Tag Archives: strength

Action

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time to say 'no'What constitutes action?

A query that has been running in the back of my mind for some time now.

I am a person of action. At least I like to think I am.

I am also a person that enjoys all things relationships, and this means the interactions via the web. With twitter and facebook and blogging leading me to many that I would not have otherwise known, these mediums are a definitive gift to our time.

Except for one thing:

False actions.

It is all too easy to post a picture, write a blog, share a quote, and think we have done something.

But like a video game where battles won give false bravo and false accomplishment, so to does posting online, give an impression that often has little real substance behind the posting.

I have observed that there are those who post amazing pictures and quotes but have a life that in no way reflects what they are posting. And while this is the very few (on my wall), it worries me.

In the wake of Amanda Todd’s death, I am brought face to face once more with this need for action. A need for something tangible and real, in terms of bullying and so much more.

Action, is what i needed. And from where I sit, that means in our own lives first and foremost.

Bullying is insidious. And wearing a pink shirt ‘in memory of’ won’t stop it.

I know, because I’ve lived with bullying.

And I know, because the action required to stop bullying is gargantuan.

I left my marriage in order to remove myself and my children from bullying.

I left my church when their bullying proved no different than what was in my marriage.

I stay out of relationships that in any way smack of bullying.

Where others are made to feel small, it is not okay.

There comes a time when we must break fellowship with those who bully. When words (or wearing pink shirts) makes no difference, we stand up, we take action, we make changes, we say ‘no more’.

Not by words, because when words lose their effect, we go with action.

We take strong stands. We toss our lives and everything we know to the wind to make a statement of ‘no more’.

I’ve lost friends, I’ve lost the respect of others, I’ve been misunderstood and maligned because I simply would not be bullied any longer. Simply because I was not going to allow the insidious patterns of bullying to continue to my grandchildren, to the next generation.

Bullying is rife throughout our entire population and culture. It is not just a teen thing. Where do we, after all, think they learned it?

It is in our churches, it is in our families, it is in our nice little gatherings. It is in our leadership at youth events, it is in our schools, our nice little bible studies, and in our conversations.

And the ONLY way to make a difference, is to take action, to make changes, to order our lives around something that is better and stronger and purer.

Posting nice sayings, beautiful pictures, and wearing pink, won’t do it.

This is all-out war.

So, where will you make a change today? What conversation will you have with the bully in your circle of friends and family? And in light of the result of that conversation, what action are you prepared to take if necessary?

Action, profound life changing, earth rattling action, your and my world upside down action, is the only thing, that will make a difference.

So, are we really ready to eradicate bullying?

Rest

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great beauty in restingOver 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.

  • Are we in alignment with the heart of God for our lives?
  • Do we carry the load that is ours to carry?
  • Have we stepped into the risking that is required of us?

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.

With Space for Strength

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strength in people“We are glad to seem weak if it helps show that you are actually strong.”

This is a Bible verse found in 2 Corinthians 13:9 and is really the theme of my last trip to Uganda.

I’d come across this verse a week-plus before the trip, and I knew it was to be the theme, I just never knew how hard it would be.

Being weak is not easy.

Thing is, standing in strength that appears weak, is in fact part of the space that we are determined to hold at Capturing Courage. For the express purpose that the people we are standing alongside, might know they are strong.

The plan for this trip was to bring a Conference and Crusade to the people in Madudu, Uganda. Then following up on that with a couple of weeks of Pastor Training.

The first ‘weakness’ became apparent before I left – we were not taking enough money to cover the Conference and Crusade; we contributed only 22% of the necessary funds.

I was excited about this, as I knew in my gut that God was up to something, and that we were going to see some mighty work. I just didn’t realize how very brutal it would be in the middle of it.

There may not be many things worse than watching the last of the food being dished out, and with some still needing to eat; the disappointment and disbelief and frustration and anger spreading across faces, with frantic digging through pots to find those stray sweet potatoes hidden amongst the banana leaves. With the lead guy exclaiming, “I followed your advice and now we don’t have enough!”

– We will appear weak so that you might know yourself strong –

Nothing worse than figuring we must cut the conference short a day, disappointing about 300 attendees, and swallowing our pride, and more in the process.

Nothing worse than maintaining that space of ‘God will do something’ and therefore I myself or Capturing Courage, refuse to do anything, “We will not fix this.. ”

– We will appear weak so that you might know yourself strong –

And strength came through. After hours (days) of crushing pressure and disillusionment in the unknown, refusing to lift a finger to ‘make anything better’ other than to pray and pray, that strength came.

It was presented to the people the state of things. That yes I was there to help sponsor, but not all the way. That yes we had food yesterday (barely), and yes we have food enough for today’s lunch, but after that, we are done and everyone will have to go home.

BUT – “If you as the people want to contribute, the conference can go on another day as planned.”

And into a basket went donation after donation, with the people raising over 400K Ugandan shillings, some $200 Canadian. Enough for the rest of the Conference.

Sufficiency

A knowing for them that they are strong, they can do this, it doesn’t all depend on money from the west.

Amen and amen.

This was the work, the real work. Sure I spoke a few times, prayed over a few folk, blessed on the young and old alike, took some medicines to the sick, encouraged the leaders and visited with many, but the real work this time, was holding this space.

– We will appear weak so that you might know yourself strong –

I didn’t call any shots, simply held the space.

From deep within my person living out my rock-solid belief that the people themselves are strong and sufficient and capable of making things happen.

That Sponsors are not the answer. Strength from outside themselves is not the answer. They carry strength and sufficiency deep within. I was determined to prove this, by doing next to nothing, to fix anything.

It was oh so painful, and oh so amazing.

The deepest works of our lives are like this I’m thinking. Where there is not much to show in the midst, but much to look back at and see.

Holding spaces is something we all do. With some spaces such that we wouldn’t want to enter them, and other spaces such that we are ever-after never the same. Some spaces are destructive, others build us.

What kind of spaces are you holding for others?

The Other Side

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Tribe Four LivingThere once was a walled garden. It was a very large garden with room for a great many people.

The people within the garden were all there by choice. They had worked to be there, found success in being there, and had created a world within the garden that worked quite well, most of the time.

Like a stepping stone along the path of life, the garden is a well-ordered place with rules and expectations, with authority and structures set in place to maintain and keep the people well.

When people first come to the garden (from the land of chaos), it is a welcome relief to their previous way of life, for in the garden there are well-laid parameters and ways of being. And many fit into this place quite well as it nurtures the development of a persons habits and responsibilities. People grow here.

What has been lost in the garden is any sense of a world beyond. Those in the garden think that the garden is THE place to be. And of course, for many it is… until it isn’t.

As I’ve said, the garden does an amazing job of giving people a place to grow, of finding out what they are good at, of confidence found in many good things brought to the table.

And yet, stay in the garden too long and it becomes a much smaller place. The rules and the authority structures, the should’s and the ought’s (that previously molded the rough edges off of people), become themselves the rough edges.

For what has been forgotten in the garden is that there is a world beyond; a world where the vistas are wide and the freedoms are vast. Where each person walks in the authority and responsibility of their own life. No one answers for any other, and no one is to blame for anything.

Stay too long in the garden and what was meant for good becomes like an ingrown toenail. Stay too long in the garden and the safety and parameters begin to pinch like a much too small shoe.

Because, quite simply, we are meant to outgrow the garden.

Stay too long in the garden and the knowledge of another land quickly dims; sounding like folk-lore and legend and lies.

‘There is no other land. This is it.’

And yet, there are a remnant that know that the success found in the garden is meant to be taken to a bigger world. A remnant that know that the confidence found in the garden is meant to fuel larger passions.

Stay too long in the garden and parameters that once shaped and molded become excuses and increased responsibility falls away for blame and childishness.

“The rules made me do it.”

“I am not allowed.”

“No one gave me permission.”

“This is just the way it is.”

Burn-out is high in the garden. Because the life-blood of vim and vigor is given over to safety and protecting. In the garden everything is under guard: one’s time, energy, passion, just to name a few.

And yet, there is another land, just on the other side of that wall. Yet the wall is high, and few make it over. For the discouragements are many; the warnings and scare-tactics compound the closer one gets to the wall.

For in the garden it is paramount that everyone plays by the rules. And the rules explicitly say, ‘Don’t go outside the garden’.

“The way of life here, the authority and the rules, the safety and the parameters, are the only way. If you leave here, if you refuse to submit and play by these rules, you will be destroyed. You will be confounded and broken down. All that you are good at will be lost. The influence you have will fade away.”

“There are monsters out there. Don’t go that way, you will be destroyed. There are fire-breathing monsters and other very bad things!”

Words are powerful. And for many who hear such words, they are enough to stop them in their tracks where they try to reposition themselves in the garden.

Repositioning themselves within the structures and the expectations of that place (when the whisper declares they are made for so much more) lead many to die slow living deaths.

In contrast, the few who make it over the wall, they find a land that sounds like a fairy-tale, a place more magnificent than they had ever even imagined.

They risked it all on the basis of a few whispers, subtle rumors that the garden keepers tried to squelch, risked to find out just if…

And amazingly, on the other side of the wall….. there are no monsters, there are no cliffs, there are no slippery slopes. Success is not lost but amplified. Influence is not cast away but increases. Fear is shown to be a blown up bully filled with nothing but hot air.

All the bogey-man stories are false!

On the other side of the wall there is land stretching as far as the eye can see. Soft green fields of blowing grasses, sun that shines and gentle winds caressing the face.

One can go in any direction one wants and never stop. The vista is endless, the opportunities abound.

Everything is truly possible.

Here the individual is responsible for him or herself. Here the individual takes full responsibility for their own life. What they want, what they don’t want. How much success, how much freedom, how much vital work. Here the individual has full say to make of his or her life exactly what they want of it.

And here the individual takes on that challenge, gladly and willingly.

In the garden we can always blame someone. The authority, the boss, the friend, the system, the rules, the lack of time, the loss of energy. The other side of the garden there is no one to blame. On the other side, each person stands as his or her own person.

And because of this, here the people give back. They are not overwhelmed. They are not tired. There is enough time for everything. Days carry a rhythm that nurtures and grows. With meaningful work, energy is released and expressed in beautiful and creative ways.

The basics of success and well-formed habits of ethics and integrity found within the garden, literally take wing outside the garden. All of who a person is comes into service of others. And relationships are rich.

For freedom and trust abounds outside the garden. Pinched, protective, narrow, suspicious thinking is replaced by compassion, generosity, and abundant manner of being.

In the garden it was all about what we did, and that begins to shut down after time. Outside the garden, everything flows from who we are, and time simply multiplies our being.

Plan to make your escape today. You will never regret it.

Capturing God’s Heart – Overwhelmed – Volume 11

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We are all overwhelmed at one time or another. Life has many dynamics to it, and we are often stretched beyond what we think we can do and beyond who we are.

And this is certainly true in ministry, where others are looking to us for answers and solutions and wisdom. In those times we are vulnerable to discouragement.

But I’ve discovered six principles that have helped to frame the challenges of our days and I want to share them with you.

Continue reading →

‘Exception’al Living

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Life and LegacyI dropped my phone in the paint tray. Never have I so willingly plunged my hands into paint. Never before have I run my phone towards water.

We have the ways by which we do life, and then we have the exceptions.

When it comes to phones, the rule is, Do NOT submerge in water.

“Stay away from the water”

But there I was, rushing my IPhone 4S to the water,

Rinsing, washing, rinsing, washing, and then rinsing and washing some more,

Literally aiming that stream of hot water INTO the phone’s portals.

It was the strangest thing to find myself doing the exact thing we know we are NOT to be doing.

The exception of course: where said phone is nearly completely submerged in paint.

Half-way through the process I exclaimed, “I cannot believe I am running my phone under water!”

Inexplicable action, that saved my phone.

If I had stuck to the hard and fast rule – Stay Away From Water – my phone would now be encased in a hard coat of paint, never to recover again.

While rules present useful parameters and generally good ways to be doing life, they also generally fall short sooner or later.

Rules are static while life isn’t.

A Police Chief said it well, “Rules are for fools while common sense is for people.”

I am reminded that the art of life isn’t in the rules, its in the exceptions.

‘Exception’al living is about knowing when to break the rules.

It’s about knowing the bigger picture and serving that, orienting to that.

Rule-living can be pretty small and petty, increasingly narrow and small-minded.

While rule keeping is predictable and controlled, its far too easy to become encased in hard, judgmental paint-like veneers.

Life on the other hand, to be served well, must expand and reach, to stretch and find new grace and fresh manner of being.

Rules will never do this.

After its very hot and thorough washing, my phone went to live in a bucket of rice.

We didn’t know if it would recover or not. Would it work?

Taking a full 48 hours for all the water to be absorbed by the rice and removed from the phone, I am happy to report that all appears A-Okay.

And while the goal will never be to plunge a phone into paint ever again,

I am very glad that exceptions are available to us at any time.

Exceptions will always be counter-intuitive,

But by them we are stronger, and life has more give.

Live to Win

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Life is a test

Presuming that something matters,

Each test gauges our progress,

Ensures our movement, pace and process.

Tests are for us,

And tests are for instructors.

“How might we advance this person?”

“Is this person ready for promotion?”

It doesn’t matter the size of the test,

The importance of the test,

All of life is a test.

Will we give it our best shot,

Or will we cry foul?

From day one I’ve told my kids,

“Govern yourself or I will govern you.”

“Control yourself or I will control you. Which would you rather have?”

A test,

How will you do?

Will you take the challenge,

Or cry foul?

With equal opportunity for success,

All of us can prove ourselves in some way.

Life is in fact begging us to prove ourselves.

The gifts and talent that are inherent in you,

Must follow their own sequence in the releasing,

Their own path revealed.

Is the challenge taken,

Are the gifts revealed,

Or do we cry foul?

A sky-scraper must be preceded by a very large hole and substantial foundation,

That bridge across the large river takes years of infrastructure being built,

Can the company last the digging,

Can the workers stand the years?

In each of our own lives, we are the company, we are the worker,

Can we stand the heat.

Or will we cry foul?

Heat endured strengthens our stamina,

Veins come out as gold,

Dross is burned away,

Our resilience is established,

Our inner muscles of heart and soul refined and polished.

Will we endure the test,

Or cry foul?

Tested and proven to handle some,

We are given more,

Tested and proven to handle more,

We are given much.

Tests of attitude,

Courage,

Fortitude,

Stamina of heart and mind, soul and spirit,

Will we be moved, stretched, strengthened,

Or cry foul?

Can we be trusted,

Are we up for challenges,

Do we live to win or to simply get by.

Thanks Lord

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P1260776 compressedI’ve stayed over in the village, settled in my bed, the talking finally stopped, and now the singing and dancing has begun outside, and I am so tired I just want to cry.

And tomorrow, I’m on deck, for two or three sessions of Spiritual Development and life-giving prayers that sap the energy from me as God’s power pours through.

It has been a hard few days.

The bulk of the work has begun, and in the midst I can’t see heads nor tails.

I’ve been reminded that once we enter the fray, we are either ready or not.

We have either done our homework beforehand, or we will be found wanting in the midst.

Once the work starts, we’d better hope that we have our heads screwed on straight.

It is a bit (okay maybe a lot) like flying blind.

It’s as though I’ve entered the darkness and can’t see my hand in front of my face.

And but for my well-honed intuition and years of character development (and thank-you God for wisdom gifts), I don’t think I would be lasting.

The wait has been long to enter this work, and now I get it. Those years, every single one of them, were absolutely necessary. Not a speck of time has been out of order.

Makes me think of a pilot who trains and practices and trains and practices so that when the blizzard comes the pilot has the no-how and guts and instinct to navigate well and come out the other side.

Thank-fully, I’ve got one of those little bobble-head compass things in my head

And my list of do’s and don’ts:

  • Never manipulate through emotions, making others feel guilt or shame
  • Never uncover a persons weakness in their own home (country)
  • Make no excuses, take 100% responsibility
  • Always honor

It’s not an exhaustive list, but one that has worked well over the years. And it is working well now. Through these benchmarks for my own responses I am safeguarded from allowing my humanity to destroy the work.

Work taken years to build can after all, be undone in one swift movement.

And I’ve learned one more this week:

  • Do not give authority for decision to others, that are supposed to be my own.

It is easy to give our authority away. When faced with a hard call and voices all round declaring this and that, pulling and pushing…

I gave way and handed over a decision to another

BAD MISTAKE

I recommend you do not do this.

BAD things come of it.

And I am reminded that we are to carry the responsibility and the authority of our lives.

And when we default these to others, things do not go well.

I wonder how much of the things in our lives that are not working well, are because we’ve given over the authority to another.

Having somehow forgotten that we will stand before God one day and give account for our lives. Not anyone else.

In the years of preparing for this work, years of tentatively stepping out in various ways, of pushing the boundaries of who people knew me to be…

Trust me, I’ve had my share of naysayers.

What kept me on track has been a holy fear of God.

A sermon years back jolted me to the Biblical passage that goes something like this, ‘she who has been given much, much will be required’

And through my mind went all the things I’d been given, such as legacy, wisdom, intelligence, among others.

And I clearly saw myself standing before God and answering for my life.

“What did you do with what I gave you?”

And I imagined my pathetic – at the time – responses,

“Well you see, my husband mocks and ridicules me.”

“Well you see, my friend doesn’t understand.”

“Well you see, my pastor won’t give approval.”

“Well you see, I have dishes to wash.”

Can you see it, standing in the throne-room of heaven before the God of heaven and earth and I am giving these excuses…

I knew they wouldn’t fly, and that I had to be faithful to HIM, and not any other.

And here I am today, holding full responsibility for my life as any adult is meant to do.

So, in the midst of the fray, and the flying-blind, that just might continue for the rest of this trip, I’m remembering to keep authority close in my pocket,

While giving honor and respect and emotional freedom in spades, I do NOT give over the authority that I have been particularly called to walk in.

Rather, making decisions I am to make, boldly and with courage, and to hold fast,

Trusting the one who has prepared me and trained me and remembering that He does all things well, and His timing is perfect

Thanks Lord