Left to Right

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Many of you have heard me speak about being on the Left. Left, according to the dictionary, means “to abandon or forsake, to remove oneself from participating in.” Everybody wants to be right, to get it right. It’s a natural desire, but not always the best thing for you. The fact is, you’re going to spend some time on the other side, on the left. It can be painful, it can be lonely, it can be devastating.
Tim Allen knows what it feels like, and I can relate. When he was eleven years old, his father was killed by a drunk driver. Everything changed for him. As he describes it, “One day, a part of your emotional connective tissue is there, the next it’s not and you have this black gaping hole. If you don’t rake it over and plant something else, it eventually fills up with a kind of mud.” That’s a good description of being on the left-and how bad it can be. “I didn’t have any idea what to do with the fact that the world is a very cruel place.”

Maybe it’s not an accident that Tim Allen also studied philosophy when he went to college and comparative religion after that. But he also began drinking and doing drugs, trying to medicate the pain that was in his soul. It got so bad that he wound up in jail and in AA. That was where he began to turn a corner. “There was a moment when I felt a direct connection with that which brought me here. Through feeling that connection-that there’s a purpose to this whole thing-I can say, ‘It’s going to be all right.’ ”

It’s funny, isn’t it? Two Tims who were hit with the same punch but went very different ways with it-and then came back to a similar place. Because it is going to be all right, with that connection to the Spirit that moves us all.

Tim Allen spent a long season on the left, but he also became a hugely successful and highly admired actor and comedian. Is there a connection there? I believe there is. Some of you are probably thinking that you’re glad you haven’t been thrown to the left. Whew, you’re thinking,

I’ve had some bad times, but nothing ever like that! I don’t need that kind of grief! But you’re looking at it with your eyes, from your point of view. I think if you look at it with a God’s-eye point of view, it might look a little different.

I like to say it like this, sometimes you have to get Left to Get Right. Sometimes in life, we experience pain and frustration on our way to living the life we were destined to live.

CHALLENGE: What can I learn from the Left? Is my Right helping others move through their Left?

 

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Escaping Jealousy

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There will always be an opposition to your mission, and sometimes that opposition will take the form of someone who seems to have been born to make your life impossible. It might be your boss, or it might be a coworker. It might· be someone you consider a friend. It might even be someone in your family.

David knew about that. You remember David, the one who killed Goliath. But even before that, David had found favor with the Lord, and when God asked him to slay the giant, well, that was the last straw for David’s brother Eliab. Eliab started a whispering campaign to discredit David, to make David’s motives seem suspect, and to break up the good thing David had going on with God.

It happens all the time. Just because you are starting to get right, because you are starting to achieve the goals you want, because you are standing taller, somebody will try to mow you down. Jealousy and envy are next-door neighbors and are always talking over the back fence. Jealous people are resentful of what you’ve accomplished, envious of your success. Frequently they are afraid that they will be the losers if you are a winner. They want to deprive you of what you’ve gained or take away the things you find gratifying and satisfying. They are resentful and malicious, suspicious and bitter.

Such people may start to whisper about you behind your back, causing others to doubt you. Like Eliab, they may spread rumors about your true motives and disrupt relationships that you have built up among friends and colleagues. Jealous people do not “get you.” They don’t understand that you have a plan and a purpose that are not related to them. They may be envious that you have a plan at all. But just as often, they don’t even know why they are out to get you. That doesn’t make them any less destructive to your mission.

Throughout history, jealousy and envy have started wars, broken families and relationships, and halted destinies. Of course the poster child for jealousy and envy in the Bible is Lucifer, and I’m sure you’ve sometimes felt as though you were fighting the devil when someone like that starts to work against you.

The great danger is that your opposition begins to make you doubt yourself That is when your God idea comes to your aid. If you know your purpose and know that it is for the benefit of everyone, then you will not be shaken in your faith. David knew that his intentions were pure, so he ignored his brother. He realized that his brother was speaking from his own problems, not David’s. So David walked away from his brother and went to fight Goliath. He did not leave- his priority pathway, and he accomplished his destiny. Remember, your purpose is the big idea; it is the reason for everything you do. You may have passions for one thing or another, and you may have plans to accomplish one thing or another, but your purpose is the reason that you are here on earth. As long as that is for good, and as long as your passions and plans are in harmony with that purpose, then you know that you cannot be doing wrong.

 

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Believing in Yourself

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There’s a huge difference between narcissism and self-confidence. Narcissism is a psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem. Self-confidence is defined as freedom from doubt; belief in yourself and your abilities.

How you handle disappointments and mistakes/failures will depend on your level of self-esteem. If you feel you are capable of assessing your own abilities and improvements, then you will be empowered to “bounce back” from your “setbacks”.

Understanding and acknowledging your unique God-given purpose in life will not only give you direction, but will give you a whole and pure self-confidence. It’s empowering. Self-confidence comes from the ability to keep trying, keep learning and keep caring despite your circumstances.

“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” Malcolm S. Forbes

In the Bible, we read about a young boy named Joseph. He was the eleventh of twelfth sons born of Jacob and Rachel. When he was seventeen, he had a two dreams that would set the course for an adventurous and ultimately powerful destiny. Throughout his journey, he was sold into slavery, accused of trying to seduce his master’s wife, and left in prison. His belief in what God showed him and his self-confidence, firmly grounded in God led him to his highly coveted position of Vizier, placed in charge over “all the land of Egypt” by the Pharoah. He later helped, not only the entire land of Egypt to sustain itself throughout a famine, but was able to sustain his family and later open doors for his people.

Our dreams, our purpose, our destiny is not just for us to live a better life. It is set in place for us to make life better for those around us as well. It is interesting that when Jesus is asked what the most important commandment is, he states that we must love God and love our neighbors as ourself. Understanding that loving God, loving others and loving ourself are all extremely important and work together in unison. You can’t love God without loving yourself. You can’t love others without loving yourself. Healthy self-confidence is utterly integral to the success of not only seeing your dreams come true, but to finding fulfillment and strength throughout your spiritual journey.

CHALLENGE: Whether you take a formal Emotional Intelligence test or simply take some time to reflect on your strengths, it is important that we are honest about who we are and how we interact with our world. Write down 10 things you are amazing at. Think about when you noticed you were great at these things. Focus on what you’re good at and search for ways to use those talents to make life better for those around you.

Dress the part, walk a little faster, sit up straight, be thankful, compliment others and speak up.

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Everything Starts with a Dream

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dreamEvery dream has a process…a journey if you will. The scriptures say that God has a plan for you. It says that He summoned those plans. It says they are already in motion. Faces, places and spaces have already been arranged and are eagerly awaiting due time and obedience. He begins to reveal glimpses of His plan to you.

This is called the IMPARTATION. It is God’s desire to make known, tell, relate and disclose. Dreams many times, are like previews. When you go to the movies, you sit there before the featured film begins and watch the previews. You get a glimpse of what’s to come…not the whole thing, but just a glimpse. You get enough to entice and intrigue you.

It sometimes feels like forever before the preview becomes a reality.

Mary greets ElizabethIn Isaiah, the Messiah had been prophesied about and the people got a glimpse, a preview of what was to come. But after Mary was walking down the road and encountered Gabriel did this seem to become a reality. Now Mary was pregnant with a dream, pregnant with the Messiah, pregnant with the fulfillment of a preview. This is the INCUBATION. The dream, the preview, the plan was finally starting to develop, grow, take form. Mary had different plans. I like to say, God etch-a-sketched her plans and shifted her destiny. Mary asked how can this be? The plan requires God’s super on our natural. It is bigger than us. She was told to run to the house of Elizabeth. Sometimes, we need to run to where another dreamer is. Connect with someone else who has faith in the process. When Mary came close to Elizabeth, the baby in her jumped with excitement. Elizabeth sang, “Blessed woman, who believed what God said, believed every word would come true!“

We all have dreams that have been revealed to us. Some of us hold on to them for dear life. Others, push them away and get discouraged when they take too long. When God gives you a dream, a vision, a plan, He is committed to seeing it through. These dreams are not self-focused dreams, they are dreams that will bring light and healing to the world. They are outward-focused dreams.

CHALLENGE: Write down your dreams, the silly ones and the serious ones. Allow time for the process. Don’t lose hope. Understand that you only have a glimpse and that the actual fulfillment of your dream may look different that expected.

 

 

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Labels

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It’s a part of life. We seek to label others, whether for organizational purposes or purely out of jealousy. That person is young, old, black, white, rich, poor, divorced, single, ugly, pretty, a good mom, a scary person, a loser, a world shaker. It is part of our human nature to see someone for the first time and attempt to define them.

This is useful at times, but can become devastatingly destructive as well. I shared a story at The Study last Tuesday about a kid I knew in grade school who wet his pants…once. When he got to middle school the stigma stuck and so on through high school. At our 20 year reunion, he had become a doctor and in most of the world’s eyes, very successful, but when he entered the party, some alumni in the corner whispered “hey look who it is, the kid who wets his pants.”

Rahab was labeled a prostitute because, well, she was one. She was’nt labeled a mom concerned for her family or courageous women who helped the Hebrew spies. Even much later in Hebrew 11, she is listed as a person of great faith, but still referred to as Rahab the prostitute.

We all have been labeled by others. Sometimes we even label ourselves. Just because you had a baby at 16 doesn’t mean you can’t live a great life as a mother. Just because you ended up in a divorce doesn’t mean you’re destined to live a lonely destitute life. Just because you are a felon, doesn’t mean you have to stay in that mindset forever.

David failed. He lusted after Bathsheba, slept with her, had her husband killed to cover her pregnancy up. But he also, after being confronted, acknowledged his path and returned to a life of following God. Later, the writer of Acts recalls what God said about David, “a man whose heart beats to my heart.”

I’ve shared over the years, the story of Diane. She had extreme learning difficulties and would walk by my house most days at around the same time. We eventually became friends and she would share about her work putting spoons, forks and knives into  a small plastic bag. I worked with her and always encouraged her about how great she was doing, even telling her that if she saved up her money, she could eventually have enough to go to Disneyland. Her family quickly noticed her change in demeanor. She was no longer being labeled “handicapped” or insignificant, she was being labeled a hard worker and a dear friend.

We have the power to shift someone’s life…both positively and negatively. We have to power to build up or destroy. How are we talking to our kids? How do we talk to our spouse? How do we talk about ourselves?

I CHALLENGE YOU

Remove all the negative and limiting labels that have been placed on you and rise up to be the person you were created to be. Watch what words we put on others. Begin to speak life to others and speak life to ourselves.

 

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