Lent Day 36: What excites you?

Jodi Detrick is one of three master coaches teaching us principles of coaching. She exclaimed, "When I took coach training, I found what I was made for." (R paraphrase)

I'm with Jodi. I would be honored to copycat her any day of the week, but this instance would actually be a good fit. At the end of the day, the coaching practise (on fellow class members) felt relaxing AND energizing. As I listened to the stories and watched the process of coaching, I experienced God's delight at the various journeys of His children. For me, coaching and observing the coaching process resonated as an act of worship.

Many came to the class already gifted in helping others find their way. These learners are filling their toolbox with new tools.

For some, the coaching ideas were new and a stretch: "I didn't know what questions to ask." "I didn't know what to say as the coach." "I found myself giving advice from my experience instead of listening to what the person I was coaching wanted to talk about." Luckily, we have a few more days to clarify expectations and methodology.

Have you ever had someone say, "Find and follow your passion!" That's a stale-sounding buzz-phrase. What's passion, after all?

Whatever God has wired us to do will resonate from the tip of our head to the soles of our feet. We will find joy and completeness - or "our passion" - when we function in our design. It's worth taking the risk to fulfill the niche for which you and I are here, in this place, at this time, with our education (or lack of it), our personality, and our experience.

Whether or not you are an emotionally "passionate" person, embracing God's calling in YOUR work - whether that is at an assembly-line job or a creative flinging about the world - will produce harmony, peace, and wholeness. Jesus showed us how a human could live in perfect alignment to the Father, moving with joy and expectation through each wonderful and terrible day.

Our spiritual act of worship includes offering our bodies to God. We use our bodies to work. To play. To create. To restore. To produce. To rest.

Does the way you use your body each day glorify God and bring you healthy and holistic pleasure?

Read more:
*The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. Psalm 16:6 NLT

*God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Psalm 46:1-3 NIV

*Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24 NIV

Moravian Prayer: In you, O Christ, all boundaries have fallen away. You taught us to see each other as siblings and friends, and invited us to see you in the faces of those in need. This day, may it be so. Amen.

Full to the brim

Ever feel like exploding with possibilities? Or are you dragging your heels?

"Morning by morning, new mercies I see.
All I have needed your hands have provided.


GREAT is your faithfulness, Lord, unto me."

That's the music track in my head this morning after a week of spiritual nourishment and physical rest. My spiritual accountability group spent three days on retreat. Then W and I relaxed for three days with dear friends -- on a boat in the middle of God's creation. This morning, I finished a 4-week "Get Unstuck Bootcamp" designed by Kim Martinez.  (I'll write more on that self-coaching system another day.) Wow. What a time of refreshing! (Thanks be to God, especially as the weather changes to Seattle autumn.)

What makes you feel "full" and ready to engage the world? For me, it's interaction with people that is paced by quiet times alone. Without friends and collaborators, I languish and circle in place. Without time by myself, I become exhausted and irritable, numb to stimulation and new ideas.

How do you refill your tank when you're weary? Here are a few observations:

1. Extroverts gather energy by being around people and introverts gather energy from time alone.

2. What you love to do aligns with at least one of your personal strengths or talents. Pay attention the next time you experience joy.

3. What you hate to do may align with a personal weakness. Do you have more choices about things you dread than you think?

• When possible, delegate the task. For this option, accept someone else's "done-well-enough." Don't micro-manage what you hand off to others.
• If YOU have to do it, emphasize parts that line up with things you love. Dislike driving to work but love to pray? Take the cause of travelers in cars next you to God -- while you sit in traffic. 
• Take a mental vacation while you work. Hate maintenance but have to change the oil on your car? Take a great book along or listen to a podcast while someone else does it. While you work, plan a reward that "rings your bells." Washing floors? Look around to see what you can redecorate or reconfigure in the room. (Decor possibilities were my pleasurable mind-escape this morning while cleaning bathroom floors.) 

4. Look around to see how people with your temperament or job cope. Copy copy copy. "There is nothing new under the sun," said the wise sage. What works for others may work for you, too.

*5. Most importantly, recognize and appreciate that The One Who Made Us is interested in developing our full potential. Whom or what has God already brought near you to help you refuel and kickstart the day or the next season?

Read more: 

*I will listen to what God the Lord will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints—but let them not return to folly. Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Psalm 85:8-9 NIV 

*He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. Psalm 103:7–8

*I am teaching you today—yes, you—so you will trust in the LORD." Proverbs 22:19

*Declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it forth to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!” Isaiah 48:20

*God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by

making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20 (NIV)  

Moravian Prayer: Great and loving God, you bring us redemption and reconciliation and we respond in joy to your great faithfulness. Thousand, thousand thanks to thee, dear Lord. Amen.

Lent Day 8: Thankful for renewal

Bleary-eyed, I stumbled into yesterday's obligations. When I woke at 2am, I thought I'd just go back to sleep in an hour or two. A few interruptions chased ideas into my head; I was still awake at 7:15.

Time to rise and shine - or maybe glow dimly.

Our daughter Kirsten came in early December for foot surgery and bone tests. Jono and I took her to the airport yesterday morning and she's arrived safely home in Austin. Thanks be to God. One thing done.

I wasn't sure I was up to the afternoon meeting of MRI - Missionary Renewal International. However, my fatigue subsided (and the cold I started to fight in the morning disappeared) when I got there. All I can say is: "People, I'm inspired!" by the work of this veteran team of missionary therapists, rescuing their own.

An MRI pastor-counselor told us about one young man. He's let them know he's ready to return to the field--after vowing never to go back. Mark's mission team had won an extraordinary number of converts (70,000 documented) and trained nationals for outreach in their first term. One day, on the way to preach with a group of nationals, their van was stopped at gunpoint. He was forced to watch the assailants beat his coworkers almost to death before the attackers disappeared. Mark came home devastated and throwing in the towel. "I can't go through that again!" Yet with MRI's help, he's going back with a renewed sense of calling and commissioning by God.

Mark's is one of many dramas being played out around the world, including among American pastors. MRI says, "Let's stop the attrition. Let's help missionaries and ministers return to fulfill their calling." Will you help? Click on the link for more information.

It costs an average of $250,000 to get a missionary through their acculturation, training, and first term. It costs MRI about $5000 to help restore hurting missionaries, facilitating healing so they return to the field after they suffer trauma, moral failure, or other breakdowns. Missionaries and ministers pay their expenses if they can. Otherwise, they depend on our help for a place to stay, transportation, and food.

"We send ordinary people as our missionaries to spread the Gospel on our behalf," MRI states. "They face similar and greater challenges than we do at home." It's worth spending our resources to keep experienced personnel rather than having to drop their ministry or train another missionary single or couple for the field.


All of us need renewal from time to time. Some of us need heroic intervention. But sometimes a kindly word, fervent prayers, or an unexpected gift is enough to sustain us through our darkest hours.

Would you encourage your pastor this week or in the next month? Pastoring is among the loneliest professions. (When our son felt called to ministry, we warned him to depend on God and reject idealism in youth ministry: "The senior pastor might not support you. The board will call you in for a scolding. The parents may become angry and fight you. The teens won't want to follow if they don't want to obey God. Are you sure of your calling and ready for whatever God has for you?" He said a firm yes--because God had called him.)

What has God called you to do? Are you in ministry? Do you have resources to send and support others? During Lent, a time when we recall Christ's sacrifice for us, consider giving an extraordinary gift from the next paycheck to MRI, your church, or your pastor. Thus God will encourage and renew them through you.

Read more:

*This is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide forever. Psalm 48:14

*Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Ephesians 6:10-18 NKJV

*Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23

Moravian Prayer: Faithful God, on this day, we are mindful of those who have gone before, who held fast to their hope. Like them, may we today walk forward unwavering, trusting in your guidance and faithfulness. Amen.