Author: lauracrosby (Page 12 of 45)

One Word and a Challenge

January 1, 2014 /

So it’s the first day of 2014.  Fresh start.  Leftover cookies are in the trash.  Cleaning and purging excess junk is on my “to do” list today.  The year stretches before us filled with possibilities.

I read back over my journal and reflected on my “one word” for 2013 – Fearless.  There’s nothing magic about prayerfully choosing a word to live into, to pay attention to and “fearless” was not the silver bullet for me.

I wrote that actually my year was more characterized by “undaunted” than “fearless”.  I prevailed more and feared less because God was present and empowering.  Running races, raising money for clean water, pursuing peace in personal relationships and internationally.  I truly believe none of this was possible apart from God.

So on to 2014.  My One Word for this year really should be “Cheater”.  I’ve prayed and reflected and pondered in my little heart of hearts, but I can’t play by the rules this year.  I’m going to be a cheater.  Or a rebel.  Rebel sounds edgier.

My “One Word” for 2014 is two words.  Or, “ChooseLife”, if you will.

Ok, you may think this is a sneaky way to do all of the things.  Or all of the words.  Maybe, but I don’t think so.

I believe God is calling me to focus on choosing

  • Activity over passivity
  • Treasure and truth over trash
  • Laughter and tears over apathy
  • Health over gluttony
  • Adventure over safety
  • Life-giving words over words of destruction
  • Redemption over regret
  • In vs. out on the sidelines

I believe this also ties into the theme of this blog – Awakening our souls…paying attention to  LIFE – the relationships, experiences, and practices God uses to form us into His likeness.

So, Fridays will be devoted to the sharing of ways we’ve found life in all it’s fullness.  Or totally tanked.  Or struggled somewhere in the middle.

Here’s my challenge for you today:  You are awesome.  I hear from many of you via email, text, fb message, or you speak to me to respond to posts.  I want to challenge you today to opt into this community of “Awakeners” and benefit from each other’s awesomeness.

Choose one word (Or cheat and choose two). One word that sums up who you want to be or how you want to live. One word that you can focus on every day, all year long.

Post a comment here – a word if you’ve chosen one, or your thoughts on this practice if not.

Commit to our Fridays of focusing on choosing life and paying attention to the work of God.

“This day I call the heavens and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children my live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him.  For the Lord is your life…” Deuteronomy 30:19-20

“The thief comes to steal, and kill, and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”  John 10:10

Selfies and Three Alternatives

December 30, 2013 /

Selfie: A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.”

A friend of ours, Renee Stearns, included a great insight in their Christmas letter this year.  She wrote this about selfies: “Taken from a vantage point only as long as arms-length, it’s sometimes too close to make sense of what’s going on in the picture.  The perspective is somehow off.”

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So much of what is on social media is small and distorted – what we want others to see and believe, or the worst that someone else has discovered and exposed.

When it’s a profile picture, or a fb post, or one mistake, or a Tweet, it’s just 144 characters, or the shot of one moment.  Behind each is another story, a larger picture of lives being transformed by God’s grace.

Journalling is one practice that can help us correct the distortion of selfless.  I journal in the form of a daily dialogue with God – reviewing the previous day (which often involves confession and praise) and praying through the coming day’s activities.

The last week of each year, John and I take time to read back through our journals for the year and look for themes, lessons, failures and signs of growth.

I know, I know.  Some of you are yelling at the computer screen “Leave me alone!!  Stop guilting me!  I’m not a %$#@* journaller!”

If the idea of keeping a traditional journal makes you want to run screaming into the night, may I suggest 3 alternatives?

1.  Gratitude journal.  Just keep a running list of the gifts of each day. It’s short.  It’s painless and physically writing them down a practice that has made a huge difference in my attitude. I keep this in addition to my regular journal. The way to give thanks in all things is to notice each small thing.photo-68

2.  One Line a Day journal.  Summarize or record one highlight a day for five years and look back at the entries from year’s before. All you have to do is write a sentence a day.  Maggie and her husband Austin also found one that has a question each day and one line for each of them to respond on.

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3.  Once a year journal.  In it write the highlights of the previous year, and your hopes and dreams for the new year.  I know one couple that does this together on their wedding anniversary each year.  Together they read the previous year’s entry and each person writes their reflections for the current year. IMG_1480-2

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“Our years come to an end like a sigh . . . ” says Psalm 90, “so teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom”.

Just a handful of the barest facts can be enough to rescue an entire day from oblivion—not just what happened in it, but who we were when it happened. Who the others were. What it felt like back then to be us.  Fredrick Boechner

What alternatives can you think of that help you with perspective?  What helps you be more self/God/and others aware?

What I Learned About Being “Fearless” in 2013

December 27, 2013 /

The week between Christmas and New Year has always been a good time for reflection. So I’ve been thinking about my “One Word” for 2013 – Fearless.

Not that I saw myself as fearless, but I believed God wanted to grow me in that direction.  It didn’t feel like it was “mine”.  It was an aspirational word.  Kind of like “thin” will be an aspirational word my whole life.

There was the acknowledgement that “Fear not.” is the most common command in the Bible and that other command, “Follow me.” which usually involves risk and the F word, at least in my life.

Living with this “One Word” in 2013 helped me to pay attention.  Henry James, a novelist, writes “Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost.” This was my goal.

Not that it’s been a smooth ride.  I had a panic attack for the first time in my life.  And that’s not “me”.  At least that’s how my pride responds.

But I also took risks, and went public with a big goal that I felt was beyond my ability.

I think the biggest “fearless” lesson I learned came while I was running. And running.  And, you know… trying not to die. Continue reading

Lost In Soweto and Bethlehem

December 24, 2013 /

“Let us drown out the howling nonsense of Gomorrah with the melodies of the New Jerusalem.” – Spurgeon

In 1996, shortly after the Rwandan genocide, just when AIDS was gaining attention, not many years after the end of Apartheid in South Africa, John and I got lost in Soweto.

There were six of us, white americans crammed in a car, driving around in circles until we stumbled upon the place where Nelson Mandela came and spoke after his release from prison. As I remember, it it was large and cavernous.  We walked inside, the only ones there.

In the silence, our friend started singing in a crystal clear voice, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

The notes softly bounced off the ceiling, the floor, the walls.  It was a holy moment.  We let it wash over us.  It was a melody of the New Jerusalem.

Many years later I walked into the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, crowded with tourists, wanting a piece of Jesus, but not necessarily wanting the sacrifice necessary for Peace. Continue reading

When is Your Zero Dark Thirty?

December 23, 2013 /

This morning I walked outside in the winter cold at zero dark thirty and looked up to see a partial moon and a few fragile stars clinging to the night.  It struck me that looking up is always the holiest part of my day.  I spend so much time looking down, mired in the minutia, pondering problems without the perspective of Power.  Looking up reminds me to bow down.  It made me think of this post from last year…

I’m not good at the practice of silence and solitude.  I like chatter and hustle and bustle because they feel productive.

Silence and solitude, at least from a distance, seem well, lonely and unconstructive. Like  waiting for a bus you’re not sure is coming.

However, though it’s not my go-to mode, over the years I’ve grudgingly come to experience great value in the discipline of being alone and quiet with God.

When I look at the account of the first Christmas, it’s not that there wasn’t chaos, confusion, and noise.  “The little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes”??  Are you kidding? Continue reading

One Thing it Takes to Overcome Fear

December 20, 2013 /

I watched this video a week or so ago and thought, “What if…?”

What if Christopher Maloney didn’t have his mom cheering for him?

What if he hadn’t had one person who believed in him?

What if he had let the voices of his detractors drown out the one voice that said, “You are talented.  You’ve got this.”?

We all need a champion, a cheerleader, an encourager in our corner.  Not someone to give us false hope or shield us from the truth, but someone who sees the gifts we have to offer the world and wants the world to have the joy of receiving them.

Who believes in you?  Make sure to thank them.  Who are you championing?  Make sure they know it.

Advent, Prayer, and a Rant

December 18, 2013 /

Ok, I think I’m a really positive person.  99.9% of the time.

I have a policy that I will never use this blog to post anything negative.

Well, I’m about to break that rule.

There’s something that’s driven me crazy for years and I think Advent is the time to bring it up.

We see examples of people in the Bible challenging, whining, ranting and raving to God as well as thanking, praising and asking.

Now I know we can say anything at all to God in prayer.  Just like a toddler can say outrageous stuff, a parent still loves to hear them talk.  It’s all good with God.  No matter what you say He’s not going to vote you off the island.

But there’s a phrase I hear people use all the time that doesn’t make sense to me. Continue reading

7 Ways to Thrive (or at least survive) at a Holiday Party

December 16, 2013 /

The other day I wrote about the people we’ve gathered around our table over the years.  I wrote about how we all have fascinating stories that are part of God’s larger story and part of life is getting to know each other’s stories.

“Well,” you might have said to yourself, “Stories shmories.  All fine and dandy for you, but holiday parties are about as fun to me as being chosen as a tribute in the Hunger Games.”

Unknown Ok, this post is going to change all that.  It will be a Christmas miracle and you’ll want to send me all your Christmas cookies as a thank you.

This morning there was a guy and a girl, maybe in their late 20’s sitting near me at Starbucks.  I’m thinking morning coffee date.  Match.com.

I really wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but it’s possible my natural spy skills automatically kicked in when I heard certain words like “single” and “Christian” crop up.

Here’s the thing. The girl talked about herself nonstop!  I kept wanting to stuff a Cranberry Bliss bar in her mouth and say “STOOOOOOP TALKKKKKING!  Give the poor guy a chance!”

Yep, most people love to talk about themselves.  Who could possibly be more interesting than…you?

But also in the same coffee shop is Tom, who comes in every morning and no matter how friendly I am he seems to have a hard time conversing with me.  He just always seems uncomfortable and lonely and I want to give him a big hug and say “It’s gonna be ok.”

All of this has gotten me to thinking about the ways that we connect, especially at holiday parties.  Here are a few ideas: Continue reading

One Word and Clark Griswold

December 13, 2013 /

Back in January, (yep, it’s been a long time) we talked about choosing One Word for 2013 – a word that God might desire to expand in our life…grow us into.

 My word was Fearless, which gave birth to Fearless Fridays, because even if that wasn’t your word, we all deal with Fear in various forms.  

In January I also posted some thoughts from my brother, David, on this.  So the other day I asked him for an update.

I’d love to hear from you too!  What has your experience been with your One Word (if you identified one)?  If you didn’t, looking back now, what is one word that would summarize your 2013?  Post your thoughts in the comment section!

Continue reading

The Words you Hear

December 11, 2013 /

This past weekend my husband John and I preached together at our church.  It’s always such an overwhelming and…sobering (?), scary (?) privilege to preach and ask for God’s voice to drown out anything of “us” that might distract.

We spoke on Mary and finding joy in the midst of any circumstances.  That was all fine, but then God totally messed with me.

In our sermon I shared about an experience I had had the night before.  I went to a dinner celebrating the birthday and an anniversary of sorts for a dear friend of mine.  Each of us gathered there brought a word or words to share that communicated some of the incredible value our friend has brought into our lives.  As we shared, our words were written in gold marker on a glass hurricane with a candle inside to be a reminder to her when she lights it, that words like beautiful, effervescent, intentional, and wise advisor describe how God is using her in the world.  It was a privilege to speak these words of truth to my friend.

In our sermon I said that most people don’t get to hear words of value and affirmation spoken over them by friends like that, but God desires to whisper His words of love to us every minute.  Mary’s joy and peace came from the fact that she knew who she was and whose she was.

Continue reading

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