Monday Funday

Here's your dose of Monday laughs - and as always - there's more where these came from over on the JC's Village Pinterest funny-board; Blessed Are The Funny. Praying you have a marvelous week - and Enjoy! 

Dr. Gary L. Hawes and His House Christian Fellowship

This week I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Gary L. Hawes - the founding Executive Director of His House Christian Fellowship. 

Gary grew up in Elsie, Michigan and happily headed off to Central Michigan University to pursue a degree in psychology not a single thought in his head about ministry of any kind . His junior year he started dating - literally - the girl next door back home - Miss Carol Mort. Carol wasn't just any girl though - she had a real love for God and thought carefully about her future. During their senior year - Carol arranged for Gary to meet her minister - who began to tell Gary "You're going to be a minister." Well this was the funniest thing Gary had ever heard. Absurd! But - despite it being completely absurd - Gary felt very disturbed by the minister's prayers. Carol's minister even preached a sermon on how God needs ministers. He preached that exact same sermon two weeks in a row. Finally Gary found himself sleeplessly and prayerfully waiting for some peace from God. What do you know - that anticipated peaceful slumber did not come until in the middle of Tuesday night Gary prayed "God - I know you want me to be a minister - but I'd just like You to confirm it." Gary fell asleep praying that night - the first sleep he'd had in days. That weekend Carol's minister excitedly asked "Did anything happen very early Wednesday morning?"

Gary never looked back. In the summer of 1963 Gary and Carol were married and they moved to Kentucky so Gary could start seminary; Carol found a job teaching 6th Grade. Many of Gary's classmates had not only been thinking about and planning for ministry work for quite some time - but a substantial number already were working full-time in ministry. But Gary quickly caught up and preached his first sermon and sank his teeth into learning everything he could about becoming a minister. Seminary was fantastic though - and before Gary knew it - he'd spent 8 years at 4 graduate schools and seminaries and had accumulated 5 masters degrees and a PhD. Academia was looking pretty good. But Carol's eyes were still focused on ministry - and one of Gary's first full-time ministry jobs was working at church in Indianapolis, Indiana. Gary worked as the minister of outreach, the youth minister and as the minister of Christian education. That church grew to 2,000 in its first year with 250 baptisms. 

Soon Gary had drawn the attention of two groups - Cincinnati Bible College - who was looking for a new Dean of the Graduate School - and a man named Virgil Felton in Lansing Michigan - who'd contacted Gary and told him "There are 500 students at Michigan State waiting for you to start a campus ministry." Gary drove hours to meet with both parties and personally relay his regrets that he would not be able to accept either position - only to find himself in front of a full-interview with job offers on the table. The job at the Bible college was particularly attractive - especially after all Gary's time in grad-school - he was well prepared to excel in that environment. The campus ministry job seemed to him like a lark - no one even knew what campus ministry was or what a campus minister did! Again - Carol's influence weighed in - and she reminded Gary that she'd prayed even before she and Gary had met and felt called to marry a minister - and God Himself had not given Gary sleep way back when until he agreed to be a minister. Gary finally made one more drive to Lansing and said "Yes. I'll be a campus minister." 

So - in the fall of 1969 Gary found himself standing on the grounds of Michigan State University - with his wife and baby daughter - ready to start this thing called a campus ministry. He found that there were somewhat less than 500 hundred students waiting for him on campus. He met one. But there were plenty of students on the campus of 35,000 at that time who needed Jesus. The ministry struggled in the beginning: "When we had money - we didn't have students - and when we had students, we didn't have any money." But - one of the students Gary met in those early years was a female student who just seemed to be able to do anything - so Gary just kept encouraging her to tackle things. Before long Sally Keisling was as much a vital part of the work of His House as Gary. With Sally working diligently to keep the administrative gears moving - Gary was free start new ministries - and he did. Soon Gary was leading ministry at Michigan State and Central Michigan University. God brought along a student to begin working as the full-time campus minister at CMU. Gary thought - "Well, Hey, maybe University of Michigan students would like a campus ministry too?" and Gary began splitting his time between MSU and U of M. 

At one point - the board sat Gary down and said "We think you should over-see all the campus ministers you've hired. Gary was bummed about this prospect - until he landed on the idea of over seeing the existing ministries AND starting the new ones. As Gary says "What I loved was starting new ministries - especially where there wasn't anything." I personally have vivid memories of Gary seemingly being EVERYWHERE in the state of Michigan - and it'd be easy for me to believe that he still knows all those highways better than the state's own DOT! I asked him during this interview - "How in the world did you oversee so many campus ministers running so many campus ministries with so many students - while also starting campus ministries - while also fund-raising sufficient funding to keep the whole show running?" Gary answered, "Well - I had to say no to a lot of distractions."

As a student at Michigan State I admired Gary's sermons and loved attending the retreats we'd have each spring and fall. Invariably I came home with my head crammed full of inspiration to invest in my walk with Jesus. Later I was invited to intern and the highlight of every month that year was the standing meeting all the interns had with Gary in his office. We all learned so much from him. It was a treat to continue working with Gary after that - as I was invited to help launch a new campus ministry in the state of New York. Despite all of that - I was completely surprised the day I met with Gary in his office 19 years ago and said "I have an idea for a campus ministry." I imagined I'd hand over my idea - which I thought it was likely Gary had either already considered - or that Gary could engage his life-time of experience and morph my little idea before my eyes into something vastly superior. I imagined I'd spill the beans, and then walk out - a free woman - able to focus on grad school. Nothing prepared me for Gary to say "I'm going to make sure you start that ministry yourself." and then shout down the hall way: "Hey Sally - wanna be a board member for Amy Jo?" 

Gary retired as the full-time Executive Director of His House in 2015 and now works as the Executive Director Emeritus and Director of Special Projects for the ministry he started on faith with Carol all those years ago. In his tenure as Executive Director - the ministry grew to 30 staff serving 12 campuses. The ministry baptized over 4,000 students and Gary estimates that they reached 30,000. I feel so blessed to have met Gary and become a part of His House. So many of us - working all over the world now in ministry are so grateful for all they, their family, and the rest of the staff of His House did to make that ministry possible. Our walks with Jesus would not be the same without them.

What really amazes me today about Gary - is how effortlessly he seems to exercise his habit of pointing men and women towards ministry. He has personally started more campus ministries than any other person I can name. I know that this was anything but effortless though - it was a life-time of intentional decisions to love God and serve Christ. If we would all embrace saying no to the distractions as Gary learned to - imagine what God's Kingdom would look like. I'm honored to have been able to know Gary so many years - and to still be learning from him as I work with JC's Village.

Gary and Carol with their children and grand-children

The Lord Gives to His Beloved - Even in His Sleep

(this post is a repost - I posted virtually the same thing last Friday - but mid-post it froze and then the site froze ... so - we're trying it again)

Aaaaah sleep. Such a beautiful thing - there's even this lovely verse about it in Psalm 127:2. And - if you're not getting a great amount of sleep - such an illusive thing.

We all know someone who doesn't get a lot of sleep - for whatever reason. Not all that long ago - I was an acute insomniac myself - sleeping less than even half the recommended 8 hours per night - night after night - for years. When I finally got my hand on a Fit-Bit almost 4 years ago - I bought it specifically to help me figure out how to get my sleep sorted out. I was horrified to realize that I was averaging less than 3 hours per night. It took a long time - and loads of articles, TED-talks, books, studies, and experiments - lots and lots of experiments - for me to get my sleep to the - but I'm happy to report that these days I average over 7 hours a night. You can go consume all that media yourself - or you can read my list below. I'm not a doctor, or a sleep-researcher (obviously!) - but what follows is a comprehensive compilation of what you can do to hack your sleeplessness and get some more Zzzzz's. 

Again - I'm not a doctor - you should discuss your sleeplessness with your doc. Especially if you have anything else going on that might complicate your health.

There are different kinds of insomnia - and varying degrees of severity. Some people sleep like champs. The average adult has one or two nights of restless/poor sleep per month - that's not insomnia. Some folks regularly fall asleep easily - but wake up far too soon - and then can't fall back asleep again for a tragically long period of time. Some folks take an hour or more to fall asleep. Some folks toss and turn - sleeping some part of every hour of the night - but without a restfully beneficially long-enough stretch to get any REM sleep. Then there are the people who wake up hours and hours before they need to - and can't ever go back to sleep. What you need to know about all of these is that they really, really stink. When my sleep was at its worst - I experienced all of these - and despised them equally. A few years ago I started doing everything I could to increase my sleep average from 2 hours and 52 minutes per night in the beginning to 7 hours and 15 minutes today. I'm still working towards 8. Sleep problems are a big, big headache (literally) to your head - and even more so to your health. These tips helped me - and maybe they can help you too.

So - in my opinion sleep problems can be looked at two ways: what you have to do to train your body to predictably become sleepy when it's "sleepy time". These are all the things that impact your circadian rhythms - and you want these hormonally controlled cycles to work for you - not against you. Sleep problems also fall into the category of sleep-hygiene - which the American Sleep Association discusses here. If you've been having a hard time sleeping for some time - you might have to "retrain" your body to know when it's time to sleep (aka: get those circadian rhythms lined up in your favor - AND start setting up your own sleep hygiene routine - and stick with it. If you're looking for tips on how to sleep better when switching from day shift to night shift - this post isn't focused on that - but the sleep hygiene tips will probably help.

Again - don't be nuts. Don't take risks with your well-being. This is my list of what I did - and as I said - it added more than 4 hours per night to my sleep. The first few items deal with circadian rhthyms and the rest are about sleep hygiene. Tips that are bolded are especially recommended by nearly every expert - so maybe start with the bolded ones. Other wise - start with the tips easiest to incorporate. I don't recommend attempting to try all of them at once - there are too many. But you can surely experiment with which ones are most effective for you - and just keep adding until you're a snooze-pro.

1. Pick a consistent time to go to bed - 7 nights per week. Don't mess around - especially if you're deeply sleep deprived or dangerously exhausted. You can vary that bed-time by as much as an hour in a pinch - but if your sleep schedule is really out of whack - tough it out - you'll be happier quicker. If you don't know what time works best for you - that's okay - pick a time for now - and tweak it later. This bed-time stays the same - and nothing goes on your schedule until at least 8 hours after bed-time. Block it all off. Block that time off - 7 days a week. That means if you have to be to work by 8 Monday through Friday - and you wanted to get up at 7 - you need to go to bed no later than 11pm Sunday night through Saturday night. In a pinch you can go to bed as early as 10 or as late as 12 - and get up as early as 6 or as late as 8 ... but block off 8 hours.
2. Stay in bed - at least resting - if not actually sleeping for all of this period. There are some exceptions - like if you still have two hours to sleep but you're so wired you're glued to the bedroom ceiling - get up. But otherwise - if you're relaxed, groggy, peaceful - stay in bed. Think sleepy thoughts. You're training yourself to be asleep at this time. Even if it doesn't seem to work the first few days - your body will eventually oblige. It wants 8 hours of sleep.
3. As soon as you can after your wake-up time - get up and get outside for some pre-noon blue wave-length day-light exposure. Expose as much of your skin as is reasonable - because this isn't just about your eyes - it's also about vitamin D - and your skin is a big deal on this one - being the original way you get vitamin D. Twenty or so minutes is ideal - more is okay - but there's no need to go bonkers here. Three hours of pre-noon light probably won't help you sleep better - especially when you get fired for not showing up to work. Screens are a no-no right before bed because they emulate this pre-noon blue natural light. So staring at screens too much before bed can screw up your circadian rhthyms. 
4. Okay - the rest of these are sleep-hygiene related. Get your heart-rate up. You don't have to do Rocky Balboa's work-out - but a brisk walk where you sweat a bit and your heart gets pumping will help your body process a lot of cortisol - the stress hormone. Even if your life is lovely - if you're not sleeping well - that alone leads to too much cortisol. A nice walk will help you dump it. Again - about 20 minutes is ideal. Longer will not necessarily purge more cortisol - though it might benefit you in other ways. You can pair-up this one with number 3 - and save time. Or pair it up with number 11 and work-out with a friend. Fantastic!
5. Limit your caffeine to never if you can. Seriously - this will really help. If you can't or don't want to walk away from caffeine - then at least limit your intake to the morning. Caffeine commonly stays active in your system for 12 hours - if you're particularly sensitive - then it could be active for even longer. Some people tell me they have a hard time sleeping or staying asleep at night - and admit that they drink caffeinated soda in the evening - or enjoy one of those froo-froo coffee-house beverages. I used to do all these - but limit my caffeine to one cup of joe in the morning and no more caffeine the rest of the day.
6. Journal your feelings - especially the ones that keep coming back up - stress about a relationship, worry about money, dread about a deadline, regret over something in the past - whatever it is - if it keeps coming you - it's asking for your attention. You don't have to write a new Shakespeare play (although if you can - props to you!). You can use the bullet journal method and spend minutes (or less). The point is not what method you use - but that you get the lingering emotional burdens and sticky thoughts out of your precious noggin' so there's no room for anything in there when you go to bed tonight - except for sweet dreams.
7. Practice yoga. Or if yoga weirds you out - practice pilates. Or tai-chi. Or ball-room, square or swing dancing. There is something about the way these activities effect your brain-body connection - and reduce cortisol. Basically - these connect you to your body better - make you more aware of it - and help you respect it better. You don't have to do this one daily - but two to three times per week sure helped me. I bought a cheap wii-fit on craigslist and used that for yoga, stretching, pilates and dancing.
8. Meditate. You don't have to dedicate your life to this. 10 to 15 minutes a 3-4 days per week could work wonders for your sleep. This isn't about a spiritual practice - this is about attempting to attempt a meditative state - that is one in which you slow your thoughts down - you slow your heart-rate down - and you slow your breathing down. You might be surprised how just breathing as slowly as 3 or so breaths per minute impacts your sleep. This isn't any kind of hard-core meditation - but it's enough to - again - impact your brain chemistry in multiple beneficial ways. You can access tons of information on-line or via a phone app to help with this - much of it free. I meditate almost every day these days. I LOVE it.
9. Another point about meditation - if you snore - or other people say you snore no despite your loathing hearing this - consider getting a sleep study - maybe you have sleep apnea. This is a BIG HAIRY DEAL. Sleep apnea - untreated - is a health-ruiner. Fix that. There are also breathing exercises you can engage in that regardless of where you land in terms of sleep apnea - you can breathe - literally easier - and probably improve your sleep. Granted - if you read my Origin of the Grace Habit posts about a month ago - you know I had real problems breathing. Back in the day - this meant that people staying at my house thought: I ground coffee-beans in the middle of the night, ran the vacuum sweeper in the night, ran the food-processor in the wee hours, or my favorite - kept a chain-saw in my bedroom ... all of that racket was just me snoring. Like a troll. Breathing exercises - such as the classic one where you inhale for 4 counts, hold your breath for 4 counts, exhale for 8 counts, hold for 4 counts - and then repeat. These days I have a snazzy app called "Apnea Trainer" - which is actually the opposite of what it's named. It's designed to help train free-divers - you know - those whackos who want to drive without oxygen tanks to brain-squeezing depths - to expand their lung capacity. I take breathing exercises really seriously. There are therefore - these days - no more chainsaws in my house. I suspect that it's just an aspect of how humans age - that we engage (generally) in less high intensity cardio - which means that the muscles God gave us to support that - go as flabby and slack as the rest of us - and we snore like bears - especially if we no longer weigh what we did in high school.  
10. Limit napping. Naps can be such a double-edged sword. When my sleep was at its worst - I also drove a lot ... all over the Midwest ... through corn-fields. Help! So very very sleep inducing. But - in general - you have the ability to healthfully sleep so many hours a day (all things being equal - too much sleep poses a different set of problems).  So if you - a healthy adult human, nap for say - more than an hour ... you are probably dipping into your allotment of sleep-time for the coming night. Bummer. If you need a nap - for whatever reason - limit your nap time to the middle of the afternoon - and for 60 minutes or less.
11. Socialize with friends. Again - not every day - but "enough" - whatever enough is for you. If right now - reading this - you feel like "I'd love to have more time with my friends" or you feel lonely - then you need some more friend-time. That's cool. Okay. Now go get it. Either find some activities you can add to your weekly routine and a buddy to do them with - or join a new group. I started story-telling a couple of years ago. Perfect for me. Again - having enough social time can be a really important way to reduce stress and increase your sense of well-being. You might want to try a couple of different new things - take a class, volunteer, learn a new hobby, ... there are so many ways.
12. Limit your processed and fatty/sugary foods - especially in the evenings. Processed foods - fatty foods - sugary foods - can all do a number on your body's chemistry. They can keep you up with an uncomfortable over-full stomach/bloated sensation - they can lead to digestive issues (think IBS etc.), or lead to an increased inflammatory response - which can easily lead to you tossing and turning at best - or interrupted sleep due to generalized discomfort at worst. Not cool. 
13. If due to your having been a professional hockey player, or professional gymnast or professional MMA fighter - or something else similar - you wake up regularly - due to muscle and/or joint soreness - you might want to consider a small glass of tart-cherry juice. This is a specific kind of cherry juice - is frequently sold as a concentrate and must be diluted before drinking. It's not the tastiest beverage - but it's far from awful. This is not a kids drink - it IS tart - and it is pure - no added anything. Studies have linked just a glass (mixed per the recommendations on the bottle) of tart cherry juice with reduced joint paint and inflammation. This can - especially when taken before bed - improve sleep. Bonus!
14. This tip may be a one-time thing - but spend some time tweaking your bedroom. If you love it - this may mean just giving it a quick cleaning. Or - maybe it's time to wash all your bedding, flip your mattress, replace that tattered window shade that lets too much light in. Maybe you'd like some new sheets - or a sound-machine, or one of those little thingies that spritzes the room with deliciously sleepy making lavender scent. Maybe your pillows need washing - or replacing. Maybe you need an extra. Maybe a new stuffed animal - or some new art for the wall - or whatever. It's worth it to make your room a place that invokes peaceful calm and rest just looking in there at it. 
15. While we're at it - research shows people sleep best in a room around 60 degrees. Consider making your room cool too while you're at it.
16. While you're at that - what about what you wear to bed - is it time for new pajamas? 
17. As the day draws to a close - consider limiting your intake of highly processed and/or fatty and sugary foods. Processed foods can contain chemicals and preservatives that interfere with your body's ability to wind down and naturally shift over to your sleep cycle. Fatty foods often cause increased incidences of indigestion as we get older. Sugary foods can cause an inflammatory response and impede your body's ability to sleep pain free. 
18. A couple of hours before bed - stop eating. You'll sleep better on a not-so-full stomach - and you'll digest your last morsels more efficiently if your a few hours into the job before laying down.
19. Establish a pre-bed routine - this routine can help your circadian rhythms signal your brain that bed-time is approaching. Keep the same routine night after night - and soon you'll be yawning through it in anticipation of laying your head on your pillow. Your routine doesn't have to be complex - just yours. I like to shut off electronics, plug in my phone, make my coffee for tomorrow morning, brush-teeth, wash face, let the pooch out, maybe stretch a bit - especially if today involved hard work (in the garden for instance) or lots of sitting at the desk and working without moving much)
20. Make your last drink of the night an hour or so before bed. Let your last drink be water or - if your glass of diluted tart-cherry juice. Don't keep drinking right up to the moment you crawl into bed - unless you like getting up in the dead of the night and wandering off to the bathroom.
21. An hour before bed - stop working. If you still have tasks left to get done - make a list. Shut off all screens. 
22. Some people have found it helpful to take melatonin to help them sleep. Melatonin is not a sleeping pill - it's a hormone your body naturally produces during sleep. There are different strengths available - start with the lowest and cut the tablet in half - increase by halves until you have the right amount for you. If you want you can take your Melatonin with your last drink or with your last meal of the day.
23. Right before hopping into bed - take a very hot shower - and then turn the water as cold as you can for as long as you can. This will simulate your bodies natural drop in temperature that occurs before your normal bed-time. This is especially helpful if your room isn't quite cool enough for you to fall asleep easily.
24. If you have trouble shutting down your brain in order to fall asleep - consider listening to a sleep meditation. There are many of these - and many are audio only - which is even better since the last thing you want is a screen on in your room as you're trying to fall asleep. I can't recommend a specific one - but there are many good ones and most are free. Some people recommend a good fiction book. For some music works. You know yourself - if you cannot fall asleep once you pick up a book - you know that's not the way to go. If you can't listen to music without dancing - perhaps dancing in bed will not work for you. I fall asleep reading a book - and I have a small light that's automatically set to go off. 
25. Sleep experts are unanimous: no pets in your bed. You and they will sleep better if you sleep in your own spaces and don't interfere with each other. If you cannot abide this idea - then train your pets to not wake you. There are many helpful hints on how to do this - but they all come down to - don't reward your pets with attention, games, play, cuddles or food in the middle of the night. 
26. Once your alarm has gone off - or your 8-9 hours of sleep is done - get up. Over-sleep is not good for you either. While we all have a night or two here or there when we'll sleep a little longer - regularly or habitually sleeping as long as possible is not good for you either and can lead to a host of health issues too. If you turn to sleep as a way to escape problems - the truth is you're inviting health problems on top of whatever it is compelling you to crawl into bed. Talk it out with a friend - or ask a friend to help you find a counselor who can help you unpack what's going on and find more ways to cope than morphing into Rip Van Winkle. 
27. If after a week or two of trying these tips you're still struggling with sleep - or if you've had serious problems sleeping for a while - go see your primary care provider and enlist their professional help in determining what the problem is. No one has ever improved their health by ignoring sleep problems. Your difficulties sleeping could be a warning shot. Take good care of yourself!

Hope this helps you get your 8-9 hours of sleep! If you have a tip I missed - by all means - pass it along!

Monday Funday!

Well - it seems like after Friday's adventures in technical difficulties we're back! Whew!!  Hope you all had a lovely weekend and praying you have an aca-awesome week!

Salty Speech: The Lay of the Land

Behind the scenes over the last few weeks I've been nudging readers and thinkers in my life to ask: "Have you read a great book, or heard a great sermon/talk on Godly speech?" Can I confess to you right now that I haven't either? Can I confess again - how odd that seems to me?

There seems little doubt that God's creative force is connected in some way with His speech - with is sometimes recorded in the Bible as being made with a voice like thunder ( "the sound of many waters" (Revelation 14). God's voice created all things. Jesus voice withered the fig tree. I've met people who are angry at God over having never heard His voice - and yet the Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai told Moses "Speak to us yourself - because if God speaks to us we'll die." God's voice corrected and taught Jonah - and comforted Elijah in the cave (1 Kings 19:11-18). How is it we don't have stacks upon stacks of books - really, really great ones about God's voice and on this whole topic of Godly speech?

I've been scouring the internet for articles - and there are many available. Most exhort us to not be awful. Again - I have to confess - I need that reminder too. Though I would say gossip is not my greatest weakness - I need to remember what's harmful about it. A decade ago Cru posted an article on speech called Taming the Tongue that looks at James 3's related passages in a thorough fashion. Earlier this year Rev. Dr. John Payne posted an article titled "Words Matter" on the Reformation21 blog. 

What was it about the way that Jesus spoke that made Him so "follow-worthy"? I've talked to some who really don't like getting out of bed to go to church ... it's too early, it's too preachy, it's too uncomfortable ... but 2,000 years ago thousands of people occasionally congregated in the desert - not even giving a thought about what to bring for lunch - just to hear the words of Jesus. Surely there was more going on for His sermons than merely them being free of gossip, slander, rage and spite - wasn't there? I remember a trip a while back to Chaco Culture National Historical Park in north western New Mexico and having my mind blown by the incredible archeological ruins out there - and the desert weather. One afternoon my travel buddy and I spilled into the visitor center and immediately split into the dumbest grins. The rangers there looked at us and said "You from up north?" It was Memorial Day weekend - and Wisconsin had had an unusually cool spring - only one or two days where the temps even reached 70 - and we'd just finished a 6 mile hike in full sun - along the bottom of the mesa where it met the desert floor. We were cooked. We looked at them and said "Yes. It is over 100 degrees today?" They laughed and said "No! It's only 95." ... but all the same they turned the info movie on for us while we slaked our thirsts and cooled off - and then hit repeat when we nodded off in the comfy cool theater. That whole trip - I thought - "Jimminy Crickets, Jesus! How in the world did You get people to traipse about after You out into the desert over and over again - just to hang on your every word!?" 

Surely Jesus' words weren't merely not foul, not slanderous, not careless.  

His words are recorded as "authoritative" (Matthew 7:29). What does that really mean? Are we supposed to be able to do that too? Didn't God promise the disciples - now apostles - that "you don't need to worry about what you will say - for the Holy Spirit will teach you that very hour what you are to say" (Luke 12:11-12). Was that a promise just for Jesus hand-picked few back then - or am I supposed to be able to do that too?

What's more - quite a few articles I came across were addressed specifically to women and the evils of gossip. Gossip surely is evil - but is it pink? Before going to work for JC's Village full-time my last two jobs were in environments where I often worked only with men. Do some women not know that men like to gossip too? Some of those guys were the best I've ever seen at stuffing a stick into the proverbial hornets nest and loving watching the chaos unfold. A few articles addressed the problem of angry speech - which also seemed odd - because these days it can be a trick to not hear angry arguments all over the airwaves - on radio, TV, cable, podcasts. The sky is surely falling and it won't not fall unless we're frightened and mad about it. Can wisdom come from this? Would you hike on foot in the deserts around Jesus to hear that? What's more - does eschewing gossip, slander, vulgarity and other such deleterious verbage automatically make you godly? When you launch into a project like this - among the earlier things you discover are your own assumptions - and I surely assumed that godly speech was some sort of intentional conversational balm. 

While I sure won't knock a effective reminder of what my speech must not be - I crave a high-point - an inspiring vision - of what Godly speech could be. Inspiration seems to carry my heart and imagination so much further than "don't say bad things" - and I haven't yet found a book that's designed to school Christ's followers on what possible for our speech once we choose to press past the temptations to mud-wrestle with our words.

I did eventually find a few books - and they are starting to trickle in from the Library and one or two used ones unavailable otherwise working their way to my door from all over the country. That said however - I would sure appreciate it if you'd share any great resources you've found on this topic. I came across this book - edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor - available on line as a pdf called The Power of Words and the Wonder of God. I just found it late last night - so I can speak to it one way or the other - but I will read it and get back to you about in next week.

Monday Funday!

Whether you're off to grill or off to work - here's some humor for you - cause wherever you are - some laughs make it better! 

Restorations

Hi. My name is Amy Jo, and I love desks.

Last week the posts were a little thin - largely due to my decision to refinish my desk. The desk my parents gave me ... um ... quite a while ago ... because I'd been harassing them unrelentingly for my own desk ... a real one - not just one of these kids' jobbies over there at the right.

Then one day when I was 8 or so - out of the blue - my parents came home with a desk for me - a real desk. We plunked the estate-sale find down - and I was in business. It even had drawers! By the time I was 11 I convinced them that I needed to refinish this piece of furniture - a task and process I had zero clue about - but bizarrely (at least to me today) they dragged me off to the hardware store to get caustic chemicals and let me spend a week or so that summer playing with chemicals, power tools, sharp implements and such ... 

And I fell in LOVE with the idea of restoration.

So - I should say, "Hello. My name is Amy Jo, and I love restoring old things and making them beautiful again.

Taking something that was - frankly - ugly. Not just ugly to an 11 year old girl ugly - but unanimously voted drag-it-to-the-dump ugly by everyone I knew. It seemed magical that you could put this "stuff" on the ugly chipped paint, watch it bubble up, then loosen its death grip on the wood underneath, peel and scrape that off, then repeat that process again and again over and over until finally the work uncovered what was underneath. Was it oak? Was it mahogany? Turns out it was cherry - and nothing particularly special - but I got to make it beautiful again - or at least to try. And - actually - thanks to lots of help from my family - it did become beautiful. And it stayed beautiful for a long time. Until after so many years of use (not to mention moves all over the country, and so many pets and innumerable sloshed cups of coffee - it just needed to be refinished again. It took me 5 days and about 20 hours or so to finish the job - and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. All these years later - and after so many other refinishing projects - redoing the desk a second time - was ridiculously easy compared to the first time when I really thought it would nehhhhvahhh get done. 

I can't even count at this point in my life how many pieces of furniture I've refinished ... enough to know it's a nasty job. But I still feel that same immediate thrill when the first thick layers of paint loosen and the beauty of the wood underneath is finally revealed again - after who knows how long. 

Jesus uses metaphors of farming, pottery, building and such to help us grasp how God longs to work in our lives and has always been at work in the lives of humanity. Restoring something that could've headed to the landfill or the burn-pile - and giving it new life - I believe is another apt metaphor for how God works. We were once hostile to God, given over to sin, slaves of unrighteousness ... the New Testament authors use these terms and more to describe our plight. And yet - not only did God save us - but He uses His word, the Church and His Spirit to peel back one layer after another - if we'll let Him - so He can reveal the core beneath - so we can see His handiwork even clearer and rejoice in His generous loving kindness towards us. Or as Romans 3 puts it - all this just demonstrates God's righteousness. Whether we're struggling to be Christlike in a tough relationship, or at work, or in a difficult family situation or whatever it may be - God is lovingly using these struggles to restore us. He has no intention of letting us - however dinged and scratched up and busted up we might get - slipping through His hands and off to some discard pile. He is the ultimate Recycler - the ultimate Restorer. I for one am pretty darn relieved by this.

Too often we fear God's restorative work - as if He could botch the job.

God's restorative - or as we usually call it - transformative - work in our lives can be hecka scary too. I'm so happy sometimes to see Him working on someone else - but as soon as He comes near my ego with His surgical tools - however skilled I might in my head know Him to be - I'm with the prophet in Isaiah 6 when he says "I'm undone." We fear botched results - yet God cannot fail. He cannot botch. He's botchless. Let's get buttons made so we can remember just how far reaching His perfection really is. Messing up - simply isn't within the realm of His nature. 

I don't know about you - but I find that the more I slow myself down - the more I put myself into a state of rest in Him, the more I listen to Him - the less I fear His work in my life - and the less I babble, and blather, and carry-on. The more I listen to Him - the more miraculous I find His healing work in the world. However banged up life might make us feel - God is ever at the ready to transform that experience into a big reveal of His incredible love for us. This process isn't always easy or painless - but His results are always a window on His love for us. 

The more I listen to Him at work restoring you and me - the more likely I'll have something worth saying.

Salty Speech: The Auto-Awesome-ifier

A couple of years ago while on a camping trip and talking to God - it occurred to me that what I needed was a "machine" that could morph a bad day into a good one. I even drew up this little machine in my journal - that little Auto-Awesomeifier pictured above. You put all the good and bad from a single day into it - turn it on - let it do its thing - and Voila! - pure gold comes out at the bottom. One glance at this thing (or - maybe due to my drawing skills it'd take two or three glances) - and you know that I've read my quota of Dr. Suess and observed plenty of products produced by "ACME" and put to use by Wile E. Coyote, Genius ... 

While there is no such thing as a physical device that automatically awesome-ifies anything - especially not our days ... there is perhaps a practice or two that can. And I would argue that the degree to which we can embrace these practices really can have a powerfully dramatic impact on our days. Whatever you may want to call that practice - it comes down to surrender. 

James 1:2 encourages us to Consider it all joy - when we encounter various trials - and Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 counted all his various sufferings - which were each so substantial I think we might be tempted to never stop talking about them - as nothing ... not because they were nothing - but because they became nothing to him after he prioritized them into their proper place among - after all the things he considered much more important - and while I think it's clear that Paul wrote a bit of sarcasm into this passage - he is very honestly telling us something truly important about how he viewed his sufferings ... that they were not what he considered most valuable to talk about ... his point actually continues over into 2 Corinthians 12 where he delves into talking about the thorn in the flesh given to him - and how he three times asked the Lord to remove it from him but God's response is:

"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."  2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV

Salty speech isn't never saying anything wrong. It isn't only speaking after having listened superbly. I'm not even sure we can pursue salty speech - or Godly speech directly. It seems that the reason the author of James 3:2 makes the extraordinary claim about speech that he does when he writes: "For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well." - is because speech - what we say - is either the rattling exhaust racket of our un-submitted and un-surrendered wills - or the sweet life-giving words of wills and souls that are so surrendered to His will. It's the easiest thing in the world to let our lips fly loose - it's so easy - that if we can actually resist that temptation - then there aren't many temptations we can't resist. Perhaps this is why Elijah's ministry was so powerful - he spoke precious little - for being such a major figure in the Old Testament - he doesn't even have his own book!  And yet - he did far more extraordinary things than many other characters we read about. I would argue that this is because Elijah lived so fully surrendered.

Not just submitting our lives to Jesus - but going beyond submission - to the point of surrendering fully our lives to Jesus - is the true "auto-awesomifying" machine - that takes even the most dreary day and morphs it into something glorious for God. 

Salty speech happens when we surrender ourselves to Him. 

Mindset

Thanks to SuperBetter's author Dr. Jane McGonigal's references to Dr. Carol Dweck's work - I was motivated to pick up a copy from my wonderful local library and gobble up her life-time's worth of research into the power of Mindset.

Dr. Dweck - one of the foremost researchers on personality, social psychology, and development psychology - has spent her career focusing on the powerful influence exerted over virtually every aspect of our lives by our mindset. Mindset seems to also be another one of these traits where whether due to nature or nurture you land in the world with a propensity towards one or the other - but unlike handed-ness - you can at any moment in your life - such as this one for instance - choose to adopt a mindset that offers you the most benefit. Dweck essentially splits the world into two: those who have a fixed mindset (they value natural talent, innate ability, believe that test-scores and accomplishments are the bees knees and that we are defined by these things ... some have it - and some don't) vs. the growth mindset (which in contrast - effectively views natural talent and innate ability as myth and instead focuses on embracing challenge, developing skill, and sees any score, test or accomplishment as a snapshot at most). Dweck has spent decades researching the impact of these two contrasting world views on pre-schoolers, kindergarten children, elementary students, athletes, professionals, parents and organizations. I've only read through this book once and I just finished Sunday night - but I did not read of a single instance in which Dweck referred to the fixed mindset as beneficial in a meaningful way when it comes to expertise, learning, or happiness.

Dweck believes people change - that they not only change but that they can even intentionally change in the direction of their choosing. She believes - based on her decades of experience in the plasticity of the brain - as well as the force of human will - and has narrowed in on mindset - either fixed or growth - as being at the root of whether we face our challenges and grow better or bitter. She has participated in and led so many studies in her pursuit of parsing out why some rise above what seem to so many to be insurmountable limitations - whether height, IQ, gender - or whatever other factor anyone ever narrowed in on as a limiting factor - and why some - with what seemed like vast oceans of enviable early talent seem to fizzle out and drift away from the lime-light. According to Dweck - whatever fuels your soul - if you can approach it with a growth mindset - you have the capacity to accomplish great things. In fact - Dweck suggests in her TED talk (check it out here)  - that the 98% of humanity that lives between the genetically disabled and the genetically genius - can all learn to ... be "matheletes", "natural musicians, talented athletes, ... basically ... awesome humans.

"let me know. We can get twice as much funding if we have a girl and we'd like to get jackets"

The number one thing that stops nearly 100% of us - including some of those who are actual factual genetic geniuses - from achieving that illusive "greatness" are all the ideas that say maybe we just haven't got and collectively weigh us down to the point of giving up on applying any effort. To Dweck - it's not about talent - it's all about effort - and most importantly - learning to love the effort. She quotes 4-year olds who when faced with tasks "too hard for them" would excitedly exclaim "Yes!! I was hoping it'd be hard!" with truly pure joy. She wants to act as something of a brain-GPS guiding us back to the initial, insatiable, voracious learners and unstoppable challenge-embracers we all were when we were born - and began happily and enthusiastically set off on conquering the stunningly daunting challenges of talking, walking, and learning everything - and LOVING it. Once upon a time - you ADORED being challenged - and were full of explosive energy at the thought of sharing your conquered challenges with those most important to you. They went on your fridge. You told everyone about it. You wanted more of that please and thank you very much.

You may have noticed a theme in some of my reading lately ... it's not really a lately though. When I read books like Mindset or Grit or SuperBetter - the thing about these sorts of books that most peaks my interest is directly tied to the Salty Speech project - as well as my long-standing passion to understand everything I can about how we can transform as fully as possible into the person Jesus saved us to be. I also want to be as fully equipped as I can be in engaging with college and university students - who are in one of the last and greatest transformative periods of their lives - and as skillfully as possible support God's transformative work in their lives. 

I can remember sitting on Naugahyde church pews and hearing preachers saying things like "if you want to reach altitude you need the right attitude" ... I remember hearing sermons on optimism, faith, hope and I took all of that heart. My journals are full of dialog between God and I on what was working and what wasn't and why - or at least attempting to understand why. And - I'm still thinking daily about that little country hospital that was failing until the whole staff started embracing some key changes - and according to the staff themselves - foremost among those key changes was the way they intentionally chose to speak about disease - and how they intentionally self-censured all speech related to violence, because "healers don't use the language of violence".

I've listened closer to what's been said in the last few years and especially in the last few months than ever before. I'm a notorious info-dumper - do not willy-nilly ask me for a "bit" of info on one of my pet topics ... you'll end up getting an avalanche - which to me is a bit! Yikes!! I'm working on this. But far worse than info-dumping on some poor unsuspecting person are the growth-stifling things I might unwittingly say ... the cynical attitude I might caustically rain on someone's parade, or the God's-Grace denying dark and dreary outlook I might let fall on someone's budding enthusiasm just because I'm inattentively having a bad day. These tendencies started to crack with the Grace Habit - but I've come to the conclusion - that Grace lovers don't speak judgement, doom, gloom or despair. I'm still the same person with the same tendencies - but the less I thoughtlessly speak them - the more overwhelmed by joy I am. 

Whether we want to talk about Dr. Duckworth's grittiness, or McGonigal's gamefulness, or Dweck's growth mindset - as a Christ follower - I firmly believe in the limitless power of God - so vast that He can even transform me. I am passionately curious about the transformative work experienced by some fringe-of-society types that a homeless Rabbi called to follow Him - who then left the security of their homes, businesses, friends, family and farms to wander all over the middle-east on foot with zero security. They grittily hosted picnics for thousands with zip to eat - just a sack-lunch. They gamefully went on pleasure-boat-cruises in life-threatening weather ... and all of that "fun" seemed to be for the express purpose of toughening them up for the incredible times ahead when nearly all of them would be so growth-focused in their mindset regarding their calling that they'd give up their lives. I've met students who wanted to give up on God because "he didn't answer my prayer". There have been times when I was that student. Can God's people be too gritty? Gameful? Growth-minded? 

Some might lay all the blame on the culture, the music, the games, TV, social media ... but I don't believe any of these pressures are actually harder than the pressures that faced the first Christians - they're just different. I believe Jesus still speaks just as powerfully - to crowds, teens, fringey-types, storms and rulers as He ever did. I just want to speak as He spoke to the bruised reeds and smouldering wicks of the world - for their sakes and mine.

Thank you for stopping by. Thanks for reading. 

Monday Funday!

Don't know about ya'll - but I am LUVIN this cooler weather! Hope you and yours had a lovely, marvelous weekend - here are some laughs to start your week off right. 

this turtle ... could sell showers

My Heart, Christ's Home

The story at the center of this track has found its way into skits and sketches, longer books - and may even trace it's roots back to a very old work - but the general idea behind it is that our interior lives are like a house - one which we share with Christ once we've invited him into our lives - or into our homes - as Robert Boyd Munger suggests. 

This succinct pamphlet - which you're welcome to read here.

It begins with the narrator giving his heart to Christ and invites him in - first they look at the living room, the dining room, the study. Jesus' conversation with the narrator and the questions he asks him - clearly point the narrator towards a closer and more honest relationship with Jesus. Eventually - after some time together in the house has passed - Jesus' questions and gentle pressure leads the narrator to start inventing ways to dodge and duck the implications of the questions. There once lavish study times dwindle. Finally - one day - Jesus points out to the young man that there's a hall closet that He's not yet been allowed to see - and of course - everything that the narrator's been trying to hide from Jesus - "dead and rotting things from his old life." It's immediately clear to Jesus and then to the narrator - that they've arrived at an impasse. 

After a period of struggle - the narrator eventually transfers ownership of the whole house to Jesus.

Robert Boyd Munger 1911-2001

While this is a tiny pamphlet - and the story is presented in a deeply allegorical manner - the struggle depicted - we can all attest - is real - and all too often - daily. It's easy for us, maybe even quite satisfying - for us to invite Christ into our hearts - or as Munger puts it - our homes. The pamphlet started out as a sermon in 1954 while Munger was serving as the minister of First Presbyterian Church in Berkley and was so well received that it began to be passed around by various friends of his in ministry - including his friend Billy Graham. The sermon sprang from Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Munger was also a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. 

The pamphlet can be read completely in minutes and understood well by a child. I doubt I've written anything of any length that people will still be reading 60 years from now. I'd be willing to bet that people will still be discussing Munger's sermon turned pamphlet - turned skit - turned video 60 years from now.

Monday Funday

Hope you all had a great Father's Day and were able to tell the dads around you how important their tough job is!

Believe it or not - fall is right around the corner - and this year JC's Village will be using on-line advertising. You can help us stretch our advertising dollars by liking the JC's Facebook page if you haven't already - and of course - if you like what's posted - feel free to share. You can get to the Facebook page by clicking here. The more likes and shares the cheaper the advertising Facebook and Google offers - and the further our ads will go when fall rolls around. Thanks so much for your help!

So - without further ado ... here are some laughs for you!

What's Better Than Saying Something Brilliant?

Up until now I've made the argument that the first line of defense when it comes to corralling speech - is corralling our thoughts. I absolutely believe that's true. 

And while that's an awesome line of defense - there's a second line of defense that's actually so important it could be a second first line of defense! 

So what is it?

Listening.

A long time ago - I made a 1-800 phone-call and subscribed to Dover Press's book catalog (that whole sentence is soooo 1993!) Dover Press printed really cheap paperback copies of all kinds of books. One of the first books I bought was Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary". Ambrose Bierce was a lexicographer - someone who defined words - but he defined words humorously. Here's his definition of politics.

Okay - so clearly - he was a cynic. So now you know why I found him so funny. Possibly one of his best known and most quoted definitions is how he defined an egoist:

Now I think maybe twice in my life someone complimented me on being a great listener ... I'm not sure - I think I spaced out. But when I have listened - really listened - there was hardly a need to control my speech ... listening opened the door to understanding ... and understanding engineers some of the world's strongest bridges - don't you think?

If you search for Scriptures on silence or being silent - you'll pull up a list of over one hundred relevant verses. It was in silence that God confirmed to Jacob that Rebekah was the wife God had chosen for him, and it was on the eve of the Israelite's first going into the promised land - that God emphatically told them to be silent AND to listen. It is, after all, all too possible to do one and not the other. 

Ambrose Bierce also defined a bore as "someone who talks when you want them to listen." and Fran Leibowitz who said "The opposite of talking isn't listening. It's waiting." 

I confess I'm all too guilty of waiting instead of listening. 

But if we really want to have gracious speech - speech that perfectly seasons the conversation - we have to not only be present in the conversation - but to have listened to it attentively enough - and kept our hearts so turned to God in the midst of it - that we can hear what part of that conversation needs salt - otherwise - we'll either in a lack of clarity blather and babble on and on meaninglessly - or - offer no words (aka. no salt) at all.

It's common on the internet nowadays to see graphics about how listen and silent are anagrams - as it was not too long ago to be told to carry on.

Maybe the reason Elephants never forget - is because they use those huge ears of theirs to really hear. Hard to recall what was never heard. Not only might we learn something we'd never heard before by listening - but we might also convey a level of interest and care in those who share their words with us - that alters both the speaker and listener. Here's a TED talk on that point - from TEDx Kelowna by Dr. Mark Holder, the head of the University of British Columbia's Happiness research team. Turns out - there's a way to listen that even has a huge impact on our own happiness - and it centers around just 3 words. Maybe merely listening - really listening - and not waiting - could not only give us huge insights on what kind of salty speech to utter - if any - but strengthen the relationships in which we can share such speech.

SuperBetter

Last week I wrote about Dr. Angela Duckworth's book "Grit" - and completely forgot to pose the question to you that I've posed to a few friends, namely: "What would it mean for Christians to be "gritty" about their faith. I'm still pondering that question. 

SuperBetter by Dr. Jane McGonigal - a video game designer and senior researcher at the Institute for the Future has made a career of harnessing the power of "gamefulness" and the way gamers love spending in the game world - and using their collective efforts to find solutions to some of the worlds largest problems. She points out that gamers in believe that a solution exists - that whatever the problem is that's presented to them - it is within their capability to solve it. Therefore - they are always on the verge of an epic win - which according to McGonigal's research - is a pretty amazing feeling - one that once people have experienced it - they want to go back to it and experience it again, and again.

This was all rosey until McGonigal suffered a concussion - one severe enough to leave her doubting her ability to ever return to research, gaming or even any meaningful contribution to life. So - she chose to make a game out of recovery. Not in that she glibly diminished the importance of her recovery and made light of it. Quite the opposite. She saw the whole mind-set of playing a game as exactly the ideal way to focus on recovery without getting bogged down in the morass of the numerous and real fears that went along with a profound need to heal ... what if she couldn't recover? what if recovery came - but only too slowly to be any real good now? - what if she lost who she was along the way? She decided to fight her fears and the limits of her injury by becoming "Jane the Concussion Slayer" - and designed a recovery game for herself.

Turning recovery into a game allowed her to apply the mindsets of curiosity, challenge and purposeful play and all the flow-states that go along with those mindsets essentially 100% towards healing. When she was sickest she played predictive games about when which neighbors would walk which pets outside her window. Then she made a game of how many people she could make smile. She baked cookies for her favorite baristas. Slowly - the "wins" to the various challenges that she and her team of allies (husband, sister, etc.) picked for her began to work a "magic" of their own - and McGonigal learned something important: That laughter isn't the only best medicine - but play, encouragement, and fun are potently and powerfully healing medicines themselves. Why not harness the healing boost of these too?

What happened next was that McGonigal and her team of allies - as well as her team of medical professionals overseeing her recovery started to take note of her now rapid improvement. McGonigal took note too - and opened up the game, which she now re-named SuperBetter to other people battling their own challenges. Soon there were new moms fighting post-partem depression, patients suffering from ALS, as well as individuals fighting chronic illness, cancer, anxiety, and more. McGonigal realized that even people not suffering from an immediate illness - but rather wanting to become more skillful at their chosen goal could benefit. So now investers joined in, as did those hoping to find their future spouse, and people who wanted to become more proficient public speakers, or more effective graphic designers ... it seemed that everyone benefit from playing SuperBetter.

One of the earlier SuperBetter players who really impressed me was Philip Jeffery who was a photographer who was playing SuperBetter to get better at battling cancer. When Jeffery started the game - he'd largely withdrawn - especially after his cancer drugs had damaged his eye-sight and he'd given up on being able to do serious photography again. After starting the game he made one of his quests working out - because working out could have a profound impact on his quality of life - and to reconnect to his love of photography - he began posting selfies of himself as he worked through SuperBetter. He still had cancer - but he'd reconnected to his passion, his community of supportive friends, and was using these two to keep himself focused on the best possible self-care. He credited SuperBetter with helping him defy the odds of his diagnosis and eventually go into remission through a rigorous experimental treatment. You can watch Philip Jeffery's SuperBetter video here. 

Eventually SuperBetter became an app available on numerous platforms - allowing players to identify the thing they want to get SuperBetter at - and picking a secret identity, identifying their bad-guys that they have to battle - powering up through out the day, going on quests and more. You can even play SuperBetter on your phone with your allies and really harness all the best of social media to accomplish hard goals. The game is highly customizeable and easily tailored to no end of goals. There are on-line (off-game) forums which seem to have quite an amazing community still - even years after it first launched. 

Some people at this point might register their concerns about the power of games over addictive types to leave them preferring to live in the game world (ie: call to mind your favorite World of Warcraft meme) - but McGonigal is clear - withdrawing into the game world to escape the real world is not what this book is about - rather - this book is about using all the benefits and advantage of games and the game world to conquer problems that might other wise never get tackled head-on with the degree of consistency and diligence necessary to rise above those challenges and problems once and for all - or at least - until the necessary habits are formed - freeing the player up to look forward to a more skillful and enjoyable level of competence in the face of their challenges. McGonigal's book is packed with info and ideas - and I spent more time reading it than I might usually - to make sure that I really do get the concepts. I've also downloaded the game and am playing it on my phone with my own goal that I want to become SuperBetter at. I am convinced this point that if you put the time and thought into what you want to achieve and what gets in the way - and use the game as a playful way to nudge yourself towards your goal - the game is a very effective strategy and platform from which you can recruit your own team of real-world allies to help you as you power up and quest your way towards mastery. 

If you'd like to watch McGonigal's TED talk on SuperBetter - you can do so below. You can also watch McGonigal's previous TED talk here.

So - if you or someone you know seems stuck at how to address a particular problem or challenge and might enjoy approaching that challenge with a mindset other than the tired and worn out "should" and "must" and obligatory "really ought to" - I whole-heartedly recommend you give SuperBetter a look for yourself. 

Well - after reading SuperBetter I'm wondering: What could being "gameful" in our faith bring to the Kingdom? What if instead of bemoaning that God was "leading us through a desert" or commiserating about how hard it is to read through certain old-testament books (or the whole Bible), or wise-cracking about what a burden it is to bear this or that cross ... what if instead of all that kind of talk - which I have thoroughly and happily engaged in - despite the fact that it never feels quite as good to speak about these things in this way as advertised ... what if instead of all that - instead we talked about "questing" - or leveling up, or building expertise - or whatever.  

Someone might be tempted to cry "Semantics!" To that I would say that it is by semantics that defendants go free - or not. And - we are far far better at hearing with our subconscious the nuances of our words than our conscious selves wants to admit to. 

I mean - who doesn't love adventure - we like to road-trip and spontaneously check out a new place - or borrow some music from a friend and gain all the benefits of trying out some new music. Humans are incredible novelty seekers. We love play - according to Google - about 8,000 sports and about twice as many board-games. We love to learn new skills and we love to play at learning them. What if we brought more of that sense of adventure, longing for mastery and accomplishment and novelty-seeking curiosity to our faith - and to the skills that grow our faith. Is it sacrilegious to approach spiritual disciplines with the attitude of a game-player? How do we know that this isn't precisely what Jesus had in mind on those occasions when He invited the disciples to go for a boat ride on their nearby lake - just because. I can tell you - I love the idea of taking more shoulds out of how we think about our walks with God - and adding in this idea of quests - they're supposed to be challenging - and growing with God is challenging too. Maybe we'd grow more and feel discouraged less - if we had fellow-questers to remind us that sometimes a dragon is only slain after many battles.

Happy questing.

Monday Funday!

Ufdah! Sure was a hot one here this past weekend! Hope you all were nice and cool and enjoyed some relaxing summer fun. Here's your dose of laughs to kick your week off! Keep cool and enjoy not needing to get up early to clean off the car and shovel the sidewalk and driveway before work!

Salty Speech: The Fountain of Abundance

Two verses lead to today's post: Matthew 12:34b and James 3:11.

Matthew 12:34b  "For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart." (NASB)

James 3:11  "Does a fountain send out from the same opening both [g]fresh and bitter water?" (NASB)

Luke 6:45c and Proverbs 4:23 are also referenced - but for our purposes - the above two verses will do just fine.

Here is the thing about how we speak to others. However I decide to speak to the people God has put around me - friends, family, loved ones, neighbors, besties, church family, acquaintances; everyone - and however lofty my ideals might be about how I want to speak to this "cloud of witnesses" or sphere of influence - I will never manage to consistently speak to them very differently from how I speak to myself, in my own head. I can't speak to all those people out there - you know - you guys - and everyone else I might like to meet up for some kayaking, picnicking, and summer fun - very differently from the way in which I speak to myself. This is an aspect of that verse in James about the fresh and bitter water fountains. There is not a single fountain in the world that shoots out water that's salty - and also shoots out water that's fresh. I mean you could try and make one - but it'd be an exercise in frustration and futility - because it would break down, cease to work and want to be a desperate mess of plumbing. 

This isn't a new idea.

It just seems to be an idea that took an inordinate amount of time to really settle into my bones. 

now that's abundance!

The other part of this idea is that the thing that we have the most of for ourselves in our hearts - that's going to be the thing we talk about. All. The. Time. There are people I've met recently who I've pummeled with question after question about social media - and maybe they now think I love that more than anything else. But I can't sustain conversation after conversation, year after year on that topic.

You know what I can talk about forever? Discipleship. Growing closer to God. Bible study methods, jouraling methods, great books on growing your walk with God, TED talks that spill over into areas I'm working to grow more, gardening, hiking, health topics, fresh berries ... really. Don't get me going.

Actually - I'm not kidding. That list isn't my ideal.

If I want my ideal - in other words - for people to come away from a conversation with me knowing that I love this God whose love is the best medicine, most hilarious joke, most compelling story, most righteous political ideal, most healthful habits, most peaceful rest, most joyous happiness, most wise words, most poetic beauty - then those are all the things I need to actually fill my heart with.

If you think this sounds like Philippians 4:8 - you're right! 

Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is [a]lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, [b]dwell on these things."  (NASB)

There are some verses that are kinda scary to think about taking literally - but I don't think this is one of them. If I want to have abundant love, plentiful grace, overflowing wisdom, sloshing over the rim kindness for everyone around me - then I'd better sow that stuff like mad in my thoughts - which is another way to say I'd better sow it like mad in my own heart. Which means I'm not going to have time to do that weird thing that so many of us seem to have been taught to do you ... you know - open up a can of holy whoop-butt on ourselves - and let ourselves have it for whatever. But that would lead to precisely the abundance I don't want to give to anyone. 

To be honest - if I could just get this one thing down pat - there might not be a need for another single post on speech - salty, gracious or otherwise. 

To attempt to speak to others more kindly than we speak to ourselves - will lead us to fly off the rails and we'll either speak license about our flaws and permissiveness will come pouring out of our mouths - or we'll toy with self-righteousness and judgment will dribble everywhere. The middle between those two extremes seems to a space that we can't stand in ... it's too slippery - too illusive. In order to stay there - we can only humbly bow and with a contrite heart kneel before the Perfect God who never speaks a wrong word. It's a terrible place to stand - but what a place to take refuge under the wing of the Creator. 

I'm gonna stop here and go think. Here's a clip of a fountain - I love this video - it's a little wobbly at the beginning - but keep watching. Enjoy. Praying you have a lovely weekend!

Watchman Nee

Have you heard of Watchman Nee? If you have - you'll enjoy remembering him as much as I do. If you haven't - you're in for a treat.

Watchman Nee - or Nee Shu-tsu as his given name was - was born in China in 1903. His English name was originally Henry Nee. He attended a Methodist missions school and was noted for being blessed with a particularly sharp intelligence. His own faith began though through the words and actions of a Chinese evangelist named Mrs. Dora Yu. Yu preached at a series of evangelistic meetings where Yu spoke to an audience which included Nee's mother. Nee's mother was so impacted by Yu's words that she went home and apologized to her son - a relatively unprecedented course of action. This so surprised Nee - that he also went to some of these meetings and was himself profoundly impacted by what he heard. He went home and spent hours wrestling with what it meant to come to Christ ... here are his own words on the matter from his biography.

On the evening of 28th April, 1920, I was alone in my room, struggling to decide whether or not to believe in the Lord. At first I was reluctant but as I tried to pray I saw the magnitude of my sins and the reality and efficacy of Jesus as the Saviour. As I visualized the Lord's hands stretched out on the cross, they seemed to be welcoming me and the Lord was saying, "I am waiting here to receive you." Realizing the effectiveness of Christ's blood in cleansing my sins and being overwhelmed by such love, I accepted him there. Previously I had laughed at people who had accepted Jesus, but that evening the experience became real for me and I wept and confessed my sins, seeking the Lord's forgiveness. As I made my first prayer I knew joy and peace such as I had never known before. Light seemed to flood the room and I said to the Lord, "Oh, Lord, you have indeed been gracious to me."

On the evening of 28th April, 1920, I was alone in my room, struggling to decide whether or not to believe in the Lord. At first I was reluctant but as I tried to pray I saw the magnitude of my sins and the reality and efficacy of Jesus as the Saviour. As I visualized the Lord's hands stretched out on the cross, they seemed to be welcoming me and the Lord was saying, "I am waiting here to receive you." Realizing the effectiveness of Christ's blood in cleansing my sins and being overwhelmed by such love, I accepted him there. Previously I had laughed at people who had accepted Jesus, but that evening the experience became real for me and I wept and confessed my sins, seeking the Lord's forgiveness. As I made my first prayer I knew joy and peace such as I had never known before. Light seemed to flood the room and I said to the Lord, "Oh, Lord, you have indeed been gracious to me."

On the evening of 28th April, 1920, I was alone in my room, struggling to decide whether or not to believe in the Lord. At first I was reluctant but as I tried to pray I saw the magnitude of my sins and the reality and efficacy of Jesus as the Saviour. As I visualized the Lord's hands stretched out on the cross, they seemed to be welcoming me and the Lord was saying, "I am waiting here to receive you." Realizing the effectiveness of Christ's blood in cleansing my sins and being overwhelmed by such love, I accepted him there. Previously I had laughed at people who had accepted Jesus, but that evening the experience became real for me and I wept and confessed my sins, seeking the Lord's forgiveness. As I made my first prayer I knew joy and peace such as I had never known before. Light seemed to flood the room and I said to the Lord, "Oh, Lord, you have indeed been gracious to me.

— Watchman Nee, Watchman Nee's Testimony

Nee went on to attend Yu's institute and train as a Christian worker despite still being high-school aged. However - his youthful character caught up with him and he was dismissed for laziness - and sleeping late. Nee wasn't giving up though - and sought a British missionary, Margaret Barber to mentor him. Nee was discipled by Barber until her death in 1930. She was strict with him - but appears to have taught him much. Nee matured, and became notoriously self-disciplined. When Barber passed she left all her possessions to him. 

While Nee received essentially no formal Bible training - he did study the Bible in depth - and read many works on it - sought the teaching of the best of the Bible teachers he had access to - and prayed fervently. This would not be the recommended path of education today - but this was the path that Nee took. He wrote many books - including one in which he detailed his Bible study methods in a book he creatively called "How to Study the Bible". 

Nee had extraordinary energy and enthusiasm for continuing to study and grow - as well as to serve and minister. Many who worked with him declared him a man who could do it all. Nee also suffered much - not only because he was unwilling to compromise on his beliefs - but because a Chinese citizen during WW2 - he lived through an extremely turbulent and dangerous time in Asian history. He was frequently detained, harassed, and suffered the pangs of lack - lack of housing, warmth, food - and health care. He had significant health issues which further complicated his situation. Despite all this - he spoke all over China and authored at least 40 books. 

That all said - Nee was instrumental to growing the Chinese church - and was effectively the Chinese Billy Graham. This afforded him many opportunities to travel and speak - until that is he came under increasing scrutiny of the newly formed Communist government - until he was finally arrested and imprisoned in 1952. He was convicted through testimony provided under duress by some of his closest friends, ministry partners and associates - some of whom also lost their lives.

His wife was the only person allowed to visit him while he was imprisoned. He was frequently tortured and suffered unimaginably until he passed away while still detained in 1972. His wife was informed of his death after the fact and allowed to collect his remains. 

Nee had some ideas - which were summarily rejected by the wider world - foremost among these was his idea that there could only be one authoritative local church - his. It is hard to say to what degree this idea came from his self-directed education in theology. A more thorough and formal education would have not hurt him. What remains is that he was passionately committed to the cause of Christ and the history of the Christianity in China cannot be considered apart from him or his work. He endured terrible suffering even before his arrest and long imprisonment - yet never denied Christ. Though I do not agree with all of his theology - I find him a commendable example and an exemplary role-model of someone who unflinchingly surrendered their whole life to Christ regardless of the cost.

You can read more about Watchman Nee here - which links to watchmannee.org. I also pulled some information from Devotional Classics - a book on many Christians by Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith, Wikipedia 

Salty Speech: What if Churches Were Refuges from "Raca"

Today's post is a part 2 from Friday's.

I recently came across a news article about a church in Arizona reaching out to college students that went too far. The church had at least five different front groups for the church) - pursuing funding, aggressively promoting one thing but actually doing another. Students were pushed to aggressively recruit, live with other members in houses that were ridiculously over-crowded, absolutely pack their days from dawn till dusk with church meetings and work. Students were told to ask permission to change their majors, date, make trips home. Students were manipulated and controlled - primarily through - you guessed it - shame. 

Organizations and social groups that support our faith practices exert incredible influence on our lives simply by virtue of what they're about. Over the years - I've met a number of people who have endured abuse in churches and ministries that used shame to enforce compliance or worse - silence. Shaming isn't leadership. Unfettered shaming in organizations is about the leader's own unaddressed shame. 

Shame is the gas-pedal we go to when we want to speed past finding the courage to listen or humbly give the time to understand what God's doing in their life. Shame is the social dynamite we lob at others when we think we can know in a blink what someone needs. It's how we tsk, eye-ball roll, and dismiss someone whose experience is far enough outside our own that to understand it we have to expend effort. But shame isn't just impatient. It comes in many other forms - and they're all toxic.

In other words - shame is a lethal and false work-around. I say lethal - because it only works when it's killed off my ability to ignore my God-given value and wait for another to tell me that I'm okay, valuable, desirable, or enough. Shame only exists as long as we're not really okay with who we are. All the best research shows that everyone is vulnerable to some amount of shame though - so we all love to be validated. I believe that Scripture offers us Divine grounds for living resiliently to shame - though; but what a mess when that message gets mingled with shame. I say it's a false work-around because when I give shame space in my head I've just layered even more shame on the parts that already had shame. It's like fighting shame with shame. Shame only exists where my soul hasn't yet grasped God's love for and truth about me. It's not possible to use shame positively any more than it's possible to use abuse positively. Period.

Bottom line: if shame were that great of a motivator - wouldn't God have shamed Jesus onto the cross? Wouldn't John 3:16 then say "For God was so ashamed of the world ..."

But what if faith communities quit shame altogether?

I heard a story - I believe on a podcast - and I'm so bummed that after hours and hours of rummaging all over the net to re-find the original material I haven't found it again. Anyway - the story was about a struggling small town hospital. The hospital hired a new administrator who put a number of new policies into place. Big whoop - right? One of the new ideas everyone agreed to was that as a place of healing - they were going to use no language related to death or violence. They wanted to only use language of healing. This meant that if a cancer patient came in for chemo - you can imagine maybe someone telling that patient that "we're going to target that tumor - and we're going to attack it - and we'll keep attacking it until it's dead." Instead this hospital chose to say things like "We're going to find the tumor - and we're going to give your immune system everything it needs to heal - and we're going to keep supporting you and your body until the tumor is replaced by healthy tissue again." The staff overwhelmingly sighted the change in language as being a decisive factor in the hospital not only no longer being in danger of closing - but in their achieving unprecedented treatment outcomes.

If language of violence can be considered the opposite of language of healing - what is the opposite of shame? Most people agree that it's empathy. I would even go so far to say that by putting ourselves in a position to even just be open to generously giving others our empathy is better for us than carrying around shame in our heads. But actually speaking to others with empathy - and receiving their empathy - imagine the feast for our souls that would be! I feel fortunate to attend a church that doesn't thrive on shaming this group or that group from the pulpit every Sunday - but I wonder how much good shaming anyone from that platform does - given how caustic and harmful shame is. What would happen if we went to church - determined to give some empathy to this one - and say - look them in the eye and say "I'm so glad you're here!" or hug them and genuinely say "I'd hoped to get to talk to you!" Not everyone wants to be on the spot with their words - but we could send a little note - and tell that someone who's always faithfully serving at church - that "I'm so encouraged to serve every time I see you in action." Even if we don't have the perfect words - sharing heartfelt joy at the good we see those in our faith community doing and being could have a radical impact on the way those regular services feed our own faith. 

What would happen to our communities if even just a few churches intentionally backed away from open shaming? What would change as a result? I have to imagine our willingness to hear it elsewhere would change. I'm afraid at the moment - some of us are numb to it. What if our churches, and ministries, and families were sanctuaries where we could heal and gain strength to resist the onslaught of shame? What if to be like Christ looked like shaming no one. 

Secrets of the Cube: A dusty sort of Myers Briggs?

Well - no. Definitely not any sort of Myers Briggs. To be clear - today's post is much lighter-hearted than most of the previous ones. Seriously. This book came from the humor section of the Borders bookstore located near my hometown once upon a time. You can read about it on Amazon.com here. And - I promise - if you actually do the little puzzle in it with some friends - you'll get a laugh or two at least.

What I like about this book - or any other sort of personality or temperament test or sorter - whether it's hilarious or scholarly - is the simple way they reveal how differently we each think and see the world. That this particular book came from the humor section of a bookstore makes it, maybe a little less intimidating - there are no lengthy or expensive tests to take on-line with endless clicking and clicking ... and more clicking - only in the end to find that the test-creators refuse to give you your results until you've duly handed over your e-mail, phone number, address, first born etc. Pfft.

The origins of this are possibly ancient Sufi, or Greek, or late 90's New York City yuppies. This book is surely a mix of all of that with a dash of Freud tossed in. You can make your own mind up. I picked the book up from Borders one morning when I'd dropped my car off for repairs at a garage nearby and wandered into the store as a more engaging and suitable space for me to pass the time and wait than the garage's lobby. 

"The Cube" is supposed to reveal your perspective on life and more through merely six questions about how you see or visualize. Obviously - since there are only 7 questions - this is a see-into-your-mind game that is long on questions and offers zero answers. I'm not actually sure it really belonged in the humor section of Borders - but I understand why they didn't place it in the psychology section. (no - it wasn't mis-shelved).  To cube someone - and I bet you will cube someone - is to ask them these six questions and compare what they see to what you see.

Since the cube is heavily visual - you'll want to start by clearing your mind. Here are the six questions. It may be helpful to take notes on your answers. You'll only get to "cube" yourself for the first time once - so don't scroll to the bottom and then do it - do it as you go. It'll only take a couple of minutes. 

1.  Picture a desert.

With this question and all the subsequent ones - you'll want to actually pause and imagine this desert. You'll want to take note of all that desert's features as well as time of day, etc. There is no "right" kind of desert to imagine - so whatever you picture - is what you picture. 

Next ...

2.  There is a cube in the desert.

As above - you want to give yourself time to note all the details you can about the cube you see; size, position, material, ... 

Now ...

3.  There's a ladder in the desert.

Again - note size, condition, type, material, color etc. about what you see.

Once you've got that ... 

4.  A horse is in the desert. 

So now you have a desert with a cube, a horse and a ladder. We're over half way done. Got your picture clear in your mind? 

Great!

Now ...

5.  Somewhere in the desert is a storm.

Once again - note what kind, where, size, severity etc.

And now - after all that - Lastly ... 

6.  Flowers appear in the desert.

You know what to do by now - what kind of flowers, where, how many, color, and so on.

Okay. That's it. That's the whole cube.

Here's the key.

The way you see the desert - is the way you see life. The way you see the cube - is the way you see yourself. The way you see the ladder - is the way you see your friendships. The way you see the horse is the way you see your significant other. The way you see the storm is the way you see life's difficulties. And the way you see the flowers is the way you see things of your creation - either children, projects or ideas. 

That's the whole thing. The book notes - and in my experience this is true - there's little error in how people picture what. For instance - I've never "cubed" someone who said "I'm the desert" or "the cube is my husband." Which - is interesting. The cube uses basic association to interpret the way you see things - so someone who sees their cube on the ground - is "down to earth" or "grounded" whereas someone who sees their cube as floating in the air is "out there" maybe - whereas someone who sees their cube as precariously balanced on one edge is - you guessed it - on edge. 

So - for instance - I've always pictured my desert as very hot, devoid of plants and animals, with huge mountain-like dunes - and my cube, a house-sized acid-washed metal thing in the shade of one of those dunes. 

So - there you go. Have fun. Enjoy. Don't take it too seriously.  :D

Monday Funday!

Praying everyone had a lovely weekend - but whether you did or not - you WON!  Here's your awesome prize of Monday Funday laughs!  Enjoy - and have a great day!