (and about) his local Pharisees in a message a few weeks ago.

It seems that a man had two sons. One tapped into the old man for a chunk of money and took off for the good life. One day after the money was gone, the friends were gone, the women were gone and he woke up in a pigpen, he “came to his senses.” He became what is one of the hardest things for us to do—to become self-aware.

When did he become self-aware? When he stopped. There was no more hurry. No more drinking, no more women, no more friends, no more hurrying from one party to the next. He stopped. And then he came to his senses.

Perhaps it is time we stop. Just pause and take a deep breath. Inhale until the lungs fill; then keep going until the stomach is “filled”; then keep going until the abdomen grows. Then slowly release the breath. Two or three of those should slow us down until we can become aware of our circumstances, our emotions, our environment.

Stop. Look around. Place your thoughts on Jesus. Rejoice in the celebration.

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Listen For Healing

December 18, 2014

Trait of listening to people for healing; listening to God in preparation.

This comment just popped up in some notes I was reviewing. I have no idea where it came from. No idea what the context was. But, it’s interesting, isn’t it?

We’re in Advent, so preparation is on my mind. Much had to be prepared for Jesus arrival. Before conception, Mary had to be prepared. She had to listen to God’s messenger and pay attention.

After conception, Joseph had to be prepared. He, also, had to listen to a messenger of God.

This was listening in preparation. They each had to listen and then act.

But in the story, Zechariah and Elizabeth also had to listen and act. They were important, too. And their son, John, had also to listen (to his parents we presume) and then act.

Our challenge this week is to also listen. What words or thoughts are God whispering into our consciousness?

Then I thought about the healing part.

Who listens? Who talks?

Perhaps we need someone to listen to us. This is a time of year of great stress. There are all the holidays–gifts, parties, family. Also winter is coming on (here in the Northern Hemisphere). That stresses many.

Who do we have that will listen to us? Who will give a comforting word?

Or turn it around. Who needs us to listen to them? Do we realize just how much healing we can do by listening? That would be active listening, paying attention to the words, the feelings, the thoughts between the words. Understanding. Empathizing. Comforting. Praying.

Listening. Preparation. Healing. Comforting. Valuable Spiritual Disciplines.

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They Don’t Tell The Story Anymore

December 17, 2014

“Fewer and fewer people tell the story of Advent anymore.”

Perhaps I listen to the Pastor too carefully. Sort of like a professor in college rather than as a professional speaker whose aim is not to enlighten but to move emotions.

This may have been just a rhetorical device. Build up a “straw man” only to tear it down later in the talk.

More likely it is the lament of a person (most of my contemporaries in west central and northwest Ohio) who grew up in a village of perhaps 1,500 or fewer population. Everyone in the village was the same. Christian. White. Worker.

That is not the way it is anymore. We live in a multi-cultural time. Even within my Yoga class, not only do I have the “usual suspects” of white Christians, but we have had class members who are Jain, Sikh and Hindu. Oh, also Islam. Probably a few “pagans”, too. That is in a town of fewer than 20,000 people.

The majority in town most likely are those without a god. They live life day-by-day according to the whims of their emotions. “Sinners” as Paul the Apostle would say. People not only not trying to live a moral life, but actually deriding those who do.

Is the problem that fewer people are telling the story of Advent these days or that we in the church are doing such a poor job of it?

One of our pastors has a great heart for children. I wish some of her empathy could be siphoned off into other vessels of human flesh who could use some of that. But she has said every year at this time, “I was worried that the kids would not have Christmas.”

Let me translate for all of you non-Americans who read these words. She means, “I’m afraid that the kids will not get presents.”

Even devout followers of Jesus equate Christmas with receiving presents!

Circling around to the pastor’s comment–I was immediately reminded (as I sat there listening to the rest of his talk) of the Acts 2 church. They added daily to the number of followers–by the way they lived.

We added four people to our membership Sunday. But they all came from other churches. How many people in your groups have been added because they have see a better way to live due to your example?

Maybe we are the cause of the “fewer”?

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Take a Walk To Change Your Mood

December 16, 2014

The best time is when you don’t feel like it.

Going for a walk when you don’t feel like it will change your mood, transform your posture and get you moving.

And if you don’t feel like talking with someone, bring them with you on the walk.

–Seth Godin

Seth Godin is a marketing guru. He’s written several books. Now he writes short blog posts. Here is one that really suggests wisdom relating to Spiritual discipline.

Sometimes you just can’t pray. Sometimes you just can’t study. Sometimes you just don’t feel like celebrating.

When you don’t feel like it, change something.

Going outside is a great mood enhancer. And a creativity booster.

I like his idea of bringing someone along for the walk when you don’t feel like talking with them. I know from experience.

This idea of intentionally asking someone for a conversation is powerful. There is a guy here in my town who is a genius at this. He even has me doing it.

Think I’ll go take a walk.

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A Daily Routine With Intention

December 15, 2014

A tranquil mind gives life to the flesh.
Psalm 14:30

What is your daily routine?

We all have one. Sometimes it just happens. Sometimes we plan it. Maybe we start with good intentions and then fall into habits that are not productive.

Do we start the day sleeping until the last minute? Then we rush to get organized and out to work or the kids to school or cut our morning workout short?

Successful people invariably start the day early. Getting up while others sleep, reading, meditating, organizing the day–these are the opposite of the first routine.

The first routine never allows us to settle down and get focused. The second one leads to a tranquil mind. The advice from Proverbs helps here. We are more focused, can work better, have a measure of control of the day, can negotiate around things that tend to upset the day.

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, describes a concept from martial arts–having a mind like water. A pebble thrown into a pond causes ripples. But soon the ripples dissipate and the pond returns to stillness.

Thus, can we begin our day with intention and have that tranquil mind.

I like to arise at 5:30. Mediate, read from the Bible or other spiritual writing, write this blog (unless I do it the day before), eat breakfast, work out, then write for my professional blog.

Benjamin Franklin had worked out a time card for his daily routine. I just saw something on his card that I will be incorporating in my routine.

At the beginning of the day, he asked, “What good shall I do today?”

At the end of the day, he asked, “What good have I done today?”

That reflection lends even more intentionality to the day. We can begin and end the day bringing our minds back to stillness.

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Treat People With Respect

December 12, 2014

Often on Fridays, I write about leadership. An incident occurred this week that jogged my thinking into leadership mode. Treating people with respect.

I have been “fired” many times. In the 1980s it averaged every two years. OK, obviously it wasn’t because I was reliving my old civil-rights-protester-rebellious phase. Usually, the company was going out of business. Once a boss and I tangled. I lost. He lost. (They fired him shortly after, but I was already gone and never returning.)

Almost all were handled with some measure of tact. There were a  couple where the president of the company went back on promises. But I had already taken the long view that the company was failing and that I already knew the president was a jerk. Although once I was fired by voice mail. That was interesting.

A friend went to work recently. Opened email. Message from the president (pretty much a jerk), “Clean out your personal possessions and leave the premises. You are fired.”

It’s a people business. It’s not that big of a business. How can someone run that sort of business with that sort of attitude?

But I’ve seen it often. Schools and churches have some of the worst supervisors I’ve ever seen. People can be mistreated in those organizations and the ones in charge seem to take a perverse delight in mistreating people. Smaller businesses come next. But I’ve seen real, er, jerks, in corporate America, too.

If you are in any kind of leadership whether in business, non-profit or church, remember that you are dealing with fellow human beings. Everyone deserves to be treated with a measure of respect.

Heck, surveys of people constantly return with the feedback that people prefer to feel respected and appreciated beyond the amount of money they receive. A bonus is nice and appreciated, but a compliment and fair treatment is remembered forever.

As a manager or supervisor of any organization, remember that we are taught to love our neighbor as ourselves.

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