For a couple of weeks before Christmas we prayed a lot for our daughters, Maggie and Katy.
Maggie said she was afraid she might fail her statistics class in grad school because our family doesn’t do math. This is the Instagram she posted.
And Katy was under a lot of pressure at work because, well, she had to coerce motivate people to do what they didn’t want to do.
I mobilized pray-ers. Family. Friends. The occasional stranger who looked bored. Continue reading
I shared last week that my One Word for 2014 is LIFE (as in “Choose Life!”).
I think LIFE is a really great One Word. (Woohoo for me!) I think it’s at the root of following Jesus. I’m not saying my One Word is better than yours! Noooooo! That would be soooo foolish. Like watching a Bachelorette marathon and eating a bag of Oreos foolish.
I love all the One Word’s you’ve shared here that you are prayerfully living into this year. (If you want in on the fun look here or here and add your Word in the comments!). But I also think that a case can be made that whatever word you’ve chosen, it’s about choosing life – the capital “L” life that God made us for.
Ok, I know some of you are reading this in California, or Bali, or Singapore. The palm trees are swaying and you call a day of sweet warm sun and tropical flowers “Tuesday”. Your Word may seem easy and your burden light. You may have a hard time relating to a picture like the one below, but it exists. Trust me. I know it too well. Continue reading
Dear Movies About All of The Things in the “Real” world,
I’m writing you to put you on notice.
I’m taking away your stars and giving you a rotten tomato. You may get critical blah blah for being “authentically raw”, but so what? It’s too easy. It’s like saying we need to hear Lindsay Lohan is behaving badly. Again.
I don’t think so.
You’re down and dirty, but I’m gonna take you out with a Ninja kick to your mojo and call your bluff. Your world is not all there is.
Reality without redemption, you are dead to me.
Greed, sex, drugs, lies, betrayal, selfishness? I know you’re everywhere, not just in the kingdom of Wall Street. I don’t need to be reminded.
I need instead, to see glimpses of another kingdom. Continue reading
This is what we, in Minneapolis woke up to this morning.
If you’re reading this in some exotic place like Bora Bora sitting by a palm tree on the beach and sipping drinks with little umbrellas, well,…we’re sooooooo happy for you.
In Minnesota schools statewide are closed, and activities cancelled. It’s not a “snow day”, but a “if-you-go-outside-for-even-a-nano-second-your-lips-will-freeze-together-permanently-and-your-eyelashes-will-break-off-day”. Last night the forecaster said, “We’ve moved from ‘stupid cold’ to ‘dangerous cold.'”
People (especially those without kids!) are relishing the idea of having to stay home and do nothing but curl up with cocoa and a good book…the treat of being forced to rest from normal activity.
On days like these, John and I like to look at each other, and say “You know what we have to do today??” Then we grin and say, “Absolutely nothing!”
I remember hearing someone say once that God wants to give us a “snow day” every week with Sabbath. Why do we resist? Why do we seem so addicted to “doing”… to being recognized for what we accomplish? Is it born out of a fear that being God’s beloved child isn’t enough? Continue reading
Is this pathetic, or what?
I think the day I take down our Christmas tree is the saddest day of my year. I may have mentioned once. Or fifty bazillion times to my family.
I don’t want to pack up the glow of starlight and holy mystery, the delight of twinkle lights and tingly anticipation of bright wrapping and all the lovely things.
There is no better story than this long-awaited birth. I don’t want to stop thinking about ordinary but devoted Mary pondering “plan B”, or Joseph responding to the holy interruption that turned his world upside-down. I love imagining the crazy-plain and teenaged shepherds wearing eau de crap, on hillsides invited the event of the millennium. I don’t want to stop celebrating Jesus’ arrival in a humble place like Bethlehem.
Putting things away is such a mark of endings, while Jesus is the celebration of new beginnings that I love. It seems like a death when my One Word is LIFE. (You can still join Awakeners opting in and post your One Word here if you want!)
So when our tree is dead and the boughs are browning and the world is encased in ice like a corpse, how do we continue to choose life?
A friend sent me this quote:
“The true meaning of Christmas is found in the sharing of one’s graces in a world in which it is so easy to become cold, insensitive and hard. Once this spirit becomes part of life, every day is Christmas and every night is freighted with the dawning of fresh and perhaps holy adventure.” H Thurmond
Choosing life means we choose grace. We return again and again to the manger where Life and Light arrived on Christmas, not because we earned it but because it showed up when we least expected it and didn’t deserve it. We accept the gift and share it with others.
When I think of this Christmas choice I think of a mentor named Coke. She and her pastor husband were much maligned and criticized by a bitter old man in the church where we served many years ago, but one of the images I store of her in my memory is when I walked into a concert being held in the church basement. There was Coke, sitting next to her “enemy”, leaning in and listening to him with love and attention in her eyes. She was extending grace, and celebrating Christmas in that everyday moment.
Right now, what is one significant relationship in your life? Hard or easy. A spouse or a friend. A mother-in-law or a fiancé. Got someone in mind?
What would it look like to extend grace to them and celebrate Christmas again today? Offering an apology from the deepest part of you? A word of affirmation, encouragement or forgiveness? A secret act of service? A listening ear?
“Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you?” 2 Cor. 13:5
Yesterday I posted on One Word for 2014. I love seeing the words you’re choosing in the comments section – check them out and add yours!
I asked my mom what hers is and she said it’s a secret. 🙂 Guys, it’s not like this is a nuclear launch code. And you will not be struck by lightning if you change your word in February. Ask my brother, David.
If there was going to be One Word for this blog I pray it would be Grace, grace, and more grace! Part of my goal is that we would take God seriously, but ourselves not so much, so jump in. It’s safe, I promise.
If you’re considering choosing One Word for 2014 and are having some trouble, here’s some help from the author of the book, One Word, who was on the Today show. As you reflect, he suggests, look in, look up, and look out. View the 3 minute clip here.
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
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
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.”
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.
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.
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. 
“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?
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
“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
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