name the day

     I have been naming days all my life, but I never realized it. I used to do it at night, after the day was done. If nothing too challenging or painful had happened, I would name the day “good.” Otherwise, I would name it (more or less) “bad.” It all depended on the circumstances.

    Now I’m learning to do it differently. Instead of waiting to see what the day brings, I name it early in the morning, when it is fresh and new. For instance, I might name the day “thanks and praise.” No matter what happens as the day unfolds, the name doesn’t change. It is like a compass, reorienting me over and over again.

    Sometimes, especially when the going gets rough, I rename the day: I give up on “thanks and praise” and start to live as if the day were called “complaint and drudgery” or “fear and dread.” That’s okay, though, because I’ve learned a secret: I can hit the reset button and start the day over any time I choose, even if it’s eight o’clock at night.

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to Your name. . . .” Psalm 92:1

“Every time we make a choice we are turning some deep and inner part of ourselves, the part of us that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. . . . [W]e are slowly turning this deep and inner part of ourselves into something that is in harmony with God and with God’s purposes in the world, or into something that is contrary to them. Each of us at each moment is progressing one way or the other.” Br. David Vryhof

here and now and always

    Some people think that God is somewhere up there, far away. If that is the whole truth, life here and now will be mostly a nose-to-the-grindstone, ho-hum business. But what if it isn’t the whole truth? What if God is also close--literally surrounding you right now as you read these words? What if all the energy and creativity and hope and friendship that we usually relegate to heaven (somewhere up there, far away and later) is instead here and now and always?

“[W]e stand here and now and always in the presence of the great Being . . . who fills and overflows all space, including the atmosphere around our body.” Dallas Willard

“Immanuel (God-with-us).” Isaiah 7:14

“[God] is not far from any one of us, for in Him we live and move and exist. . . .” Acts 17:27-28

you might be right

     A friend was happily planting her garden a few months ago when a complete stranger walked up and said, “Too late for that.” It made her angry (partly because she was afraid that it actually was too late to be planting). She sat there fuming. She felt like arguing with him, but instead she decided to say four healing words: “You might be right.” The man walked on down the street, and she went on happily planting her garden.

     She uses those four healing words a lot, and she says they work every time.

“A gentle response defuses anger, but a sharp tongue kindles a temper-fire.” Proverbs 15:1

interruptions

     I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to be productive and efficient, which means that I’ve spent a lot of my life avoiding interruptions (even when they’re people). I guess I thought that the ends somehow justify the means: if I’m doing something important, it’s okay to treat people like interruptions instead of treating them like . . . people.

     I don’t want to live that way anymore. That’s partly because, when I was too sick last month to be productive and efficient, I had to rely on other people. They didn’t treat me like an interruption. They treated me like an opportunity, and it felt very good.

“[Interruptions] are obstacles that get in the way of our being highly productive and efficient. And yet . . . they also present us with opportunities--opportunities to give our attention to others . . . , to concern ourselves with their troubles, to identify with their pain, to recognize and honor them by taking time to listen, to be for them a channel of God’s compassion and peace.” Br. David Vryhof

“Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.” Luke 6:36

heaven on earth

     Sometimes I’m afraid that I won’t have enough (health or strength or courage or whatever). When that happens, I have a choice. I can focus on the fear, which fertilizes it and makes it grow and multiply, or I can bring the fear to God, as if He were my good shepherd who would never withhold anything that is good for me. I’ve tried both in the past few weeks. One is heaven on earth.

“The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.” Psalm 23:1

“The Lord withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.” Psalm 84:11

“Nothing can be necessary that He withholds.” John Newton

a bad habit

     Here’s the truth: what I say and do reflects who I am; what somebody else says and does reflects who he is—not who I am.

     Here’s the problem: I have a bad habit of taking somebody else’s snarky mood or look or comment personally. Instead of thinking, “Hmm, he must be having a rough day,” I think, “Yep, just as I suspected. I’m not ____ enough, and he knows it, too.”

     Here’s the solution: little by little, I can practice letting go of my bad habit and letting God change the way I think.

“Let God transform [me] . . . by changing the way [I] think.” Romans 12:2