Author: lauracrosby (Page 36 of 45)

Ascribe to the Lord…

May 14, 2012 /

We sang the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness at our wedding on a hot, muggy July day 29 years ago, and it became our family refrain, sung at every defining moment.

We’ve sung it loud in gratitude.  We’ve sung it haltingly in desperation, we’ve sung it in harmony and with hope.  With tears of pain and tears of joy.

This past year I’ve had the incredible privilege of worshipping with believers on five continents.  Singing “Great is Thy Faithfulness” side by side with folks who were raising their voices in tribal tongues like Tonga, or Aramaic, French, Japanese, Hebrew, Spanish…

In a packed mud church in Zambia where praying for daily bread isn’t an empty phrase and people thirst for living water.

Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Alone in abandoned cathedrals in Italy where God is still present and you hear the echoes of followers long gone.

Great is Thy Faithfulness.

In the Swiss Alps where believers are a minority like a tiny flame trying to bring light to the darkness.

Great is Thy Faithfulness.

In Brazil where girls need to be reminded they are beautiful, beloved children of God first and foremost.

Great is Thy Faithfulness.

In the Bethlehem where Christians pray for peace and refuse to be enemies even as bullets fly.

Great is Thy Faithfulness

In Sri Lanka where everyone helped bury the dead after the tsunami and the sound system squalks and squeals and people fan themselves in the sweltering heat and humidity as they sing.

Great is Thy Faithfulness.

I write these words fearing they won’t communicate the power I feel.  I am not an emotional worshipper, but when I come before the Lord with people of every language, people with burdens I cannot imagine, and faith I cannot fathom, I’m wrecked.  I’m a puddle.

I wonder if you’ve experienced anything like this.  It’s hard to express, and yet, I feel the Lord says to me over and over again “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name” from Psalm 29 and I have to try.

I think of this as a small glimpse of heaven written about in Revelation 15:9  “All nations will come and worship before You, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

What moves you in worship?

How to Discern What’s Real (A Resource for Leaders and others)

May 10, 2012 /

This looks flat doesn’t it?

NOT.

Every time I ride this part of this bike path I have to down-shift one.  Because it is actually a gradual, but definite, incline.

Looks can be deceiving, but when I know that truth I can adapt.

Sometimes reality is hard to discern.  Sometimes it’s difficult to accept.  And sometimes we just want to deny it.

This guy looked responsible.  Healthy.  Devoted.

Not so much.

We had a perception of his character that was not rooted in reality.

Whether it’s stress, or circumstances outside our control, or sin,

facing reality and responding is a crucial part of our formation into people who look more like Jesus.  And a crucial part of leadership development.

All that to say, I have a resource to share with you.

I’ve been helping facilitate some online classes called Leadership Institute for Transformation (LIFT) offered through the Willow Creek Association.  The class I’ve been involved with for several co-horts is called Leading For Results.  It was created and is taught by Dr. Henry Cloud, using a book he wrote called Integrity.  One of the key challenges we talk about in this class is facing negative realities and adjusting.

Here’s a little taste.

We talk about 6 sources we can use to get an accurate picture of reality and then provide this tool for self-evaluation.  Take a look at each source, consider what you have in place, and  the suggested activity.

1. Direct relationship with God

a. Mechanism currently in place:

b. Suggested activity: Spend some time in prayer asking God to remove blinders and biases regarding your ability to see the reality around you.

2. God’s word

a. Mechanism currently in place:

b. Suggested activity:  Read 2 Peter 1:5-8. Consider whether you have been truly integrating these characteristics into your leadership as planned in the first week.

3. External truths

a. Mechanism currently in place:

b. Suggested activity:  Reflect on what you have been learning from different sources of information. What does this say about your currently reality?

4. Internal Truths

a. Mechanism currently in place:

b. Suggested activity:  What’s your emotional barometer registering? What are sources of anxiety, joy, stress, peace? Find a place to write, or talk with a friend to name these realities.

5. Other people

a. Mechanism currently in place:

b. Suggested activity:  Take something that you’ve noticed or learned about yourself, or your current situation. Interview a trusted friend or colleague to give you feedback on the same topic. What do they see?

6. Your life

a. Mechanism currently in place:

b. Suggested Activity: Reflect on your overall results as a leader. What were you producing 5 years ago? Two years ago? How have you grown since then? Where would you like to grow?

c. Suggested Activity: Consider doing a 360 degree interview.

Leading for Results is only one of the classes offered.  Each course is 7 weeks long.  At the beginning of each week you receive an assignment that may include watching a video, doing some self-evaluation, a little reading, and interacting on the on-line Discussion Board.  In addition, there are two virtual classrooms each session when everyone is online at the same time interacting around material being presented.

Starting June 11t I’ll be facilitating a class called The Leader’s Soul, taught primarily by Mindy Caliguire.  You can find out more about all the LIFT classes here.   We’d love to have you jump into one!

OR…if you’re on the fence, you can join me and participate in a Virtual Classroom on May 23rd at noon CST.  Just sign on as a guest.

Where are you going today?

May 9, 2012 /

Tomorrow John and I are leaving to go to Sri Lanka, off the coast of India (yes, I had to check).  He for a World Vision Board meeting.  Me, to support him in his Board-dom and see more of God’s world and work.

The amount of travel I get to do is a privilege I don’t take lightly.  I’m blessed, but I told the girls it doesn’t bode well for me that one of the first things I read about Sri Lanka is that they have 84 different kinds of snakes, but not to worry because not that many are poisonous.

I hate snakes.  I mean really.  Me and Indiana Jones.

So, Sri Lanka has that against it.  And it’s like a million hours on three flights to get there which I could live without.

But, I’ve been thinking.  Discomfort and snakes aside, in many ways it’s easier for me to go across the world and build relational bridges to folks in Sri Lanka, than it is for me to go across the street and build a bridge to my neighbors who smoke and have loud parties and yell at their kids.

It may be easier to fly across continents than for me to make the time to fight traffic and go across the city to a homeless shelter, or to tutor.

Sometimes it’s easier to jet across time-zones than to walk across the Great Room at church and include someone who is hard to love.  Or cross the coffee shop to listen to enter into someone’s pain, or reach out to a stranger.

I think of what it was like for Jesus, leaving the pure delight of heaven and coming across time and space to enter into the everyday brokenness, muck and mess of this world He loves.

And then He went across cultural and economic and class lines to reach the Samaritan, the tax-collector, the confused rich, and the broken-hearted father.

I think the reason it’s easier for us to go across the world than across the street is because across the street is just so everyday.  It’s always right there.  It’s the ever-present opportunity we’ll get to “someday”.

Going across my city, my neighborhood, my church, my home, my coffee shop.  It’s not like it’s a big deal.  Which is why, perhaps it is a big deal to Jesus.

A quote by Gregory Boyle has captured me this week: Jesus “goes where love has not yet arrived.”

So on this last day before Sri Lanka, my goal is to be aware go across wherever I can go across in my everyday world, prayerfully going where maybe love has not yet arrived.

Where is it hard for you to go across?

What Does Church Look Like?

May 7, 2012 /

I saw something stunning and beautiful Saturday night at worship.

I saw the Church.

Not the church.  Not the steeple or worship band or the red carpeting.  But something illusive and shy, like a wobbly fawn that is often camouflaged in the underbrush of dead leaves, and can often collapse under weak, buckling knees.

It peeked out, and I caught a holy glimpse.

It’s common these days to hear the refrain, “I love Jesus but not the Church.”  We get all worked up pointing to her hypocrisy and judgmentalism and ugly blemishes and bad habits.  I’ve written before about how we’ve been hurt by her.

But I’m blessed to be part of a community of believers where Church-sitings, real Church-sitings, the kind Jesus talked about – the kind Jesus prayed for at the end of John 17 – thankfully aren’t that rare.  And I had one the other night.

It was a simple thing really.  I was sitting in the back of the sanctuary on the left and a few rows in front of me sat a woman my age (read “very young”) who was diagnosed a couple of years ago with Early-onset Alzheimer’s.  She is blond and soft and round and absolutely full of child-like joy.  Beside her sat her husband who is kind, and devoted.

In the middle of the sermon she got up and scooched out of the pew.  I watched as she ambled to the back of the sanctuary past me and turned left along the back row.

Another woman sitting in the section one over, noticed who it was leaving, smiled brightly, popped up, and joined her walking out.  A few minutes later the two of them returned.  The “escort” gently guided her friend back to the correct pew and her husband, and went back to her own seat.

Like Jesus guiding one of His little lambs back to safety.

Such a very simple thing.  But it made me cry.  The beauty of it.  The rightness of it.

Alzheimer’s or not, we all wander off from time to time and need someone to walk alongside of us and remind us where we belong don’t we?

The sermon continued, but the more powerful message was being played out in the pews.

The church was being the Church and so often that doesn’t get seen and celebrated for the wonder that it is.

When have you been inspired by seeing the church be the Church?

Three Minutes of Wonder

May 4, 2012 /

When I saw this it blew me away.

Who knew?  How did God create that tiny creature and teach him to do...that???

Last night John and I were eating dinner on the patio and he said “Isn’t it cool the way the sunlight is hitting the leaves of that tree?”  Not a typical remark from him, but it was just another reminder of how we usually rush by the tiny sparkling bits of God-wonder revealed even right in front of us.  Not hidden underground even.

Today is alive, twirling like a little girl in her glittery  candy pink dress-up gown and tiara, just waiting for us to notice.

May you have a weekend of noticing and hearing the holy whisper of God in creation say, “Here I am.”

What of God’s creation are you “wondering” at this weekend?

What are you Waiting For?

May 2, 2012 /

Last week I was down in the Chicago area because my mom was having surgery and I wanted to be there to help out and cheer her on.

Her last words as she was going in were “Isn’t he CUTE??” with a gleam in her eye as she pointed to her doctor.  Her first words out of surgery were “How does my hair look?”  Her doctor warned her not to sell her leftover Oxycodone on the street corner.

She’s scrappy and has a remarkable spirit and my dad is devoted and I wasn’t really needed, but it made me feel better to be there.

On the day of her surgery my dad and I spent pretty much all day in the waiting room.  I’m not a good wait-er.  At all.  As a wait-er

You’re not in control (When are you ever, really?  But it feels worse when you’re waiting).

It feels like you can’t DO anything constructive.

It feels like everyone else is going on with their life and you’re on hold.

Most of us are waiting for something.

I have friends who are waiting for a husband.  Or a wife.

Friends who are waiting for a prodigal to return.

For an acceptance letter.  Or a baby.

Waiting for a diagnosis.  Or a cure.

Waiting for a job.  Or someone to need them.  Or a place where they feel like they’d be missed if they were gone.

Recently, I heard Holly Furtick speak on waiting, and something she said has been rolling around in my brain ever since.

She said, “What seems like a pointless or painful waiting room can be God’s most productive workroom.”

I thought “Aha!!  I love being productive!  She’s going to talk about what we can DO to CHANGE things and get out of the waiting room!”  Not so much.

The work that we do while waiting is most often soul work.  Inside stuff that requires patience (Does anyone like that word?), obedience, discernment and cooperation with God.

In the waiting room of the hospital where Dad and I were they had this nifty flat screen and on it were listed all the patients in surgery for the day.  It tracked their progress, from pre-op, to surgery, to recovery room, to permanent room.  In addition, if the surgery was long, they’d send word out with a nurse as to how it was going.

When I’m waiting I could really use a spiritual progress monitor showing exactly how I’m doing and when it’s all gonna be over.

But instead of even enduring in the comfortable, clean lounge of a hospital, waiting often seems a lot more like we’re survivors of the Titanic, clinging to God among the wreckage in cold, dark water.  Disoriented and desperate to do something.

Every once in awhile we’ll flail our arms and try to swim to shore deluded into thinking we can swim the hundreds of miles on our own.  But we realize we can’t and we go back to clinging.

Clinging is the work of the waiting room.

We cling and we say “Lord, help me to see you. Somehow.  Today. Even for a second.  Help me to focus on Your purpose rather than my problem.”

And slowly, ever so slowly, the wait results in just a little bit more of the weight of His glory being formed in us.  Maybe the moment when we get the job or the baby or the whatever, isn’t the big deal, but rather the thousands of moments you choose courage and hope as you cling to the One who loves you.

One more thing…With my dad in the waiting room, it was easier because we had the company of each other.  So, today, if you’re waiting and you’re reading this, know that you’re not alone.

What’s your experience of waiting?

The Biggest Parenting Mistake You Can Make

April 30, 2012 /

This is my friend, Sherrie.  Not the bald one.  The beautiful one in the bed who still looks like she’s in her 20’s.  She and Rick have three delightful grown and almost-grown daughters. We raised our kids together with other Jesus-following parents who were all anxious about getting it “right”.

Last year around the time Sherrie’s eldest daughter was getting married she began to think she might be going through menopause.

Nope.

 Meet Jolie Layne Byron.  Born April 23, 2012.

I went to a shower for this new little one and we got to talking about our experiences with our “first round” of kids.  I started thinking…If I had it to do over again, what would I do differently?  What mistakes did I make?  What mistakes didn’t I make?!

There are the “little” things people might point to like the time I let Maggie wear her sandals to church.  It was 30 degrees, but I figure you gotta pick your battles.

Or, Katy might point out how in grade school she was scarred for life when she was home sick and I let her watch “Wait Until Dark” while I ran to the grocery store.

I could also throw John under the bus and mention the time he gave Maggie Ipecac in the middle of the night thinking it was cough syrup.

Times when I was too controlling and times when I was too permissive.  So many possibilities, so little time!!

I sent our daughters, 24 and 26, an email and asked them to weigh in.  I know they could give a list of things they wish we had done differently, but they were both feeling gracious I guess, because they only sent what they appreciated about our parenting.

It made me think of something that happened when the girls were in grade school and we were coming home from a vacation in Florida at a time we had had to pull them out of school.

They’re both really good students but keeping up with homework when there’s a beach beckoning is tough.  In spite of our reminders, Katy had not done the work she was supposed to do.  John, frustrated, said, “Katy!  Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t punish you!”

She didn’t miss a beat.  “Because you’re always telling us it’s all about Grace, Grace and more GRACE!!”

Maybe the biggest mistake we can make is to forget about grace.

I think of all the ways I’ve messed up and, I think of my heavenly parent.  I’m His reckless, well-meaning toddler, crashing into things and tripping over my toes.  I’m overwhelmed by a God who picks me up and dusts me off, and sets me back on my feet with the power to redeem my mistakes, turn me around and point me in the right direction.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” 2 Cor. 12:9

Might you leave a comment today about what did your parents did right?  

Or a mistake you’ve made that you saw redeemed by God?

You’re the One Who

April 25, 2012 /

Last week I wrote about getting stuck in an elevator and in life.

A few days after that incident I got into the elevator again.  I know, I know, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  But call me an incurable optimist.  And another woman was there so I figured I’d have a buddy if anything happened.

“Oh YOU’RE the one the firemen had to rescue!” she said.  With a “look”, if you know what I mean.

Hmmm…I thought.  “Is that really the way I want to be known?”

Wouldn’t it be better to be known as the one led Tiger Woods to Christ and helped get his life on track?  Or better yet, the one who found a cure for AIDS?

When we think of the people in our life we often think things like “He’s the one who’s self-absorbed and never asks questions of anyone else.”  “She’s the one who always has such a great attitude.”  “That’s the one who will always help out.”

I’ve been wondering…When people think of me how would they complete that sentence (other than “the one the firemen had to rescue”)?  If I have life verses they would probably be Deuteronomy 30:19,20.  My hope is that people would say “She’s the one who chooses life…life-giving words, life-giving actions, life-giving attitudes.”

How would you like people to complete the sentence for you?  “He/She’s the one who _____________”

The great thing is, no matter what, the way that God completes that sentence is “You’re the one that I love.”

.

Just Going in Circles?

April 23, 2012 /

Last fall I shared some thoughts from a new book by our friend, Mark Batterson called The Circle Maker.  This weekend we had the privilege of having him speak at our church.

In the book, one story Mark uses is that of the Israelites who have been wandering in the desert for 40 years and come to Jericho at the edge of the Promised Land.  Imposing.  Six-foot wide lower wall.  50 foot tall upper wall.  Impenetrable.  Overwhelming.  Like many of the problems and dreams we face today.

God tells them to march around the city once a day for 6 days and then on the 7th day, to circle the city 7 times.  He promised after they circled the wall 13 times the wall would fall.  On the 7th day God delivered on a 400-year-old promise.  Mark writes,

“Jericho is spelled many different ways…  If your child is far from God it’s spelled salvation.  If your marriage is falling apart, it’s spelled reconciliation.  If you have a vision beyond your resources, it’s spelled provision.  But whatever it is, you have to spell it out.”

For my friend Heather, her Jericho was spelled healing.  All her life she has struggled with a hereditary condition that affects her digestion.  It became more and more complicated, resulting in the necessity for 8 operations and an ileostomy (not something exciting for a beautiful twenty-something woman)

The bottom line was that she landed back in the hospital for both Christmas and her birthday last year with more complications after her 7th surgery.

Confused, grieving, trying to cling to God, the 7th floor of  the U of M Medical Center became the site of her Jericho.  Barely able to hobble, dragging her IV pole she made it her goal to walk around the unit one time each day, and finally, 7 times.

Heather focused on Hebrews 11:1, trusting that God was doing in her body what she didn’t see or feel, and that her faith in Him would carry her if the healing wasn’t physical.

When she walked out of the hospital on March 27th 2011 it was for the last time.  Physically healed.

This was not magic.  This was not a formula.  And I don’t know why Heather was healed and others are not.  We’re in a relationship with the God of the universe and His ways are not our ways, His timing is often not our timing.

Heather would probably tell you that what she learned over the years of waiting, walking and clinging, was as important as her healing.  She is a different woman.  A more peace-filled, confident woman because of her walk in circles.

But I am convicted by this, “When you live by faith it often feels like you are risking your reputation.  You’re not.  Your risking God’s reputation .  It’s not your faith that’s on the line.  It’s His faithfulness…The battle doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to God and because the battle doesn’t belong to you, neither does the glory.”  

We need to look to God’s promises.  Ask, and then listen for Him to whisper the dreams and goals He wants us to trust Him for.  We need to pray for discernment.  And listen.  And do our part in making wise and healthy choices.

But here’s where I also get in trouble.  Often I think I (we?) ere on the side of not naming our Jericho out of fear and uncertainty.  Maybe we can start circling our Jericho with an openness to God’s correction.  An ear to heaven and an eye on eternity…

So today, What’s your Jericho?  Maybe we can circle together.

If you want to hear Mark’s fantastic message from this weekend on Acts 10, and additional study of the topic with Message Gear go here.  (Should be available by Tuesday latest)

Want to try something new?

April 20, 2012 /

Have you ever had the experience where God brings His words to mind at just the right time?  Like He’s talking to YOU?

At one of the lowest moments of my life, on a mountain in Europe, all alone, I was overwhelmed by “hearing”: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit.”…”I will never leave or forsake you”.

However, I think I’ve mentioned before that although I love Scripture and I really try to memorize it, I’m TERRIBLE at it (especially at getting the reference right).  From what I hear, I don’t think I’m the only one in this proverbial “slow” boat.  Can I hear an “Amen!”?

Anyway, I refuse to give up.  I’ll try anything and recently I found Scripture Writer.  It’s a unique site that takes you through three steps over and over again til you master a verse.

First you type it while looking at the verse.  Then you type it while looking at it with some words removed.  Then you type it completely from memory.  Every step along the way, if you type a wrong letter or word the type shows up red instead of green.  And it even gives you feedback, like “Wow!  That was your best yet!  You almost have this memorized!”  (Who doesn’t love an encouraging computer?)

You can input your own verses, or use ones they have already inputed.  I’m trying to memorize the whole first chapter of James.  I think I’ve been working on 1:1-3 for two weeks (I told you I’m in the slow group!) Anyone want to join me?

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.  (It’s that first part I always have trouble with!)   Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

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