Best of Times or Worst of Times

“Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.” – Art Buchwald

Calgary’s unemployment rate reached 7.9% in February, the highest it has been in 20 years. For many workers in Calgary, these are the worst of times. Many have moved to other cities where the unemployment rate is lower and many are still looking for that elusive job in Calgary. How does one stay healthy when they are not working, but working hard at finding that next job? Some friends and I put our heads together and came up with this list. Although there is some overlap, they are categorized into two groups: practical supports and spiritual supports.

Practical supports:

·      Evaluate and eliminate excessive debt – it may be time to downsize your home or get rid of that collector car

·      Track your finances – determine where your money goes

·      Don’t be afraid to find professional counseling – a counselor will have good advice on how to stay emotionally healthy

·      Stay connected through networking – friendships, former colleagues, the guy at that coffee-shop close to your former job

·      Have some fun – find a way to continue to pursue your hobbies

·      Keep a daily routine – get up at the same time every day, eat three meals a day

·      Create a job search plan – then work that plan

·      Volunteer:  help others while helping yourself

·      Exercise – for fun or for competition, stay fit.

Spiritual supports:

·      Daily Bible reading – it should go without saying but it does not

·      Daily prayer – again, it should go without saying, but it does not

·      Weekly longer prayer time – pray daily but then find those longer times once a week

·      Weekly prayer partner – pray with someone else

·      Monthly prayer partner who is outside of your regular networks of people – someone with whom you can be really honest

·      Monthly coach/spiritual director conversation

·      Annual or twice per year solitude retreat

·      Meditate upon Bible passages

·      Meditate upon nature

·      Read in theology

·      Read practical leadership material

·      Read the news

·      Read popular literature and popular culture material

·      Look for mystery and wonder in life

·      Expect miracles

I would love to have someone write and tell me what their experience has been in following some or all of these ideas. Best of times, or worst of times, right now is the only time we have.

Walking in the Light

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. – 1 John 1:5-7

What does this passage mean when it uses the words “walk in the light?” Light reveals things and allows them to be seen. Darkness hides; but light reveals. So if we walk in the light we are walking in such a way that our lives are being revealed. When we walk in the dark, we hide things. Walking in the light is about being honest with others. It is about finding someone with whom to be honest when we sin. It is being honest and admitting that we commit sins and are fallen broken people still progressing in a journey of holiness.

Randy Stonehill seems to understand the danger of sins that are hidden in the dark. Listen to the words of his song, “Under the Rug.”

Under The Rug
Lyrics and Music by Randy Stonehill from the album The Lazarus Heart
(Listen here)
I have a secret I can't tell, and I've learned to conceal it well,
Under the rug.

I have a secret I can't tell, and I've learned to conceal it well,
Ah, but this disturbing smell keeps coming from the carpet, (under the rug)
That's where the old ghosts hide away, down in the darkness and decay,
I work so hard to make them stay down beneath the floorboards. (under the rug)

Oh, I needed the perfect plan, but it's all gotten out of hand,
I keep my head in the sand now,
It's so scary under the rug.

"Bury your sins and they won't survive," I told myself 'til the big surprise,
Down in the dirt is where they thrive, like little poison toadstools,
Under the rug,

It's the thing in Pandora's box, biting through all the chains and locks,
Now the whole house is rocking,
It's so scary under the rug, (so scary)
It's so hairy under the rug, (under the rug)
It's so scary under the rug.

Oh, skeletons dance, and I fear they might rattle their bones in the broad daylight,
Oh, yeah.

So I wear a poker face; I close all the curtains just in case,
But something lurks in the crawling space, pointing bony fingers, (under the rug)
I hear the ticking of my telltale heart, like a bomb set to blow my world apart,
I wish that guilt would make us smart, but I'm sweeping all this garbage...

I have a secret I can't tell, and I've learned to conceal it well,
Under the rug.

We each must ask, “Am I walking in the light and revealing my life to others or am I still keeping some things hidden in the dark?” Sins that are allowed to sit in dark corners will incubate and grow. Those exposed to the light lose their ability to harm us and harm others. Each of us needs one person or a few people to whom we truly reveal ourselves. Then we will be walking in the light “as He is in the light.”

I Just Want To Know

Regardless of where you are in your spiritual journey, I pray that you might be always drawing closer to God. As I went for a run this morning a prayer written by Steve Taylor came to mind and I prayed as I ran.

In all of the activity of life: teaching, mentoring, preaching, planning, and writing, "I just want to know am I pulling people closer; I just want to be pulling them to You. I just want to stay angry at the evil. I just want to be hungry for the true. . . . Oh, search me Father and know my heart, try me and know my mind. And if there be any wicked way in me, pull me to the rock that is higher than than I." May you always be drawing closer to God.

I Just Want To Know

(Words and Music by Steve Taylor) (Listen as you read the lyrics.)

Life's too short for small talk
So don't be talking trivia now
Excess baggage fills this plane
There's more than we should ever allow
There's engines stalling and good men falling
But I ain't crawling away

I just wanna know
Am I pulling people closer?
I just wanna be pulling them to you
I just wanna stay angry at the evil
I just wanna be hungry for the true

Folks play follow the leader
But who's the leader gonna obey?
Will his head get big when the toes get tapping?
I just wanna know are they catching what I say?
I'm a little too young to introspect
And I surely haven't paid all my dues
But there's bear traps lying in those woods
Most of them already been used

I just wanna know
Am I pulling people closer?
I just wanna be pulling them to you
I just wanna stay angry at the evil
I just wanna be hungry for the true

Search me, Father, and know my heart
Try me and know my mind
And if there be any wicked way in me
Pull me to the rock that is higher than I

I just wanna know
Am I pulling people closer?
I just wanna be pulling them to you
I just wanna stay angry at the evil
I just wanna be hungry for the true

Follow-Up to People Who Care

The other half of finding people who will walk with you is finding someone whom you will care about and walk alongside. If you wish to be mentored, coached, or directed you will do well to fulfill this function in someone else's life. Sonia Sotomayor, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States explains why each of us can be the vital link in the development of a young person.

When a young person, even a gifted one, grows up without proximate living examples of what she may aspire to become--whether lawyer, scientist, artist, or leader in any realm--her goal remains abstract. Such models as appear in books or on the news, however inspiring or revered, are ultimately too remote to be real, let alone influential. But a role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration; his or her very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying, 'Yes, someone like me can do this.1

A full life does not consist in only absorbing from others; but rather a free exchange of influence and service between people. Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).


1 http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5832991.Sonia_Sotomayor

People Who Care

James Houston speaks of "mentoring," Bob Logan speaks of "coaching," and others speak of "spiritual direction." Each of these terms describe a specific methodology; but what they have in common is the concept of one person walking alongside another. In a world that is becoming more and more individual, where we define our uniqueness by our social media statements and the number of responses received, we each need people who will walk alongside us.

When we are looking for help from the right kind of people, "teachers" are not enough . . . We forget that the nurturing and caring relationship is inherent in effective teaching. Wisdom, after all, is more than data processing. Activism that is devoted to a cause can also be a poor substitute for relationships, because it is too busy to cultivate friendship. The Greek philosophers were wiser when they stated that "thought is not meaningful without action; and action is not meaningful without friendship."   James Houston, "The Mentored Life"

I encourage all of us to have people who will walk with us as either coach, mentor, or spiritual director. More than ever we need friends who will help us become real people with real thoughts and real actions. We need people who will ask us what is going on when we are "out of sorts." We need people who will encourage us when we are down. We need people who will slow us down when we are moving too fast. We need people who care about what happens to us.

Spiritual Exercise

Spiritual exercise for today. Read 1 Corinthians 9:11, 2 Corinthians 11:21-30, and Philippians 2:5-11 (they are quoted here in the New Living Translation) and then consider these questions. "To what am I entitled?" "In what can I boast?" "What privileges am I willing to give up?"

1 Corinthians 9:11
Since we have planted spiritual seed among you, aren’t we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink? 

2 Corinthians 11:21-30
But whatever they dare to boast about—I’m talking like a fool again—I dare to boast about it, too. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger? If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am.

Philippians 2:5-11
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
    he did not think of equality with God
    as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
    he took the humble position of a slave
    and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
    he humbled himself in obedience to God
    and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
    and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

"To what am I entitled?" "In what can I boast?" "What privileges am I willing to give up?"