To Serve well

Serving with Excellence for a Life of Excellence

Simple Thoughts Sunday

Simple Thoughts Sunday: You are a badass

(Throwback! I’m throwing it back to a post from 2017 that just felt right for this weekend!)

When I made this connection, I had to share it with you.

Let’s face it, life can be tough. I was greatly encouraged to have someone point out to me the biblical reminder that I am indeed a badass –– and so are you!

As you start this week, remember, that you can get up and stand up. God created us to be courageous and brave and He gave us the tools to confront our lives with greatness! (Peace, Grace, Love – the list goes on.)

A short thought for the day, but super powerful! Have an amazing week!

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Beat the drum for hope

Hope is rising. Hope is expectation. It’s a desire for something to happen… a trust… a knowing. It’s the fuel for our growth and for our excitement. Hope gives life to our dreams and is the thread that pulls together our story. Hope. I am praying today that you feel hope.

For this “simple thoughts” Sunday, I wanted to ignite your thinking and mine around what good we are “beating” the drum for right now.

Hope for a fresh chapter? Hope for clarity? Hope for those starting school (in one of many forms) to have the best year despite the challenges in our environment? Hope for those that need a hand-up? Hope for our world to heal and for love and forgiveness to flow? Hope for deep joy?

I am beating the drum for all that is good for each of you. For each of you to feel the love that surrounds you this very day.

*Side note of interest: The drum in Native American culture symbolizes rhythms of life. Their beat equated to the beating of a heart. The beating often bringing balance and renewal to a person through participation in dancing, singing or listening to the heartbeat. My thought: Bring on the dance party my friends!

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Just start.

“What if our Golden Rule was not only ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’ but also, ‘Give more to the world than you take from it.'” (Manifesto for a Moral Revolution, Novogratz)

Wouldn’t that possibly advance our world in the most amazing ways? Thinking outward as well in inward? I think so.

I picked up this book on Thursday and find myself completely soaked in to it’s calling: To help us understand how to better our world. How she’s orchestrated the messaging is brilliant, simply sharing incredible stories from across the globe of just how people are doing just that. (As a woman of Christian faith, I find it important to reflect here that sharing parables or stories is how Jesus taught us.) This extends from the humble, poorest villager, to the teenage student seeking to find a path forward to find their purpose in this world. The people are all ages, all ethnicities, all sexes… everyone and anyone can and should dive in. It’s inspiring to read the stories and sit for a moment – or several – with the notion of just how I, in whatever season I’m in, can make the greatest difference how? What actions can I take? What gifts has God blessed me with to bring forward? “Just start” is the message of this Simple Thoughts Sunday.

Just start. It’s a mindset. It’s a commitment we make to ourselves. Generally, in America, we think first to starting a new career, a new eating regimen, a new discipline of exercising. We think first of what we can do to make ourselves better. While I am the first to acknowledge that we must be our best selves so that we can offer ourselves to the service of others, somehow, I wish my firsts thoughts weren’t about starting with me. I have found that as I gain in age, and hopefully wisdom, that is not always still true, but for the most part, if you ask me to fill in the blanks, on “Just start…” I’m likely to say something self serving. For example, “waking up earlier.”

Our world is summoning us in this season to acknowledge the work that is needed to better our world in many areas. I strongly believe that. When I went to South Africa a few years back and I sat on the 20 plus hour plane ride on the way home, the Bible verse, “The Harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few…” ruminated in my brain over and over. (Matthew 9:37) Jesus’ call to his disciples rings ever true today. I’m sure he knew that we as humans would always struggle with the need to look out and not inward.

I could list hundreds of ways to start, whether you are my mom’s age and living in a retirement community, or whether you are my boys’ ages and preparing to launch your adult life, or even if you are a child under the age of 10. (Check out cornerstonesofcare.org for a fantastic idea on joining their lemonade brigade.) There are so many people and organizations that are doing inspiring work. Look around. Read and soak up the stories and think of them as “fire starters” or ideas that are there to spark your own imagination. What can you and or you and your family or work group or tribe dream up that would move us all forward? This blog more or less has the goal of encouraging us to serve well and we best do that by having a growth mindset. A mindset that triggers our normal everyday reaction to be how we can be of service to others. For me, it’s time to reevaluate if I am making the impact I could make if I imagined more.

Catch my heart.

Happy Sunday. Summer is in full swing and the days are hot and COVID-19 is creating the need for us to think outside of the box, dig deep in so many ways and re-create our routines. It’s good folks. God has us right where we are supposed to be.

I was scrolling through social media when I found this powerful message this week, and it felt immediately like it was definitely a blog topic. As always, I hope and pray it resonates with at least one person. For the full context, follow @jenniesallen.

In short, she apparently didn’t fully express her thoughts, as we all so often DON’T do, whether it be via social media or an email or text. We forget that the other parties may not know our “complete thinking” and we leave out key factors. Jennie’s a nationally-known speaker and writer, so it’s pretty important that she does so, I imagine. For most of the rest us, it’s simply about wanting to be sure we aren’t hurting others by leaving out important parts. We all need the grace if we don’t quite say it just right.

Her friend’s advice was the power punch, as the picture/meme above shows. In essence, she said we should ask God to “catch” us where we fail, where we struggle, and where we don’t quite show up as we hope to. I could think of a few other words to fill in that sentence. How about you? I know others would love if you shared in the comments.

“God, catch my… inconsistent ways, my sometimes not speaking as gently as I’d hope to my own children, my not thought-through purchases…” The list is long.

Jump in! I am praying today that God helps all of us rise to the next level, by going to the depths during this season where we truly are on our knees, asking God to fill in all of our gaps. That he may fill our hearts with grace for others (my fav definition of grace is “undeserved forgiveness or pardon”), and a heart to always seek guidance and discernment no matter our age or situation.

Summer 2020: A state of mind

What is your state of mind?

Are you owning this rare season of creation and rebalance? Are you rethinking how you live and love? Are you prioritizing new traditions and generating new thinking? 

Summer 2020 is just the time to sow some new and glorious seeds. If we so choose, this could be an amazing time to water our own souls, and perhaps those God has placed in our lives.

The season will reveal what you plant and nurture… I pray that your state of mind is pure sunshine and running through the sprinkler. BOLD prayers for you all as you enter another week!

Simple Thoughts Sunday: How do you walk?

Do you know the one thing I love the most about being over 50? The outstanding and very clear fact that I have so much to learn. I just finished a truly intense and beautiful book, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” a conversation on the ways of God formed by the words of God, by Eugene H. Peterson. Mr. Peterson, is the author of the Message translation of the bible and his wisdom is penetrating. (The Message by the way is a much easier way to read the bible, and many prefer this… if you haven’t checked it out, you might want to try that on the bible app so that you can see if it fits your style of learning…) The book is essentially a compilation of 49 sermons he wrote when he was a pastor… They are short and easy to read, but deep in context and meaning. Going deeper is somehow appealing to me right now.

This quote above captured me with the truth it holds. The chapter, titled, “With the Wild Beasts,”* contrasts and pulls together Isaiah 40 and Mark 1. The highlight for me is essentially “locating” the new (Mark) in the old (Isaiah) by way of referencing the “Way” and “Path.”- The term “Way” is familiar to the Jewish population, at least in that day, because of it’s frequent use in the Psalms. According to Mr, Peterson, this is where this thought came about, “Where “the way” is not the path we walk on but the way we walk on the path.”

Some additional thought here…

“The Way is not only a route we take but the WAY WE GO…the way we walk, the way we use our influence, (side note: we all have influence…) the way we treat one another, the way we raise our children, the way we read, the way we worship, the way we vote,” and on.

As this is “Simple Thoughts Sunday,” and a place I often talk about my faith, I find this so incredibly important right now. It’s always important to contemplate what “path” I am on… (I seem to prefer that to “the way,” but it’s the same thing.) I am especially focused on ideas of “the way I… think, research, listen, and learn before voicing an absolute opinion, the way I approach careful matters…

Jesus says clearly that he is the way. (John 14:6) I believe that if we will take time to really allow God to speak to us, that we will be able to follow a “way” that is better and that our paths can not only inspire growth and unity, but help advance one another and serve each other in the best possible ways.

*By the way, the context of the chapter title, goes to the opening of the conversation above and that we all generally go thru the “wilderness,” as Jesus did to get thru life. What I loved, is the concept that while we may experience testing and temptation in the wilderness parts of our lives, and even though it seems “empty of vegetation” that it is “full of God.” Essentially, God shows up in these seasons. I believe he is showing up now if we will listen.

Compassion takes time – Whoa, that’s a message!

I heard this last week from our pastor Kyle Turner of Hillsong Kansas City. If you know Bible characters, it is in part the “Mary and Martha” conundrum. True compassion takes us being both willing to slow down and alert…. it takes time.

In our generation, it’s the curse of distractions that most often do in our best intentions…generally due to our inability to be disciplined toward what I like to refer to as our “best yes.”

Compassion…

  • Helping others by looking up – We might see someone who could use a hand up or a smile.
  • Building our neighborhood communities. Yep, actually going to greet in person the new neighbor or stop for a spontaneous chat.
  • Caring regularly for those of whom we stand on their shoulders (hello, Father’s Day).

Compassion takes time. It takes us stopping everything to be present. Come to think of it, that was the direction of my “word of the year.” I’ll give myself a 3 on a scale of 1-10. I have work to do. Anyone else need to devote time to true compassion?

My prayers and love to all celebrating Father’s Day and those who find themselves wishing they were today. Let’s commit to a powerful week ahead!