BACK IN THE SADDLE OF A DIFFERENT HORSE

I'm back in the saddle again. Jennie Allen spoke the magnetic statement I've adopted, "God, I will do ANYTHING," in her book Anything. My heart so agrees and I want to be and do anything for my Savior, who has changed me and my life forever. 

What I didn't know is that with God, sometimes choosing God's "anything" and getting back in the saddle means getting off a lot of other horses and letting go.....

Letting go of leading women -

Letting go of driving vision for women's ministry - 

Letting go of the pretty hat of leadership I enjoyed wearing - 

Letting go of a passion and a meaningful way to serve - 

Letting go of a secret pride -

I told Joelle last night across the table at Whole Foods, I always thought telling God I'd do anything meant doing more, stepping out, taking risks of adventure. I didn't know He'd ask me to step out by stepping down, so His surprises and gifts of a different sort may come to me. My meeting yesterday with our pastor and turning in my leadership button sealed the deal. 

So in riding this pony of RA (and sometimes a bucking bronco) for the past 3.5 years, I'm following the lead of my husband, the counsel of godly women and Jesus in choosing for 2015 ---- GRATITUDE and FOCUS. 

I asked God 4 years ago this month to make me a genuinely, from the core, grateful woman. I had no idea of his methodology for me. I've made some strides but I desire to be so full of spilling-out gratitude regardless of difficulties and limitations! So I am asking God to help me focus in this new season. To focus on Him as first order always. From Him comes my joy and peace and wisdom. And to focus on rested care of this body.

In sorting through boxes before Christmas, I found a letter my sweet sister Maryanne wrote quite a few years ago. She said she was so thankful to God and grateful for the lupus disease she had. Maryanne has mastered gratitude from the core for decades. I'm not there and long for God to delight in creating a deeply grateful woman in me.

God of miracles, please create gratitude and focus in this servant. I am Yours.

(Thank you Ellen for encouraging me to blog again and reading these words that tumble out! I love you!)

Hummingbirds and Flies

A beautiful green hummingbird spent a frantic night in our living room, flying at ceiling level against our west-facing windows in eager hope of getting outside again. We opened large doors to the right and to the left of him, and still he insisted on going through a window that will never open.

I've noticed that annoying flies will persist in getting out of closed windows, even when an open one is inches to the side of them. What's with that? I'd prefer they get out instead of having to clean off my window ledges later.

I love those little hummingbirds - beautiful, swift and energetic. They seem to typically know where they're going, and swiftly - energetically move about life to be what God created them to be and to do what God created them to do.

I find myself however looking like our visitor last night or the uninvited flies that invite themselves inside. Why do I sometimes fly into closed windows when God's window of freedom is just to the right or left of my path? He knows my way. He is my way.

This morning, we were able to gently push the exhausted, surrendered little bird into a box and take him outside. He eagerly found an ounce of remaining energy to begin seeking life-giving nectar to drink.

And this morning, I come to Jesus, tired and thirsty for the sweet nectar of God's Word. Longing again for freedom from myself. Freedom from the seeming demands of my heart and emotions that occasionally rise up to take control.

I opened to 2 Kings and read of King Hezekiah, who "did what was good and right and faithful before the Lord, his God....in the eyes of the Lord". He sought an audience of One, seeking not what others say or want, but what God desires and wills. So he "removed the high places" and broke them in pieces, those places that demanded worship of themselves in denial of God. King Hezekiah instructed that all "uncleanness" be brought out of the temple. Then the people sacrificed to the Lord, which ushered in an outburst of praise and worship to the Lord. They brought thank offerings to the Lord and set their hearts to seek God, the Lord. "So there was great joy...the king held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him...and the Lord was with him." The Bible says that in every work he undertook in the service of the house of God, he was "seeking God, he did with all his heart, and prospered."

I gratefully fly this morning through God's window of constant love to receive His freedom! His Words of truth direct my flight and focus me to be whom He created me to be and to do what He created me for today! All praise, all joy to and from Him!

What Do You Really Want from Life?

Systems and Processes

I can by nature be pretty much into systems and processes. They give me a plan to operate by. When I start something, I usually like to finish it. This all works for me...until it doesn't and I'm finding myself operating by some rule instead of in the freedom God gave me in Jesus.

The last four years, I loved "reading" the Bible by listening to it spoken by Brian of DailyAudioBible.com. It was so meaningful and I loved the community developed around it from all over the world. But I began to recognize I was listening to it as I fell asleep and was hearing the Bible more as stories than as what can change my very life on a day-to-day basis.

So this year I decided to read through the Bible in a year on a plan that sounded interesting to me - chronologically. But you know, I'm just finding that I'm getting stuck in monotony. I love that one can receive important truths from anyplace in Scripture, but Ecclesiastes just isn't cutting it right now for me, since Solomon must have been in a slump in life and wrote how there was nothing new under the sun, that it was all meaningless. 

Today therefore I decided it's time to change. I'm hearing my Savior speak to me instead to, "Just come aside with Me. Come BE with Me. Rest your heart and body with Me. No performance. No rituals. No rules. That's not what I'm about. I am about loving you and you knowing and loving Me. Just come." 

My hands are empty. My heart is open. My body is tired. My heart is a bit anxious about how I can be with our adorable two preschooler granddaughters for a week and survive physically. So all the more, I eagerly come. I listen with anticipation. I rest with and in Jesus. His voice is true and tender. His love is deep and forever. His strength is sufficient for anything and everything. 

A Pretty Cool Coaching Tool for your life or business

Coaching Tool
Energy Leaks

Cheryl Scanlan PCC, CPCC

As entrepreneurs and sole proprietors, the energy for our businesses must come from us. Because we are the source of momentum, it’s important we use it our energy well and consider where we might have “energy leaks.”

Think about the energy saving steps we take for our homes.  We spend time and money sealing duct work, upgrading windows to double or triple pane with the addition of argon gas fills, or adding electric thermostats with programmed increases or decreases in temperature so that we are not cooling or heating an empty house. 

Your home has not changed one bit to the outside eye, but to the trained eye, an inspector will see and appreciate the upgrades. Even more importantly, you will experience the benefits of those upgrades when you pay your utility bills and enjoy the increased comfort that comes from living in a more energy efficient environment.

Now, apply this concept to your business.  To the outsider, your business will not seem to have changed much if you spend some time analyzing opportunities for energy efficiency.  However, in the long run, everyone benefits. You show up to your calls differently with greater enthusiasm and liveliness. You’ll have more room and time for your business and for the things that are important outside of work. Perhaps, most importantly, you will be able to focus on activities that bring you energy which in turn will help fuel your business.

What are some ways you can create energy efficiency in your practice that supports you?  

Step 1: Ask a few powerful questions or have a buddy coach ask you these questions.

• What are the activities that you know are wasting your time and energy?
• What are the activities that you think might be wasting your time and energy?

Step 2: Now test out your list. For the next week write down each time you sense a possible ‘energy leak’ in your practice.  Some ideas might be:

• Spending more time than you wanted on the phone with a potential client.
• Spinning your wheels trying to come up with a way to respond to an email                  
• Troubleshooting a technical problem
• Calendaring and setting appointment schedules                  
• Not having the call in instructions handy
• Unscheduled interruptions                  
• Arriving late to calls or appointments

Be specific in writing down the activity/event that caused that “energy leak.” 

Step 3. Utilize your coach or ask yourself these questions.

• Which item causes you the most trouble…or wastes most of your energy and time?
• Which items are self-generated and thereby fully controllable?

Step 4: Prioritize your “energy leaks.” From there, you can develop a game plan to "seal" that area for greater efficiency. Energy leaks in business are really a matter of self-management. By identifying these leaks you are one step closer to improving your capacity and productivity.

PONDERING a greater GRATITUDE

How is it possible to have pieces of one's life be genuinely difficult, and yet in the midst of that reality, be genuinely grateful? I'm pondering this and letting the reality of my disease be a catalyst for growth into greater gratitude.

Ann Voskamp works through this in One Thousand Gifts, a book I'm eager to devour in full and which was recommended by our women's retreat speaker last weekend. 

I'm pondering her words - that "maybe you don't want to change the story, because you don't know what a different ending holds....it's accepting there are things we simply don't understand. But He does...When we find ourselves groping along, famished for more, we can choose...I think of - all the mysteries I have refused, refused to let nourish me....if the rent in the canvas of our life backdrop, the losses that puncture our world, our own emptiness, might actually become places to see...the thin, open places to see through the mess of this place to the heart-aching beauty beyond. To Him. To the God whom we endlessly crave. Maybe so. But how? How do we choose to allow the holes to become seeing-through-to-God places? To more-God places?" Well said. Well questioned. 

I commit to figuring out how to accept, to choose nourishment, to see through, to allow for more. My God is good. My God cares deeply and forever. My God is the One with more than One Thousand Gifts.

This morning I begin by finding them in the small things - the freshly made green juice my husband just brought me, after going to the store for ingredients. (That is no small thing to me!) And in the roaring and crashing of the waves here at the beach. Really? That's no small thing either. So are there small things, or just overlooked gifts? My dog sleeping at my feet, with my toes brushing her smooth hair. The bright pink clover flowers rolling down the rocks towards the ocean. The quickly changing sky from rain to sun. I choose. I see a little more clearly. I find gratitude. 

WHAT AM I CHASING

I am asking myself what am I chasing.

What am I chasing in this one life God has given me.

I have chased stuff, things, houses, even the organization of it all.

And people, family, those I love.

I've chased activity, busyness, tasks, accomplishments, to be the best.

And I've chased admiration, accolades and applause. Not outrightly, but inwardly.

But I'm not done yet....there's more.  The chasing of peace, happiness, lightheartedness, grace. For my American Idol singer of choice to win. Now that I've opened up this box, I'm finding it's like Mary Poppin's bag with an unending supply of wants and needs to pull out.

I don't think there's anything wrong with any of these. When they're in their right spot. When the chasing of them is something other than my life and for a purpose other than my own gain. Other than my focus. Other than my quest for fulfillment, because they won't. Ever. I've tried. They all have a hole in the bottom of their bag.

And in the chasing of things that never satisfy and leave me thirsty, I hear the voice of Jesus calling me to seek His face. That He has the water that will quench my thirst and the food that will really satisfy. That He has the words of life and the way for my feet to walk. His purpose. His pursuits. And then I am given His joy, His peace, His unending love. Not because I've done anything but because of who He is.

Jesus says He is the Way. He says He is the Truth. He says He is the Life. And I believe He is who He says He is, and not a liar & lunatic (my two options when I think about all He claimed).

That leaves my heart chasing....God alone. God's face. God's way. God's truth. God's life.
And I am satisfied, quenched, filled, at peace, grateful. Oh so grateful.