Sound bytes from conversations from this past week with friends, family, students and co-workers:
*Success in the world of spiritual disciplines is not what happens after we show up, it's simply showing up as open-handed and available as we can be. All we can do is make ourselves available, it is God's work to speak words of grace.
We can attempt to manufacture warm-fuzzy feelings and we can remind ourselves of grace we have received in the past. But only God can speak fresh words of grace into our lives. It is not up to us to do this. Our work is to simply show up--that is success. The rest is up to Him.
*Knowing God's will is not a mine-field--one false step and we are dismembered. God has given us our gifts. He has prepared work in advance for us to put them to use. If we are seeking God, submitting all of ourselves to him, he will not let us go wrong. He will either redeem the decision or ordain it.
And sometimes I believe there is no "one right answer." Sometimes I think God just says to us with great joy in his child: "Choose. And I will bless you either way."
*The work of discipleship is really the battle for the imagination. The things that capture our imaginations are the things that we will build our lives around: fame, fortune, cars, boats, fishing, Fortune 500, Olympic gold, sex, retreat, weddings, love, or God.
As ministers of the gospel, we must have eyes to see not only what God is doing currently in someone's life. We must have holy imagination to speak a word of what it would look like if they were actually to allow him to do it.
*"That's a good drawing of a dinosaur daddy."
"Thanks, Zoe. You know, daddy's not really good at drawing but I like drawing with you."
"Why aren't you good, daddy?"
"Well, everyone's got things that we're good at and that we're not as good at. That's okay, that's how God made us."
"Oh...well, I'm good at everything."
"So far, Zoe, so far..."
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