Waiting
Waiting. Not a natural inclination of mine, but a practice of great value. I’m learning that God actually is smarter and more capable of planning than I am. As I have been trying to “figure some things out” here in my ministry context God has spoken and said, “Wait.” So that is what I intend to do.
As I wait, deadlines are getting closer. People want answers. People want permission. People want me to plan. That is, after all, what I usually do. But I must wait lest I find myself being disobedient and not in the center of God’s will.
As I wait, pieces are coming together; pieces that required no energy, no emotional investment and no planning on my part. Truth be told, the pieces are even better than the ones I would have fashioned. Perhaps the psalmist had it right when he said, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” (Psalm 37:7)
Compliments are Free
My lesson for the day is that compliments cost me nothing and pay huge returns. Call it filling up someone’s bucket (Tom Rath), filling up someone’s love tank (Gary Chapman), or making deposits in people’s emotional bank accounts (Stephen Covey) it’s just plain good sense to do it! It can be done quickly as someone pointed out to me. She practices “drive by compliments.” As you pass people – at work, in the house, at the grocery store – pay them a sincere compliment.
Why?
This lesson is so simple and so straightforward, and yet it is the one I fail at the most – “Apart from me you can do nothing.” I know it. I preach it. But certainly don’t practice it much. The lesson is learn to abide in Jesus Christ, at all times.
