Now, unto Him

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. –Eph 3.20

I don’t know about you…that’s a lie, I do know, you’re just like me. Our day to day is filled with TO DO lists, appointments, timetables, reminders, and schedules. This morning I woke up, as I do every morning, before my alarm sounded and would like to say that I “Hopped up off tha bed Turn my swag on, Took a look in tha mirror said wassup” but I’ll leave that little ditty to Soulja Boy.  What I did do was take a quick thumb through my iPhone Facebook app to see who else was up at or before the crack of dawn and saw that a friend had already run unexpectedly into a blank cell on her excel spreadsheet, an empty block of time in her planner, an empty field in her calendar.  Having gotten up before the Lord finished answering His prayer requests on the other side of the International Date Line, she’d made her way to the gym for an early morning session with her trainer only to find out that, get this, THE GYM WAS CLOSED! I’m just speculating here, but I believe Jesus may have had to shed a few more drops of blood to cover this situation –I know he would have had it been me.

By the time I’d finished reading that post, I’d mustered enough awake to zombie into the kitchen and plug in the coffee pot before turning on the Tom Joyner Morning Show and showering.  I, for a brief moment, basked in my terrestrial ability to have warm H2O restore my Sight beyond Sight and replenish the Kryptonian multi-tasking powers I tend to lose each day when the sun goes down. As my supernatural time-juggling cells replenished themselves, I could see the day’s details pouring down in front of me like the green data stream in The Matrix and suddenly realized all the extra’s I needed to get done before even leaving the house –“pack my workout clothes, fix a salad for lunch since you ate pizza for dinner, return the call from YESTERDAY morning, take out the trash that’s starting to smell” (don’t act like it doesn’t happen to you!), yada, yada, so on and so forth. Jumped out the shower, attached the Bluetooth and I’m talking and lotioning, salading and gathering. “Got the coffee, got the workout bag. Now, get the trash, and I’m out!”

How many times during the day have you said it, “Now, I need to…”, or “Now, that I’ve finished that, I gotta…”? Sound familiar?

When I read this scripture in Ephesians this morning, it dawned on me, that far too many of us make the horrible mistake of mishandling Now.  Not just talking about the specific moment in time, but more so the activity we’re engaging in, Now -each block of time sectioned off for another appointment, class, task, job, or meeting.  Whether you are like the original Arnold Schwarzenegger version of the Terminator and have your day’s activities scroll like some digital readout across your retina, you still carry the bulky Franklin-Covey Daytimer, or you are the iPhone/iPad app King or BBM Queen, you have a list of things that need be accomplished for the day. You may be, and as I said at the beginning of this post, you probably are just like me; you say a quick “Jesus gimme strenf”, ” Lord take the wheel”, or some other non-descript appeal as you rush off to put a choke-hold on the wheel.

Here’s something I learned years ago as an Intercollegiate Student Track Athlete -tense muscles hinder your performance.  If you’ve ever watched runners, especially sprinters, you’ll notice how the flesh on their face just kinda flops up and down as they run at near supersonic speeds. That’s because they are, while muscling down the track, at the same time relaxed.  Runners, who tense up, stiffen up, lose form, and lose the race.  Same is true as we, unfortunately, run through our days. 

The scripture declares that God can do so much more with “Now” than we can imagine or even ask for, but often we neglect to go through our runner’s warm-up. 

Stretching- our hands to God in worship at the start of the day

Drilling –scriptures in our minds that remind us of our position with God and how he wants us to succeed

Envisioning –ourselves as successful and accomplished through the power of God in us

Breathing – out the word of God to God and self reminding us of, and holding him to his promises

Relaxing- in the work knowing that we’ve prepared for the competition and we have the strength through God to finish strong.

Every task and To Do presents an opportunity to let the power of God work in us to accomplish the next “Now”.   So I give my Now to Him, because I recognize that He is able to do more with it than can I.  Give him your Now.

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This

The prophet Jeremiah wrote "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. " (Lamentations 3:21-23 KJV)

We often read that passage with somewhat of a misunderstanding of the prophet's message. He begins verse 21 with the word this. If we begin our reading at verse twenty-one it is easy to think that the This he is referring to are the mercies, compassions, and faithfulness of the LORD he speaks of in the verses following it. When you think about it, there's nothing inherently amiss about framing it that way, but that perspective does somewhat counter the great Truth Jeremiah was trying to convey to the reader.
Flip back to the beginning of Lamentations chapter 3, starting at verse 1. Jeremiah very specifically recounts how he has been the recipient of affliction at the hand of God. I know that flies in the face of some popular theologies of the day which lead us to believe that bad things don't happen to good people, or that a loving God is all sunshine and roses, but He does still have a wrath and judgment to which even his people are at times subject. The prophet, beginning with verse 2 and continuing through verse 16 declares how miserable the Lord has made his life. I'll give pause for you to read it for yourself. Each of those verses begins with the statement "He has...". Have you ever known that the troubles or difficulties you were facing were not just happenstance or random occurrences, but as Solomon wrote "For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." (Proverbs 3:12 KJV) and which principle Paul corroborates in his first letter to the church at Corinth when he advises them to "...deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 5:5 ESV). Not that I for a moment think, as do some, that God is this great, angry grandparent just waiting for you to mess up so he can catch you in your sin. Quite the contrary, as Jeremiah lamented, God takes time to correct His loved ones that we might 1. not continue in self-destructive ways, 2. avoid future (earthly and eternal) self-destruction, 3. realize how much He actually loves us and revel in such understanding.

So, as we return to our verse, considering it in the context of all that was written prior to it, we can now see that Jeremiah's THIS conjures everything from verse 1 through verse 20. Even though verse twenty says his soul sinks in remembering all the troubles God levied against him, it is also in his ability to remember; that he is still alive and kicking, that he didn't wake up that morning crazed and deranged, he may have been in poor health but he still had health, life hadn't been a crystal stair, but he was still able to climb -all these things. He was still alive and had the mental faculties to remember that they once were, but today is another day and one where God was merciful, compassionate, and faithful.

We all have had, and still have, troubles that wear on us, things that can easily cause us to throw up our hands in defeat, curl up in a ball, suck our thumbs, and weep in self-pity. But our testimony of the mercy, compassion, and faithfulness of the Father is that we can remember. As the text says, they are new every morning. Each day God gives us further opportunity to be like Joseph, putting life in its proper context, knowing that the events, activities, and circumstances of our past were being used by God to give you testimony and proper praise of Him.

So today I want you to take a look at your present situation, and ask yourself, "What is my THIS"?

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Intentional Change

Lord I believe, help my unbelief was the cry from the father of a troubled young man in Mark 9:24. The scripture says the boy was demon-possessed, causing him to suffer seizures, foam at the mouth, and throw himself into water and into fire without regard for his own personal safety or comfort. This dad, obviously at wit's end, sought help from Jesus' disciples; unfortunately they could not provide an effective intervention for this serious situation. Finding audience with the Messiah himself, this befuddled father utters one of the most confused and self-contradictory statements not only recorded in scripture, but ever in the history of mankind, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

Fundamentally, we can all agree that the man had surpassed a state of worry and stress; it's probably safe to assume that he was mentally fatigued, emotionally distraught, and physically worn by the battle to secure some sense of normality for his drama-ridden son. Then there was the fight to get just one night of restful sleep. It's really not so uncommon for us to find ourselves at an intellectual impasse when we've had to deal with the same situation for an extended period of time. I'm sure just like many of us, this man probably initially thought that it was the boy who had the problem. We tend to do that you know, think that we are just fine, it's everyone else that's crazy: that co-worker or employee that can't seem to understand your instructions, the spouse that always has an argument, the family member that is always causing the family grief and embarrassment, or like this dad, the child that can't get right. And like many of us, we pray that God will change them, help them, heal them. But like this dad, we have to come to the realization like the old church would say "It's me, it's me, it's me oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer." In his last ditch effort, he does two critically important things: 1. cries out to Jesus; 2. opens himself up to the process of change.

Most often, the things we want to change in our life won't happen easily and we try to force it using our own strength and understanding. But if you're like most people, it's difficult to wait. Change in any system, whether that system is a single individual or an organization, occurs gradually and on many levels. Specific intention is required to orchestrate and sustain change in the system.

Intentional Change is achieved through a five-part process. An individual or group that seeks to change must:

1. envision a desirable and achievable future;

2. come to terms with their real selves and acknowledge the discrepency between real selves and the ideal they are trying to become;

3. develop a plan for how to reach the goals;

4. experiment with new behaviors;

5. create a support network that encourages new behavior.

These five steps lead to sustainable changes in habits, preceptions and mood, they in turn enhance one's abilities to understand their own and other's emotions. Putting ITC into practice can significantly develop emotional and social intelligence or what is termed 'Resonant Leadership' or being non-judgmentally mindful of where people are at the present time while guiding them to become more.

Intentional Change Theory is attributed to Dr. Richard Boytazis. ICT article taken from the Korn/Ferry Intitute Briefings on Talent and Leadership.

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