our blog
May
Focus is Required
I’m assuming you want to change something about yourself – your character, your default patterns or reactions.
That’s likely why you are doing My One Word. You want to be different.
Here’s what I can tell you about that. To change at a sustainable level, you are going to have to change what you focus on. You need to look at things differently in order to change. Your word is a great tool in this.
For example, is your one word TRUST? … Are you going to focus on Christ’s power, or on your circumstances today?
Is your one word PEACE? Will you focus on what you can control, or on what you can’t control?
Is your one word PATIENCE? How then should you live this next hour?
Questions like these lead us to focus properly. You want to change your focus? Change the questions you ask yourself.
Change the Questions You Ask Yourself
Rather than asking, “Why is this happening to me?” ask, “What can I do in this situation to affect the outcome (or others) for the better?” Rather than asking, “Why can’t I ever lose weight?” ask, “What small, doable choice can I make today – right now – to position myself for weight loss?”
Your brain will answer the questions you ask of it. If you ask it why you can’t loose weight, or why you are so disorganized, it will give you an answer. And that answer will sound convincing! It will say, “Because I love food too much.” Or, “I’ve always been messy – I just can’t help it.”
But if you ask your brain what you can do right now to move forward towards your goal, it will answer you: “I can put down these chips and drink a glass of water,” or, “I can sort through that stack of stuff piled on my desk.”
Change your questions in order to change your answers, so that you can shift your focus. Focus = Direction.
What we see – where we look, or what we focus on – determines the direction we will go.
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So what are you focusing on? Now? Today? Lately? If you want to change, start there. Use your one word as both a reminder and a tool to focus.
Are you looking for a way to keep your word in front of you all year long? Register for a My One Word account! One of the key features of a MOW account is an online Word Journal that allows you to capture your thoughts to reflective questions like you see above. You can go back at any time to read your completed journals to see how God has been moving in your life through your one word.
Apr
LETTING YOUR WORD INTERRUPT
Last week was especially difficult. I had to write a funeral service for a young mother of two.
The honor of preaching a funeral in such tragic circumstances is among the most precious of pastoral tasks. It’s also among the most difficult to prepare for.
I look at the picture of the family as I prepare. I’m seeking to immerse myself in their pain. I want to feel the emotion of what I am entering into. This enables me to unite myself and my funeral message with the mourners who will be in that room. It also helps me to manage the emotion that will surface during the service.
I rarely write out manuscripts for my sermons. Instead I jot down phrases and transition statements that only make sense to me. I was preparing my message for this funeral in the same way when my one word interrupted me.
While praying through the message and writing my transition statements, I looked up and saw my one word written on a 3 x 5″ note card above my desk: INVEST.
Seeing the word, I suddenly saw an opportunity. Looking through the lens of My One Word forced me to ask the question: Who needs the opportunity to learn to do what I am about to do?
This wasn’t a question of arrogance, but of stewardship. One of the reasons I chose the one word INVEST this year was to remind me that God has granted me the opportunity to invest in and develop other staff members at my church. To help them learn to deal well with circumstances like the one I was facing.
So I called several of our pastors and suggested they attend the funeral. Then I spent the next three hours writing out the entire funeral service message. I didn’t write it out to aid me during the service; I wrote it out to aid my staff. Next week, I’ll sit down with these young pastors and walk them through the manuscript - and the process of addressing tragedy in a way that helps people grapple with mortality, while calling them to faithfulness in spite of their pain.
Had I not looked at this situation through the lens of my one word, I would’ve missed this opportunity to invest in my staff. Hopefully my investment of time with them will help them to some day invest well in others who grieve.
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Your one word will interrupt your day if you let it. It will redirect you mid-task - helping you see important stuff you might otherwise have missed.
How has your one word interrupted you recently? What change in course did you make because of it?
Apr
Ear of an Angel
Perspective: the appearance to the eye of objects in respect to their relative distances and positions
A few weeks ago I was blessed with the opportunity to spend an entire afternoon alone in New York City. I decided to take a walk through Central Park and spend my time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The prospect of this perfect afternoon eased my nerves and excited my intellect. I was in for a greater experience than expected.
As I meandered through the Met I relished the Roman antiquities: sculptures, bronzes, adornments. I recognized pieces featured in various books and magazines I have read in my lifetime. They were not all new to me. I know what to appreciate about them. The cut of the marble, the craftsman ship, the brilliance of the jewels, all were somewhat familiar. It was exactly what I wanted and expected to see.
I moved on from the Greek and Roman art exhibit with no real sense of where to go next. I walked around a corner and was instantly challenged. There I was in Modern and Contemporary Art facing several paintings I knew that I could have painted myself, had I sat down to do it. Yet, I was challenged. Why this color here? Why so basic here, but intricate there? He used ovals everywhere, why ovals? The title of this piece does not correspond with what I see, so what am I missing? This collection was thought provoking. As I worked through piece after piece I happened to look directly ahead and saw a mass of oil on paper in a renaissance-like frame about fifty feet away.
From where I was standing, I saw an ear. An enormous ear painted in what seemed to be black and white with hints of peach and bluish-grey. I did not know what to think other than how peculiar. (I later learned the artist called this the “ear of an angel.”) I moved in for a closer look and with each step, the picture began to change. From about six feet away I clearly saw a Madonna with child inside the ear. Of course I paused. “Whaaat?” I thought, equally amused and curious. At this point one could also discern a “profusion of pink and grey dots,” as the description card explained it, covering the entire image. “Why?” I thought aloud. I didn’t get it. I proceeded, only to realize at close range the painting seemed abstract except for a surreal creased piece of paper with a red ball hanging from it casting a shadow. The crispness of this part of the image suggested to me that my attention to it was required. I scooted over to get a closer look at the trompe l’oeil and sure enough discovered the signature of the artist. I had just witnessed Salvador Dali’s Madonna (1958).
I walked back and forth experiencing this masterpiece over and over again. At one point as I was stepping back to see the big picture once again, a man came up to the painting at close range. A little distracted by his form obscuring what I wanted to appreciate, I waited for him to move. But almost instantly I acknowledged that he was experiencing this too. He slowly moved backwards and I, forwards. After resuming a close range position, I turned to look back at the man. He looked at me and we both nodded knowingly. We had just seen four separate elements of one painting. We received what the artist had to show us based on how we worked through the experience and where we had positioned ourselves.
Is it not so with our relationship with God? Is it not so with our one word? We seek what we can readily recognize and understand in our walk with God and we are satisfied with staying there. It kind of massages our spiritual ego. But when it is time to get to work, when its time for us to take our word and find new and challenging places to apply it, will we? I pray for you and for me that the answer is a bold and adamant yes! It is thrilling to see God work in the unknown areas of our souls. To observe and ask, “Why here, Lord?”, “What purpose will this serve?”, “You can actually use this, Lord?” “How can I move forth with this person in my path?” It is thrilling to continue in obedience learning and growing. It is all about your perspective of your one word. Will you witness the masterpiece as it changes and becomes richer before your eyes? Will you let the Master show you His work in you at each step?
Perspective: a mental view or prospect.
J. Becton Skiba