If we struggle with hearing others or being heard by others, we might have an issue with how we are managing those things we have been given.
Exhibit A
“My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.”
Sheep can either choose to listen or they can choose to not listen. As sheep who are more accurately sons rather than servants (though “servant” is a small aspect of what we do in the kingdom) we have been given the freedom to listen to the voice of the Shepherd and either execute or not. And, whether or not we are satisfied without the outcome of listening or not listening to the communication the King gives us, the results of our listening or not will come.
In Illustration
I am not the usual one to give any sort of gloom-and-doom message, in case one is tempted to read the following as an invective.
A couple of years ago, a regional communications grid was knocked out in a major American city. Now, am I going to say that this was the judgment of G-d definitively. Not at all. But I notice when G-d attempts to communicate or speak to His children and they resist hearing that voice…
…when scripture plainly teaches, from the mouth of the Word Himself, that followers HEAR his voice….
…and that hearing is plainly a gift of the King to His bride…
…and, as such, is meant to be stewarded well…
…to the best of the skill and ability with which He endows us…
…then our communications networks of various types risk disruption…
And:
People who normally hear us fail to hear us clearly.
Our capacity to receive in prayer is hindered.
Our cooking in the kitchen is messed with.
Our technology and electronic devices, most of which involve some form of communication, foul up worse than usual, or sooner than usual.
“The wires get crossed” between even good friends.
Our tone of voice or text is misheard.
Our parents, siblings, spouses, close friends, or kids begin mishearing our plain verbal cues for something completely foreign.
Gang, the land in this city cries out for someone or more than one someone’s to help straighten out the mess that has happened in the spirit.
And, while there are those who are called to work with people, there are also those that are called to work with creation.
Be encouraged, if your communication is messed up in one or more ways, then the ultimate reality is that Father wants to help you fix the problem areas.
There is no mess that cannot be repaired or renewed.
The kicker is we have to be willing to quiet ourselves and listen for His voice.
He is always speaking something or communicating to us.
The real question is…
Are we listening and did we treat as important what He said, such that we write it down and consider what He has said.
Another passage to illustrate this concept.
Judges 4
Deborah did not tell Barak anything he did not know at the start of their interaction in Judges 4.
Rather what she said, in our vernacular, might be rendered as:
“Bruh, the L-rd already said this to you. So what are you waiting for?”
Barak’s response: “Woman, I am waiting for a woman to validate me.”
The L-rd already spoke to Barak, and Barak was sitting on his arse waiting for the chick to validate him.
A man who is a son and to whom the L-rd is already speaking, don’t need anyone to validate him. He is responsible to go.
Seriously, and we do this same thing.
Personally, I delayed in coming to town myself. So I am culpable for my delaying.
Likewise, is there something of which the L-rd has already spoken to you and about which you are delaying because you are waiting for a dude or a chick or your covering or some grand poo-bah to validate you?
Stop waiting for a ring to kiss.
And stop going around in circles with the same stupid crap you have been talking about for the last several years.
And stop with that years-old offense that you are using to justify your inaction.
Not all of those statements were for every one of my readers. Those each of those statements do have a targeted audience and then me of them may speak to you. Or none of them may speak to you.
Your job is to engage in Russian epic of Cinderella: “If shoe fits, wear it”.
I am here to be G-d’s mouthpiece to you and say, go and do what you have been assigned to do and stop waiting for someone to tell you you are allowed to do that thing.
Count the resources and capital which Father has given you and use those wisely to begin the process and be ready to partner with the additional resources He will bring.
There is a time for waiting (Isaiah 40:31).
However, there is a time to cease waiting and to start doing.
And our job is for each of us to hear which season it is for us, and to act accordingly.
Blessing
Beloved,
I invite your spirit forward to treat with me in this window of reconciliation, for reconciling with community, and for being at peace with all men, if possible.
And, spirit, I bless you to hear what the Spirit is saying to the seven churches. I bless you to know and recall the voice of the King. And I bless you to obey the voice of the King WHEN the right timing happens.
I bless you to instruct soul and body to ignore the voices of those who are either naysayers or who command you to wait when their voices are out of step with the voice of the King.
Spirit, I bless you with the boldness to move forward in your purpose, even if it makes waves with others.
Spirit, I bless you to move with the Lamb when he moves, and to sit when He sits, and to flow where He flows.
I bless you with kindness, but also courage and forthrightness to hear those voices that accord with the King’s voice, and ignore those that are out of accord with that Voice.
Be at peace, spirit, and keep pounding, or begin pounding if you are supposed to be pounding at an assignment.
You are loved, and I bless you with a pastoral blessing.
Find His Voice and do what He tells you, in the time and season He tells you to do it.
A letter from Henri Nouwen to Fred Rogers ie Mr. Rogers
Dear Fred,
I have just returned from Europe where I received permission from my Bishop to stay at L’Arche. I am now back here hoping to settle more definitely and find a new rhythm of life that is a little more livable than what I have had in the past. I read the article you sent me and can very well understand how much that must have hurt you. It must be really painful to be confronted with a total misunderstanding of your mission and your spiritual intentions.
It is these little persecutions within the church that hurt the most. I simply hope that you are not too surprised by them. They come and will keep coming precisely when you do something significant for the Kingdom. It has always struck me that the real pain comes often from the people from whom we expected real support. It was Jesus’ experience and the experience of all the great visionaries in the Church, and it continues to be the experience of many who are committed to Jesus.
I don’t think it makes much sense to argue with the writer of this article. He speaks from a very different plane and will not be open to your explanations. Some of the criticisms we simply have to suffer and see as invitations to enter deeper into the heart of Jesus. I won’t send you some of the reviews I get of my books, but some are not very different from the tone of this piece. So I certainly feel a unique solidarity with you.
Let us pray for each other, that we remain faithful and not become bitter and that we continue to return to the center where we can find the joy and peace that is not of this world. Thanks so much for staying in touch with me.
Much love, Henri Nouwen
H/T Scott Sauls and Mo Thomas
Gang, Scripture reads:
For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him.
But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.
We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.”
Psalm 55:12-14 ESV
Truly, there is a level-up opportunity emblematized here, against the Fifth Head of Leviathan here.
This is in part because some just want to make a sound that does not mesh with the sound the Holy Spirit or their human spirit wants to resonate. Twisting sounds emanating from those who name Christ is precisely what the Fifth Head of Leviathan is about.
We must seek for what our spirits and the spirit is saying.
And we must help by correcting sounds that are twisted and originating sounds that are untwisted.
Be at peace, spirit, as you learn to flow with the Spirit’s guidance and illumination. Run and speak alright. And keep your rudder amidships though others might seek to push you into a bad place.
Why are we deciding what someone is based on a small set of decisions that are held under a million power magnifying glass?
Where is the Mercy Season Fragrance and tenderness in all of this?
The desire to make news is so devouring that you have to litigate a gymnast’s actions and ask the question of whether or not heroism is present??
And, some ignore the socialist actions of a governing board that refuses to celebrate excellence, but rather attacks excellence?
Or worse yet, we focus of secondary issues, such as whether or not she was good for her decision, and ignore the attacks on her dignity.
This proves the entire fourth estate (a term used for legacy news media) does not have anything better to do with their time except lead us to a place of fostered discord.
And I don’t want their evaluation of her decision.
Rather, I want them and us to celebrate the honed skill of an athlete who is a cut above the rest.
Mediocre journalism has become what the masses thinks is fresh manna, and they don’t realize they are devouring maggoty, stinking bread.
FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC….the whole lot of them are peopled by predators with an agenda that is unredeemed.
And many of our current modalities in the culture are governed by modalities that deny redemption and kill nuance and refuse to make a way for robust discussion.
Picking apart a person that you should be protecting and honoring as the weaker vessel (the way Christ protected and protects us as His Bride) is the summation of what should be in our mouths.
Managing our words, or better yet, STEWARDING our words and communication when it does not matter to us will determine whether or not others hear our heart when it finally does matter. There is a wealth of sound present in the earth, and a landfill of noise given off by the fourth estate
And we will reap what we sow.
The problem here, is how are we enabling sound and clear communication to emanate from us in such a way that it gives life rather than takes it away.
Are we supposed to never speak anything that is negative or indicates our anger? G-d forbid!
But if we are frustrated, let’s really weigh our words and measure them with frugal economy so that they do not spill over into dishonor of others.
Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a servant who becomes king, a godless fool who gets plenty to eat, a contemptible woman who gets married, and a servant who displaces her mistress.
Proverbs 30:21-23 NIV
When someone with a spirit of slavery is installed into office rather than a problem-solving son, the earth, the land writhes. It does not settle down at ease.
Sidebar: And for the record, those who think I am a rabid Narnian and a supporter of the Dwarf Trumpkin, I have been an equal-opportunity offender.
Our responsibility is to hunt for an unpack what was placed into us inherently. It’s not to look for someone else to fix our junk.
When we beg for someone else to manage and fix our problems for us, we are robbed of the dignity of developing rich tools to fix the problems with which we are faced.
When people are cut off from anything that enables them to see their own dignity, the dignity that will empower them to fix a problem or set of problems, and to see the gifts and tools that are already in their own hand….
When they believe they do not have unless they or a benevolent rogue take what is someone else’s…..
They enable something far worse than real lack….
They enable the mindset of the spirit of poverty and the spirit of slavery, which leads to envy and jealousy, and as a result, they will never get ahead.
Be careful when a politician sets forth a problem, for you have no idea what their solution is to that problem, and it could involve the drafting of another’s time, resources, or gifts.
For the record, I am about to ruin some bad theology.
Along with the fivefold ministry, or more accurately, the way the fivefold ministry is usually portrayed very badly, I tend to be skeptical of political prophecies and an overquick reading of the Scripture, unless there is a bit of fresh manna being discussed, as with a single point of a new truth.
So, with that out of the way, let’s consider the following.
Paul enters a discussion of the flesh vs. the spirit in Galatians 5, starting with verse 16.
There is an interesting aspect that I want to cover.
Giver we have a spirit and a body made of flesh, what if what Paul is discussing in the fruit of the spirit is not the fruit of the Holy Spirit but the fruit that comes by the work of the reasonably healthy human spirit in partnership with the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
So, Paul talks about walking by the spirit in vv. 16 and 17 and he doesn’t capitalize “spirit”. Ignore the ESV capitalization for the moment.
And Arthur talked about the desirable outcome of us becoming factories and he illustrated factories in Joy Unstoppable, Disc 5, Third Head: Life, Cut 3 “Becoming a Factory” by using the example of a fruit tree.
What if the fruits are factories of creativity from orchard supplies of those qualities listed in Galatians 5:22-23, and the more we cultivate those, the more of a factory we will become?
Only in a functional human spirit can those fruit continue to grow in a sustainable way.
But they are meant to be storehouses of resources so we can bring forth the new things connected to the work of partnership between our human spirits and Holy Spirit, for the our working of Competence (Belongingness, Worth, and Competence are the qualities the Trinity ministers to our souls).
What do you have in your hand? What do you bring to the table?
That is a key question, gang. And it is potentially dangerous to ask and answer unless we answer it carefully and thoughtfully. Why is that? Because we frequently have a very small idea of what we mean by “tools” and “resources”. We hear resources and we too often think of cash, or liquid assets we see. We often do not think about our relationships, our understanding, our knowledge, in part because we misapplied Paul’s exhortation, and just because we call those things (degrees and licenses and all that other stuff) shit (the Greek word σκύβαλον translates to “shit”), does not mean we reject the idea of using those items to further the plan of G-d in our lives.
Is It Really Junk?
Just because something looks like junk in your life, does not mean that G-d cannot use it.
So, at the outset of your working through approaching the work G-d has for you, toward your places of destiny, remind yourself of all the resources you have at your disposal. Truly, G-d gave you money to manage…
But He also gave you skill (Deuteronomy 8:18), friendships (Proverbs 17:17), work (Genesis 2:15), plans (Jeremiah 29:11, Proverbs 16:1, 3, 9; 19:21), rest (Mark 2:27), and family (Psalm 68:6).
And that word “skill” covers everything you do with your hands, mind, feet, anything you move to act on. The capacity to work and do something, and to do it with skill is a gift from Him. It is not just about being able to do something; it is about recognizing, discovering, and honing your strong suits so that you can do, with maximum effectiveness, the very things you love.
Our capacity to see everything we have in hand becomes a stepping stone.
“Away from what, though?”, you might ask.
The Poverty Spirit
When we only think of resources in terms of a very narrow band of things, then we might miss something G-d wants us to use. For example, the heading above brings to the minds of many Charismatic followers of Christ the conviction and curse that we will not have enough money, that we will constantly be in lack and that it is a demon that is causing this financial lack. While that is part of what the Poverty Spirit does, its full trafficking is in the arena of blinding us to everything to which we have access; its design is to keep us from seeing all of the available resources.
Stewards Don’t Rule, Or Take Authority That Is Not Theirs; They Manage and Protect For Those That Will Come
“Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the King, Steward!” “The rule of Gondor is mine! And no others!”
Yeah…
Truly, Givers are Stewards. And a Steward is a manager, not an Owner, and not a King. They are meant to recognize, gather, and protect resources for the return of the king. Further, a Steward is also given authority to allocate resources in accordance with what he or she knows about the king’s nature. And note what the King gives the Steward to do; The king will usually give the steward a great deal of latitude, provided the Steward is sober-minded and possessed of sound judgment.
Put succinctly, the Steward has the freedom to manage the king’s resources, and they may abuse those resources for a season, or they may manage those resources shrewdly for a season, but at some point there is going to be an accounting of his or her handling of the resources.
Not Indentured Servitude
Our interaction with the King, at many points, does mirror a partnership. Partners discuss and connect. Partners each bring things to the table. Partners work together. Partners walk in transparency one with another. Partners usually have chemistry if they are to survive. Partners walk in loyalty. Partners are authentic. Partners have open communication with one another. Partners synch. Partners love each other. Partners solve problems. And Partners walk in collaboration and encourage one another.
However, we are duty-bound to find the principles that are explicated in Scripture and to EXECUTE. Obedience is part of the equation.
Stewardship is part of the equation.
And awareness and allocation of available resources are also parts of the equation. Adapt and overcome. Sonship. Semper Fi. Do your job, and stop with the complaining that you do not have what you need.
Right now, without extra and added gifts given to you by others, you have treasure, gifts, resources, wealth and assets around you.
How are you managing what you are managing?
Stewardship Is Management of The Resources Given To You
Furthermore, our job and our responsibility are not to steward the resources that are not given to us. Management is not ownership, nor is it control, and the sooner we get that as a church, and especially Stewards (Givers), for whom the ROI in Stewardship is bonkers disproportionate, the sooner we will quit having the stupid effects that manifest from controlling and dictating resources. Take that, William H. Gates III, thou cankerous kakanthropist!
Stewardship is not management of the resources that are not give to you.
It’s not about screwing up the Servant (the atmosphere and the weather patterns) and blocking out the Exhorter’s impact on the planet by spraying ANY FREAKING THING, NO MATTER HOW “SAFE” IT IS.
The second you start managing resources that are not yours, like thrones, or weather patterns, or money, or emotions, or members of a church under your apostolic oversight (which is a satanic contradiction of terms, apostles do not oversee or cover anything), or networks, or families, or nations (the President is not a king)…is the second junk gets Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.
On one level, Stewardship is accomplishing someone else’s agenda with someone else’s resources.
However, let’s boil it down a bit further.
Stewardship is using given or possessed resources to accomplish an agenda.
So, two things that every Steward (Giver) must answer for themselves, in the context of the Cardinal Virtue of Walking By Faith.
Whose resources are currently in your hand?
Whose agenda are you accomlplishing?
What Resources?
Everything that we have, from the breath in our lungs; the money in our pockets; the books on our shelves; and the knowledge in our brains, minds, hearts, reins, and spirits; to the relationships with our friends, to the bit of creation with which we interact, to the skills in our minds and hands and the understanding we have in both our spirits and souls are all resources. And we are managing each a vast pool of talent and garage full of tools and resources.
Whose Agenda?
Whose agenda are you fulfilling? If you can accomplish the King’s agenda while simultaneously blessing one or more people or creation or time in so doing, whether or not those people see your actions as a blessing, then youu will have accomplished much.
Couple All This With….
Righteous communication…
How did Denethor, son of Ecthelion actually die?
Read the books….seriously, Return of the King, Chapter 7: “The Pyre of Denethor”
“‘Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death,’ answered Gandalf. ‘And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death.’ Then passing through the door he took Faramir from the deadly house and laid him on the bier on which he had been brought, and which had now been set in the porch. Denethor followed him, and stood trembling, looking with longing on the face of his son. And for a moment, while all were silent and still, watching the Lord in his throes, he wavered.”
“Then suddenly Denethor laughed. He stood up tall and proud again, and stepping swiftly back to the table he lifted from it the pillow on which his head had lain. Then coming to the doorway he drew aside the covering, and lo! he had between his hands a palantir. And as he held it up, it seemed to those that looked on that the globe began to glow with an inner flame, so that the lean face of the Lord was lit as with a red fire, and it seemed cut out of hard stone, sharp with black shadows, noble, proud, and terrible. His eyes glittered.
“‘Didst thou think that the eyes of the White Tower were blind? Nay, I have seen more than thou knowest, Grey Fool. For thy hope is but ignorance. Go then and labour in healing! Go forth and fight! Vanity. For a little space you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched. All the East is moving. And even now the wind of thy hope cheats thee and wafts up Anduin a fleet with black sails. The West has failed. It is time for all to depart who would not be slaves.’”
from The Return of the King by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Chaoter 7: The Pyre of Denethor
After these things, Denethor takes the palantir and jumps headlong into the funeral pyre.
He was corrupted because he allowed his communications with the palantir to become corrupted by the tempting of Sauron and as a result, his capacity to hear people’s hearts rightly became corrupted. He was a Steward who wished to become a Ruler.
Givers, also named Stewards, your portion is to release the revelation of wise and skillful management without being fleeced and taken advantage of by hucksters (which are a dime a dozen) to the house of the L-rd and the Bride of Christ.
There is a life-giving agenda that can only be accomplished by the Stewards of the Realm of Messiah, and they have to teach skillful handling of communications media and sound in order to help hearts be heard and fine print be seen.
Denethor failed at his job of communications, holding a device of communication.
Will you fail? I dare say NEVER!
I encourage you Givers to KEEP POUNDING AND KEEP RUNNING IN RIGHTEOUS COMMUNICATIONS with the tools of communication the King has given you.
Your forté is skillful and subtle. To teach people a gentler, more well-timed touch and word. Kindness and gentler touches.
It is no coincidence that Arthur’s Teaching of the Giver in Redemptive Gifts of Individuals was with a lighter touch.
Everything Giver is with a lighter touch.
So, take this important principle, gang, and especially you Givers/Stewards and marshal those skillful words and touches.
When you remove something that has metastisized at an alarming rate, what instrument do you use? Answer: a scalpel. Or a sword. That depends on the context.
Likewise, when you are in Denial about a result and the truth, and the stronghold is allowed to gather strength, that stronghold rooted in denying or hiding from reality creates an oppression. This oppression, left unchecked, will result in the Fourth Head of Leviathan, which we will discuss in the post on that head.
In order to survive and then thrive, you MUST tear down that stronghold, or fall under its weight. In order to tear down that stronghold effectively, you must deal with the root of Denial.
Denial. We heard it when Bob Jones said Bill Clinton had a mantle of humility. We heard about it when people suggested on one side that the morality of the President has little to do with whether or not he or she can govern. “We are not electing a pastor but a President.” We got to the point with Clinton when he said “he didn’t mean it as adultery”. We suspend judgment when it is our people, but heap it when it is the other party or group.
And meanwhile, Joe Biden is grasping for legitimacy because we allowed the President’s office to get that raucously defiled. This creation of the Office of the President-Elect, complete with Presidential Blue backdrop is a Denial-laced grab for legitimacy, because he has not been sworn in.
And many of us appear not to give a damn nor bother to pray for the toll this passed-around nonsense is taking on the marriages and families of those in positions of influence and public service.
So, Donald Trump can be the wrecking ball all you want until the cows come home.
Bill Clinton can be humble all Bob Jones claims.
Bush 43 can be the one who wants to “restore dignity to the Oval Office” while he commits us to an open-ended battle campaign with zero end in sight.
Clinton can give us surpluses until we are blue in the face…
Both Republicans and Democrats can spend us into oblivion with impugnity…
And we can pass around lists that say Republican are for limited government…
Even though Trump and Bush 43 asked for stimulus packages totaling in the billions of dollars….
However, it will not mean a thing as long as we are single-sided in our attacks and corrections and rebukes.
We still have not come out of our Denial yet, church. Neither have our government officials. And I am not convinced they want to.
The problem, indeed, is that SHIELD is a nothing more than a front for HYDRA. Those of you who have never seen the MCU movie “Captain America: Winter Solider” may not know what I mean by this. So, here are the pertinent movie clips.
And we are conserving and liberating nothing, except for the cancer that is present. Our responsibility is not to let one party or group play us off one another. In ANY arena, political or otherwise.
Spiritually speaking, this Denial and “my-partial-perspective-is-the-whole-picture” mindset is what allows things to grow without our knowledge or consent: In government, in the private sector, in the church and in the academy (looking at you, Liberty University sex scandal).
The Mesmerizing Spirit and this partial-as-whole perspective create a defilement of our times, our seasons, and our capacity to accurately discern the rhythm of times, seasons, and our moving forward in a horizontal manner with the constellation of our relationships in the surround.
When you are vested in the success of a political party come hell or high water, regardless of the actual truth, you have crossed the line into Denial.
When you are vested in the protection of a church’s reputation regardless of who was harmed by the abuse (Mars Hill, Hillsong, the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of Beth Moore who called them out on their sex abuse culture), then your attitude is part of the problem.
When Denial strikes, prophets go hazy with their sight, planes fall from the sky because of imprecise engineering, and whole movements in the church go batty because they lose their focus. I am looking at the German Lutheran church for starters, where Martin Luther, the Exhorter, wanted a number of reforms, but moved to embrace anti-semitism and wasted the latter portion of his life combatting and slandering the Jewish people.
This problem of Denial and non-reality can affect anybody regardless of their gift, but it is particuarly and disproportionately damaging to the Exhorter.
Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, FDR, Ben Franklin, Walt Disney, the Assemblies of G-d, the Apostle Paul, Moses, Solomon, the state of California, Hollywood. All have had seasons where they were massively wide of the mark while being effective in other areas, and for some of them, that distraction and non-reality cost them their birthright.
And yes, when you are a President that says “I alone can do this,” then there might be an issue embodied in that mindset.
Or you are a king who, for the sake of political peace, you marry many foreign women…..
Or you are a daughter of a pagan king and are sold as a commodity to cement your father’s political relations (Jezebel), and you swear you are never going to let another person control your destiny or aspirations….
Or if you are a skilled animator who pressures everyone around you to the point where you think that because you are Walt Disney, no one of your staff will unionize….
This diorama of reality is not about one specific set of pot shots against one person. It is about helping to illustrate the worst of what happens when we embrace non-reality.
Defining Reality
Reality is the latest manifestation of the Fourth Principle. before that, it was referred to as the Principle of Sowing and Reaping, and, before that, the Principle of Pain and Suffering.
By reality, I mean embracing WHAT IS as the L-rd sees it. He sees more fully than we do. So, right off the bat, we are talking about recognizing that we see only part of the picture, or, as one Exhorter put it:
…we know in part, and we prophesy in part
Paul to the believers in Corinth.
Gang, reality means embracing the L-rd’s agenda and applying our part for what it is, into the whole, and refusing to see our portion as the whole situation. Broadly speaking, we regularly see less than the L-rd, for some reason….
So, our responsibility is to ever look to the L-rd for direction and input as we progress into our journey.
We seek His agenda and what of His agenda He has placed within us.
Some Implications of Reality
Our responsibility in hunting for His agenda (Reality) is to refuse the popular phrases or excuses of the Charismatic Movement such as:
” I do not have the time to. research this/seek for that/therefore give me the finished product, because I came expecting….”
“I do not have time to process these raw materials. G-d will send me somoeone who will provide the finished product.”
“I do not have time to do this work or that assignment or that thing over there or this thing over here.”
It is one thing for us to ask for help when we really need it, but to engage in every situation by waltzing in with a bang and a flourish and expecting others to give to you finished products from their resources with zero understanding of the cost to them, or the sequence of Giving and Receiving is something entirely different.
There is an entitlement mindset pervasive in the body of Christ that loves to claim divine intervention for Every. Single. Situation where our poor planning or lack of resources is a factor.
Uttering Praise the L-rd and G-d Came Through when He actually came through is not a problem.
However, when we poorly plan and poorly execute and someone comes in and bails us out and we refuse to thank them for fixing our problem in our blindness, and we refuse to make course corrections or adjustments so we do not have the same problem in the future, then we have a larger root problem, and are not far from walking in non-reality.
We simply have to walk this cause-and-effect thing we call Reality more cleanly. If we are chronically late, for example, then we need to figure out why we are late and fix the problem.
We must intentionally sow good seed in order to reap a good crop.
Now, I am not beating up people who have a wound or some trauma or some junk where G-d is working in a long-term process with them to bring them to a better place. Each of us has some issues and stuff and none of us has arrived at the place of sheer perfection. If you are actively attempting to work at bettering your situation, that is one thing.
But it is entirely a different thing when sloth is part of the equation, and you are allowing life happen to you. The spirit of passivity does not belong to the highly effective son or daugher in the Kingdom; they happen to situations.
You must, in walking in Reality, know the difference between pawning your situations off on others, asking for help if you are stuck, and working at the areas you know something about and have means to fix.
It is critically important for each of us to have a goal in mind and, pending our relentless consultation with the L-rd about those plans, move toward the goal that should result in us possessing our birthright.
And in engaging Reality, we must all learn how to….
Embrace the Right Level and Kind of Pain
Indiscriminate pain avoidance is not the domain of those who wish for Reality. Rather, our responsibility is embracing the right kind and level of pain.
Your Pain….Productive Or Not…You Decide…
You have a score of choices with respect to what you do with your pain. And there are two types of pain….productive or unproductive.
Grossly put, unproductive pain is pain that comes into your life situation from which you fail to derive any lesson of any sort. You do not connect with the L-rd in this pain, and as a result, the adversity brings little to know growth.
Productive pain, on the other hand, is pain from which the L-rd is able to instruct you.
Most pain starts out as unproductive. It is the lesson that makes the difference in whether or not the pain moves from the Unproductive category to the Productive category.
For example, years ago, my father abandoned me and my parents divorced. For a long time I could only feel the sting and the heartache of my father’s absence, and this was compounded by the fact that he died a few years back.
What helped transform this pain from unproductive to productive was me helping others who had lost fathers to abandonment or alcohol or death, and blessing them. Taking care of my sons and my daughter.
Sometimes, walking in the blessings that come from walking in reality means embracing others who need when you are in a place of lack and stepping into places to bless and encourage in areas where you have received little to no human encouragement.
We have a perfect Father, and we lack no father, even if our eathly fathers abandoned us. Given we have a perfect and loving Father, what do we lack in terms of tools, affection, and depth of capacity to love and father others?
Nothing.
Reality dictates that we lack nothing with which to father. Not wisdom or resources. Not heart or spirit. Not emotions. Not understanding, knowledge, or wisdom. And certainly not a sense of justice or the capacity for a heart oozing with compassion. Because our G-d could related to our frailties, we also can relate to the weakness of others, and the lack in others.
Because He received from Our Father, we also can receive and then give to others who lack.
Provided we are wiling to move beyond slavery and into the embrace of our Father and give that embrace to others.
We love, because he first loved us. We have freely received SO MUCH, and so we are able to give even in areas where we have lacked.
This is reality that comes from the Father of Lights who has given us his son. How much will He not also give us all things.
Translation: G-d gave us everything He had in the embodiment of His Son. What’s a little bit of stuff? Especially when we are sent to be life-giving to others.
