Relax.
Refresh.
Renew.
Pause today to reflect on the past and future before we jump into living in the moment during the year.
What Great Work will define us this year?
I have chosen mine. I will ask each day, “Does this activity relate to my Great Work?”
Simplify and prune the unnecessary activities.
May your 2015 be Blessed.
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.
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.
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.
Do you remember being a child at Christmas?
The entire month of December? The night before Christmas?
My wife’s family (according to her) would open one present on Christmas Eve just to get a jump on Christmas. She couldn’t wait. Still can’t.
Luke, writing in his gospel, tells the story of two people who, upon seeing the baby Jesus, saying that they had lived their entire lives waiting to see the Lord’s Redeemer. Now they could die peacefully.
Advent. We’re waiting. Patiently.
We know the “rest of the story.” Yet, we wait in anticipation. Perhaps the deep realization of the Lord’s redemption in us will pop into our hearts.
Maybe we can start living as a true disciple of Jesus–instead of just saying we are.
Maybe we can stop waiting to act out our words–instead of playing one-up with words.
Maybe we can stop waiting to actually live–and go forth and make disciples, heal the sick, stop injustice.
Beckett wrote about Waiting for Godot–and he never appeared. We live in faith that God will appear. In us.
Waiting is required. Then when waiting is over, it is time to go. We wait at a red traffic light watching for green. When the light changes, we go.
When the wait at Advent is over, then it’s time to go forth and make disciples of the entire world.
“There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”
I almost always have something on my person with which to take notes. I currently carry a Moleskin notebook that fits nicely in the back pocket of my jeans. Sometimes it is a 3×5 index card wallet (I write my to-do list on those for the day). If nothing else, I can use the Notes app on my iPhone.
Late last week, I had a great idea for a blog post. I didn’t write it down. It’s gone. All I have is the memory of having an idea.
The weakest ink is better than the strongest memory” — Chinese proverb
The best I remember of what I was thinking came from my reading of N.T. Wright’s study of Paul, “Paul and the Faithfulness of God.”
He pointed out in a discussion (of several hundred pages) of Paul’s “rewriting” of his Scriptures leading to developing a new Shema (quoted above from 1 Corinthians 8:6). In the Greek, God is YHWH (we pronounce Yahweh or the Latin Jehovah, Jews would not pronounce) and Lord is the Greek kyrios–a word in the original Greek translation of the Scriptures that also refers to God. An interesting thing to ponder.
While reading Wright’s key passage, 1 Cor 8-10, my eye fell on a verse in chapter 11 about women. The verse, taken by itself (which you should almost never do), contained a seeming put-down of women. But this morning I returned to the passage and read the entire argument of 1 Cor 11-12.
That passage talks about the mutual submission of men and women. Something to meditate on when considering our relationships. But that’s another topic. It continues to discuss divisions in the church (ekklesia) in Corinth.
Read 8-12 as one long argument, and you get Paul’s main point. We have one God (the Creator in the Old Testament and the Father in the New), and one Lord (Jesus in the New Testament, the person who was God revealed to the people), and one ekklesia (gathering of people).
When we gather as a people of God, contention is not a Spiritual gift. It is not to be allowed. Social differences are to be put aside. Political differences are to be put aside. Personality issues are to be put aside. We worship the one God through the One who revealed God to the people as one people.
Imagine the letters Paul would write today to all of our churches about this core teaching of his. He’d need an army of admins to compile the email database to send us all the reprimands that we need and the instruction we need.
One God, One Lord, One People. Remembering that daily is perhaps the fundamental Spiritual Discipline we need today.
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge
But whoever hates to be rebuked is stupid.
Psalms 12
The story I received as a young person was that the Methodist Movement was so named by the habits of the founders. It seems that while at the University, John Wesley and his brother Charles and a small group of friends arose early every morning to study and pray. They were “methodical” in their approach–hence, methodists.
Story after story can be found of people who became dissatisfied with the direction of their lives (rebuked comes to mind) and decided to change. They began getting up earlier in the morning so that they could study and pray.
“Fifteen minutes in the chair” is a phrase famous among Willow Creekers. It comes by way of one such man who was convicted of the way his life was going. He began getting up early, sat in his favorite chair, read from the Bible, and prayed. He grew in knowledge and wisdom. The change was noticeable.
I’ve heard of men whose careers were going nowhere. They were frustrated. Disillusioned. Then they got up 15 minutes earlier than normal to read. Then the 15 became 30. Then an hour. And the discipline changed their lives and their success.
It is perhaps time to pause and reflect. When is the last time we felt rebuked by God for a pattern of life that is leading nowhere? When is the last time that we changed what we were doing or what we were thinking because of a rebuke from God (or from someone speaking for God at that time)?
Forget the early bird versus night owl stuff. It’s all a pattern of life. The real pattern is to practice discipline and gain knowledge. And with knowledge, wisdom.
Where is your chair?
Where I grew up, if you were quick to take offense or if you were sensitive to critical comments or opposition, you were called “thin skinned.” The idea is that an emotionally healthy person develops a “thick skin” to ward off opponents’ comments.
What puzzles me for most of my life has been the thin-skinned nature of so many American Christians. They are always looking for ways they are being “persecuted” or for signs they are not in the majority (hint: this type of Christian is not in the majority, but living in a rural area, I know many).
They are not really being persecuted. Not like the Christians living in many lands these days. Or even like we persecuted black people, native peoples, Jewish people, Catholics (yes, they were a persecuted minority for a long time in America), and “foreigners” (even unto this day).
It’s almost like an attitude of weakness, not of strength. I remember being 9 or 10 and reading and hearing about the Soviet Communist menace. And how those godless atheists were going to take over the country. And I remember thinking, if our God is that powerful, why do we fear those who have none? Why do we think they will be able to do away with God entirely.
Christians for the first 300 years of the movement lived as a minority in every city in which they existed. They learned to live amongst those whose beliefs were different. That didn’t stop them from worshiping their God through the revelation of Jesus. In fact, the way they lived was so powerful that the very way they lived attracted others to them
When one of the plagues swept Rome and the brave, strong men all fled to the mountains in terror, Christians stayed behind. They came out from their hiding places and helped the sick and dying. Once again, the way they lived even as a minority among pagans attracted many to Christianity. That time became one of the fastest growing in the movement.
I follow a powerful God. If I’m not in the majority as a Jesus-follower, even in America, that just puts me in the company of much of the movement. I wish my fellow followers had such confidence.
Jesus counseled us not to worry. We just go about our business of living correctly in the Spirit. I’d advise reading not only the Bible but also stories of the early church. Take advice from how they lived.
I wish my friends would concern themselves with how they live their lives and not worry about whether everyone around them agrees with everything they believe. Show by your life the power of God.
God must be trying to tell me something. Three time this week so far the message “Your decisions determine your life story” has occurred.
What life story do you want to leave behind? Andy Stanley explored that in this week’s Your Move message. What do you want people to say about you years from now?
Every day you make decisions, large and small–mostly small, that determine your story. Did you decide to help or hinder? Did you decide to stir up trouble or to be a peacemaker?
Aristotle said that we are what we repeatedly do. He went on to say “Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”
Did you know that the word “decision” seldom occurs in the Bible? I just looked it up. In the NIV, there were 27 instances of the word, and all but 4 were in the notes. Proverbs only uses the word once. But the entire book is about the effects of our decisions.
I’ve made perhaps four major decisions in the past year. One was on the whole not good–a business decision that caused me some amount of grief. But most of them have turned out well. They have determined the direction of my life for the next few years. And I’m happy with that. And I think God is.
But I wonder–what other decisions am I facing big or small that God is warning me about by putting that message in front of me this week? Or, maybe I’m just supposed to pass along the wisdom.
In this era of the US NSA spying on everyone, we should be aware that people are watching us. All the time.
We had the grandkids for a week a few weeks ago. Their sharp little eyes pick up everything. They are watching.
But even 2,000 years ago, people were watching. John (the Elder) writes in the 3rd letter to Gaius that he has heard reports about how good and faithful to the truth he has been. And he talks about another faithful witness and one who is not a true follower.
John was the last of the apostles alive. He was always concerned with the Truth. As the Elder in the church, he was even more concerned that the essential truth was taught–Jesus lived as a human, Jesus died, Jesus rose from death to live again.
John was also concerned with love–a lesson taught to him by Jesus. A lesson that it took John a few years to learn and incorporate into his life.
You see both in the three letters. And you see both as John writes in love to his friend and compliments him on his work and his life.
Paul also was aware that people are always watching. He writes that he is concerned that he might do something because he is free in the grace of God, but that freedom to do that thing (say eat “unclean” food) might corrupt another who is watching him and who has not yet experienced grace.
I’m always surprised when I hear reports back to me that others are talking about me. Happens professionally all the time–“I heard that you….” I think, “Whoa, am I that important that people talk about me?” I just go on my way daily with no thought that people are watching. But they are.
I hope I’ve been good 😉
Faith Venture 