Last week I was talking with my nun about how transition was kicking up old issues of anxiety and fear and people-pleasing and finding my identity based on how well I perform in any given situation.
He suggested that transition is a good gift to help us find our weak spots if we'll allow it to do its' work. And he gave me two great questions that I've written down and put in my Bible as a way to direct my prayers:
1. What story am I living out of?
This sounds bit fuzzy until you drill down into it. And often, the tip-off is what makes you angry, anxious, or something you just can't bring yourself to do.
For example, is it hard for you to be generous? You're living out of the story of scarcity. Resources are scarce and it's up to you to secure all the resources you possibly could to ensure your own safety and survival.
What story are you living out of?
2. What is the story of the gospel that Jesus invites us into?
If it's hard for me to be generous, I need to look to Jesus. He became poor for my sake so that out of his poverty I might become rich. He is my provider. If my life is all about my provision for myself my life is built on sinking sand.
Jesus has secured my life and my lot. He is my trust, not the digits in my bank account. He provides for me more than all I need.
And so I am freed up from the tyranny of anxiety about money and I'm free to be generous because I am rooted in Christ and his story of provision rather than the story of my self-provision that ends up enslaving me.
What's the story that I'm living in currently?
What is the story of the gospel that Jesus invites me to enter into?
Some good questions for me to ponder this week as I enter into a good week of work.
Showing posts with label questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label questions. Show all posts
Monday, July 19, 2010
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Life-Changing Questions Part 3: Fastidiously Engaging the Transition Question
So if you've been following along with me closely (which is of course what the internet is all about right? fastidious and careful focus and absorption of ideas slowly?) you know that I've been thinking a good bit about how questions shape our lives.
For my wrap-up on this topic this week, I'll share the question that has been most 'live' for me as I've been in the midst of transition.
Transition for many of us isn't just a short period of time but a way of life. And the problem with transition is that it can be disorienting and overwhelming.
That's kind of how I've felt these past couple of weeks as I've been ramping up into a new position with InterVarsity. For those of you who are new, I've been a campus minister on campus for 14 years--9 at Virginia Commonwealth and 5 back at UNC, where I graduated from.
About a week ago I officially started as an Area Director for the Central Carolinas area, supervising UNC-Chapel Hill, Elon, Davidson and UNC-Charlotte.
As I've waded through manuals and sat through training sessions, there's just tons to think about. And I tend to be a global thinker, so I can get dizzied by how much there is to do, what could happen, what should happen, and all the rest...and then occasionally I get really nervous about totally screwing something up.
So to break this transition down a bit, I've had one question that I've come back to again and again over the past couple of weeks: "What's the next good or wise decision that I can make?"
Good trajectory and good "global" outcomes are the result of lots of small, good, right, wise decisions. So I'm trying to dial it down from thinking big-picture to focusing on what needs to happen next. Don't stress quite so much about how everything will turn out. I can't control that right now anyway. What I can control is me and what I do next.
What's the next good or wise decision that I need to make? Or put another way: what's the next good thing that I need to do?
Maybe for some of you out there, feeling similarly overwhelmed with life, this question will help you to settle in a little bit as it has for me.
For my wrap-up on this topic this week, I'll share the question that has been most 'live' for me as I've been in the midst of transition.
Transition for many of us isn't just a short period of time but a way of life. And the problem with transition is that it can be disorienting and overwhelming.
That's kind of how I've felt these past couple of weeks as I've been ramping up into a new position with InterVarsity. For those of you who are new, I've been a campus minister on campus for 14 years--9 at Virginia Commonwealth and 5 back at UNC, where I graduated from.
About a week ago I officially started as an Area Director for the Central Carolinas area, supervising UNC-Chapel Hill, Elon, Davidson and UNC-Charlotte.
As I've waded through manuals and sat through training sessions, there's just tons to think about. And I tend to be a global thinker, so I can get dizzied by how much there is to do, what could happen, what should happen, and all the rest...and then occasionally I get really nervous about totally screwing something up.
So to break this transition down a bit, I've had one question that I've come back to again and again over the past couple of weeks: "What's the next good or wise decision that I can make?"
Good trajectory and good "global" outcomes are the result of lots of small, good, right, wise decisions. So I'm trying to dial it down from thinking big-picture to focusing on what needs to happen next. Don't stress quite so much about how everything will turn out. I can't control that right now anyway. What I can control is me and what I do next.
What's the next good or wise decision that I need to make? Or put another way: what's the next good thing that I need to do?
Maybe for some of you out there, feeling similarly overwhelmed with life, this question will help you to settle in a little bit as it has for me.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Life Changing Questions Part 2: The Macro Question to Get Past Fuming and Ranting
Yesterday I talked about my quest to find life-changing questions, and shared the great question that was shared with me last week by one of my mentors: "what do other people experience in your presence?"
I've got one "macro" question that has been with me for several years and one "right now" question that's helping me as I wade through my job transition. Macro today, micro tomorrow.
The macro question comes from Scripture and it's one that I've shared here before. In John chapter 1, the first recorded words from Jesus are directed to two guys who just left John the Baptist and have followed him. He asks a very simple question: "what do you want?"
This question has done serious redemptive work in my soul. Many of my hardest days, when I'm praying ranting-type prayers, the Spirit will whisper this question to me in the midst of my fuming: "what do you want?"
The first time around, I think I know what I want. I rail on about circumstances or disappointments or heartaches. But then the question often comes back to me again: "No, Alex, what do you want?"
The second time often helps me to pause and think a little bit deeper about the issues at hand. Maybe there's something beneath the disappointment or circumstantial issue that's going on here. This time around, I'm a bit calmer, beginning to press through the noise in my head to the heart issue at hand.
"What do you want?" often comes a third time. Often by this point, I'm at a deeper, more rested, more contented place. I recognize that my true needs and truest wants are met in Christ.
I repent of being overly-defined by my circumstances. I find the footing to repent of my anxiety and fears, to talk honestly about my disappointments or frustrations without fixing myself more deeply into them.
I find that round three of the question "what do you want?" gets me to the place where I am both honest about where I am and submissive, quieted, glad to be in the presence of my Father who genuinely wants to know "what do you want?" and will not stop asking me until I get to the place of being a real "me."
In the end, we remain a mystery even to ourselves. Only our maker truly knows us.
So much of what I think of as the real me is just a shadow, a small part of me skimming along the surface of life. When that part of me gets offended, it bellows loudly. But that's not what defines me, really.
It's the deeper, more true places that life is found and where life springs from. "What do you want?" three times through helps me to stumble my way into that more expansive, more powerful, more thoughtful place so that I might meet the Lord of my life there. It is the only way that I find out who I really am--and more importantly, who the Lord really is.
"What do you want?" My life question.
I've got one "macro" question that has been with me for several years and one "right now" question that's helping me as I wade through my job transition. Macro today, micro tomorrow.
The macro question comes from Scripture and it's one that I've shared here before. In John chapter 1, the first recorded words from Jesus are directed to two guys who just left John the Baptist and have followed him. He asks a very simple question: "what do you want?"
This question has done serious redemptive work in my soul. Many of my hardest days, when I'm praying ranting-type prayers, the Spirit will whisper this question to me in the midst of my fuming: "what do you want?"
The first time around, I think I know what I want. I rail on about circumstances or disappointments or heartaches. But then the question often comes back to me again: "No, Alex, what do you want?"
The second time often helps me to pause and think a little bit deeper about the issues at hand. Maybe there's something beneath the disappointment or circumstantial issue that's going on here. This time around, I'm a bit calmer, beginning to press through the noise in my head to the heart issue at hand.
"What do you want?" often comes a third time. Often by this point, I'm at a deeper, more rested, more contented place. I recognize that my true needs and truest wants are met in Christ.
I repent of being overly-defined by my circumstances. I find the footing to repent of my anxiety and fears, to talk honestly about my disappointments or frustrations without fixing myself more deeply into them.
I find that round three of the question "what do you want?" gets me to the place where I am both honest about where I am and submissive, quieted, glad to be in the presence of my Father who genuinely wants to know "what do you want?" and will not stop asking me until I get to the place of being a real "me."
In the end, we remain a mystery even to ourselves. Only our maker truly knows us.
So much of what I think of as the real me is just a shadow, a small part of me skimming along the surface of life. When that part of me gets offended, it bellows loudly. But that's not what defines me, really.
It's the deeper, more true places that life is found and where life springs from. "What do you want?" three times through helps me to stumble my way into that more expansive, more powerful, more thoughtful place so that I might meet the Lord of my life there. It is the only way that I find out who I really am--and more importantly, who the Lord really is.
"What do you want?" My life question.
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