Laughter

I don't laugh enough. I'm actually working at laughing more. I recently read about a health study that reported 3 main reasons people can't cope in life:
1. Living in the past
2. Low self-esteem
3. Unable to laugh at themselves

I subscribe to a daily joke email. That sometimes provides some laughs (sometimes the jokes are pretty lame). But I have some other great laughter material: me! I usually have no problem laughing at myself, but I need to get better at it - not take myself so seriously.

Sometimes life just gets too serious, busy, and complicated. That's when I need to laugh. I want to laugh more. I need to laugh more. That study I previously mentioned indicated that we need approximately 12 laughs a day to stay healthy! I'm working on it!

Zoe woke me up (unintentionally, unwittingly, and pleasantly) this morning laughing in her sleep. She was enjoying a good, funny dream! What a great way to begin the day!

Commercial Break #1

"I don't smoke and never have, but many of my relatives did. Perhaps that is why I can remember so many old cigarette commercials. I wanted to see how they were tricked in to burning up their money.

"Do you remember the Pall Mall ad? As I recall it went something like this: 'Over, under, around, and through, Pall Mall travels pleasure to you.'

"Over, under, around, and through. That actually has application to workaholics, who seemingly always have too many responsibilities. There is always another job to do, another call to make, or another job to redo better.

"If anyone in Scripture looked like a workaholic, it was the apostle Paul....Yet it was the apostle Paul who wrote, 'One thing I do.'

"Today we say, 'These twenty things I dabble in.' Remember the phrase 'Jack of all trades, master of none.' I found that to be a misquote from a phrase of early American history: 'Jack of all trades, master of one.'"

adapted from: Time Out. Daily Devotions for Workaholics by Gary E. Hurst, Mike Kachura, and Larry D. Sides, February 11

Anger and Contentment

"The man being interviewed by CNN was a CEO of a major conglomerate. He works endlessly and thrives on pressure. The interviewer asked, 'What makes you run?' He said, 'I grew up hearing from my father that I would never amount to anything. I've done this to prove the [blankety-blank] wrong.' His anger propelled him to the top and kept him going.

"In his book, Healing Grace, David Seamands said, 'I have yet to counsel a performance-based and perfectionistic Christian who was not at heart an angry person.' I agree. I have met many perfectionists who either do not recognize or admit to being angry. Somewhere in their experience they were taught that the expression of anger was wrong or dangerous. So they swallowed anger--and became performers to overcome it, hoping that they would finally gain the approval they desired so badly."

adapted from: Time Out. Daily Devotions for Workaholics by Gary E. Hurst, Mike Kachura, and Larry D. Sides, February 10

Most Fear It

“Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.” – Herodutus (Greek historian)

"Change is inevitable. Change is constant." - Benjamin Disraeli

“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” - Woodrow Wilson

“Change is a complex and labor-intensive process that arouses feelings and emotions.”
– Amy Tan and Dr. Uwe H. Kaufmann

“Advocates for change are greeted with suspicion, anger, resistance, and even sabotage.”
- Vadim Kotelnikov

"The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change...."
- Edward H. Friedman

“Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind.” – King Whitney, Jr.

King Whitney, Jr. tells us change can be viewed from three perspectives:
1. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse.
2. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better.
3. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.

Breakthrough

Some really good things have happened with this little church. We were a safe haven for wounded and bewildered clergy, missionaries, and others in the aftermath and process of all the upheaval in the Episcopal church. Many people were healed and loved to health in our gatherings. We performed some powerful outreach to other churches in town (although it was sometimes perceived as sheep-stealing missions - completely untrue). We learned much Bible. Two took what they learned at our little church and went forth to love and serve the Lord, better equipped. One woman led several women to Jesus within a few months of moving to a new state. One man is currently ministering to the deaf in South America. We put down some deep spiritual roots.

But we got stagnant and had to make a move. The move out of the house was strongly confirmed as the right thing to do by events that followed in that house shortly after we moved. We intentionally began the grief process of our losses from the move (comfort, intimacy, etc.) with two Sunday services dedicated to that topic. We continue in that grieving process.

God sovereignly provided me a ministry/church planting coach. The first session revealed two major problems. (1) This group had a "remnant mentality" versus a "church plant mentality" and the coach suggested these are completely incompatible. (2) We had no outside intercessors for the church. I immediately recruited intercessors. Eleven people volunteered to intercede for us (people in Kentucky; New Mexico; Pennsylvania; Washington; Texas; New York California; Arizona; Siberia, Russia; and Columbia, South America).

I mentioned the "remnant mentality" versus a "church plant mentality" at church last Sunday, and that had a profound impact on several in the congregation. We had what was probably our best ever Vestry meeting later that afternoon, and they even approved a $200 per month raise for me. Wow! What a difference intercession makes! Competent coaching makes a big difference too. I highly recommend it.