LeRucher Ministries is well known for it’s debriefing seminars, but also for it’s Ethnic Reconciliation work. Over the past 10 years LeRucher has developed a great resource that in partnership we hope to bring to you in a radio format.

To find out more.. visit www.lerucher.org

Well … maybe … for some things.

But aren’t the details part of the big picture?

No I don’t mean we all need to be perfectionists. Far from it. Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m not a perfectionist. I’m human. I can’t be perfect. But that doesn’t mean that everything only requires broad brush strokes with no details. It’s some of the details that many times gives meaning to the finished result.

I saw an example of this the other day as I was walking on a country road. A cluster of tiny flowers nestled down in the grass beside the road.   99.999999% of people who passed by probably never saw those flowers. If anything they saw a faint red-orange shading to some of the grass and passed it by without a closer look. I’ve only seen those clusters in three or four places. They seem to be pretty rare — around here anyway.

A closer look found a detail that God seems to think was important enough, even though most people never see it. A tiny flower (1/2 inch) 1 cm across when it is fully open (it closes up at night).

© Photo by A. Stewart

I have no idea why God took the time to put so much detail into this tiny flower.  But I’m glad he did.

It tells me that God is interested in the tiny details of my life that no one else knows about. The details that I don’t really think anyone else sees or particularly would care about even if they did see them. But God sees those details, and he cares about them.

It tells me something else too.

Maybe I should care a little more about some of the details of the work I am doing for him … and some of the details of the people around  me. I think God cares about those things.

We’ve all heard (I think) the expression … he couldn’t see the forest for the trees. How about turning that around? Are we guilty of not seeing the trees because all we see is the forest … the big picture?

Sure we need to see the big picture. That’s important. And sometimes it can be “bad” to focus on only the details that are close to us. But let’s not let that become an excuse to overlook “all” the details. Some of them are important. Without them the “big picture” wouldn’t exist.

God certainly didn’t ignore the details in grass gone to seed at the side of a dusty road.

© Photo by A. Stewart

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matt 6:30 NIV)

I like the way Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message Bible. If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?

So … God pays attention to your details.

What details have you been overlooking?

And yes we have wild turkey’s wandering around here from time to time. One bunch — herd, flock — whatever you want to call them, was wandering through the property the other day. Doing the wandering turkey thing. Slowly plodding along like they do all day, every day. Making little gurgling noises. Pecking here and there at the ground for tasty morsels of something.

That’s what life is usually like for them. That’s their life routine. During the day. At night they sort of fly up into some fairly low branches of a convenient tree to perch for the night while they sleep. And keep away from predators.

The other day, though, we saw the turkeys do something we had never seen before. They gave up their routine jobs. They stopped plodding. And they flew. High. They were flying 80 or 90 feet (25 or more meters) high, at tree top level. Yes that’s right turkeys. A dozen of them who usually didn’t do anything so exciting. Each probably weighed about 35 pounds (16kg). And they landed in the tops of trees.

So what happened? Did they trade in their routine jobs for something more exciting? More uplifting? Not exactly. It was a momentary break in the routine for them. An hour later they were back at ground level, doing the normal turkey thing. Plodding and pecking and making little noises.

So what caused the change in activity?

Motivation.

Compelling, and inspiring motivation.

They were motivated – all at the same time – to do something totally different. Motivated to use some talents they hadn’t used for awhile. I’d like to think it was a little exciting for them.

And what was the motivation?

The neighbor’s dog. She gave them a motivational speech, and they didn’t wait for her to finish. They were immediately inspired to do something different. Fly. High. And get a different perspective on their lives from the high branches of trees.

We’re kind of like that, aren’t we? Some of us. Plodding through each day. Pecking away at our routines of work. Making little sounds to each other as we move through the day. And the next day is the same.

What kind of motivation do you suppose it would take to get us off the ground? To get us to change our routine? To do something new? Exciting? Different? To fly a little higher? To get a fresh new perspective on our lives and work?

Who knows. Maybe God has something new for you (and me) in 2010. Maybe we have some talents or abilities we haven’t used very much that God wants us to use.

Are you ready to be motivated to fly higher? To do something new and fresh and effective? Different?

Listen for the motivation.

Not a dog barking.

Listen for God speaking, saying “I’ve got something I want you to do.”

And then start flying…..

Al Stewart

Okay. Maybe that seems like a strange question here. But stay with me for a minute or two.

It happens that where we live there are a lot of trees. Some small. Some big. Fir (2 or 3 kinds). Cedar. Spruce. Tamarack (Larch). Pine (several kinds). Poplar. Cottonwood. Birch. etc.

About 2 years ago one fir tree, about 80 feet (25m) tall, died. We thought, one day we should cut that down. And then last year it began to lean. And I began to worry. It was leaning so that if it fell it would hit the roof of a large storage building. It leaned some more. And I worried some more. Every time we walked where we could see that tree, we looked, and wondered if there wasn’t some way we could take care of it. But it wasn’t possible to cut it down — safely.

I guess one day I said, “Lord you’re going to have to take care of this thing. I can’t.” But I can’t say I was calmly trusting. I was still worrying.

Then one day about a month ago we looked out the window. Something was missing. Or was it imagination? So we went out and walked to where we could see better.

That tall dead spire wasn’t there. What there was, was a heavy “oh no, it’s happened” feeling in my stomach. … But the roof of the building was fine. There was no tree lying on the building. But where was it?

It had fallen all right. In a perfect place. As the roots gave way, one root held on so that the tree in falling, twisted to the right, and fell into a perfect safe spot.

And we just stood there staring at it, and saying, “Thank you Lord.”

Does God push trees down? … Well, I don’t know who else did it.

Oh sure there are logical “natural” explanations. But who created nature? Who guides nature?

A lot of times we have worries like that — not trees maybe, but worries just the same. They grow in our minds. We worry more. And maybe we know that we can’t take care of them, and we say, “Lord you’re going to have to take care of this thing. I can’t.”

Maybe we even forget we said that. And we keep on worrying. Until one day we realize that the reason for our worry is gone. God has taken care of it.

And I hope we always remember right then to say, “Thank you Lord.”

Does God push over trees? So that they fall in exactly the right place?

I think so.

Does God push over our worries.

Of course he does.

Al Stewart

You dream of the day when you only have one or two projects that are your responsibility. That would mean you would have the time and energy to give those projects the attention they deserve.

And then your team leader (or your boss, or someone else) comes in. You can tell by the look in their eye, exactly what’s coming.

Another project.

Will you do it?

Funny thing, they never seem to ask “Can you do it?” “Do you have the time to do this job well?” “Do you have the energy to tackle another job responsibility?”

We need you to do this. Will you do it?

And so you say yes …

Maybe at the time, it even seems like a good idea to you. Maybe you’re even excited by the possibilities and prospects of the new project. … If only you didn’t have all those other projects that also give you a certain feeling of excitement. You committed yourself, and your time and energies to them.

And now you have committed yourself to another one.

We all do that.

We pack too many activities into our schedules. Too many responsibilities. Sooner or later the quality of our work suffers. Sooner or later the quality of our health suffers. Sooner or later the stress builds to a breaking point.

Unless.

Unless we learn to say “NO”.

The first time is hard.

Especially when you know that the project is worthwhile, and possibly you can do a more effective job than whoever else might by available.

I had to learn that lesson … almost the hard way … once. I had to learn to say, “That’s enough. That’s all I can handle.”

In Luke 4 Jesus was healing and helping. All worthwhile work. When he moved on, and took a break in the country, the people followed him and tried to prevent him from leaving. Should he stay (a worthwhile choice) or should he go (also a worthwhile choice). Jesus said, “Don’t you realize there are yet other villages where I have to tell the Message…” That was his prime committment — to tell everyone. So He said “No” to the project presented by the local committee. And continued with the project to which he had already committed himself.

As Ron Hutchcraft said one time, (you can hear him from time to time on the Thursday programs of Member Care Radio) … “If your schedule’s already full, next time you’re tempted to over-commit, have the wisdom and courage to resist adding that one more thing.”

Don’t say “YES” too many times. Learn to say “NO” when it is necessary.

Al Stewart

Maybe you’ve had our experience when you’ve been on vacation. Lunch time is coming. As you drive, you watch in vain for a suitable place to stop for lunch. Finally you stop looking and pull the car into a kind of messy wide spot beside the road. Lunch is good, but a better view would have been nice too. … And then you drive on, and one kilometer down the road, or just around the next bend, there is a beautiful picnic spot.

You gave up too soon.

I remember reading of a gold miner … panning for gold. Looking for that one site where he could strike it rich. Oh, he found small traces when he panned the gravel in the streams. But not what he was looking for. He decided to try one more stream and then he’d quit. Well, that stream produced nothing for him, also. When he stood up, his back was aching. He was exhausted. He was discouraged. But he took the time to gaze up the valley for several minutes. Should he keep going? Should he try one more time? Finally he shrugged his shoulders and started back down in the direction of civilization.

History says he quit too soon. The next stream was the source of a major gold strike … for someone else.

Sometimes we feel like giving up. We’re tired. We’re feeling the drag of being discouraged. The results we hoped and prayed for are just not coming. It seemed like God called us here … but maybe we’re mistaken. Maybe we should just quit. … Go somewhere else…. Go home.

Jesus could have quit. But how much we would miss in life today if he had stopped at Gethsemane.

He kept going.

What will we find if we go one more step? One more mile? One more kilometer? One more day? One more month? One more year? What’s around the next corner in time?

Can we trust God for one more day?

Al Stewart

Maybe we’re fortunate, and God puts us in a place where the “soil” is well prepared. Great. Pop in the seeds – carefully. Watch them grow. And rejoice when we see the harvest.

For a lot of us, it doesn’t happen that way. The soil isn’t ready. No one has gone ahead of us and plowed it, and prepared it. It’s just hard, rocky soil. And sometimes it’s difficult to imagine that anything will ever grow there. But this is where God has put us.

Could it be that God has called some of us to just move stones? Stones of prejudice. Stones of preconceived ideas. Stones of fear. Stones of distrust. Stones. Stones. Stones. Some big. Some small. But all hard. And they can only be moved gently one at a time.

All that before the soil can be prepared.

Maybe someone else will come along and plant the seeds.

Maybe someone else will come along and see the harvest.

Moving stones is hard work. It can be lonely work. And it doesn’t provide many dramatic, encouraging stories to share with supporters.

But the stones … big rocks, small pebbles … need to me moved. To make room for the seeds to be planted.

Sometimes God calls some us to move stones.

Al Stewart

Proofreading seems to be a lost art.

It’s the time factor … Well, at least partly.

We’re all in such a hurry when we dash off these words, that we don’t take the time to double check to make sure we really are saying what we think we are saying, or that our thoughts are expressed clearly. And sometimes we discover the mistakes after we have hit “send”, and it’s too late to call the words back and correct them.

Is the message we’re writing — even in the condensed form of a text message, or Twitter — important? Then shouldn’t it be important enough to take the extra few seconds to express that message clearly and correctly, so that the person who reads it does not get the wrong impression?

If someone reads the message we have composed and published or fired off into cyberspace and that someone notices that it is poorly presented … it’s sloppy … spelling mistakes … missing words … incorrect words … what will be the impression that is passed along about the message? Probably something like “based on the appearance of this writing, this message must not really be important.” … That is, if they actually read any more after the first few errors.

The apostle Paul, writing in I Corinthians 14 said “If I don’t address you plainly … what help am I to you? If musical instruments … aren’t played so that each note is distinct and in tune, how will anyone be able to catch the melody and enjoy the music? … So if you speak in a way no one can understand, what’s the point of opening your mouth?” (As expressed in the Message Bible.)

So, of course, we need to proofread. We need to watch for our mistakes. We don’t want to detract from an important message we’re trying to pass along. … At the same time we need to be careful that we don’t try to be too clever with our use of words. … I’ve read blogs and other writings like that, where my impression was that the writer wanted to show off how many fancy words they knew rather than concentrating on the communication. At times I even had to take time to look up the definition of some of the “clever” words so that I could understand what the writer really meant. … And that took some extra time. Not everyone will take the time to look up the words that are not clearly communicating to them.

For years in my office — wherever that office happened to be — I have generally had a saying printed out and visible.

“He who knows what he is talking about can afford to use words everyone can understand.”

Or if you wish …

“She who knows what she is talking about can afford to use words everyone can understand.”

I think it’s a good reminder. For all our communication efforts.

Al Stewart

And this all brought back some memories and thoughts about how many times I’ve said goodbye. As an MK/TCK and then as an expat cross cultural Christian worker. Sometimes it was people moving away from us … and sometimes we were the ones doing the moving … for various reasons. I’m not sure I could even count up and itemize the number of places where I have “lived” or where I have stayed for any amount of time.

Every time there was a move … there were more goodbye’s.

For some of us the idea of moving is an exciting thing … another new adventure. But for some of us it’s torture … it’s a painful, stressful experience. A friend in this valley where we are living has lived here all her life. She was born here. And she can’t imagine moving away and living somewhere else. … And me? I just can’t imagine living in one place all my life.

Are goodbyes painful? They can be. Especially if it is a very good friend, and you may never see them again.

I read this awhile ago — I don’t know who wrote it — but I think it is something to think about.

“Good new beginnings require good endings. So there is no way around those goodbyes. Yes they are messy and painful and nobody has the right words … or some simply have no words and instead there are tears. Sometimes there are even bridges to mend … apologies to be expressed … or forgiveness to be extended. Goodbyes are important?”

Sometimes the best way to say goodbye is just to say “see you later” It’s not an ending … it’s a hoped for continuation of the friendship.

Modern communication makes it a lot easier to keep in contact … by words or voice. So why not … See you later!

There was a series of programs about saying Goodbye on MemCare by Radio. If you’re interested, you can hear it at http://tinyurl.com/l4h4ow

Al Stewart

As a leader and a contributor to MemCare By Radio, he has a wide range of experience in the MC Community and over time he has ideas and thoughts to share. This will be the place, along with his current blog at Closing Spaces… where you can hear some of Brent’s ideas.

Taking care of “you” during these uncertain times…
5 quick ideas about emotional self management

As we are in the middle of a wild ride, and uncertain end, it is easy to become fearful, anxious, morbid, fatalistic, and angry, to pick a few feelings out of the thin air. How do we handle ourselves when it feels like the proverbial rug is being pulled out from under us? Here are a few thoughts I have been integrating into my own life, which might offer some solace in the midst of current or future stress.

First, I am focusing on hope. I am convinced that no matter how bad things get, there is always hope. Hope seems to be in my DNA, even though at times my family would say I am the worrier. I suppose I do worry, but worrying helps me think strategically. From there, I actually get hopeful, and begin working my strategy.

Second, I keep thinking about the daily present. Sure, there are storm clouds ahead, but hey! The sun comes out after the rain! Dawn comes after the dark! Tomorrow, will show up, just as it did yesterday.

Third, I keep my mouth open. By this I mean, I talk about my concerns, hopes, fears, possibilities. I share with friends and family. I ask for prayer. I pray for others about the same things. And then, I feel like we are all in the same boat.

Fourth, I acknowledge Jesus is here with me. Jesus will be walking beside me, and will stick with me through whatever happens. Some of what may happen, will be because of my stupid mistakes, misguided forecasting, or whatever else. However, He will work with all that, and only He knows the outcome. I find that exhilarating!

Fifth, I know that I will have times of anxiety, times of feeling down. So, I welcome them because I know that my feelings will circle around to hope and joy again, though I don’t necessarily know when. And, hopefully, my actions will result in God being exalted.

Five is enough. It is the same number of fingers we have on one hand. Review this each day by looking at your hand. We are in the midst of a great time of difficulty. And yet, we know our Christian history is full of these periods. Take heart. As with the sparrow, His eye is on you!