Fire Extinguisher

Sulphurous burning
You are at an event with hundreds of people. There is the din of noise, many voices echoing, but you cannot make out what individuals are saying; it is a steady roar and rumble. 

There are creatures in your midst, dark shadows that cannot be seen with the naked eye. With large ears, they weave in and out of the crowd gathered there, slipping silently to stand between two, attuned to the couple in conversation. With keen hearing, they listen for just the right sound, an off key murmur, a discordant pitch. Once they have heard a perfectly screechy tone, they whisper to nearby cohorts with outsized mouths, instructing them to repeat what they have heard to the group in the corner. Soon enough, the game of telephone has begun, and like wild fire, dissension, divisions, divisiveness spreads throughout the crowd, flames catching and taking hold of tongues that fuel the sulphurous burning.

Creatures fan the flames
The creatures weave in and out, listening for any disruptors, anyone who may attempt to put out the fire; anyone who may want to calm the flames and cool the room with disgusting words of peace. The creatures whispering intensifies, as they fan the flame, adding a nasty twig word here, a thin vile thought log there. Keeping this fire burning requires constant effort, and their prey must be held in check and stoked continually.

Putting out the fire
There are some people in the room that can see the creatures, hear their whispers and hissing instructions. They can feel the presence and heat of fire. Cool washes over them as they squint their eyes, peering through the smoke and dancing flames. 

These are the fire extinguishers, the ones that calmly look about and know just what to do, where to go for water to choke and suffocate the flames. They murmur too, words that cannot be distinguished from the noisy crowd as they stand amongst, in and a part of the gathering. 

Others stand out front. With loud, booming voices that firehose like, expel flame quenching water, spraying the crowd, putting out the wild fire that threatens to destroy. 

Patches of burning continue. The extinguishers gain power and strength, and the firehose people turn up the pressure. Awake and alerted to the present danger, many in the crowd feel heat under their feet and begin to stomp, snuffing out the fiery licks that threaten to burn from the ground up. There remains some smouldering as smoke ascends. Many in the crowd were doused directly by the firehose people and many could feel the relief from heat that emanated from the fire extinguishers.

Walking away, free and unscathed

The crowd disperses and you leave too, unscathed, one of the many that felt the heat, saw the flames, and knew that they could not catch you on fire, would not consume you. You walk away, free

The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them (Provers 20:12) 

 

Family

And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother (Matthew 12:49-50)

What do you think of when you hear the word discipline?

I love the word discipline. I haven't always lived into this word, defined as: 

• the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behaviour;
• using punishment to correct disobedience; 
• controlled behaviour resulting from such training; 
• activity that provides mental or physical training; 
• a branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education.

I already know this stuff
Did I lose you up above in the definition of discipline? Did you shrug and say to yourself, yeah yeah, this I already know? When I look at the layered meaning of the word discipline, I pick out the big concepts. Training, obey, code of behaviour. This is intriguing and suggests an ethic, a way of living based on specific foundational believes and principals. Next we have punishment or correction with controlling of behaviour: I think of my work here

Discipline applied in work
As a fitness trainer, I correct posture and positioning, when clients are lifting weights. I ensure alignment for the protection of joints, ligaments and tendons, and the muscles attached there. There is a right way, and to do it the wrong way would punish the body. 

Next in discipline, we have mental training as it relates to knowledge and higher education, in a particular branch of study. This is the definition that excites me the most dear reader, because this is the reward of a life of discipleship! 

Do you see it as I do? We must do the hard work, follow hard on the heels of perfect example, and be corrected along the way to ensure the results we seek, a form of higher intellect in our chosen course of study, becoming experts in the end.
   
How to relate scripture to real life
How does this relate to the scripture quoted above, you ask? It is the company we keep dear reader, that I point toward. 

There is an expression that I have heard throughout my life "Tell me who you go with and I will tell you who you are". 

We are family, all part of the human race, this is DNA truth. But, dear reader, and there is a but, we are often times estranged relatives, distant cousins unable to relate, let alone call each other family. Jesus is clear in His pointing, that His family does the will of His Father, our Father in heaven, and this gives us the privilege of being family, heirs to the kingdom. making us Princes and Princesses, brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a grace filled, faithful gift He bestows on His disciples, those willing to be disciplined and trained, obey and live as He shows us to live, according to Gods will.

   
Radical change requires radical perseverance
I haven't always lived a life of discipline, and I am confident you haven't either. Radical change requires radical perseverance, in the face of obstacles and challenges and this, my dear one, is the training required to make us strong and elevate our mental, emotional and ultimately, spiritual capacities. Our reward awaits, and there is family in heaven and on earth, cheering us on. 

We are family, I got all my sisters (and brothers with me. Get up everybody and dance!

Surfacing Suffering and Joy

Life's been rough
I have had a rough couple of days. I have had a rough couple of weeks. I have had a rough couple of months. I have had a rough couple of years. I have had a rough couple of decades...
   
Hearing the words, recognizing the pain
Have you heard someone say these words? Have you spoken them about yourself or someone else? I work as a coach and I am like a heat seeking missile, when I see emotion surfacing in my clients. When a client glows with memories of themselves that delight their spirit, I know we are on holy ground. When a clients facial expression clouds over and tears streak their cheeks, I know that we have entered a secret place of suffering. Both expressions of experiences gone by, are indicators of the inner life, the world inside of the individual as they play back in vivid, coloured memory, what has elevated and alternatively, what has decimated them. 

We all have them, don't we dear reader, the memories? The ones that heal and the ones that hurt, as they are resurrected for our review?
   
Memories unearth our root thoughts
Memories serve a magnificent purpose. When unearthed, roots and all, we get to feel and scrutinize the sentiments that go along with the memories; the thoughts and sometimes the deals or contracts, usually unspoken, that we made with ourselves consciously, but more often unconsciously, when we made certain decisions. 

Who we are and who we become, are directly related to the surfacing of suffering and, wonderfully, the surfacing of joy! We get to choose pleasure over pain, kindness over cruelty, acceptance over rejection, healing over hurting, resolution over complacency, and ultimately, love over hate. There is no point in suffering dear reader, if you remain there, in it. Suffering is a certainty, what you and I choose while in it, is up to each of us:

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou cries after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seeks her as silver and searches for her as for hid treasures; Then shall thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:1-5).
   
Letting joy lead the way
The verse above comes from the book of wisdom, and speaks of knowledge of God in understanding. You could mire yourself in muck, getting stuck as your struggle to pull yourself free or, you can freely ask God to pull you out, to help you understand and place you on the path of peace. Our memories, our surfacing of suffering and joy, serve as indicators of where God wants us to go. Letting joy lead the way will take you out of suffering and you, my dear, will create new memories to savour and revisit whenever you choose.
   
Processing pain to get to joy is hard work

Joy is a choice

*Please note: I am a certified professional coach, trained to work with clients in the processing of their emotional memories for the purpose of moving toward a richly fulfilling life. There is nothing easy about the work clients do as they move from earthly to heavenly realms of being and understanding. And yet, there is nothing more glorious to witness than a person being set free

One more Lord, just one more. 

Hedging Your Bets

Self-Interest
Hedge your bets: to protect yourself against loss by supporting more than one possible result or both sides in a competition. I have hedged my bets in many a grocery store and I presume you have behaved similarly? You know how it works. You eye up two lanes of people and ride the middle, hoping to snag the fastest moving line and win the race, by saving time when you get to the front of one of the lines faster than say, that guy/gal next to you that didn't have your selection savvy. It is a little game many of us play to beat the odds, to have them swing in our favour and when it works, we have a Cheshire cat sort of satisfaction; and when it doesn't, and we lose because our cashiers cash register has run out of tape, then we recognize that life feels like a game of chance, and outcomes are not always predictable and certainly not, controllable.

Separate Planes
I have heard of couples travelling to the same destination in separate planes. This is a huge form of bet hedging, and it is a pessimistic gamblers mentality. The truth of the matter is this: bad things happen all of the time and all of the time there is the possibility that a bad thing or two, might happen to...You? Yes, yes, it will happen to you, the problem is, you don't know what "it" is, isn't that so dear reader?

The delusion
If this low grade like fever has you hedging bets in your life, it has a grip on you and you are living from superstition, another form of fever that causes delusions of grandeur, a misconception that you have control over circumstance and that somehow, you can beat the system. You cannot. You will get hurt. People you love will get hurt. You will die. People you love will die. You have no say in expiry dates, yours or anyone else's but then again, you already know this too, otherwise there would be no need for hedging those bets, would there?

Trust in the Lord, not your own understanding

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3:5-6)

You and I are subject to the laws of nature. You and I are also subject to the freedom of will of other human beings, some of which choose cruelty and hatred as their antisocial destructive calling cards. Then there are those that surround us that pick up the pieces, human parts, broken hearts, lives shattered and glued back together again over time. 

Love is never random or circumstantial. Perhaps this is what we learn when we find ourselves in the situations we most fear?

Trust Gambled Away
Trust has been misplaced, gambled away, and there have been substantial losses dear one. Who do you turn to when your dreams turn into nightmares? Where, pray tell, do you place your healing hope? You need not hedge your bets ever again. 

In God we Trust: I believe this is written on a whole lot of money, the kind that gets dropped at casinos throughout the world

Just Another Day

Frown Lines
Has it been just another day for you dear reader? I have frown lines that are permanently etched between my eyebrows. I have noticed them in pictures lately. I could have something done cosmetically to erase the evidence of repeated facial expressions that have left telltale marks of consternation, and perhaps some squinting to see without glasses, but I am confident that in no time, they would reappear because clearly, I frown.

Laughing and Crying
Just another day... 

Today was not just another day for me. A close friend turned fifty and we shared our thoughts over lunch. While sharing, there were tears. Our hearts were tender and this is the beauty of friendship, knowing someone so well that it is safe to cry, and then laugh at one another for being cry babies. 

There is so much to laugh about and this is where I long to stay. and yet people are being stolen from. People are being murdered daily, and families are going to funerals for relatives taken without warning, senselessly ripped away never to return. And I ask you dear reader, why? Why are we so inclined to cruelty? Why do we hate ourselves so much that we want to take others down with us? Why is it ok to hate the world and make them pay for our pain? 

I am an "inspirational writer" but my heart is breaking and I ask you, is yours too? Is it just another day for you? Did you work today and think about all the things you always think about... or did you stop and grieve, feel the pain of loss and suffering as it ripples across continents and open waters and in its wake, did it leave you cold and shivering, unsettled and frowning?

Take Care of Business
We must, of necessity, take care of business. We must work and do our part to make a difference in a darkened world. It will not do to curl up into a ball and cry, not for long... for today though, for this day, we can weep for the lost, feel the pain for our fellow men and women as they search for a way to see past their own suffering, clinging to something, anything to make it better somehow. 

Compassion is a gift, a soulful rendering of how our God feels when He sees His children in turmoil and troubled. It is unnatural to be feelingless... today is not just another day

Addendum: I do not recall what was happening in the world when I wrote this piece. Since then, in the past two years in particular, I have wept what seems like oceans, for the dead, those that fell prey to the forces of evil that conspired to maim, to kill, to destroy

This piece of writing is a foreshadowing, a predicting of the grief that we will experience over the next decade, as we mourn the losses accumulated, of loved ones.

The friend I celebrated, the day of this writing, she is a casualty, a love lost, because she went the way of the world. We did not, could not, see eye to eye: she lives in fear, and this is the sin of the masses.

She would not heed my warnings: only God can help her  

Love Capacity

Burrs
What is your capacity to love? I had to take a close look at my heart yesterday and dig around in there, to see if it had picked up any burrs along the way. What I noticed is that my capacity to love any one person is directly related to the amount of disappointment I have experienced in relationship with them. This means I do and don't love them, all at once! 

For instance, it is easy to love friends because they are loyal, fun to be with, have our best interests at heart, and in the most fantastical way, friends will challenge us with truth for our own well being. Love has flow in friendship. 

Switching gears with a grind, I had to look closely at the family variety of relationships. Ahh, dear reader, you felt it too, the jarring slowing to a stop. This is where I found the burrs attached randomly to my heart, because over time, they caught there, hooked me into certain ways of thinking, reacting, believing and ultimately, feeling. One of the burrs, as mentioned above, is disappointment. 

When you or I do not "behave" according to the plan of another, there can be score keeping, with a disappointment score card, and endless check marks of yup, there they go again, one more reason that my trust and ultimately, my love has proven to be misplaced.

True Love
Love, true love, gives even when it does't get anything in return and this morning, that lesson became most apparent. I want to love like Jesus loves and this means loving the person in front of me, exactly the way they are, without self interest, self promotion, or a need to be pleased by their behaviour: attached like an addendum to our relationship. 

That kind of love is other worldly, and leads me to this morsel of astounding truth 

We give thanks to God and the  Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel (Colossians 1:3-5)

Hope laid up
Faith and love springs from hope laid up for me/you in heaven! 

Oh dear one, I do not have the capacity to love like Jesus on my own. It is humanly impossible, because of my all too sensitive burr accumulating heart. 

It is only when I seek Him, live and love like He does, after being in His presence, in prayer and in His Word, that love capacity grows! With it, my heart fills to overflowing, the burrs no longer have a grip, they dislodge, and drop one by one to the ground.

Can you imagine, hope is laid up in heaven for us?

Grab hold of this truth, grab hold of love: let go of disappointment and learn to love like the Master. This is possible, it has, been done before.