B L O O M

Bloom [definition]: to cause to thrive or flourish: to make bloom

“The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.” 

[Proverbs 15:31]

I observe that we have a natural and immediate tendency to defend, often apparent in our reactions to things. When faced with feedback, which is something we deliberately and frequently seek from team members in business and life coaching, this tendency often kicks-in, and we miss the live-giving opportunity is to embrace, discern, act on and ultimately benefit from the feedback. 

Of course there will be feedback that is unwise or mal-motivated, especially when human tendencies of insecurity and envy are influencers, so it’s on us to approach feedback with discerning eye, ear and mind, with foot ever toward refining and improving.  

May we embrace receiving and giving the life-giving feedback, and thus make more of our lives and glorify our God!

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” 

[Matthew 6:6]

In other words, keep it real.

In our Thursday morning “Lead and Feed” Men’s Group years ago, we had a conversation about what was known as “Constantine Christians.”  These were people who wanted to be SEEN worshiping and praying so they could impress upon others who saw them doing so, but were not ingenuous about their addressing or relationship with the Lord. The were very different people in private.

This scripture speaks incredibly loudly and clearly to what goes on between you and God needing to be true and real, not designed and put-on for impressions of others. We’re of course instructed to witness to others, but witness not of the heart is sniffed-out by God even before it’s put out by us. It’s so easy to forget that we can’t trick God. He knows in fullness exactly our minds and hearts even before and better than we; and the moral of that is keep it real!

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  

[Matthew 16:19]

The Kingdom of God comes with weight of the keys we hold and the way we choose to use them. Binding the works of darkness, and loosing the blessings, freedom and will of God in our lives and the lives of others. 

I interpret this message from Matthew as God saying to me, “Out with the crap and in with (and perpetuate) the wonder!”   What a fitting message this is for this last day of the year as we look with excitement, anticipation and high hopes and expectations for the New Year!

“For as he thinks within himself, so he is.”

[Proverbs 23:7]

This is one of my favorite passages from the bible. It strikes me that it was in this Proverb, King Solomon was first to document what is now widely known as the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. This wisdom and its prophecy applies for individuals as well as teams, and embedding this into the team’s core thinking is a game changer.  

I often share this Proverb when I speak, particularly when it comes to team culture. People tend to talk about culture as observers … as spectators … rather than as participants. They tend not to own it, especially when they perceive it as bad. 

Realizing that to impact our culture we need first to own it is the first step to improving culture and team togetherness and performance that results. Then defining, as a team, the culture we WANT to have, including developing a Culture Statement together, brings the power of the Proverb.  We give ourselves the opportunity to align how it IS with how we WANT IT TO BE, unleashing the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and transforming the team and its outcomes. 

What we think impacts everything. It impacts how we feel, what we believe, what we say and do, how we interact and conduct ourselves, even what and how we pray. When we think about God’s word, meditate on it, speak it out loud, that thinking becomes our Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. As one thinks, so one is … Think better, live better. Wisdom spoken and documented thousands of years ago. True and game-changing in Solomon’s world, true and game-changing in ours.

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” 

[Matthew 22.37] 

We are deliberately designed, created and crafted by God with a core  longing. A core purpose.  This verse clearly commands us in and toward that  longing and purpose …To love and to be loved.

As I seek God’s world around us (apart from the worldly world),  I see us living our most engaged lives, our most joyful and full and rich lives, when we experience ourselves loving others and being loved. This of course starts with our Creator, and deliberately extends from there to one another. This is one of the powerful ways we bear God’s image.

We tend, I think, to ponder being created in God’s image in a context of physical appearance, but I have to wonder …What would life be like bearing God’s image in in how we think? How much greater,  how much richer and more rewarding, will life be if we think more like God? 

[1 John 1:7]

There’s no hiding it. God knows everything we’ve done. Perhaps more incredible is that he has already forgiven us.  

I’m particularly moved this morning by the words “walk in the light.” I’m thinking about a statistic we share in our coaching with clients, which is that we’re fifty times more likely to accomplish something (as in a goal) if we write it down. If my math is right, moving the decimal two to the right to convert that to a percentage, that’s 5,000% more likely. I’ve always really liked those odds. 

So how about if we carried this productive achievement methodology to walking in the light?  What if we sat down, perhaps with a partner or two in Spirit, and came up with a list of bullet points we feel constitute walking in the light?  What if we actually wrote those down?  Would we be fifty times more likely to walk in the light?  

I suspect the numbers would vary for each of us, but I will say one thing with complete certainty – such an exercise would ABSOLUTELY increase the extent to which we’re walking in the light!

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and his mighty power.”

[Ephesians 6:10]

It seems to me the Trinity is the ultimate “Intelligent Design.” It gives us not only the God of Creation and a place in it, not only a Lord of our lives, not only a Savior to redeem us, but also, it gives us a Spirit to discern and to recognize the things that stand in opposition to God’s purposes and identify the means God is providing for us to remove them. Superpower to literally let nothing stand in our way. 

 What prospects such realization brings. Right?!  True superpower we can leverage in our lives right this moment to impact our outcomes in real time. Strength far beyond anything the word can offer. Strength to strive, to achieve and ultimately to accomplish. Strength to carry-on despite the world comes not in things of the world. Not in its hollow focuses and artificial means to hollow ends that leave us yearning. The great strength to prevail, the great strength to achieve, comes from the things of the Kingdom. And it’s been there all along!

“And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body, you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.” 

[Colossians 3:15]

What a simple and helpful inventory of how to live is this message from Paul to the Colossians!  

Peace – Each of us members of one body. Called to live deliberately. Thankful.  

Working with client teams every day to define and maintain our desired way of team thinking with a “true north statement” of how we want to think and be as a team at our best, it strikes me these words and wisdom could make a great Culture Statement. Don’t you think?!

“Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you.”

[1 Thessalonians 4:1] 

It’s clear from the Bible, and for me particularly in Paul’s letters, that it has long been a challenge to focus and live life apart from the pressing wooings of the word. Clearly this was a challenge for the Thessalonians in Paul’s day, as it is for us here and now.

In my reflections on this message today, I’m finding myself applying Paul’s productive instruction here to the workplace, and specifically, to teams and our conduct on them. Through the decades of small business coaching, I’ve found more and more need for focus, often very urgently, on team development, including leadership development. In the Post-Covid Era, I’ve detected a definitive tendency toward self-center …“make everything perfect for me”… which of course is very difficult to do given there are others on the team. And the perfect for me mentality that has displaced the “how can I contribute” mentality has made it more challenging than ever to retain a fully staffed team. And it’s not just in the workplace – this tendency has given life to the Transfer Portal in college athletics (I get the need but can’t help wonder … what if coaches gave as much attention to team retention as we did to strategizing for the Transfer Portal?!)

Well here’s the good news. I’ve observed this society trend toward self-center is leaving people starving. After the job-hopping to no meaningful ends, it seems to me people realizing perfect for me mentality is simply not cutting it, and I identify a developing back-current toward meaningful serving in work battling against today’s pop-culture message of being served.  

Funny how the pendulum swings, isn’t it? I think about how we treated one another and felt about our citizenship in this great nation after 9-11, and how the pendulum has swung to where it is today in the time since. Clearly a contributor to keeping the pendulum where it belongs is to strive to SERVE rather than striving to BE SERVED, and it is life experienced by that spirit for  which Paul was clearly striving.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

[Romans 12:2]

When we seek holy life – focusing on the Trinity, studying God’s word, seeking to be revere and to please God, we enable ourselves to evolve to be more Godly, more a heart of serving, rather than being sucked-in by the world and evolving toward self-center and even an unrealized worship of pop culture’s idols. Paul’s instruction powers life to be so much more than a sweet phone, a gym membership, a Starbucks or energy drink and followers on social media. Life becomes so much more meaningful than our own satisfactions can be, exactly now as Paul was instructing the Romans then. 

For all of us, transformation God desires for our lives requires realization, deliberate destination toward the teachings of Jesus…from worldly focus to more purposeful focus… and determination to dwell in life Paul describes as “good and acceptable and perfect.” Just imagine joy of such focuses displacing shallow satisfaction and life that comes such transformation.

“Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.”  

[Hebrews 12: 28-29]

Living a “lifestyle of praise” requires a paradigm shift. A mindset shift.  As my morning devotional friend Dave put it, it requires I see God as He says He is, not seeing Him through my own brokenness or lack of mindset.

I love the concept of a “Lifestyle of Praise.” Doesn’t that just seem a helpful, productive way to live life? Not praise of myself and my doings, but of others and most importantly of God. I observe a great tendency in most of us to fit God in around the way we see things and live life, which was clearly never the intention. Clearly the intent of the Kingdom is to place God squarely in the middle of all things and build life around that center; not build Him into life as I choose as after the fact.

How much more purposeful is life when we do that? And of course, from experiencing ourselves living purposeful life comes thriving, joyful life. That intelligent design of things is so simple, really … such a purposeful and and joyful life is not lived as a life “about me.”

“Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.  The Lord has made everything for his own purposes, even the wicked for a day of disaster.” 

[Proverbs 16: 3-4]

As Jesus was drawing nearer to the appointed time, He knew the purpose the Father had for Him. And He knew He could trust the plan because the Father’s purposes are so much greater than our own. 

When I think about this, I find myself pondering outcomes of my plans going it alone, versus outcomes of my plans partnering in those plans with God. In the things for which I’m striving, what if I discipline myself to tend less toward “I got it,” and more toward “We got it?” … Literally partnering.   

How much more powerful is “We” when I see that it fully involves God? …When I invite Him into my planning and actively seek His wisdom in that, remembering each day to ask God to bless not only my pursuits, but the heart and perspective and purposes with which I pursue them?

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.”

[Psalm 130:5]

When the chaos of the word is hard around us and catches us up in it, what an incredible help it is to stop in the madness and simply remember that we have a God who can and does see the whole picture. Even parts of our picture we’re not seeing in the moment. 

When we’re caught-up in seeking what we WANT, God is at work providing us with what we NEED, which  has me thinking today … How much more effective can and will we be in life when we have the faith to realize and know that God will ALWAYS know and provide what we need? … even when we’re caught up in the madness. 

I’m thinking about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in this moment. When He challenges His followers and curious listeners not to be anxious about life…about what we’ll eat or drink or put on…and our lives being more than such worries. Our heavenly Father knows what we need, and even amidst our distraction, He provides it.  

… Oh God, help me seek first the Kingdom of God. Give me the wisdom to know what I need and know that you will provide it … And let me not be blinded by false hopes in what I want. Amen. 

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” 

[1 Corinthians 1:10]

Let there be no doubt.  We are more effective and vastly more powerful when we come together.

What a magnificent piece of wisdom is this scripture when we consider the work of our loves. Being the house united and not divided is not just good strategy, it is DEVINE strategy. It is essence of being the whole greater than the sum the parts. The truest form of the whole. Unity is the superpower of God in the world through His creation to fuel greatness in accomplishment and impact every day. It is the Holy Spirit IN ACTION. 

Let’s hear this wisdom and lean fully into the spirit of unity. Let’s encourage and foster unity in our teams and despite productive disagreement and the considerations and breakthroughs it brings, let’s be inclined and compel one another to unity!

“If you can’t?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

[Mark 9:23]

What fantastic words by which to live with a fresh new year at hand. 

It seems to me the last thing God wants for us is to be afraid or insecure. So the question begs …Why would we let these limiting forces have even a moment of our precious time?

Crystal clearly, God wants and encourages us to have the kind of faith that makes us rock solid and steady with confidence in where He’ll bring us in our partnership with the Trinity. And we know even as sweet as that is, even the best life here could never compare with what is to come.  

All the more reason not to live afraid, right?!

Life’s just so much better …so much sweeter, when lived with this kind of faith-based confidence. Let’s hit the new year that way at a dead run!

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”

[Psalm 46:10]

What a wonderful time is the Christmas Season, when we draw near to Emanual. God with us. I hope we all experienced a wonderous, blessed, merry Christmas Season.

And now that the hype surrounding the Holidays has settled for the next 300 days or so, what a great time to really reflect on this message. There’s so much to be accomplished in stillness …the right stillness in the right spirit.

Let’s bring ourselves to be still; to drink-in and bask in the spiritual place for us that comes with stillness, knowing that God is God.   And in doing that, knowing He is working powerfully in our lives in that stillness – this new year and all years.

“For onto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

[Luke 2:11]

Emanual!  The night that forever divided time. The night God Himself came to this earth, loosed us from our sins and made way for eternity for ALL of his people.  

Joy to the world, and heaven and nature sing!

“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 

[Matthew 2:2]

In these days of modern technology, it’s easier and easier to “program” our lives. 

And yet, with all the technology and programming and calendaring every to-do and event of the Holiday Season, we can’t “program” the meaning of Christmas. We can’t experience the joy of the Christmas Season from artificial Intelligence or the newest iPhone. 

When my friend Dave and I reflected on this verse in this morning’s devotional, we discussed that, for the Wise Men, it wasn’t just about seeing the Christmas Star. It wasn’t just noticing it was there in the sky. It was about recognizing what the Star being there meant.  

The Wise Men didn’t travel to Bethlehem just to get a closer look, they traveled there to worship the Son of God, recognizing that there was (and is) a new way forward. They, and we to follow, recognized that with the Star, the Kingdom of God moved from God alone to a full Trinity.

What a shock to the system that must have been then, and is even now, to realize and embrace the Kingdom of God as Father, Son and Spirit … along with we the community in which this Trinity manifests. What life fruition it must have been then and is now when we realize and follow the Christmas Star and be a whole in community impossibly more than the sum of its parts. 

How over-joying it is in this Season to gather close to that.  To be God’s People in the Christmas Community.  To experience the fullness of the Christmas Star even now, and to celebrate together what started it all, that first Christmas away in a manager.  

 … EMMANUAL … God among us and Joy to the World!

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

[John 3:17]

What a start realization is this. Jesus took his place away in a manager so that we might have a home in heaven. Who knew as the Herald Angels sang to the new born king that despite the shameful arrogance and selfishness that was to come by those Jesus came into the world to save, wondrous, limitless, saving grace would He none the less give. It is truly the miracle of Christmas.

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

[John 3:17]

I don’t know how the wonder and grace of Christmas could possibly be clearer than here, do you?

What a wonderous epiphany. What a stark realization. Away in a manager with no crib for a bed, to become a life without comfort or home, relentlessly scrutinized, accused, condemned, tortured, mocked and executed for and despite the unparalleled good He brought to the world. …He brought FOR the world.  …All so we can have a place in heaven, despite the shameful arrogance and selfishness by we He came to save.

Are you kidding me??!!  …What Child is this??!!

Gracious Lord, Creator and Redeemer, may we live lives worthy of your love and grace!  Amen!

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” 

[John 1:12]

The message here seems clear to me, and my realization accordingly clear: Being a Child of God is a CHOICE.

It strikes me there is a difference between being part of God’s creation, and deliberately being a Child of God. My being part of creation involved a choice made by God. The fundamental and sacred gift of my life within His on-going master creation was a by-design act of grace. Being saved by his sacrifice was another act of grace. Truly amazing grace. And with my choice to accept that grace, the undeserved gift of joyful eternity. 

That grace given, I realize being a Child of God is a step beyond God’s Grace into being a willing and deliberate participant in these gifts. Choosing to receive, honor and live by God’s grace and His gifts of life here and life eternal. Not just recognizing God’s Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven, but making the choice to participate in that Kingdom. As my friend Dave put it in this morning’s devotional, asking the question “Who am I?” … And then choosing the answer, “I am a child of God.”

“He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.”

[ Proverbs 13:20 ]

Add to this 1 Corinthians 15:33 – Evil company corrupts good habits – and God’s instruction regarding the company we keep seems about as clear as a message gets. 

In other words, with whom we’re choosing to hang-out ABSOLUTELY influences who we are end up being. And to me, that clearly says we want to give some serious consideration to, and possibly deliberately evolve, the company we’re keeping.

The message here speaks to me on both the life and the business fronts, and I observe the message to be true all through life and not just in certain so-called “formidable years.” In business and life coaching, I have truly observed the good, the bad and ugly as results of chosen company, and it has made me all the more deliberate about right choices. 

It’s pretty simply, really, right? We think about what thinking, what conduct, what pursuits, what habits and what way of living makes you the best version of yourself, and deliberately spend time in the presence of and build your support network with people whose presence in your life and in your business lend to that. That seems to me practical message, and this spot-on consulting is literally free of charge.

A couple weeks ago, Dane and I spoke at the Summit Optical “SUMMIT SUMMIT” in Helena, Montana, and without a doubt, we were keeping some incredible company. Thriving private practice owners who choose very deliberately to partner with and favorably impact one another’s success by sharing and favorably impacting one another’s thinking. It was a study in the positive impact that can be had by the chosen company we keep, and I was and am thankful for the helpful personal impact I experience choosing to be in such company.

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

[Luke 19:10]

Scripture makes it clear God does not want us to be lost. And when we are lost, He wants us to be found.

As a team coach, I’ve learned this is as applicable to us as teams as it is to us as individuals. We deal every day, particularly since the Covid team culture torpedo, with teams that have lost their way and are no longer grounded, and we frequently lean on scripture to help them re-ground.  

Despite what pop culture would have us believe, I can’t think of a single time when reflecting on scripture as a team was anything but productive, and in fact, you can typically hear a pin drop during such dialogue. That’s the great thing about God’s word – it tends to elicit a feelable personal conviction. Wise words are wise words, and all people, all team members, are capable of hearing and processing and identifying with true wisdom. I find people tend to not only hear, but often heed, wisdom when given the opportunity, and because God’s words are wise, I find it wise to reflect on them to help keep the team path straight!

“Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

[Hebrews 2:1]

My friend Dave in his daily devotional:  “The Gospel is the most drastic of measures …It’s a bloody cross. It’s the death of God Himself for our sake. It’s the utter smashing defeat of death itself in a glorious resurrection to show God’s love and power throughout all eternity.”

My Reply: “Dave, what an incredible and stand-alone statement! It is all of these things, so well stated here, and then some. Such stark statement definitely clarifies reasons we should not drift away and for today, I will simply add, AMEN!

“For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as a shield.”

[Psalm 5:12]

I absolutely love how my good friend Dave put it in our morning devotional this morning, “God wants to give you His portion for your life … to give you the measure that is wonderfully and uniquely yours.”

What a wonderful and helpful way to think about how God looks after His people is this verse and Dave’s elaboration. What pure joy is it to know that in all of creation, not just here on earth but in the universe and in the heavens, God looks specifically after each one of us as an individual in His Kingdom … blessing each of us particularly and deliberately with His bounties.

It is mind boggling to stop and appreciate such magnitude of grace, is it not?.  … I can, only do, truly marvel at this!

“But as it is written: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ – the things God has prepared for those who love Him”

[1 Cor 2:9]

In our fallen condition, we cannot see the face of God. But we will see His face and be home like a blind person receiving sight, and our lives will be complete. We will see God’s face, and can you imagine? 

This message in Corinthians is such a great reminder that if life is all about THIS life, if we’re striving to experience heaven on earth, we’re missing what awaits us. But if we realize and have faith that eternity is better by far, we’re then always headed toward the truest of joy. The most complete joy of all. And while we’re heading toward that joy, we mustn’t let the things in this life, even the joyful things, crowd or block our focus on the very best thing of all!

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vein conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

[Philippians 2: 3-4]

With last week’s message, I asked there could possibly be a more fitting message for leading your team (not bossing, but leading) in the workplace. Surely Paul’s encouragements to the Philippians in these verses is right up there!

We talk a lot at THRIVE about Three Pillars of Team Performance – Leadership (thinking that favorably influences the team and its outcomes), Management (reducing that influential thinking into systems that help us sustain it) and Development (helping team members align their abilities, motives and contributions to be and experience the joy of being the best and most productive versions of themselves. 

In decades of encouraging and helping teams in these three focuses, I’ve no doubt Paul’s wisdom here, putting others before ourselves … and wholly experiencing life doing so … is essential in leading and developing teammates and teams. I’ve also learned we may not be naturally inclined toward thinking this way, but when we’re encouraged and make it an object to do so, we can and do achieve this thinking. And we have  more joyful and prosperous lives, both in and out of the workplace, in that doing.

“Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”  

[Thessalonians 5:11]

Could there possibly be a more fitting message for leading your team in the workplace?

Leading and leadership are not reserved for the people with titles. Titles make us bosses, but they don’t make us leaders. Choosing to favorably influence teammate and team thinking and encouraging and taking initiative accordingly is what makes us, all of us on the team, leaders in our own unique ways of going about these things.

We have many roles as leaders, but the on role that is sacred, that is eternal, that seems to me to be most aligned with the Kingdom of God, is helping people be their best, most meaningful selves.

“I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” 

[Philippians 4:12]

Most of us have been both places. We’ve been brought low and we’ve abounded, as individuals and even as work teams, and there is opportunity in having experienced both. 

Be it relationships. Be it business. Be it health. Be it team morale. In times of tribulation and in times of soaring. whichever we’re experiencing in the moment, our Creator has provided what we need to take heart, see opportunity, exercise hope, choose and carry on.  These seem critical parts and chronology of moving forward.

I pray that whichever we’re experiencing in the moment …brought low or soaring … we can exercise these steps and drive forward in faith.

“Thy Word is a lamp onto my feet and a light onto my path.” 

[Psalm 119:105]

There is nothing wrong with having and enjoying things and experiences. And even in going all out on such things and experiences now and then, but these are not what my friend Dave and I discussed this morning as the “satisfiers and fulfillers” in and of life, and when we look to them as such, life gets out of order. 

We remembered in our conversation that most things and accolades and worldly experiences are for our enjoyment. Not for our fulfillment. There are so many things I enjoy and experience (perhaps a new personal best Rainbow or Brown trout on my next flyfishing excursion!), but no matter how much I enjoy and even fully appreciate and am grateful for these things, I can’t be truly fulfilled by them. I can have things and accomplish things which make life enjoyable and exciting, but this is different than fulfillment I believe God intends in and for my life. 

To put it very simply, it’s in living and achieving in matters of the God’s Kingdom, aligning with God’s intents and purposes for our lives now and eternally, that fulfills!

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” 

[Matthew 5:6]

There is nothing wrong with having and enjoying things and experiences. And even in going all out on such things and experiences now and then, but these are not what my friend Dave and I discussed this morning as the “satisfiers and fulfillers” in and of life, and when we look to them as such, life gets out of order. 

We remembered in our conversation that most things and accolades and worldly experiences are for our enjoyment. Not for our fulfillment. There are so many things I enjoy and experience (perhaps a new personal best Rainbow or Brown trout on my next flyfishing excursion!), but no matter how much I enjoy and even fully appreciate and am grateful for these things, I can’t be truly fulfilled by them. I can have things and accomplish things which make life enjoyable and exciting, but this is different than fulfillment I believe God intends in and for my life. 

To put it very simply, it’s in living and achieving in matters of the God’s Kingdom, aligning with God’s intents and purposes for our lives now and eternally, that fulfills!

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” 

[Hebrews 4:12]

What a profound and powerful message this is. 

What an impressive and impressionable description of God’s presence and awesome power in our lives. Power in the flesh, and in the spirit. In our outer and inner person. God and His power are present in every fabric of our being, body, mind and soul. And His power is our power, this day and in all times!

“And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace”

[James 3:18]

I note the message here is not, “always perpetuate your way or the highway, and when others don’t accept it your way, prevail over them however you must…”

The way of the cross is peace and mercy, which certainly does not always come naturally. In fact, such way often requires considerable effort from the parties. As this scripture indicates, in our workplaces and in all circles of our lives, peace is “made” by the parties in the conversation. 

Through decades of helping teams resolve conflict, I see again and again that when we focus in our workplaces, and with our families and in society, disagreement and even confrontation can be peaceful and productive when we strive for Godliness in how we approach and handle disagreement and keep our minds on what we want to accomplish, not just who wins the argument.

“Finally brother, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

[Phillipians 4:8]

It’s amazing how much more productive our thoughts and therefore our actions and lives are when we choose to channel our thoughts and direct them to specific, productive things rather than letting them be captured by disruptive and unproductive influences.  This seems to me exactly what Paul is saying here.

 Our minds are literally a battleground for focus, and we need to choose to win the battle.  We can control our thoughts and focuses, and therefore our executions and achievements, first with effective self-leadership of choosing to do so, and second, by managing that choice with some systemizing. Like a prayer list helps us with focuses for prayer, a “to think about list” helps us displace the unproductive influences of the word and its agendas and focus on more deliberate, helpful, favorably life-impacting thoughts.  

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

[1 John: 3]

In healthy family relationships, children look to their parents often and for about everything. Early in life, this is obviously to meet their physical needs, but as life unfolds for both child and parent, it becomes much more. It becomes life together. 

As a father, I have always been thankful for this. It has been and is my heart’s desire to be actively and always fully sharing in our children’s lives, and they in ours. I hope and pray we will always be this way, with the joy and adventure of our lives together always expanding and moving to great next places.

It is on this desire I often reflect when I think of God our Father and His involvement in our lives. Time after time in the scriptures, we’re invited to turn to God not just for the monumental or difficult things and occasions in our lives, but for the common and everyday things and occasions, even very specific ones, as well.  

If God knows every hair on our heads, surely He knows every joy, pain, difficulty and celebrated moment in our lives and desires to be actively living them with us. That we choose to keep Him actively and completely part of and sharing in our lives. He extends every invitation for that, and life is clearly and presently more joyful and vastly better lived when we actively and regularly accept and live that invitation. And it strikes me that’s true not just for us, but for God as well!

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” 

[Psalm 46:1]

Even when it seems the world around us is crumbling, God remains the same mighty God who moves mountains and preserves the innocent, which encourages me to hope harder. Faith that God is not only the God of all things, but MY God IN all things and encourages me to press harder into God’s all mighty power to prevail. 

Few places am I more at peace than in the outdoors – in God’s creation – and one of my favorite things in the world is fly fishing. When I hook into a big rainbow or brown, there’s an incredible rush of excitement when I realize the big one has taken my fly and the fight is on. Immediately and constantly, the fish is pressing hard to get away (little does the fish know it’s going to be released if I prevail, and usually I’m saying that out loud!) and I’m pressing back as much as I can, but if I press too hard against the fight, my leader is going to break at its weakest point – at the tippet – and she’ll be the one that got away instead of the one in the picture. 

How wonderful for us that this is not the case with God. How life changing it is for me to know I can press into troubles with all my strength, fighting the good fight full faith ahead and without fear of a weak point doing me in. How difference making to know nothing can overpower God … that He is completely present in the fight and will bring all things in my life together for the good, exactly as promised. How much better it is to live life fully and without fear of breaking off at the weakest point!

“The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”

[Romans 8:6]

Right now, we're living through a time in history where there is more to occupy our minds, focus and attention than ever before. We're more connected with one another than ever before, we have more news, information and content at our fingertips, more to do in our jobs, our family lives and social lives ...With so much happening and so much going on, it certainly isn't difficult for our sole focus to be successfully making it to the end of the day. 

This verse serves as such a great reminder though, that no matter the challenges we face, we must keep our minds focused on God first before anything else, and it strikes me this becomes even more true and impactful the more busy and stressful life becomes! 

“I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

[John 15:5]

I spent about every evening over the past couple weeks watching the Men's College World Series, and although it brings great competition and entertainment every year, it seemed the games and level of play were about the best I can remember, and included some of the most highly-regarded college baseball players for quite some time. 

At the conclusion of these games, there was always a quick interview with the player from the winning team who had the best performance, game winning hit, etc., and what was amazing to me is how many of them immediately, basically regardless of the question that was asked, thanked and gave Glory to God. Before saying anything about their performance, their teammates, coaches, whatever. Young college guys, at the absolute pinnacle of their sport, competing for a national title on the biggest stage in college baseball, being credited with winning a Semi-Final or championship game, and they immediately took the time to acknowledge God.

Let these men serve as a reminder – without God in our lives, we are nothing and have nothing. Keep him in our lives, and we will have everything we need. 

“You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.”

[Job 22:28]

There’s an old expression, “Dream big!” I like that a lot.  

There’s another old expression, “Hope for the best; plan for the worst.” 

Really??...  Plan for the worst?  That just doesn’t seem like much of a self-fulfilling prophecy to me. Like many or even most of the so-called “wise old expressions,” this one is well intended by the idea of being prepared to respond to the ebbs and flows of life, but planning for the worst is just plain wrong. So I vote we lop off everything after the semicolon and have a new ending to the old expression and a better self-fulfilling prophecy with it. 

What if instead we hope big, not just dream big. What if we let our hopes be unabashed and unchecked by planning for the worst and we hope daringly? What if, as this verse encourages, we let our hopes become our decisions and therefore power life with a much more accomplishing and life-giving self-fulfilling prophecy than “the worst?”   

This all in mind, I think I’m ready to coin our new old expression: Dream Big, hope for the best and favorably bias life outcomes accordingly!

“Behold, you have instructed man, and you have strengthened the weak hands.”

[Jobe 4:3]

As my friend Dave said in our morning devotional exchange this week, “Resilience is hope in action. It’s the ability to get back up when life knocks us down, a romance between adversity and hope.”

Isn’t it the truth??

I love the idea of resilience being hope in action. Indeed, hope is not something to which we simply cling. Hope, and its action product, resilience, particularly when combined with faith (which we know even by itself can move mountains), are alive, active and fully influencing and even BIASING our outcomes. They are work and life game-changers and contributing even today to make all things to work together for the good.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

[Matthew 11:28]

I’ve always found this verse life soothing. In any circumstance, I read it and simply feel more at peace … more at rest. The shortness and sweetness of it make whatever work or life fires are raging become immediately and vastly more manageable. More controlled. And the perspective I gain in that moment makes worldly concerns matter less. Rest replaces restlessness.  

It strikes me this was and is exactly the point.  Jesus makes it profoundly clear here that He knows and feels the burdens we carry. And despite the weight, He invites us to let Him shoulder them for us … in that time and in this time. To lean heavily on Him and therefore lighten the load on us.  

I’m remembering the difficulty of pushing a full load dirt up a steep hill in very rough terrain last weekend, and how much lighter it became when Dane came alongside and pushed with me. It was night and day against the struggle. 

It is good that we labor. And good that we rest. Good that we get charged-up, and good that we let that go and feel the peace that transcends. Good that we charge hard those six days as God did, and good that we rest on the Sabbath as He also did. Our souls, not just our bodies. Our spirits, not just our arms, legs and brains. That we rest physically and emotionally and charge from a power source.  

And it’s good that when it all seems too much, Jesus shoulders it for us. It’s good to live in that kind of love.

“ ‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord.”

[Amos 9:13]

God is perhaps most active, most at work, most powerful, even most strategic when the odds are against us.

It’s funny how we tend to love a Cinderella and an underdog. The tiny school in the Big Dance.  The horse that barely qualified for the Derby. The kid from the wrong side of the tracks surrounded by kids from the right side. The little guy or gal taking on the big corporation. We see the prevailing-against-all-odds story and we don’t just love it, we’re moved by it.

As I reflect on this, it strikes me there is a prevailing and shared condition when underdogs beat the odds. A common thread. And it seems to me that thread a profound absence of doubt. An unshakable belief in one another and in a greater power than simply what’s on the field.

We call that faith. And that’s exactly what it is. There are plenty of situations where we’re the underdog or the one that needs to come from behind, and indeed, God is at some of His very best when it’s necessary that WE BE THE ONES to move the mountains.  

Yesterday we did a workshop with a team and listed things on a whiteboard team members felt mattered most in a winning, joyful workplace. Atop the list was faith in one another. I found lyrics from the great song Lean on Me coming to mind. Lean on me … when you’re not strong … and I’ll be your friend … I’ll help you carry on …  For … It won’t be long … And I’m Going to Need … Somebody to lean on …  Have faith in me, and I’ll have faith in you.

We lean on God, and as His people … our community … and living out faith – when we’re strong, and when we’re not as strong. We help carry on and prevail despite the odds. What an indomitable force is faith … in the workplace, in our lives and in the world.

“And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.” 

[Jobe 42:12]

As my morning devotional partner/client/friend/brother Dave put it this morning, “Hope is not just for dark times – it is for all times. Develop optimism and expect good things.”

He pretty much nailed it there, don’t you think?  

What a wonderfully encouraging message this is for us all, and truly, hope is one of the great blessings from God in His creation and in our lives. It powers us through even in the most difficult times to believe and know better roads … joyful roads … lie ahead, and we’re able, if willing, to maintain strong and earnest motivation for what is to come despite what is now. 

I’ve always figured there’s no reason not to be optimistic. It just doesn’t feel to me like there’s much future in thinking negatively. It’s important we keep perspective on what’s realistic, of course, so we’re not caught off guard, but I’m such a believer in the Self-Fulfilling Prophesy. By my observation, it was King Solomon who first published it when he said, “As a Man Thinketh, so He Is.”  

I wonder if Solomon knew then his words would fuel an unstoppable and difference-making entire school of thought for the next several thousand years about the impact of positive thinking. We certainly leverage his thinking in our work here at THRIVE with this slight twist: As the team thinketh, so we are!”

“It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” 

[Matthew 15:11]

I’ve noted we tend to move and live in the direction we speak. King Solomon said it a millennium before Matthew’s gospel when he said, “As a man thinketh, so he is,” which would one day widely become known as the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy on the book and lecture circuit.

And how true I’ve seen it to be in a lifetime of business and life coaching, this Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, including its application in what we say to our teams. What a wise and spot-on message is this one from Jesus for our workplaces; that we realize the consequences of our words and think before we speak.

Given the customs of the day, for Jesus to suggest in public, His “workplace” if you will, that what defiles us is our conduct, including what we say, rather than what we eat, was a daring invitation for the people to shift their paradigms. So daring, in fact, the establishment preferred Him gone to accepting His challenges.  

One wonders what feats we could accomplish if we daringly and boldly invited shifting the paradigms to align with God’s Kingdom. Even when such leadership calls out the needed workplace or world paradigms in truth hurts fashion!

“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

[Matthew 18:4]

Children have natural inclination to trust. They don’t always make it easy for us as parents, teachers and caregivers, but they do approach the world, at least until it shows them otherwise, trusting us to provide for and lead them.  

I love this verse in Mathew’s gospel for its recognition and appreciation of that, and the simplicity and appropriateness of this relative to our lives with God. When I meditate on this teaching, a number of words come to my mind.  … Seek. … Discern.  … Humble.  …Abide.  … Serve. … Follow.  … Align.  … Journey.  … Share.  … Account.  … Profess.  … Hope.  … And, of course, trust.

Being inclined to these things seems a game changing opportunity in following God. Not obligation and marching order. Not limitation or unwelcome control, but rather, enablement of meaningful, exciting, envelope-pushing growth and life. Opportunity for joy rather than sacrifice. And when I meditate on these ways of thinking and being, I realize aligning with God’s will is a ticket in the very front row of life – not a cheap seat!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let  your requests be known to God.” 

[Phillipians 4:6]

As my good friend and Daily Devotional Partner Dave put it recently, “UNPRECEDENTED PRAYERS BRING UNPRECEDENTED MIRACLES!” 

He went on to say God expects us to step out in faith. And we discussed that abiding in and bowing to anxieties of the “what-ifs” our minds throw at us does not allow us to follow God with what he called a WILD FAITH!

Man I found this conversation inspiring. The idea of letting go of the anxieties and life-sucking worries that remove our joy and instead deliberately going to God with engaging, exciting aspirations keeping ourselves from being “checked” by the world’s expectations and its so called reality.  

Wild faith can literally displace anxiety like rocks displaced water in our 9th grade chemistry experiment.  And so to tackle what awaits us today, as I said to Dave that morning, “LET’S BE WILD THINGS TODAY!

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.”

[Matthew 6:5]

The message I hear in this from Matthew’s Gospel is not at all that we shouldn’t pray in the House of God or on the street corner. In fact, more power to us on those!   

What I hear is that God knows our hearts, and He wants us to be authentic. To be real, and to make life realizations from being real. It seems to me that’s the first step in living a Godly life. The second seems to be reconciling our authentic selves to what God desires and instructs us to be as best we can, striving with all our might to do so. And third, that we look to the completeness of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to overcome where we fall short in that pursuit and those strivings. To be in a spirit to realize and appreciate that we’ve fallen short and seek to be redeemed. To be “saved” from our short falls. Then, although not perfectly of course, but I hope pleasingly to God nonetheless, we can talk the talk and walk the walk because it’s who we are, not because of whom we’re trying to impress. We can be authentic before God.  … In our places of worship, on the street corner, in the office, at the ballgame, or wherever the spirit moves us!

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he increases strength.”

[Isaiah 40:29]

When the reality that the world is not as it should be hits us – sometimes right between the eyes – it’s easy to grow weary. For Isaiah, hope in God’s strength was the only option against tiring, and it was steadfast. He didn’t go to the gym, drink a 5-Hour Energy or fire up his pump-up playlist on Spotify — he just drove forward powered in motive by his faith and pleasing God. I think that’s incredible!  

It seems for me, the dots to connect here, are that God’s strength is our strength …if we let it be. The mighty strength of God does not exist just for God’s benefit. It exists for ours.

God’s strength, God’s mighty capabilities … that literally all things are possible with God … are certainties. For not one moment do I doubt these things of God. The opportunity of our lifetimes is to realize we are the designated beneficiaries of these things and lean on the strength of God to be our own strength. We may not be able to form the mountains or the heavens, but frankly we don’t need to. God already did that, and still does … and we benefit by His having done and doing so. And when we walk with him, God’s might is our might in facing any challenge.

“A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 

[ John 13: 34-35]

A new and great commandment, a life and world game changer, does Jesus impart here; and in doing so, issues the most crystal clear instruction for us all in being a Disciple. 

Jesus set for us the ultimate example in His life and death of loving one another. Of living for and sacrificing for one another. His new commandment… not just new advice or new suggestion or new challenge, but new commandment, is that through loving one another, we strive to do the same.  As He has loved, so we love.

It’s exciting for me to ponder how our workplaces (and our families, our communities, country and all of our life participations) can be and are transformed by this simple commandment. There is of course the office policy manual as our set of worker and workplace commandments, but what if we put and lived this commandment as God’s People even in front of those? What if we lived by this rule first, by conscious choice of and with deliberate care to do so because we’re followers of God, before we’re participants in our workplaces. 

Despite the world’s urgings to get ours first … to love ourselves first … what if we love others first, as Jesus did and instructed us to do? That, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean we agree, but that we conduct our interactions, our “business,” with loving one another first in mind. What impact could this simple commandment have on the problems in our world today if we lead simply by following. As disciples, there’s our charge, friends. Right there.

“True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, streams flowed abundantly, but can he also give us bread? Can he supply for his people?”

[Psalms 78:20]

I’m imagining this morning a power such to strike a rock and immediately see water gush out from it and a stream flow abundantly. What an awe-striking power that is. 

Like the Psalmist does here, do we tend to question what God can do? And by doing so, do we not immediately limit what God can do in our lives? In our families, in our communities and in our work? Do we not, by the questioning, already provide some of the answer?

It’s hard to imagine water coming from a rock. Or mountains being moved. Or the storm being quieted or walking on water. Or life-destroying addiction being completely healed and new, abundant life following. Or the life-altering problem being solved. Or the tempest going from raging and life threatening to a quiet peace. It’s hard to imagine water flowing from these rocks.

… But my Savior, He can move the mountains … My God  is mighty to save. Forever author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave. Whatever is heavy and life-limiting … whatever seems impossible … He is mighty to save. We can … and if we believe and make the decision, we WILL … overcome!

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

[Thessalonians 5:18]

That the will of our God is for us to be thankful, to be filled with gratitude in all circumstances (not just the favorable ones), is quite something when you think about it. 

As I ponder this, I’m reminded of a recent conversation in which a client said, “Thank God for Small Favors,” as we went about addressing some considerable team challenges. It strikes me that this is EXACTLY what Paul is saying in his Epistle to the Thessalonians way back in A.D. 50.  

It became apparent to me that this is God’s will for us simply because He knows that we live our best lives … out most joyful lives (which is what God desires for us) … when we are in a state of gratefulness. A spirit of thanksgiving is more life-giving, more tending to high performance, vastly more powerful and impactful in our lives than the ever-tempting spirit of deserving and entitlement. 

It’s the grateful heart that is the difference maker!

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

[Joshua 1:9]

Some weeks back I shared a Bloom from 2 Corinthians 5:17 focusing on how much Christ's dying on the cross truly means for us, and how it demonstrates how much God values each and every one of us. This verse from Joshua seems a perfect extension from that entry.

By Christ dying on the cross, we're guaranteed a lot of things simply by being believers and accepting Him as our savior. This is likely not news to most of us. That said, I feel so much of the focus is on the eternal benefits – eternal life, salvation, being united with the Father and other exciting things – and less focus, it seems, on application of that in our earthly lives. This verse serves as such a great reminder that as Christians(Believers??), we don't only receive our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow… we benefit (receive the riches??) every single day of our earthly lives as well. Because of God's promise of eternal life and salvation, we can live life every single day without fear, without worry, without stress.

Imagine the fear, worry and uneasiness that would grip you if us if we didn't know what happened when this life ends. That just seems to me a lesser, even horrible, way to live. Thankfully, as Christians, we know exactly what happens and exactly what awaits, so we have the incredible privilege and freedom to live without this fear and worry.

So live it up!

“Instruct the wise and they will be wiser; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.”

[Proverbs 9:9]

As a business and life coach, this proverb hits squarely home for me.

I was deeply moved this week when my Brother Dave, who is a healthcare compliance attorney,  shared the morning prayer from their company chaplain.  He prayed this:

“Wise and wonderful Heavenly Father … You are the source of all knowledge … the provider of all things great and small. Today we want to thank you for the mentors in our lives, for they are truly a gift from you. They are someone who provides ideas and techniques that make ma a better spouse, a better friend and a better coworker. Give us a heart that is willing to listen and the ability to mentor someone else in the future.  As some are close to retirement, Lord, bless their work. Instill in them the desire to mentor newer workers and pass on the godly wisdom and knowledge they have gained throughout the years … impacting lives for generations to come. We thank you, Oh Lord, for the wisdom of these talented teachers, mentors and advisors. Let us always be eager learners who seek you most of all. In Your Holy Name I Pray… Amen. 

 What a motivating prayer, and one that has me saying today, Let’s be great mentors, great mentees and greatly motivated to keep being them!

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the Devil.”

[Ephesians 6:10-11]

Whenever I read and reflect on Paul’s coaching to the Ephesians here, I’m gripped by an amazing sensation of invincibility. 

It feels to me like that’s exactly what Paul is saying to the Ephesians, and to us all… “BE INVINCIBLE!  … BE INDOMITABLE!”  …And of course, we cannot do that of our own armor, as it simply won’t stand indefinitely. Eventually it’s going to give way and we’ll fall.

The only way we can be invincible, truly indomitable, able to overcome literally anything and everything the world hurls at us, is by putting on that whole armor of God. The Father to provide our deliberate part in His creation and all we need to flourish in it. The Son to redeem our short fallings and make us new each day. The Holy Spirit to give us capacity to understand and fully leverage God’s amazing grace and feel core motivation to strive on. In the armor of this Trinity, we cannot possibly fail, and we can power our aspirations against all resistance with the greatest force and energy of all.

May we walk with God, wearing His whole armor, and be invincible. Let’s be indomitable in the strength of His might!

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

[Proverbs 3:5-6]

I don’t discern this proverb to say don’t seek to understand. Rather, what I hear in this is,“Bring God into it and you will understand. Or perhaps, “Acknowledge God as Lord of Creation and a whole lot smarter and more all-knowing that I!”

Can it really be that simple? As we kick, scratch and claw to make the right decision, set the right objective, pursue the right solution, allocate the right resources, hire the right candidate, lead the team down a right path … is it really so simple as to acknowledge God and go to Him throughout the journey and He will light the way?

In a word, YES. The purpose of the proverb seems to be for us to make it that simple. That doesn’t make life simple, of course, we certainly know better than that, but it does make living it much more simple … and better … when we’re free of the life-sucking anxiety and questioning that comes with leaning just on our own understanding. If we seek, we find, and God reveals the straight path.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

[John 13:34-35]

I received an email today from a decades-long dear friend and client, Dave, that immediately brought this wonderful message from John to mind. With Dave’s permission, and team member Candice’s, I share Dave and my email exchange below.

 ___________

From: Dave 
Subject: Today After our Team Workshop on Scripting!

… Wanted to pass along a nice compliment I received from the Mom of my last patient this evening. It was a little 5yo girl with Down’s Syndrome. She was such a cutie and a hoot; a joy to work with. 

As I finished visiting with her parents, her mom said, “I want to tell you about your staff person who booked our appointment. When I called, I asked for a late appointment because that works best for us and let her know that our daughter has Down’s Syndrome and asked if you would see her. Your staff person said, ‘That’s no problem at all, we would LOVE to see her,’ which almost made me cry with gratefulness!”

Pretty Cool testimony, right?! When they had left, I went and asked the gals who booked her appointment and they looked it up and it was Candace, and I relayed the Mom’s story to them with a BIG pat on the back and a thank you. Now that’s a picture of Candace’s heart, but it’s also a reflection of listening to your input of KEY WORDS spoken from the heart! 

Great way to end the day!!

Dave

 ___________

Reply From: Tom
Subject: Today After our Team Workshop on Scripting!

Speaking of heart, this totally warms mine, Dave!  THANK YOU for sharing this with us!

As I think about the stated (serving) mission of your practice, I’m thinking to myself, How could we possibly do that more perfectly than what you’ve shared here?!  Just hearing Mom’s question (“will you see my daughter?”) brings me to think about this family’s life and the apparent tendency of people to say no or to make with their actions this family feel like less than a desirable customer (patient). Then they hear you saying we would LOVE (not just like or even be glad, but LOVE!) to see your daughter!  The way we welcome one another changes everything!   

What a heartwarming example of serving. Hooray for Candace, taking heart of our conversation this week and showing the love in our mission! Makes me wonder if the new tag line we’re working on should be “Come Feel Our Love!” (mostly joking, but a little serious)

Thanks for being disciples, and thanks for making our day here! Please share our gratitude with Candace and the whole team!

Tom

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

[Romans 12:2]

The Bible tells us we have authority in Christ over our present circumstances. We can be transformed to be in alignment with God, rather than conform to the fickle whims of an ungodly world.  

That said, thriving spiritual life comes not just in this reassurance, but also the DECISION that I will rise above the world’s desire to conform me and be transformed by the Spirit. Then, of course, come my actions and initiatives to power that decision. 

What an incredibly productive way for Paul to position and for us to perceive the Gospel. That we have “authority” over all of life’s circumstances. There seems a general tendency to accept and conform to what the world says, rather than fully appreciate we have the power, the authority, to fully rise above it.

In a world where we see so many dismaying circumstances, so much wrong and wrongdoing, it gives me great encouragement going forward that I can choose to transform rather than conform. Praise be to God.

"If anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

[2 Corinthian 5:17]

I started a new Devotional this New Year, and this verse was the featured verse on January 2nd. Despite being the same verse as last week's Bloom, it's such a great verse to kick off a new year, and I wanted to circle back on it and share an additional perspective. In the author’s expound, he references a terrible trade between two NBA teams for a specific player who, once on his new team, lead them to five championships and individually won six MVP awards. A pretty bad trade for one team, great for another. He then flips this to the trade Jesus made for us. His life for human salvation. And his question at the end of his expound is very simple: 

"How does being reminded that you are part of the greatest trade of all encourage you to live out your purpose?"

This reminds me of a couple things. First, I’m reminded of my value. When you think about the whole of humankind, living and dead, you’re just one of billions and billions of people. It’s hard to imagine any individual one of us would or could be considered all that valuable. However, I have enough value that millennia before I was born, Jesus made a sacrifice (trade) that not only included me, but for me. 

Second, the word trade can easily be switched with sacrifice (I suppose it kind of depends how the trade goes…). That said, it implies that you so badly want whatever it is for which you’re trading, you’re willing to give up something you already have, were given, paid for, earned, whatever. It’s one thing to trade Skittles for M&M’s in the grade school lunchroom (pretty tough to lose in that trade), but for Jesus to trade (sacrifice) His life, and God to trade (sacrifice) His son, for your and my salvation? That’s a pretty serious trade. Jesus valued you and me so much, he was willing to not only die, but die a criminal’s death, for the salvation of the very people who were calling for it. Seems a pretty raw deal. But to Jesus, for you and I, this was the only deal. 

Lastly, it makes me think of how great of a trade opportunity we get as a result, and how simple our purpose on earth really is. From this we receive the greatest gifts of all - salvation, eternal life, faith and confidence in a power far greater than ourselves or anything of which we’re capable - and all we have to do is accept Jesus as our savior. Speak His word. Because of Jesus, we have a purpose that is so simple yet so rich.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

[2 Corinthians 5:17]

Think about the magnitude of this message, Friends. 

 It starts with “Therefore.” As in, because of the experiences, events and realizations of life …

Then “anyone.” As in, not just SOME PEOPLE and I have to somehow quality, but literally ANYONE who chooses this Kingdom!  Anyone of us that decides to acknowledge Jesus and look to the Trinity to guide our lives. 

Then “in.” As in, living that!  Not just having a “follower moment” in life, but letting that moment become and be the way we think and live from that moment on. 

Then “new creation.” As in, Leave behind all the bad stuff (literally all of it) and wake anew starting today! And every day.

Then  “The old has passed away.” As in, It’s OK not to hang on to that past hurt, mistake or anguish! We’re free of it if we choose to be, starting now.

Then “behold.” As in, Stop, be quiet and listen to me!

Then “the New has Come.” As in, I am now a product of my life without that baggage! Imagine life free of the burden! 

There is an old expression, “You are what you think you are.” Like so many of the old expressions, this one’s off a bit.  In actuality,  You are what GOD thinks you are. How much more productive and Godly are we when we realize this and live our lives and conduct ourselves accordingly?!

 God says I’m a new creation this morning … What an absolutely wonderful and powerful self-fulfilling prophecy that is!

“Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!”

[ Psalm 105:3]

In this Christmas Season of the year, and as we look to all things new in the new year and the fresh hopes of that, how about we abide in the spirit of this Psalm as we endeavor it? How about we live our days rejoicing, letting our whole spirits, minds and bodies REJOICE from head to toe? ... How about we “rejoice off” the uncertainties and the stresses of our to-do lists, and choose the more fulfilling way?  

In that spirit, I’m going to do my best to approach the business of life in the joyful mentality of interesting, engaging, difference-making achievement; rather than limitation and confinement of stress, as I go about my TO-DO list. In the “whistle-while-you-work” mentality of each day being first a blessed gift of which to make the most, and second, my tasks at hand, being ever-thankful for the productive and difference-making nature of them. At work, at home and all other places, and with the people in them.

Granted, what demands us can be daunting and difficult. But it’s also difference-making and even life-changing. As is the way we choose to go about it.  Life is life, however long or short it may be, why not live it at full joy rather than just partial? In Christmastime, and in all times.

“Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and call his name Immanuel.”

[Isaiah 7:14]

“For onto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

[Isaiah 9:6]

“Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’” 

[Luke 2:10-11]

“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.”

[Matthew 2:2]

Isaiah’s account of God’s promise to redeem the world, the promise of Christmas made. Luke’s account of the angel appearing in glorious light so bright it surrounded the shepherds, the promise of Christmas kept. Matthew’s account of the Maji as first followers of the Christmas Star coming to worship Jesus, the promise of Christmas in action. 700 years pass in between. God’s plan to redeem the word revealed, and the plan in motion … Simply incredible, isn’t it? 

A couple millenniums later, it’s Christmas in America, and here on the Nebraska Prairie, as I read and imagine these events happening in their real-times, I feel joy and sense the anticipation … something much like the shepherds felt when the angel appeared that fateful night and the Maji as they traveled by the Star of Bethlehem. 

I think about a child divinely conceived; accepted in sheer faith by Mary and Joseph; carried by Mary; born away in a manger; raised by Mary and Joseph; living and gathering disciples; teaching the people; performing miracles; accused by the very people He came to save … taken prisoner; mockingly tried; falsely convicted; beaten and tortured; crucified; dying a human death; carried away; buried; arising from death; appearing in the flesh to the people and assuring them; ascending to heaven; seating at the right hand of the Father to complete the Trinity … and now ever present and bending low in our lives to hear our cries, heal our hearts, redeem our souls and partner with us to experience the true joy and meaning of our accomplishments and works.

To quote Dickens “Hurrah for Christmas, the best day of the year!”  (… and the best thing that ever happened in the world!) Emanual …God among us … as onto the people, a Savior is born! The Son of God, and God’s plan in action. Brothers and sisters, let heaven and nature sing!

“Live in Harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.”

[Romans 12:16]

I recently did a blog post entitled, “Enough of the Drama Already!” (on the THRIVE homepage), and as I think about that post, I’m struck by Paul’s wisdom to the Romans in this verse. Contrary to some more modern thinking, nowhere in Paul’s message do I detect him to indicate or even hint that if everything isn’t perfect for me in the workplace (or anywhere else for that matter), I should create drama amidst my co-workers.

As I take-in and discern Paul’s teachings, as well as those of all the Disciples and of course Jesus Himself, I’m struck by how directly the conglomerate message relates to work team life. Do onto others as we would have done onto ourselves. Forgive one another as we are forgiven. Make not ourselves the center of consideration, but consider others in our thinking and conduct. Live in harmony with one another. Contribute fully, but be humble and not haughty. Associate with the lowly. Don’t be wise in our own sight (i.e. “full of ourselves”). It all makes for a pretty good employee manual, wouldn’t you say?

How helpful and even productive could be these challenges, these commands, be if we stepped-up and lived them in the workplace rather than relying on a policy manual and whatever is trending in pop culture workplace thinking? What if we looked to and leaned on the word of God to influence the work of the team? And took it as intended – applying directly to us and not just to someone else.

Well it starts with me, right, so to sum it up, what if I strived for, exemplified and fostered a Godly work spirit and workplace?  Not a holier than though workplace (we’re not here to deceive anyone), but a Godly one, in the way we treat and interact with one another? It seems so simple and inexpensive, as the manual is already written, but so potentially impactful on things like team drama.I wonder what the team could do …

“No word from God will ever fail.”

[Luke 1:37]

God is not only Lord of Creation, He is also King of delivering on promises!  

We of course wait on God to do and to answer in His time, taking opportunity to sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron in the waiting. But in the waiting, we can revel in the joy of supreme confidence, in complete faith, knowing God will deliver on His promises. 

In a world where we are so frequently let down by follow-through and trustworthiness of others, it is a true life game changer … if we just trust God and let it be … to know there is one homebase of follow-through. One oasis of complete reliability. We can rest in total certainty that no matter what the word does, no matter the fickle and sway-able mood of people, business, economy, political thinking and all the rest … there is a true north of faithfulness. An opportunity to completely rely on FINISH.

Christmas is a wonderful example of this. God’s people waited on the Messiah, and in His time, God delivered. Away in a manager a Child was born, and a star came into the sky on a silent night.  The Trinity became, and the world was forever changed. Exactly as God promised.

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  

[Philippians 4:7]

We were reminded this week in a number of client practice conversations how much an individual’s and a team’s perspective and attitude depend on what we allow to occupy our minds. Everyone faces, in business and in life, challenges and hardships, but people react and handle them incredibly differently, and largely by what is occupying their minds. When teams make it a point, for example, to focus on and discuss identifiable attributes of great work culture, almost magically the work culture becomes more engaging and favorably influenced by that focus. Teamwork is so much better when people choose to rise above the temptation to negatively “spectate” on culture, and participate in owning it instead. When we’re short staffed for a period, coming together for a quick daily strategic think- meeting to discuss ideas with and make asks of one another, we have a better team vibe during the hardships and more patience with patients than when we yield to being angry or resentful over the situation. 

When we earnestly look to and ask God for wisdom and help in a tough situation, it seems we accomplish so much more than when we yield to the worldly tendencies of anxiety and negativity over the situation.

God tells us to cast our trials onto Him, and our closeness to Him in doing so expels the negative, stressful thoughts that weigh down our minds and spirits. When we engage God instead, and therefore Godly things occupy our minds, blessings of endurance, strength, solutions and resulting positivity and optimism displace the dark thinking. And the peace of God and the Trinity, which indeed transcends all understanding, guards our hearts and our minds and brings us back into the light.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

[Psalm 46:1]

When I take in this simple yet powerful message, I celebrate three incredible things about our God and His Trinity.

First, I celebrate that whenever the storm comes to me, God is my REFUGE. He is not causing my storm, but whatever is, God is literally my refuge from it. I can go to God and be sheltered. 

Second, I celebrate that God is my STRENGTH. The storms of life have powerful, destructive force, but that power cannot and will not stand against a greater strength. He gives me strength to ride out any storm and he calms the waters … just as Jesus did in the boat with his Disciples. Whatever the storm’s destructive force, God is more powerful and will ALWAYS give me strength to overcome.

Third, I celebrate that His refuge and strength are EVER-PRESENT.  It gives me steadfast courage and confidence to know when the storm sirens sound and the tempest rages, today and every day of my life, His refuge and strength are not only greater than any worldly forces, but are literally guaranteed to be there so I can ultimately prevail. Today and every day of my life, I have what I need to overcome.

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

[Psalm 139: 7-10]

Have you ever noticed how many different lives we live within our lives? We have our work life (or school life), our family/home life, our social life, our personal life, our spiritual life, on and on and on ... to all of which we dedicate time, energy and resources pretty much every day. It seems there is also a conscious effort and even instruction not to let these lives mingle with one another. We're not to take our work home, not to let our personal life impact our work, not to have too much work or social life that we miss out on family life, but not live too personally that we miss out on our social life. With all this instruction, it seems spiritual life gets lost in translation. 

These verses from the Psalms serve as a great reminder God is present with us in all situations and parts of our lives. They were highlighted in a devotional I read this morning, and the author's challenge to her readers was to learn a new habit of saying "I trust you, Jesus" in response to whatever happens in life. Whether that be good or bad, at work or home, with family, friends or alone, learn to acknowledge and trust that God is present with us always, and whatever happens is happening according to God's plan and exactly how it's supposed to. Her point in this was when we learn to think this way and trust in God's presence in all circumstances, fear, anxiety and stress no longer have a grip on us … and isn't it the truth?

Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

[ Mark 5:36 ]

It seems there is a human tendency in business and in life to be anxious about things uncertain. It’s incredible how we allow worry, anxiety and even fear to creep in where it simply isn’t necessary and doesn’t belong. We’re encouraged here in Mark and throughout the Old and New Testaments not to go there; but rather, to deliberately take proper heart and mind in how we respond to inevitable uncertainty in our lives.  

In this’s months Podlecture, we mention the nine lives cats supposedly have, which I definitely don’t buy, but I definitely DO buy that people have seven – our Professional, Financial, Family, Mental, Physical, Social and Spiritual.  All “lives” within our lives. A little anxiety in each of these creates a fair bit of life anxiety, and simply put, that robs us of the joy intended in our lives. 

But what if we actually listened to God here instead? What if in times and events of uncertainty, we resorted to joyful confidence in lieu of anxiety, worry and fear. Like the “birds of the field” also mentioned in the Bible, who don’t worry about things, but rather, simply go about them.

I don’t hear Jesus saying here or anywhere in his teachings that we should pay no attention to the outcomes of our affairs. Rather, I hear Him encouraging that we tend deliberately to life’s affairs, and that we be diligent in doing so. But what if when we encounter uncertainties in going about it, we replaced the tendency to be worried, anxious and afraid with a tendency to be confident in and even eager for how things will come out as we tend to them?  

God makes very clear He will never forsake us, which has always seemed to me where we should hedge our bets. He encourages us so many times and in so many ways to have and keep the faith. Confidence and joy just seem such a way better way to lean into God’s promises than worry, anxiety and fear, don’t you think? And when we realize that, going there … making those replacements … is simply a decision.  

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life - whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?”

[Mathew 6:25-27]

Everyone experiences times in their lives when the world bears down on them more than usual. In my own experience with more difficult life stretches, I've tended to handle them one of two ways: Put it all on my shoulders and try to navigate it myself, or turn to God and let Him lead the way. I've also experienced two (dramatically) different outcomes. The first strategy has led to stress, anxiety, a bad attitude, and just an overall mismanagement of the situation, whatever it may be. The second has yielded a tremendously better attitude and feeling, better treatment of others, a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God, a better understanding of and appreciation for both God and myself, and much, much better results getting the upper hand on whatever life is throwing at me.

God not only allows us to turn to Him and cast upon Him our worries and fears and pressures, He commands us to. We are not to worry about everyday life and get caught up in things that are not eternal. God is waiting and wanting to help us through our trials in life, and our outcomes will be vastly better if you let Him!

“Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.”

[Psalms107:28-29]

When I imagine this literally happening, I’m blown away (no pun intended).

What an amazingly reassuring feeling to know that no matter how severe the storm, no matter how rough the seas, we walk with the one who calms them in an instant.  And calms us the instant we bring Him in. 

We walk with and have as our life partner the one whom the storms and the seas obey. When I think about this, I mean really think about it, an obvious and yet incredibly motivating question comes to mind …How can I possibly fail?  

God sets a table in the presence of my enemies. His rod and staff comfort me despite the severity of the storm. I fear no evil, nor any sea. For God is with me — In the beginning, in the middle, and in the end.

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my convenient of peace be removed’, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”

[Isaiah 54:10]

I always find myself particularly taken with by verbs and adverbs pertaining to the mountains in scripture. The mountains shaken and hills removed are events beyond comprehension, and yet, again and again, such magnificent events are referenced in relation to something great and amazing happening, or in this case in Isaiah, not happening. 

Suffice to say that no matter how drastic the event, no matter how magnificent the occurrence, no matter how extreme the challenge or situation, even including the end of times, God’s steadfastness, capability, love and peace is simply insurmountable, as is the power of our faith in Him if we let it be. No earthly or cosmic event can hold the first candle to the power of God and power of His people when moved by faith and motivated by the Spirit.

At its barest minimum, God’s love and care for His people and keeping Him fully present in our lives and times can and does overcome any and every possible challenge and difficulty. Even the ones about which we woke up thinking this very morning. 

“Do not remember the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

[Isaiah 43: 18-19]

This is the thing about creation … It’s new every day!

Each day is a new act of an ongoing creation, and with it, the opportunity for new thinking, new beginnings, new endeavors, new accomplishments, new successes and new lessons learned.

It seems to me God very intelligently designed us to look forward. The past is incredibly valuable, and certainly can be and is a wonderful and treasured thing (although some of it can be otherwise), but the future is not governed by the past. 

A thing I love about fly fishing is that each cast sets a new stage, filled with its hope, its own anticipation, its own outcome. And of course, I have opportunity to do all it again, and again, and again, in pursuit of what I desire. I get to impact my outcome with decisions and actions I make and take in the next cast, and how I execute that largely impacts what happens. 

Each day is like that, don’t you think? At a level of one day at a time, one cast at a time, each day brings its own opportunities to strive and to succeed by the striving. We can be motivated by and influence our outcomes with thinking, choices and initiatives going forward, not accepting the future as an extension of the past. Today and in the days ahead, we have the opportunity to determine our courses and their outcomes one cast at a time …

“I sought the Lord, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those that look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”

[Psalm 34: 4-5, 8]

Fear is an incredibly powerful feeling. In fact, it's something we at THRIVE consider to be one of only 4 motives in the workplace, as well as in life (along with anger, ambition, and purpose). Although very powerful and effective for short periods of time, living in fear is taxing and exhausting. When used as a long term motive, it takes a significant toll on you, both physically and mentally.

However, the Word tells us when we turn to the Lord and seek Him in all areas of our lives, He will deliver us from our fears, whatever those may be. He carries our burdens and allows us to live at peace, so our time and energy can be invested far more meaningfully.

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” 

[Psalms 51:10 ]

I’ve been really thinking this week about faith as the foundation of our relationship with God. The foundation for our hope, our trust, our prayers, our striving to live a Godly life confident in God’s promises, even the foundation for his grace (by grace, we have been saved through faith, right?)

In my reading, listening and devotionals this week, and some discerning along with them, I’ve really noticed the importance of “right spirit” in this Psalm. As I have done so, it occurs to me right spirit is not just the foundation of faith, but also of how we receive God’s grace and seek his blessings in our lives.

It’s so easy to ask God for things that will make life sweeter. Just sort of run through the list of things I desire and communicate those. What takes a good bit more effort is asking for the RIGHT things for the RIGHT reasons; and in the end, it seems it very simply comes down to seeking to please God. Asking for and receiving his blessings in a right spirit seems to me to be the spirit of wanting to please God. I’m going to keep that forefront in mind as I seek for God to create in me a pure heart.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

[John 16:33]

I find incredible motivation to persevere in both work and life challenges in this wisdom.  

Nowhere have I read or understood Jesus to indicate that to have peace, everything has to be just right. Or even that some things have to be just right. I don’t perceive God ever having promised the perfect situation, and I appreciate that we as human beings, we simply aren’t capable of pulling that off.  

But Jesus DID promise we can experience peace in all walks and in all times of our lives. He called this His peace. Perfect peace. Peace that prevails in our lives because it is distinctly apart from the world’s version of it, or lack of it, every day and in all times if we live in the Trinity and allow the Spirit to move us thus. I find His peace in the promise of both the Kingdom come, and in my life now,  despite and amid all the turmoil “the world” tends to create. His peace rises above the turmoil, the trial.  This ability to experience His peace in all things and in all times is very simply part of His amazing grace if we’ll have it. And as the song goes, especially in times of work and life turmoil, how sweet the sound!

“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

[Romans 12:18]

As we’ve often discussed, one of the many seemingly lasting impacts of the last couple years seems to be an increased “rawness” in people, on teams and in society. I think of Paul’s words in Corinthians about love being patient and kind, and it seems people are allowing themselves to become less of both in these times. We seem quicker to judge… quicker to anger… and seem much more inclined (and possibly, dare I say, desirous) to disagree and disrespect. 

Here in Romans, Paul is not simply recommending we be at peace with one another. He’s INSTRUCTING it. Clearly there was disagreement in Paul’s time as well, and as a teacher for us then and now, he’s timelessly instructing us to conduct ourselves and live amongst one another in a different and deliberate way. A kinder, more peaceful way. Whether it be within our families, or with friends and neighbors, team members or broader community, we live better lives when we abide in Paul's instruction to exhaust all efforts to live at peace. 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

[Matthew 11: 28-30]

When I think about all God provides — about all He does for us every day of our lives now and for eternity, I marvel at how truly easy His yoke and incredibly light His burden. 

In exchange for creation, joyful, meaningful and adventurous earthly life, and exciting eternity to follow, He asks only for our acceptance of these gifts, our faith in Him, and our following. And even more flabbergasted am I by His grace when I realize these things that are the so-called burdens are no burdens at all. In fact, acceptance, faith and following are what allow us to experience living life to the fullest joy and free from the real burden, which is the world, not God. As we discussed last time, He strengthens and upholds me with His righteous right hand in such ways that I need not fear even amidst the greatest challenges.

As I ponder the unbelievable investment value in this, a question races to my mind … “Is this a great deal, or what?!!”

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

[Isaiah 41:10]

It was a scary time in the world in 1933 when in his inaugural address, Franklin D. Roosevelt professed, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Those were, of course, scary times for our great nation. Among the scariest in our history economically, and yet, we prevailed. 

It’s not difficult to identify parallels between those times and these. Vehemently differing public opinion and conflict, looming recession, national and world uncertainty and more. Plenty, it seems, to invoke some fear.

And as individuals living in these times, we have our close-to-home versions of all that. What is the future of small business ownership? Will my staff quit and leave me hangin’? Will I be able to service my debt? What will my competition do next to make it harder? What’s the economy going to do and will I be able to meet my business and life obligations and keep it all going?

From the scriptures, there’s a simple answer, Friends. “Yes.” 

Overcoming our natural fear of uncertainty seems to me one of the great constants in scripture. That we will prevail when we have faith to rise above our fear and dismay seems to me one of the great and lasting assurances and entablements by our God to His people through the millennia, and I’m so glad for that. This message in Isaiah is but one example that gives us all we need to know we can do it. Whatever our challenge, God will power overcoming it, and I welcome that needed and reliable partnership.

As we look to our oncoming Independence Day and I think about our blessings here in America, I’m grateful and proud to be American not only for what we’ve accomplished together as Americans, but also what we can still accomplish. Even in challenging times like these.  I’m also joyful in keeping the faith amid the challenges simply by choosing to do so. Simply by partnering in life with a God that powers us in our good times and and will not forsake us amid the challenges.

“And My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”

[Philippians 4:19]

It’s such a simple concept, really, and made so clear for us so frequently in scripture; that God will provide. That he is faithful. That He will follow-through. And yet, I observe this to be among the very most challenging things for people to fully accept and embrace unequivocally. 

And I get that. I think the challenge for us comes largely from disappointments we’ve had in life with people following-through on what they say or intend; and therefore comes doubt and anxiety. My guess is we’re all guilty of this to some extent, and thus our conversation last week about striving to be steadfast and faithful. Basically, to be people who FOLLOW-THROUGH! 

In a client meeting yesterday, when discussing with their Leadership Team, the tendency I’ve observed in great leaders to FINISH (all leaders start things, but I observe the great ones FINISH!), I quoted WW1 Fighter Piolet and Ace and Medal of Honor Recipient, Eddie Rickenbacker: “I can give you a six-word formula for success: think things through, then follow-through.”  … Wow, Friends, there it is. Right there.

Perhaps the reason I find these words so profound is that I find this full-on follow-through …to be so unusual. But of course, not so with God. That’s the point here, right? God has thought all things through in creation, vastly beyond our comprehension, and what a great comfort I take knowing we can count on Him to follow-through. To provide. Every time. And thus the concept of faith, in lieu of doubt and anxiety, in something beyond ourselves and our performances. Indeed, Friends, God will provide.

“Your steadfast love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.”

[Psalms 36:5]

When I think about the words here, I find myself not only incredibly grateful our God has and shows these characteristics, but also find the Spirit challenging ME in-turn. I find myself desiring life lived accordingly … to live my life and be known by others in my life by these very same traits of character. 

… Steadfast. Am I not disappointed with my effort when anything shy of steadfast in my pursuits? I can’t perform at God’s level here, but when I listen, I am nonetheless motivated. I am compelled by the Spirit to strive for a steadfastness that reaches the heavens! 

… Faithfulness. Am I not disappointed with my effort when anything shy of faithful  in my relationships? I again can’t be faithful at God’s level, yet again, the Psalm motivates me to strive for a kind of faithfulness that reaches the clouds! 

When we hear the Psalmist, we aspire. …When we aspire, we strive … And when we strive, we accomplish … And by these things, we live life as the best versions of ourselves!

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

[Isaiah 43:2]

We all face storms in life. And we’re instructed to consider it all joy when we encounter the trials and challenges of life … when we’re in those storms, even the severe ones. 

My dear friend is encountering one such storm now, and I was profoundly and forever moved by the message he delivered at his stepson’s funeral yesterday. He led us in meditation that helped all who were listening realize what it means to find joy even in our deepest sorrow. He helped us realize and internalize that as long as we’re walking with God, keeping him close as our enabler … as our advisor … as our partner … we can and do find and follow the light out of every darkness. He will walk to us in the storm on the water. He will calm the raging seas. 

It is walking with God in the trials that is the difference between succumbing to those trials and prevailing over them.  And as He helps us make our way out of the darkness, we can become more the daughters and sons He wants us to be.

Praise God for the life of Clifford, and for the love we all have for him even now as we make our way to the light.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

[Proverbs 3:5-6]

We live in a world today that offers more uncertainty, fear and challenge than we've likely seen in our lifetimes. Nobody has felt the extent of this fear and these challenges more so than the small business owner. Doors are closing, the workforce is leaving, and on top of that, the expectations from consumers continue to mount. The world is losing its patience. But anywhere we find great challenge, we also find great opportunity. God understands these challenges in a way we simply can't. Submit to Him, acknowledge Him And trust Him, and in due time we'll see His will done.

“But Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these shall be added to yoU”

[Matthew 6:33]

Isn’t it a fine thing, friends, that we can count on God to work it all out in and for our lives? As in, literally, we can do that. Isn’t it great that while we bog and burden our minds and spirits, God maintains right perspective on our behalves so that when we return to and seek God, we can whip it all back into shape? 

A long-time friend and client last week put it this way:  What are you running after today? ...

I’ve heard cats have nine lives, but I’ve learned people have seven:

1.      Professional Life

2.      Family Live

3.      Financial Life

4.      Social Life

5.      Mental Life

6.      Physical Life

7.      Spiritual Life

Every one of these is a full-on life within life, aren’t they? With so much we run after. What Jesus is teaching in this incredible, life-changing wisdom is to not that we should not seek and accomplish, but rather, to seek and accomplish in the right chronology. Seek spiritually first; literally first … worshipping and walking with God in that seeking, and He will see to it that the rest will come. All of it!

“But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word with a good and virtuous heart, and hold it firmly, and produce fruit with perseverance.”

[Luke 8:15]

Although the “good soil” message Jesus imparted on his Disciples is well and long known, it’s the appropriateness for these times in which we’re living that struck me when re-reading this message recently. I found myself particularly struck this time reading (isn’t that the great thing about the Word – it’s new every time we read it, and that by intelligent design!) by a realization of all the “path” soil, “rocky” soil  and “thorny” soil in our world today. I found myself thinking about the example of social media and its opportunity to be any and all of the above. 

I also found myself thinking about our opportunities to be, by choice, the good soil in today's world. The seed is sewn, but we have the opportunity to choose to be the fertile soil that determines the outcomes of that; even amidst the everyday opportunities to be other soil. And of course, those distractions and problems and worries and preoccupations in work and life are weeds we need to pull (by deliberate choice) as we make the most of being that soil. 

I can’t discern the message of “The Good Soil” without thinking specifically about the perseverance emphasis. Most of us have a desire to be the good soil when we think about our choices, right? But it seems the difference-making opportunity here … in our work, in our interactions with loved ones and strangers, in our conduct, in how we serve our customer and co-worker, what we put out there to the world… is to persevere on that desire. Being the good soil has to be by choice… by perseverance over all the opportunities and even urgings to be other soil, even when the world seems to be urging and trying its hardest to persuade us otherwise.  We’re to persevere, Friends. We make a conscious decision to focus on blessing, serving, fostering, building up; rather than taking a place among the path, rocks and thorns.

Isn’t it a delight, Friends, that we’re given such an opportunity? The opportunity to be the good soil? Isn’t it a blessing that we can approach each day experiencing the blessings of serving one another and the joys that brings … the mission motive as we called this last time, and the fruit that brings to our world … in good soil fashion?  As we see the signs of spring all abounding around us, I’m reminded it’s planting season. Farm well this week, Colleagues!

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather, serve one another humbly in love.” 

[Galatians 5:13]

What a great message on which to reflect during Holy Week, Friends. A week when we acknowledge worldly indulgences that can take us off our course (then and now), and celebrate the grace of a God that gives us opportunity every day to start fresh and get right back on it. And what a joy it is to serve one another humbly in love, as Jesus so perfectly put it, in our work and in our world.  

I’ve learned there are but four motives that move individuals and teams in the workplace and in our broader lives:

1.      Fear (… “Do this, or something bad will happen …”)   

2.      Anger (…“I’ll do this, and I’ll show you a thing or two! …”)

3.      Ambition (…“Do this, and get this good thing …”)   

4.      Mission (…“Do this, and “experience real joy in serving others as we were wired to experience …”)   

And the greatest of these is mission. All four of these motives can move people, but the driving force in work and life that frees us exactly as Jesus is saying here is serving. A motive of serving God and one another gives every day and every task full and life-giving purpose. Purpose that, by intelligent design, brings joy to our lives and to the world.  

 So Friends – today, this week and always … in all things … let’s let mission be the motive!

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”… 

[Luke 24: 5]

 It struck me Easter Sunday as we revisited the story of the women seeking Jesus in the tomb that this question from the messenger – “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” – was not just the question of that first Easter. It is the very central question of our day and of these times as well.

To the women at the tomb, this clearly seemed like a very strange question. After all, when you die, you’re dead, right? But what the messenger was revealing is that our God is a LIVING GOD, not a past God. Not just God in the events of three days ago or three weeks ago or three years ago or three decades ago. And He is today, this very day, doing amazing things in the world and in our lives as part of creation.

When we think about creation, it seems we often perceive it as a thing of the past. Things happened a certain way and it’s finished and done. But then I realize the mystery of God is that all things … literally ALL THINGS … are not only possible but infinitely so. Even life after death. It’s not a past God we serve, but rather, a LIVING GOD. He is making all things new today, just as he did that first Easter. 

Spring is such a perfect time to witness this; to see all things new … as we see new life and new creation abounding – blooming all around us. The buds, the bulbs, the flowers, the green – all this is new today. And so are our opportunities to face past and present challenges in new ways. God is giving us new opportunities today to bloom … to experience new outcomes to all challenges — new ways of seeing them and new ways for us to triumph and “Spring to life” if you will. God is moving. He’s living. He’s making all things new. Not just for people in the past about whom we read, but for us here in the present. As individuals. As families. As teams. As businesses. The Lenten and Easter Season is our annual reminder that there are challenging and even dark circumstances and times. But the light leads us out of them if we just follow it. It makes all things new, and opportunity knocks today accordingly.

“David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with the sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty…”

[1 Samuel 17:45]

David certainly lived what we could call a ‘scary’ life; and he leaned on his faith to be mighty where others leaned on muscle. In David’s time, and Jesus’ time, and in our time, we can lean on faith to bring us through even the most difficult trials. And also to guide us to even the most lofty object. I observe the recipe for accomplishment to have four core ingredients – the blessing of opportunity (sometimes we have to look hard to see it), faith that God can and will turn that into something amazing, right motive with dedication of both heart and mind, and community to support, participate in and celebrate our overcoming and achievement. When we have “The Power and the will to fully leverage them, we have everything we need, Friends!

“WHERE THErE IS NO VISON, the people parish”

[Proverbs 29:18]

Although the Proverb here pertains to divine communication by God to His people, I find an additional (perhaps better said as “bonus”) helpfulness in these words.

That helpfulness is that without vision, without insight as to the underlying thing(s) for which we strive, it’s too easy to wonder aimlessly and be influenced by dialogue of the day. I’ve definitely found this to be true of teams. Teams appreciate not just knowing the object and outcome, but also what underlies it all. So we had a great month in the practice, and that’s wonderful, but to what underlying end(s)? 

I think of vision as true north of the practice. Although often confused with mission (which I think of as true north of the patient), vision is something different. Or perhaps better said, vision is something additional. We live our best lives, as individuals and as teams, when purpose (mission) driven; and we live them even more productively when also vision driven!

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, AND forfeit their soul.”

[Mark 8:36 NIV]

It’s amazing the things that occupy our focus, and the intensity of focus we’re willing to give them even when they’re little deserving of it.

A helpful phrase I like to use when the pressures of business, staff, finances, partnerships, deadlines, decisions, etc., are burdensome, is “Nothing about this is eternal …” 

That doesn’t mean there aren’t real and present challenges with which to be dealt, but the motives that drive our lives – the way we serve and treat one another, the deeper mission and purpose upon which we set our goals and drive toward them – these are the things that are the soul of us; the things that give meaning to our lives today and every day. These are the things that can and do bring the deep, meaningful and difference-making joy to our lives, as The Creator intended, regardless of the challenges and business outcomes of the day that get our attention. These are the things that are eternal, Friends!