Affirmation

"I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."  
(Philippians 4:13)









During my early days as an aspiring teacher decades ago, a "tip" I frequently heard from cagey veterans was, "Don't let your students see you smile until Christmas." I took this as hyperbole at the time, some sort of overstatement by experienced hands trying to convey the importance for a teacher to establish a well managed, orderly classroom environment. But the frequency with which I heard this, even as hyperbole, in my new profession helped me understand over time why so many students often felt turned off -- rather than inspired -- by school. It also made me wonder how in the world educators who held to such beliefs thought that they could somehow later "flip the switch" to create a lively and engaging setting for bringing out the best in their students when the stale classroom climate die had already been cast months prior.

And of course the switch almost assuredly never did flip. For this mantra comes from some deep place in the speaker, from a core belief in order and control rather than in faith and trust -- and a belief to such degree in the importance of control is hard to ever let go! To be sure, this mindset positions the teacher as the doler out of knowledge and the sole source of order for the classroom domain through the power of the position, which unfortunately then leads to the energy of the classroom being too often used to maintain that position of power rather than in the building up of others.

In contrast, high-impact educators hold a different belief. They understand that while an orderly classroom environment is certainly important, it must also be welcoming, inclusive, and nurturing. And, rather than cling to power and control, high-impact educators take many efforts in the early days of the school year to empower and partner with students to build a strong environment for building up themselves and others. So from its very genesis, this classroom climate is an orderly -- but also an affirming -- place. For the high-impact educator holds the deep-seated belief that the building up of knowledge itself is never enough; it needs to be paired with the development of confidence so that the learner can increasingly gain and share the fruits of learning and insight in a world greatly in need of them.

In many ways, this mindset of the high-impact educator seems aligned well with the passage above from Philippians: "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." People working from this mindset embody in both word and action high expectations for self and others, conveying that effort matters and that the fruits of our efforts can be virtually limitless. It's a very affirming stance to take, aimed at development and growth -- an empowering stance that simultaneously helps ourselves and others connect to the real source of that power.

Many of us have been products of a different mindset, though, where we may have been conditioned to focus on the negative in ourselves and in others. Through such negative messaging, we stifle potential and limit the original blessing that we have all received. Father Richard Rohr of the Center for Action and Contemplation provides some simple, practical, yet very powerful means to make the transition to a more affirming and growth-oriented mindset, an approach which turns such unproductive messages on their head:

"Think of a negative phrase that you have said aloud or thought to yourself that stems from a sense of shame rather than from your inherent dignity. Turn it upside down and say, in first person, present tense, an affirmation of your God-given value. For example:
      I am unlovable. . . . I am infinitely loved.
      I don't have enough. . . . I have everything I need.
      I am stupid. . . . I have the mind of Christ.
      I am worthless. . . I am precious in God's eyes, I am honored, and God loves me.

Repeat the positive statement, aloud, slowly, with intention and trust, several times. Then rest silently in the awareness that you are already and forever, without any effort or achievement on your part, a beloved child of God."
___________________
Dear Lord, 
Thank you for the many gifts you provide. Among those gifts most cherished, thank you for making me precious in Your eyes, infinitely honored, infinitely loved. Help me to cultivate in myself and in others a deep and abiding peace that arises from the understanding that we are each a beloved child of God. And please let the power of today's passage settle deeply into my core so that this belief can guide my daily thoughts and actions: "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."
In Your Almighty Name, I pray,
Amen.

Patience

"... let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1)

Image courtesy of toddshields.wordpress.com


"Let's get movin'!"
"Come on already!"
"We don't have all day!"
"Let's goooooo!"

My words -- far too many times. The words of impatience.

Sometimes as a leader, I need to justifiably motivate others, create some urgency. So it's not that such language is inherently bad. And like many leaders, I consider myself a do-er. So the more we sit around and talk about things, the more it can feel like we are just letting time slip away. (We are burning daylight, people!!) But it is easy to have such words -- and the indignant mindset that can often accompany them -- become commonplace in daily living, crossing over quickly into frustration with others or with events or with myself because we are not working within MY timeline or MY agenda.

I get called up short on this whenever I reflect upon Galations 5:22, where the Bible praises patience as a fruit of the spirit. In other words, if I truly am becoming more like my Maker over time through the work of the Holy Spirit, people should increasingly see me being the patient man I aspire to be, rather than the impatient one I have been or too often still am. But old habits die hard. Even to the degree, ironically, that I can get impatient with myself about not becoming more patient!

This brings us to the passage above, where the word patience can initially seem an odd fit for someone who is running a race. That's because we often connote patience with some type of passive waiting or gentle tolerance. But in the above passage, the runner does not passively wait for slow-pokes or gently tolerate cheaters. No, a Christian runs the race by persevering through difficulties. In the Bible, patience is persevering towards a goal, enduring trials, or expectantly waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. It's a very active, robust sort of patience. (https://gotquestions.org/Bible-patience.html)

And here's the heart of the matter. Oftentimes the biggest barriers that I face in my "race to the finish" are ones of my own making, with my own impatience  as a major impediment -- impatience which is often rooted (if I'm being totally honest with myself) in my own feelings of inadequacy, fear, or overwhelming in taking on the situation at hand. Not trusting that God will provide me all that is needed for HIS plan to work out perfectly within HIS timeline if I am simply willing enough to give up "control" of all of these concerns and place them in His hands, rather than in my own.

So the overall question for ongoing reflection:  Can I lay aside all the obtacles and shortcomings that can distract and entangle me in my daily living so that I can remain fixed on the final goal? In other words, can I place my trust and patience in He who holds the keys to the eternal, knowing that, in the end -- in God's hands and in God's time -- all is well!
__________________
Dear Lord,
Creator of all that is, thank You for Your boundless gifts, but particularly for the infinite patience and grace that You bestow upon me, though I come up short time and time again. May the patience You model help me to grow in patience with others and with myself. And may the patience that I aim to increasingly reveal to the world be the active, robust sort of patience which endures trials that arise, persevering to the very end, trusting that You have allotted sufficient time to accomplish ALL in Your plan, including whatever contributions You might have in store for me in the final resolution.
In Your Almighty and All-Loving Name, I pray and place my trust.
Amen.

Embracing Trial

"Then Jesus told His disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' "
(Matthew 16:24)
Image courtesy of www.ramdass.org
"Christ, you know it ain't easy
You know how hard it can be
The way things are going
They're going to crucify me."

So goes the chorus of the John Lennon classic, "The Ballad of John and Yoko."

And it's a lyric that -- even in its overstatement -- resonates at some point with just about any leader worth her salt.  Because there will come that time when a leader needs to have the courage of her convictions -- that moment of undeniable clarity when she knows she must do what she does not want to do. For doing what is needed will likely incur great personal cost -- perhaps even all that she has.

Understandably, such a moment can be extremely taxing and visible and lonely. But it can also be a time of sublime grace, as we perhaps connect with Our Savior and His cross for the first time in any visceral way. As we come to understand -- maybe for the first time -- what it really means to "have our cross to bear."

At times such as these, we are wise to follow the age-old counsel to "take up your cross and follow Christ." And in particular, to follow Christ's story and follow Christ's example of how He bore His cross in order to gain guidance and support in the bearing of our own trials.

For example, when we follow Christ's story, we quickly find many areas of likely resonance for our own:
1) That leaders and motives get misunderstood
2) That ignorance prevails more times than it should
3) That our biggest trials can be neither just nor fair
4) That we need to take on more than we think we can bear
5) That betrayal of a good friend perhaps hurts the most

Yes, even amidst our greatest trials, by following Christ's story, we can take great comfort in knowing that we have a God who has been there, who does understand how it feels, so that we are never alone. Truth be told, we probably are never more understood, more supported, or more "carried" than in times of our greatest trial. And therein lies the grace.

But perhaps our biggest takeaway from Christ's example is that it was never really about the suffering or about the injustice or about the misundertandings anyway. Those are all just part of the human experience on this planet.

To be sure, when we follow Christ's example amidst trial,...
1) We are strengthened to take on whatever we face
2) Through faith in our Lord, our cross embrace
3) Knowing that trials are a portion of the pilgrim's trail
4) That in the ultimate triumph, God will not fail
5) That -- above all -- love and mercy prevail!
______________________

Dear Lord, 
Creator of all there is, help me to be thankful for all that you provide, even those events and people that seemingly represent my greatest trials. Help me to follow Your example and embrace my cross, therein being an instrument of Your peace, an embodiment of Your faithfulness, and an agent of Your love and mercy for a world in desparate need.
In Your Almighty Name, I pray.
Amen.

Inspiration

"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rush of a mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."  (Acts 2:1-4)            Image courtesy of www.redbubble.com

In their classic of management literature (Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It), Kouzes and Posner cite three critical traits for developing leadership credibility: honesty, competence, and the ability to inspire. Of these three, the most daunting always seems to me to be the third one -- the ability to inspire others. That one seems to be the most outside my control. And just who am I to think that I could influence or move some one else emotionally or spiritually anyway?

When such fears and doubts arise, I often find myself coming back to this passage, which shows the arrival of the Holy Spirit to the apostles after Christ's death. Just like other leaders, the apostles had big work to do; they surely had their doubts; they knew there would be significant opposition along their journey. But they were not alone. Jesus had told them: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever." (John 14:16).

And now we have this same advocate, the Holy Spirit, if we simply ask for His help.

But how do we best prepare ourselves to make the most of His assistance?

D.L. Moody, 19th century evangelist and founder of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, wrote one of the more convicting passages I have ever encountered regarding the process for being filled by the Spirit so that we can do inspiring work with and for others:

"I firmly believe that the moment our hearts are emptied of selfishness and ambition and self-seeking and everything that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will come and fill every corner of our hearts; but if we are full of pride and conceit, ambition and self-seeking, pleasure and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. I also believe that many a man is praying to God to fill him, when he is full already with something else. Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray that He would empty us. There must be an emptying before there can be a filling; and when the heart is turned upside down, and everything that is contrary to God is turned out, then the Spirit will come….”

It can be very disconcerting for leaders, so deep in our convictions, to let go of so much that we have clung to for so long. But Moody reminds us -- exhorts us through his simple logic -- to come to grips that letting go first is the only way.  This is the pilgrim's journey. This is how we become His instrument. This is how we truly are filled with the stuff that moves men and women to levels of inspiration and action trandscending human limits.

Therefore, Moody's conviction remains: Can we empty ourselves of our own hang-ups and limitations so that we can be filled with the boundless possibilities of the Almighty?

That may be our biggest leadership and personal challenge of this day -- and of every day!
__________
Dear Lord,
Thank you for Your many gifts in my life.  Among those, thank you for sending an advocate, the Holy Spirit, to those who ask for His help.  To this end, help me to empty myself of myself so that I may be filled with Your Spirit and, in so doing, can fully play my part in serving, with others, Your children in ways that transcend human limitations, until one day when we are all called home with You.
In Your name, I pray.  Amen.

Surrender

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- His good, pleasing, and perfect will." (Romans 12:2)




"Leave me alone! I'm fine. I've got this."

Ever uttered such words? I suspect we all have. They are the words of the independent, self-reliant (even self-centered) person that the world would have us believe show that one has arrived as a full-firing adult. But when you stop to think about it, there is lot of sub-text to statements like these. Like, I have it all under control. In other words, I need nothin' from nobody.

And then, as leaders in schools or in other walks of life, we get up to our armpits in issues and challenges so fast that, if we are being truly honest about things, this whole notion about being in control of everything (or even of anything!) becomes extremely laughable, extremely quickly.

There is tremendous grace in such experiences, though. For were it not for moments like these, one could wallow in some misguided sense of self-sufficiency (my plan, my will, my world) for a lifetime....

In fact, it is exactly moments like these -- those times when we feel overwhelmed in our responsibilities and perhaps doubting why we ever thought we could do some good on this planet -- when the words of James 4:7 ring especially true: "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

In this short passage above, James gives us words to live by:  submit yourselves to God, surrender to His will, His plan for you. Get your head and heart around that and you will truly have what you need. Then you can truly say, "I'm fine."

So how do we get connected to His will, His plan?
Through prayer.

We see Christ doing this time and again in the Gospels, seeking the Father's counsel and His will, especially when times are tough. Through such actions, we observe Christ modeling for us what Paul describes in the passage at the top of this reflection:  rejecting the world's patterns; seeking ongoing renewal of His mind and heart; testing and approving, through prayer, what God's will is -- His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

In his classic, With Open Hands, Henri Nouwen tangibly describes this transition that we must make through prayer from the fallacy of self-control to a posture of surrender to Our Maker as the movement from clenched fists to open hands. We are often resistant to this transition (shown through our "clenched fists) because letting go of control does not "conform with the pattern of this world." Rather, it demands a relationship through prayer "in which you allow Someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your person, to see there what you would rather leave in darkness, and to touch there what you would rather leave untouched." So we cling to what is familiar, even if we aren't proud of it. For it is easier to cling to a sorry past and/or an overwhelming present than to trust in a new future. In other words, because we fear that we might somehow lose ourselves (including our insecurities, our problems, and our hang-ups that make up some of our identity) along the way, we stand there with balled-up fists, closed to the Other who wants to heal us, to help us.

But if we can begin to open up our hands without fear, then the One who loves us can blow our sins away to make room for hope and peace in our lives, and to provide all-powerful support and guidance for the challenges in this world that loom before us. And when we do this, when we surrender to being His instrument, being a manifestation of His will on earth, we ultimately gain insights over time of His amazing benevolence and providence, more than we could ever deliver -- or even imagine -- for ourselves.  For over time, we begin to understand that Our Lord responds to our prayers in one of three ways (and none of His answers are no, by the way).  

Our Lord's responses to our prayers:
1) Yes
2) Maybe
3) I have a better plan!
________________________
Dear Lord, 
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists! Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? Who will I be when I stand before You with empty hands? Please help me to gradually open my hands and to discover that I am not what I own, but what You want to give me. And what You want to give me is love -- unconditional, everlasting love. Help me to trust that so that You can lead me where You need me and that I may revel in a deep and abiding relationship with You, the Maker of all that is and of all that is to be.
In Your Almighty Name, I pray and place my trust.
Amen.

Harvesting What We Sow

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field."
(Luke 10:2)
Image courtesty of lev-lalev.org


A new school year has arrived. A season of sowing, of cultivating, and -- ultimately -- of harvesting. A season of anticipation, preparation, enthusiasm, and trepidation all tied into one. For in line with the above passage, there is so much good work to do with the hearts and minds of our youth and those who serve them. There are so many who can profoundly benefit from our daily toil in our field -- the field of education. How exciting to be rooted in a vocation that has so much impact on His seed!

Yet, as the passage also conveys, the work before us exceeds the reach of any one person, or even one profession. A prospect such as this can be daunting, even intimidating. Even more so when one considers what Christ says a bit later in Luke 10, "Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves." So in all of our well-intended service and optimism, we are reminded that our mindset and commitment to others is not universally shared. Therefore, we need to "gird up our loins" -- for the school year ahead will surely incur conflict and challenge and strife. And yet we pick up the tools of our trade and head out to the fields with determination because that is where the harvest lies, that is where we are called to serve.

But more than anything, in this season fraught with emotions ranging from enthusiasm to anticipation to trepidation, we should especially take heart from the fundamental law of the harvest, which is concisely expounded in Galations 6:7-8: "Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life."
_________________
Dear Lord, 
Thank you for the sublime honor of tilling Your fields, of serving Your creation. Let any anxiety about the coming school year dissipate in the knowledge and confidence that You always go before us and are always with us. Sow in our own hearts the good seed that we can then distribute and make fruitful ten and twenty fold in that portion of Your garden which you have entrusted to our care.  In all things, help us to be good and faithful servants to our sisters and brothers, Your children, until that one day when You finally call us home.
In Your name, we pray.
Amen.

Constructive Language

"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." (Ephesians 4:29)
Image courtesy of www.goodhousekeeping.com

As a kid, I recall adults regularly instructing us, "If you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all." It was a simple message, easy to understand, that spoke to the conscience and reminded us to give others the benefit of the doubt, to treat others with care, and not to judge. Heaven knows that we were not perfect in those days by any means (and, frankly, often received these words as a correction when we had somehow stepped over the line). But I remember this message having an impact, on both me and on the environment where I was trying to find my way.

These days, I wonder how often any of us hear such wise counsel. Or more to the point, I wonder how often we share it and model it in our daily walk, now that we are the adults. And, man, talk about a world in need of it -- a world growing daily in hot-faced rhetoric, finger-pointing, division, fear, and violence.

To be sure, at times, it is very difficult to show restraint in our actions and in our speech; it's hard to reveal a maturing heart to the world. Meanwhile, it seems rather easy, even expected these days, to jump into the war of words and weigh in on umpteen issues that color our world. But, in line with this passage, are our words constructive -- seeking solutions that bring God's children together -- or are they just contributing to the growing divide, the intensifying din?

Before we utter another word, we would be wise to recall Christ's reminder that it's not what we take in and consume (from what we may perceive as a highly flawed world) that degrades us, but rather what comes out of our own mouths -- as "the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these defile a man." (Matthew 15:18).

So judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1). And moreover, choose our words and tend to the state of our own heart well, so that we are not contributing to the very problems we are trying to solve.

_____
Dear Lord,
In a world full of sound and fury, remind me to seek quiet moments in each day so that I may hear Your voice, so that I might benefit from Your edifying counsel. Make me an instrument of Your peace through both my words and deeds, that my daily walk may build up all of Your children and give grace to those in my sphere.
Amen.