HopeForYourFamily

God taught me a simple, profound lesson today.

As I took some time during my lunch break to go for a stroll with God through the beauty of downtown Baton Rouge, I heard God’s whispering voice invite me to slow down. “Shhhhh…Where are you going in such a hurry? Did you come out here to go somewhere, or to be somewhere - with Me?” As I responded in grateful obedience, slowing my steps, my mind, and my heart, I heard Him smile lovingly as He shared the words of the lesson He was glad to give me: “It does not matter where you are going, if you cannot be where you are!” Wow! Say that again, God, I sense this is important, and I do not want to miss it. “Of course, my son. It does not matter where you are going, if you cannot be where you are.”

I slowly walked in awe at the profundity (profound nature) of this simple truth, grateful to my Father for loving me enough to lead me to the stillness where I could receive His loving gift. It truly does not matter where I am going, or why I think it so important I get there, or how quickly I arrive - if I cannot be where I am. Even as I write these words, I feel the pull of our busy, bottom line culture seducing me to say “if I cannot just be where I am” or “if I cannot simply be where I am.” The more we strip away the value of being, the more we strip away the value of life. Lord, may I gratefully and humbly learn to be where I am for every today which you see fit to give me.

I slowly made my way back up North Boulevard toward my office, feeling rich beyond anything I deserve. And God decided I still had room to receive and hold one more lesson. “Roger, wherever you are going matters nothing, if you cannot be where you are. And, unless you keep walking with Me, you will never know where to go, even as you learn to be where you are.” OK, God. So you’re saying it doesn’t matter where I go, if I cannot be where I am, and the only way to know where to go is to walk with I AM where I am.

I guess part of what strikes me most about today’s lessons is how God shared them so clearly with me as I am already beginning to grow and live in these truths in ways of more mature faith and purpose than ever before. And I know it is by God’s rich grace that I continue to grow and learn and live and move and have my being. It also occurs to me that He brought me to these truths of being and walking today, at a time when He is leading me to new places in life. I won’t pretend to know the mind of God. I just know I want to continue being where I am, walking with I AM, following His lead, learning His lessons, and sharing His life.

With Peace and Hope in Him,

Roger

I recognize the message in the link I am sharing will be offensive to some. I am willing to offend, because I recognize the deep wisdom reflected in the first amendment to our constitution as the anchor of our bill of rights. As I posted recently, I am continuing to read through a profoundly insightful book by Edwin Friedman called “A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix.” In light of what I have been processing, considering, and finding deeply truthful in his message, I was stirred by the words of this speech which I read today. I am sharing it with you through a link to snopes.com, which I highly recommend as a resource to validate or debunk any email “forward” before you pass it along. In my experience, probably 90% of the e-forwards I receive are largely, and often grossly, inaccurate. This one has been validated as accurate by the man who actually gave the speech. I won’t expect you to enjoy it, but I do hope you will consider it. I am not offering wholesale endorsement of everything he says, but I do believe it merits serious, reflective consideration. Further, I do hope you will keep in mind that I continue to be committed to doing my part to stand against racism in myself and in the world around me, and sharing the message of Christ - a message of love, grace, and service to my neighbor. And Jesus makes it clear that my neighbor most certainly includes those who are racially, culturally, and linguistically different from me.

Here is the link to the speech. It may take you three or four minutes to read through.

With Hope in Him,

Roger

My thanks to a client who shared this article link with me today.  It is a Newsweek interview with Dr. Rachel Remen, who talks about the power of asking “What matters?” and seeking renewal through purposeful living, rather than seeking comfort through distraction and numbing.  The brief article is well worth the three or four minutes it will take you to read it.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/116684

This will be a very short post, but will serve as a prelude to much more to follow in the coming months.  At the recommendation of a dear friend and trusted spiritual director, I am currently reading a phenomenally insightful book that has me feeling like Neo reeling in the mind-freeing and power-releasing impact of Morpheus’ call to “Free your mind!” from The Matrix.  For those who never saw The Matrix, that means I am seeing the world in a whole new way.  Anyway, the book is essentially the magnum opus of Edwin Friedman, a brilliant pioneer of understanding relationships, who died before completing the final chapters.  The title is “A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix.”  From parenting to neighborhood atmosphere to political decision making to church community to business structures, and the list could go on and on, effective leadership is so vital to the survival, health, and growth of all human institutions.  And we live in a time and culture that is not only rapidly losing the presence of effective leadership, but barely even remembers what it looks like.  I will have much more to say on the subject, and I hope to present much of it in ways that are empowering, rather than gloom and doom (like my last sentence).

Thanks, Eddie P!  I am so glad you shared this with me.  And I am so glad I am mature enough to understand and utilize these transformative insights.  Growth is so good.  Thanks for sharing your growth process with me, and inviting me to share with you!

If you have not read my previous post, Marriage 1.0, I recommend doing so before you read this one. It will make much more sense that way.

“Please enter the command: ‘I Thought You Loved Me.exe’ and try to download Tears 6.2 and don’t forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.”

Ahhhhh…now that’s the kind of marital intimacy we all want so much, isn’t it? It ranks right up there with, “Please enter the command: ‘GET OFF MY BACK OR YOU WILL FIND OUT WHAT LOUD REALLY SOUNDS LIKE’ and make sure to simultaneously run Red Face 2.0 and Glare 5.5. If that application works as designed, Wife 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Peace and Quiet 3.2 and Dinner 4.5.” Wasn’t it the writer of Proverbs who said “The end justifies the means,” or was it Jesus or Paul, maybe?

Actually, you’ll not find that little nugget of worldly wisdom in the Bible, as it turns out to be very shallow and untrue. Wives, what do you really want most from your husbands, flowers and jewelry or the loving thoughtfulness that prompts these kinds of gifts? (more…)

Someone forwarded me the following email today, which is obviously written to be funny, even though it is based on very common real life experiences that are anything but funny. Maybe you’ve read it before. You may have even responded with a hearty LOL. But what is really so funny about it? For some, it may be one of those laugh to keep from crying kind of situations. Well, here’s the “cute” email (in italics), followed by my perspectives:

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a
distinct slow down in overall system performance — particularly in
the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under
Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs,
such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed
undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes
the system. I’ve tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but
to no avail.

What can I do?
Signed, Desperate
——————————————————

Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while
Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Please enter the command: ‘I
Thought You Loved Me.exe’ and try to download Tears 6.2 and don’t
forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then
automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, over use of the above application can cause Husband 1.0
to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1
is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in
the background that will eventually seize control of all your system
resources).

Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are
unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0 .

In summary, Husband 1.0is a great program, but it does have limited
memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider
buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We
recommend Food 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck, Tech Support

Men are schmucks and marriage sucks, and it is the plight of women to bear the burden of them both! Ha Ha. If this email hits a little too close to home, and your version of Marriage 1.0 is not at all the program you saw advertised on the box, take heart and read on. If you think I’m getting way too serious about this, and you just enjoyed reading the cute email forward - feel free to enjoy reading through it again and passing it on to your friends, but you may not want to read the rest of my post.

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