God’s Got Good Plans

When I think of summer I think of warm nights, the scent of thunderstorms, ice cream dates, summer reading lists, long road trips, baseball, the beach, and of course road construction. Did I surprise you with that last one or do you have lots of updates and work going on around where you live and work too? I’m always thankful when they have the time and resources to do at least a little patching after a tough snowy/salty winter, and I always forget how different it sounds and feels to drive on a freshly paved road compared to one that was paved years ago.

As I was driving through one of these sections being worked on I wondered about how they select what roads and parts of roads to work on each year. Because it seems like there are some roads that are really in need of a full paving job and yet they pave two miles up the road or down the road or two streets over. Money for road updates is probably allocated by state and then county and then city but who made the decision that a road had to be paved because it’s been so many years, versus a road needs to be paved because it’s got lots of fixes and potholes? Maybe it’s simply that they’re working on a 5 or 10 year plan and those roads have been preselected based on some criteria and they can’t do anything except add sections or roads to the future list.

The good news is that when it comes to God’s plans, even if we think they may be out of order, He definitely knows what He’s doing. God will decide if the timing on something needs to change. God will put something or someone in your path if He needs to do a redirect or change of plans. Yes, there are rules when it comes to God but there’s a lot of flexibility and forgiveness in them when He so chooses. He doesn’t plan things out to spite us. God may have several lessons on the same topic lined up but if we get the lesson He’s teaching it doesn’t mean that we’ll still have to go through all the lessons just because He isn’t willing to change His plans. Maybe there’s an important lesson in that for us, that we find a middle ground between sticking to the plans we make and understanding when the plans need to change or adjust based on new information that we could never have anticipated before.

“”For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”” Jeremiah 29:11

Reality Reflection: a Little Light Magic

Fireflies are magical aren’t they?! They’re definitely one of the things I look forward to most about summer. I love the fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables, I enjoy the warmth of the summer sun, I love people being more relaxed and taking vacations, I love how long the days last, and of course I love star gazing and summer bonfires. But more than anything I love as the day turns to night and the fireflies make their appearance. It never ceases to fill me with joy.

Of course fireflies remind me of Christmas lights as well (I’m thinking about Christmas because it’s shockingly almost time for Christmas in July again). Now, I enjoy light as much as the next person (isn’t electricity a wonderful thing!?) but Christmas lights and fireflies don’t exist for the goal of a significant amount of illumination. Sure, there are houses that get covered in Christmas lights and they can be seen for blocks or even miles, and if the fireflies decided to gather in a group for a meeting or party I’m sure they would illuminate brightly too, but as much as they are known for their light, the reason I love them isn’t precisely for their illumination, but for the reminder of how powerful the little things in our lives can be.

Yes, we have to watch out for the little things, the little habits that can drag us down without us really being aware, but even more so, we have to recognize the power of little things in our lives to build us up, ease us, encourage us, strengthen us, unite us and bring us hope. I know it doesn’t seem like a cookie, a cup of coffee, a hug, a kind word, a Bible verse, or a few fireflies can really do much, but it’s often those little things that makes all the difference. So the next time you see a firefly, celebrate the magic that they are and let it spark a little magic in your own life, mind and heart too.

Owning Up to Mistakes

The other day someone did something that completely blew me out of the water. What did they do? They owned up for their not-so-good actions. I know, crazy, right?! It’s not something I expected and I wasn’t even looking for an apology or recognition of the situation, but it definitely gave them some brownie points and did good things for our relationship. I know how hard it can be to admit that you did something wrong or that you weren’t right about something or that you overreacted to something or that you didn’t do your best on something, because we don’t like to let ourselves or others down, and of course we worry about penalties that would come our way as a result of our words or actions. But even if we face some punishment or loss of status because of what happened, we can get back on track much faster if we own up to what happened.

Why does owning up to stuff make a difference? Part of it has to do with maturity, that we’re willing to take responsibility for who we are and what we’ve done. Another part has to do with recognizing the impact we have on others around us. So many customer service issues would be resolved much less painfully if companies or representatives would just admit there was or is a problem and help address it rather than denying it or talking about “past the window” of being able to be addressed. Also, owning up to things shows that we recognize the connection between past and future and understand that sometimes in order to move into the future we need to do a better job of finishing up a chapter or closing a door on the past.

Owning up to something is a victory for both parties because one person is being honest and responsible while the other is having something set to rights for them. Having someone own up to something isn’t about pointing fingers or being “right” that they were wrong, but about everyone being on the same page about what happened and being able to move forward in a healthy way for everyone, and it gives the opportunity for someone to offer forgiveness and help release some of the guilt from what happened. And often knowing that you had to own up to something is enough motivation to help stop what happened from happening again in the future (because there’s not a whole lot of point to owning up to stuff if you keep doing it again and again going forward). Plus, sometimes owning up to something will be the breakthrough you need to get one step (or several steps) closer to victory.

Rainbows in Time

Time is interesting, isn’t it? The other day after a big storm came through we had the blessing of a rainbow. Where I live it’s something that doesn’t happen frequently, and as you probably know, like all rainbows they don’t stick around for too long so you have to be in the right place at the right time to see one. Yet for almost a day after the rainbow I had pictures of that rainbow showing up in my social feeds from people who live near me who also saw the rainbow and wanted to share about it, so even though the rainbow didn’t last long in the sky, people were able to experience it for hours after!

This intersection of something that’s been part of our world since the dawn of time (remember Noah and his rainbow?) with the new technology that’s only been around for a handful of years (compared to history) is fascinating to me. I love how something that few would have experienced was spread and shared with so many thanks to this new technology. I love that the rainbow will continue to live on long after it vanished from the sky. And I really appreciate both the reminder of how brief our lives are in the scheme of things as well as the reminder that some things do indeed endure throughout time. After all, how cool is it that you’re seeing the same exact natural phenomenon that Noah saw is something that we see?!

Psalm 90:2 says: “Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, You are God.” Rainbows are a reminder that God is faithful, as well as that He is still here with us today so many years after the first recorded rainbow. And Psalm 90 reminds us that there are other reminders around us every day of both how fleeting our lives are and how carefully God has planned things thus far. If God had planned out for mountains and rainbows to be part of our lives thousands of years later, I think it’s safe to say that He has a pretty good handle on what’s coming up and that if we continue to trust Him and let Him guide our lives we’ll make it through like Noah and so many others have before. Which natural occurrences or blessings remind you that God is part of our world still?

Reality Reflection: It’s a Learning Problem

Last week I shared about the importance of learning when it comes to victory, but learning is important for so many other reasons too. I read an email this morning from Gareth Higgins who shared some strong feelings about one of the many recent commencement speeches that have happened around the country as another group of seniors are sent off into the world. For context you can read the whole post here, but one of the many lines that stood out to me was “He believes what he says because he hasn’t experienced a more expansive vision…” referencing what the speaker shared in the commencement speech.

Yes, to some point we do research and learn to confirm what we know. It’s one reason why things take so long to develop in the medical world: they have to be tested and retested to confirm the initial results and hopefully find and fix as many potential complications as possible before they share it with the world. But more of learning is about remembering exactly how big this world is, exactly how many people we share it with and exactly how many “facts” have been edited over the years because they weren’t actually facts. Take for example the fact that people believed the world was flat for many years. It isn’t, and we now have proof, but if no one had ever taken photos of the earth, if we had never gotten planes to fly, if so many other things hadn’t happened, and most important if no one had shared those bits of actually true information that the earth is round with person after person, we would still believe that the world is flat.

I would never suggest that you make learning the only thing you do in life, that you can’t find foundational beliefs that continue with you through life, or that you constantly look to prove current truths in your life as incorrect, and I know that there’s more out in the world than we could ever learn in a lifetime, but I also know that we run some serious risks if we don’t make time for learning in our lives. Going back to the ‘flat earth’ example, how restricted and fear-based would our lives be if we were constantly worried about how far we could go before we fell off the planet? We would also probably fight for who gets to live in what we consider the “middle” of our flat world and who is relegated to live closer to the outside and might fall off (however accidentally it might happen). We would also probably not think of life in the way that we do now, that so much of it is cyclical and connected and that what happens to one place will probably also affect another and therefore we need to think more about partnerships than edges.

If you’ve got goals to go on TV game shows or attend local ones in your area, learning is great for that. But more importantly, learning is something that helps us better get along with each other, have more self control, be wiser and smarter, get more done, use our resources more efficiently and know when something comes along that we really need to be part of. Learning is something that should (and does) benefit us and help us be better people, so subscribe to some educational emails, read blogs, listen to podcasts, watch the occasional educational TV show, spend time with people from a host of backgrounds and with a variety of perspectives and life paths in person and online. How do you incorporate at least a little learning in each day?

Finish What You Start

Are you a starter? To a degree it’s very important to be a starter, because there are so many people who never start on the dreams, ideas or goals they have and therefore can never reach the finish line. I know many people can get paralyzed between the options and not knowing where to start or not feeling good about just jumping in anywhere, so having the courage and willingness to put yourself out there and start on something is very important.

But all too often people I meet or clients I work with get really good at starting stuff and can never finish it. And while sometimes it’s possible to pass off what you’ve started and let someone else finish it (for example you may want to start a load of laundry or move it from the washer to the dryer and pull out certain items you don’t want machine dried, but once it gets through that part of the process you’re OK letting anyone else handle the rest), a lot of the time we want to (or need to) see things from start to finish. After all, wouldn’t you want to be part of your victory journey from start to finish since it’s your dreams and your hard work on the line?

So dust off that half-finished project, finally finish that book, clean up that corner of the yard that you’ve been putting off, ask for help with that recipe you’ve failed at before and really want to make, follow up with someone who reached out to you a while ago, finish your plan for the rest of the year, finish that important paperwork you’ve been putting off, publish that website or blog or podcast, go on a date, get a pet, work with a financial advisor, or whatever other things you’ve started or made a plan for but haven’t followed through on and you know it’s important to get it across the finish line and be able to say that you completed it. What will you be able to say you finished and achieved victory on this week?

Community Matters

With another school year ending, all of the graduations happening and Father’s Day just days away I’ve been thinking a lot about the people around us. My partner is much more social than I am and I can’t fathom how he manages to sustain all the relationships that he does and still stay sane. But at the same time I also know that we need other people in our lives and that life works better when it’s done in community. There were so many interesting and important things that Jesus did both in His lifetime and specifically during His years of ministry on Earth, and one of the things that He came back to time and again is the importance of community and being in relationship with each other. Matthew 22:36-40 says:

“”Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.””

If you remember, there were 10 Commandments issued to Moses by God back in the beginning of the Bible after the Israelites were freed from Egypt and before they got to the Promised Land. While it’s good to know what they are, Greg Laurie sums it up well: “Interestingly, the Ten Commandments are divided into two sections. The first four commandments have to do with our relationship with God, while the final six deal with our relationship with others.”

The bottom line is that community is really important to God. Of course the 10 Commandments and Jesus are going to focus on the importance of being in (healthy) relationship with God, because that’s where we should start or where our heart should be, but to have 6 out of 10 Commandments be about community and for Jesus to say that it’s equally important to love your neighbors, I think it’s time for the excuses to be over and for us to work with God to find where the balance is for us to be part of contributing to and benefitting from community while still having enough alone time to not be overwhelmed or unable to function. What are some communities that you’re part of and what are some healthy ways that you balance your need for community with your need for quiet alone time?

Reality Reflection: It’s OK to Take 5

Summer is my favorite season. I love the blue skies, puffy clouds, crisp-but-not-cold nights, the feel of a breeze on a hot summer day, trips to the beach or ocean, all the fresh fruits and veggies, barbecues and even the warmth of the hot summer sun. But summer isn’t quite what it used to be when we were young kids because now we’ve got lives that don’t usually come with summer-long vacations and fewer responsibilities. In fact, summer now usually means more responsibilities because the kids aren’t in school and we have to juggle their much-changed schedules on top of all our usual responsibilities.

But as I’ve reminded some clients recently, as well as myself, sometimes the best you can do is take that 5 minute break and sit outside between phone calls, take a shower alone when you can without interruptions, take 5 minutes to watch your favorite live nature cameras on Explore or another site before you go to bed, throw the ball with your dog for a few minutes while the kids settle down from their activities that day and before you make dinner, pack a cookie or other sweet treat with lunch and enjoy it while taking a true break for only as long as it takes to eat it, take a minute to enjoy the stars and moon at night before you call it a day, or even get up 5 minutes early just to be able to have a few sips of coffee alone before you have to jump into whatever the day holds.

We all know that there is so much to be enjoyed in life, but most of us also recognize the importance of following through on our responsibilities and how those responsibilities sometimes mean that we don’t have a lot of time to spend on all the fun or relaxing things we might want to do. And add in a sick family member (including yourself) and responsibilities and stress just multiply. Which is why it’s good to not overlook those little moments of joy and peace and fun that can be had even if you want to have more of them and at the same time feel guilty for even taking those few moments. Taking 5 minutes each and every day, even when you don’t really have time, will never make up for not being able to do all the fun things you want, but it makes it easier and less stressful to do everything else.

Learning to Victory

I’ve always had a fascination with learning. I didn’t love school but I always enjoyed picking up a book, watching a documentary, or visiting pieces of history whenever I travel. This focus on learning and expanding my horizons means that as I’ve grown older I’ve had a lot more information to tap into and reference in both my personal and professional life, which hopefully also means I’m wiser and more capable of handling whatever comes my way. I certainly don’t know everything and don’t have a goal to know as much as possible before I die, rather my perspective on learning has to do with connecting dots, gaining context, and being able to better understand the world (and people) around me.

Knowledge is such a powerful tool when it comes to victories because the more knowledge you have, the better chance you have of knowing something about or being able to make an educated guess about a situation that may pop up in your journey, or knowing that you can trust your gut because you have a memory of learning something on that topic which is informing that gut feeling. Knowledge can also help you know when you need to bring in an expert and when you can get by with doing it yourself with basic information or general assistance. I also think learning and having knowledge helps you with decision making and understanding things like process and asking questions.

One thing I know is that victory journeys are rarely straightforward. They’re usually complex and layered and often keep us on our toes as things change or develop from moment to moment. So the more information you have to work with, even if it’s tidbits or more general than specialized, the better. And you never know, you may be able to impress someone with your knowledge some day which will help you make a big leap in reaching a goal or making a connection that will help you in a future victory. What knowledge has helped you in your victory journeys over the years?

Reminders and Reassurance from God

One of the stories in the Bible that sticks with me and I revisit time and again is the story of Peter having a vision about the sheet of animals in Acts 10. For context, at this point Jesus has died and been resurrected and gone back to heaven and Pentecost has happened. So at this point all the Apostles are out doing ministry and in the chapter just prior to this one is the big event where Saul who spent a lot of time persecuting Christians is stopped and blinded by God and actually becomes a Christian because of the experience, going on to become one of the most famous Christians. In this story though we meet a Roman officer by the name of Cornelius who was God fearing even though he wasn’t Jewish. One day when Cornelius was praying as he usually did God sent an angel to speak to him and encouraged him to bring the Apostle Peter to his house, so Cornelius sends men off to get Peter.

Meanwhile, Peter is praying and while he is praying he falls into a trance and sees a sheet come down from Heaven filled with animals and a voice tells him to eat the animals. Peter, being the good Jew he is, says that he won’t eat those animals because they’re not right to eat according to Jewish law. The voice reprimands Peter saying “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” (v15). So this happens three times before the vision ends. Of course the story goes that Cornelius’s men arrive at Peter’s, they all travel back to Cornelius’s house and Peter finally understands what the message about the sheet meant “Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”” (v34-36) This little event in the Bible is one of the reasons why there are so many Christians in the world today, because before this even though Jesus cleared the way with His death and resurrection, many followers of Jesus at this time were traditionally Jewish and those who were not of Jewish faith or heritage typically were looked down upon or not included in Christian gatherings.

It’s a great story, isn’t it!? The thing that stood out to me today as I was reflecting on it yet again was the fact that the sheet came to Peter multiple times and the voice from heaven had to share the message of inclusivity multiple times. Sometimes we need a bigger nudge to get something done or to have a breakthrough in a struggle we’re facing. And often God will give us multiple reminders or signs to help us with that. It shouldn’t be something that we test God on (i.e. always expect multiple nudges or signs), but instead that we’re thankful for the abundant confirmation and direction from God when it happens, and of course paying attention so that when we don’t get multiple messages we don’t miss the one or two we do get.