Did the Dream Die?

Have you ever felt disillusioned and felt like giving up?  There is a story in Genesis 37-40 that I want to look at with you.  Joseph really amazes me.

First, we find Joseph having a dream.  Two of them, actually.  Here’s the first one:

“Listen to this dream I had:  We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

Here’s the second one:  “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”  (Gen. 37:6-7, 9)

God gave him amazing dreams.  The next thing we see is Joseph, in the bottom of a well, being sold by his brothers into slavery.  Can you imagine his thoughts on that long walk to Egypt with the slavery traders?

“Man, the wrong person is bowing here.  My sheave seems to have been burned.”

“What was I thinking?  I must have drank waaay too much of dad’s secret stash the night before those dreams.”

Or maybe he was more hopeful. “I don’t know how God is going to fix this one, but the sun, moon and stars are in Egypt too.”

Well, it wasn’t long before things started looking up.  He was a servant in Potiphar’s home and rose to the top of the ladder.  Maybe he would find a way to go home.

Just when hope was about to really take root in his heart, Potiphar’s wife accused him of rape, and he ended up in prison.  There is really no way out of prison.

Now, here is really amazing part.  Joseph had been sitting in prison just about long enough to lose heart when two people come in and have dreams that need interpretation.

Now, let’s review Joseph’s position:

• his dreams he believed to be from God had proven themselves bankrupt – not once, but repeatedly.
• every time things started to look up for him, they got worse.

Yet, when he comes across two dejected men, he immediately believes that God will give him the interpretation of their dreams.  He kept hope against all hope for all those years.  Not just that God would show up someday, but that God would use him now.

In fact, over about 12 years, he kept enough hope to be able to stand before Pharaoh, in boldness, without warning.  You can’t stand as a leader if you are riddled with doubt and fear.

When life is piled against you, follow Joseph’s example:

1. Do what you can.  Joseph always put his hands to work.
2. Look to help others.
3. Believe that God will show up – probably when you least expect Him.

5 Steps For Balance

There is a creative floor on my building.  I can tell because of the people who work there.  They wear really cool clothes, they carry cool artsy things.  Every time I’m on the elevator with them I feel…cool, like their artistry will rub off on me somehow.

Interestingly, without the rest of us (who are just as cool, btw), these artsy, beautiful people wouldn’t have a job.

In every company, there needs to be detail people so that there can be conceptual people.

In every life, there needs to be detail and conceptual – balance.  One can’t exist without the other.  Well, they can exist, but they begin to look lopsided and yucky.

Yet, we want to live life to the fullest, live it with gusto – how do you put everything you have into life and still keep balance?

1. Don’t try to balance God.  If you make God something you are trying to balance, you’ve missed the point.  God is the only one who can bring balance to your life.  Ask Him to bring everything into balance and you will be amazed!
2. Know which floor you belong on.  Acknowledge what comes easily to you – this is where you will be tempted to spend all of your time.  This is also where you should spend most of your time if you are to go with your strengths.
3. Get help for the other floors.  Really – you can’t be the best at everything, so find out what you can do, and look for assistance in other things.
4. Lists!!!  I’m really working with this one.  Especially with school starting soon, trying to go on vacation soon, soccer season in full swing and wanting to make jelly this weekend.  Make lists and start checking things off!
5. Once a month, take a big picture look.  What does your life look like from a bird’s eye view?  Sit down with God and prayerfully look through your life for balance and imbalance.  What has God said to you lately?  Where is He challenging you?  Encouraging you?

I believe there is an artist in all of us.  We need art.  We need leaders, we need accountant, truckers, builders, housekeepers and (put your occupation in here).  When we put all the floors together, we have a very successful organization, and a very successful life.

Balance

I taught the other night at NU on balance of home and ministry.  Here’s the bottom line:

Our natural tendency when thinking about balance is to think that we need to find time to ‘balance’ our spiritual life along with everything else.  The truth of the matter is that as long as we are doing the balancing, our life is out of balance.  We need our relationship with God to be so tight that He is doing the balancing for us.

Since then, I’ve had a followup thought:

For many years I’ve seen women who have perfect lives – well, maybe not perfect lives, but their homes are orderly and beautiful, their kids are polite and well dressed…you get the picture.  No matter how great my life was, to me, their lives were better.  Especially when my kids were the ones jumping off the stage in the middle of the performances -  and my kitchen…well let’s not go there (okay, it’s not that bad, it reaches clean once a day or so.)

My point is, their lives aren’t mine.  My life is bold and messy – and every time I focus on their lives instead of mine, I get out of balance. Why?  Because I try to balance my life to look like theirs.  My life isn’t supposed to look like theirs. It is supposed to look like mine.  (Although I have to tell you that I’ve learned quite a few things from my more orderly friends.)

Audacious leaders do audacious things and live audacious lives – my kids live in a bold and messy world – that is balanced by God so that it works.  When it isn’t working, we go to Him and ask for His fix.  I’ve discovered that when I try to fix it myself, I mess things up…again.

God uses every personality, every gifting – together in a concert of praise.  To our ears, I think it sounds like a cacophony of noise, but God hears the overtones.  He uses the bold and the timid together.  He uses the fastidious and the perpetually messy together.  This is why we don’t try to balance our lives on our own.  We need the Balancer of the Universe to do it for us.  We may put the tools in our belt, but when it comes right down to it, He controls time, our health, our energy, and the interruptions are His ministry opportunities.

I need God fixes for this God-inspired life I’m living. Don’t you?

Midnight

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal today that listed everything wrong in the world today, well, not all of it.

Before that, I read that a huge group of gas stations in Nevada that has gaming devices in each station was being foreclosed on.  The federal government was a bit concerned about going into the gaming business, so they decided to sell the loan.  The family that owned the gas station company bought the loan for 50% of it’s original value, thereby cutting their debt in half.

Someone in Florida is naming a ball park after Alex Rodriguez.  Grrr.

In Acts 16, we find Paul and Silas in Philippi.  They are doing their best to teach and build the church.  A young girl starts following them around shouting “These men are servants from the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”

• They were getting acclaim in the local “press”.
• Someone, finally, was listening to them.
• It all felt wrong.
• Her words were very similar to that of a demonized man who spoke to Jesus in Mark 5:7
• Getting acclaim for serving God isn’t usually the norm.
• Having God called the Most High God by non-Christians is highly suspect.

Finally, Paul just turned to her and cast the demon out.

Now, things were back to normal, and before long, they found themselves beaten and thrown in jail.  Have you ever noticed that when things are going great, when we are getting acclaim, our temptation is to ‘lean on our own understanding’? We look to ourselves, our own resources, our thinking – the physical – for answers.  When the chips are against us, we are back to the only resource that really has power – Jesus.

I don’t know what midnight feels like to you.  Sometimes to me it is from emotional pressure, sometimes it comes from physical circumstances.  Sometimes it just comes from an insurmountable amount of negative news.

Paul and Silas experienced a midnight miracle that was not only personal, but it was transformational for those around them.  How?

They practiced praise.  Imagine with me:

“Paul, you awake?”

“Yeah… umph.” Paul groaned and he switched positions. “Boy they did me good this time.  How about you?”

“I’ll make it.  I was just thinking about the night sky and all those stars.  How many of them there are.  When they were beating me, I felt so…”

“Little?  Yeah – there might only be five of them, but there seems to be 10 or more standing around jeering – then the crowd.  You feel like you are an ant by the time they are done.”

“That’s what I’m talking about.”  Silas shifted, pushing himself up against the wall the held him captive.  “What I was thinking about was that if God can hold all those stars in place, then He is bigger than anything I can imagine.”

There was silence for a moment as both men took in the image.  The slowly, Paul’s old craggly voice began “My God is so great, so strong and so mighty…”

“There’s Nothing That My God Can’t Do” Silas joined in with gusto.  The stone walls seemed to lean in a bit at first to hear the song, then as the duo increased in strength, their song began to reverberate and the walls seemed to pulse.  When they’d sung that song through a couple times, their spirits were gaining strength.

“When I get to heaven gunna walk all around…” pretty soon the other prisoners could not only hear their songs, but if you could see their faces, you would see tears streaming down their faces.  The Spirit of God inhabits the praises of His people, and in that jail, that night, the presence of God’s Spirit was palpable.  First they were warmed, then their hearts shook.  In fact, when the earth started shaking, they didn’t notice at first, because they were being shaken from the inside as well.

As the earthquake strengthened, the jail doors fell open, shackles fell off. Prisoners were set free, but they had already been freed in their hearts.  They had experienced the true presence of God.  All anyone could do was sit in awe.

Does it really bug you that the rich seem to get richer while the poor get poorer?  I challenge you to read Malachi 3:6-4:3.

Do you need a midnight miracle?  Join me in a chorus.  “My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing that my God can’t do.”

Giants in the Land

Are there giants in the land for you?

Tonight it occurred to me that to the 10 spies and the Israelites that followed them, the giants were very obvious obstacles.  In fact, common sense said that they needed to ‘count the cost’ of this venture, and avoid these real obstacles.  From their point of view, fortified cities and very powerful people were insurmountable problems compared to people on foot without any of the modern ‘tools’ (chariots, for one).

They wanted to run for the hills!  (Okay, they wanted to go back to Egypt, but you get the picture.)

Here’s the kicker.  Listen to what God said in response:

“The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.” (Numbers 14:11-12)

God was seriously offended that they didn’t trust Him.

Are you facing obstacles?  Finances, relationships, even personal growth – sometimes we just reach that wall where we say “there are giants in the land.  I can’t go forward.  I have to find a way out.”

Has God led you? He will bring you victory.

Let’s draw a line in the sand, and choose to listen to those with faith instead:

“We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” (Numbers 13:30)

“The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.  If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (Numbers 14:7-9)

We can move forward.  We can find the view of faith.  There is always a view of faith and a view of the practical.  Let’s do what Joshua and Caleb did – find the view of faith by

• looking backwards to God’s record
• looking forward to the possible
• choosing to believe

Faith trumps practical because God is working.

When the Children of Israel did go into the land, finally, they found that God gave them so many miracles and new lessons.  Going forward in faith is a walk in the miraculous.  Going back to the familiar is to live in the mundane, walking around the same mountain again and again.

I choose to look for the miraculous.  What about you?

Even In Our Weakness

Paul said of a conversation he had with God about his thorn in the flesh:

“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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Cor. 12:9-10

Why do we delight in our weakness, hardships, difficulties?

James put it this way:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  James 1:2-4

At this time of year, our weaknesses seem so big.  We want to make resolutions, but we see our list of failures from last year. We made a resolution five days ago, and we’ve already broken it.

I wanted to make it through the Bible last year, but only made it 3/4 of the way through.  Rather than making a huge issue over it, I’ve just changed my plan a bit.   Over Thanksgiving I gained 5 pounds then lost them.  Over Christmas I gained three.  I’ll lose them, and hopefully a lot more.

Joy is an important part of adversity, because keeping a positive attitude is the first step in overcoming obstacles.  Obstacles will either be your opportunities or they will sink you – and it starts with your attitude.  Can we trust God in all the things this new year has to offer – from world changes to our own frail humanity?

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  (Heb. 4:15-16)

Jesus is waiting to walk each step of the new year.  No matter the challenges, we will find Christ is more than able to help us, and He has sent the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us.  God is our help.  That is the secret of Paul’s words.  In our weakness, He is strong.

Opportunities

I was reading today in Jeremiah. Did you know that when Babylon took over Jerusalem, the paupers that were left in the land were given vineyards?

Bad financial times for a country don’t mean bad financial times for everyone. In this case, it meant better times for some. Upheaval is often no fun, but it is just upheaval. God is still on the throne.

Jeremiah 29 tells us God’s instructions to those in captivity – to enjoy life anyway. The story of Daniel shows us that some really thrived under the circumstances. The key isn’t having everything as we want it – the key is having God on the throne of our heart and letting Him be in charge of today.

I pray that you find God’s joy in today and His peace is constantly in your heart – no matter your circumstances.

Following Hard

This morning I read about Elisha.  Elijah was going up to heaven and all the prophets knew it. (See 2 Kings 2)

Three times Elijah told Elisha to give up and to stay behind, but Elisha kept saying “I will not leave you”.  Elisha wanted something.  He didn’t want Elijah to not go, he wanted a double portion of Elijah’s anointing.

Elisha had to overcome repeated discouragements – from Elijah, from the other prophets, and from the long trek itself.  Elisha kept his eye on what his goal was, and it was given to him.

One of the blogs I read is Kem Meyer – she has a great post about getting what you train for:

http://kemmeyer.typepad.com

Elisha didn’t decide that day to follow hard after Elijah – he had been following him for some time.  He got the double portion because of all the days he had been following up to that point.  He knew when was the right time to say ‘no, I’m not staying, I’m following’, because he had been practicing listening to God and obeying.

What does this concept of following – of getting what you train for – look like in your life?

Persistence

Persistence pays off!  You can now subscribe to my blog!  But this process has been a test of resolve for me.  However, it has been part of a theme God has been showing me.

When I had to get the lawn done after a fall and winter of neglect, I just started and did one thing at a time.  Before I knew it, I was done.  With this blog project, I was very overwhelmed (I don’t read instructions well, I have a tendency to expect things to just be intuitive). 

When I was ready to give up, I started doing small parts, one a day, sent out emails asking for help, and in just three days, the job was done.

I wonder if sometimes we try to follow God that way, we look at our whole messy life and want to just give up. 

What about you?  What overwhelms you about following God?  For me, today, it was parenting, but that is another post.

Change and Power

This morning I took my oldest to school and saw a girl walking down the street in stretchies (remember stretchies, I was really wishing I could get away with those again – stirrup pants were my favorites for a long time).

On her back was a huge backpack for school. In one hand she held a coffee. In the other she was texting madly on her phone. I was surprised at my immediate emotional response. I heard myself think – “that can’t be good for her. These kids today are going to get arthritis or something from all that mad texting”…before the light could turn green I was reminded of my husband at a similar age playing clarinet. He used his thumb, on the same hand, I think – and just got a really strong thumb.

I think God was talking to me this morning. By the next turn in my journey, I was thinking, “maybe she’ll just have really strong thumbs.”

By the time I pulled back in the driveway I was thinking about Biblical parallels. Haman, in the story of Esther came to mind. He didn’t like… well anyone that got in his way of power. The Pharisees didn’t like Jesus because he was a threat to their power. When I have an automatic judgment on a girl I don’t even know, who is walking down the street – is it because I am feeling threatened? Let’s face it – I will never wear stirrup pants again in public, and I’m losing my ability to do 10 things at once without courting disaster.

2 Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self discipline (or a sound mind, depending on the translation). God gives us the power we need – it isn’t ours to take. And it isn’t ours to have slip away. His power looks different than the power we look to maintain. His power comes along with love and self discipline (or a sound mind). Sounds like peace to me.

What about you? What are some of the ways you are readjusting your focus to let God be the author and finisher of your faith this week so that your focus is on Him and not on stuff?