Take the walk

The following passage comes from a devotional I received from Zondervan this week. It is along the lines of the "Broken" post from last week.

"It's everything!" I exclaimed. "It's people at the kids' school, it's my job... Life is throwing me nothing but curveballs." I took a breath and tried to calm myself as I explained further.

"I don't need to hit a home run. I could use just a basic single to right. But I can't get any decent pitches. There's nothing normal coming my way ... Life's throwin' me nothing but junk in the dirt!" I was ranting, but I let her in for just a second.

"Then take the walk." Gina's voice was clear and firm. And startling. "What?" It didn't register. "Take the walk. Stop swinging wildly at the junk... Just take the walk. Get to first base and see what happens next." ...

I sat in my chair thinking for a long time. As I thought, I realized Gina was right. I needed to adjust my perspective. Life had been throwing me garbage. Curveballs. Pitches in the dirt. Instead of flailing away trying to make contact, instead of arguing with the umpire or trying to force something unnatural — something perhaps from my former life — I quite simply needed to relax a bit and let some pitches go by. I started looking at the annoyances in my life and tried to see them differently...

Sage Advice from an Unexpected Source

I was reading an editorial this morning in a trade journal ("Industrial Heating") I get on-line and thought this was worth noting.  Just goes to show God can speak from anywhere.

The original text actually came from a Ken Blanchard column from 1995 entitled “The Spiritual Workplace” which appeared in another trade journal at that time.  I have copied both the current and original text below:
     
Blanchard indicated that he began teaching the importance of self-esteem in his leadership and management seminars because he realized that managers could not properly coach their teams if they didn’t feel good about themselves. He said, “After all, only people who genuinely like themselves can build the self-esteem of others without feeling that it takes something away from themselves. As I have said many times, I think the most widespread addiction in the world is the human ego. Ego stands for ‘Edging God Out.’”    

In his book, We are the Beloved, Blanchard offered some suggestions about how people can “get out of their own way” using the HELP model. The “H” in HELP stands for humility. In a book written by Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale, they said, “People with humility don’t think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less.” He then went on to say, “Humility helps you remember that there is someone more powerful, more loving and more caring than you.” In any time of uncertainty, it’s not a bad thing to remember that there’s someone more powerful than you (and that’s not the current resident of the White House).    

The “E” in HELP stands for excellence. Blanchard discusses the different definitions of this word, but says, “The kind of excellence that helps keep you on course is available to everyone. It’s the process of rising up and becoming the very best you can be. This means balancing between achieving (accomplishing results) and connecting (maintaining important relationships).”    

The “L” stands for listening. He used an analogy of ships listening for the fog horn when fog settles in over the seaport so that they know where the dangers are. “Charging hard through life leaves little time for listening to that voice that calls us to a more excellent way of living.”    

And finally, the “P” stands for praising. In The One Minute Manager, Blanchard emphasizes that the key to developing people is to catch them doing something right so that you can recognize their performance. He says, “If you are to stay on course in your walk through life, you need to begin to catch yourself doing things right as well.” 

Broken

Life has been a little more stressful lately.  We are still adjusting and learning to be a family of five, everyone has been tired, everyone is busy going different directions, I have been traveling, Will's sleep schedule has been in flux, work is crazy with the end of the fiscal year/unclear budgets/writing proposals for future funding, normal life stuff but all seeming to occur simultaneously.  All this is going on and it seems we are in a bit of a spiritual rut as well.  We feel disconnected from our Life Group after a summer hiatus and a rough time at getting back connected.  I am missing hanging out with middle school kids and sponsors this summer on mission trips and at amusement parks.  Some of the focus and direction I was feeling earlier in the year seems to have waned.  Normal cycles, normal life stuff.

I read this on a friend's blog today and it spoke to where we seem to be as a family right now.
"Sometimes the best thing to do is be broken. It has to happen, and there is no use resisting it. Being broken means being emptied out a little more. It happens in subtle and not so subtle ways."

This made me consider that maybe we just need to accept our brokenness.  I know that we are broken, the world is broken, creation is broken and only God can redeem us.  It is when we try to hold things together on our own, relying on our own strength and not His, that we get ourselves into trouble.  I too often forget that God is in control, not me.  God Is, I Am Not.

All we can do is pray - "Thank You, Thank You, Thank You...Help, Help, Help...Forgive, Forgive, Forgive".