Know Where You're Going

Know where you’re going:

In the post before this last one, I wrote about knowing what you believe. Because belief affects direction, knowing where you’re going is essential. Sounds too basic, right? But how does knowing where you’re headed affect communication?

Have you ever been in a car with your husband when he doesn’t know where he’s going? He wants you to believe he’s not lost, but it’s clear by the many turns and the tense feeling in the car that he really is. How do you communicate with him? And he with you? Not the best picture of marital bliss.

When you don’t have a sense of the destination, you don’t have confidence in your current location. And when you daily confidence is shaken, you find yourself living a life of haphazard circumstance. This often leads to the “it-was-meant-to-be” or the “I-can’t-fight-fate” mentality that believes not that a life yielded to God has purpose, but that life “is what it is” so why fight it. Once the victim stance takes hold, it is very difficult for someone to find their way back.

I had a friend who used to say, “I know that I know that I know.” When I first heard her say it, I thought that it was just one of those things that you say but don’t really know what it means. But after spending time with her and seeing how she allowed God to daily direct and lead her, I finally understood that statement: her level of knowing began in her mind, passed through her heart, her feelings and emotions, and rested in agreement with the Spirit of God within her.

Knowing – acknowledging, feeling, understanding, and perceiving – where you are headed is essential for daily peace and health. How deep does your understanding go of where, as a Christian, you are headed – in this life and the next? Do you acknowledge God’s providential hand in your life and perceive how His will works in your life? Do you care enough to find out?

Father-God, I desire to know that I know that I know not only where I’m headed after I die, but where I’m headed in the here and now.

Check out: Isaiah 48:17

The Peace that Passes All Understanding

I want to veer away from the on-going look at communication and share something I read today. It is the August 26 reading in Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest. It pierced my heart to the core.

“Are you painfully disturbed just now, distracted by the waves and billows of God’s providential permission, and having, as it were, turned over the boulders of your belief, are you still finding no well of peace or joy or comfort; is all barren? Then look up and receive the undisturbedness of the Lord Jesus. Reflected peace is the proof that you are right with God because you are at liberty to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. If you allow anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you, you are either disturbed or you have a false security.

Are you looking unto Jesus now, in the immediate matter that is pressing and receiving from Him peace? If so, He will be a gracious benediction of peace in and through you. But if you try to worry it out, you obliterate Him and deserve all you get. We get disturbed because we have not been considering Him. When one confers with Jesus Christ, the perplexity goes because He has no perplexity, and our only concern is to abide in Him. Lay it all out before Him, and in the face of difficulty, bereavement and sorrow, hear Him say, 'Let not your heart be troubled.'”

Lord of all my days, I fix my eyes on You and lay my burdens before Your holy throne of grace. You are my life, my desire, and my peace.

Check out: John 14:26-27

Know what you believe: Seems silly to say that you believe something but don’t really know about it. Doesn’t believing mean that you have understanding? Knowing from a biblical perspective is more than casual – in fact, in reference to knowing God, the word “know” is the Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse. It’s not the “Hey. I know you. I remember you from that party. You’re the best friend of my cousin Sally’s Uncle Charlie” type of knowing. It’s the acknowledging, feeling, understanding, perceiving, getting up close and personal kind of knowing.

And what about belief? I remember a story about a tightrope walker who was famous for daring stunts. This time, crowds gathered to watch him walk across a thin rope strung precariously over a canyon hundreds of feet deep. First, he simply walked across, from one side to the other. Then he did it blindfolded. The crowds cheered as he rode a unicycle across. He was unstoppable. Suddenly he turned to the crowds and said, “You’ve seen me walk this rope blindfolded. You’ve seen me ride across it without so much as a flinch. Now I will do my greatest trick: I will push a wheelbarrow across to the other side. Who here believes I can do it?” Everyone shouted, “Of course. We’ve seen you do so many tricks with our own eyes. You can do it!”
The tightrope walker set his eyes on one man in the front. He took the handles of the wheelbarrow and wheeled it over to the somewhat startled onlooker.
“Do you think I can do this?”
“Well, yes” said the man.
“I mean, do you really believe I can push this across and back without falling to my death in the canyon below?”
“Yes, yes, I do. I watched you walk blindfolded. I watched you ride without even flinching. Yes, I know you can do it beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
The stunt man was quiet for a brief second, and looking intently into the man’s eyes said, “Then get in.”

This kind of belief does not stand on the sidelines. It literally puts its entire faith in what is intimately known.

Know what you believe and your heart will not only be pliable, but accessible.

Father-God, I put myself into Your loving hands. I desire to know You more and more. Lord, take my intellectual belief and turn it into an all-encompassing heart and soul belief.

Check out: Psalm 46:10

Be Self-aware

Be self-aware:

Being self-aware as a Christian means being aware of not only who you currently are but who, through Christ, you can become. When we come to the Lord, we come with bags in tow – everything we experienced and learned in the world is present and accounted for. The spiritual reality is that we are a new creation in Christ; however, in the natural, we are an accumulation of worldly habits, behaviors, and beliefs. As we grow in our faith, our knowledge and our commitment, we shed this fleshly aspect of ourselves – a sometimes slow, arduous process, but a necessary one. Putting off the old and putting on the new (Eph 4:24), we lean into God’s welcoming embrace and rest. And as we rest in Christ, just as the seed rests in the earth before sprouting, we begin the process of growth and change.

Father-God, may Your Spirit teach me that becoming self-aware does not mean becoming self-absorbed. Help me to fix my eyes on Jesus as He is my True North.

Check out: Hebrews 12:2; 2 Corinthians 5:17

Perception

Consider perception:

Perception. Technically, it has to do with observation of what is around you and processing that information into meaningful patterns that relate to the reality of our “inner world.” That’s a mouthful! Basically, perception has to do with our own reality and how new experiences are interpreted and understood.

You’ve heard how two people can see the same accident and come out with different accounts. They each take in the scene and process it through their own experiences, truths, and values. This unconscious act can interfere with our ability to communicate.

My perceptions of a person or an event affect how I verbally relate to those around me. Let’s say that I am new to a church. I walk in just as the pastor is talking about the need to tithe. I take in that information, and it is processed through my experiences, beliefs, and values. If I’ve had a bad experience with a church misusing their funds, I will negatively perceive this new request from the pastor, and I will probably foster an attitude. And what if that same pastor comes up to me after church and introduces himself. I produce a tight smile, mumble a weak “Hello,” and quickly move away toward the door. My perceptions of the pastor as a money-seeking charlatan has affected my willingness to connect.

So as Christians, how do we deal with the perceptions of our inner world?

We need to seek transparency before God. There is a conflict between our worldly natures and the Spirit – there is a difference between our sometimes unstable, changing perception sets and deep, truthful understanding that comes from God residing in our inner man. God’s view of perception draws from His Standard of understanding, considering, observing, thinking and regarding.

Father of all Truth, may Your Word and Your Spirit be the spring from which I draw my conclusions about the people and events that surround me.

Check out: Matthew 13:14-15

The Bridle of Bias

(Wow! Has it really been that long since I last blogged? Well, vacations are over, and I'm going to try to get back into the rythmn of it all. Blog away!)

Continuing on with the subject of communication, the next thing that impacts the way we relate to others and to God is bias.

Confront your bias: If you look in the dictionary, there is more than one meaning for the word "bias." The most moving is prejudice. We all have biases whether we like to admit it or not. Some biases are harmless: I prefer the color green over red; I would rather read a 19th century novel over a newer one.

The problem comes in when our biases negatively effect not only our lives, but the lives of other people as well. So how do they impact our ability to communicate?

Think about your bias as a bridle. Yes, a bridle - you know the kind that a horse wears? This piece of equipment is used to lead and direct a horse. - to steer it. Whatever the basic design of the bridel, it is made to exert pressure on the sensitive areas of the horse's face in order to direct and control it. Our biases steer and control our lives, exerting pressure to the areas of our lives that are sensitive, such as our sense of self-worth and security.

If we allow our biases (such as preferring to speak to only those who meets our standards) to control the direction we take in life, our spiritual growth can be stunted. The bigger the bias, the bigger the impact it has. - we only go where "we" lead, not go where "He" leads.

Lord of my life, direct my path. May Your Holy Spirit lead me in the way I should go.

Check out: Psalm 119:35;133