A Powerful Tool for Change

I and a couple of friends are taking the challenge to memorize Philippians by Easter.  Yep, the whole book.  It wasn't something I had planned on doing, but I came across a challenge to do so, and it appealed to me.  My friends?  Maybe they're just gluttons for punishment.  But honestly, there are some terrific benefits to memorizing scripture.  So, 8 verses into chapter 1, here's what I've gained:

• Love, affection, passion.  Paul is unabashed in expressing his feelings for the church in Philippi.  A mushy guy!  It's okay to be mushy sometimes.
• The local church had government.  Right in the first verse, Bam!, elders and decons are mentioned.
• A little something I like to call togetherness. 

Paul and this church were truly joined together.  He uses words like "partake" and "partnership" when describing them.  No matter what, they have been joined together for one cause: the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And this togetherness, this unity, has deepened into an affection that causes Paul to yearn for them.  There's comfort, joy, and gratitude in their relationsip.

The word is changing me

Each day as I review what I've memorized the day before, it moves further away from being merely an exercise, with the simplest verse taking on deeper meaning in my spirit.  The Word is changing me, softening my heart even more to love the local church.

In closing, I quote Paul, in all his mushy goodness:

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,

always in every prayer of mine for you all,

making my prayer with joy"

Philippians 1:3-4

The Word of God is relevant for our lives today. You don't have to memorize it to reap the benefit, but read it, meditate on it, let it begin to seep into the core of who you are and let it transform you.  I cheer you on!

As for my memorizing buddies - you rock! You truly love the Word and I love that we are on this journey together.

May you read and prosper!



I Am Me

I am "me".

There's a lot of things I'm not.
I'm not the best speaker in the world (nor the worst)
not the most beautiful (nor the ugliest)
not the thinnest (nor the fattest)
not the smartest (nor the dumbest)
not the wealthiest (nor the poorest)
not the most stylish (nor the most dowdy)

I am me.

I am God's BEST representation of HIS BEST Michelle.

I had a conversation today with a fabulous person who was being plagued with thoughts of how others saw them, and it was assuming the negative.  And you know what?  This person is the BEST representation of themself to the world, and I think they should work it.  Be who God made you to be, and enjoy it! No need to waste time comparing ourselves to others.  No need to consider others opinions as so weighty.  God put His BEST into YOU.  BE the best YOU you can be.

That's it.  Be you.  The best you.  And enjoy it.
I am me.
Who are you?

Effecting Change

We can't fix people.

I know, it's disappointing isn't it?  But if you think about it, do you want people to fix you?  There, a little perspective to get us on the right foot.  Nope, we can't fix people.

Here's are a few challenges we face when we try:

• We are often blinded to our own stuff, and someone telling us what's wrong tends to raise our defenses.
• Throwing knowledge at a problem just adds knowledge.  Without applied action, it doesn't bring change.
• We need revelation to see what we can't see on our own in order to be inspired to apply knowledge to change.

Knowledge without revelation is dangerous and

generally doesn't get the desired result.

In the Biblical account of Moses, he gains knowledge of his personal heritage and the plight of his people who were enslaved. While Moses attempts to do something with this knowledge, he lacks revelation of what to do and how to do it.  In the process, he murders an Egyptian and harms his reputation within his own community.

So what to do?  If we become aware (gain knowledge) of a needed change in a person or situation, revelation is needed. 

This is where God comes in - ask God for revelation and His wisdom to apply the knowledge.  Let God speak into it.  God had a plan for how Moses could effect change, he just needed to hear it first.  And once he had it....well, all the power of God backed him up and it was no longer up to Moses own limited strength and capacity.

 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,

 the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of

wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him....

Ephesians 1:16-17



An Imerfectly Perfect Church

Should Church be perfect?

I know that as a wife and mother, I often want to make things better (if not perfect): the house cleaner or more organized; our homelife more serene or fun depending on the circumstances; communication with my husband more (you get it).....And somehow, in my quest, I tend to make things more complicated.  Instead of enjoying where things are at, or simply maximizing what I have, I can stress everybody out trying to reach some self-imposed ideal. And often, when I simply relax and roll with grace and acceptance while doing the best I can, something miraculous happens: the imperfections become perfectly 'us'.  The process of working through life together helps shape who we are as a family. It's not always pretty, but it defintely is unique to us!

Can the same be true for the church?

In his book Practicing Resurrection, Eugune Peterson says this:

 “It is easy to dismiss the church as ineffective and irrelevant.  And many do dismiss it.  It is easy to be condescending to the church because so many of its members are unimpressive nonentities.  Condescension is widespread.  It is common to become disillusioned with the church because expectations formed in the country of death and by the lies of the devil are disappointments.  Disillusionment is, as a matter of course, common.” (p.13)

He goes on and challenges us to consider: what if God created the church to be imperfect? What if the problems we like to point out are actually designed by God to be the very thing that causes us to grow in the stature of Christ, to become mature believers?  If this is true, wouldn't that change our perspective in how we evaluate and experience Church?

I've never met a perfect family, and I've certainly never been to nor heard of a perfect church (not even in the Bible!), but we are all "imperfectly perfecting".

I love the local church, in all it's imperfections, because I know, in the end....God will complete the work He has started. In the meantime, we will continue to grow and mature in responsiveness to the calling that God has called us to.

Is Communication About the Message or the Response?

I'm reading a book, Less Clutter, Less Noise by Kem Meyer on communication strategies, and it's got me thinking.  Tell me what you think.

"Good communication is not so much about sending the right message as it is releasing the right response".

• As Christians we are very concerned with the Message, that it IS the right message.  Are we more concerned with it being "right" than we are leading others to the "right response"?
• Has our message become more important than the desired response?

"...a message might be important to your INTERNAL corporate audience but completely absurd for your EXTERNAL audience."

• Ultimately, who are we trying to reach, influence, impress with our message?
• There is a difference in how we craft an internal- v. external-oriented message.  Can we accept the difference and accomodate it?
• Have we created a culture that focuses on the internal message, to reach/influence/impress ourselves?

So what do you think?

Weakness is a Key to Strength

I hate feeling weak. I want to feel strong, able to accomplish my tasks with energy, to have something leftover at the end of the day to enjoy myself.  But if I don't exercise my muscles (whether they be physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, etc),  they lose strength over time.  And exercising muscles requires a conscious choice on my part.  Not only that, to really build strength I need to push my muscles past their point of weakness.

Right now I'm sitting here, trembly and weak after a tough work out with my trainer.  When I showed up he asked if I was ready to get my butt kicked.  He then proceeded to do just that.  It was hard.  It was embarassing to get to the point where I couldn't do something and then had to do it anyway.  And I did.  It wasn't elegant.  It was necessary.  I'll never push past my limits otherwise. 

It seems that the culture we live in has become at ease with making excuses for our weaknesses.  That we've accepted "I can't" as a reality instead of pushing past into an overcoming position. This keeps us weak!  In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul talks about his weakness and how he asked God repeatedly to remove it from him.  Instead, God used it as a point of building strength in Paul's life - God strength.  Paul was getting some God-muscle, "that the power of Christ can work through me....for when I am weak, then I am strong". 

Today, I was doing a series of exercises that were targeted at my greatest area of weakness, one after the other, ending with an exercise I seriously despise....because I can't do it.  As I did the first set, I struggled.  As I did the second set, I hated my trainer.  I wanted to quit.  I wanted to cry.  He was yelling at me to keep going.  I just couldn't.  Until I did. 

In life, we all have areas of weaknesses.  Don't ignore them.  Work through them to the point of strength. 

And by the way, I don't hate my trainer.  Afterwards I'm always glad he pushed me further.  After all, when I started I couldn't do a set of 10.  Today I did 25.  And I know he's working with me to reach my goals.

Where do you want to be strong?  What weaknesses do you have?  How are you going to push past them?
Just do it.  I know you can! :)

I Need a Boxing Name

So, I was inspired by our church series "Fighting to Win" where PD (my hubs) brought in trainers and world champion fighters from the Boxing Club to illustrate his sermons.  It's been a great series, and since I've been finding all kinds of excuses to avoid getting my exercise on, I now had no excuse since I'd met some great guys who were really encouraging for me to give it a go.  So I did.  Erik offered me a free training session to check it out.  Let me just say, after an hour I crawled into my van and cried.  But only after I had signed a contract.  It was exhausting, but fun!

That's why I need a boxing name. 

In the meantime, I'm working on building strength and stamina.  I've got a long way to go, but am making good progress (says my trainer), and I love feeling of strength flowing through me again.  And hitting a bag is fun!  What keeps me going is a strong goal with a timeline - it keeps me pressing forward.  Getting better at different skills keeps it interesting.  Trying new combinations is challenging. 

Are you pursuing a new goal?  What's keeping you motivated?