This journey of walking with God is not always smooth. We experience a lot of hurdles and bumps in the road.
There are times of confusion and disappointment. There are times of frustration and upset.
These are really normal. They are part of our experience as human beings.
Sometimes, especially when we are young in the Lord, we expect God to make everything great.
We think that if we walk with God then everything will go how we want it to go.
Fine-tuning the work has been a work in progress. While Capturing Courage is now four years old, the launch into overseas work is little over a year old, and as such has been in some flux as we figure out the scope of our work.
Thankfully we started with a really good sense of what we were to be doing and what we are not to be doing. All the same, even that sense has needed fine-tuning and honing in.
The most prevalent reality within which we are to work is the matter of selves or of money.
Like this:
1. Are we called to bring money upon peoples and communities or,
2. Are we called to bring ourselves to peoples and communities?
We’ve tried a few things to figure this out. Back in October we did a short fundraising blast looking to raise money to help build a toilet in Uganda.
We weren’t looking for a lot of money and took it on as a test of sorts to see if we were to be involved in projects. The answer came back loud and clear. ‘NO!’ With not a single person responding to our fundraising plea we saw loud and clear that we are not called to support projects.
Of course we kinda knew this already. Right from the start it had been stuck in my heart and mind the verse from Acts 3:6 where Peter says, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
(and yet it is amazing how easy it is to get sidetracked)
More recently we have been raising money for a Bible School in Uganda. There was the money for the hosting and then the money for the curriculum (from another organization), and while we raised all of the money spot-on for the hosting not a speck came in for the curriculum.
So we are paying attention. Taking our cues. And allowing the scope to be determined by this very clear direction. Again we must ask, “Are we called to bring to bear our resources upon a people, or are we called to bring to bear ourselves?”
The answer is loud and clear. We are called to bring ourselves. End of story. Period.
And in the wake of this clarity we must take hard stands. We must continue to communicate what we can and cannot do. We are, after all, to move with the blessing of God or not at all.
We must move according to the Lord’s heart and plan for and through Capturing Courage, not our own good ideas, not others good ideas for us.
The hardest part is that we are pushing against a very long history and world-wide habit of financial aid and support to developing nations.
And so while we can say we are bringing heart healing of Christ, spiritual training and leadership development, there is still in the back of the minds of those to whom we take ourselves, the thought that maybe we will help with students and schooling, maybe we will build a building, maybe we will give money for this endeavor and that project.
But of course we are not. We are bringing nothing but ourselves and the healing power of Christ.
It is like trying to swim upstream against a very large current.
And yet for all the potential and very real misunderstandings of who and what we are about, this mandate to bring ourselves and Christ and nothing more has made things very simple.
In constraint is much freedom. In less there is so much more. In limitation we find bounty and sufficiency.
Long story short we realize we are not to be hosting Bible School, for in that we are merely a conduit for yet another project, and as good a project as Bible School might be, we are not called to projects in any way whatsoever.
Rather, with the power of relationships and mentoring, of leadership development but most of all deep freedoms of heart and soul by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are all simply transformed.
Change from the inside out is the only long-term way of development whether in North America or in Africa or anywhere else.
Capturing Courage is called to transformation of heart and spirit, nothing more and nothing less.
It’s very good to have this straightened out.
Phew!
We cannot move forward until we loose off ourselves the notion that something is wrong.
When things don’t go as planned, when they transpire in a completely different way than we expected, and when we are faced with imminent failure, the question begs to be asked, is there anything wrong?
What if nothing is wrong?
If nothing is wrong our minds are then freed up to think creatively. Our vision is opened, the blinders are removed, and instead of narrow-lens thinking we have open vistas from which to work.
It is from this place that we are able to find innovative solutions. Instead of allowing the unplanned to stop us in our tracks, we can instead ask, ‘How is this the best thing that ever happened to us?’ And go from there.
We can have our problems, and we can have our solutions, but we can’t have both at the same time.
Holding onto the trouble puts our hands in a terrible bind. For they are unable to reach out to grab hold of solutions – they are already full.
It is this picture of loosing hold of one thing to take hold of something even better, that really typifies the dilemma each one of us face every single time we are faced with what isn’t going as planned.
The work of this is done in the mind and the heart where we must literally leave off the obsession with the trouble. We truly must let it go and be done with it once and for all.
The thing is though, that for a large percent of the population they like the drama around all that is wrong. Many enjoy grieving and weeping and wailing ceaselessly about how they have been slighted by life. Numerous don’t really want any solutions. They just want to complain.
Complaining and weeping and wailing you see has its rewards. Many come to the rescue. We receive strokes and comfort and attention. Our lives take center stage as the great drama that it is – and yet, nothing ever changes for such a one. Have you noticed?
Minds become stuck on paths of woe-is-me thinking. Expectations cannot (and don’t really want) to focus on anything else but the bad and the evil and the dastardly.
(There is so much drama in these words even as I write them!)
And yet, without letting go of our problems and of our slights and of our wailing’s, we will not get on with living, with solutions, with creative responses, with positive reckonings. The two will not co-habitate.
So we have a choice. Which will we focus on?
Hint: The one we focus on is the one that grows.
Two things to unstuck our minds from woe-is-me thinking.
ONE: Ask yourself, ‘How is this the best thing that has ever happened to me?’
TWO: Assume that nothing is wrong – everything is exactly as it should be, and then ask yourself, ‘How might we respond in this situation? What might be the solutions?’
You won’t be the same. I guarantee it.
And neither will those around you. Your life will make an impact. Vistas will be opened up. New strengths will be had. Creative responses will come easier and easier.
It may not look like you expected, it’ll be so much better.
……………………………………
back to HOME
The human construct of our hearts, minds and psyches are equipped for the work of the lord by a systematic and deliberate process of breaking down and rebuilding.
Much like a process of increasing physical strength through weight-lifting, we too must be poured through a rigorous regimen to break down our protective barriers, our fear based reactions and the default buttons by which we do life.
There is a meeting of hearts in this experience that will never be found in a simple meeting of the minds. We engage both heart and mind and find in that intersection a full vision and experience of God.
The chaff of our lives must be brought to the cross. Anything that leaves us compromised or weak must have the breath of the Spirit breathed through. The concern with self must be surrendered, with spiritual disciplines taking its place. We steep ourselves in love, holiness, and the covering of Christ.
We will be surprised to find that the Biblical perspective of leadership is far different than we suppose. Not only is it more powerful than we ever imagined it actually will require of us more than anything we ever thought. Stepping up to the plate is the opportunity of our lifetime and a gift to our age.
The years of preparation are never a waste. While there are seemingly random events and circumstances to our lives we realize that God has indeed had every single detail worked out in its minutest form.
We are stretched to trust him with our very lives, and once the King knows he can trust us we move in him and have our being through him in ways we never imagined.
And because he knows we follow well he says, “Lead on, we are backing you.”
All sorts of things depreciate in value. Cars, stereo equipment and phones… just to name a few. No sooner have we bought something but new technology makes our ‘latest wonder’ obsolete. The current depreciation curve is steeper and sharper than at any time in history.
But there is one thing that appreciates, and that is you and me.
As people we have the opportunity to invest in ourselves and each other in a way that ‘appreciates’ us. In a way that makes us more valuable as time passes. Each month, and certainly each year, should find us more and more invaluable to the people around us and the business and services we provide for others.
If you are not appreciating, how come?
What is your plan for ensuring you are more valuable this time next year?
Working in the training and development business I find myself quite often encountering a short-sighted kind of thinking; a thinking that believes training and personal development is the responsibility of the company that provides the paycheque.
Yet, those who wait for others to invest and push and pull them forward, don’t tend to go anywhere. They find themselves stuck and wonder why life doesn’t seem to be working for them.
In contrast, the ones who take on the responsibility and privilege of their own professional and personal development, are those that shine like stars amongst the masses. They find greater authority in their jobs and greater favor with decision makers… (they become the decision makers).
Their own satisfaction level of life increases and they have ‘say’ over their future.
If the only thing that appreciates in value is people, then we would do well to make personal and professional development a priority.
The First Step: Take 100% responsibility for your life. Refuse to make any excuses. Everything that has gone wrong and is not working well, say, “I did that”. And then get on with making it different.
The Second Step: Challenge your thinking. For the thinking we have today will not take us to where we want to go tomorrow. While today’s thinking has gotten you to today, what kind of thinking will get you to tomorrow?
The Third Step: Surround yourself with different kinds of people. We tend to gravitate to what we have always known, and this includes our support systems and sub-cultures, never realizing that we become stumped in forward movement. Actively seek out those who have different experiences and wisdom that you don’t have. You will be challenged, and you will be equipped to go forward in new ways.
The Fourth Step: Say what you want. Risk to make goals and go after them. Don’t take the passive way out, letting someone else decide the trajectory of your life. You are in the drivers seat. Speaking what you want, you will be amazed at the results!
The Fifth Step: Ask yourself, “How do I want to be appreciating over the next year?” What kind of pay increase can I expect in the next year? How do I add value to those I work with now, tomorrow? Are the activities I am involved in now leading to a richer life next month, next year?
The Sixth Step: Prune. Whatever is not assisting in your appreciation value, get rid of it. Shed it from your life, make some hard changes, let go of the dead wood.
The Seventh Step: Advocate for yourself. Ask for business (but only if you are adding value that can’t come from anyone else). Ask for a raise (but only if you have appreciated in value). Ask for opportunity… and remember, look only for those who are looking for you.
Our future’s are in our hands
100% Responsibility
No Excuses
How will you be appreciating this next year?
It has been an interesting week. I’ve spoken twice this past week, and I spent my entire weekend in silence and in small tasks about my home.
Under all of this is an undercurrent of unrest and agitation in my spirit. At the same time a deep rest has been pervading my soul.
It is an odd mix of energy and depth that I am not quite sure what to do with.
My own last month has been incredibly fruitful. With a myriad of projects completed, with a focus established for the next year and with traction on many fronts there is much movement.
And yet this unrest has me a little baffled.
Yet I suspect I know what it is.
I’ve raised five of my own babies and cared for numerous others over the years. Now babies are always growing and learning new things and moving through developmental stages.
At each stage of development, right before a babe learns to sit or to stand or to walk there is much fussing and frustration, tears and general fits of discomfort. It is easy to observe this in infants.
Yet as my children grew I saw it all along the stages. A little more difficult to see, as the development was no longer about sitting or walking or talking, it was there nonetheless. This same discomfort and frustration, a generally irritated state would precede any new stage of development.
Learning to pump on a swing, tie ones shoes, learning to read or ride a bike. Be it moving from childhood responsibilities to adult ways of thinking and being, all these stages and more were preceded by agitation.
I’m thinking this is where I am at and is the cause of my current unrest. For I’ve noticed in my own past years a similar process of growth and development and the agitation and deep frustrations that occur concurrently.
I’m thinking this continues on for all of us as we go through life. When do we ever really stop learning or developing?
Personally I’ve been on a growth spurt for a few years. I no longer recognize my old self, and really have little idea of who I will be in a years time.
But I do know that I won’t be the same. So I’ll settle into the growth spurt that is in process right this moment. I’ll take the frustrated agitation and give it space alongside these deep silent spaces.
Mixed emotions are difficult to navigate but are hallmarks of growth and maturity and emotional wellness.
I guess it could be said that growth isn’t easy for any of us. Whether we are seven months old and finding out how to crawl or whether we are forty-seven and finding new strengths, it doesn’t matter.
We go forward, growing forward, feeling our way, gaining in strength and new skills day by day. Who we need to be tomorrow we are not yet that person, so growth is simply and always necessary.
I’ve many things coming together all at once; like a threshold that has been crossed, when a vast room opens up before one, with options stacked upon each other.
Thankfully I learned years back the power of constraint and of deliberate limitations.
Some years ago now I was hit by a car. My knees and the car’s bumper were the initial point of contact, and as I flipped and rolled onto and then off of the hood of the car, many things would change after that.
That accident, while breaking no bones, created enough soft-tissue damage to dramatically alter my life. All of a sudden I could not stand for more than 10 minutes at a time, could not sit in a chair for more than 45 minutes at at time and walked oh so slowly for some months.
I look back, and am so grateful and thankful for that accident. For it created limitations that would prune my life, creating a catalyst of growth just and only where the growth should be.
When our lives are thrown into the air, like a fruit-basket upset, we don’t know what will land.
Often, up till that point, we would say that everything in the basket is absolutely necessary. But I’ve found this is not true.
There are many things in our baskets, that need not be there. That if they were not there in fact, we would be stronger for. Things that if removed, would actually harness our energies and lives in a different and better way.
But in the midst of a full basket, we can’t see it, are afraid of it, and until some event pries our fingers loose from the clasps around all that is not… we just keep hanging on.
I wonder what would happen if we stopped hanging on.
If the fruit-basket of your life were tossed into the air, how might you feel about that.
And what, in the secret intuitive place in your inner core, do you know wouldn’t come back to you. What part of your life, wouldn’t last the upset.
I am pretty convinced that those things that won’t last the upset, are the false things, the weak parts of our lives, the ineffective places, the black holes sucking all our energy.
So, why do we hold onto them so tightly?
I guess we are afraid. Not able to see farther than our little pinky, we are terrified.
And into that space we gather all the control we can muster, with all the manipulations of life and limb that we can manage.
Like small children hiding in dark closets clinging to dusty teddy bears.
I’ve been there, done that. For years and years in fact.
Thank-You God for fruit-basket upsets, for car accidents, for health issues, for relationships that die, for business ideas that fail, and for ideas that just don’t come together; for goals pruned down, for years spent in personal growth and healing, for the focus of our lives narrowing in, for the power of limitation and constraint.
There is incredible strength once we’ve had our lives tossed to the wind. For what lands, what comes back to us, is the solid, the tangible, the real, the rest is just chaff blown away.
And once we’ve got the solid, the tangible, and the real… those are the things we can do something with.
Lives aren’t made out of chaff. Let it go.
Over a year ago I sensed that the Lord was saying to me, “Rest”, and then, “Rest” and then, “Rest”.
And it was really making me angry.
I had no clue what that meant. I had work to do, bills to pay, months to make up for… and I was supposed to… Rest?
It’s been more than a year since. What a year it has been. Launching full-on into full-time ministry work, leaping off of the cliff, shifting my focus and life dramatically, it has been a busy and full year. But in the midst of all that, I can honestly say that I now know what was being suggested to me.
I’ve learned a few things in terms of rest.
The first thing I’ve learned is that rest comes from the inside out. While we in our western culture (and most likely around the world), impose rest and play and entertainment and holidays and and and, on ourselves, we don’t really know how to rest.
I’ve realized that real rest has nothing to do with our external circumstances. That the environment which we create for ourselves has little ability to grant us ‘rest’ if in fact we are not resting in our inner person.
And so, rest in the midst of work, is quite possible. And rest in the midst of increasing pressure is possible also.
Rest and resting has nothing to do with what we are doing. True rest, is all about how we are doing life, and who we are being in our inner selves.
Rest is that state of knowing whom holds our world together, knowing the ebb and flow of life around us, and yet being centered into a state of peace from deep inside.
There are some interesting scripture passages about rest. If you are interested I encourage you to read Hebrews 4. All throughout that chapter we are told that there is a rest that is available to those who walk with God. That we are to try to enter that rest for it is made just for you and I.
Of course the idea of rest is laid out right at the beginning of creation, when God spent six days working and rested on the seventh. And while we have become distracted and legalistic believing this to be about what we are doing, true rest really does come from inside ourselves.
Dependency: this is the first word that comes to mind when I think of the inner state of rest.
It is only in dependance on God for our very lives, that we can enter into rest. As long as we are the ones making things happen, putting the pieces together, holding all in our hands, we will never enter into true rest.
We may manage the outer accoutrements of rest. We may have vacations and short work weeks, we may have time for any number of recreational activities, but all of these things will come up hollow and like an itch never scratched, if we do not have real dependance on the Lord and the rest deep within that comes from that.
The more dependent we are, the more rest we have.
It is as simple, and horrible (to our human pride), as that.
Alignment: is the second word that comes to mind in the quest for real rest.
The further we step into our gifted and anointed places, the more rest available to us.
It is simply a matter of proximity. How close in are we to the heart of God’s presence?
Imagine an open umbrella, and the handle as God’s presence. Imagine that we are doing life alongside this presence, sometimes nearer and sometimes farther away.
Now an umbrella gives protection from the elements. It is a safety in the midst of overbearing heat or damp.
God as our umbrella is the same. The closer into the center of this umbrella, we find greater safety and covering.
Now, some of us have been tempted from time to time to live outside of this umbrella. I think back to years ago when a close friend was moving away from the center of God’s presence, and I was tempted to follow along.
But in the onslaught of ‘bad things happening’ (seriously), I realized my error, and though it was not my wish to break fellowship with my friend, it became crystal clear that if I had to choose between my friend and God, that God would win out.
And so, I distanced myself from my friend, and moved back into and under the covering of God’s presence. We cannot find God outside of where God is. And when we try, when we refuse to make hard decisions unto God, we will not find rest.
Simple and horrible as that.
All this to say, as we increase our dependency, and as we align our lives unto Godliness and into his presence, we find rest.
Deep within our beings, and even in the midst of not having all the answers, even in the midst of relationships that we can’t make happen as we would like, and even in the midst of life different than we may have ever imagined, we find God.
We enter into The Presence. We are never the same. We rest.
Successful people get help.
The middle class has a notion that we must make our own way, buck to it, put our nose to the grindstone, and never quit.
But Keith Ferrazzi of Never Eat Alone, tells of his startling observation as a teen and young adult (he had grown up in the working class), that those in the professional heights lived a much different approach. They ‘found one another jobs, invested time and money in one anothers ideas, made sure their kids got help getting into the best schools, got the right internships, and ultimately the best jobs.’
He realized at that time and throughout his years at Harvard Business School, the incredible power in relationships, incredible power of generosity and reciprocity, and that success is all about working with people, and not against them, and that none of us can get anywhere on our own or by ourselves.
All of which, was a very different way of thinking than the working class he had grown up in, where the prevailing mind-set is, ‘figure it out yourself.’
There are many different ways of seeing the world, and different mind-sets about how it is supposed to work.
But what if our ‘its supposed to be this way’ is a figment of our culture and class and raising? What if there are other ways ‘that things work’?
What if a lot of our thinking is narrow and condemning? Do we lack generosity of thought, or are we able to get behind others, say hearty ‘yes and amen’ to the dreams of those around us. Or do we punch holes and get our knickers in a knot just thinking about somebody who might not have to work the same way or put up with things like we have.
When in Uganda I notice a prevailing hatred for the upper level leaders in Uganda. Riddled through the attitudes and the comments of most of the people was a complete lack of respect or regard for those in leadership. And in that hatred they were condemning their own lives, keeping themselves small, ensuring till the bitter end a pride of poverty and glory of less-than.
We read in Psalm 106:24-25 a bit of the same, and how the Israelites despised the pleasant land.
“Then they despised the pleasant land;
they did not believe his promise.
25 They grumbled in their tents
and did not obey the Lord.”
Of the same story we read in Numbers 13, ‘We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.’ and in that same chapter we read that the cluster of grapes was so large that it had to be carried on a pole between two men.
An incredibly rich land. A prosperous land. A bountiful land.
But the people were afraid, and they grumbled, and refused to believe, and as the Psalmist recounts, the sin of the people was that they despised the pleasant land. They gave over their an incredible inheritance for the opportunity to continue walking in the desert for 40 years until they had all died.
The Message puts it this way:
‘They went on to reject the Blessed Land,
didn’t believe a word of what God promised.
They found fault with the life they had
and turned a deaf ear to God’s voice.’
How often do our mindsets have us doing the same thing. And with much pride to boot.
The Israelites had been slaves for so long, that they couldn’t find it in themselves to take back the land, to acquire the bounty there just waiting for them, couldn’t enter into prosperity or a different way of life than the slavery they had been used to.
It was about them. They took their eyes off the Lord, turned a deaf ear to his voice, and shored up their insecurities, as their pride wouldn’t let them take on something that came as a gift.
With themselves at the center of the equation, the great bounty didn’t fit who they were, and so they rejected it.
Only when God is at the center can we find our lives redefined, and only then can we accept a life that does not reflect us, but reflects him.
A land of bounty.
The successful, the ones who inhabit the pleasant lands, know they need help, they know they cannot get anywhere on their own.
Your particular gift set, your experiences, your story and your unique personality are perfectly matched with the needs of this day and age. Learn how to completely settle into your own life and then into how to give it away.
This course is for those who want to do more with their lives for God and for others. It is for those serious about leveraging all of who they are for The King, the Kingdom of God and for people, the great loves of The King’s heart.
Your life is currency. How might you invest it? Learn how to express it.
The entire conversation about spiritual authority must solidly reside within the context of the Kingdom of God and the work of Jesus Christ. In Module One: The King’s Heart we dig deep into the character of God and how everything about who we are can reside within the light of Christ.
In our humanity our understanding of authority is often skewed and misrepresented. Not only have we been hurt by authority in the past, but many of us shrink from authority. In this we leave our legacy of co-regents in the Kingdom of God aside. It’s time to unpack Godly authority and take it on for ourselves.
Spiritual Authority is all about representing the King of Kings. It is about working out His will on this earth. It is about stepping up, taking the land and restoring to God’s original plan the details of our lives and our communities and this world.
Before we can know authority we must know its author. Risking to open our heart to the King of Kings, risking to have his heart opened to us we are equipped from deep inside to live authority that mirrors him and expresses him. That place where all things are made new.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, and Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Isaiah 40:28-29 ESV.
Please Note that we have this course written for a North American audience and also specifically written for our overseas indigenous colleagues.
Contact US for information about the material specific to you.
We live in language.
What we say reveals who we are, and what we say determines who we are.
It is by our words that our lives are determined.
The book Tribal Leadership chronicles the study findings of many many individuals; marking the various ways of speaking within stages of our lives.
One group speaks about how ‘life sucks’. Another moans about ‘my life sucks’. Still another lives in ‘I am great’. While others experience ‘life is great’.
It is telling. Language does indeed create our realities. Our words matter.
A lot.
“Death and life are in the power of thetongue”
Proverbs 18:21
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
George Orwell
“The limits of our language mean the limits of my world.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Yet how often are we flippant with our words; thinking the things we say really don’t make any difference…
Maybe we just don’t care.
The single most thing you can do to change your life is to change your language; change the way you speak and your life changes.
Our words reveal our expectations, and our words determine our results.
What we sow we reap. Giving voice to all that is wrong… gets us more of what is wrong.
Giving voice to all that is right… gets us more of what is right.
Which would you rather have?