Uniquely Beautiful

 . . . the fruit of the Spirit is
love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
and self-control.
There is no law (Jewish Law) against such things.

. . .

Enter at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who are going through it,  because small is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

. . .

. . . .

Not that I have already attained or have already been perfected, but I follow after it so that I may lay hold of that for which I was seized by Christ Jesus. 

I do not count myself to have attained, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 

I press toward the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

living water

I am made in the image of God, not your image of God.

If You're Not Perfect You're Ready

Imagine what our world would be like if every single one of us would leave this place today in the power of our voice, and to speak love into the world.

Imagine how we would transform our homes.

Imagine how we might transform our work places.

Imagine how we might even transform our politics. Oh, miracle, miracle, miracle.

Imagine what it would be if we might build bridges toward one another rather than build walls in front of one another.

(applause)

Imagine what it would be if the world were not like it is today, if we would but give our women a chance to take leadership, and create love, and embrace one another in the way that Naomi and the women in our scripture were lifte up by God and by Jesus. And in our modern term, Naomi said, "You go girl. Go gwet em. Go teach. Go preach. Go feel. Go speak."

For those of us who are men in our congregation I encourage us to hear the voices of our women, to allow their voices to be present, to allow the voices of those who have often been silenced in our world to find their place at the table.

That is a cool thing our Senior Pastor shared.

PROGRAM LISTINGS & PROGRAM SCHEDULES

An Extraordinary Adventure

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To paraphrase the eminent Turkish writer and storyteller, Elif Shafak, we should step out of our cultural corners; go visit the next, and the next, and the next. Discovery!

Welcome to phenomenal life-thriving strategies delivered from the lean side of the mountain and embraced by many on this wondrous journey of life and learning - the continuation of our Extraordinary Adventure series.

"How do we cultivate young people who have the idealism, and the ambition, and the drive, and the passion to start their own journey to bring about meaningful and positive social change?"

You are altogether beautiful, my love;
    there is no flaw in you.

King Solomon

Best prepared dreamers have a CLEAR PLAN and a PASSION for success.
Consistent achievers have a unique doggedness and performance ethic.

"I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, that one will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.   The thief does not come, except to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." Jesus, Son of Man, Prince of Glory, Redeemer.

Who made the mountains? Who made the trees? Who made the rivers flow to the sea? Who sends the rain when the earth is dry? Who made the flowers to bloom in the spring? Who made the song for the robins to sing? Who hung the moon in the starry sky? Yes, all that and way much more! Our mind. Our body. Our spirit. Our soul.

Never let anyone put limits on what you can do! Don't allow it!

Phenomenal Life Strategies

Life Strategy # 13: "Only You Can Get It Done Your Way"

Phenomenal life-affirming, life-thriving, life-uplifting strategies are being delivered by Our Lord Jesus on the lean side of the mountain. It's a new life.

Action Plan: Put your soul and spirit into every stitch. Jesus gets personal with me again, whispering words of life, informing me of the importance of every stitch in each moment of time and about the relevance of the hand and mind engaged in each and every aspect from threading the needle to the final outcome. (What about you?) Is your needle threaded? How goes your stitches? What about your fabric? Who created your design?

Rejoice! Be Glad!
We are accompanied.
Many have gone before us.

Welcome to my 'inter-personal' share!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens. Hmmmm?

Nevermind! Let's fix our focus.

In an earlier segment, whilst we were discovering how to become being the best version of ourselves - an ever evolving process for those of us embracing a growth mindset - we learned from Jay Shetty about three essential E's: element, environment, and energy. At the onset of this Extraordinary Adventure, whilst exploring the true nature of authentic love, we were introduced to the functional codes of real-world operating systems - three P's: policy, practice, and power. If we are to achieve our aims, if we are to grow any further, if we are to stake our claim fulfilling that grander purpose of life, of necessity, we must step out from our training cocoon, out through the gate, into the dynamic world of Jay Shetty's three essential E's and into the crosswinds of those three operational P's, and step into the arena where our current version of individuality will engage (do necessary 'business' with) our second most exciting known reality - people!

Who-ah. People who want something special too.

Game on!

Okay! Maybe luck has nothing to do with it. Maybe people create their own luck. Maybe luck (here) has a wonderful new definition untethered from the gravel of crushed dogmas. We'll see! Maybe adding $7.5B US to the bottom line has a way of opening eyes to what that truly is. We'll see. Maybe stringing a few more gold medals across a parade of busts has a way of doing that. Maybe walking emptied for four years through the broken paths of the deprived and disenfranchised searching out bustier ways of shoring up hope, building bridges, and uncrusting rusted hinges of stodgy old gates has a way of doing that. Maybe a Place called Ah - a space of un-quieted joy and love and peace and goodness and kindness and those other sparkling gems of natural beauty has a way of doing that. We'll see. Maybe by faith we will see. Then, maybe not.

Maybe all we need to do is the right thing: put one foot in front of the other and at each step do the right thing, and some might call that outcome luck. Perhaps! Well! Keep sharing, for we are on a journey - together - yes, an extraordinary adventure. Discovery. Disclosure. A drive toward significance.

Maybe what it takes for some of us is just being there, to be empathic, to be caring, to be supportive, to 'resist' the corrosive agendas of self-hatred and self-absorption whatever form these cruel collaborators might assume in order to implant themselves. Maybe we just need to just be! Perhaps everything else is superfluous - a needless pressure. A distraction. Who decides? Share. Keep sharing. Someone - always - is watching. Seeing. Hearing. Feeling. Sifting. Sorting out. Deciding. Dissecting every move. Noting each and every step. Practicing. Perhaps! Learners stepping through your steps. Comparing. Contrasting. Evolving. Maybe? For sure, in the grand arenas when the game is in progress, the vast lot present are - well - mere spectators. Hmm? But not all! No, not all. We are on this journey - together - in weird ways related. Human.

I still remember the day. Evening. As if the moment was yesterday. I remember the place - Norton Street. 1717. I was a boy there. A little boy. My granny called my name. "Yes, Granny." Help me thread this needle, she said. I did.

I still remember the experience. The feeling. As if it is destined to remain with me. Threading that needle. I remember our space, her face, the way she stitched, how she shared what she shared with me that evening, but I don't remember what she said. Not exactly. I definitely haven't forgotten how I felt.

A stitch in time saves nine, my mother taught me. Not then. I haven't applied it to my life well. A stitch in time saves nine, my mother said repeatedly; I didn't understand it well - not until, and just barely a little bit, living in Herstelling. A stitch in time saves nine, but that part hadn't happened yet. No, not near yet. It's a good lesson for every journey, it seems to me. Some lessons are hard to forget. Fortunately.

But I was still back in Norton Street. And my granny had called me many more times - often nights - to thread her needle. And there was that feeling. I haven't forgotten how it felt. There ought to be a name for this feeling. And perhaps there is. But I haven't found it yet. Maybe I will. Maybe you know its name. I want to know that name. Or I will name it! I have named a few things. Many of those names are still thriving - crisscrossing all kinds of borders. It seems this ought to have already been named. And maybe I have heard the name and not know that that's what it is. This feeling.

My granny had no more need to call on me for that help if I were there and she was there - our space was that small - though I didn't know it was small - not near yet. Whenever I saw her take to that chair and she opened her bag and took out her sewing case, I shuffled over to her and said which needle, and then I said which thread and I threaded the needle and I knotted the ends of the thread, and gave the threaded needle to her. And I sat on the floor near there. And she shared whatever there was in her to share. And I listened. And I was gripped with this feeling. A feeling of belonging. Of being necessary. I know that feeling. A feeling of being valued. Timely. I know that feeling. This, however, is another feeling. I am not telling this story to say 'what a good boy I was' for being available to my granny to answer her need. No. No. No. NO! There is no such feeling in this. None! She was there for me! That is a big part of this feeling I feel. My fortune is that I was there - hearing her, seeing the color of her eyes, watching the way she stitched, watching the way she hitched her shoulder as she progressed. I remember many items observing my mother stitching - oh, do I remember; my Jesus, do I remembr, but I do not remember one thing - not one - my granny was stitching. Yet! I haven't forgotten this feeling. No "lesson" is any portion of this feeling. Fortune, is a part of this feeling. Yes. Some might say lucky is a part of it. No, that's not it. I don't think so. Perhaps she was stitching me. Perhaps she had to keep stitching me back together. I don't know. I never thought to ask her. And I've not forgotten the feeling.

But what is luck, anyway? What is luck, if I should be forthright in my claim that that has no part in it? Hmmm?

You probably have heard me say there is no such thing as luck. Yes? So, I feel more certain now than ever that I should correct myself - if just a bit. Lots of people I respect and value believe in luck. I have no shortage of references to luck. I know of no period of my life with any awareness that luck has finally been vanquished. And yet I have stubbornly clung to my "I don't believe in luck" claim. Maybe I was being shortsighted, okay - narrow-minded, uninformed, maybe? Patience, please! (Though, please do not get too excited, for I am not about to confess a change of heart and declare an epiphany that lets me finally profess a new-found belief in luck. Oh, dear God, NO!) Breathe! I attest that there is something there. Something different. Something good folk, knowledgable folk, smart folk, even wise folk, call luck. It is very evident in their stories - brilliant stories, moving stories, stories that have time and again impacted my journey positively. They call this peculiar thing luck. It isn't imaginary. It is a thing. But no one has yet satisfactorily defined 'this peculiar thing' to me - not on par with the way it shores up their story. Not adequately. I know of no clear definition of it (oh, please do not send me a dictionary; what is there is not what is in these awesome stories to which we are privileged. Or is it? Maybe! Then how did their 'luck' transport me to such magical places?) Well, I have accepted the challenge. I will define this peculiar thing: luck. I'll start now. I won't cease here. I won't let it go just yet. I will keep re-defining this peculiar thing until I hit on it exactly. Luck! What is it? I am declaring that it is much more than just chance? I am affirmed that it is - in these revelatory stories it is. And perhaps along your journey too! Yes? Then let me try this:

• Luck: life's unique coincidental kindness
• Luck: love's unconditional confidential kiss
• Luck: learning's unconventional creative kick

No?

I'll keep working on it. Perhaps, I will come at it some other way. I need to find it and define it without destroying its magic. Maybe you have already done so, for yes and for sure, there is something there! Many call this thing luck.

Hmmm?

Now this peculiar thing luck is in no way, shape, or form, parallel to the feeling of threading the needle for my granny. No way. That feeling is much grander. It is already well-defined in my heart and soul and spirit. There ought to be a word for it. This feeling not only transforms me, it informs me. It instructs me. It guides me. It progresses me. It propels me. Something sparks it . . . and boom!

I'll keep trying to find an appropriate name for this feeling the experience engenders. The name is probably out there. I'll keep searching. And listening. I know it is there! It has to be. No? It has nothing to do with luck.

During this episode, I shared several very knowledgable folks' perspective on one or more aspects of threading the needle, as it were, metaphorically speaking of course. I find these perspectives valuable. Perhaps you do too. Perhaps during the previous episode you faced a decision, perhaps about your authentic part in the arena: are you a player, a spectator, a commentator, a referee, a supporter, or what are you?

Now that you've entered, now that the gate is closed, game on. My wish for you: a job well done! It is all up to you now.

I have experienced what threading the needle can do - literally and metaphorically. I've seen some of its wonder. And I am wondering how well you are threading your needle for your stitches - your in time stitches particularly. Perhaps you too are traveling The High Achiever's Journey. (Click to Check it out). Shout. Share. How are you doing? Somebody believes in you.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. _ Robert Frost

Take time (if need be) to discover, hone, and use your gifts. You'll find useful steps (discovery process, action plans) in Riding Moby Dick. Just Click!

My dear child, there is a stick some believe to be the measuring stick.
When you recognize what it truly is, you'll hear God laughing.

GLO-REY!

"I give them eternal life. They shall never perish, nor shall anyone snatch them from My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them from My Father’s hand. My Father and I are one." All things are possible. Start with what is just outside your comfort zone. Believe. Act upon it. Step outside and breathe.

WORD TO THE WISE:

"Knowledge that takes you not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance." Elif Shafak.

Something To Consider

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You are

What POWER!