I am living in a “in-between time.” I have not fully arrived to the next place in my journey. It is a place of ‘betwixt and between.’ It is a hard place. It is a nominal space—a space that native American Indians called, “crazy time.” I understand that. When you live in an “in-between time”-- it feels crazy. Nothing seems to make sense—even God. Such places--such seasons of life can leave us torn, tired and weary. We can feel like something is going to happen--but not yet.
Read moreWhy Leaders Fall
One of the great needs in the market place and in the spheres of ministries is for the leaders of both businesses and organizations to have leaders that live an examined life. An examined life is a life where the heart is probed not only for giftedness and abilities but, also for the stuff within that is deeper and mostly unexamined in today’s MBA programs and many divinity schools.
As I've said else where "shine and show" are not fruits of the Spirit and they are not what makes leadership healthy. We sub-comb to "shine and show" when we do not look deeper; when we do not examine the quadrants of the heart of a leader. Looking deeper requires wisdom. Looking deeper requires sage like probing and listening more to what is not said, than what is said explicitly.An examined life is a life that Socrates told us that is a life truly worth living. He said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." And his words apply to leadership. An unexamined leader is dangerous.
Read moreSoul Friends
One of the deepest needs we have as human beings is our need for companionship. It is not good for us to be alone all the time. We were made in the image of God. Being made in God’s image does not mean that we look like God but that we can become like God. We can act like God acts. We can manifest the virtues and qualities that are innate in God’s own being. We become like God when we learn to live a shared life—a life of soul friending.
We live in a world that makes soul friending hard. There’s not enough time to be a friend or have a friend. We are busy trying to survive—to make the ends meet with the threads of our lives that we are trying to bring together. One of the great costs of living in an always on; always available culture is that we neglect the deep needs of the soul—the need to share our lives in meaningful and momentous ways. Our attempts to merely survive through life’s demands and pressures is to ignore the deepest part of our selves—the part that seeks connection—the part that says, we are not alone, after all.
Read moreThe Grace of Awakening
The journey of the spiritual life is about waking up. The Spanish poet, Antonio Machida has said, “All the words of Jesus Christ can be reduced to two: wake up!” Jesus never seemed content to let people remain as they were…to coast through life or to remain asleep in their life. His words woke the religious establishment up. His words jarred the faithful. His words comforted the outsider and welcome us home.
He jarred those on the left and made those who thought they were “right” to reconsider their ways. Everything about his life, death and work was about waking people up. His work has not changed though our culture is luring us to a long, long sleep.
It’s time to wake up. There is a grace when we awaken. When we think about it, we all spend long years of our lives in a sleepy condition. Life is happening all around us but many of us are asleep to it.
Read moreExploring an Ancient Way of Leadership for Modern Times
What you are going to read is the fruit of my work with leaders in ministry. I've spent over forty years in the grass root ways of leadership, mainly in the local church but for the past twenty years, in providing soul care for leaders who serve in the market place and ministry.
As the world has changed so much and with increasing speed and erosion of some core values, we are all the witnesses to implosions in churches as well as organizations and including politics. It is a systemic disease and what I have called in the past a "cult of leadership" that is converging with other concerning factors about the state of the soul; the state of the church and the state of the world. See that article here!I have spent considerable time in my work with leaders on nearly all of the continents.
Read moreWhat is Soul Care and Why is Soul Care Important?
Soul Care is caring for the whole person. Every part of our lives matters. Everything about us needs care. Everything that is alive needs and requires care. Plants, animals, our bodies and our souls need care to thrive. You are not the exception. We cannot live our lives on auto-pilot—running our lives on empty feeling tired, depleted and upset and call this experience—the abundant life.
Soul Care is about sustaining life and providing ancient pathways to experience true life! We are not machines. For a life of meaning; a life that is sustainable; a life that is worthy to be lived—care is required. Care is the intentional practice of giving attention, grace, love and foster resiliency.Soul Care is the intentional practice of integrating all aspects of the human experience: physical, relational, emotional, sexual and vocational. These core aspects of our human existence form the real me—the real soul of a person. Each area needs care. Each area needs attention. As the Christian writer, C.S. Lewis says, “You do not have a soul. You are soul.”
Read moreShattered Dreams and Illusions in the Spiritual Life
The spiritual life is a journey of having our illusions about God and our expectations about how life “should” work shattered and transformed. An illusion is a distortion of reality. Distortions do not help us live well or be well. Why is this? It's because distortions and illusions are not the truth. Opening up our distortions an illusions is a necessary part of the spiritual life. It simply cannot be avoided.
Our expectations and illusions of how God should behave began early in our spiritual formation with our parents, teachers and early experiences shaping our tender hearts to believe that God is “this” way and behaves "that" way. Through fairy tells and Sunday school, and adults who shaped our thinking, our malleable hearts were formed to hold onto illusions that many of us find ourselves still clinging to today. Some were helpful and good and obviously, some were not. It is the pieces of our internal belief systems that are not good or healthy for us that God seems to want to work on throughout our lives.
Read moreMy Copernican Revolution: How Everything Changed
My Copernican revolution began in 1996 when I had the privilege of spending a month with Dallas Willard in a Catholic monastery in California. How I got there is a story I have told. But what happened to me in that monastery is what changed my life forever. Let me explain.
Nicolaus Copernicus was an astronomer who discovered in the 16th century, that the sun was at the center of the universe, not the Earth. This changed everything and the ripple effect of his discovery continues to this day. It was revolutionary because his discovery changed and impacted the way people saw the world; experienced a shifting in their understanding and radically altered the way people thought about life. My Copernican Revolution began when I heard that I was a soul and that I had an interior life that needed my attention.
Read moreThe Dignity of the Soul
We will not care for something if we do not understand it. We will not care for our environment, if we fail to understand and grasp the fragile nature of this world. We will pollute, abuse and create more toxic waste until we understand that significant damage has been done. We will not care for our automobiles unless we understand that some basic maintenance is needed at regular intervals. We learn that we need to change the oil, rotate the tires and check the fluids to keep our cars running. Otherwise, they will breakdown, burn out or fail us—when we need to go somewhere.
Friends, the truth is that most of us will spend more time and money on the care of our cars than we will on the care of our souls. We will not care for our souls until we understand our souls and grasp the importance of the soul. We can drive our bodies to exhaustion; run our lives on empty until we burn out and annihilate our hearts because of busyness—not really knowing the effect on our souls.
Read moreEmbrace the Mystery: Being Embraced by Mystery
You’ve most likely heard the expression, “God works in mysterious ways.” But the problem with this statement is that it’s not found in the Bible. It sounds as if it should be. It sounds like a Proverb—like a very, very wise statement. But this often quoted statement is nowhere to be found within our pages of Scripture. It is inferred in a hymn which William Cowper penned in the 19th century. There he says, "God moves in a mysterious ways; His wonders to perform; He plans His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm."
But Cowper uses the metaphor of ocean waves and white-capping stormy seas to help us grasp how mystery happens—how God rides the wings of mystery to help us know him and to know God’s ways. But just because we can’t find something in the Bible does not mean that it is not true—that God does indeed move in a mysterious way.
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