To Serve well

Serving with Excellence for a Life of Excellence

Simple Thoughts Sunday

Connectedness forges resiliency…

… and its accrued effect results in stronger, healthier and braver humans. We are all going to suffer, but togetherness is more powerful than pain.”

Jen Hatmaker’s new book, “Fierce, Free and Full of Fire” releases this week officially and it’s pure gold. The excerpt that I put in the graphic is case in point. She covers everything from the need for us to be in community to spiritual curiosity, and all with such thoughtfulness. She easily – and with humor even, takes the reader back in history and brings in science to showcase the truth of human behavior and need. It is one of those books that you just know the world conspired for you to read at just this very time.

I wanted to add why I honed in on the above quote for today’s insight. Quite simply it is crucial. It’s a game changer. We instinctively know this, thus the immediate reaction for many to figure out how to use Zoom, Google Hangouts and other technology to bring us together with our tribes right now.  It’s been such fun to see the posts of family and friends enjoying each other’s company in this new world.

Here’s what I noticed: The first few weeks we did this well. We scrambled, pivoted and found a way forward. We are now in what I think of as the next phase: We have to stay resilient and diligent toward connecting.

Perhaps, even for some, the first few weeks were a welcome change from the grind. Extroverts and introverts alike rejoiced at the time to reboot and find stillness. As we move into yet another week, we must reach out early and often and, if needed, force ourselves to find points of connection. I have a couple of friends and family members that we text often, but I know in my heart that the voice is needed right now. As much as I’m not a “phone” person I need to change that this week, now more than ever.

Let’s be the people that lift up, bring energy and humor and love to our tribes… Text and email are great, but this week, let’s pay attention to actually embracing our loved ones with voice inflection and, if possible, a virtual face-to-face! I truly believe that her thought above is so true: this will bring us collectively greater…

Resiliency
Bravery
Strength &
Health

Cheering everyone on and sending love and prayers –

The gifts of Easter

What does it mean to “have life” and “have it to the full?” This jumped out at me as if reading it for the first time this morning.

If I close my eyes and dwell on that for a moment, I see all that is bright, good, joyful. I see a day at the lake with family and friends. I see our college tribe laughing endlessly. I see my boys on soccer and lacrosse fields and, at this age, seeing their dreams come true after endless hours of studying. I see every post-holiday meal conversation in the living rooms of my grandparents, parents and sister. I see rollercoasters and oceans and the kindness of a door being opened for a young mom. I see an older couple, still nurturing and loving one another, hand in hand, despite those years that have not been filled with joy.

What do you see? What is a full life to you? I love this little girl running through a field. It’s freeing to stop and think about what a full life is, and even going so far as to contemplate what areas of life aren’t quite full right now.

My belief is that God sent his son to live and to die – and of course, the best part: to be resurrected – so that we truly could have life. As our creator, He knew our fragilities and had a plan for that. A plan, that despite what we have gone through, would mean that we would be able to find ourselves in communion with Him. And in doing so, we would find peace, joy, and outrageous and indescribable love. His desire is for us to live fully and bring forth all of the gifts and promises to us, and by using us to bring light to every conversation and to every person across the world.

Wherever this Easter Sunday finds you, know that you are loved beyond your comprehension. My prayer is that his promises fall fresh upon you today.

Use your words (to love well)

“Use your words.” An extremely-patient friend of mine was trying to teach me how to clip into and out of my bike, and was walking me through the basic steps. Lucky her…. said no one. I am a challenging student when the topic may include a hard fall. After a few attempts & recognizing my increasing frustration, she shared with me this basic truth: “use your words.”

My recollection is that there were 3 things I needed to do, “unclip, slow down, stop.” Say it out loud… practice … repeat … The order is really important in this situation. I’m a difficult student however ... that and I am lacking of any desire to have skinned elbows and knees at this age. Then enters on the scene what was impactful & powerful advice: “Use your words.” This simple phrase stuck with me and I gradually improved. The idea resonated and seemed to be applicable for many areas of life. Imagine if we all could use this thought with the end goal of developing healthy relationships? How might the world improve if we encouraged loving and candid conversations? Why had I not honed in on this phrase before? (It sure may have been useful when the boys were younger.)

Here’s the question I ask to frame this up for myself: What is the most loving thing to do or say in this situation? In every conversation, be it work, home, or some other relationships, using your words and sharing your heart is often the most loving/compassionate thing you can do. If you don’t, you run the risk of not fostering healthy relationships and likely even causing that uncomfortable tension that happens when we don’t fully share what is stirring in our soul.

This feels timely right now, while many are finding themselves at home in close quarters with loved ones. Our normal patterns have been disrupted, and our anxiety ebbs and flows. This might put us in a position to think through the healthiest and most thoughtful way to share what’s on our heart. Here are a few possible scenarios:

  • Claiming ground rules and boundaries. (Yeah, we still need to clean up after we cook in the kitchen.)
  • Sharing that you are really scared, that you don’t know how you are going to come out of this financially, physically, mentally or emotionally.
  • Telling a co-worker that you need them to communicate better for the greater good of the team even though you know they are feeling stressed.

I’m sure you can come up with several other useful scenarios. I locked in on this topic early in the week. I had never heard anyone else share this truth of “using your words.” I have however always found that the universe has a way of validating if we are on the right track. Just yesterday, one of my favorite blog follows, theartofsimple.net, shared a few poems and one was titled “Use your words.” I love it.

I hope that this insight offers some encouragement and useful thoughts as you embark on another week. Let’s all choose to use our words and LOVE WELL!

In the midst of a cultural reset: shifting to all that is strength

This incredible photo of an Osprey, is courtesy of @_thepaintedsky, aka Jessica Walker, who I happened upon via @annvoskamp’s unbelievably beautiful weekly blog, “Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for your Weekend”

This thought narrative of a “cultural reset” came from a post from Rebekah Lyons titled, “Look what we get to do together.” In the spirit of transparency, I needed more than anything this week to shift from bewilderment to my normal operating mode, which is, “what if? What is God working on? What am I to learn from where I am or we are right now, and how do I or we move ahead with bold and positive strength (of ideas, wisdom, peace)?” This idea has me right where I need to be right now, and I wonder if it might be beneficial for you as well. I feel like the universe is saying, “yep, that’s exactly what we need to do.” Shift. Advance to the next step.

This beautiful photograph led me on a trail to find out just what that bird was. The Osprey made its way into the books in 1460 and its name means “bird of prey.” This beautiful creature is an incredible fishing sportsman, catching a meal in at least 1 in every 4 dives. (Goodness, Audrie, why can’t I catch a fish after 100 casts of the line?) Their average time hunting is all of 12 minutes. They are, essentially, badasses. The Osprey also is agile, building nests on the tops of telephone poles and other manmade structures, which makes them unique. In my mind, they look around and see what is available, what is worthy and they make it their place – regardless of where it is.

I have a couple of thoughts stirring. First, as a human, we are at the top of the food chain (so to speak). In other words, God made us the original badasses. We have been given, and are given daily, all that we need. This is pure truth folks. You are strong, you are bold, you are outrageously capable of moving above the current situation and helping create solutions and generating positive energy and ideas that will help lift the human race. We all have a role, whether you are like my mom, hanging out in her retirement community lifting the spirits of others, or, like our team at work – on the front lines – caring for those that aren’t well and watching the news closely (and praying earnestly) so they know what step to take next.

Second, like the Osprey, we may need to look around and be ready to strike and to make it our place. I find such beauty in this. It’s simple. Look around. There is work to be done. Whether you find yourself in the quiet or in the middle of the chaos, God will make it clear where you can use your gifts or resources to move us out of this season. We need to lift our heads outside of our phones and television sets and insist that we acknowledge that we can do something. Even a child or a senior can spend an hour writing encouraging cards to healthcare workers and those in hospital beds that cannot see family right now. Insist that you and your family rise up. (A quick sidebar: One of our staff members and her family recently spent their night sorting scrubs for our front line providers and her children wrote notes to each of them. How cool is that?)

Folks, we ARE in a cultural shift. Our world will be changed after this. We will be talking about this for years – maybe decades. How it shifts is entirely up to us. My prayer is that we will SHIFT into a higher level of ourselves, to a higher awareness on what we can do together and that at the end we find ourselves loving each other better and stronger and even more than we ever have in our world’s history. This is our time to rise.

Simple thoughts Sunday: What’s really important? Let’s “run” there!

Wow, what a week. With the election in full swing, COVID-19 speculation, and every day life rushing through, there seemed to be an onslaught of noise in the universe. I thought it may be me, but I have had enough people corroborate they’re feeling the same. (Maybe I should look up the moon phases…)

All of that led me to today’s short post. We are all set out to “run our race.” I have absolutely always loved this scripture. It conjures up thoughts of being strong, committed, and focused on winning in life. (Not that we always have to win, but I do think we should be all-out dedicated to bringing our best in every moment.) No matter what “noise” is in the world or in our heads, our focus should be on running really well. 

To me that looks like remembering to keep everything in perspective and to bringing our minds and actions back to our point of purpose. If we serve those who God has surrounded us with well, and we move toward the works God points us to, we will indeed be “running there” – or achieving our purpose.

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Be insanely hopeful

Hope is an expectation.

I love the idea of being expectant. Being expectant of more sunshine and less gray skies; of unity instead of division; of love instead of fractured relationships; of optimal health and deep happiness; etc. In the Biblical sense of the word, hope constitutes a confident expectation that God’s promises will come to pass, and that you will indeed receive an answer to prayers and your desires will come to pass.

I love hope. I love insane hope even more. Insane is like, “Yes, this is absolutely going to happen. God is going to show off! He is going to outdo anything my creative mind may have imagined!” Imagine the feeling of barely being able to contain your joy. Can you feel it? “This family vacation isn’t just going to be just fun, but it is going to have a life-changing impact through the conversations we have and the commitment we make to being present.” “I am not just going to finish the race, the hike, the new health goal… I am going to NAIL IT- I am going to not just get by but feel strong and vibrant at the end…” Again, insane hope.

What is your insane hope? Where do you need to think bigger? To believe stronger? To expect great things to happen? What scenarios do you need an extra dose of hope in?

I can think of a few myself. I have always been a glass half-full kind of gal, but I have to be honest: I don’t generally think grand thoughts about what could be. I tend to take a realistic perspective. Perhaps sometimes even leaning into not creating false hopes … maybe I’ve taken that too far. As a girl of faith, I need to grow in this area. I have personally seen God show off, and I suppose that is reason enough to start to believe bigger! 

Let’s be insanely hopeful this week!

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Lean into the word

First of all, isn’t this image terrific? I could sooo use this scene. What about you?

Although today we have so many options to read, listen and receive the “word,” without a lot of intention and focus, diving in and really “leaning” in isn’t that easy. It should be, but let’s be honest — it’s not. Getting away to really soak it in would be fabulous.

One year at the family camp we always went to (shout out to Pine Cove), they had remodeled the rooms, and above my bed was a scripture that essentially said, “he’s got this… you can breathe… be still.” It disarmed me. The scripture reference allowed me to reset. As I went in and out of the room that week, it spoke to me and helped me realize that I often carry around things I really don’t need to.

We all need a reset. I find myself needing them more often as I get older. It never ceases to amaze me that the ancient texts of the Bible can magically point us into the direction we apparently needed to be pointed, and perhaps didn’t even realize.

I am going to do my best to “lean in” this week. If you are able to, let us all know if something stood out to you in the process. I think it just might be powerful.

Here are a few that I kind of love thinking about in the context of resetting.

“The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.”

Exodus 14:14

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.”

Philippians 4:7

“This hope we have is an anchor of the soul. A hope both sure and steadfast.”

Hebrews 6:19

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Elevate the sparkle this week!

Who else is ready to “shake off” winter and bring on the sparkle of warmer days? That surely is a metaphor for life in general… Sometimes, we need to “shake” off a season and pray that God will provide some clear skies and brighter moments.

There is a great scripture that points us to the fact that God is pushing us toward sparkle toward a life fulfilled and joyful…

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:4

I’ve heard this read at weddings, and at other celebratory moments in life – those “sparkling” moments, if you will. It strikes me that we need “every day sparkle,” like the kind that happens on a cold winter day. The kind that shows up when a fun song hits the radio, throwing you back to your youth, when “adulting” hadn’t quite taken hold. The kind that makes you smile. We need this truth today.

Today’s simple thought is this: I am praying over each of you right now that God might remove any “yuck” and provide a path of clarity, richness and pure DELIGHT for you and those you love. I hope you will join me in elevating the SPARKLE this week.

Rewind! This is a throwback post that really spoke to me from 2019.