Passion for the Intellectual Life

Thinking back to the cruise I took in May the main book I was working through at that time was a philosophical work, The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods by A.G. Sertillanges, O.P. He was a philosopher, author and priest in France born 1869 and died in 1948. This was one of his most popular books. Obviously I do not know French so this was a translation. The book was challenging as it dug deep into living life as a philosophical thinker. He used his studies of Thomas Aquinas for the moral underpinnings of his concepts in the book. Being a philosopher obviously he was sharing his passion for the intellectual life. He shared in it that people in different vocations have various passions yet his principles of critical thinking, spiritual character, time management and organization relate to all of us in whatever vocation we are called to so I think this book has benefits to us all. In the start of the first chapter he speaks to the deepening of the mind. “I say the deepening, in order to set aside the idea of a superficial tincture of knowledge”(p.3). He is revealing the importance of having discipline and immersed engagement in the intellectual life. Personal discipline is important and that weaves through many chapters of this work. Personal choice from the will is also important in his thinking as he says, “The most valuable thing of all is will, a deep rooted will to be somebody, to achieve something, to be even now in desire that somebody recognizable by his ideal.” (p.10). That is a good reminder for all of us to willfully seek to be somebody in whatever our passion is. For myself it was to be best I could be as a professor to my college students when I was teaching. Now since I am focused on being a counseling therapist my passion is to be my best as a people helper to help others reach their potential in their lives. He explains how the spiritual disciplines relate to intellectual development. Being in tune with the spiritual aspect of life is important in this work. He emphasizes the importance of prayer and times of silence. As to silence he states, “Hygienists recommend three things for the body: the bath, the air bath and the inward bath of pure water. I would like to add for the bath of the soul the bath of silence, in order to tone up the organism of the spirit, to accentuate the personality, and to produce the active consciousness of it.” (p 51). Especially is our culture of stress and constant doing his discussion on adding silence to life is so important. Even just 10-15 minutes of silent meditation at the end of the day has benefits for our mental and spiritual growth. We tend to think of mindfulness as a recent discovery since Jon Kabat Zinn and others research on it in the past 20-30 years. Yet I capture in these writings the concept of being mindfully present. “So aquire the habit of being present at this activity of the material and moral universe. Learn to look: compare what is before you with your familiar or secret ideas. Do not see in a town merely houses, but human life and history. Let a gallery or museum show you something more than a collection of objects, let it show you schools of art and of life…” (p71). This points to his emphasis on the aspects of life going into depth to get to the richness of life experience. Too often we are too superficial in our observations and it carries over to superficiality in our relationships. There is so much in this classic book which is why I feel it would be beneficial for all to read it. It is a life challenging and self improvement text. One more item of many that stood out to me about curiosity in our work. “The intelligence is like a child, whose lips never cease their why. Does a good educator leave this fruitful restless questioning unsatisfied? Does he not take advantage of this fresh curiosity…” (p.123). This thought shows the importance of keeping curiosity alive in our work and all areas of life. Curiosity keeps life long learning exciting. Another aspect of this book I enjoyed is he quotes other French philosophers and since I have never read any works by the French this opened me up to research other great thinkers from his time period. It was helpful to learn about the spiritual disciplines and other concepts of life from such a great thinker. Reflection: Are you mindful in your observing of things in life around you? Try going to a park and be mindfully present in your observations. Also think of a time you were truly curious about something in life. What are your memories of that?

Reflecting on 2017 and Favorite 2017 Worship

Before progressing into 2018 I believe it is important to reflect on 2017. My highlights of the year most importantly was in October going in for an angioplasty to find after my first 99% closed arteries 14 years ago I had another 99 % closed one and one heart artery in the 80% range closed. God helped me to get help twice in my life for my heart without having a heart attack. Some may call it luck but my worldview points to God. That was the primary blessing of the year. I find myself again asking why am I alive when I know others die with such blockages. All I can think of is my time is not up yet and God still has things planned for me on this earth.

Other highlights of the year were continued teaching of college students in my college success course I teach and also in my work as a therapist seeing positive growth in clients. Professionally a highlight was to attend and do a presentation at the International Positive Psychology World Congress in Montreal, Canada. It was a great learning experience and a wonderful vacation trip for the family.

Music wise we ended off on a high note of attending a Mannheim Steamroller concert at the Majestic Theater in our nearby San Antonio. It is a beautiful old theater and Mannheim’s Christmas show was amazingly spectacular. We have enjoyed good music this year but the highlight was in the Fall to hear John Michael Talbot in concert at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in San Antonio. I had always enjoyed his music over the years and had not heard him in concert since my time in Chicago over 20 years ago.

John’s music and voice just carried my heart and mind into worship. I loved hearing his songs that I have continued to listen to over the years. The evening was an opportunity to hear his thoughts behind some of the songs. He is also a deep thinking teacher and some of his thoughts challenged my thoughts on living of a life of knowing myself as a sinner but also understanding God’s mercy through Jesus Christ. I also needed his thoughts on daring to believe God in prayer from his sharing on Mark 11: 22 “So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” He encouraged us if we can learn to let go and let God amazing things can happen in our lives. We limit God in our lack of faith. So the John Michael Talbot concert was a spiritual worship highlight of 2017 for me. If you ever have the chance to hear him do not miss it. Check out his website for tour information -- https://johnmichaeltalbot.com
Like the last post about Christmas I am including another John Michael Talbot song for you to reflect on. Growing up in my high school years I would play many of his songs at church and this one was one of my mom’s favorites. Listen to the Youtube video and reflect on the lyrics.


Would You Crucify Him by John Michael Talbot (Click on the title to hear the video of the song.)

Sometimes, in the cool of the evenin'
Truth comes like a Lover in the wind
Sometimes, when my thoughts have gone misleadin'
She'll ask that same old question once again...
Chorus:
Would you crucify Him
Would you crucify Him..., my religious friend?
Would you crucify Him..., talking 'bout the sweet Lord Jesus
If He'd walk right here among you once again?

She's askin', How many times have you looked down to the harlot
Lookin' through her tears, pretendin' you don't know?
For once you were just like her, how can you be now so self righteous
When in the name of the Lord you throw the first stone

So now I turn to you through your years of your robes and stained-glass windows
Do you vainly echo your prayers "to please the Lord?"
Profess the Marriage with your tongue, but your mind dreams like the harlot
But if the Judge looks to your thoughts can't you guess your reward?

Yet how many times have you quoted from your Bible
To justify your eye for your eye and your tooth for your tooth?
You say that He didn't mean what He was plainly sayin'
But like the Pharisee, my friend, you're an educated fool!

Reflection: What were the highlights of your 2017 year? What do you think of the lyrics and meaning of the song “Would You Crucify Him”? Books are a great way to start off the New Year. Check out my book Living More Than OK on line (click on the title for the hyperlink to purchasing it at B & N)

Heart Caths, Gratefulness, and Prayer

In my last post I shared about taking a positive look at my first heart catheterization and stenting of the blocked artery. That was a few weeks ago. Last week I had a second heart cath for another blocked artery they could not do the 1st time. As I look at the tiny dot of an incision I am amazed at the technology available now to help with arterial blockages. About 15 years ago I had two 99% blockages and these two now were 99% and 80%. My hope is that I do not have to go through any more in the future.

As I have been thinking and reflecting over the past few weeks I am grateful for being alive. I remember in my 40’s with the first blockages my cardiologist told my wife I would have died in my sleep if they would have not taken me to the hospital. I remember back to that time realizing since I was that close to death but did not experience a heart attack, as they did the heart cath just in the nick of time. I came out of that with a renewed sense of purpose and gratefulness to God as I was given a second chance.

Now looking at this time of heart artery blockages, it is like having a third chance at a renewed life and purpose. Not many people get that. I remember 3 weeks ago with the first procedure one of the surgical techs asked what music I wanted to hear at the start of the surgery and I said “classical”. Another tech responded with “I think he said classic rock”. Remembering that Tom Petty had just passed away from heart failure I said “Let’s go with Tom Petty music to remember him”. So as I drifted off I heard Tom Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down’ playing.

With the blockages removed I find I am breathing better so I am grateful for the renewed energy and just the ability to breathe easier. As I came home from both procedures my wife and daughter were a big help to me so I had a renewed sense of gratitude for family realizing some people don’t have family so have to be in hospitals longer or go into nursing care.

As I mentioned in my last post on positivity, my father had died of arteriosclerosis at age 58 when I had just turned two in October of that year. So with this happening in October I thought about my father’s death. He was a good man and a hard worker so I have carried the good I had heard about him throughout my life. I will continue to press on to be here for my family. I am renewed in finishing my PhD dissertation in Psychology. I know I am alive for my wife and daughter and any other purpose God has for me. I see in the future, more teaching of college students and counseling of hurting people so they can move higher up in living an abundant life.

Lastly I found myself grateful for prayer and it’s power. I have many friends from Facebook and churches, we are involved with, who were praying for my two heart procedures. Knowing about the prayers provided comfort and hope in going through the heart procedures. I am thankful to God for honoring the prayers of many people and mine in giving me this third lease on life.

Feel free to leave a comment.

Reflection: Have you had a second chance experience in your life? How grateful are you for the simple things in life such as just breathing and the family and friends in your life? Are you grateful for some of the life difficulties you have faced?

Choose Your Ways for Inspired Living

On our life journeys we often look for inspiration to help and guide us through the days when we settled into plateaus of mediocrity or are overwhelmed by life’s demands. At these times I myself appreciate looking at other people’s thoughts on the life journey and seek to learn from them. Live The Life Of Your Dreams by Laura Ponticello is such a book. She provides 33 inspiring tips to help in the continual growth of the inner life. Laura is an author, personal coach, and motivational speaker. You can find out more about her at lauraponticello.com

Although her books are geared towards women, the principles can be appreciated and connected to the life journey of men as well. In this book her 33 life inspiring tips revolve around 7 key themes of 1. Think Big, Dream Big 2. Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back 3. The Art Of Self-Talk 4. Take Time For Yourself 5. Sacred Spaces for Healing 6. The Power Within 7. Live Life With Passion.

I will touch on 5 of the tips that stood out to me. First of all her tip # 5 is Pursue Something With Passion. Having passions in life keep life purposeful and urge us to continual growth. That is one element of life I promote in my book Living More Than OK. I like how in this section she encourages “Explore a new side of yourself” so during your life journey seek out new activities or hobbies to enjoy to add to your life.

Her tip #16 is Sit with a Prayer. She encourages those who have a passion for following a spiritual life make prayer an important aspect of your life. The sitting with a prayer caught my attention as she is reminding us to look at some of the great prayers that have been written down and meditate on those. She uses the prayers of St. Francis as an example. There are also books on the prayers of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great protestant preacher from the 1800’s that can be used in sitting with a prayer.

To add happiness into your life her tip #20 is Do One Thing Every Day That Makes You Happy. Break away from the business of life and take a happy break savoring a cup of coffee or tea while reading a book or listening to a favorite song.

If you enjoy walking, her tip #25 is Walk With A Purpose. Go out for a walk but have a purposeful mindful attitude of gratitude while you walk. Walking with a grateful heart will allow you to observe positive things around you on the walk. Maybe you will notice a flower bed you never noticed before or a landscape idea you may wish to add to your lawn.

The last tip that I will share here that stood out to me is tip #28 Gratitude Is Attitude. When you carry a grateful attitude into your life there is more positive energy to keep you moving forward. Think over each day what you are thankful for in your life and you will see it makes a difference in your outlook for the day.

Her other tips are just as helpful as these 5 but I want to keep you in suspense to look for a copy of the book through Laura’s website or by request at your local library. As you move through your life journey for the best inspiring life keep looking for new ideas to inspire you on your journey.

Reflection: Of the 5 tips from Laura’s book I shared which one stood out to you? What are 3 personal ideas you use to inspire yourself in your day to day life?

Conversing With God

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This past weekend by family and I attended a “Biblical Spiritual Disciplines for Real People” conference at our church, Oakwood Baptist, in New Braunfels. Texas. The Speaker was Dr. Donald Whitney of Southern Baptist Seminary in Kentucky. The topics focused in on two disciplines of prayer and Bible study. Dr. Whitney spoke with a sincere passion for the importance of spiritual growth. This week in the blog I want to share some thoughts from his talk on prayer.

My favorite section was his teaching on prayer as he opened my mind to a concept of prayer I had not heard of before. The concept was “Praying the Bible”. He started by saying we commonly pray about 6 main categories: family, our future, finances, work or school work, Church or ministry and current crises we find ourselves in. These 6 relate to our lives and that is fine as our lives are important to God. Yet he kept repeating the idea that we slack off in prayer because of a common problem. The problem is we continue to pray often the same words day after day saying the same old things. Therefore prayer tends to become boring and we give up praying, thinking the problem is us. Instead of self-blame he encouraged us to rework our method of praying to add vitality to it. That is where “Praying the Bible” comes to play.

The prayer method of “Praying the Bible” is not complicated. Actually it came across as simple, which I like as my mind likes simple methodologies. Before your prayer time you simply choose a passage of scripture from the Bible. Dr. Whitney encouraged the use of the Psalms but mentioned it can be used with other passages from the Bible as well. After you choose a passage or Psalm you read it over and then start your prayer using key verses from the passage God places on your heart to guide your prayer.

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For example let’s say I choose Psalm 63 (NKJV)
1 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.
2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory.3 Because Your loving-kindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You. 4 Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.
6 When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.
7 Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
8 My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek my life, to destroy it, Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
10 They shall fall by the sword; They shall be a portion for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God; Everyone who swears by Him shall glory; But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.

With this Psalm you may want to begin praying how you are thirsty to experience the reality of God’s presence in your life. Possibly God will bring to mind some friends or family who are experiencing a desert time in their lives so pray for refreshment for your spirit and theirs. You may then move into a section of thankfulness for God’s loving-kindness and seek to be an example of God’s love to those you meet in your workplace. With these few thoughts, you probably get the gist of what the concept of the method is getting at, in praying through a scripture passage.

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Dr. Whitney gave everyone a time to try the method out with various passages of scripture. Many felt it was like a true conversation with God. Which if one believes as we Christians do, that the Bible is God’s Word to us; then by using a passage of the Bible as the foundation of a prayer it truly is an opportunity to allow God to speak to our hearts and minds spiritually. This also solves the initial stated problem of people giving up on prayer as they get bored with praying the same old things in the same old way day after day. With a different Bible passage each day we are allowing God to guide our prayers in new ways each day.

Dr. Whitney has several excellent books on spiritual growth that can be found on his website. He also offers free articles on a variety of spiritual growth topics. His website is biblicalspirituality.org. I would encourage you to check out some of the information he has available for your spiritual growth journey.

Reflection: Try “Praying the Bible” out by choosing a Psalm and using that as a guide for a prayer. Go to Dr. Whitney’s website and click on Resources and then click on Articles. Read an article of your own choosing and reflect over what is being said in the article.

How Do You Greet You Day?

This year I missed the National Career Development Association Global Conference that was held earlier this week in Boston. I have always enjoyed that conference as there are so many informative and practical sessions on various aspects of careers. Instead this July I am focusing on preparing for my first Colloquial for my Capella University PhD program. Yet knowing the conference was going on my thoughts through the week turned to career thoughts.

Those career thoughts connected with a song I was listening to on Amy Grant’s lastest CD. Her new cd is How Mercy Looks From Here. It is full of powerful lyrics to think through and beautiful melodies to enjoy. The song that caught my attention was Greet the Day. The song made me think through “How do I greet my days?” I thought of many work days in the past and to be honest my worst days usually started off with a negative mental attitude. My best days were when I started off with a positive mental attitude. Look over the words to the song. As usual if you click on the song title it will take you to a video where you can actually listen to the song which I believe allows you to gain more insight into the lyrics.


Greet the Day by Amy Grant and Cindy Morgan

Lead me to the ones I need, And to the one who's needing me.
I won't assume the worst is true,, And do the best that I can do.
A word of kindness, I believe,, Is heard throughout eternity...
Hey, hey, This is how I greet the day,, I greet the day...
Lead me to the ones I need, And to the one who's needing me
And everything that gets me through.
Gladly I’ll receive from you.
All the mercy , all the love. Pouring down to fill us up…
Hey, hey, This is how I greet the day,
I greet the day,
Hello sunshine, Hello rain, Glad to see you either way.
Hey, Hey, This is how I greet the day
Come on, greet the day, let’s greet the day.
Hello sunshine, hello rain, hello every single day.
Lead me to the ones I need, And to the one who's needing me.
I won't assume the worst is true, And do the best that I can do.
If you listened to the actual song you can first see how the cheerful melody captures the spirit of the song. The song is very bright, lilting and upbeat. A kind of melody that brings a natural smile to the face. That is how to greet the day. You don’t greet the day by pulling the covers over your head. You don’t greet the day by sleeping in and rushing out the door. You don’t greet the day by having a mindset that says, “something is going to go wrong today”. Something already went wrong by you thinking that.
The way to have a positive workday is to have a positive mindset of greeting the day with a smile and “Hello”! Amy Grant adds to the song in the liner notes by sharing the background of the song was based on a prayer she was taught:
“Lord, lead me today to those I need, and to those who need me, and let something I do have eternal significance.” What a powerful way to start the day!

Starting our day is not about just rushing out the door to find a cup of coffee to hold onto at work. It is not about assuming the worst concerning the guy who is travelling too slow on the highway. It is not about assuming the worst of our co-workers or boss. Starting the day is to take a few minutes to breathe up a prayer seeking God’s guidance to touch lives and to make a difference. How can you better serve the people who come into your path each day so they can learn to “greet the day” should be on our mind at the start of the day.

The phrase that states, “Gladly I’ll receive from you. All the mercy , all the love. Pouring down to fill us up…” is another prayer reminder. We start each day needing a new filling of mercy and love for people from God so that we can do our best in our people interactions through the work day. It is those people interactions that have lasting consequences so they need to be filtered by mercy and love.

Her repetition of “Hello sunshine” and “Hello rain”, reminds me of the verse in Matthew 5:45 “In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.” The immediate context is in relation to how we should love those around us even enemies who hate us. We are all faced with good and bad things that happen in our day. I have mentioned Dr. Jim Bright’s Chaos Theory of Careers in the past. We live in a chaotic world. Much of life we do not have control over. The important thing is how we react to the happenings of life. This song is a reminder to greet the good and bad with a “Hello” and do our best with each circumstance we face.

Reflection: How do you face your days whether you are working or not? Do you take time to spiritually meditate on the day ahead? How can you improve on “Greeting your day”?

Listen To The One Who Will Not Forget You

Listening is often a neglected yet important discipline in the spiritual sphere of our lives. In the American Christian tradition which is the basis of my worldview, prayer is too often a one sided gabfest with God With our ongoing list and repetition of demands and requests to the Almighty there is no silence and listening on our part. If we look at prayer and meditation as communing with God there must be listening on our part.

These two following verses from the Psalms remind us of the importance of listening to God with our inner spirit waiting silently in His presence.

Psalm 85:8 “I will listen to what God the LORD says;he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—but let them not turn to folly.”
Psalm 62:5 “For God Alone, O my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from Him.”

If we seriously want peace and to live in the hope God provides, we need to be listening for His call in our lives. To be considered as faithful servants as the Psalmist says, we need to be listeners to God the Fathers voice. I take note of the word folly in the first verse mentioned. Often in going our own way because we are not listening to God, we fall into folly and foolishness in our actions and face the negative consequences.

A dear friend of mine from Chicago singer/songwriter, Keryn Moriyah, recently posted a video on Youtube of an original song she wrote entitled Listen. Take some time to listen to the song and reflect of the lyrics below.

Listen by Keryn Moriyah (to view video click on the song title)

Look at the world in a rumble.
See the people tremblin'', tremblin''.

Refrain:
Listen. Can you hear me?
Listen, you should be listening to my call.

Sensitivity is scarce, touching is rare.
Caring is becoming extinct and
loving is on the brink, so...

Refrain

Walk in new life in the Spirit,
for He is strong and we are weak,
so weak, so weak to worship the Father and love one another.
Yeshua, Covenant of the redeemed!

Ending Refrain:
Listen, can you hear me?
Listen, can you hear me? Hear me.
Listen, can you hear me, hear me?
Listen, you should be listening to my call.

Listen, (to my Lord's call) can you hear me?
(...to my Lord's call). Listen.
I will never forget you...
never forsake you
listen, listen, listen, listen, listen.

The song to me is a prophetic call to us in these troubled times to take time to listen to the Lord God's voice. When we are feeling forgotten and forsaken we are reminded by the song that God does not forget us. He can be our strength when we are overcome by the folly and foolishness in the world that causes us to tremble. When we do not take time to listen we become overburdened and downtrodden so that we can not care and love as we should.

If we take time to be quiet and listen and understand that this is part of worshipping God, we can enjoy the covenant relationship with the Lord. He will then guide us in seeing the needs around us that He wants us to reach out to. He will give us His strength to love the world that is in a rumble of trouble. Following His Call is true walking in the Spirit.

Reflection: In your personal prayer and meditation time are you taking time to quietly listen to God’s speaking to you? Incorporate time of listening in your spiritual devotional prayer time.

Praying Along Our Life Journey

For sometime I have been slowly trudging through a book on Prayer, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, by Paul E. Miller. Paul is the Director of a Christian ministry SeeJesus which focuses in on interactive Bible Studies and presenting teaching workshops. Their website is seejesus.net they have free resources and resources for purchase. As a Christian I believe prayer is an important part of our life journey.

I purposely read the book in a slow manner as I wanted to think through what he was saying. His book had a completely different feel to it in that he is very open about his prayer life and admits that prayer is a difficult thing to do. He is honest about the cynicism that can come into our prayer life as we see nothing happening so why bother. The author points out that Jesus calls us to a journey of faith and prayer is a big part of that journey. We are encouraged to move beyond our cynicism and pride to embrace our neediness, “Don’t be embarrassed by how needy your heart is and how much it needs to cry out for grace. Just start praying.” So the call is to move beyond the distractions and hardships of life and step out in faith.

A couple things that stand out to me is mid way through the book he discusses “Good Asking”. He points out in James 4:2-3 the text reads “You do not have because you do not ask.” And “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” These are problems we have with prayer as if we are honest we can complain God is not doing anything in our life but we are not asking for His help. Then on the other hand sometimes of our prayers are as selfish as a child rattling of a long list of presents on Santa’s lap like God is just our errand boy. We need to strike a balance between not asking or being totally selfish. He sees the answer to both by having a prayer attitude of asking boldly and at the same time surrendering completely to God.

Miller makes a point that ,”All of Jesus’ teaching on prayer in the Gospels can be summarized with one word: ask. Jesus’ greatest concern is that our failure or reluctance to ask keeps us distant from God. God wants to give us good gifts. He loves to give." Miller backs this us by pointing us to the parables of Jesus about the persistent widow who kept pleading with the judge in the story for help. You can read the whole story in Luke 18:1-8 . He also points to the parable of the man bothering a neighbor at night for some bread for his houseguest, see Luke 11:5-8 . These thoughts from Jesus point to the fact that just like people will answer persistent asking; how much more will God answer the prayers of His people.
Another thing I enjoyed about the book is his emphasis on the power of story. This is one important aspect I believe about living more than ok is to understand that each of our stories are important. Paul Miller understands that prayer is part of the story. He shows that those who pray with no thought that God is working a story in them are often bitter, angry, aimless, cynical, controlling, hopeless, thankless, blaming. On the other hand those who are open to God’s story and seeing His story work through them in their prayer life are waiting, watching, wondering, praying, submitting, hoping, thankful and repenting. This concept of prayer as part of God’s story in us relates to near the end of the book the author brings up an idea of a prayer journal or making prayer a part of your journaling. Here are some of his thoughts on prayer journaling, “When life makes sense it becomes a journey, a spiritual adventure. Writing down the adventure as it happens gives us a feel for our place in the story God is weaving in our lives, …Many of us rush around without much conscious knowledge of the pilgrimage God is carving out for us.. So we slog through life, missing the Divine touches.” Life can not be boring and cynical if we are open to seeing God’s moments in our lives. To notice these God moments, we need to be living a life of faith and mindfully aware that He is involved in our journey. Prayer is needed in our distracting world that we wake up to every day.

Reflection: Where are you at in your prayer life with the balance between asking boldly and being submissive to God’s will in your life? Take some time to journal about the concept of prayer being part of God’s story in your life.

Life Is Not Always Good, But God Is Always Good

We all have times when life knocks the air out of us. Moving is not always easy. Trying to adjust to a new job with accompanying stress does not feel good. Finding yourself in a new location without work in the midst of a recession and seeing few job openings but many unemployed competitors does not feel good. On a deeper scale, seeing the insane travesty of young people at a Norwegian camp massacred by a crazed killer claiming he is doing God’s work goes beyond life being not good. Life is definitely not good at times. It can be downright evil.

Following principles of Positive Psychology that I discuss in this blog will not stop the difficulties and travesties of life from appearing in our life journey. I have mentioned previously, I follow the Christian worldview. Some falsely assume that a follower of Christ walks down a path strewn with rose petals and angels spreading blessings of happiness, health and wealth in their every moment. That is a false view of Christian reality. Jesus had his share of difficulties and His disciples in the New Testament writings dealt with difficulties and persecutions. Christian beliefs do not stop evil and difficulties from coming into our lives.
This reality of our life journey brings to mind a Christian song that was popular in the 1990’s. It is one of my wife’s favorite songs and has an important message for us to reflect on. As usual when I do songs click on the title to hear the Youtube video and then reflect over the words of the song.

Life Is Hard But God Is Good by Pam Thumb

You turn the key
Then close the door behind you
Drop your bags on the floor
You reach for the light
But there's darkness deep inside
And you can't take it anymore

'Cause sometimes living takes the life out of you
And sometimes living is all you can do

Life is hard, the world is cold
We're barely young and then we're old
But every falling tear is always understood
Yes, life is hard, but God is good

You start to cry
'Cause you've been strong for so long
And that's not how you feel
You try to pray
But there's nothing left to say
So you just quietly kneel

In the silence of all that you face
God will give you His mercy and grace

Jesus never said
It was an easy road to travel
He only said that you would never be alone
So when your last thread of hope
Begins to come unraveled
Don't give up, He walks beside you
On this journey home and He knows

Life is hard, the world is cold
We're barely young and then we're old
But every falling tear is always understood
Yes, life is hard, but God is good

There is so much emotion of the reality of life in this song. It reminds me of how Scott Peck starts his book, The Road Less Traveled – “Life is difficult”. It is the hardness and coldness of life that “takes the life out of you…”. I think of the coldness of what happened in the killings in Norway. Young people at a camp, being deceived by a killer in police clothes; he shot them down in cold blood. The pictures of the prayer gatherings make me think how many at the gatherings were engulfed by the silence of where is God is these acts of evil.

The song also, reminds us that the tears of life’s pains are not forgotten. There is a Good God behind the difficulties. Even though evil tries to silence God’s Grace and Mercy He will break through the silence if we hold onto hope. God will be faithful to those prayers where you are just kneeling and don’t really know what to say as long as you hold on to hope. The difficulties are just a point on our journey they are not the journey itself. At those hardest points in life be assured God silently is walking at your side.

Reflection: Think back to a difficulty in your life journey. From your vantage point now, can you see what you learned from the experience that can help you in further difficult times? Take a moment to breathe a prayer for those around the world in major difficulties, such as those grieving in Norway over the loss of so many lives.

Making Time for Self Improvement

If we wish to live more than an ok life, one important area in our time management we need to include is time for self improvement. Through self improvement and self renewal we can spiral upwards to living more than ok. Too often in our lives the stuff of life snuffs out opportunities to take the time in our schedule to improve ourselves.

I like the metaphor in Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In his seventh habit he calls it Sharpen the Saw. He looks at Sharpening the Saw as our taking time to improve ourselves in four areas of our lives: Physical, Social, Mental, and Spiritual. The Saw metaphor reminds us that we are a useful tool in our daily living with our work and interaction with others. Also as I have mentioned in the past we each have a purpose. Saws are purposeful when cutting wood, cutting limbs off trees, or cutting plastic/metal pipes to the correct length.

When our life is dull as a saw, it loses it’s effectiveness to fulfill it’s purpose. We become overcome with boredom and feel purposeless. The dullness also allows our lives to become out of balance and controlled by the stuff of life. We become stuck on autopilot with too many things happening to us instead of taking control and responsibility ourselves to make life happen for our advantage. The dull saw life is living just ok, getting by and enduring the sense of despair. A saw is not meant to be dull and rusty instead to fulfill its purpose, needs to be shiny and sharp. For maximum living we need to be shiny and sharp. That is what sharpening the saw is about.

Looking at the four areas Covey speaks of the first is the Physical. I have touched on this before. Are you taking time in your week for physical fitness? Three to four times a week you should be in some type of physical activity. I mentioned as a heart patient I exercise daily. I regularly use the treadmill and elliptical machines for aerobic exercise. I have also mentioned that my wife and I do a Leslie Sansone Walk at Home workout several times a week. Of course find out what works for you, gyms, neighborhood jogging, other dvd exercise programs of your choice. The key is to make it a part of your life rituals.

The second area is the Social. I haven’t discussed relationships yet in my blog postings but I will go more in depth in the future. As the saying goes, “No man is an island”. We all interact with others on a daily basis. That is why emotional intelligence is important. Managing and controlling our emotions to better improve our interactions with family, friends and strangers. Do you make time to improve your relationship connections with the significant people in your lives? Taking time to keep family strong and close relationships strong can keep your saw sharp and effective in your other interactions you face in life.

The third area is Mental. From my previous posting on critical thinking, you know the mental aspect of our lives is very important to me. We cannot be effective if our mind is dull. It hampers our thinking and causes us to make poor choices which then brings about negative consequences in our daily living. You can improve this area by becoming a Bookhead like me. Reading expand and strengthens our mind. Read more on topics you enjoy and expand your reading to new topics. You may also want to take a class at a local university or community college to sharpen your mind.

Then the fourth area is the Spiritual. One can improve in this realm of our being by following their religious heritage. As I have mentioned mine is the Christian heritage. For those without a religious heritage, who may consider themselves agnostic or atheist the spiritual can still have a place in taking time for Mindfulness Meditation, or taking time alone to reflect in nature. Those who follow a religious path need to place into their time schedule a daily time for spiritual development based on their particular teachings. I try each day to find time for devotion and prayer.

In closing, how is your saw doing? To live the best life possible we need to take control of our time and place in our schedules time for Sharpening the Saw. As we improve physically, socially, mentally, and spiritually we will have more energy and be more alert for the other major areas in our busy schedule. If we don’t it will be like sawing a tree with a dull rusty blade. We won’t get the job done and we may even break.

Reflection:
Rate yourself in the four areas: Physical, Social, Mental, and Spiritual. Which area are your strongest in? Which area do you need the most growth in?

What physical activities are you involved in?

How are you working to improve your most significant relationships?

How are you improving your Mental side of your life? Are you reading a new book? Have you considered taking a Continuing Education course at a local College or an online course?

Do you take time each day to improve your spiritual life?