Spaces of Life

Psalms have been my place of refuge this summer. yHere's something I learned the other day which has been helpful since.

We are generally in one of three spaces. 1. Oriented. 2. Disoriented. 3. Reoriented.

When we are oriented things are stable. This is actually more of a rarity. We are often able to cover up the storms and high;s within to make it look like this is our reality but the truth is very few of us spend much time here. We often assume everyone else dwells here most of the time, but they don't. When we are not here, our natural inclination is to try to get back here. If the boat is rocking, we are trying to get it stabilized again. But strangely, we don't really like staying here very long. It's boring. Sometimes in this state we try to rock the boat on purpose. Just to get a little action going in our lives. We might not do this consciously but we can even sabotage ourselves just because we are bored. Maybe the best thing to do in this place in our lives is to use it to train, learn, grow and to develop a deeper sense of purpose, mission and destiny. Eventually that sense of purpose will press us forward and get the boat rocking again for the right reasons. If we don't have any purpose that is redeeming, we will be tempted to find purposes that are damaging.

When we are disoriented something or someone has upset the stability in our lives. Circumstances in our families, finances, health, work, relationships etc. are not the way we would like them and we feel discombobulated. Often our sense of being disoriented is not only from our circumstances though, many times it is within: a lack of peace, joy, or fulfillment; a sense of anxiety, stress, or worry. When we are disoriented we want to fix things. There  are a number of possible responses to being disoriented. We may just push it all under and pretend everything is okay. We may medicate/intoxicate ourselves with other things so that we don't have to face our sense of disorientation. We may go on a self-management spree and try to fix things on our own. But the Psalms invite us to take our disorientation to God. To face it in His presence and wrestle with it in prayer. They invite us to use our disorientation to push us towards God to find help, comfort, strength, solutions, wisdom, miracles, freedom, etc.. How we respond to the disoriented times in our lives effect the outcome far more than the circumstances themselves.

When we are reoriented there is a great sense of joy, life and fresh revelation. We see things and know things in a new way that makes us feel alive and joyful again. What once felt like a foggy miserable day has now changed and the sun is shining again. In these times the Psalms invite us to rejoice in God. Maybe the most descriptive word for reorientation is "hope". The Psalms teach us to move through our disorientation with God and allow Him to reorient us. They teach us to move through despair to hope.

Psalm 42:11
"Why am I discouraged?
      Why is my heart so sad?
   I will put my hope in God!
      I will praise him again—
      my Savior and my God!"

Selah

"Hope is a choice, ad to it perseverance and that's what changes the world." Jim Brown

Suffering for the Glory of God

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." Helen Keller
Some of the greatest witnesses to the goodness of God, the power of God and the love of God have been found in the most painful of human experiences. Jesus indeed has overcome the world and given us hope and life in the midst of suffering. What a beautiful thing!

John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Rom 8:16-18 “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs-- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Hope is Good for the Heart

People who have a generally negative view of the world have a hard time enjoying life. If most people are out to get you, if things probably won't work out, if you are stuck in a situation you can't do anything about...the life goes out of your eyes.
On the other hand, if you feel you have been incredibly blessed, if you believe the best about others, if you can see a way out of your troubles...there's a sparkle in your eyes that reveals life within.
It's not to say your life has to be going very well for you to have a hope-filled heart. In fact, many people I know who have had very difficult lives and who are in very difficult times are shining examples of hope, joy and inner vibrancy. And vice versa, many people who have very 'blessed' lives, who have relatively few troubles, are dead within, hopeless in a dark world.
Learning to manage your outlook in such a way that you keep it authentically renewed and positive goes a long way towards having a healthy, fully alive and functioning heart.

Bringing Out The Best In People

All of us can look back in our lives and think of people who brought out the best in us. They encouraged us when others gave up on us. They saw our potential and called it out of us. Then there are those who seem to bring out the worst in us. What do you do for the people in your life? Do you bring out the best in others or the worst?

Dale Galloway tells the story of a young boy named Teddy Stollard. He was not the kind of kid who got invited to parties. He slouched in his chair and looked bored most of the time; he only spoke when called upon, and then in monosyllables. He never dressed right; he had smelly clothes; he was a rather unattractive boy.

Whenever his teacher would mark Teddy's papers, she got a certain perverse pleasure out of marking all the wrong answers. She would put the "F" on top with a little flair. She might have known better, because his history was on record:

First grade: Teddy is a good boy and shows promise, but has a poor home situation.

Second grade: Teddy is quiet and withdrawn. His mother is terminally ill.

Third grade: Teddy is falling behind. His mother died this year; his father is uninvolved.

Fourth grade: Teddy is hopelessly backward. His father has moved away; Teddy's living with an aunt. He is deeply troubled.

Christmas came, and all the children brought presents to school. They were carefully wrapped, except for Teddy's, which was packaged in brown paper and held together with tape and marked, "For Miss Thompson. From Teddy."

The teacher would open the gifts one by one for the class to admire. When she opened Teddy's, it was a rhinestone bracelet with most of the stones missing, and a bottle of perfume that was mostly gone. The other children started to laugh, but Miss Thompson caught herself. Snapping on the bracelet, she said: "Isn't it lovely, class? And doesn't the perfume smell good?"

At the end of the class, Teddy approached her shyly. "I'm glad you liked my gifts, Miss Thompson," he whispered. "All day long you smelled like my mother. And her bracelet looked nice on you, too."

After he left, Miss Thompson put her head down on the desk and cried. She asked God to forgive her. She prayed that God would help her to see what he sees when she looks at a motherless boy.

When the children came back to school the next day, Miss Thompson was a new teacher. She tutored the children who needed extra help, Teddy most of all. By the end of the year, he had caught up with most of his classmates and was ahead of some. After that, she didn't hear from him for quite a while. Then one day she received a note:

Dear Miss Thompson,
 I wanted you to be the first to know I am graduating from high school, and I am second in my class.
Love, Teddy Stollard

Four years later came another note:

Dear Miss Thompson,
I wanted you to be the first to know I am graduating first in my class. The university has not been easy, but I liked it.
Love, Teddy Stollard

Four years later, another note:

Dear Miss Thompson,
I wanted to you be the first to know that as of today I am Theodore J. Stollard, M.D. How about that? I want you to come sit where my mother would have sat, because you're the nearest thing to family that I've had.
Love, Teddy Stollard


1 Cor. 13:3-8
So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, doesn't have a swelled head, doesn't force itself on others, isn't always "me first," doesn't fly off the handle, doesn't keep score of the sins of others, doesn't revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies.