ContemplativeJourney

This morning at church, the sermon was based on a passage from the 139th chapter of Psalms. It's always been one of my favorite chapters, and it's neat when you hear the same material you've heard for years, and it yields a brand new lesson! "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar...you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord." The first thing that came to mind when I read this passage was, "God can read our minds." Huh. I find that revelation to be very important, because...I don't know about you, but I cannot read minds . I try, of course. Don't you? I try to figure out what other people are thinking...especially when I'm in the midst of a situation where things might be uncomfortable, and it's easier to try to read someone's mind than it is to simply ask, "What are you thinking??" " You ...

Back in 2004, a young paster named Joel Osteen published his first book... "Your Best Life Now." At the time, I remember thinking that it was probably a spiritually shallow book, perhaps popular, but lacking in depth... Why I thought I would be an expert on the subject, I'm not sure...in retrospect, it was an arrogant and ignorant position to take on this book, or any book. I've blogged several times about things I've read in one of Joel's other books...in one case, a reader commented on my blog in a positive way, right after clarifying that she wasn't one of Joel's fans...so...whether you're a fan of Joel's or not, it really doesn't matter much to me...I'll take inspiration and encouragement wherever I can find it...but just for the record, I am a Joel fan. I love his desire to encourage people and and I love his joyful demeanor. Because I have found a great deal of encouragement as I've read his books, I want to always attribute t...

I read a devotional this morning that I really loved...the scripture is a verse from the New Testament book of Philippians, which, for those of you who might not be familiar, simply means that it was a letter written from the Christian leader named Paul, to a group of believers who lived in the city of Philippi... "I focus on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Phil 3:13 As a general rule, I tend to spend more time thinking about the future than I do the past...but that isn't always the case. When it comes to relationships or disappointments in life, I have a tendency to spend too much time looking in the rear view mirror. But it isn't just the losses of our past that have the power to limit our future...it's also our victories...whether it's sadness or celebration, we have to allow the past to flow through our fingers an...

While reading along in Joel Osteen's book It's Your Time, I came across his retelling of a story from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah...I'm sure you've read it...it's such a commonly told tale...well, perhaps not. For me, it's a familiar story...one of the people working to rebuild broken down walls, and overcoming adversity in the process...the part of the story that Joel mentions, and that I found so encouraging, is this quote: " ...after ten years had passed, a prophet by the name of Zechariah came by. He said 'Zerubbabel, God sent me all this way to give you two words: Start Again." I love the larger message here, and I love the fact that this encouragement can apply to our situation at any moment, on any given day...regardless of our circumstances, our challenges, losses, failures, or disappointments. We...I... you... can always start again. This is an unusually short blog for me, but hopefully, it will be long on encouragement for you.

Sometimes I read things that are so deeply inspirational, I simply have to share the information with someone else...last week, I picked up a Joel Osteen book ("It's Your Time") to read on a plane trip to Atlanta. While browsing through books and magazines, I knew that I wanted something fairly light to read, but encouraging and positive. I have been delighted by the encouragement found in Joel's book, and read something last night that struck a deep chord... The passage talks about the fact that we all face major challenges in our lives - the loss of a job, a broken relationship, an illness, death of a loved one - and these circumstances could easily bury us in despair. Negative and painful thinking can become overpowering, creating a downward spiral that pulls us ever deeper into feelings of hopelessness. Here's what Joel says about it: "Yet there is a difference between being buried and being planted. That difference boils down to the expectation of what h...

So...I took a trip to Stone Mountain Park outside of Atlanta this past weekend...with us was a good friend's 11 year-old daughter. Wanting always to see the 'kid' have a good time, I enthusiastically suggested that we take the "Sky Hike." The 3-story ropes course wasn't too bad at first...safely harnessed of course, we were offered 2 options at each stage of the hike...a challenging option, and a less challenging one. I took the road less challenged... Until, we came upon a section with no less challenging option...you see it pictured here. While the angled boards might look less challenging, they are not...mostly due to the fact that they move back and forth, and the swinging makes balance difficult. The other option...? A single tight-rope. Safety harness or no, I was terrified. I tried to step onto the tightrope, but couldn't go through with it...pulling back onto the platform, I was frozen. There was no stairway down from the platform...and people com...

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a meeting where folks were talking about how to handle those moments in life when the answer is "no." The "no" might be about a new job, a raise, a relationship, an answer to your prayers, physical healing from illness...or anything that might be meaningful to you. "No" can be a very difficult word to hear, especially if the subject involved is something of deep importance to you. How do you handle the "no"s in your life? If we were to ask my parents (let's don't)...I'm afraid they would confirm what I already know about myself, which is that I don't usually handle "No" very well. I don't "roll over" easily when someone tells me "no." In certain situations, this can be a terrific character trait...other times...not so much. So...back to the discussion group...a guy was talking about the loss of a relationship in his life, and how poorly he handled his grief...how he...