The Dream Factory

The Moral of the Story

"'Tut, tut child,'" said the Duchess. 'Everythings got a moral if only you can find it.'" Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Everything.

We are not all stuck in a Carollian Wonderland.

Or are we?

We are all observers of the stories of others as they intersect with and pass by our own.

There are thousands of stories within our reach and somehow, one big story comprised of layers and strands of weaving themes.

History.

And everything has a moral ...

    IF you can find it.

Today, as I live, part of and outside of the hectic hubbub of harried, hurried masses, I am looking for the moral of the story.

I want to hear the music and sing along.

I am searching for the meaning, anchored to the greater meaning thaqt anchors me, I want to hear the Message.

I do not believe that the Author and Composer orchestrates every event; He invites us to participate as co-authors in that process. However, I do believe He orchestrates the symphony of meaning that emerges from the dissonance of our bleating attempts to find the right notes and join the rhythmic pulse of the ensemble.

He makes it beautiful and weaves it into the eternal story that we might find the moral of the most mudane.

If I can find it!

I shall consult my composer/conductor who, like every conductor for whom I have ever sung, keeps reminding me not to keep my nose buried in the score with these words, often shouted ...

"LOOK AT ME!"

Gratitude

A "tude" is condition, state, or quality according to the dictionary definition of the suffix.

Our problem is not with the suffixes of our lives. We may not be able to fix them, but we can certainly pre-fix them and thus, redefine and reorient them into something positive and productive.

If you are interested in the vartieties of tudes one might exude, brood over this list.

A sample would include: aptitude, attitude, and altitude, three of my favorites (which make a nice speech or sermon).

One would also be imbued with: magnitude, quietude, vicissitude, and terpitude.

But today, I propose a servitude to gratitude, that one tude that colors our view of our world and informs our thinking about most everything.

Gratitude lifts us as it lifts others out of chance and circumstance and into a higher place of purpose and grace.

We are a people blessed by God. Let us live, not in our conditions, but let us condition ourselves by cultivating the state and quality of thankfulness in every circumstance. Let us prefix that tude to every thought, word, and deed.

 

Cosmos!

Vastness ... Heavens declaring the glory of God .... Wonder ... Magnificence ... Mind boggling awe ... Playful grace ... Awesome power ... I'm glad to live here too ... wherever we are ... centered in His love!

See: A Cosmic Thanksgiving

 

C.L.I.M.B.

"To climb steep hills ... requires slow pace at first." - Shakespeare

The bard was right. Climbing is difficult and arduous, but it is the only way up.

Whether we climb quickly or slowly, it is a process. As Jonathan rallied his armor bearer to climb the mountain and to take on the Philistines, so we have hazardous climbs ahead of us. It is good to know when to climb and how to climb.

Just thinking about climbing and recalling both painful and exhilarating moments in the process, I wondered if an acronym might emerge.

C - Constant clarity and consciousneess of a calling to a higher purpose and the courage to complete the journey - These are the "c"s that seize us for the climb. Perhaps CLARITY and COURAGE are the key "c"s. We must know where we are going and be willing to pay the price to get there. This is where we start and is where we mist stay connected.

L - We need to be liberated from all that holds us down. The liberty to pursue our dreams is vital to our ability to climb higher. We have to loosen our loads and lose our unnecessary burdens before we are free to climb. Assess what is necessary and what is adjunct. Lose the adjunct baggage and lighten yourself for the journey.

I - We must be inspired. Inspiration is as necessary as respiration. It means "spirit within." We must breath in life and breath out all that is not life. God is the ultimate source of our inspiration because it is He who first breathed into us the breath (wind, spirit) of life when we became living souls or persons. Hope inspires. Feed your mind, heart, and spirit constantly with ideas and spiritual food that inspires because after the I comes the M:

M - Mundane monotony is in your future if you choose to climb higher. That is hard because climbers are ofter people whose minds are very busy and whose hearts gravitate toward fresh ideas and new challenges. A commitment to persevere through the boredom of putting one foot in front of the other will move us closer to our goals. Monotony is, sadly, a key word. There will be much adventure, variety, creativity, and room for self-expression along the climb, but there will also be some sheer drudgery. Endure it and keep climbing.

B - Be encouraged to be the best at climbing. Be busy. Be bold. Be brazen without being rude or cruel. Some will always think you to be out-of-line and audacious when you openly attempt great things. Ignore the criticism and opinions of others when that drag you down and BE who you are and who God has called you to be. Get used to the fact that you will be thought odd and worse. You have been fashioned for a purpose. Be willing to invent your own life with God's guidance and to live it.

C = Clarity & Courage; L= Liberty; I = Inspiration; M = Monotony; B = Be

Keep Climbing!

Dreaming and Living

Death is natural. Some things should die. All things shall die. But that which dreams is still alive. If there is even a flicker of a dream, fan it to a flame. As long as you are dreaming, you are living. As long as you are living, keep moving. The Dream Giver is prompting you, step by step, to move in a direction that will surprise and delight. Never stop. When it is time to die, the Dream Giver will let you know and take you by the hand to lead you to the that which is next - the Dream that never dies.

A Rest?

Given the fact that not all people have the exact same political convictions (not even all solid Evangelical Christians), that our country is more important than our individual views, and that we have been through a nasty, hostile, and polarizing political season, I have a suggestion and request. Let's give it a rest.

Relationships are more crucial to building national well being than legislation. Legislation itself, depends on cooperation. Good will is more characteristic of the American experience and aspiration than pervasive bigotry and mistrust. People are willing to bend toward opposing ideas when respected and heard.

All these factors are ample reasons to give the infighting, backbiting, inciting, igniting, and left-righting a much needed rest. Rest from the insults, innuendos, accusations, assumptions, generalizations, characterizations, manipulations, politicization, polarizations, and pious pronouncements along with dire predictions and victory marches. Just rest.

Rest is good. Regroup, rethink, retool, and reflect.

Your opponent's motives are not all wrong and your presumptions are not all right. Knowing that is a good mix of graciousness and humility.

It would be nice to have a conversation with friends I love and respect without having to choose between biting my tongue or defending my positions.

We can maintain our personal integrity without expressing every opinion we have in every context on all the time. And ... my fellow Christians ... we might try trusting God and each other a little more ... especially the One who said, "Come unto me and rest."

There will be ample time to duke it out. I'd just like a break from it - at least the nasty part of it.

 

Peace

Peace cannot be defined by what it is not.

It is not the absence of conflict. It is more.

It is not the cessation of violence. It is that which creates an atmosphere where violence cannot exist.

Peace is well being, within and without. It is wholeness and holiness.

Peace is what we deeply desire and yet, war against within our souls and in our relationships.

Peace is desireing for others what we most profoundly desire for ourselves - the best and fullest joy and grace. It is desiring it and working for it.

Peace is about something within us before it is about something outside of us.

When peace pervades and God's peace stands sentry over our hearts, something beyond comprehension and description happens and we can become instruments of peace.

Let us sow love. Let us proclaim pardon. Let us nurture faith. Let us speak and act in hope. Let us be and reflect light. Let us stimulate genuine joy. Let us die to all that is death and be born to live to all that is truly life.

I have little use for a culture of anger and fear. I have little patience with bickering and polarization. I have an aversion for political fights, but I understand their place in the process. Now is the time for men and women of good will to work together toward peace. Now is the time to do what is best by becoming what we were created to be.

Let there be peace - wholeness, well-being, wisdom, and love.

Amen.

 

Profundities - Number 1

If I ever write a book of profound thoughts, it will be a collection of deep thinking collected in unlikely places like the thought that passed through my hollow, shallow brain the other day in the locker room at the gym. Mark it down as "words to live by."

"If you are wearing high top shoes and your pants are long enough, it really does not matter what color your socks are."

Now, take that to the bank.

 

Angry Voters

I hear a lot about so-called angry voters this year and frankly I either have not met them or have been insensitive to them so that I did not notice their seething or the steam coming out of their nostrils.

Angry?

Anger is not a primary emotion. It comes from fear which is a darned poor motivation to nurture. It is an even worse basis for decision making - especially for people about which it is said, "perfect love casteth out all fear," and to whom it is often said, "fear not."

Perfect love. I have not fully approrpriated it yet, but it is available to me by faith. Sometimes I get afraid - fearful that unwise people will be placed in positions of great responsibility, fearful of change, fearful that fear will rule over good thinking.

But then, I remember to trust in the Lord with all my heart. I remember to turn the dial in my own thinking. I remember that I am only, ultimately responsible for my own choices and that I can choose faith, hope, and love.

Faith, hope, and love abide and the greatest is love.

Jesus said that loving God and loving our neighbors was our entire duty in fulfilling the law. Every law that was worth anything (God's for instance), hung on those two.

There is really not much room for anger in that system and those who spend all of their time prodding people to be angry and act on anger in their decision making are doing no one favors.

Critical thinking is to be applauded. Criticism can be a part of that. Dissatisfaction is often legitimate. The urge for change is natural. It can also be loving. Conservatism grounds us. Liberalism challenges us. Moderation balances us. There is a place for all sorts of thinking as long as it really is thinking.

I voted as soon a I received my ballot in the mail and mailed it back. I have been immune to all the silliness around me ... but still, troubled by the vitrolic utterances and yelling contests.

I vote every day on the choices presented to me. More and more, every day, I strive to act, not in fear and anger, but in faith, hope, and love - especially love.

It is liberating and it is godly and it is that for which I strive with God's  help.

I don't know how you should vote on anything. I do think you should vote intelligently, rationallly, and in acccordance with your own values, but I also think you might consider consciously and consicenteously taking the longest and sharpest view possible through the lenses of faith and hope and, especially, love.

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...... and while you are at it .....

        Humor helps too!

 

                Enjoy this tidbit:

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To Bless

What does it mean "to bless?" How do we bless?

Here is an acronym for what it might mean for us to bless others.

B = Being. We first bless by being who and what we are. It is our lives that must be channels of blessing as we are authentic, vulnerable, and transparent.

L = Living Out. We bless others by living out our lives, living out-loud, living in love, and letting who we are find expression in our actions toward others.

E = Expressing. We can bless others by how we communicate with them, verbally and non-verbally. Expressions of grace, mercy, love, and peace can encourage and uplift if that is our intention.

S = Salt. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth." For these purposes, that is the stewardship of our positive influence in the world. That is what Joseph exercised in Egypt and it resulted in a nation being saved from and through famine.

S = Sharing. We bless by what and how we give as we use our resources for the good of others.

So, the call to bless is a call to authentic being, good deeds, gracious communication, positive influence, and generous giving.

What a difference those five things could make in our communities!

Kyrie Eleison

via www.youtube.com

Lord, Have Mercy!

I pray this often.

Sometimes it is when I am lifting weights. It seems a little heavy. I stop, breath, and pray.

Then I do it, drawing from that which is beyond myself.

My physical exercise becomes a metaphor for the greater exercise of my life and the weights I lift daily.

"My help cometh from the Lord."
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+121%3A1-8&version=NIV

The Tongue in the Cheek

My tongue became enlodged in my cheek  in yesterday's posting ...

It took some doing, but ...

We were able to extract it ...

Though still a bit sore ...

And gravitating toward the cheek ...

I think it has learned from its errors ...

And will lead out in a more serious post ...

Next time.

Deep Thoughts

Deep thoughts ...

I have them ...

They are quite deep ...

And, they are covered with hard pan ...

Many pounds ... tons of hard pan ...

I need something stronger than a shovel to get to them ...

Never mind.

Opinion Anxiety

I keep some of my opinions to myself.

Some would ask, "Which ones?"

Others would comment, "Not many!"

I would chuckle.

I do. I really do ... and I would have many reasons:

- It takes too long to explain them and I lose you in the process.

- There are just too many steps on the journey to developing them (a lot like the first reason, but nuanced).

- We may or may not share the same premises, world views, or assumptions.

- They are just not that important in the larger scheme of things or ...

- They may be important, but not AS important as other things ... but in expressing them, I might give the impression that they are.

- As a result of the last factor, they might assign me a label or identity with wich I am (a) uncomfortable or (b) I find inaccurate or distorted.

- Fear that you might not like me anymore or might reject me ... which is a pretty lousy and disfunctional reason.

- I am not always all that sure of the validity of my opinions.

- Sometimes, it just isn't worth the bother.

There! I have given you a full disclosure of my opinion anxiety. Do you ever have the same feelings? What do you do about them.

You are invited to discuss this here, of Facebook, or on The Religion Forum!

 

The Hated Hero

The Good Samaritan was a neighbor because he had compassion in his heart and acted upon  He came to the rescue of one who had been reckless and careless in his travels and had suffered devastating loss.

He acted with mercy after the broken man had been ignored by one who put ritual before service and another who valued safety above caring.

He is held up as an example because he was the one considered least likely to be a neighbor. He was part of a culture, nation, and ethnicity that was held in suspicion. What we seldom emphasize is that he would have felt the same way about the man he helped if he were also given to the prejudice of his own countrymen.

"You've got to be taught ... to hate all the people your relatives hate. You've got to be carefully taught."

He was the neighbor because he broke out of the confining prison of bigotry and fear and stepped into the wide open space of love.

What might it be like if this were something more than just a nice Bible story told in Sunday School and actually applied and embodied by people of faith today? How radically might it change our behavior as followers of Jesus?

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What I Have Learned

I have a "what have I learned" assignment today thanks to a wonderful and relatively new friend's inivtation to speak to a group of peers.

It behooves me to remove my "expert hat" and be a fellow traveler.

That hat never fit too well anyway.

In fact, I have never really liked wearing hats much. I find them functionally necessary at times as tools, identifiers, shades from the sun, or ... well ... that is all I can really think of.

Hats - I have so many, role-related identifiers.

Whenever I introduce myself I have to do a reality check. What hat am I wearing today? What is the "so what" of the crowd that is my ticket in the door? Why was I invited? What are the needs of the people that I have been sent to serve?

I am not switching between one authentic self to another; I am just turning the side of me that is relevant to the side of the crowd that cares.

And yet, everything relates, integrates, and colors everything else. I am a pastor, preacher, teacher, writer, blogger, community manager, non-profit (public benefit organization) board member, executive director, coach, toastmaster, encourager, singer, chaplain, "barrista" (now and loving it at "our place"), entrepreneur, husband, son, brother, father, GRANDPA (!), disciple of Jesus, human being, friend .....

See, I did not, could not list them in order. The order changes with the setting.

If you ask me what I have learned I have to ask what about! And I have to ask who is asking and what they need/want to know.  What have I learned in what context? Under what hat? As a what? How will it help?

See 1 Cornithians 9:19-23 and ask, "What is the big banner? What is the big hat?"

It is not about having a changing persona; it is about function. All functions serve a greater purpose. I only become all things to all people for the benefit of others. I do that for the sake of a message of good news which is greater than anything that I am. As a result, I get to share in the benefitss ... like Joseph who, for all of his gifts, designations, and complexities, a servant who lived out his life for the benefit of a people not his own in a land not his own ... and came to share in the benefits of life giving service he had offered.

Fellow traveler is a pretty good hat.

What have I learned?

I have learned that I have a lot to learn.

Itch

I woke up with an itch on my back this morning just under my right should blade.

I couldn't get to it. I reached for whatever tools might assist me as I adjusted myself to see my clock.

It read: 2:13 A.M.

I confess. I have not written much on here lately. I have been writing, but my writing has consisted of responses to correspondence, public and private.

The stewardship of this space has been on my to-do list daily, but, as the confession continues, I just haven't had the itch.

Meanwhile, I just could not find a book thin enough to handle, long enough to reach, or hard enough to do the job on that back itch - 2:20 A.M..

I do have an alarm set for 3:00 A.M.. That is my NPR news alarm. I often listen ... and sleep ... until the 4:00 A.M. alarm. I also have one for 4:30 A.M. and a final one for 5:00 A.M..

That is what it takes sometimes.

But I could not shake the itch and had begun to wonder if this might be my breakthrough. Who knows?

Whatever, I got up at 2:30, made my tea, read some scripture and Brother Oswald, started my prayer time, listened to the news, read my email, and here I am.

Both itches have been scratched.

 

Signing Up

Lately, I've been signing up for things - mostly free, but not always.

You have to sign up first; then you can sign-in whenever you like.

I have noticed that if I don't sign-in for a while, I sometimes have to sign-up again.

It is really nutty ... I am trying to find parallels to  participation in the Kingdom of God here and the easy ones come easily ... but the really hard ones ... are really hard.

Something about the whole thing of an easy sign-up and a simple sign-in seems incongruent.

Something about that long list of affiliations sitting somewhere in my in-box and data-bases ... many forgotten, just strikes me as qualitatively different than the call to oddity that is the essence of holiness.

If being a disciple is nothing more than signing up and signing in, then I am reading a different four gospels.

On 9/11, over 40 nations lost citizens. Among these, Australia lost 11, Bangladesh, 6 Canada, 24, Colombia, 17, Germany, 11,Jamaica, 16, Mexico, 16, Philippines, 16, South Korea 28, and United Kingdom, 66.Some were secular in religious persuasion; some were Christian, some Jewish, some Muslim, and some other. The perpetrators were criminals who distorted their own religious teachings for their own fanatical and political ends. They represented no legitimate government and no official religion. To call it war legitimizes what they did. It was a crime inspired by irrational hate. Many heroes rose to the occasion and went up the stairs to save as the masses (many of whom were also heroic) sought to go down to safety. These we honor and remember.

"At the basis of Jesus Christ's kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace." - Oswald Chambers

"At the basis of Jesus Christ's kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace." - Oswald Chambers

The View - Just Seek

Popular television shows aside, we are all looking for a view, viewpoint, or overview that begets perspective on lives that are otherwise, quite confusing.

What do we do? What do we think? How do we filter in  the essential and out the extraneous?

If everything matters, does nothing truly matter? If nothing matters, why bother?

Well, everything does matter and some things matter more in the moment and the secret is to discern the moment and to be in it.

Then, other moments will gather around the appropriate poles like magnetic dust and form a picture. And wherever you are, the view will be clear.

Jesus said, "Seek and ye shall find."

Your task is to find the moments to abandon all tasks and seek.

Just seek. Seekers find. Non-seekers stumble. Grace often intervenes and surprises them - probably because there is something inside all of us that is always seeking. But folks with their eyes and hearts open stand a better chance than the rest of grasping the view at the right moment.

S - Some seek secretly -- and that is OK. Deuteronomy 29;29 says that "the scecret things belong to the Lord, our God. but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law."  Psalm 44.:;21 says that God knows the secrets of the heart. Jesus instructs us to pray in secret. it is there that we can be totally open, honest, and free. No one judges us there and God has no reason to judge us when we are seeking Him.

E - Embrace the essential eagerness of expectancy. Live on tiptoes.In I Corinthians 12:31, Paul admonished his friends to eagerly seek the greater gifts, but to go beyond even that and seek love. It is love that we seek most earnestly and desperately. It is the source of love for which our hearts long. Embrace that eagerness because it is essential to who you are. In other words, that eagerness to love and be loved is the essence of who you are as a child of God.

E - Entertain everyone and everything without expectations. As you take in ideas, thoughts, people, and events, don't hold anything too tightly and do not be bound by what you expect them to "say" to you. God has surpises for you in life as you seek. Seek in and through whatever comes your way, but without predjudice. Like the psalmist in Psalm 27;4, desire most to seek and gaze. Keep your gaze loose. You will not grow weary or lack good things according to Psalm 34:10.

K - Knock. That is part of the "seek and find' promise. Along with it comes asking. If something seems resistant to giving up its hidden knowldge, persist, wait, tap on the door, ask questions, and keep probing. Sometimes you are closer to the unfolding of a mystery than you can imagine, but you grow impatient and move on. If you must move on, keep one eyeball on the prize. You have more than two seeking eyes. You have as many as you need. And you have knuckles enough to nag the nobs off of any closed door. Keep seeking.

What is the view from your vantage? It is the advantage of being wherever you are, acknowledging your presence in that place and moment, and availing yourself of the opportunity to seek - then and there in the here and now.

Don't fret over what you do not, as yet, understand. Let some sunshine in and enjoy the view.

 

 

 

Goodbye Mikey, Big Dreamer!

Micahel Lenhof was my friend and an inspiration to me in many ways. When I received a call yesterday from his mother that he had passed away, I was not shocked. For the last three and a half years, Mike has been languishing.

Mikey was founder of Road to Success Ministries. It was his dream. Even though it never fully developed as he envisioned it, the fact that he had the vision was an inspiration.

I first met Mikey when I arrived in Fresno to pastor what was then called, "Baptist Temple Church." He was meeting with our youth pastor - so wide he took about two seats and so short his feet didn't reach the ground. (Later, he lost a considerable amount of weight.) He was exercising his gifts of selling - specifically in the area of church and school fund-raising.

later, I recruited him for a network marketing company with which I was affiliated. He saw the potential immediately and immersed himself in the program. He didn't miss a meeting and introduced me to many, many people - usually folks he believed he could help with this great plan.

He recruited me for a few things as well and tried to recruit me for more. He was a frequent traveking partner and even showed up for two national conventions of our business.

His physical limitations and learning disabilities made it difficult for him to make much money, but he kept trying.

Mike had a vision to help people with disabilities like himself become independent, self-reliant, and productive in society. I will look for ways to continue that vision.

He was a purpose-driven person who was devoted to Jesus Christ and deeply desired to follow God's call in a ministry to people with disabilities. Mike was also an entrepreneur who had years of experience in sales. When folks told him he was unemployable, he ignored it. He worked as long as he could and always had a plan. he could do sales ... so he did it.

His Social Security was never in danger. he never made enough money ... but he kept plugging away ... and dreaming.

He wasn't always easy to work with. He could get frustrated and that was not always a pretty sight. But he never, ever, ever gave up ... not on an idea and not on people. He had a big heart of love and a capacity to believe in a bright and abundant future.

Even from his bed in a nursing home, he told me to reach in his drawer and pull out a "plan' he had developed that would make us rich and support his ministry.

His last phone call to me went something like this, "Tommy, we've got to get this thing going."

There are only a few people on earth who call me "Tommy."

He usually ran out of steam on the phone after about 45 seconds, but he never ran out of dream.

One of the happiest times in his life was going on a mission trip with Clovis Hills Community Church.

He tried marriage. It just didn't work out. But he gave it a shot. And no one, NO ONE, could deny Mikey a shot at something he wanted to take a shot at.

He was that kind of guy!

People loved Mike because he inspired them and truly cared about them. He started the ministry with a big vision, drive, and passion to help others. He was a winner with a winner's attitude and an overcomer who knew that the source of his strength was God.

I wasn't shocked that he died, but I am sad. I am very happy for Mikey. He has been miserable and now he is doing quite well! Nevertheless, I am sad to see the chapter close, sad for a family that loved him very much, sad for a dream that seems to have died ...

Or has it?

Perhaps it is just waiting for someone to take it up.

Sitting Here

We sit ... and wait for something to move us.

But nothing does.

We wait some more.

Nothing.

Then it occurs to us that maybe, just maybe, we have to move ourselves.

Then, in moving, we figure out what we are doing and where we are going.

It is really hard to move anything with the brakes on.

It is time to get up and get going.

"The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth!" Proverbs 19:20

The Perils of Experience

If an email has the word "Mr" in the "from" box, I always assume it is related to the "Nigerian" spam-scam. The same is true if the opening line is "Dear Beloved in Christ."

Why?

Experience.

Experience can be a great sorting tool. It can be a great wisdom enhancer. It can also be a deadly "limiter."

We have to strike a balance between trusting the lessons learned from experience and being blinded by them.

What if someone really does use the term "Mr" for reasons of their own? What if a person really does consider me to be "beloved in Christ" and chooses to address me that way with sincerity and grace?

90% of the time, my hunches are correct ... but I must be cautious not to miss something importance in the quest for efficiency an safety.

Wisdom is one of the great biblical values, but it is also one of the first great temptations. As I sometimes feel smug about those few areas where I feel wise, I am reminded of our common experience with Miss Eve:

Genesis 3:6 - "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it."

It was just a little voice I heard in the back of my head as I was "sorting" and deleteing my email this morning.

"Not so smug, Tom. Your experience does not encompass the entire universe of possibilities!"

 

Glimpses and Hints

"When the desire is too much to bear, we often bury it beneath frenzied thoughts and activities or escape it by dulling our immediate consciousness of living. It is possible to run away from the desire for years, even decades, at a time, but we cannot eradicate it entirely. It keeps touching us in little glimpses and hints in our dreams, our hopes, our unguarded moments."

GERALD G. MAY, The Awakened Heart 

 

To Label Is to Negate

"Once you label me you negate me." -  Soren Kiergegaard

That one simple observation, that we know intuitively, provides the best argument against hard and fast labels that I know.

It may also be the reason why people are so prone to use them ... on others.

When our arguments against issues or for our own positions are weak, we feel we can score an easy "win" by putting our adversaries into boxes of someone else's making.

Once we have categorized the person, we can dismiss him or her and that person's words as party lines from some villainous sect or persuasion.

It works except for one annoying reality. It is wrong.

And it counts us out of one of those groups that Jesus commended – truth seekers.

If we cannot seek truth in every situation, we cannot seek it anywhere.

Negate nothing but negativity and negate no one … ever.

 

 

"Willfulness must give way to willingness and surrender. Mastery must yield to mystery." - Gerald G. May

"The life that intends to be wholly obedient, wholly submissive, wholly listening, is astonishing in its completeness. Its joys are ravishing, its peace profound, its humility the deepest, its power world-shaking, its love enveloping, its simplicity that of a trusting child." - Thomas Kelly

We Are Dying

It looks as if my life expectancy, given my lifestyle and general health, is about 89.

I assume I will need to work most of those years -- so that may extend things a bit ... or shorten them.

But I will die some time in the next 30-45 years give or take.

That is fine. We will all die. "Fine" comes from the same root at "finite" and "finish."

Life is only fine, as is death, if there is an inevitable conclusion to wrap things up here and move on to what is next.

It is 1:18 in the morning and I really want to get up in 2-3 hours because there is so little time to get everything done ... tomorrow ... and the rest of my life.

And I wasted so much of it today.

I cannot do that tomorrow ... er ... today. I cannot. I will not.

The funny thing is that, in order to insure a good start on "tomorrow" (for lack of a better word), I have to close out "today," which is now "yesterday."

I must create a boundary between the two, a buffer that is sleep. Every finish is a refining for a fine new day to come.

I did "waste" much of today and I have learned a few things in the process. I cannot tell you what it is at the moment, but it is there. In the meantime, I am going to call it wuits. I cannpot improve on Thursday, but I can surely embrace Friday.

Hopefully, there is some food for thought here.

" ... I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God. "

This is from today's "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers.

We are all at sea. We are all vulnerable to waves and apparent chaos. He comes walking toward us and we ask, "Where are we going if we follow you?"

It is, perhaps, the wrong question.

"God's end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now."

So, we walk on it with Him ... and the journey is the destination.

3 Things to Do in a Hurry

I am in a hurry.

I do not like wasting time.

I have some time ... but not much.

I can either do something or write about doing something.

That gave me a title and a premise. What are three things a person can do in a hurry that are valuable in their own right and not just killing time?

THINK - That is one thing. A person can take a moment and reflect, retrospect, or connect the dots on multiple strands of thought. Not usually thought of as something we 'do," thinking actually takes some time, but can be accomplished in small bytes of time.

BLINK - That is another thing. One can close one's eyes and rest a moment. In that resting, one can meditate, cogitate, and integrate one's thinking and experiences. What is wrong with just interjecting and inflicting some margins here and there. If margins give you migraines, then migrate to the third thing you can "do."

WINK - Find someone in proximity to you and engage in a short conversation. If you must consider it networking, exchange business cards. Whatever you do, ask questions, listen, and mentally record what you learn. Talking to people is not just a space filling activity; it is life-enhancing.

If you don't care for those three suggestions, you can always just raise a STINK about how much time you are killing. I don't recommend it. I would prefer to use time to give birth to new and living ideas and relationships.

That is how I just spent the last ten minutes of my life since I started this entry. Now, i must leave for a meeting.

Later!

Have You Considered My Servant, Job?

Here is the deal. God, on speaking terms if not friendly terms, asks the adversary (His, ours, everyone's) if he has thought about Job. Job is a good guy, one of the original good guys. God is asking as if He wonders if the Satan is impressed.

He is not.

Nor is The One surprised.

Satan has a question of his own.

Does job serve God for no pay? After all, he is pretty well off, protected, and blessed. Is that why He has reverence for His Creator, for what he can get out of it?

Most of us, in our most honest moments of self-examination, would admit that we expect something from the deal. Job is plunged into such a season of introspection that he wonders about it himself.

Stripped bare, he has no "fall-back" except to somehow understand himself in terms of His relation to The Eternal.

Personally, I would be happy to think that the accuser/prosecutor/adversary never considered me ... but I know better. If he didn't exist to mess with me, something inside me would probably create him ... but he does and I don't have to. I would be equally satisfied never to confront the question of why I reverence God - just to do it ... but that is not possible either.

It all happens in spasm, tension, and apparent chaos out of which emerges unexplained and unexplainable shalom (I thought about saying, "order," but it is really shalom.).

Is the BIG question ever answered?

In the end, Job finds peace, not in knowing the answers to his questions, but in encounter with The One who keeps bringing them up to us and plunging us into existential reflection. In the end, it is all about relationship, encounter, love, and  even questions ... but very little about answers.

With all affection for Andre Crouch, and with heart agreement regarding his musical pronouncement that "Jesus is the Answer," I am more impressed this day with the troubling and peace-provoking reality that He is also the Question.

Shalom.

Love or Progress

"...we have too often sacrificed love for progress."  - Gerald May, "The Awakened Heart"

I have been reading Gerry May's book at the gym. It is ideal gym reading.

I read a paragraph and then it takes a set of weight lifting to think/pray/meditate it over.

During the time I knew Gerry on CompuServe, I had never read any of his books. How I cheated myself!

I sure need the time between sets to let it all sink in. May is one of the deepest, most profound writers on the inner, spiritual life I have ever read.

I will be posting some quotes from "The Awakened Heart" in coming weeks. Here are a few to start:

"The greatest commandments are not obligations at all, but affirmations of grace."

"We are created by love, to live in love, for the sake of love."

"The only way to own and claim love as our identity is to fall in love with love itself, to feel affection for our longing, to value our yearning, treasure our wanting, embrace our incompleteness, be overwhelmed by the beauty of our need."

I am discovering that I have much to discover, that there is much I lack, and that the dissatisfaction of my soul may be one of the best things in my life.

"When I am weak, then I am strong."

Paul's affirmation of dependent poverty and faith were foundational to his power and influence.

We, who follow The Way, are a paradoxical and conflicted people, who, in the midst of paradox and conflict, possess the sweetest shalom of all.

In a contest between love and progress, I choose love.

Lift

I was lifting weights yesterday.

I suppose I lifted a bit too much -- or for too long --- or on top of an injury --- or something.

No pain, no gain. I know and embrace that. I also know that I can overdo it. There is a balance to it all and sometimes I don't know where the edge is until I've gone over it.

All is well. We break down tissue and the healing brings development, strength, and a host of benefits.

None of those dead weights achieved any benefit from being lifted by me. I received them all. It is different with lifting people. Then, the person lifting and and the person being lifted are both blessed.

So, I thought I'd see what we could do for an acronym on "lift."

L - Love - No to be trite, but if what we do to lift another is not moved by love and enfused with love, nothing positive has happened. It is always about the other person and never about ourselves. When I lift weights, it is about God and me. When I lift people, it is about God and them and I get benefits in a peripheral way.

I - Intuition - How do you know when to encourage, edify, or lend a hand to help? You learn to feel your way through it. You do that by developing the vulnerable art of sensitivity. For some, it comes easy. For others, it is counter-intuitive to be intuitive. However, by slowing down and using all of our senses, we will know when we are needed.

F - Fight - When we lift a weight, we are fighting resistance. The resistance is the weight, but the greater resistance is within us. We press against what seems to be an unmovable force with strength we do not know we possess. And that force retreats. We are lending our shoulders to a soul who does not know he or she can move upward. We are not fighting their battles for them, but with them. We become a team and rejoice with them when they overcome their resistance. In the process, we realize that we have overcome much as well.

T - Today - The question is, and always is, "Who can I lift today?" We make ourselves available and stay available. If we are willing, the one who needs a lift will cross our paths. If will happen because the world is full of people who are struggling. Some are discouraged. Others just need a hand. God will bring you into contact with people who need a lift and with others who will lift you. After all, it is also His work:

1 Samuel 2:8
"He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. "For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's; upon them he has set the world." (NIV)

Getting Organized

If you think there will be some good advice or helpful tips here, you might want to click on. Getting organized is one of the hardest things I do. Staying organized is harder.

And that is what I am doing this morning with my home office, my papers, my email, my computer files, and whatever else seems to need drastic attention.

And that is why I am taking the time to blog. I also went to my garden and did some weeding. Do you have any idea how much I hate weeding?

However, I need to do at least some of this so I can move on to a multitude of projects.

Did you know that the word, "organize" cannot be found in the Bible? Not in the KJV, the NIV, nor the NASB. However, it is in The Message 19 times. 

The first is Joseph advising Pharaoh on how to cope with the coming famine and plan ahead for seven years of want. It will involve delegation and organization of a network of leaders who will implement a plan that gathers around a central theme.

In the NIV, the word, "order" appears frequently. Once it refers to a life that is swept clean of an evil spirit, well ordered, and yet, empty of real substance. The enemy returns and brings back a van load of compatriots to reoccupy the house. One moral is that organization is not always enough. There must be something to organize and it must be integrated around something or Someone worthy of being the Central Idea (Logos-Word).

I received a distracting phone call as I was writing this about a matter of real urgency. Is it a distraction or is it part of the unifying theme (as I hope taking a break to write this is)?

I don't really know. I told you that I was really bad at this.

However, i do get the point about central, big, unifying ideas.

And I am working on that.

Now, where did I put my to-do list?

No Nothing

In the first place, I take it as a matter of faith that there is no nothing.

Not now.

"The earth WAS without form and void and darkness covered the face of the deep."

Not now and never again.

There is always something.

What we perceive as nothing, that which is beyond our comprehension, is not formless and void ( תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ tohu - wa -bohu)   Even "in the beginning," before form, there was Word and Word created wisdom.

So, when there was nothing, there was all that would be, existing as something in the Mind of God.

That which can neither be created nor destroyed occupies the vastness of unknown and uncharted territories of space. There is that which we perceive to perceive not - empty space, but space is something - if only possibility.

There is no nothing ... only what we perceive as nothing or cannot perceive or conceive at all. Can we not receive what we cannot perceive?

What we cannot know, we can contemplate, celebrate, and cogitate.

Better still, to meditate and anticipate and thus, receive as a gift.

The great gift of nothingness is the "somethingness" of it all. The vastness of spaciousness is the space to celebrate grace. The wonder of life is wonder itself which we enter into as worship of the One.

It makes no "sense" to us and need not. It leads to trust and trust to childlike embrace. We enter into the embrace of grace through faith and never stop exploring.

If that is all true, and I take it to be without fully comprehending even my own thoughts or words, then there is also that inner space to be explored. There is that realm of possibility where we perceive only emptiness and void. It is taking form because Word has spoken there is no nothing there.

We might feel inclined to be "know nothings," but we exist in a universe where there is no nothing.

Let us bathe in the beauty of that which we cannot fully know until we know as we are known.

You are not yet all that you are becoming, but you are much more than you think.

That is all ... or is it?

Nothing Is New

Nothing is absolutely new in this world.

It is recycled, reconstituted, repackaged, or rediscovered, but it is not entirely new ...

Except today. Today is entirely new and we are new in it.

Every thought, idea, experience, dream, and individual is new.

I am new and renewed today by grace.

God's blessings are new every morning.

The sun is now beginning to rise on this new day and I shall walk outside to greet the morning.

The new morning!

From Ponderosa, CA

I was able to slip away for a few minutes to a coffee shop with WiFi a mile from camp.

But first ... I watched a ripple in the pond this morning.

I could not tell whether it came from below or above. It did not matter.

Nor can I tell where it goes when I can no long see its concentric, expanding rings that diminish from my sight.

Yet, I believe that they continue, and that, without limit into an infinite sphere known only to God ... who along knows their origin and destiny.

And mine.

Going to Camp & Offline

I am leaving for camp in a few hours where I will be camp pastor for the week. There is no Internet access there (or very slow and borrowed) and my cell phone does not work. It is my annual week without contact, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, CompuServe, email, or even news of the outside world.

It is both welcome and, at the same time, a source of anxiety.

The anxiety does not last very long though ... and is  smoothed over by several realities:

1. Contrary to my thinking, I do not have to complete all my assignments before I leave town ... especially if I have procrastinated them for this long. What is another few days?
2. I will be back before I know it. Everything will wait till then.
3. More so ... I will be back before YOU know I was gone ... or care.

I will see you all then.

If I happen to post anything in the next few days, it was postdated. I did not sneak back into civilization.

Eyebrows and Countdowns

I raised a couple of eyebrows when I told some folks I was doing a wedding vow renewal ceremony on a Tuesday morning. Those eyebrows practically levitated when I told them where.

In 25 minutes, I will be conducting this celebration of a 25th anniversary at the Clovis Cemetery.

No. The marriage isn't over. I am not confused. This is not an amicable and morbid dissolution blessing.

I am not sure why we are going to be there, but I might postulate:

• It is a lovely place.
• Family is buried there who contributed to these lives and will always be part of them.
• It isn't too busy, crowded, or costly.

Perhaps there is a deeper meaning.

Twenty five years ago, they said, "Til death do us part."

And they still mean it.

We will all end up there (at least our bodies). It never hurts to be reminded.

Thus, the countdown ... and I am on it. I now have 20 minutes.

I have no idea how much time I have to get the rest of my work (and loving) done. Only God knows. I just know two things this morning ... maybe three.

1. It isn't indefinite. I will some day die.
2. The less time I spend thinking about and writing these things, the more comments I receive.
3. It probably would not hurt anything if I showed up early for the ceremony.

No bad jokes about how I am just dying to get there.

"Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom." - Psalm 90:12 (New Living Translation (c) 2007)

Be Vulnerable; Get Real

"We would do well not to be enamored by the kind of leadership that is so prized by politicians and CEOs, the kind that is conspicuous and, as we say, "effective." Forget about charisma, go for character." - Eugene Peterson, The Unnecessary Pastor (adapted)

When I encourage people to be vulnerable, they sometimes look at me with a curiosity that makes me wonder if grass is growing out of my head or my face has turned purple.

Vulnerability, authenticity, and honest abandon to the truth of who we are is as foreign as any alien wandering the streets of Arizona desperately seeking to avoid police contact.

In fact, we are just as desperate to avoid being found out for who we truly are.

So, we wear camouflage our characters, paint our faces, and hide our vulnerabilities from a would we suspect will reject or deport us or worse. If they knew us, we think, they would reject us. If we disclose ourselves, we will never get ahead. If we are real about who we are, we will be left alone in an abyss of insignificance.

We don't like ourselves as we really are, and assume that neither God nor man can like us, much less love us, employ us in service, nor include us in a larger plan.

How deluded we have become in deluding ourselves.

It is the very act of disclosing ourselves and being real that causes us to become likable, lovable, and usable. It is the very act of faith in getting real with God that informs our souls that we are already loved, cherished, accepted, and graced with a grace with could not earn nor deserve.

It is in coming to the Christ who gave Himself for us that we find ourselves already welcomed  by Him. It is in dropping our guard, that we are embraced.

Our true character is that real self we were made to be. It is the true nature of one transformed by the Word and will on the one who created us.

Just be yourself and allow your character to be shaped by the most creative force in the universe.

Sizzling Like Bacon on a Saturday Morning

I like bacon. I like its taste, smell, and the sound of it sizzling in a pan on a Saturday morning. I like success too!

@jamescollier is someone I consider an expert in this matter and he says that if you mention "bacon" in your blog or on Twitter, you will get more hits.

So, I thought I would try it.

I am not eating bacon these days, but the sound and aroma of bacon sizzling on a Saturday morning is as alluring in my memory as anything I can think of.

Bacon sizzles and every entrepreneur I know wants to sizzle as well. Whether you are a spiritual, social, or business entrepreneur (or a combination of one or all), you will want to turn up the heat on your endeavors and create the aroma of success.

How?

Beyond attitude, which is first, and aptitude, which you can acquire, there is activity. The activity is in the details, the little things ... like one strip of bacon sizzling on a Saturday morning ...

... or like acquiring a tiny piece of information and trying it out for size.

That is what I am doing here and now. Can you smell it? Can you hear it? Does it trigger thoughts and emotions lodged in your memory?

Thanks to James, I went home and did an acronym for BACON --- but that is for a later post. After all, one try is not enough.

If you have been to a seminar, a webinar, a talk, or a meeting and have gone away with one tidbit of information or a pregnant idea, that is great! But it is only great if you follow through with activity. You must DO SOMETHING with that idea. Apply it!

I think that this "sizzlingest" entrepreneurial thinkers are always collecting and applying ideas through trial and error. They are hungry for morsels the way a person awakens to the sound and smell of bacon sizzling on the stove. They are drawn to the source and moved to participate.

Learn something today ... even if it is merely a morsel from the buffet of great ideas. Learn it and apply it.

You will sizzle like bacon on a Saturday morning.

Ye Shall Not Be So

""And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve." - Luke 22:25-26

Contrast! It is so ... clashing!

We try to meld, but not so much that we don't push ourselves to the front or climb over others to get to the top.

Into that context, Jesus introduces a counter-cultural, counter-intuitive jab in the sides of our psyches, "Ye shall not be so."

How can it be? How does it work? What if it doesn't work? What do I have to gain or lose?

More important is the question: How can I change my thinking about this?

Ye shall not be so.

It is the parent saying to the children of the household, "You are a [insert family name]. Wherever you go, you represent this family. Whatever the other children do, you [insert behavior]. In our family, we [insert behavior again] and we don't [insert negative behavior to be avoided]. Do you understand?"

And the children nod - and will need to be reminded ... and so will we.

We don't want to be different and we don't want to be left behind in the rat race.

It is a tall order not to be pushy when we are being shoved in every direction and the push seems to be working for others. It is a hard thing not to try to win by intimidation when there is so much of it going on. It is extremely difficult not to play the game by the same rules that seem to be accepted by the majority of the players.

It is also tough to turn into the skids when we hit a patch of ice ...

... but it is the only way to regain traction.

The path of servant leadership is a bit untraveled, but it is the path of authenticity. The badge of  a Jesus follower is service.

The Kind of Jesus He Is

"I want neither a terrorist spirituality that keeps me in a perpetual state of fright about being in right relationship with my heavenly Father nor a sappy spirituality that portrays God as such a benign teddy bear that there is no aberrant behavior or desire of mine that he will not condone. I want a relationship with the Abba of Jesus, who is infinitely compassionate with my brokenness and at the same time an awesome, incomprehensible, and unwieldy Mystery. " - Brennan Manning

It is always a good sign when the kind of anything we want is the kind of anything that it is - or anyone.

Manning expresses a desire for the kind of Jesus that I see in the gospels, the kind that I know from experience, and the kind I see reflected in the lives of people who know Him.

He is, at the same time, soft and rugged, kind and tough, non-judgmental and brutally honest. He is the incarnate one who can be known and wholly Other who is beyond our reach.

When Word becomes flesh, it is an entirely new ballgame with which there is no comparison to aid our understanding.

And that's the way I like it!

The Place Where God Calls You

"The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet."
— Frederick Buechner (Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC

God calls us to space, place, face, and at His own pace to and through grace to meet Him and one another.

Genesis 12:1 was a far more significant turning point for Abraham that he or we could know. The place/land He will show us may be a mystery where we are likely to touch the misery of humanity in a way that we can face it, doing more than occupying space, but imparting grace.

It is the pace of it with which I sometimes argue.

Yet, that is not my place. My place is where I am placed.

May my deep and abiding gladness in being accepted, loved, embraced, and forgiven overcome all my reservations and meet, with contagious joy, the hunger of a broken world.

God's Care for the Oppressed

God has this great "thing" for the poor and oppressed.

Don't take my word for it.

Psalm 146

 ⁷ He upholds the cause of the oppressed
       and gives food to the hungry.
       The LORD sets prisoners free,

 ⁸ the LORD gives sight to the blind,
       the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
       the LORD loves the righteous.

 ⁹ The LORD watches over the alien
       and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
       but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.  (NIV)

God loves the broken of this world.

Question: If God seems to have this decided bias for the oppressed, the hungry, the prisoners, the blind, the bowed down, the righteous, the alien (Yes, the alien), the orphan, and the widow, ought not we?  If He frustrates the ways of the wicked who oppress these, ought we not be cheering Him on?

Whose side are we on when we align ourselves only with those who can improve our own standards of living and who work only for self-interest?

We must follow our dreams. But we must hold our dreams up before God and ask if they are aligned with His dreams. We must focus on goals, but we must allow God to scrutinize our goals. Perhaps our dreams and goals are too measly for us. perhaps we have settled for something less than God's larger dream. Perhaps our circle of hope is too tightly woven around our own personal desires.

Isaiah said it first in Isaiah 61:1-2 and it is then quoted by Jesus as His life mission in Luke 4:18-19. It is the calling to be God's instrument of peace to the most vulnerable of the earth:

" ¹The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

 ²To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;"

Jesus stopped at, "...the acceptable year of the Lord ..." not because the rest was not true, but because He was speaking of His own mission in that moment, His dream, His goals, His calling.

Then, in John 20:21, He declares,

" ... Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."

If our dreams, visions, and goals are to be aligned with His, we must be sent as He was sent and go as He went to live our lives for the Greater Dream.

You can claim that He is only referring to spiritual deliverance if you like, but you will be taking great hermeneutic liberties. Of course, it is spiritual. And of course, we are all poor and broken if we get honest with God. The richest among us is needy and poor.  But there is no room for dismissing the obvious and simple application that God is concerned for those who are oppressed by wicked people and institutions in this world.

He is biased toward those who are downtrodden. He takes the side of those who do not have the power to take their own side.

For that reason, I am neither a loyal Republican or Democrat. The politics of Jesus is such that is a bit simpler and, at the same time, more complicated. Both parties are sometimes right and often wrong. That is OK because they are human and doing their own thing.

But there is no party or political philosophy with which a Christian can and ought to be entirely comfortable.

For the same reason, I cannot view my business goals and dreams for success as merely secular pursuits. They are part of a larger view and a bigger dream.

I encourage people to think positively and move toward success as part of this understanding that God wants to lift people and wants to use us to lift people as well. But it is in the context of a deeper understanding and wider perspective.

It is wrapped up in God's grace, in Christ's redemption, in the call to repentance, in the invitation to personal salvation, and in the call of Jesus to follow Him to those places where people are needy and hurting. I cannot be convinced that there is some division between a social conscience and an evangelical message, between a concern for the needy and principles of personal success. They must must be integrated and they must be understood in light of God's big picture.

He is personally invested in the business of lifting people who are broken ... and so must we be, whether our primary calling is ministry through the church, through business, or through public service.

I filter my thinking about many issues through this understanding of the Word and heart of God.

Laid Bare

The essence of our communion with God is being laid bare before Him. God, throughout scripture, is disclosing Himself to us. It is called "revelation" when He does it. In prayer, we are disclosing ourselves to God and receiving His own revelation in a fresh and intimate way.

But you may say, "God already knows me - inside and out."

True, but that knowledge is not an intimate relationship any more than a stranger reading your profile on the Internet. He does know you, but that is only His half of the relationship.

The psalmist invited God to know him.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts." - Psalm 139:23

God did not need to be better informed. The psalmist needed to be known.

You might also say, "I can know all that is to be known about God by reading the Bible."

The word, "about" is telling. Again, it reduces intimacy with God to second hand knowledge and passive awareness.

Moses prayed for more in Exodus 33:13.

"If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people."

He could not bear the thought of the leadership responsibility upon his shoulders without an intimacy with God.

In "laid-bare-prayer," we get personal. God invites us into relationship that is real, personal, and enlightening.  In order to be so, it must also be honest - embarrassingly, brutally, and ruthlessly so.  

How do we "do it?"

Perhaps that is the wrong question. We love "how to" and "just do it" solutions which work in certain dimensions of life. But they do not always take us deeper with God. In that dimension, we begin with desire and follow desire with becoming that we may be.

We start, by laying ourselves bare before God and seeing where that leads.

This Is Prayer

This is prayer.

We move in the direction of God.

The movement itself is far more important that the words we use or the sentiments we experience. It is the movement that expresses the true intentions of our hearts.

The movement is the most honest and reliable indicator of our spiritual progress ... whether we know it  or feel it or not.

Let us move toward God today.

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." - Hebrews 4:16  New International Version (©1984)

Holiness

Today, I seek from God what I must give to God. It is a presumptuous request and an audacious expectation that I could be what I seek to be, holy.

Holiness is fully integrated wholeness before God and within ourselves. It is sincere, focused attention and utter consecration.

It is being that flows through doing.

It is knowing who we are and Whose we are.

It is belonging.

It is availability.

It is the capacity to stand in awe and chuckle at the twists and turns of life as God intervenes in life.

It is what I lack and what I have at the same time.

"Be holy, for I am holy ," (Leviticus 11:44) is quite an assignment. Yet, every asSIGNment is a sign of hope and possibility.

By God's grace and incarnate sacrifice, we are holy because we have been bought with a price. We are holy in spiritual reality, but we may lag in actualization. I do.

Dear Fanny Crosby, whose only light was the light of God within her, blind to the world, but ever so perceptive to the Spirit, penned her hearts desire this way. I make it a prayer today as well:

I am Thine, O Lord

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith
And be closer drawn to Thee.

Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.

Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the power of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.

O the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God
I commune as friend with friend!

There are depths of love that I cannot know
Till I cross the narrow sea;
There are heights of joy that I may not reach
Till I rest in peace with Thee.

Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.

This is my personal devotion for the day, the focus of my attention as I set out on my various tasks of living. It is my meditation as I seek to integrate the loose strands of life's demands and make myself available to God and the world as a follower of Jesus.

It is my prayer. It is my intention. It is my heart.