“You are living and breathing because he has hope you will believe for the impossible” – Bill Jonson
Boom.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bethel-church-sermon-of-the-week/id76583739?mt=2&i=1000427188577
Start at 20:45 to hear that quote and the rest of the story about who you are and why you’re here.
After watching Notre Dame get destroyed by Clemson, fuming about how instant replay makes the game so long and generally being frustrated about what a waste of time it all is, I deleted the ESPN and Formula 1 apps off my phone. So how, you may ask, do I know Christian Pulisic is getting ready to move to Chelsea FC? Ah, turns out you can add your favorite sports or teams to the Google search app and still get highlights….
Going back to yesterday’s post, I can set up rules for myself but the rules don’t always work because I’m pretty sneaky and strong willed.
Paul puts it this way – “Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” (Colossians 2:23 NIV)
My friend Adam would say the pathway out includes having a vision for my life, being clear about what I want and why I want it, then making the appropriate choices and taking the next right actions.
I’ve noticed that when I hit a wall, when I fail, when I sin – my default reaction is to step up the constraints on my life. What if the actual answer lies in the opposite direction?
It is for freedom Christ set us free. Why would I submit again to a yoke of slavery?
I may need a new understanding of how good the good news truly is, how good God is, how he wants me to manage my freedom and expand it, rather than institute a series of laws against myself that do not work. In fact, scripture tells us the laws we insert in our own lives have the opposite effect from what we intend.
Jack says it well –
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses
Yesterday morning I led a conversation about self awareness in our group, much of it influenced by Tasha Eurich’s interview on the HBR ideacast.
Eurich challenges that 95% of us believe we are self-aware, but only about 15% of us are. The odds are pretty good that I’m not as self-aware as I think I am.
She suggests asking trusted friends, “what’s the most annoying thing about me?” You can learn a lot from those who love you and are willing to be honest. After group, one of my friends called me and asked me that question. I struggled through my answer, confronted with what it meant to give this kind of feedback to someone I care about. Then I asked him the same thing.
“When you listen, you’re often attempting to solve a problem instead of just listening, asking questions, and being with people.” Ouch. He’s right on the mark. I needed to hear that, and more, I want to be present with people without having an agenda.
How can you grow today in self-awareness, without falling into self-absorption or self-consciousness?
I’m reading Bob Goff’s new book, Everybody Always, and he keeps coming back to this phrase “becoming love.”
Remember philosophy class, and the statement that God is pure being? We have being, from him, but we are in process, we are becoming. And this process, spiritual formation, is either making us more like him (love) or less like him.
Colossians 1:27 tells us that we have Christ in us, the hope of glory. Love in us, joyful, confident and full of expectation, transforming us into love as well. When I see myself and my life thru this filter, it’s easier to take in stride or make sense of some of the really hard things in my life. He’s working all things for good, teaching me how to love and shaping me into love itself.
Has God given you a word for this year? Have you asked him?
My sheep hear my voice and they follow me, says Jesus in John 10:27. A word from him can set the tone for what’s coming and give you clues about what he’s up to and what to look for.
My word this year is intentionality. From Google dictionary:
noun: intentionality
the fact of being deliberate or purposive
I’m indebted to Graham Cooke and a message I listened to that inspired the following coaching I gave a friend who’s wrestling with some lies he’s believed for a long time. Those lies have embedded themselves in his self-talk, and created an inner world of unworthiness, self-loathing and shame. He knows better, and he knows that he knows it. And yet he’s stuck in this rut and looking for a way out. I know what that feels like, having done this same work earlier this year.
If you’re in a similar spot, here’s the work I did and recommended for my friend:
1. Make a list for yourself of all the agreements and lies.
2. Recognize, along the lines of Isaiah 61, that he is the God of instead. Figure out the exact opposite of the lie/agreement from the first list and write that out on another list. This is the truth of who you are and how God sees you. The first list is just the attack, the enemy trying to keep you from being who you were designed to be.
3. Destroy the first list, there’s no reason to keep record of it, it’s not who you are and it’s not how God sees you
4. Take the list from Step Two and fashion it into a series of affirmations that you can read. This is your personal story and destiny with God. You’re going to start speaking this over yourself. Put it in an easy place to get access to, like your phone. You can pull it up and read it a couple times out loud per day.
Remember: Don’t save the first list. No one needs to see it and you don’t need to ruminate on it.
Do yourself a favor. Do the work, don’t just read about it. God will meet you in the middle of the actions you take to draw near to him.
Have you had discussions that start, “if you were stuck on a desert island, and could only have one _____ (book, tool, meal, etc.), what would it be?”
Psalm 145. Short post, because I’d rather you go read the psalm.
The goodness of God. His heart toward us. His grace, compassion, kindness and love. That he opens his hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing. His faithfulness toward all his promises. That he is near to all who call on him, that he hears their cry and rescues. Read the Psalm and then listen to Shane and Shane’s version of it.
How could it change your life if you knew him for who he really is?
I never was a Bee Gees fan. I never made an effort to memorize their lyrics. I acknowledge their accomplishments; they just weren’t for me (and yes, I remember the release of Saturday Night Fever, for those that wish to date this reference).
Still, the other morning I woke up with the words to the Bee Gees “Emotion” running through my head. “I dare not sing this aloud,” I said to myself, “or I’ll be singing this all day.” But I couldn’t stop humming the chorus.
So what did I do?
There’s a Chinese proverb (attributed to Lao Tzu) that says, “the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today.” What are you planting in your mind now, and what are you hoping to grow?
These thoughts helped me process the song, although I confess, I did finally cave and sing out loud, in my best falsetto voice, “it’s just emotion that’s taken me over…”
When I think about following after God, it strikes me that trusting him and dependence on him are acts of my will which are strengthened by using them. I have come to count on the goodness of God. Saying that I believe that he is good is one thing. Coupling action with my faith can lead to much better results.
Let’s consider the starting point. First and foremost I believe we can know where we stand with God. Christ in you, Christ in me, is the hope of glory (cf. Colossians 1:27) creating open communication between us, you and him, him and me, creating intimacy, companionship, fellowship, and connection. Lean your head back and shout, I am his. He is worthy and beautiful and good and strong. My affection is for him and I can bank on his affections towards me. I belong to my lover and his desire is for me. (Songs 7:10).
When I live from fear, losing my trust in him, giving up my level of dependence and taking back control, I am not living from the wholeness and trust that has been given to me on account of my faith. Sure, I remain his, this is no longer a question. But I function from my own strength and my own ability to operate and therefore limit what is possible. So when I sense fear, when I recognize the drift in my soul, I’m working on choosing him again, choosing to trust and depend that he can only do good.
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