"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."  

St. Francis of Assisi

Wednesday marked the first day of classes for the new year for my college students.  Also the first day of a new course for them, it was appropriate to start our class with this quote by St. Francis.  Right now, my students only dream of the day that they will be able to serve society as professional RNs.  If they were to be placed in the clinical setting today, it would literally be impossible for them to function as a licensed RN.  However, showing up for the start of a new semester, beginning a new course and continuing to do what they need to do, and doing what is possible every day, will transform that which is currently impossible into possible. 

Isn't that how it is with anything we wish to accomplish?  It happens one step at a time, day by day doing what is possible.  We rule out our dreams before we ever even get started.... "oh, that's impossible for me" or, "there are just too many obstacles" without considering what could be done every day to overcome an obstacle at a time and see that dream accomplished.

     Writing a book becomes possible when a little bit is written every day over a period of time.

     A degree is gained when one decides to push through the challenges of coursework every day.

     A thousand dollars is saved when $20 is put away every week for 50 weeks.

How about you?  What is it that you would love to do or to become that seems impossible right now?  Maybe you are already working towards it a day at a time, doing what is possible right now.  But maybe you haven't started taking any steps because it seems too big and too impossible.  Whatever it is that you would like to do or to become, I encourage you to just start!  Start somewhere. Do what is possible every day, and before you know it you will have accomplished the impossible.

Resistance, Part 2

For quite a long time I have believed that women can use their gifts of leadership and teaching in whatever capacity God calls them to in the church.  I realize we don't all see eye to eye on that and I respect the position of others who feel differently as long as it comes from an honest examination of Scriptures. However, when I was invited to step into the lead pastor role at the church we belonged to, I recall how immediate the  resistance was that came rushing to the surface of my mind from way down deep inside of me somewhere.  It sounded like this: "Can God do that? Call me, a woman, to lead a church?  Is that really allowed?  I can't possibly say 'yes'...what will people think of me?"

That's called a crisis of belief!  What I had said I believed was suddenly being challenged by the resistance from within that came, in part, to ways that I had been conditioned by my upbringing, previous experiences and the messages that I had internalized more than I realized that said, "Women can't do that."

Sometimes the resistance we feel is a clue that there is more work to be done in terms of owning our beliefs, convictions, and sense of call. More work to be done recognizing the subtle and not so subtle ways we've been conditioned to think that then influence our decisions in life more than we realize.  I believe this matters if we are to live out, the best we can, who God has made us to be and what God has for us to do.

The resistance I have had to work through won't look like the resistance you face.  But my hope is that we can be a people who recognize the resistance, name it for what it is, face it and overcome it that we may live lives that are true to who God made us to be.

"Action Trumps Everything"

There's one conference a year that I try to take in and that's the Global Leadership Summit hosted by Willowcreek Community Church. I really appreciate the posture of The Summit:  we can learn from those who are doing things well from many different spheres. I love that the speakers are a real mixture and variety of people and backgrounds. So, last week, I got to take in the Summit again.

One of my favorite sessions was by Len Schlesinger, the President of the leading school for entrepreneurship, Babson College. I've always been fascinated and intrigued by what it means to be an entrepreneur, and what makes one an entrepreneur.  I think we tend to believe that entrepreneurs are only a small, select kind of people. The kind we could never be.  But what if that weren't true? I've thought that if there's a way more of us could figure out what it means to be an entrepreneur and actually take steps in that direction, that there's a whole lot of Kingdom potential that could be released.  What I loved about this session was that Len Schlesinger dismantled many of our widely accepted perceptions about entrepreneurs.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Many entrepreneurs don't start with a big, clear vision.  They just do something, learn from it, and keep on doing it.
• Entrepreneurs are not actually all that excited about risk; in fact, the good ones know how to avoid it.
• Research has shown that entrepreneurs aren't more decisive and self-confident than others.
• We think a true entrepreneur is someone like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg but in reality an entrepreneur is more likely to be someone who sees something being done and they just do it better.
• Being an entrepreneur is a discipline, and like any other discipline it can be learned.
• If you can't predict the future, create it.
• In the face of unknowability, you can sit and think, or you can act.
• How do you start something?  Start with something you care about.
• Many great enterprises have been started by 2 people who like each other deciding to just do something together.
• Failure doesn't mean "game over", it means learn from it and try again.
• When you fail, its quite likely you've just learned something that no one else knows that will help you do it better the next time.
• Stop obsessing about what you think you need and don't have, just act with what you have.

Navigating Change

I think that by nature, humans tend towards that which is familiar whether we fully realize it or not.  That's not all bad, except when it comes to making necessary or significant life changes.  The familiar can be the very thing that holds us back if we allow it to.

I think a lot about this because I'm always interested in change dynamics, but also because we ourselves have been in a season of change and transition.

One of my favorite passages in scripture comes from Genesis 13:17.  The story is that of the Isrealites leaving Egypt, their long term place of captivity and oppression, in destination for a better life and place that God had for them so that his purposes could be more fully lived out in and through them.

"It so happened that after Pharaoh released the people, God didn't lead them by the road through the land of the Philistines, which was the shortest route, for God thought, "If the people encounter war, they'll change their minds and go back to Egypt."

So here they are:  the Isrealites have just been freed from Egypt, the very thing they've longed for and desired  and yet God sees that even though this is the very thing they've cried out for for years, their natural tendency, especially faced with difficulty,  would be to turn right back to where they began even though that's not what they really would want.  God intervenes and leads them on a path, while not the shortest and most direct, but a path that would enable them to walk into the promises that God had set before them. God enabled and empowered them to come into their destiny.

This encourages me.  As much as I might like to think I'm not bound to the familiar, I do believe there is an aspect of human nature that gravitates towards familiarity especially when trying to navigate through change. Change can be difficult.  Yet, when God calls us out and moves us out, we have to be able to become free from that which we've  known to move more fully into our destiny.  Fortunately, we serve a God who is bigger than our human tendencies and if we listen and follow, he will lead us along the right path- maybe not the shortest- that will eventually bring us into all that He has for us.