"...because you matter!"

Do You Hear What I Hear?

My wife and I had the exciting privilege in July of 2015 to visit the House of the Virgin Mary in Izmir, better known to us as ancient Ephesus, Turkey.

Folklore has this house as the place where the Apostle John, following Jesus’ last words on the cross, took Jesus’ mother Mary to escape persecution. Legend places Mary there where she with John lived out their final days.

Outside the house, on the path back to the parking lot, was this wall with a place to place your prayer slip of paper. Many hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions over the years, took this opportunity to leave a request in hopes of receiving an answer, a blessing to their innermost prayer.

A couple of thousand years earlier, when Jesus was teaching, in one of his controversial moments, a woman called out of the crowd, “Your mom is so blessed to have you!” (Loosely paraphrased) In the cadence of the moment, Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.” (Luke 11:28 NLT)

I think we’ve all had them, you know, the idea in our head that we can almost hear. It may have come in the voice of our parents, a teacher, a loved mentor. You may have caught yourself saying, “It was almost audible.”

What if God wants to use that medium to bless you?

Do you hear what I hear?

“But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”

House of the Virgin Mary in Izmir, Turkey

Attitude, Perspective

The next 24 – Trajectory

“The next 24 hours is going to happen.”

I sat down to reflect and enter into my journal (I use Mel Robbins, 5-Second Journal as my template), and the thought dawned on me.

I am not sovereign, I can only control a few of the details coming my way, but I can decide how to face these next moments. I make my plans, but in reality, they are often subject to the flow of my day.

Trajectory, however, is in my control.

The trajectory is the point of the triangle, the ‘how’ I will look forward, the piece of the pie that I will consider, the attitude that I will choose, the angle of vision that I will allow myself to entertain.

The next 24 hours will happen. I get to decide the how.

Approval, Dream Again, Expectation

He Came For You

God didn’t create this world or come to this world so that you could be part of an organization.

He came, ‘Immanuel-God with us,’ so that you could be part of him and his purpose for your life.

Organizations will come and go, but his life in you is what he died and rose again for; Easter.

He looked forward, with joy, to the cross, the most heinous of deaths, for one reason; you. You are the prize that he couldn’t wait to attain. It is you that he deeply wants to have in his proximity and relationship. It is your attention that he wants.

It is yours and my selfishness, stubborn, and prideful autonomy that put him in that ‘compromised’ position in the first place. He came to reconcile that. He paid that price. It cost him everything so that you and I could have unprecedented access to his very presence, to him.

It’s a big deal! It is called worship.

Then, when you meet someone else who has the same passion, focus and desire, its called fellowship, intimate bonding and relating; church. It is so beautiful, so meaningful and precious. It is the fellowship of ‘God with us.’

Don’t waste it on a structure, a system, a method, a building or denomination. He didn’t come for that.

He came for you!

Legacy

“Leave a legacy…Make an Impact…Change the World…” These are all power statements of this generation’s leadership.

Jesus captured these sentiments in the word that he used “fruitfulness.” You want to be fruitful, (Leave a legacy…Make an Impact…Change the World…”?) Here’s how. Through the pen of his good friend John, a first-hand, intimately close observer, Jesus’ words were recorded.

John recorded the benefits, but with a critical caveat, ‘you can’t do this on your own.’ In fact, ‘without this connectivity to Jesus, this direct personal connectivity, you can do nothing.’

John’s metaphor was that of a grapevine’s branch. The branch is just the conduit, the conductor, and a transfer-err of the source’s urge. The branch is not the life source; it only carries the source to the end result, the fruit.

My upbringing, my world-view, was to go and make an impact. Go where? Well, anywhere, but here. This view carried with it a sense of urgent, of purposeful, of grandiose and significant activity. It was always ‘over there,’ it always had a large, ‘one day’ component. Many people that I know did this. Some were successful. But, this mindset also carried with it the sense of ‘someone more skillful, more trained, more…anything more than myself should do this.’

John says, “No, no, no. You don’t get it. If you want to be fruitful, (Leave a legacy…Make an Impact…Change the World) get intimately connected, get properly adjusted, pruned, and let the life source, the love, flow through.”

This is everyone’s personal and private challenge. This is everyone’s call, responsibility and possibility.

What is the life source? Love, love from God. ‘Just the way you have been loved, love others.’

The result? MUCH fruit, (Leave a legacy…Make an Impact…Change the World) fruit that lasts, fruit that changes people and circumstances.

How do we know these words are true? John was there and gave first-hand written testimony; perhaps the closest account that we could have?

You don’t have to ‘wait for,’ ‘one day,’ ‘maybe.’ You can do this now. You can start today.

John recorded that Jesus said so. (John 15:1-17)

Attitude, Character, Integrity, New Path, Owning your stuff, Personal

The Encounter. It’s My Fault!

“It’s me. Sir, it’s my fault. There is no one else to blame. I did it. Did you hear me, sir? It’s my fault!”

These words pushed out of my mouth as I was being berated, at a very large volume, at a very close proximity, with coffee still on his breath, with many colourful words, on a very busy Vancouver street corner, with a whole lot of people looking on. He went up one side of me and down the other. I knew with ample awareness and bountiful description that we, I, had created a mess.

I had committed the unpardonable sin by not delivering, on time, an entire job site’s paycheques on payday morning. This was long before Direct Deposit; in fact, this one occurrence may well be the reason for Direct Deposit. You’re welcome.

Yah, I would have been mad at me too!

It was a simple mistake. No, it really was. I was supposed to deliver 711’s paycheques to their new location just under construction. The complicator? The job site was directly across the main intersection from the 711 store that was already there. I had delivered similar packages many times before. When I went to the store to give it to the person who’s name was on the parcel, the store attendant knew nothing of it and wouldn’t sign for it.

The simple solution was to deliver it to the correct address right across the street. But, who needs an address when you have the name like 711 directly on the package? So the next best solution was to take it back to the depot and let it be reprocessed from there. Had it been for something of lesser importance, that might have been the correct procedure, but not for this, and not for this day.

Then, to make matters worse, I finished my deliveries early, so I went for a leisurely lunch. My boss, who was almost unglued, rudely interrupted my solace when I got back to my truck. He required that I end my leisure immediately and deliver this package to the rightful owner, who would have had plenty of time to practice his communication skills. This was all done over the 2-way radio (before personal cell phones) with all my colleagues to hear.

So, 2.5 hours past the intended delivery time, the encounter.

Before this encounter, I had recently learned that when you make a mess, you have to own it. I didn’t realize then that I would be part of a practical exercise in this skill.

It absolutely worked. When the construction boss finally heard me, he immediately calmed and then lamely apologized for his overreaction. We were good, my company was saved, and I learned a LIFE Lesson with far-reaching applications.

When you screw-up, you have to own your stuff.

“So, the first step to getting free from conflict and staying free is for us to come out of denial and correctly process our lives. We need to live transparent lives by owning our stuff, our actions.” (Sovdi, Philip. Path Out: Eliminate the Swirl (Page 12). Kindle Edition.)https://philsovdi.com/book-offer/

Christmas, Dream Again, Expectation, Family Dysfunction

It’s Coming And It’s Going To Be Great!

Merry Christmas.

Too soon?

Not really, you’ve already been marketed to and possibly even brainwashed with brands and plans.

I think it was early August when I first witnessed that date locked and loaded. The crosshairs had you clearly in their sights. It was probably January 2nd when backroom, final plans were being made. The marketing machine has been ramping up ever since.

Before you even had a chance to pay off your last indulgence, they wanted more of your ‘interest’ and ‘investment.’ They always want more!

So, stop!

Do not give them one more year of indebtedness.

Make a choice to have a great Christmas without, (you can do this) the money you don’t have right now. They only want you to feel like you have a gun to your head. It isn’t actually there.

Make the change. Stop spending your tomorrow by living outside your means; the only way for you to get ahead.

Start modelling gratefulness and gratitude. Any package that opens, having been wrapped, brings surprise and wonder.

Have fun and wonder.

Your kids will love it and have fun when you lead the way.

Love your kids with what you have. Really. Stop trying to love them with what you don’t have.

Forget all the sayings, “Go big or go home. If you don’t get it now, you will miss out. There will never be another sale like this again.” Myriads of words have conditioned you, but they don’t have to any longer.

You can win this Christmas.

It is coming, and it is going to be great because you chose it to be so.

Attitude, Authentic, Character

Incognito

I just put down the book, caught by a sidebar comment that I’m not sure the authour even intended to land. The authour, Dr. Kevin Leman, in his book, The Real You, talked about a conversation he had with his daughter, that she initiated when she was a young teenager. She caught herself gossiping about her friends with some regularity, and she came and talked to her father about it.

What caught my attention was the very fact that this daughter would have that conversation with her parents in the first place. The very fact she felt free to come and talk and expose her inner self, exposed my deceit.

Conversely, I’ve learned to invite God. I’ve learned to invite, acknowledge Him in all my ways. I’ve learned to invite Him into my ‘good’ ways, that, I’ve always done. But, I’ve also learned to invite Him into my ‘struggling’ ways as well. I’ve even learned to invite Him into my ‘dark’ ways and my ways that have totally missed the mark. I’ve learned to be open, vulnerable with Him.

Maybe you are different, she was. But where I came from, that would have been covered and concealed. I would have dealt with that privately because real Christians don’t have those kinds of problems. Real Christians overcome. ‘Real Christians,’ I’ve discovered, often aren’t real Christians. I know I wasn’t.

Like the authour’s daughter, I have open, honest conversation with my Father in Heaven.

He knows anyway.

He is just waiting for us to uncover.

Attitude, Dream Again, Great Surprises, Growth out of Pain, Identity, Make it Pay

The Joseph Document

The Joseph Document is a compilation of twenty blogs that I did in 2017 on the life and surrounding story of the historic Joseph found in Genesis, starting in chapter 37.

Other than the story of Jesus, there may not be a more impacting and compelling Bible story in my adult life than the story of Joseph.

The story is full of innocent naivety, family dysfunction, and betrayal, brutal and cruel captivity. It shows life’s underside and how even that works for a bigger plan when God is involved, and by the way, God is always involved if we dare to look.

So, take the time. Use this tool to lift you and inspire the drama in your life for good. I guarantee that Joseph will speak from the ancient pages of history and will return the hope that you thought was gone for good.

Without modern communication, social media, church attendance, and face-to-face friends, Joseph was able to preserve his faith and equilibrium.

You can too.

The Joseph Document

Authentic, Change, Difference Made, Fact Check

Fresh Mercies

The sun came bursting through the atmosphere this morning dispelling darkness, fog, and metaphoric depression. It’s Easter. A new day, fresh dawn, with new mercies, the old gone and the new has come.

Their lives, the ones who were cowering in an undisclosed location, changed and transformed; not because of a new mindset, not because of a bible verse, but because their leader predicted his rising up from being dead, then, first thing on the third morning, he pulled it off. He did it; he came alive after being dead for over 30 plus hours.

His eleven men, his inner circle, his disciples saw first hand his coming back from the dead, not as a zombie, not as a convalescing recovering patient, but as the conqueror of death, hell, and the grave. Plus, a growing total of over 500 people saw his resurrected, transformed, new-life body.

That would change your life; needless to say, it changed their lives forever. Appropriately their fear and remorse vanished. They weren’t even afraid of torture or death. Back-room panic and protection broke into shameless declaration. In an instant, fear was dissolved and gone. Gone. Gone!

History shifted that morning. The Son broke through the atmosphere and dispelled the metaphoric darkness, fog, and depression. He changed every life he contacted. He still does.

He is alive!

About Pain, Death of a Vision

Post-Mortem

This was not a good day two thousand-ish years ago, and that is grossly understated. It was certainly not a Good Friday.

Their world had just been blown apart.

Everything they knew for the last three years has lost its hinge-pin. Death can do that, brutal death will do that more, it has a way of destroying every hope in you; it will strip you of your ‘why-a-bouts’ and void your reason without asking your permission or giving you advance warning.

Their reason for being, hoping, dreaming, future, for winning, was just gone. Gone. Gone!

They were terrorized. So, as friends, were trying to regroup and had gotten back together, loosely together, but now what? Would they be next? Who… would be next?

Peter, who usually had all the answers, was uncommonly silent, vacantly silent.

What in the world just happened? How could this happen?

Someone had provided some food, but nobody wanted to eat. Their system couldn’t consume one more thing.

Previously they thought. No, they knew things were going to change. They knew things would soon be very different, but this different? Not this kind of different.

Confidence and excitement were now just a blur replaced by angst and fear. They could vaguely recollect some things said, but it was mumbled in their heads with far-off interior voices.

Who, what, when, why, how? These cycling questions wouldn’t stop. They wouldn’t stop queuing in their brains.

As they looked over at each other, the ‘connection line’ began to thin. Their reason for being ‘with him’ ‘with her’ was gone. Common ground was now starting to have the appearance of foreign soil. Would they still be friends? Could they get through this? Did they even care anymore? Was being here with ‘them’ even safe?

Phrases like; ‘I hoped,’ ‘I knew,’ ‘I couldn’t wait,’ ‘did you see it when?’ ‘He healed him,’ ‘Oh and look. Lazarus, back from the grave!’ These phrases exited their mouths with almost every exhale.

This was a house of confusion, a house of mourning.

This was Friday, but it didn’t feel Good.