New Life'n

Day 19 : The future in your rear-view mirror

Look back five years

How different are you now than then? How different is your life?

Think family, work, money, friends, relationships, health, birth, and death. Think about your attitudes, maturity, expectations, skills, experience, accomplishments, expectations.

How much have you changed? How has life changed?

Now do the same thing compared to ten years ago. And twenty, if you can.

What if there is the same degree of change over the next five, ten, twenty years? Forget whether the change is good or bad, just think degree – like twenty percent, or fifty, or two-hundred, or a thousandbazillion

How different will your life be if the same amount of change happens again?

I’ll bet most of that change just happens. Because that’s life.

What if you were consciously involved with some of that change?

Not all of it, just a few important pieces. What if the change you have already experienced without trying, multiplied itself in degree in a few areas important to you? In the area of your hope. How does that make you feel?

Are you willing to commit to that?

Because it will take commitment.

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Part of the 31 Days of Scary Hope series.

Day 18 : Answer this question and discover your hope

Don’t underestimate this. It’s big.

Think of the person you most respect. Think of the words ‘revere’ and ‘awe’ and then think of the person you know who comes closest to those words. If you’re a bit intimidated by them, that’s good, too.

Now pretend this person asks you this question, and they ask it in a way that you know they expect an answer:

“What do you really want?”

Quick, what’s your answer?

You may hear that question as “What do you want to see happen?” or “What do you want to be?” or “What do you want to do?” Whatever. No rules.

Do you have an answer? It’s OK if you don’t right now. But you should feel the pressure that this person you respect expects an answer at some point.

Now pretend that you’re hesitating (maybe you are), and you feel the person waiting for an answer, and so you stall, and you ask, “Why do you want to know?”

Pretend you hear them say,

“Because I want to know if you’re paying attention”

And you stammer and say, “Paying attention to what"?”

And they say, “Paying attention to how I’ve been working in your life. Paying attention to how I’ve formed you and given you unique experiences, desires, and motivations. You’ve had a lot of success and failure and frustrations. You’ve gone a lot of different directions. Your priorities have grown and changed. Things have narrowed down a bit for you. I want to know if you’re paying attention to the common river running through you, or if you think all this is just random.”

And you say, “gulp,” and they say, “That’s not an answer.”

And you say, “Well if I knew (money, time, forgiveness, distance, skill, education, access, credentials, permission, etc) wasn’t an issue…”

And they interrupt, “I’m not asking you an ‘if’ question. I’m asking,

“What do you really want"?

* * *

The answer to this question is not something you decide, or make up. It’s something you discover.

It’s a starting point question. Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. Just means you need to answer to get started.

Well?

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You can start at the beginning of 31 Days of Scary Hope: encouragement to go from IS to COULD BE -- HERE. To receive each day delivered to your email inbox, or to subscribe in a reader, click HERE.

Day 17 : Seven short books that encourage me to go from IS to COULD BE

I’ll bet you know most of these books, but I’m not trying to tell you what you don’t know. When I find something that helps, I return to it over and over, and try to get everything I can from it.

Romans by Paul. Romans gives me a big picture perspective of what God is up to, and helps me see where I fit.

Psalms by David and others. Gives me the example of a godly man’s emotions and responses on the journey of hope.

War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Creative, stuck people love this one. The book punches you in the face in message and style. It inspires you to get to work. I don’t agree with everything he says about why we procrastinate, and be warned about the language. This might not be for you, but this is one of the books that changed my life. I’ve read it three times

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. A little phone call from Jesus every day, giving you his perspective on what you’re thinking.

Poke the Box by Seth Godin. You don’t need permission to do what you want to do, to follow your hope. Start now. Initiate. Get going. He explains how the world has changed in your favor. Your excuses are gone.

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. Again, perspective. I rotate reading this with Jesus Calling as my yearly devotional. Challenging, encouraging, inspiring, and practical. If I had to pick one book to keep besides the Bible, this would be it.

The Autobiography of George Muller. His story of radical trust in God for practical everyday needs, not just for himself, but for thousands of orphans. He says his way may not be for everyone, but I was shocked at my pathetic view of faith and prayer.

What books have helped you?

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Day 16 : My dead hope

Sixteen years ago I grasped a vision for a radio show unlike any show I had heard before. It was a perfect fit for how God made me. It involved callers, my forte of observations and insight, my experience in radio, and people’s need for practical biblical advice. The idea came from a conversation with a man who knew me as well as anyone, and who I trusted more than any man.

I embraced the vision. I made plans, prayed, and did research. I shared the dream with family, friends, and people who could help shape the idea.

Hope’s long, slow death

After sixteen years, it’s not happening. Not even close. I wish I could describe an exciting story of spectacular failure, but I can’t. What’s really bad, is if someone ordered me right now to do The Show, I still wouldn’t know how to do it. With all my thinking, praying, and planning, I’ve never been able to explain exactly what it looks like, even to myself.

I’ve given up on it. I don’t pray or plan anymore. Today, I think maybe the whole thing was kind of stupid. I never think about it, except as motivation to feel sorry for myself. Inside, I’m even embarrassed.

All the scary parts of hope are in this broken dream: It’s unfulfilled. I’m disappointed. It dangled for a long time and I’ve quit. I’m confused. I’ve never been able to explain it to people; I don’t even understand it myself. I’m scared of the change necessary for doing it. Success is scary. Failure is scary. Plus, I’ve never really committed to the thing.

“Welcome,” I say to myself, “to scary hope.”

What happened?

One conclusion is that I never fully committed to it. I never prayed, planned, or worked as if I was committed. I dabbled, with seasons of intensity. It’s all my fault.

I have another conclusion: It wasn’t meant to be. The dream was used to shape me for God’s own reasons. It’s all about shaping. The shaping continues. 

I think both those conclusions are true. Plus others.

Every time I have an idea or dream now, in the back of my mind I hear, “Yeah right—what about that radio show? What makes this different from that?”

When I hear that voice it makes me want to fight harder. Notice I didn’t say that I do fight harder. I think I’m learning what fight harder means.

Broken dreams are a great way to learn about faith, God, and yourself

My definition of hope is changing.

I’m thinking it’s more about faith, trust, and commitment, than it is about any particular results of faith, trust, and commitment.

The journey is a big part of hope. Sometimes it’s the whole thing.

Here’s what I mean by ‘journey’ –

The thing I’m going to learn, and the person I’m going to become, may be more valuable to God than the results of any particular dream.

Pursuing the dream changes you

Now that’s something to hope for.

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To start at the beginning of 31 Days of Scary Hope: encouragement to go from IS to COULD BE, click HERE.

photo by indoloony

Day 15 : 5 reasons hope is scary

1. Hope can stay unfulfilled. You end up disappointed, crushed. It happens.

2. Hope can dangle for a long time and look like it’s never going to make it. You don’t know for sure until it does happen. It wears you out.

3. Hope is confusing. Is it just your own idea, something you made up? Often it’s hard to explain what you’re hoping for, even to yourself. You might not even understand what it is your hoping for.

4. Fulfilled hope involves change. Change is scary. Even success is scary.

5. Change often involves your commitment and participation. That can be scary.

Real hope is scary

Dreamy, pretend, unscary hope that’s not rooted in reality, is just talk

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Day 14 : Look it in the eye

Larry Bird’s scary hope

At age 18, Larry Bird is a kid who hates crowds and attention. He flunks a class because he won’t stand up and give a speech. He doesn’t like his name in the paper for starring in a high school basketball game. He’s the kind of guy who stares at the ground and won’t look you in the eye. You meet him and never hear a word from him. This is his scary.

He doesn’t want to be famous. He wants to play basketball against good players and win. This is his hope.

He goes to Indiana University to play basketball. The school is only fifty miles away, but ten times bigger than his whole hometown. He has no money, no clothes, no courage. The star of the team hazes him. The coach ignores him. When told he owes a $60 fee he can’t pay, that’s it; he hitchhikes home and lets his family call the coaches. The scary part wins.

Avoiding the scary means you avoid the hope

Back home, he rides on a garbage truck and paints park benches. He’s up early, he’s outside, working hard, with no stress. Today he says, “I loved that job.”

Coaches come looking for him to get him to their school. He makes his mom shoo them away and tell them he isn’t interested in college. Most coaches don’t want to pursue a player who doesn’t care.

One coach is persistent. He finds Bird and his grandmother leaving a laundromat. The grandmother forces Larry to be polite and meet the men at her house. Larry wants to drop her off and come back after they’re gone. She insists.

Sitting on her sofa, he won’t look at the coaches. He stares at the floor, listens, but hardly answers. Larry tries to get them interested in a friend in town. “He would have been good if he had gone to college,” he tells them.

Small moments can have big consequences. You never know until later. This is one of those moments.

Bird hears the coach answer, “Someday they’re gonna say the same thing about you if you don’t go to school.”

Embrace the hope, accept the scary

At this moment, Larry Bird’s hope becomes stronger than his fear. For the first time, he looks directly at the coach. He doesn’t say yes or take any big heroic steps.

He just looks hope in the eye.

The school he would eventually attend is big, too. Farther from home. He’s still poor, and shy, and hates attention. Nothing changes except what is inside him.

When you stare at your hope, the scary is still there. But hope is bigger.

When you stare at the scary, hope is still there. But fear is bigger.

You stare at your fear, or you stare at your hope

Whatever you stare at, wins

It’s a universal, spiritual law of the universe:

But the Lord helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint – Isaiah 50.7

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem – Luke 9.51

For the joy set before him, he endured the cross – Hebrews 12.2

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Today is day 14 of 31 Days of Scary Hope: encouragement to go from IS to COULD BE. You can start at the beginning HERE. To receive each day delivered to your email inbox, or to subscribe in a reader, click HERE.

Day 13 : Dirt grows stuff

Think about that.

I’ll wait.

We don’t like dirty stuff. It needs to be cleaned, removed.

Unless it’s growing something.

Green, living, fragrant, fruitful, tasty, healthful. All from dirt.

Dirty dirt.

What’s looking like dirt to you right now? Anything sprouting in there?

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31 Days of Scary Hope : encouragement to go from IS to COULD BE

So how does a dream that you never had, come true?

Oswald Chambers wrote a book I started reading twenty-three years ago. I’m still reading. Have you ever read My Utmost for His Highest?

I was given a copy after I believed in Jesus. I remember it was way too deep for me. I felt like I understood 10% of it. It’s much better today—I understand about 50%. Maybe. Probably not.

It’s one of the most popular, influential, beloved Christian books. But technically, Chambers didn’t write it, or title it, or have a dream for it, or envision it. He never wrote a book proposal, never said, “I have a vision of a book that will summarize the message God has given me and bless millions!”

Do the obvious next thing in front of you

He started a school and gave talks to students. Then he volunteered to be a chaplain during World War I and gave talks to soldiers. First his hope was a school, then his hope was to encourage soldiers. He did both.

Then he died at age 46. He had written one book, and Utmost wasn’t it.

All those talks he gave to students and soldiers? His wife, Gertrude, took notes. She could transcribe 250 words per minute shorthand. She saved all her notes.

After his death, Gertrude put together a newsletter for the students and soldiers who heard the talks and wanted more of Chambers’ words. She eventually compiled things into 30 books with Chambers listed as the author.

My Utmost was published ten years after he died. He never saw it coming.

Some hope is a dream fulfilled in time and space

Some hope is a vapor, and you let the time and space sort out as it will

I think Chambers’ hope was consistent with this vapor:

If what you say has value, it will last longer than you will – Vance Havner

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Today is day 12 of 31 Days of Scary Hope: encouragement to go from IS to COULD BE. You can start at the beginning HERE.

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Lowdown on those shoes for Haiti that you heard about on the radio

A few months ago, I invited you to go to Haiti with me and friends from Southbrook Church.

I talked with more than forty people about going. Ten of you are going, along with a dozen from Southbrook. We’re going to make a difference, be an encouragement, and have the same done for us.

We need shoes to put on the feet of kids, moms, and dads, some of whom have never had shoes.

The shoes are requested by the pastor we’re working with, and will be distributed by his church and personally by us when we visit.

Can you help? They need new (or almost new) shoes, sandals, and athletic shoes. Not anything big and expensive.

You and your family can make a difference in Haiti right now.

You can drop off a pair, or two, or three, at New Life 91.9 by next Tuesday the 18th.

We’re open 9-5, Mon-Fri, at 92 Radio Drive, Indian Trail (off Old Monroe Road, 3.5 miles south of I-485). Here’s a map.

Mesi!

Day 11 : Sometimes what you're looking for has to find you

Backing away from hope

You don’t give up, but you act like it a bit. Except in your heart.

Harrison Ford never gave up, but the acting thing definitely was not happening. So he quit, but not completely. He stayed on the fringes of the dream, but quit the pursuing. He didn’t go hard after it anymore.

He bought a house, and with no money to fix it up, he purchased tools, checked out some library books, and learned carpentry. He finished the house and commenced a new occupation. Some of the cabinets and sun decks he built to support his family are still around.

It was a man he worked with after giving up—a man who hired him to do his non-dream work—who resurrected the dream. George Lucas paid Harrison to build cabinets in his new office, and when actors auditioned for Star Wars, Harrison was already there to read lines with them. He’d stop hammering and start reading, just to help out.

He ended up as Han Solo.

If he doesn’t back away, maybe it doesn’t happen.

Some things you don't find, and some people you don't meet, by looking for them. They have to find you.

Here he is at the very beginning, before he quit, before he got going again, before bigger things happened than he probably ever imagined. Before he knew that

a dream and talent and hard work are not always enough.

Before he knew that what he was looking for had to find him. He's the one looking for Mr. Ellis:

 

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Today is day 11 of 31 Days of Scary Hope: encouragement to go from IS to COULD BE. You can start at the beginning HERE.

To receive each day delivered to your email inbox, or to subscribe in a reader, click HERE.