You Can Only Be What You Can See

You will never become someone, or do something,  that you first can't see or imagine being or doing.  Sometimes I hear people say, about their success or achievement, "I never could have imagined that I would be here!".  Perhaps, but somewhere along the way the path that led to "here" became clear one step at a time in that person's imagination, or their mind's eye. That person began to imagine and see the next step and believed that it could be achieved. If you can't see anything different or more  for your life in the future then it's likely you'll be exactly where you are right now in the future. That's why I think that one of the most important things we can go after in life is seeing the possibilities...  imagining what could be, what should be.

Message in a Bottle

The messages that we long to hear are all around us, more often than we are aware.Often our gaze goes no further than the ground 16 inches in front of our own feet.  Nor do we hear beyond the sound of our own voice talking in our heads. But if we can see farther and listen beyond, there is a whole world to be discovered!   What is it you desire to hear? Is there a question that you are asking?  Is there a message you hope to receive?

An Idea for the Christmas Season, Day 6

Chicago's Rookery Building, designed by Burnham 

“Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to move the hearts of men.”  This quote is often attributed to Daniel Burnham, the famous Chicago architect. (But may have originally been said by Goethe, a German artist.)


It was this very statement that  inspired and drove some of the greater architectural wonders of Chicago, as well as influenced the development of the modern skyscraper.  As I sat in quiet and solitude by the light of the Christmas tree this morning, I thought more about Burnham's statement.

I try to evaluate statements like Burnham's in light of a Biblical world view.  While I'm sure much could be said, here's the skinny version of 2 thoughts I had:

1)  God's hope for humanity is probably the biggest dream there ever was... its a dream to see everyone who ever lived, and will live, transformed by the reality of God's Love for all people.  That dream has powerfully moved millions to not only experience that Love firsthand, but to wrap their lives around spreading that Love to others through courageous acts of love and sacrifice.

2)    There are alot of stories in the Bible of regular people who did big things that moved others to join in what God was doing.  These folks seemed to be responding to God's initiative.  It was God who set the dream in motion in the first place by placing it in the heart of someone.


How about you?  I bet you have a dream in your heart that seems too big to ever be realized!  Don't hold back or give up on it!  If God gave you the dream, you can be sure he's even more interested than even you are to see it realized!  


So, may we be people who are not only moved by God's big dreams, but ready to respond to His initiative in our lives.

To My Daughter on Her 12th Birthday

Joelle is 12 today!

Dear Joelle,

I don't think it's a coincidence that you were born in December, the month we celebrate Jesus's birth. Just as God picked Mary out of all of the girls in that day for a very special role, we believe that God has chosen you for special things.  He has seen you and known you, even before you were born, to be His child and to do great things that demonstrate God's love for all people!

You bring so much joy to our lives and we are immensely proud of you.  Here are some of the things that I love about you and celebrate on this day:

• You are so funny and I love how we can laugh, hard, about all kinds of crazy things!!
• I love how creative you are; you know just how to put a little extra spin on something to give it that artistic touch
• You are wise and already have alot of common sense for your age.  And because of that...
• Others your age are influenced in good ways by you.  That makes you a leader!
• I love how you enjoy traveling, and seeing the world, and imagining big possibilities
• You have big dreams for your life and aren't content to settle for little dreams.
• I appreciate how you encourage me in my big dreams, too!  That's been a real joy.
• You are smart, willing to work hard at school and sports.
• People like to be around you.
• Your red hair rocks!!  And I wish I could be as tall as you.
• Most importantly, you are wrapping your life around Jesus and the things he has for you.  

On this day, your birthday, know that your mom and dad are so proud of you and so happy that you are a part of our family.  You have made the world a better place, already.

With much love,

Mom

Be the Best You that You Can Be

The day I graduated from High School I walked away from the auditorium with a huge sense of accomplishment.  Not so much because I had a diploma in hand with academic honors, but that I had survived High School being me. Probably one of the greatest struggles of my life in terms of staying true to who I am took place in Middle School and High School.  It was worth fighting the battle back then because I think it may have helped me to gain some stronger "sense of self" muscles, if you will, that have sustained me during other times when the pressure was on to become either more than I am, or less than I am, or something other than I am.

A friend introduced me to a poem by e.e. cummings (1894-1962)  that has stuck with me over time:

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, day and night, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting."

I think in our culture we focus a lot of attention on being the best basketball player, or the best pianist, or the best designer with all of the attention being on the mastery of technical skills alone.  The status of "the best" at something will be achieved by a very select few, making it nearly an unattainable goal. There can be only one "the best" at something.

But the thing we can each be the best at is being who we are.   You alone hold the power to be the best you you can be.  No one else can do that for you.  The world needs you to be richly and authentically you if you want to leave a meaningful legacy.  And you need you to be richly and authentically you if you desire joy, purpose and meaning.

Be you today.  And be the best at it you can possibly be!

My Town Waking Up

One of the things that makes me not mind the shorter days of fall and winter is to, before the sun has fully come up, drive by homes, businesses and places where people are beginning their day.  I love to see the lights on inside of buildings, and sometimes catch a glimpse of the activity within.  I know, it sounds kinda strange!  But I can't help it... there's just such a good feeling that comes from the scene that is created.  There is something really beautiful to me about the sense I get of those inside who are up, anticipating all that a new day brings, ready to go, willing to work hard and do the things they do each day to find purpose and meaning.  I especially enjoy the scene created by the lights from within glowing in places where people are gathering for conversation and community.

Normal Rockwell

I'm sure I have been influenced by this Norman Rockwell painting, which has been one of my favorites since I was a kid.  I always thought it looked so interesting to be those people inside.  I always wondered what they talked about, what their lives were like.  The picture would always get me dreaming about the story being lived out on the painted canvas.

 This morning, I happened to have my camera with me and caught a few places that I thought looked especially inviting in the light of dawn in my own town.

A well known coffee shop downtown, where people were having coffee together

City Hall.  I wonder what decisions will be made today.

Inside the owner is preparing tasteful yet simple breakfasts for those who will come..  

A place where people with disabilities gather for community and meaning

A quiet entrance to the science building on the campus where I work

Lights are on in the Ad Building on campus as  folks inside get ready for the day.

"So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work.  Then I realized that this pleasure is from the hand of God."  (Ecclesiastes 2:24)

Today may we each enjoy the little things that make life satisfying.

Beauty in the world

There's alot about this world that is hard, ugly, painful and broken.  Just watch the news or read headlines and that becomes immediately clear.  Or have a heart to heart talk with someone and it won't be long before once again you are reminded of the pain and brokenness of the world as that conversation goes beneath the surface to the tender and vulnerable places of people's lives.  Or simply think about our own personal stories.  Failures, missed opportunities, hurts either imposed by others or that we imposed, and so on.  It can be downright discouraging.

A shift that I have sensed occurring in my own life over the last several years is to be able to see beyond the brokenness of the world in a whole new way.  Increasingly, as I view the world I see Beauty. There really is Beauty in the world.  It was there all along, I'm sure, and I just wasn't able to see it as clearly as I do now. Maybe its a result of getting older, or maybe its an answer to prayers I've prayed over the years to be able to view the world around me through the eyes of the Creator. I don't really know, I just know I find myself amazed throughout the day.  It matters because I see people, life and situations in a different light. Small things seem so amazingly beautiful.  Here are some examples from just the past few days:

• Laying next to my daughter at bedtime and listening to old Christmas classics together on the iPad before she goes to sleep
• Watching one of my students interact with a very sick elderly lady in such a caring and compassionate manner
• Seeing the love on the husband's wrinkled face for this same elderly lady
• The way the sun comes streaming in through a window to shine light on the bed of a sick person
• Sitting and drinking coffee in the quiet of the early morning hours before everyone is up
• Bringing eggrolls home, thanks to my mom, from the Relief Sale for my son and seeing how happy he is (he LOVES eggrolls)
• Gazing out the window and being drawn in by the various shades of color and textures of living things
• Looking up into the vast blue sky and noticing the shapes and contours of the clouds above the busyness below
• Watching things move in the wind
• Seeing people able to laugh and smile through their own personal pain.

Maybe, too, why this might matter is that part of how God makes all things new is simply by helping us to see things in a new way.  At any rate, may we each be able to see the incredible beauty in this world.

Finally, I leave you with one of my all time favorite songs....Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong

Dream Wide Awake

Joelle created this collage following our trip

A couple of years ago, my daughter and I took a road trip out to Washington DC for a week of sightseeing and mother daughter time. On the way out, in the midst of our many conversations, we stumbled on this phrase: Dream Wide Awake.  While probably not original to us (even though we think it might be!), we thought it was pretty cool because not only was it kinda catchy, it also spoke to the importance of being fully alert, alive and engaged in the world around us.  Obviously, dreaming while asleep has its place, but dreaming wide awake opens the world up to all kinds of possibilities and potential that could otherwise be missed. 

I think life is best lived when we are alert to every possibility and opportunity that lies before us.  I know I often fail to see what could be in every situation and every moment of every day.  What if, in every single moment that we've been given, we develop the eyes to really see the possibilities, to see the potential and to dream of what God might be doing in that particular moment in time.  And then, get in step with that to the best of our ability allowing the Light, Life, and Love of God to land on this earth through us.

If there's someone that I can think of that embodied life in this manner, it has to be Jesus.  It seems that with every encounter, Jesus was alert and wide awake to the things that God was doing in that moment, getting in step with God's dream for creation.  Paul knew how much our tendency was to sleepwalk- to go through the motions of every day without being fully alert and alive to the world around us- that he wrote "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead!" (Ephesians 5)  Perhaps 'the dead' were those who weren't physically dead, but just going through the motions of life barely conscious to all the possibilities and potential.

I know I have my days when I feel pretty dead, if you will; numbed by a full schedule, much less dreaming of what could be. I guess I hope that day by day I will grow to more deeply Dream Wide Awake. I think its part of what it means for me to be like Jesus. And the alternative isn't very appealing anyways.

And I wondered what else wasn't set in stone

I am reading the fascinating autobiography of Elizabeth Murray, Breaking Night, where she tells her story of going from homeless to Harvard.   She recounts growing up in the Bronx with parents whose drug addictions were so great that all of the family's scarce resources went towards feeding and nurturing the addiction rather than feeding and nurturing the 2 children.  She and her sister went for days with no food to eat while her parents shot up around the clock.  Because living with hunger had always been her reality, she believed that this was just how it was,  that she would always be hungry.  Then one day she met a boy  who had found ways to hustle money from strangers by offering to pump their gas for a tip.  In so doing, he made enough money to buy things he wanted.  As she watched her friend collect money from strangers, the author tells of realizing for the first time ever that she didn't have to be hungry every day after all.  She had believed she was powerless over her situation until that moment when she saw  the possibility of a different reality.  She writes, "And I began to wonder what else wasn't set in stone."

What an empowering realization- that she could change her situation- and what a great question to ask ourselves!  What do I believe is set in stone that maybe really isn't?  Some things literally can't be changed. They are what they are:  our race, our past, our parents, for example.  But when you think of it, there really is very little that is truly set in stone about our lives.  We can so easily accept as set in stone things that limit us and hold us back because we just can't "see" another reality.

Now I want to be careful here.  What I'm not suggesting is that this is the quick ticket out of a difficult situation.  Its likely that there is a way through such situations that we just haven't seen or realized yet, that we probably have more tools and resources at our disposal than we've realized.  We aren't to simply flee from difficult situations, but with God's help find the power to go through them towards  a better reality.

I think its a question to at least ponder.  Jesus came in part that we might experience the abundant life. Maybe one of the reason's we don't more fully experience the abundant life is because we have simply believed, often unconsciously,  that there are things that are set in stone that really aren't.  We can  intentionally ask God to help us to "see" those areas of our lives that he wants to bring more to.

You Can't Be What You Can't See

As they say, "Seeing is believing" but  the reverse is true as well, "Believing is Seeing".  We will never become someone, or do something,  that we first can't see or imagine being or doing.  Sometimes I hear people say, about their success or achievement, "I never could have imagined that I would be here!".  Perhaps, but somewhere along the way the path that led to "here" became clear one step at a time in that person's imagination, or their mind's eye. They began to imagine and see the next step and believed that it could be achieved.  That's why I think that one of the most important things we can go after in life is seeing the possibilities...  imagining what could be, what should be.

I recently heard a true story told of a Palestinian Christian, an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Muslim deciding to get to know one another.  Over the course of meeting for 2 years and learning to appreciate each other in a new way, they began to dream and imagine what it would look like for the three of them to live peacefully together.  As a result, they are starting an intentional community with one another so that others around them can see that it is possible for people who have historically been at enmity with one another to live together peacefully.  Right now, no one in the region can "see" it because it's not been done before.  As the three men peacefully live alongside one another, those around them begin to see the possibilities and imagine a new reality for the first time.

Today, may we each go after seeing the greatest possibilities that lie before us, believing that its possible and in time seeing a new reality.

"If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it." 

 Rev. Jesse Jackson