Insight + Action Words: Love

First Corinthians 13 is commonly referred to as the love chapter, and it is often read at weddings. However, if we limit the instructions to only romantic love, we miss out on instruction for how we are to interact with everyone we come in contact with, in church or out of church.

Paul starts the chapter describing how every gift lacks value in God’s Kingdom if we do not have love. The middle of the chapter includes an amazing self-check guide to reflect on the level of love in our own lives, and I will emphasize this as the insight and action focus. The final section of this chapter explains how all else will fade and decrease, but love will remain. For this reason, I want to draw insight from the middle section and look for actionable steps to take out of that insight.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

As I reflected on these verses, I succumbed to the age old trap of seeing the speck in my brother’s eye and neglecting the log in my own (Matthew 7:5). Part of that is choosing to value certain aspects as more important than others, but ultimately all of these verses are included in Paul’s description and instruction of love.

So, again I asked myself questions and was challenged by my answers. Perhaps some of these questions will help you…

  • Am I patient? Am I kind? Do I envy or boast? Am I proud, rude, or self-seeking?
  • How easily do I get angered? Am I keeping score and a list of others’ wrongs?
  • How deeply planted am I in the word of truth, allowing it to shape my mind, heart, soul, and strength?
  • Do I always protect others? How about the people I do not agree with?
  • Do I always trust? What about those who I think are wrong?
  • How is my hope? Have I placed it in the wrong things or people and gotten distracted from hoping in God and His plan?
  • How about perseverance? Am I standing strong in the face of challenges or have I taken the path of least resistance in some area of my life?

Do any of these questions hit home in your time of reflection?

That is the first step of transformation. Ask God to reveal the areas that need the microscopic surgery of His word (the sword of the spirit), and then take action steps that move you toward being more patient or kind, protecting or trusting others, remembering where your hope lies.

Be mindful of the power of small steps in the right direction. There is power in each small action we make in integrating new insight. It is a journey of many steps. We do not get there in one leap, but we will never make forward progress if we do not take a step toward our goal.

And since love is what will remain, love should be our ultimate goal.

Insight + Action Words: Learn

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Matthew 11:28-29

Are you weary? Are you burdened? Do you need rest?

Jesus’ answer to these questions is to learn from Him because He is gentle and humble in heart. How do you learn from Jesus? Often, I have heard taught that a rabbi’s yoke is his specific teaching. While that may or may not be accurate, I think we can read this verse as Jesus inviting us to experience something different from Him than what we are experiencing in the world, again pointing to the upside down kingdom.

How do you learn from Jesus? I think The Message translation of these verses provides a glimpse:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

What do we see Jesus doing in the gospel accounts?

Meeting people where they are.

Loving people who are different from Him.

Giving chances for people to learn from Him.

I think of the story of the Good Samaritan when Jesus asked who is our neighbor? According to this parable, our neighbor is someone we do not know, someone we do not like, someone we think is very different than us.

Often in the gospels, Jesus gives the greatest challenge to those people in the religious establishment of His time. He definitely does that in the Good Samaritan story. He shows the closed mindedness and lack of love of the religious leaders in the story, but He also shows the power of love of the one that is considered an outsider.

I think Jesus is wanting us to let go of the religious thoughts that keep us stuck thinking we are right, and that others are wrong. Trying to prove ourselves right, protecting ourselves, and judging the other harshly can be a burden that wears us down and makes us weary. Maybe that is the lesson of these verses.

Learn is one of those great action words that does involve both insight and action.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Ben Franklin

These verses are Jesus’ invitation to involvement in His teaching. It is in this involvement we will learn. How is the Holy Spirit beckoning you to involvement and learning in your world?

Insight + Action Words: Seek

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Matthew 6:33

An attitude of seeking His Kingdom and His righteous can become a frame through which to view the world if we let it. This verse is found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, one of the most quoted consolidations of the teaching of Jesus. Throughout the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus challenged His listeners, and now us as readers of the word, to explore His kingdom as upside down from what the world values and protects.

As I spent time with this verse, I was initially saddened that I still see us so far from the upside down kingdom of Jesus. However, I realize the power of what we choose to seek and focus on impacts our view. We can choose the negative or we can choose the positive. So, I turned my perspective to look for where God is moving. One of my favorite verse is Isaiah 43:18-19:

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

Isaiah 43:18-19

God is always working, but we do not always see it.  Often, I think we do not see it because we are not looking for it. We suppress our curiosity and do not perceive the ways God is working to bring His upside down kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

I am far from an optimist. In fact, I honestly get so annoyed by some people’s optimism, but I recognize we must choose to look for where God is working and join Him there.

Exhaustion and frustration come from working without the Holy Spirit.

Exhaustion and frustration come when we seek our own kingdoms rather than His kingdom.

So, I choose to seek first signs of God’s hand, signs of God’s heart, signs of God’s kingdom, and for wise ways to participate in those things.

Don’t get sidetracked by what other people are seeking.

Look for the signs of the Kingdom.

Focus on the signs of the kingdom.

Build relationships with others who are seeking the upside down kingdom and allow the Holy Spirit to guide your steps.

Insight + Action Words: Pray

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7

Pray is an action word.  It may be a quiet action word, but it is definitely an action word. Prayer immediately puts the proper perspective in front of us as we go to God with requests that are beyond our control. Philippians 4 is an excellent instruction about the purpose and power of prayer. As I reflected on this passage, I found myself asking reflective questions to refine my prayers. Perhaps these questions can help you…

  • Do I rejoice in the Lord always? Am I keeping the perspective of God being in control in front of my circumstances? How would changing my perspective open the way to rejoicing always?
  • Is my gentleness evident to all? What does my gentleness or the gentleness of the church show those around me? Does it show that the Lord is near or something else?
  • How anxious am I? What am I anxious about? Have I presented these concerns to God? Am I thankful in these requests? Why or why not?
  • What areas of my life does the peace of God not guard my heart and mind? What areas or concerns does anxiety rule?  

There are some additional instructions after verse 7 that I believe help us to view and act out of a hope in God. The author of Philippians, Paul, encourages us to change our viewpoint by thinking about proper things. This adjustment of our viewpoint impacts our prayer action.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.

Philippians 4:8
  • TRUE, NOBLE, RIGHT, PURE, LOVELY, ADMIRABLE, EXCELLENT, PRAISEWORTHY – Am I thinking about such things?
  • A note of warning, right now people have very different perspectives of what is true. My suggestion is if you thinking about something that is true, but it is not excellent of praiseworthy, maybe this is the source of your anxiety?

I hope these questions help you combine insight and action. You can reflect and pray and be transformed. Changing your viewpoint can be as simple as changing the direction you look.

Insight + Action Words: Wait

“But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength: They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:31

There is plenty of action promised to those who wait, but how do you wait as an action in the meantime?

There are many places in scripture, where we are told to wait on the Lord. But the word wait is translated differently depending on the translation of the Bible you consult. The New King James Version uses wait. The New International Version uses hope. The New Living Translation uses trust.

One of my favorite words in the Spanish language is esperar. Esperar can be translated to wait but it also can be translated to hope. The dual meaning demonstrates the two sides of the of the word wait, and the way to make it an action word.

Wait sounds passive. Hope is future oriented, but ultimately, it all goes back to trust!

Throughout Isaiah 40, God is on the throne. He is just and He is in control. Verse after verse compares men to grass or grasshoppers, easily destroyed, but the word of God stands forever. Nations are described as a drop in a bucket or dust on the scales. The leaders of those nations are reduced to nothing by His breath. While all creation falls under His hand, we can breathe because the final instruction of this chapter is to wait on the Lord.

It is all about perspective!

As I explored all of Isaiah 40, I recognized the action of waiting, hoping and trusting in the Lord are intertwined and dependent on accepting the mystery of God’s narrative. God’s plan, His view of the big picture, His narrative is greater than any of our self-importance, understanding, perceptions, comfort, or even freedoms or rights.

God wants us to wait and hope on His narrative and not take ourselves or our circumstances so seriously that we lose track of the bigger narratives.

So, to wait on the Lord as an action is to hope and trust that His narrative, His bigger story, is happening regardless of what we see in front of us. We trust that nothing is a surprise to Him, and nothing is out of His control. Finally, we prepare our hearts, souls, and minds with this trust in Him to be able to move into His story however and whenever He calls us into action.

Wait is an action word.

INSIGHT + ACTION WORDS: Trust and Lean Not

Often when the world seems out of sorts, we wring our hands and wonder what we can really do. Recently I came across a list of action words in scripture, and I was encouraged to reflect and study around the action words in the verses. So, I will spend the next several weeks looking at these words through the lens of gleaning insight and putting the insight into action.  The first verse has two great action words to reflect on: Trust and Lean.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

Proverbs 3:5

This verse is set up as an either or proposition. Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding. Verse 7 adds “do not be wise in your own eyes.”

There is a danger running rampant today in our society. There are a lot of people who are sure they know and understand what is happening. The problem is that there are two very different narratives that people are convinced of. The split in the narratives seems to fall along the right vs. the left or conservation vs. liberal disconnect.

The insight that I get as I sit with Proverbs 3, is that neither of these narratives are correct. There may be aspects that touch on truth, but God has an entirely different narrative. While the Bible explains the larger arch of God’s narrative, the details and behind the scenes developments are not fully revealed to any of us on earth, so there is a real danger in assuming we can know everything.

I have seen many people intertwine their faith with one of these worldly narratives at the expense of trusting in the mystery of God’s narrative. When we lean on our own understanding, we discount the mystery of how God is working and ultimately discount the mystery of His narrative.

It is time to evaluate our understanding of God and His narrative. Our understanding of God comes from our experiences and the lens we learn about Him, but those lenses are rooted in humanity. Human nature is to protect self by removing the mystery. This self-protection distorts our understanding and needs to be explored in a way that does not just confirm our way of thinking but allows us to learn and be transformed.

This week Richard Rohr shared the following thought. “there’s a difference between trusting God and trusting my understanding of God.”

The danger in trusting my understanding of God over trusting in God (the mystery in His narrative) is that we get distracted by a narrative that is not His. God’s narrative is telling His story, and His story calls us to love Him and love others. When we trust in our understanding, we miss opportunities to care for others.

Richard Rohr also shared this thought, “When we presume we know fully, we can be very arrogant and goal oriented at the expense of other people. When we know we do not know fully, we are much more concerned about practical loving behavior.”

How would embracing the mystery of God’s narrative, and accepting that we do not fully know and understand the details, change your action today?

Does this insight draw you into a new action this week? Should it?

What are some steps you can take to reflect on this insight and then act on that insight?

TRANSFORMATION

The word transformation is thrown about casually these days, but it is far from a simple process. Transformation sees the change start with the individual and work through a community or a culture. It is a journey and ongoing process without a true starting point or finish line.

There are two parts to transformation. Insight and Action. You cannot have true transformation without involving both insight and action.

Insight + Action = Transformation

For example, if you have a new understanding that you should care for your health through nutrition and exercise, but you continue to eat junk and remain sedentary, you have not experienced transformation despite the knowledge that you should do something different.

OR

You start a new nutrition and exercise program on January 1st but have given up by January 15th because you jumped into action without fresh insight to guide your action.

I think this pattern runs rampant in our society. I see some people collecting insight like treasures, and others who jump into action without a second thought. However, neither are making a lot of progress toward transformation.

We have a cycle of insanity at play. Insanity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. For some of us, we like to learn something new and think that we are transformed by that learning, but our actions do not change which means we are doing the same thing but expecting a different result. For others, we think we can act our way into transformation without changing our thought process, also doing the same thing expecting different results.

Insight gives the illusion of transformation and possibility gives the illusion of action, but in order for transformation we must integrate insight and action.

Where are you experiencing a gap between insight and action in your life?

Have you learned something you thought would change your life, but everything in your life remains the same as before?

Have you leaped into a new action only to come up against similar roadblocks that knock you off track?

Whichever way you tend to operate, it is time to integrate insight and action. The world is crying out for wise and calm leaders in all segments of life.

Maybe it is time for some coaching. Or maybe you start by going back to last week’s post about evaluating your options. Whatever you choose, please know by putting your insight into action, you are stepping into a learning cycle. Your new action will create new insight which may change your action causing new insight. However, you move forward, look for support.

The adaptive cycle of integrating insight and action can be disorienting, and support in the form of a coach, provides the reminder of why you are taking action and can help maintain your commitment to the journey.

Send me a message, I would love to talk through next steps with you.

WHAT ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES IN FRONT OF YOU?

Last week, I wrote about the importance of not trying to force new wine into old wineskins. An important step in that idea is to be aware of the opportunities in front of you.

If you recognize an opportunity in front of you to utilize your new learning or experience, will you step into it? What will you lose if you do not step into it?

One of the first concepts I taught in High School Economics is opportunity cost. Opportunity Cost is defined as “the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.”

There is an opportunity cost to not moving into the possibilities in front of you. There are costs and rewards for every decision we make.  A really helpful process for considering options is evaluating the cost and reward of the different options. It is helpful to write this out or talk through it with a coach that does not have a stake in your decision.  

 CostRewardTiming
Option A (Status Quo)      
   
Option B (Opportunity #1)
     		   
Option C (Opportunity #2)      
   

An added dimension to the conversation is about timing. What are the cost/rewards to taking action or not today, this week, or this month? Sometimes wait and learn is an important step toward taking action. It cannot always be jump in with both feet regardless of preparation. Having a coach break down the steps and make a plan is incredibly helpful.

Perhaps your opportunity is to start a nonprofit organization. You know there is an immediate need for what you want to do, but you cannot start it tomorrow. There are things, however, you can do tomorrow to prepare and make clear the path to get to that goal. The first step is becoming clear about the opportunity (and aware of the cost of not seizing that opportunity).

Even once you decide which opportunity to pursue, this evaluation process is needed. For example, when I was running a startup nonprofit, every week I found myself evaluating which actions needed to be taken that week and which could wait. It was not as in depth as it might be when deciding to take a first step, but still a quick check of the costs/ rewards was helpful in determining priorities for the week. This is an incredibly beneficial practice to integrate into the rhythms of your life.

I know it is a lot of info in one post, but if any of this is speaking to you, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I would love to talk through coaching options and help you seize the opportunities in front of you!

NEW WINE IN OLD WINESKINS

Throughout 2020 and now as we realize 2021 will continue with unsettling and upsetting circumstances, I have, at times, been surprised by the drive in so many circles to get back to normal. We heard “new normal” so much that I think we became exhausted by that idea, so we began to discount or ignore that idea. Human nature is, after all, to trend toward the simpler or known. However, if you are paying attention, you might have noticed that the more we try to get back to normal, the more challenges arise. Mark 2:22 has been a source of new understanding of this phenomenon.

“No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the [fermenting] wine will [expand and] burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the wineskins. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

Mark 2:22

Unfortunately, we are doing damage when we try to put new wine into old wineskins. In 2020-2021 terms, we are hurting other people, ourselves, or the situation when we try to take the new opportunities, learning, experiences, and squeeze them back into the way things used to be. Of course, we recognize that both the old and new have value, but sometimes we have to let go of old things or former ways of doing things to make room for the new to flourish.

We can trust that God is continually working. His hand is not static but is always cultivating and transforming.

“No matter what is going on around us, it’s important to remember that God keeps transforming creation into something both good and new. Instead of hurtling us towards catastrophe, God always wants to bring us somewhere even better. A helpful word here is “evolution.” God keeps creating things from the inside out, so they are forever yearning, developing, growing, and changing for the good. That might be hard to see sometimes in the moment, but it’s nevertheless true.”

Richard Rohr

So, instead of trying to put new wine into old wineskins, we are being invited into the creation going on around us. We can trust that God is moving in us (and the rest of the world). We must be aware of the times we are falling into former tendencies and resist those habits. Our awareness needs to focus on the developing, growing and changing for the good that Rohr writes about.

Sometimes, that means taking a pause in our action to allow our awareness to catch up, so we can determine if we are trying to put new wine in old wineskins. By pausing, we can recognize the places we need new wineskins for our new normal and start the process of moving toward that growth.

What is an area in your life, you have been striving to return to normal? Is it working? Or are the old wineskins bursting from the new wine?

THE NEXT RIGHT THING

I think we all hoped the world would flip back to “normal” when the calendar changed last week. Obviously, that did not happen. Instead, more surprise and chaos were waiting for us, and ultimately, we just do not know what uncertainty awaits. However, we do have a choice amidst the chaos. When the world seems to be spinning out of control around us, we can choose to do the next right thing.

Choosing and doing the next right thing flows from a heart and mind rooted in scripture. Today, one of my favorite passages of scripture came to mind. This passage is full of life- giving instructions.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the LORD forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the LORD Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Colossians 3:12-17

What is the next right thing? I pulled some simple steps from this passage. If we as Christians, and specifically as the North American church, did the next right things we could be the ambassadors of peace the world is crying out for.

  • Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience
  • Bear with each other
  • FORGIVE whatever grievances (whatever grievances – could this mean everything???)
  • Put on love which leads to unity
  • Let peace rule our hearts
  • Be thankful
  • Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly
  • Teach and admonish (only after getting yourself right)
  • Do it all in the name of the LORD Jesus

I know we can convince ourselves of just about anything if it is repeated long enough and loud enough. There has been an unbelievable amount of negative and hurtful messaging attacking our senses for much longer than we realize. It has created what often feels like a climate of anger, hate, and fear of the other side.

I do not believe this climate is as deep and widespread as it looks, and even if it is, it can be transformed by a new message. What an impact we could make if we started with compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love, peace and thankfulness.

What if the beautiful things were loud enough and longsuffering enough to break through the hate and fear? I choose to believe this is possible and I choose to do the next right thing to reveal the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven in my little sphere of influence.

Will you join me?