Small Steps

In recent weeks, I have heard the cry of so many people and it is this: how can I know the will of God in my life? The number one googled question has been "What am I here for?" - which is kind of the same thing.

Truth is, you may or may not ever "know" 100% that you are on track for God's divine purpose and it's ok! I have found that if we get busy doing the things He has already commanded us to do like love, give, and go then, amazingly His will suddenly becomes very clear. God is complex, but He is not complicated.

It's unfortunate when people get all twisted up about a lofty, glamorous dream position that they feel God is going to just drop out of the sky. Many wait for Him to say, "Hey, here it is! Here's the important thing your going to do that will gain you the respect and command of the world while paying you millions with a sign-on bonus." God doesn't work like that. He allows you to grow and He chooses to use you where you are FIRST. So, you don't have to shut-down your life and wait on God to do something miraculous. His word even gave us a little clue in Luke when He said, "Occupy til I come." In other words, stay busy til I get back.

I have a husband who is a physician. He didn't just wake up one day with a medical license in one hand and a stethoscope in the other. He worked very hard for years in undergrad and medical school and sacrificed greatly to make the dream a reality. He made daily decisions that were in line with his long-term goal. Now, he reaps the reward for that sacrifice and he will tell you that he feels that this was God's design. He absolutely had the choice to not be a doctor, but he put in the time that it took to become a very good one. 

I don't want to throw a wet blanket on the fire of your dreams because you absolutely should dream! But, just like my husband studied every day for years to refine and deepen his understanding of medicine, you will have to hone your craft, work on your dream, or practice your ministry a little everyday. 

Vincent Van Gogh said, "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." So, taking small steps every day in the right direction is what will get you to where you want to be.

Proverbs 3:6 MSG says, "Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline; don’t sulk under his loving correction. It’s the child he loves that God corrects; a father’s delight is behind all this."

God honors faithfulness and honesty and humility. Trust Him. Do those things and He will direct your path. Take small steps.

My motivational talk for women

Guess what women? God is calling you to rise up to be the woman that He has designed you to be. Now is the time! You must believe that you are fully redeemed and that you are ready to complete the mission that He has already placed in your heart. We believe, like Esther was, that you are in this position "for such a time as this." We pray that your God-dreams would grow and you would begin to walk them out.

*You Matter! God knows your name and He cares about you very much. He has not forgotten you.

Jeremiah 1:5 (MSG) says
“Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you."

*You Are Good Enough! You are beautiful, strong and smart. Believe it!

Micah 6:8 (MSG) says,
"But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously."

*You Are Loved! If you would have been the only person in the world Jesus would still have given His life just for you.

Romans 8:37-39 NLT says,
"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away."

Isaiah 43:1 says, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

Sharpen Your Axe

A young man approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a job. "That depends," replied the foreman. "Let's see you fell this tree." The young man stepped forward and skillfully felled a great tree.

Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, "You can start Monday." Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolled by -- and Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, "You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today."

Startled, the young man replied, "I thought you paid on Friday."

"Normally we do," said the foreman. "But we're letting you go today because you've fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you've dropped from first place on Monday to last place today."

"But I'm a hard worker," the young man objected. "I arrive first, leave last and even have worked through my coffee breaks!"

The foreman, sensing the young man's integrity, thought for a minute and then asked, "Have you been sharpening your axe?"

The young man replied, "No sir, I've been working too hard to take time for that!"

Author Unknown

Our lives can be like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don't take time to "sharpen the ax." It seems that everyone is busier than ever but less happy than ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay sharp?

There's nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But God doesn't want us to get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like taking time to pray, to read and study scripture or to listen to "the still small voice of God." We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don't take time to sharpen the axe, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

What are you doing to sharpen your axe? Take time to make it a priority. We should be constantly striving to learn and improve "because if you are not getting better you are getting worse."

"And don't for a minute let this Book be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you'll get where you're going; then you'll succeed. Haven't I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don't be timid; don't get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take." (Excerpt from Joshua 1:9 MSG)

If God Is Sovereign, Why Pray?

*This blog post is dedicated to all the people in the world who keep on asking questions.

So, if God already knows how everything is going to turn out, then why are we troubling ourselves with all this effort to pray?  And, if we are not informing God of anything new then what is the point?  Let’s look at Psalm 139:1-4:

O LORD, You have searched me and You know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O LORD.


So, God has complete knowledge of my life.  Nothing I could say will surprise Him. He knows my heart better than I know it. He knows my thoughts, wishes, and prayers before I pray them. Matthew 6:8 says, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” Sometimes I pray for something I think I need not fully knowing what I really need.  Scripture encourages us to pray “…Thy will be done.”  And, our prayers should be with that intention; that God’s will is what trumps everything else we desire.  We may have to adjust our thinking to pray according to the plan He has already laid out for us and not necessarily making our plans come together outside of His will.

There used to be an old joke that was in the church years ago and the story would start out with the telling of someone being in dire straights or of some impossible situation and the people involved would have completely run out of options, so now they are “down to praying” as a last resort. I know this is often said as a joke, but in reality, prayer should be our go-to response as a constant conversation with God. It should serve as a simple reminder that in the end everything depends on God anyway and not on us.  Perhaps it is in the day-to-day praying that we express our total dependence on God and then He is in turn honored by our faith.


James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” So, let's not stop praying.  Let's lean in and really mean what we pray. Our prayers don’t have to contain flowery words or be long and dramatic. They just need to be genuine. God is listening and He cares about each of us!

-Paula 

Why Didn't God Make Us Robots?

Think about it! It would so much easier! We would not have feelings, tears, emotions, pride, thoughts or a will; all things that often get in the way of life. If God had only made us robots it would be so much simpler, right?

I am not the first to ask this question, but I have pondered this idea several times over the last few months. If God had only thought to make us robotic, then there would be no struggle between good and evil. Problem solved. Hello heaven!

But God in His omniscience saw ahead of time and knew that we would fail and fall and need Him. He wanted us to be able to choose Him. He wanted us to have the choice to love because He knew that love without choice isn't love at all. He gave us a free will so that we could choose to be in relationship with Him. I believe that God giving us a choice had more to do with His glory and satisfaction than it did with our liberty. After all, we were created in His image ultimately for His glory.

Doesn't the value of any good deed go up in our minds if we believe that it is done out of genuine love rather than out of an obligation or command? Of course it does! That must be how God feels about us when we choose Him.

Robotics is a popular movie theme, and in many of those kinds of movies, the robot starts out with little or no consciousness or self-awareness, but tends to evolve over time. Writers and producers can even create personalities for them and they can be "good" or "evil." In the real world, we are not quite that sophisticated, even though we keep relentlessly striving to create that perfect robot that could substitute as a person.  

Pictured to the left is a real, life-sized robot designed in Japan in 2005 that from a distance looks very human. (It is actually glued to the floor.)  "She" can spit out information, but "she" will never have a soul or mind or know God like we can.

A robot can be programmed to obey, but it cannot be programmed to love or to respond intuitively. So God chose to create people rather than robots to recieve that genuine love back from us.

We know God has emotions because the Bible uses words to describe God's intense feelings about us like "desires" and "loves."  He is actually pursuing us, so we must be worth having!

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.

They cannot be numbered!

I can’t even count them;

they outnumber the grains of sand!

And when I wake up,

you are still with me!"  Psalm 139:13-18 NLT

God thinks about us. He plans for us. He loves us. Robots could never replace the uniqueness of a human being. Simpler, yes. Rewarding, no.

*artwork by Harrison G. Barnett

Change Your Filter

Like the air filter or oil filter in our car, periodically filters must be cleaned or changed all together in order to maintain a good flow of air or oil.  Otherwise, your car could overheat resulting in an unnecessary breakdown and expensive repairs.

Relationships can be tough. Some of the toughest ones to navigate are family relationships; parents, spouse, siblings, and children. Our close friendships are not always easy either.

I have often found that the only way to get past an issue with someone is to "change my filter."  This idea simply means to change the way I think about them. For example, maybe I don't necessarily feel the love from someone or maybe I have even been genuinely hurt.  In an attempt to bridge the gap between us, I will eventually give them the benefit of the doubt in order to move on and try to think of them from a place of love rather than a place of disapproval. In essence, I am "changing my filter." It is a decision that I must consciously make. Love is not a feeling. Love is a decision. This thinking is a major mind shift that requires some healthy self-talk and some pushing down of pride. In other words, not an easy task.  And I have yet to master it because I am human and sometimes I just want to be "right!"

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says, "Love is patient..."  and that is where I already have a problem. I am not a very patient person by nature, but I have learned the hard way that a degree of patience is needed in order to sustain permanent relationships. God knew He would need to spell out the exact requirements for healthy relationships, otherwise people like me would look for a loop-hole! The passage goes on to say, "not self-seeking" and "keeps no record of wrongs." These clauses mean "changing your filter" and that's exactly what I'm talking about.

Sometimes we want to be shown love in the precise way that we ideally receive it but ignore the failed attempts of the one trying to genuinely be a friend or make amends. We need to get to a place where we can accept people where they are. I'm not saying adopt their lifestyle, or agree with everything they say and do, but treat them with respect and genuinely show them love and receive  the love they offer.

This idea is a tall order, I know, but it is possible. I have seen people who interact with each other over the years fall into the same old trap of resentment about something that happened a long time ago. It is almost as if they are waiting on something from the other person, like an acknowledgement or apology, for that offense to be mended. The resolution they continue to wait for may never come. There must be forgiveness. Life goes on.

Let's not waste another minute trying to figure out how to change other people or how to persuade their thinking to be more like ours. Love them where they are and if necessary, change your filter.


-Paula

The 80/20 rule

You may have heard of the Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule or the law of the vital few). This principle states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

A business-management consultant suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population; he developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas. It is a common rule of thumb that in business 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers.

Leadership trainer and author, John Maxwell, has referred to this principle in a few of his books as it relates to business and leadership.

Some other examples of the Pareto Principle are:

• Reading: 20% contains 80% of the content
• Job: 20% of work gives 80% satisfaction
• Products: 20% of products bring 80% of profits
• Picnic: 20% of the people eat 80% of the food! 

It is also found that in most churches about 20% of the congregation does the work while 80% observes.

In life, you may also experience when you achieve a certain goal; graduate high school, college or other institution, get a job, a promotion, start a new venture or acquire any kind of success that the 80/20 rule may apply in this way. You may want to do the math. When you announce something that you are pursuing or have accomplished you will probably get mixed results for various reasons. Most people will offer their kind congratulations, but may not really believe you will ever make it. Yet, there is the faithful, positive 20% who will be with you, cheering you on all the way to the end!  (These people are sometimes called "parents.")

Our family has referred to the "80/20 rule" so often that we now find it to be humorous and have shortened it to just "80/20" whenever someone is negative in response to any of the type of situations listed above. 

The lesson:
-Be encouraging. Don't be in the 80% or the person who always states the reasons why it cannot be done.
-Be encouraged. If you have set a goal, go for it! Forget the naysayers. They will always be there. Opportunities will not. Carpe diem! Stay in the 20%.

"So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you'll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you're already doing this; just keep on doing it."
1 Thessalonians 5:9 MSG

-Paula