How Many Lies Have You Told Today?

No, not those kinds of lies; these kinds of lies:
"I'm too old."
"I'm too young."
"Love hurts.""
"I work better under pressure."
"Successful people are bad parents."
"I can't lose weight."
"I can't save money."
And the list goes on and on. These negative belief barriers are lies. These lies are powerful motivators that will actually cause you to repel success. You will just push it away like a child refuses spinach. The problem isn't just your fear. No, your fear represents a powerful, self-limiting belief. Until you identify and replace these lies, no amount of positive thinking will help you create and maintain success.
What makes these lies (negative beliefs) so powerful and insidious is that most of the time you don't even realise you say them. You will think you want something, you'll write it down, you'll back it up with positive thinking, but something happens to keep you form the very thing you say you want.
It is the negative beliefs you feed your mind that sabotage your efforts of success. So, stop the insanity! Stop lying to yourself. Be hypercritical about your self-talk. Make every effort that what you say to yourself – about yourself and your life – reflect an empowering belief. These truths will motivate you to pick up the phone, set up a meeting, ask for the sale, finish the project, eat healthier, put on those workout clothes, and do the things you need to do to get what you want!
Stop telling lies.

- Lisa Jimenez, M.Ed.

Healing Contradictions

The many contradictions in our lives - such as being home while feeling homeless, being busy while feeling bored, being popular while feeling lonely, being believers while feeling many doubts - can frustrate, irritate, and even discourage us. They make us feel that we are never fully present. Every door that opens for us makes us see how many more doors are closed.
But there is another response. These same contradictions can bring us into touch with a deeper longing, for the fulfillment of a desire that lives beneath all desires and that only God can satisfy. Contradictions, thus understood, create the friction that can help us move toward God.

- Henri Nouwen

Freedom Attracts

When you are interiorly free you call others to freedom, whether you know it or not. Freedom attracts wherever it appears. A free man or a free woman creates a space where others feel safe and want to dwell. Our world is so full of conditions, demands, requirements, and obligations that we often wonder what is expected of us. But when we meet a truly free person, there are no expectations, only an invitation to reach into ourselves and discover there our own freedom.
Where true inner freedom is, there is God. And where God is, there we want to be.

- Henri Nouwen

On the Journey Towards Living With Doubt

Doubt is an essential ingredient in a life of faith. Nevertheless, I grew up believing that there was no place for doubt in my life. To be a person of faith, one had to eradicate every doubtful thought. It takes a major paradigm shift to welcome doubt as a friend. On the other hand, doubt can easily become an idol we worship. Because doubt can take on the appearance of academic thoroughness and depth, I find myself tempted toward intellectual superiority and cynicism. This becomes a paralysis that shadows faith. And doubt is grounded in self-focus - my fears, my understanding of truth, my expectations. This becomes a solipsism that isolates us from the life God offers.
I find myself invited, through struggling with doubts, to look beyond self-perceptions to God. This can be a long process. Knowing my bent to control life and doubt God's abilities, my spiritual director encouraged me to pray with the verse "His [Jesus'] divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3a). For four months I wrestled with the inner doubts that surfaced as I faced into the actuality of this suggested truth. As I intentionally chose to shift my focus to the wonder of God, I was drawn to embrace Truth, letting my view of reality fall away. Facing my doubts was deepening my faith!

- Steve Imbach

The Spirit Will Speak in Us

When we are spiritually free, we do not have to worry about what to say or do in unexpected, difficult circumstances. When we are not concerned about what others think of us or what we will get for what we do, the right words and actions will emerge from the center of our beings because the Spirit of God, who makes us children of God and sets us free, will speak and act through us.
Jesus says: "When you are handed over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes, because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you" (Matthew 10:19-20).
Let's keep trusting the Spirit of God living within us, so that we can live freely in a world that keeps handing us over to judges and evalutators.

- Henri Nouwen

God And Man

"If these statements are true, that God and men are akin, there is but one course open to men, to do as Socrates did: never reply to one who asks his country, 'I am an Athenian', or 'I am a Corinthian', but 'I am a citizen of the universe.' For why do you say that you are an Athenian, instead of merely a native of the little spot on which your bit of a body was cast forth at birth? Plainly you call yourself Athenian or Corinthian after that more sovereign region which includes not only the very spot where you were born, and all your household, but also generally that region from which the race of your forbears has come down to you. When a man therefore has realised that there is nothing so great as this frame of things wherein men and God are united, and that from it come the seeds from which are sprung not only my own father or grandfather, but all things that are begotten and that grow upon earth, why should he not call himself a citizen of the universe and a son of God? Why should he fear anything that can happen to him among men? When kinship with Caesar or any other of those who are powerful in Rome is sufficient to make men live in security, above all scorn and free from every fear, shall not the fact that we have God as maker and father and kinsman relieve us from pains and fears?"

- Discourses of Epictetus, Book I, Chapter IX ~Epictetus - 55 AD to 135 AD~

Growing Into Our True Freedom

True freedom is the freedom of the children of God. To reach that freedom requires a lifelong discipline since so much in our world militates against it. The political, economic, social, and even religious powers surrounding us all want to keep us in bondage so that we will obey their commands and be dependent on their rewards.
But the spiritual truth that leads to freedom is the truth that we belong not to the world but to God, whose beloved children we are. By living lives in which we keep returning to that truth in word and deed, we will gradually grow into our true freedom.

- Henri Nouwen

To Let the Word Become Flesh

Spiritual reading is food for our souls. As we slowly let the words of the Bible or any spiritual book enter into our minds and descend into our hearts, we become different people. The Word gradually becomes flesh in us and thus transforms our whole beings. Thus spiritual reading is a continuing incarnation of the divine Word within us. In and through Jesus, the Christ, God became flesh long ago. In and through our reading of God's Word and our reflection on it, God becomes flesh in us now and thus makes us into living Christs for today.
Let's keep reading God's Word with love and great reverence.

- Henri Nouwen

Reading Spiritually About Spiritual Things

Reading often means gathering information, acquiring new insight and knowledge, and mastering a new field. It can lead us to degrees, diplomas, and certificates. Spiritual reading, however, is different. It means not simply reading about spiritual things but also reading about spiritual things in a spiritual way. That requires a willingness not just to read but to be read, not just to master but to be mastered by words. As long as we read the Bible or a spiritual book simply to acquire knowledge, our reading does not help us in our spiritual lives. We can become very knowledgeable about spiritual matters without becoming truly spiritual people.
As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through its words

- Henri Nouwen

King Jesus

"Pilate therefore said to Him, 'Are you a king then?' Jesus answered, 'You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.'" (John 18:37)

We have two kinds of kings in this world. The first is the parliamentary monarch, such as Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. As the object of great reverence, she is encircled by grandeur and gilded with tradition. In terms of real power, however, she has little; her opinions are heard with politeness and patience, but her office is primarily ceremonial. The British prime minister holds the reins of government.
The other kind of king is the absolute monarch whose office is both ceremonially impressive and politically powerful. He is head of state, he leads the nation, and his authority is supreme.
Many Christians treat Jesus like a parliamentary king. Once a week - if it's convenient! - they hold court with Him and make Him the object of great reverence. He is heard with politeness and patience, but in terms of daily life He has little influence.
Our Lord is an absolute monarch. He would rather have one person who is 100 percent committed to Him than a hundred people who are 80% committed. John Wesley said, "if I had 300 men who feared nothing but God, hated nothing but sin, and determined to know nothing among men but Christ, and Him crucified, I would set the world on fire."

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him" (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Queen Victoria once asked General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, for the secret of his success. "I guess," replied Booth, "the reason is because God has all there is of me."
Does He have all there is of you?

- Robert J. Morgan in "He Shall Be Called"

Laying Down Your Life for Your Friends

Good Shepherds are willing to lay down their lives for their sheep (see John 10:11). As spiritual leaders walking in the footsteps of Jesus, we are called to lay down our lives for our people. This laying down might in special circumstances mean dying for others. But it means first of all making our own lives - our sorrows and joys, our despair and hope, our loneliness and experience of intimacy - available to others as sources of new life.
One of the greatest gifts we can give others is ourselves. We offer consolation and comfort, especially in moments of crisis, when we say: "Do not be afraid, I know what you are living and I am living it with you. You are not alone." Thus we become Christ-like shepherds.

- Henri Nouwen

The Last Supper's Table

There is, after all, no table like it. This table reaches from that upper room in Jerusalem all the way through cathedrals in Europe and America, to the place where you will next take the sacrament. This table is revered in mud hut churches in Africa, where people speak the sacred words in languages you and I have never heard. It has often been set up, in crude fashion, in the darkest pits of confinement, where people imprisoned for their faith in Christ have saved a fragment of bread and a spoonful of water just so they can say, "His body. His blood." And they do it with a triumph that shakes the dungeon walls ... So I ponder that once, long ago, there was a table, where thirteen men sat ... But who could have imagined that night that where thirteen sat at the table, hundreds of millions would sit at the same table, two millennia later, everywhere on this planet. And someone will say, "The body of our Lord. The blood of Christ, shed for you. And in that moment, eternity will break in upon human souls. At a common piece of furniture called a table, you and I will eat a crumb of bread, we will drink from a cup, and for that moment, all of the company of heaven will observe in splendid awe. Such a table! Such a table!

- J. Ellsworth Kalas in "New Testament Stories from the Back Side"

The Shepherd and the Sheep

Spiritual leadership is the leadership of the Good Shepherd. As Jesus says, good shepherds know their sheep, and their sheep know them (see John 10:14). There must be a true mutuality between shepherds and their sheep. Good leaders know their own, and their own know them. Between them is mutual trust, mutual openness, mutual care, and mutual love. To follow our leaders we cannot be afraid of them, and to lead our followers we need their encouragement and support.
Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd to show the great intimacy that must exist between leaders and those entrusted to them. Without such intimacy, leadership easily becomes oppressive.

- Henri Nouwen

A Picture Of The Cross

It's the picture of violence
Yet the key to peace
A picture of suffering
Yet the key to healing
A picture of death
Yet the key to life
A picture of utter weakness
Yet the key to power
A picture of capital punishment
Yet the key to mercy and forgiveness
A picture of vicious hatred
Yet the key to love
A picture of supreme shame
Yet the Christian's supreme boast.

- Author unknown

On the Journey Towards Living With Doubt

It isn't easy to live with doubt. In fact, living with doubt can take many of us to places we would rather not go. And yet, doubt is essential in the spiritual life, not as the opposite of faith but as its partner. As the two dance together in the ebb and flow of life's movement, doubt brings honesty to the floor.
Doubt grounds me in the integrity of the questions. Glib, trite answers have no place in the room of doubt. Doubt invites me to go to places I would rather avoid, because the road is not well marked. Signs sometimes reveal the way, as helpful guides also do. More often than not, though, traveling doubt's path takes me more fully into the life of faith.
Doubt and faith need each other as part of the dance's creative tension. Though I am reluctant to get out on the floor, the music is playing, and I am compelled to respond to the dance.

- Keith Reynolds

The Authority of Compassion

Mostly we think of people with great authority as higher up, far away, hard to reach. But spiritual authority comes from compassion and emerges from deep inner solidarity with those who are "subject" to authority. The one who is fully like us, who deeply understands our joys and pains or hopes and desires, and who is willing and able to walk with us, that is the one to whom we gladly give authority and whose "subjects" we are willing to be.
It is the compassionate authority that empowers, encourages, calls forth hidden gifts, and enables great things to happen. True spiritual authorities are located in the point of an upside-down triangle, supporting and holding into the light everyone they offer their leadership to.

- Henri Nouwen

Finding Hope

"You now have sorrow," Jesus has told [His disciples], "but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you." (John 16:22)
Never on this earth has there been a time when we haven't needed hope - but hope is critical when the ones we love the most are about to leave us. I believe that is why Jesus picked this time to fill His disciples with hope . . .
All of us have felt the emotional pain of saying good-bye to somebody we love. Perhaps we've lost a job. Or we've seen the breakup of a home, perhaps even our own. And the questions in all of our hearts are, "Where do I go? What do I do? Where can I find hope?" We feel as if we have been abandoned at the corner of Hopelessness and Despair.
The good news is that we who know God through His Son, Jesus Christ, don't have to be left at such a desperate corner. There is an answer, and His name is Jesus. That's not trite. It's not merely theological. It's not just church talk.
It's true.

- David Jeremiah in "Jesus' Final Warning"

Authority and Obedience

Authority and obedience can never be divided, with some people having all the authority while others only have to obey. This separation causes authoritarian behaviour on the one side and doormat behaviour on the other. It perverts authority as well as obedience. A person with great authority who has nobody to be obedient to is in great spiritual danger. A very obedient person who has no authority over anyone is equally in danger.
Jesus spoke with great authority, but his whole life was complete obedience to his Father, and Jesus, who said to his Father, "Let it be as you, not I, would have it" (Matthew 26:39), has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (see Matthew 28:18). Let us ask ourselves: Do we live our authority in obedience and do we live our obedience with authority?

- Henri Nouwen

Still Undecided

Many of you probably could care less about the fact that Brett Favre, the Green Bay Packers quarterback and three-time MVP, is still undecided about his retirement. But here in Green Bay, and throughout Wisconsin, it's a big deal. The press and Packer fans are getting impatient.
I think all of heaven is impatient, too. Not for Brett Favre's decision, but for the decision of some of our loved ones, our co-workers, our neighbors, and, yes, some of us. Too many these days are still undecided. They are not sure that they really want to choose Christ as their Saviour and their Lord. Jesus confronted people directly about the choice to become His follower.
We can join the throng this Sunday at worship and blend in with everyone, but there comes a time when we face a personal and private decision about the One who died for our sins and rose again on Easter.
Yes, the bottom line is that our relationship with the Lord comes down to a very intimate and individual choice. Christianity is not a social club or a decision to follow the masses. It is rather a very personal and individual relationship with Jesus Christ. Have you made that choice? Or are you still undecided?

- Rev. David T. Wilkinson

Loving Our Spiritual Leaders

Religious leaders, priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams can be admired and revered but also hated and despised. We expect that our religious leaders will bring us closer to God through their prayers, teaching, and guidance. Therefore, we watch their behaviour carefully and listen critically to their words. But precisely because we expect, often without fully realising it, to be superhuman, we are easily disappointed or even feel betrayed when they prove to be just as human as we are. Thus, our unmitigated admiration quickly turns into unrestrained anger.
Let's try to love our religious leaders, forgive them their faults, and see them as brothers and sisters. Then we will enable them, in their brokenness, to lead us closer to the heart of God.

- Henri Nouwen

From Blaming to Forgiving

Our most painful suffering often comes from those who love us and those we love. The relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, teachers and students, pastors and parishioners - these are where our deepest wounds occur. Even late in life, yes, even after those who wounded us have long since died, we might still need help to sort out what happened in these relationships.
The great temptation is to keep blaming those who were closest to us for our present, condition saying: "You made me who I am now, and I hate who I am." The great challenge is to acknowledge our hurts and claim our true selves as being more than the result of what other people do to us. Only when we can claim our God-made selves as the true source of our being will we be free to forgive those who have wounded us.

- Henri Nouwen

Being Handed Over to Suffering

People who live close together can be sources of great sorrow for one another. When Jesus chose his twelve apostles, Judas was one of them. Judas is called a traitor. A traitor, according to the literal meaning of the Greek word for "betraying," is someone who hands the other over to suffering.
The truth is that we all have something of the traitor in us because each of us hands our fellow human beings over to suffering somehow, somewhere, mostly without intending or even knowing it. Many children, even grown-up children, can experience deep anger toward their parents for having protected them too much or too little. When we are willing to confess that we often hand those we love over to suffering, even against our best intentions, we will be more ready to forgive those who, mostly against their will, are the causes of our pain.

- Henri Nouwen

Focused On Christ

You could almost believe the apostle had today in mind when he wrote to his young friend, "Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from Godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing, have wandered from the faith" (1 Timothy 6:20-21).
With all of this information and all these options at our fingertips, it is more important than ever that we stay focused on the true God and His Son, Jesus, not allowing ourselves to be sidetracked into areas of false teaching that could prove destructive to our faith.
When you stop to think about it, the key to just about everything lies in FOCUS.
The writer to the Hebrews called it "fixing our thoughts" and "fixing our eyes." "Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess . Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 3:1; 12:2). In other words, rivet your attention on Jesus. Lock onto God's Son for dear life. Even when distractions around you seem overpowering. Even when your heart is breaking.

- Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton in "More Jesus, Less Religion"

Friends as Reminders of Our Truth

Sometimes our sorrow overwhelms us so much that we no longer can believe in joy. Life just seems a cup filled to the brim with war, violence, rejection, loneliness, and endless disappointments.
At times like this we need our friends to remind us that crushed grapes can produce tasty wine. It might be hard for us to trust that any joy can come from our sorrow, but when we start taking steps in the direction of our friends' advice, even when we ourselves are not yet able to feel the truth of what they say, the joy that seemed to be lost may be found again and our sorrow may become livable.

- Henri Nouwen

Being Humble and Confident

As we look at the stars and let our minds wander into the many galaxies, we come to feel so small and insignificant that anything we do, say, or think seems completely useless. But if we look into our souls and let our minds wander into the endless galaxies of our interior lives, we become so tall and significant that everything we do, say, or think appears of great importance.
We have to keep looking both ways to remain humble and confident, humorous and serious, playful and responsible. Yes, the human person is very small and very tall. It is the tension between the two that keeps us spiritually awake.

- Henri Nouwen

The Way Back Home

"Peter said to them, 'Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" - Acts 2:38

Repentance prepares us for His presence. In fact, you cannot live in His presence without repentance. Repentance permits pursuit of His presence. It builds the road for you to get to God (or for God to get to you!).

- Tommy Tenney in The Heart of a God Chaser

On the Journey Towards Living With Doubt

In his ecstatic poem "I thank You God for most this amazing day," e. e. cummings wonders how any "human merely being" could "doubt unimaginable You." And I know that feeling, from rare moments when I seem to rise above, sink below, or expand beyond my small, everyday sense of self, my busily thinking mind, my ego working so hard to preserve the separateness of me. But most of the time, my consciousness is filled with doubts of every variety.
It is so easy, and often not unjustifiable, to doubt the truth of what we are told, the motives of people who affect our lives, the security of our future, the value and meaning of our past. And it can be hard to see the presence of God as the forest that contains all those trees. In this routine state of mind, it's just as easy for me to wonder how any "human merely being" could not doubt the unimaginable.
I wish I could trust and believe unquestioningly. But doubt is an undeniable aspect of who I am. I cannot banish it. But I can work diligently to keep it from sliding into the negative entrenchment of cynicism. Perhaps the key is to make sure I also doubt my doubt: remember my own experiences of assurance, really listen when others share theirs, and leave room for the inbreaking of transcendent certainty, which can come in the most surprising ways.

- Susan M. S. Brown

Deeply Rooted in God

Trees that grow tall have deep roots. Great height without great depth is dangerous. The great leaders of this world - like St. Francis, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., - were all people who could live with public notoriety, influence, and power in a humble way because of their deep spiritual rootedness.
Without deep roots we easily let others determine who we are. But as we cling to our popularity, we may lose our true sense of self. Our clinging to the opinion of others reveals how superficial we are. We have little to stand on. We have to be kept alive by adulation and praise. Those who are deeply rooted in the love of God can enjoy human praise without being attached to it.

- Henri Nouwen

The Leadership Task

The task of future Christian leaders is not to make a little contribution to the solution of the pains and tribulations of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which Jesus is leading God's people out of slavery, through the desert land to a new land of freedom. Christian leaders have the arduous task of responding to personal struggles, family conflicts, national calamities, and international tensions with an articulate faith in God's real presence.

- Henri Nouwen

Daring to Become Dependent

When someone gives us a watch but we never wear it, the watch is not really received. When someone offers us an idea but we do not respond to it, that idea is not truly received. When someone introduces us to a friend but we ignore him or her, that friend does not feel well received.
Receiving is an art. It means allowing the other to become part of our lives. It means daring to become dependent on the other. It asks for the inner freedom to say: "Without you I wouldn't be who I am." Receiving with the heart is therefore a gesture of humility and love. So many people have been deeply hurt because their gifts were not well received. Let us be good receivers.

- Henri Nouwen

The Truth Shall Make You Odd

What characterises Christianity in the modern world is its odd-ness. Christianity is home for people who are out of step, unfashionable, unconventional and counter-cultural. As Peter says, "strangers and aliens."
I pastor the slowest growing church in America. We started twelve years ago with 90 members and have un-grown to 30. We're about as far as you can get from a "user friendly" church - not because our congregation is unfriendly, but because our services are unpredictable, unpolished and inconsistent.
We're an "odd-friendly" church, attracting unique and different followers of Christ who make every service a surprise. We refuse to edit oddness and incompetence from our services. We believe our oddness matters. We want our service filled with mistakes and surprises, because life is full of mistakes and surprises.
One Sunday morning, during the time for prayer requests, a member began describing the critical illness of her father. Because she was close to her father, her request for prayer was frequently interrupted by tears. Those around her reached out a hand or nodded with sadness. Some found their eyes filling with tears as well. The woman finished her request as best as she could.
Seated in the front row was Sadie - a young woman with Down's syndrome. Sadie stood and walked up the aisle until she saw the woman in the middle of her row. Stepping over the feet of other people in the aisle, Sadie reached the woman, bent down on her knees, laid her head on the woman's lap, and cried with her.
Sadie "inconvenienced" an entire row of people, stepped on their shoes, and forced them to make room for her, but none of us will ever forget that moment. Sadie is still teaching the rest of us what the odd compassion of Christ's church looks like.
Someone said "you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd." Whoever made that statement understood what it means to be a follower of Christ. Followers of Christ are odd. Oddness is important because it's the quality that adds colour, texture, variety, and beauty to the human condition. Christ doesn't make us the same. What He does is affirm our differentness.
Oddness is important because the most dangerous word in Western culture is "sameness." Sameness is a virus that infects members of industrialized nations and causes an allergic reaction to anyone who's different. This virus affects the decision-making part of our brain, resulting in an obsession with making the identical choices that everyone else is making.
Sameness is a disease with disastrous consequences - differences are ignored, uniqueness is not listened to, our gifts are cancelled out, and the place where life, passion, and joy reside are snuffed out.
Sameness is the result of sin. Sin does much more than infect us with lust and greed; it flattens the human race, franchises us, attempts to make us all homogenous. Sameness is the cemetery where our distinctiveness dies. In a sea of sameness, no one has an identity.
But Christians do have an identity. Aliens! We're the odd ones, the strange ones, the misfits, the outsiders, the incompatibles. Oddness is a gift of God that sits dormant until God's spirit gives it life and shape. Oddness is the consequence of following the One who made us unique, different, and in His image!
May our youth ministries be the home of oddness, the place where differentness is encouraged, where sameness is considered a sin, so that the image of our holy and odd God will be lifted up for all to see.

- Mike Yaconelli