December 3, 2013

What Do You Want For Your Birthday? Post #5

December is a month for some significant birthdays in my life. My precious Mom’s birthday is December 6th, and we are throwing her a party this weekend. Two dear high school friends’ birthdays are December 2nd and 13th.  I just attended a sweet friend’s surprise 65th birthday party yesterday. The birthday of one of my Godly mentors is December 26th.

Oftentimes, I ask those I really love a simple question before their birthday: “What do you want for your birthday?” If you are like me, I just want to ensure I honor my loved one in the most meaningful way. Isn’t that what we want for our birthdays…to  know we are loved and cherished?

The most significant person in my life, really in this world, celebrates His birth each December 25th. Isn’t it wonderful that we all adorn our homes in Christ-mas finery and decorate the inside and outside with bright lights in honor of His birthday?  We bake treats, buy gifts and send cards to our most significant loved ones , friends, and coworkers (and even strangers), and go above and beyond to volunteer and do “random acts of kindness” this time a year. Why? Perhaps it truly is all part of His birthday celebration, honoring the Light Of  The World.

However you may feel about Him, one fact is irrefutable. History sets its time stamp of demarcation with Jesus’ birth—BC, “Before Christ”, and AD, “Anno Domini,” Latin for “In the Year of Our Lord.”   Even the Old Testament prophesied Jesus’ birth (especially in the book of Isaiah) at least 700 years before He was born! Isn’t it fitting that we give Him our best as we celebrate His birthday?

When I was growing up, we baked a birthday cake for Christmas Day and sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. I will always remember those sweet memories. Let’s create more fun, meaningful birthday memories for the King of Kings.

So, on this December 3, 2013 AD, in the year of our Lord, 22 days before His birthday, I  encourage you to ask Him a simple question:  “Lord, What Do You Want For Your Birthday?”

Then listen…

I can almost hear His still, small voice, can’t you?

“Your Heart, Dear One. That’s all I want. Your Heart.”

Reflect:

  • How will this Christmas birthday celebration be different from years past?
  • How can we listen and act more intentionally after asking the question, “Lord, what do You want for your birthday?”

Renew:

  • “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” –Colossians 3:23
  • “I am sending Him—who is my very heart—back to you.” –Philemon 1:12.
  • “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the Truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart.” –1 Peter 1: 22

Recharge:

  • After asking, seeking, and listening, what intentional actions in your life have you been prompted to take?
  • Consider baking a birthday cake on Christmas Day and singing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. Let’s party!  
  • Please leave a comment of what is on your heart.

Resource:

November 26, 2013

A Tale of Two Seas: A Thanks-Living Challenge, Post #4

I love Thanksgiving. I am so proud of our great country, of President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, during the Civil War, who set aside the fourth Thursday of November as a holiday, proclaiming “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

How will you and your family spend this Thanksgiving holiday?

We are blessed with so much, yet we want so much more. We take and take some more. So often, our hearts are wired for discontentment.   To illustrate the point, this tale of two seas comes to mind.

Do you remember learning about The Dead Sea in school or church? The Dead Sea is really a lake, not a sea. It is so high in salt content that a human body can float easily. Supposedly, a person can almost lie down and read a book!  The salt in the Dead Sea is as high as 35 percent—almost 10 times normal ocean water salt content.

All that saltiness means there is no life at all in the Dead Sea. No fish. No sea animals. No vegetation. Nothing lives in the Dead Sea.

The Sea of Galilee is just north of the Dead Sea. This sea, though, is teeming with rich, colorful marine life, plants, and fish. More than 20 types of fish live in the Sea of Galilee.

Guess what the source of water is for both seas? Both the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee receive their water from the River Jordan. How can that be?

The River Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee, then flows out. The water simply passes through the Sea of Galilee, keeping the Sea vibrant and healthy, chock full of marine life.

The Dead Sea, though, is so far below sea level, the water has no outlet. It flows in from the River Jordan, but does not flow out. Figures estimate that more than seven million tons of water evaporate from the Dead Sea daily, leaving it too salty and full of minerals for any marine life to survive.

This “Tale of Two Seas” offers a valuable life lesson on giving and giving thanks. On letting the Living Waters flow through us, not hoard  the life, blessings, gifts and talents we have been freely given.

I challenge you to turn this Thanksgiving into Thanks-living. Not just one day of the year, but every day.

I challenge you not to shop on Thanksgiving or even Black Friday. Marinate in the blessings of what we already have instead of buying more and more and more. Let Christmas shopping wait. Savor the laughter and making memories with your family and friends this weekend. These are gifts unable to be bought.

I challenge you to curb the television watching or even turn it off (sorry, football fans)! Listen to each other, to the music of the loved ones’ voices. Dance. Make your music.

You are the Sea of Galilee, a beautiful body flowing with life, Living Water. Let it flow.

Happy Thanks-Living, dear friend.

Reflect:

  • How will you transform Thanksgiving into Thanks-Living?
  • For what, for whom are you thankful?

Renew:

  • “Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth.” –Psalm 98:7-9.
  • “Enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.” –Psalm 100:4.
  • “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of Living Water will flow from within him.’” –John 7:37-38.

Recharge:  

  • Please start a Gratitude Journal this week and  list at least three blessings daily. It could be a warm house, your health, laughter, cozy coats and boots. Keep going. You can do it.
  • Please let me know of some of your many blessings.

Resources:

November 19, 2013

No Mo Status Quo, Post #3

Do you know who Sir Roger Bannister is?  Or what his claim to fame is? Don’t worry. I only learned of him recently when I realized he made the impossible possible.

Sir Roger Bannister was the first man in the history of the world (or record keeping) to have run a four-minute mile. It was said it couldn’t be done. On May 6, 1954, at Iffley Road Track in Oxford, Bannister broke the four-minute mile with a time of three minutes, 59.4 seconds. Bannister was 25 years old, and at the time was practicing as a junior doctor.

After accomplishing this impossible feat, Bannister’s record only lasted 46 days. Not even two months. Bannister went onto become a notable neurologist. Watch the incredible footage for yourself below in the video link in “Resources.”

What a man. What a dream. What a goal—a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG), as Jim Collins and Jerry Porras call it in their 1994 book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

I would rather call it a Big, Holy, Audacious Goal (BHAG). So, dear friend, What is your BHAG, your biggest dream?  What are your passions? What is hindering you from achieving your biggest dream or dreams? I wrestle with these questions.

A few years ago I started my life goal list, some would say a “Bucket List.” Included on my list is to write and publish a book.

Most of my life I have enjoyed writing. For years, I have dreamt of writing and publishing a non-fiction book. Twelve years ago, I had an epiphany to write a book about “waiting,” since we all wait but don’t seem to like it. So what did I do about it?

Not much. I started a folder and would occasionally add handwritten sticky notes with a chapter outline, idea, or quote. The BHAG of writing a book and even thinking of getting it published became overwhelming. “Perhaps when I retire,” I pondered.

In December 2012, my heart was shattered and blindsided from a relationship breakup. In the healing process, I cried out to God and asked what life lessons I could learn from this experience.  The divine answer I received was:

“Write. Write your heart.”

One day in January,  Proverbs 31 ministries President Lysa TerKeurst wrote in a daily devotional that a typical non-fiction book contains about 60,000 words. She usually makes a 12-chapter outline, and tries to write 5000 words per chapter. Suddenly after reading that practical devotional, the impossibility of my BHAG became possible.

Divinely led, I began writing in the evenings after work and on the weekend. I finished the very rough draft manuscript at the end of June, six months later, with 61,329 words. The book, with the working title of Wait.For.It., still is a work in progress.

This adventure led me this past summer to the dynamic Proverbs 31 Ministries “She Speaks” Conference in Charlotte, where I met with three publishers. I also learned how useful literary agents are for many authors, so I attended The Fedd Agency’s “Re:Write Conference” in Austin in October. It is such a delight to meet so many incredible writers and speakers and learn from them.

Through their influence, I, the least “techy” person I know, also took a leap of faith to start this “Pure Inspiration” blog. We’ll see what God does with it all. I am enjoying each moment of the adventure.

If I can do it, surely you, the much more equipped of the two of us, can do it. Please start today.

Reflect:

  • What is/are your Big, Holy Audacious Goal(s)?
  • What keeps you from dreaming big?

Renew:

  • “He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith, I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’” –Matthew 17:20 (NIV 1984)
  • “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” –Luke 1:45 (NIV 1984)

Recharge:

  • Add a deadline and a timeline to accomplishing your BHAG.
  • List the first steps to accomplish your BHAG. Do your first step this week. You can do it!
  • Please let me know what you decide to do.

Resources:

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