2013 in Review

Here are some of my favorites from 2013:

January:
Dead or Dormant?
Choosing Strength
Aggressive Forgiveness
Letting Them Go
Hope for a New Year!

February:
I Asked
Blessed Are Those
The Need for Silence
Not A Reward

March:
New, Undiminishable Hope
Real Manhood and Steubenville
Once You're Motivated
Neuroplasticity and Habits
All Fortune

April:
Emptiness
What You Know vs What You Feel
the Table
Tragedy
Immodesty

May:
Will Himself Restore You
With Deep Affection for the Forest
Awakens
The Problem is Not the Internet - It's Me
Freedom Attracts

June:
Awareness
Law and Freedom
Rigor
Farther Away
Discernment in Solitude

July:
Even If You Fail
Poverty
Our Hands Are Too Full
Pictured Rocks
What I Really Need the Most

August:
Content Of Their Character
8 Things You Should Not Do Every Day
Meaningful Expression of Care
Through Each Other's Eyes
Seasons of Grieving

September:
The Only True Disability
Only He Who Listens Can Speak
The Difference
Killing Our Kids With Kindness
It Is Doubtful

October:
Conformity
Fine Word...and Doubt
Focus - Well You Don't Say
Talking A Good Game About Being Open-Minded
Comparison

November:
Best Football Play of All Time
Boring Romance
Being Honest - I Need Help
Sleep On It
Standardized Test Scores

December:
What We See
The Angels Sing
Dare Not Explain It Away
Nelson Mandela
The Bridge

Opportunity to Experience

Suffering may be someone’s fault or it may not be anyone's fault. But if given to God, our suffering becomes an opportunity to experience the power of God at work in our lives and to give glory to Him.

-- Anne Graham Lotz

What We See

To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us.

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dog On It!

Riches of Heart

God examines both rich and poor, not according to their lands and houses, but according to the riches of their hearts.

-- St. Augustine

Not To Be Mended

I feel that I am not to be mended, but transformed.

-- Seneca

This, perhaps, is the real energy of our joy...we're not just being fixed or refurbished, we are being made completely new. The old has gone, the new is here!

Joy To The World!

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

-- Isaac Watts

No improvement can be offered on these words, this song of joy.

We thank you, our glorious God...as in this prayer.

The Angels Sing

The singing of angels.  Singing seems synonymous with angels to us and yet it is something we hardly ever actually expect to hear.

What would it have been like this night so long ago?  A line from the famous carol snuck into me this year and got my attention:

Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

-- Hark, The Herald Angels Sing

The Highest of Heaven was pleased to dwell with us!  Besides the notion of this being a bit unfathomable, what is it that would make God want to 'live with us'?  ...but, He does.  If we understood the ramifications of this, our response would be much like that of the angels because:

The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

-- Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem

 

Pursuit & Force

Pursuit without forcing something is a delicate task.  And, it is easy to give up on the former out of fear of the latter.

Waiting is just hard...we are so inclined to take matters into our own hands.  An active waiting doesn't give up, doesn't quit, but is willing to wait....this may, in fact, be at the heart of love.

...and the goal can't be to 'try without getting hurt' in the process.

Be Still...and Wait Patiently

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him....

-- Psalm 37:7

Some people I call Christmas Christians. The most important thing about their Christian faith is believing that the Baby Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. Their favorite hymn is "Joy to the World."  Others I'd label Lenten Christians, whose faith revolves around sin, guilt and forgiveness. Their symbol is the cross.  Then there are Pentecost Christians, on fire with the Spirit's energy and gifts.

I'm an Advent Christian...Advent Christians can't rest content. We long to be what we are not yet.

As an Advent Christian, God's promises help sustain me in hope. I can accept my experience of exile and the existence of suffering in the world. I don't have to pretend that this life is all there is. I can live with my longings; I don't need to deny them. I can be mindful of the reality around me. I can sing of the reality to come.   Read the rest here....

-- Ronald Klug

After a too busy season that has now landed me in a chair with a view to the mountains of Colorado Springs, I am finally able to sit in some stillness today and ponder much of waiting I haven't been doing.

 

Pike's Peak has stayed here the whole time I have been gone...and maybe a few years before that. (I do live some illusion that stillness requires place, when it is actually more of a state of being - but, hey, this scene does help me). I am reminded again of 2 things: 1) that space needs to be created, and 2) that being still is essential to well-being.

I am hoping again for just one more thing...the Hallelujah Chorus, somewhere, somehow.

Chilled Faith

Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and selfishness that have chilled his faith.

-- Thomas Merton

I appreciate this reminder - it helps pop the bubble of judgment that so easily grows within me.

There Is Still Something Good

Business takes its lumps in our culture today and some of it is most certainly deserved -- greed is alive and well. So it is nice to see an example of the other side of things - good things that often goes on unheralded:



...at the very least, it taps into the spirit of something very human we all enjoy - listening, surprise, and giving to others - especially this time of year.

Dare Not Explain It Away

Twice now in the last month (that I recognize anyway), I have received something from someone that would be easy just to 'explain away'. Both times, once the initial 'that's nice for someone to do' has passed, I have felt tempted to dismiss the 'message' on the grounds someone was just following a protocol or with something like 'well that's just that person doing their job' -- either way, the conclusion tempting me was that it was not really personal (how could it be, if the sources had no first-hand knowledge of my current experience / needs).

But, what I have risked missing in that temptation, is the reality that God is wanting me to know something; and, that He is using others to communicate it to me. If I dismiss the message, I am really dismissing something else, Someone Else, that wants to 'courage' me to continue faithfully in the battles of life.  ...like refusing gifts at Christmas.

"God (himself) wants you to hear what is being said to you...He sees you" is something I am allowing myself to receive. I dare not explain it away. So now I repeat it to myself, "God wants you to hear this...", when I can. The truth of this is vital to both my well-being and sensibilities. I have challenged myself to receive these for what they are, rather than yield to the temptation to toy with what they aren't.

Thank you, God, for impressing this gift upon me...and for the ways you let me know that you Care. Help me to listen, recognize, and receive these gifts of yours to me.

Another Day

Thank you for another day...another chance to give.

...not another day to live, another day to give.

I don't feel this at all...today.  I'm frustrated, tired, and discouraged.  I feel stuffed with myself, with no room in my heart.

But, the thought above...that this is not why I live...gives me courage to at least consider more than just what I feel today.  To unstuff myself.  To allow room to be created.

Today is another day...to give!

Sleep

It's significant that a recent study found that getting enough sleep turned out to be a major preventive in depression.

-- Deepak Chopra

Your Energy, Not Your Time

 

The reason we work 8 hours a day isn’t based on science. It’s just a century-old practiced based on running factories efficiently -- and is irrelevant in today's creative economy. Today the right focus is on your energy, not your hours, according to the author Tony Schwartz, who says, “Manage your energy, not your time.”

Schwartz explains we all need to manage four different types of energies every day:

• Physical energy: How healthy are you?
• Emotional energy: How happy are you?
• Mental energy: How well can you focus on something?
• Spiritual energy: Why are you doing all of this? What is your purpose?

Machines move linearly, humans move cyclically.  

-- Leo Widrich

If you follow the posts below, you can probably see that I am increasingly fascinated with the studies coming out on the organic nature of the human brain. Here's one that I think is quite helpful on what is going on in our society related to stimulus, patterns, focus, and rest and their effect on the brain:  Finish this good read on what research is revealing to us in this area.

Joy

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

-- John 15:11

I am grateful for 4 powerful words of Christmas -- their Advent teaches me to wait.

Joy is one that seems more...elusive, harder to grasp.  What does it mean to know joy?  Even more, what does it mean to know it completely?  This was Jesus' desire.  Something really powerful going on...powerful enough that he would die in order to realize it with us:

Fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross...

-- Hebrews 12:2

Conner's 20th Birthday Present - UM vs #1 Arizona

 

And almost a victory to add to a great game...SO CLOSE!!!  More pics here....

Won't Apply To Me

Its funny, you can observe what happens to your parents and relatives. But for some reason, you just don't believe those circumstances will ever apply to you.

1. Your son-in-law will see you old and naked.
2. In sickness and health, for richer or poorer are not exceptions. They are accurate predictions.
3. Your life will be magical.

Sad, funny, true...really worth reading.

-- Lisa Earle McLeod

Two Most Important Days

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

-- Mark Twain

Cages

We all live in cages with the doors wide open.

-- George Lucas

Most Powerful Thing

To realize that someone who wants to change and cannot do so, without our forgiveness, is a most powerful thing.

This thought woke me recently after watching the movie, The Warrior, with my son; a powerful story about fighting...for relationship.

Nelson Mandela

Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill your enemies.

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

-- Nelson Mandela, Nelson Mandela Foundation

More on the story of his death here.

Waiting and Resurrection

Waiting for Christ’s second coming and waiting for the resurrection are one and the same. The second coming is the coming of the risen Christ, raising our mortal bodies with him in the glory of God. Jesus’ resurrection and ours are central to our faith. Our resurrection is as intimately related to the resurrection of Jesus as our belovedness is related to the belovedness of Jesus. Paul is very adamant on this point. He says: “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ cannot have been raised either, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is without substance, and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:13-14).

Indeed, our waiting is for the risen Christ to lift us up with him in the eternal life with God. It is from the perspective of Jesus’ resurrection and our own that his life and ours derive their full significance.

...as followers of Jesus we can look far beyond the limits of our short life on earth and trust that nothing we are living now in our body will go to waste.

-- Henri Nouwen

Yeah, Baby! Dance-Cam Duel

Not your typical Dance-Cam after the first 30 seconds...gotta watch the kid and usher duelin'!



...you just can't not smile, if not laugh out loud!

OK, OK, as long as we're video-ing today...check this one out. I don't even like the song that much, but the musicality of this one is...well, you just can't beat it!

The Bridge

The bridge from fear — and its redeemed form, hope — to peace is active waiting....

We all long for peace, and at many levels.  We would desire love and joy, even more.  But, we'll take peace...there is so little of it.

The kernel of this longing is hope that it can still happen.  And, if hope can crawl into our view, the prospect of peace is aroused.  But, we can't strive for it.  The troubled effort to achieve peace does not work...ever.

We have to wait for it.  When we have hope for peace and are willing to wait for it, strangely, it unexpectedly arrives (Lamentations 3:24-26)...

...and it rings like Longfellow's bells of Christmas within us.

The Waters Below

The waters below are tempestuous.  Every truth becomes real, when a story surrounds it...reveals it.

The past couple of months have been increasingly anxious for me.  Obligations at work require that I make decisions that are impacting people's lives in tangible ways.  If we don't make them, we will not long have a business.  ...the rationale comes fairly easily, in the big picture; it's just business.

But, the disruption doesn't settle quite this easily - it isn't what we want to be.  It isn't what I want to be.  And, something lurks beneath the roiling, splashing surface - deeper things, deeper pains, personal memories of when I was the recipient of the decisions I now have to make.  It reminds me....

It reminds me that there isn't complete disconnect that I, myself, could be in the very same situation again...like the very ones I am creating.  How to prevent!?  ...instinct galvanizes my attention.  But, the solutions remain elusive.  Things I am attempting to control are really...out of my control.  And my memories remind me of how true this is.  The days continue...relief is not emerging, as the waters rage on towards a waterfall.  I dig at myself...questioning - looking for something, at least, I can control for (I tell myself).

...I have not been embracing Peace - peace itself or the Giver of it.  I have been seduced away...believing that I have to work harder at something, in order to save myself, if I could just find it.  The rain-waters fill up the gorge; the banks are increasingly separated.  As I dangle above them, I am closer to falling in...and being swept away.  Or, so it seems....

But, it isn't really true.  Fear, not Peace, is prevailing.  I am recognizing these waters...and that everything that really matters is actually still OK (even if life becomes more painful).  I am secure.  I can stand in this moment...trusting, waiting.  ...waiting for something far greater than simply the relief from the threatening waters below me.

...a Bridge is forming beneath my feet.

A Sense of Oneness

They are inspired. Not by being shown, which is only the first step in the leader’s task, but by connecting their personal needs and values with what the leader is proposing. Connecting is an act that arises from within the followers out of their own sense or degree of alignment. The success of the large vision aligns with their own personal vision of success---material, financial, but mostly spiritual---so that their involvement serves both the larger as well as their personal ambition. The only difference is a matter of scale.

The act of inspiration is equivalent to capturing the imagination of those who join and in that sense a oneness is created -- a non-manipulated, organic unity of spirit and effort.

A leader not only has a message he/she delivers in words but in spirit even more profoundly.

-- Jim Sniechowski

Inspiration

Inspiration exists, but it must find you working.

-- Pablo Picasso

Now

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The second best time is now.

-– Chinese Proverb

Boast Your Merits?

If you are to receive your due, you must be punished. What then is done? God has not rendered you due punishment, but bestows upon you unmerited grace. If you wish to be an alien from grace, boast your merits.

-- St. Augustine