SOUL CrossTraining

Yesterday, I spent an hour fishing with a "little" friend of mine. What I thought was just an opporunity to visit with my friend, Maggy and her mom was so much more. Off we went headed down the hill to a neighborhood pond with fishing poles and worms in hand. Luckily, Maggy's mom had all the tools we needed included a pair of gloves so we didn't have to touch the fish. She told us that it was best for the fish... but I am not convinced it was really more for me than the fish. We tossed our lines in the water and literally in a minute or two we had our first bite. Wow! As we "wooed" the fish in -- calling them toward the bait, we giggled and told stories. We "screamed" as the fish flopped around wanting to be put back in their warm, murky water. We giggled like little girls. Maybe that was the point... laughing, giggling, and for me "acting" like these were the first fish I had ever seen or caught. As I drove home, I smiled reali...

I've always thought of resting after expending energy -- as a replenishment for what I had just experienced or endured. So, if I took a run then I'd rest once I had finished my run. Or if I had been really busy finishing up a project, I'd work really hard for an extended period of time THEN I'd rest and recooperate. And to some degree that is still true -- however... I've been learning both from looking at SABBATH over the last several months and practicing SABBATH for the past couple of years -- that it really is more about a rhythm that prepares my heart, soul, and body for what lies ahead. When I am rested and my soul is replenished through time with God I am in a much better place to live well in whatever circumstance I find myself in. Let me be very practical -- and literal. We've been facing some difficult family situations that are requiring a lot of emotional and physical energy. My point is this... if I were to have walked into this new challenge...

This week we're stopping to set our heart right as we "right size" God. The root idea of Sabbath – all living things thrive only by an ample measure of stillness. Stillness like rest, requires a settling of the heart, a calming of the spirit. Sabbath keeping requires two orientations. 1. One is God-ward. 2. The other is time-ward. To keep Sabbath well--both as a day and attitude--we have to think clearly about God and freshly about time. We likely, at some, level, need to change our minds about both. Unless we trust God's sovereignty, we won't dare risk Sabbath. And unless we receive time as abundance and gift, not as rations and burden, we'll never develop a capacity to savor Sabbath. The first orientation for good Sabbath-keeping, the God ward one, takes practice, mostly through thankfulness. Thankfulness invites and acknowledges the presence of God until you are utterly convinced of his goodness and sovereignty, until he's bigger, and you find your res...

The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. Proverbs 11:24 "That's the irony; those who sanctify time and who give time away-- who treat time as a gift and not possession--have time in abundance. Contrariwise, those who guard every minute, resent every interruption, ration every moment, never have enough. They're always late, always behind, always scrambling, always driven." Mark Buchanan from his book, THE REST OF GOD. Try this Practice: Try this for a week, giving the gift of yourself first to God and then to others. Be generous with your time. Enter each day with a deep resolve to give your time away, even at times seemingly to squander it,for the sake of purposes beyond your own. Don't just give your time,but yourself--your attention, your affection, the gift of your curiosity and inquisitiveness. See how much time you really have. Post by Dana Randall, co-leader Women of Grace course on The REST OF GOD

I've been thinking lately about how I live my life. It all began to surface when I was listening to Bill Hybels at the Leadership Summit in August. He was talking about leadership axioms. If you're looking for some ideas and insight in leadership, you might want to check out Hybels' leadership book called, axiom . axiom (ăk'sē-əm) a word or phrase that particular people use in particular situations; "pardon the expression" You know those sayings, expressions or 'isms' we all have. Bill, my father-in-law would reply to difficult situations with two sayings... This too shall pass. and It's just a glitch. I must admit I often did NOT want to hear this Bill- ism . But we could count on him helping us gain a bit of perspective through these axioms of his. Unfortunately, he died a few years ago however his words and wisdom lives on -- not because he always said those words but more importantly because he lived those words . On my desk is a crumpled typew...