Recycling is a routine way of handling millions of tons of trash produced daily in this country, where the recycling rate continues to grow.
Did you know that God is the originator of recycling? Oh yes, He is and has always been in the business of recycling our pain.
Let’s consider the parallels between the process we go through to recycle our garbage and how God recycles pain.
Your plane is delayed.These are only a few of the types of things we experience on a regular basis. And if you are having a really good day, all of the above could be happening that day!
The reality is that many of us allow incidents such as these to ruin our day – and possibly the day of those closest to us.
At some point you have had or will have a tough conversation. Whether with a friend, a neighbor, a colleague, or a family member, confrontation is never easy.
Because you dislike confrontation, and because it is so difficult, you often do anything to avoid confronting others.
These conversations usually occur because you care about the person, you have been hurt, or you do not want someone else to get hurt.
Whatever the reason, confronting another person is never easy when you care.
The reason you fear such conversations just may be because you lack the tools for having healthy confrontation.
We live in such a busy culture that slowing down to regain perspective is often seen as getting in the way of the goals we have set. Unfortunately, it often takes loss of perspective, a crisis and a forced break to enable us to see that slowing down was not a hindrance to the goal. Instead, we now see that slowing down should be something we do on a regular basis. We all can point to a friend, acquaintance, family member or even our own lives as examples of the casualty of living too fast without giving time to assess how we are living.
What are some of the consequences of the fast-paced living of our day?
In the city where I live, as in many cities in the United States, recycling is a routine way of handling the tons of trash produced daily.
The leader of our Celebrate Recovery often says, “God is in the recycling business; He recycles our pain.”
That statement is not new or original with this leader. It has been used in lessons for Celebrate Recovery and other recovery programs for years.
I can see parallels between the process I go through in order for the city to recycle my garbage and how God recycles our pain.
2016 is already 10 days old. How are you doing in achieving the goals you set out to accomplish this year?
Are you able to move forward as you had planned or are you already feeling stuck, perhaps you are ready to give up or at least renegotiate those goals? If so, take heart; you are not alone. Doubtless many are feeling as you do today.
I want to challenge you to look at why you are stuck and what you need to do in order to continue moving ahead with your goals for 2016.
As you enter into this New Year, my question to you is simply this: What do you hope for in 2016? Or, stated another way: What do you desire for your life in 2016?
One thing I hope for each of you reading this blog is that each of you will be one year older in 2016!
On a more serious note, I know the idea of resolutions is not particularly effective or motivational. As a matter of fact, many of us do not even want to hear the word resolution used around this time of the year because it has been abused and misused.
I want to begin today’s blog by saying thank you very much for your support. Thank you for reading my blogs and for offering feedback. My hope is that during the past year you have been challenged, as well as found help and encouragement for your life and ministry while reading my blogs. I know there are numerous choices of blogs and posts for you to read, so I offer my sincerest gratitude to you for taking the time to read my blog. As I look to next year, my goal is to remain faithful in this ministry by continuing to provide help, encouragement, and challenges for you.
Change is inevitable, and you would do well to live in that reality and be prepared to deal with it when it occurs. But how do you respond to change so you are not defeated by it?
Be honest about how you feel and what you think about the change. Sometimes it may not be possible or wise to share that with the person who is the reason for the change until both of you are in a right frame of mind to do so. In the meantime, you need to be able to share with someone what you are thinking and feeling about the change. This honest sharing helps to decrease anger and keep resentment from building. It also serves to give you some perspective on managing the change.
Acknowledge what you have control over and what is outside your sphere of influence. This idea is well articulated in the first four lines of the well-known Serenity Prayer made popular by Reinhold Niebuhr.
Last week I talked about how our struggle to truly embrace who we are is at the core of our difficulty with trusting others.
I want to offer a few suggestions to you in the process of fully embracing who you are.
Get out of your head. We all have the tendency to live in our heads. When you think about it that really is the worst place to live. In our heads we come up with the worst scenarios about our situation and ourselves.
When living in our heads, we seem to focus on our negative experiences, the things about us we do not like and do not want others to know about. We are usually not afraid to trust others with what we are good at or when we have a good idea. But we struggle to let others know about the negative or less than wonderful things. The truth is all people find themselves living here sooner or later.