Vision – Page 2 – "…because you matter!"

Joseph Series: More Than a Dream

The word dream can have a different meaning to different people.

“I have a dream” by Martin Luther King was vastly different than my waking up moments this morning.

I woke up feeling like I had been on a movie set of scripts and roles all night. It was delightfully exhausting. Idea after idea rolled out scene after scene unfolded, but I don’t remember a single one now that I’m awake.

For Joseph’s dream to leave the script of an idea and join the real world, many players many physical realities had to be moved and altered. That meant time; that meant energy; that meant processing for everyone involved. It had to go from what is now to what will be. That meant things had to change, and change is very problematic for the routine.

You probably don’t like change any more than I do, but I want my dreams fulfilled. Not the pleasant dreams I can’t remember from last night, but the ones that are shaping my life and ‘firing my jets.’ The dreams of change, distinction, meaning and significance, those dreams that if uttered might bring risk, challenge, and embarrassment because how dare I? How dare you?

What dreams are making room for you? What secret space of incredible is waiting for you and your “more than all we ask or imagine?” “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,” (Ephesians 3:20, NIV)

Remember, change takes time.

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!

Attitude, Breakthrough, Change

Joseph Series: Breakthrough

“Get changed! Get shaved. The king wants to see you now!”
You waited and waited, and then you waited some more, now things are moving so fast you hardly know you are involved.
This was Joseph’s breakthrough moment, well; this was the moment when all things changed.
Joseph’s breakthrough moment happened earlier. I wasn’t there, neither were you. Joseph in the privacy of his privacy had his wrestle with God and with no one else. He wrestled with the same God that changed his dad and the way he walked. How do we know? Joseph held his values. They came out his mouth every time there was an opportunity. It used to be he had a dream and was going to be… Now, God is the interpreter of dreams.
There still was a common thread, dreams. Joseph never gave up on his dream. I’m sure that the dream became very refined, but Joseph knew that God had given it, and he knew that God would now interpret it. He just didn’t know when.
Finally, we get to see the breakthrough.
The king’s dream must have been very compelling and convincing. He moved the entire responsibility of the Egyptian economy into Joseph’s care before a single crisis ensued.
We now read the story within a fifteen to twenty minute sitting and if we are not careful will miss the magnitude of what God did in, to, and for Joseph. We will miss what God did in, to, and for Pharaoh. We will miss what God did in, to, and for Jacob. Oh yes and remember those boys? We might miss what God did in, to, and for them.

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!

Attitude, Outside the Box, Perspective, Process, Stress

Joseph Series: Think Outside The …

The circumstances you find yourself in

The pain that is in your heart

The broken relationship that you can’t fix

The disease that will not quit

The home that has been broken and shattered

The great plans you have for your year

The retirement that for which you can hardly wait

The new House

The new Car

The new Job

The new sweetheart you have on the side

The plans of discarding all that is right and true

The one night stand

Think

Think outside the box that you find yourself in.

Joseph had to. He had to look for more than childhood dreams. They just weren’t working out how he had envisioned them. The prison box that he was held captive in did not house the dream that was in his heart.

All he had left were hopes and dreams, and you know? They were probably too small.

What box, what pressure cooker are you living in? Perhaps, the very thing creating all the pressure is forming you, for the better, the best.

Think.

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!

Attitude, Focus

500 Metre Storm

Weird: try to explain it.

In the case of an accident, by the time you would be able, the evidence would be gone. No pictures; there wasn’t time; at 100 kph it was done almost as quickly as it started. It was a full on blizzard for something that lasted little more than twenty seconds. It was a band of weather crossing the road. By the time anyone could investigate, it would look like you just lost focus in normal conditions.

I was driving and then all of a sudden there were white out conditions. The car that was plainly visible in front of me disappeared in a moment. For a moment the road and defining lines were gone. At that moment, with the wrong set of circumstances, there could have been a mishap.

At that moment, in that flurry, what do you do? There are no manuals, time, or instruction videos immediately available. What you know is what you’ve got. Who you are is who it is. I backed off the throttle, stayed steady and cautiously proceeded.

Sometimes that is the way that life hits. In a moment, everything you know is gone, compromised, and jeopardized.

Emotional white outs, do they happen? Sometimes we want to run; we just want to bug out. Those are moments when we need to stay steady, back off the throttle and cautiously proceed. In about the time that it takes to breathe it’s gone and done. The only one who knows how precarious it was is you.

And one more thing, actually he’s not a thing he is a he. The Holy Spirit, if you let him, has promised to be your guide. Think about that, an internal GPS that comes with the instructions. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16:13, NIV)

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!

Approval, Attitude

Who is Your Fan?

My last weeks were filled with preparation. I worked a full-time job, gave hours of volunteering and I took on two different speaking engagements with just two week’s lead time for one and one week’s lead time for the other. I spent hours of preparation for two different audiences with two various topics to be relevant to two separate groups of people. Why, because my message was important and I didn’t want to waste anybody’s time or be unprepared for the topic at the moment.

I wanted the audience for which I was preparing to be fully appreciated.

We can perceive our life to be daily viewed and reviewed by all who are proximal. These proximity persons could be mistaken as our audience. We might even find ourselves bending or straining to gain their approval. The pressure that we perceive from them could if we let it force our decisions. “What will they think if I…did, or didn’t do…?” But really, is this with whom we should be concerned?

I remember a phrase that I heard many years ago, “We play for an audience of one.”

The urbandictionary.com gives a definition to the ‘audience of one’: focusing our “performance–what we do, say, think… or not, so as to be acceptable to one person, individual or deity”

Paul, in a context of those proximal, says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31, NIV)

Our words affect others; our actions may inspire, instruct, or even discourage, but we only play for the audience of one.

At the end of the day, the end of my life, there is only one person whose approval I want. “…Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 5:21, NIV)

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!

Attitude, Very Busy

Breathe

The last month has been busy, to say the least.

I had to write four papers for a course that I was taking while our city evacuated because of the “Beast.”

At the same time of writing these papers, I was privileged to walk with a dear friend through her stroke, intensive, then palliative care. She eventually succumbed to her illness. Sadly, I will be conducting her memorial service tomorrow.

All this happened while I have had a regular work schedule and also a somewhat ‘ramped up’ pastoral schedule again, because of the Fort McMurray Fire.

Now that the smoke of this course has cleared, I am excited to concentrate on this blog and the official launch of this site.

Very shortly I will be able to provide details of a new book that I have written, “Path Out – Eliminate the Swirl.” I will make it available here, and I am looking forward to the help that it will offer for those who are continually dealing with the issues, the swirls of ‘yesterday’.

It’s going to be a great Fall. I look forward to moving ahead with you.

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!