I have spent a lot of my birthday morning working on the chapter dealing with the characters of the Bible who faced interruption.
Adam-got to bed-wake up married.
Eve-think your promise evaporated in the death of your son.
Noah-build an ark…”Right! What’s an ark.”
Finding out you’re a eunuch.
Pregnant by God.
Well, you get the picture. I am working hard!
Today I completed the greatest interruption of process. The birth of Jesus. It messed with the lives of Mary, Joseph, Herod, the wise men and the people of Jerusalem. And of course the world.
I continue to plod through page after page, making corrections, getting new revelation, fresh understanding and…interrupted. Every time I think I am closing in on something, another piece is added, uncovered or found.
Today is devoted to my grandson Jacob(when he wakes up) and writing up the interruptions of those in the Bible.
Right now I am diving into the life of Jonah. Here is a man who if we are honest, we have emulated from time to time. Especially in this day and age. “Go do this.” “Uh, no. I am not feeling lead.” (
Anyone that remembers my desk in the ministry probably remembers the chunk of lead I had placed on it. “Pastor, I am not feeling lead.” “Really? Here you go! Now go do it!!!” I have a little more grace now!)
Here is Jonah encountering two miracles of God. God speaks and speaks to a mere man!
Interruption just might be the answer to insignificance!
Today I worked on ten pages or so, trying to get the flow I want and the ideas out there. Crossed the 60 page line, roughly 30,000 words. today was working on the “process of life” from a spiritual as well as a natural process. Movement was a big portion of the process.
We are getting there!
I always wake up with interesting thoughts, songs and visions.
At 3:30 the song “Nothing But The Blood” was running over and over in my mind. I began to sing the words softly. I felt the presence of God in the room “increase.” (Rally, probably just that more cognizant of He who is always there.) The next few hours were dreams that included our president, a friend in the hospital and an acquaintance who has decided it is ok to beat me out of a couple of grand. Upon my final wake up I heard the lyrics from the Bee Gees and their song “To Love Somebody.” (Not a song I sing…)
Lyrics are below…
So what is God speaking? I think God speaks to us all the time. In pictures, words, impressions and more. Now theologically the words have some “error” but the words have power.
What if God is singing this to you?
You don’t know what it’s like, baby
You don’t know what it’s like
To love somebody
To love somebody
The way I love you
Yesterday a very good friend and I chatted. In many areas, we are in the same “walk.” We often find similarities. Currently both of us would like to see life get “on with it.” The inactivity is frustrating. I am not saying go do something just ‘cuz you can. I gave that up a while ago. There is the occasional activity that is necessary for priming the “pump” so to speak to get everything moving. But both of us have been feeling like God is “holding” us in play. Limbo is his word. Others are seeing various things move, jump and leap ahead. I am rejoicing with you. I am excited for you.
And it always comes back to seasons. The President is daily being faced with choices. He needs wisdom. My friend in the hospital needs healing. The man with the money owed to me? He needs Jesus. In all of these people, it is “nothing but the blood.”
God will speak to you in many ways. He wired you for community and communication. And even when you are “not hearing” Him He is speaking.
I do not like inactivity (Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book!) nor do I like the feeling. Our natural thinking and culture easily “translate” inactivity to worthlessness, (I spent much of yesterday morning listening to “praise breaks” to get out of that feeling.) concern and “what am I missing” thoughts.
As my friend and I talked, I began to prophesy into his life a little. The amazing thing about words spoken is they have the power and potential to change you, those that hear and the atmosphere about. I know he felt better as the conversation went on.
Why can be “set aside” for a season? I am not sure the reasons, but I do trust in the Lord and His hand upon my life. Maybe we need a rest. A time of respite. A time of reflection. (Pretty sure that is not for me. I spend WAY too much time there.) But I think it is extremely important that we are prepared for the goodness that is coming, increasing. Benjamin Disraeli asserted, “The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.”
So perhaps it really does come down to…faith.
There’s a light
A certain kind of light
That never shone on me
I want my life to be lived with you
Lived with you
There’s a way everybody say
To do each and every little thing
But what does it bring
If I ain’t got you, ain’t got faith ?
You don’t know what it’s like, baby
You don’t know what it’s like
To love somebody
To love somebody
The way I love you
In my brain
I see your face again
I know my frame of mind
You ain’t got to be so blind
And I’m blind, so, so, so very blind
I’m a man, can’t you see
What I am
I live and I breathe for you
But what good does it do
If I ain’t got you, ain’t got faith ?
To Love Somebody lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Over my life time I have worked hard to not make mistakes. Apparently a lesson in futility. I have made lots of mistakes. The result of mistakes hopefully brings you to a better place, with fewer mistakes and better outcomes.
For instance a young driver might make more mistakes than a more practiced one. A golfer who practices AND gets good advice will usually drop points from his game.
Many rely on life for the response to see if something works or not. Fortunately not everything is by trial and error. Usually you can find someone who has done what you are readying to do and save yourself the “shooting blind” exercise. I often say, “experience is a wonderful teacher, but it can also be rough on your life.” I have told my kids and others that you do not have to experience all of life to know what works and what does not. I do not need to put my hand in a bag of rattlesnakes to know that it could be painful!
While writing the “technical” portion of my book on interrupted process, I found that so much of my problem solving measures I respond with is learned behavior. The behavior developed by study, practice and education. Now practice without study may not better a golf swing. Learning to ride out a skid and turn into it requires one to over come “instinctual behavior” which would turn away.
Clarifying my process of response to interruptions has taken more time than I thought it would and is certainly more complex than I initially would have thought. And certainly one size, one answer will not fit all. There are sometimes those “I have never been here” moments. Sometimes all you can do is pray, hope and make a decision. And not every good decision works out well.
For instance when my home flooded, I quickly moved to remove the 6” of water to protect furniture and our tenant’s $50,000 transmitter. Unfortunately I could not save the furnace. BUT, after a year of doing what had been recommended, I also found that I would have been better off if I had allowed all to be destroyed. The tenant would have sued me and ultimately my insurance company. Because of my salvage actions, insurance never kicked in and my wife and I lost $179,000 over the next few years. I feel I did everything I knew to protect our finances, our home and our reputation. Looking back I see the problem. but if that happened today I would still feel guilty about not doing something.
Decision making will never always be easy or fun, but it does show you are growing up!
I have lots of dreams. Sometimes 5 or 6 a night. I said a few years ago, I am often not sure of what is dream and what is real or what is “my reality.”
Last night in a dream, I found myself in a crime family’s secret lairs. I found myself accepted as one of them because the person they thought I was had disappeared. I had been brought in because they “thought” I was one of them. One of their “architects” of finance and direction. Ironically, there was nothing illegal, but change had come. A high level meeting that caused some “hurt feelings.” I was escorted from that room. Later on I was in a back room and they came out and said “you have not left?” What I realized was they had elevated me to a very high position. The reason I was in danger was because I had been “promoted” over many others. I could not leave now they said. I had to be protected. As they made me all kinds of unusual and weird food, I found myself living a life that A) I was unaccustomed to and B) the tinge of danger was there. Would I be caught? What was I to do? I knew who I was and what God wanted for me. As I ate the final meal before being removed to a remote castle, a safe place, I awoke. Continue reading Steak Tartare And Finance – Reaching The Lost
This morning I was thinking “my chronos is important to my kairos.” The tribe of Issachar, “And of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command.” – 1 Chronicles 12:32 NAS
If I am reduced to nothingness that leaves room for everything! Continue reading It Is About Time
When I was young, I bought this old house next to our store. The yard had been a “mill river” running the grist mill in the garage area. The previous owner and friend had witnessed the water rising too high and too fast one rainy weekend and brought his excavator in the next weekend and diverted the water. (Uh…you can’t do that now!!)
It is the time of year to travel on that new motorcycle you just bought. Whether you are backpacking or you have a touring bike like my , you don’t want to get a hour out and find out, “uh oh, rain.” (Hey, we live in New England. It can be sunny in Keene and raining here in Springfield.) Little trips are not a big deal, because you can always come home. (Though I can leave in a t-shirt and ride home in my leather jacket.) Continue reading Motorcycle Meanderings June 24, 2009
