Ours, not hours. Agreement, not appeasement. Communion of union, not a rally of two or more based on fear, suspicion, anger, or hatred. Timeless value brought through meaning and purpose.
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Thoughts
The process of bringing out the person from behind the behavior.
Relentless unceasing tenderness that can be shared practically and experientially to strengthen and reroute if needed.
Open heart surge.
Mercy trumping judgement.
With our culture placing so much emphasis on external appearance, we have learned to become increasingly observant. Our commercials sell us products we don’t always need, and tell us that unless the product we’re buying into isn’t fast-acting, long-lasting, cheap, and appealing to the eyes, then it’s a waste of time. We follow suit when we are quick to throw out answers to questions that aren’t being asked to us, and even more so, giving solutions to problems we haven’t fully understood. What is inside of us that needs direct, on-the-spot problem solving, and how do we practice out and live by a deep-running faith that bears fruit of patience and understanding? It is not enough to just be observant or a servant. People who are keenly observant are often know-it-alls, and no one likes a know-it-all. Why? Because they don’t gain understanding from the facts they acquire, they just want knowledge, and they are hardly ever equipped with useful wisdom. Whimsical servants are often the ones on the front lines of the battle fields, but they don’t really know why they’re doing what they’re doing. While a willing heart might be good to help you move into your new house, we need leaders who ask for more than the work, but also the wisdom that is often found in the work.
An observant servant is one who is slow to speak and quick to listen, one who lays down his life for his brothers, not just when it’s convenient. It’s not enough to be able to call it like you see it (Matthew 16:1-3) or be a never-ending Yes Man, because both of these attributes without the Spirit are dead works.
In effective leadership, we must understand the difference between guessing and leading, obligation and servanthood, and between observation and discernment. There are gifts the Spirit gives that surpass every bit of earthly logic, if we would only just recognize that Spirit within us. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is also finishing a work inside us. With patience and kindness, we are being renewed, with an open invitation into life-giving change. We ought to extend the same invitation to ourselves and to those around us.
Witless wittiness or should I say misguided use of humor that requires a victim rather than affection.
Be a man or woman! Go and do without affection. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps into the deceit of thinking through your feet. Kick ass rather than wash the feet of others first. In truth let your feet be washed by someone first in order to know the humility of another to enable you to see the path that you may also walk in peace with power.
Let eye cons be eye cons.
Rock climbing is climbing upon the shoulders of someone who has been to the mountain and descended to stoop down and make us great too. Those are the shoulders upon which we can stand rather than what we think or feel we can't do. Rock on as the burdens roll off onto the shoulders of those around us who are only a stone's throw away. We may be castaways but not refuse or throwaways.
Grieving induced by tears that are telescopic-able to see beyond- and kaleidoscopic-able to see the big and little picture- liberates us from the microscopic black and white judgment from intellectual speculation that we often call spirituality. Till the small deaths of each day become us into a living colorful reality. I wrote about this earlier in a blog entitled Myopic to Kaleidoscopic:
Able to see and enjoy the mysterious unfolding of beauty in front and inside of me. Enlightened by new patterns of thought forming through mirrors of experientially timely words, timing becomes more important than time. Proverbs 25:11
An awareness grows of being empowered into freedom from the use of brute force that is replaced by the strength of influential gentleness. From Cyclops to single-eyed focus, I’m learning to live without the monstrous blind spots created by cultural myths that darken truth, its expression, and its joy. Matthew 6:22,23
I gradually move out of the reflective suffering of the status quo that counsels me not to commit because of the wasted energy of worrying about what people think.
My overdeveloped analytical abilities and underdeveloped will no longer have power to keep me from the fresh commitments I can now make to the One who has the combination unlocking my heart and mind.
I unlearn the commitments that have defined me which are unstated and usually unrecognized.
Slowly, the painfully harsh judgements against my emotions are being lifted. I can now listen for and interpret who I am through my emotions as they create the background music for my new life and its beauty. 1 Corinthians 14:15
A city we build with our words that are as smoke. It only chokes the life out of a relationship. As they say: "Up in Smoke".
Not a power play but empowering others. It is violent but with redemption. Not a laughing matter but a serious joy. Authoritative but tender. Craftsmanship but with personal depth. Idealistic but practical. Dancing the one step but for two or more. Rocking without declining. Speaking without freaking. Quietly opening without creaking. Running without streaking.
Echoing imagery. Noticing performance through spiritual significance.
Wooing the wow in the ordinary.
Making extraordinary dreams come true.
Living in amazement but often in the basement.
Ascending the descent into freedom from self-hatred.
Eyebrowsing rather than brow beating.
The tender non-judgmental action of seeing others by which the letter "a" is removed from the word acute.