Alan Fadling's Blog, page 56
February 3, 2021
Learning to See the Day
As was typical of a season long ago, I had a pile of little boys in the back of my red minivan. We were driving down the street toward our home when I noticed some unusual dark grey storm clouds in the sky. Behind the clouds was a glowing blue sky, with splashes of pink and gold.
It was the beginning of sunset, and, evidently, my then 4-year-old son had never seen the sky exactly like that before.
“I never saw today!” he exclaimed as he peered out the van window, reacting to the sky.
The wonder in his voice floored me. The only way he could think of to describe this amazing sky was, “I never saw today!”
As he said that, I was reminded that I, too, “never saw today.” My day had been full of school parties and, upon arriving home, I would continue to prepare for another party that evening. I was scurrying around managing the tasks of the day and hadn’t stopped once to wonder at the day given to me by my Creator.
Presence makes life so much more enjoyable. Over the years, I have learned how to listen to the person speaking to me, to see the flowers on the path along my walk, to sense the love of God as I attend to my errands, and, yes, to enjoy a beautiful sunset.
It is simple presence in the seemingly mundane that can give meaning to our days…because we know that God is with us and we are with Him.
So instead of “Seize the day” what if we try to “See today.”
Reflection
To put feet on this, why not experiment with being present and aware during one of your appointments or tasks.
If you are meeting with a person:
Look them in the eye.
Listen attentively.
Pray for them as they speak to you.
Let God’s love flow through you to them.
If you are accomplishing a task:
Give God thanks for this opportunity.
Notice your surroundings. Is there something unexpected?
Try to find beauty in the moment (even if there isn’t anything inherently beautiful).
Sense God’s love for you as you engage in this work/event/task.
Learning to become present moment by moment is an ongoing process. Give yourself some space and some grace.
Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
February 1, 2021
Podcast 160: The Leader in You (Gem with Ebony S. Small)
Along the way, God uses our life experiences to form us and to help us lead from an authentic and healthy place. The power of God’s presence is not just for your benefit but also for all in your sphere of influence. Today, I’m talking with Ebony Small, a younger leader who serves as a pastor and a mentor.
Ebony has a wealth of experience in both churches and organizations. She's got practical and biblical wisdom to offer whether you are just starting or are looking for a fresh start in your life and leadership.
Ebony is vice president of global ministries at PULSE Movement, a ministry committed to awaken culture to the reality of Jesus. She was formerly the director of Movement Day Expressions at MOVEMENT.ORG, where she was dedicated to catalyzing leaders to affect cities across the globe. She was selected to attend the Lausanne Younger Leaders gathering in 2016. Ebony also serves as an associate pastor at Bethel Gospel Assembly in New York City.
If you are a younger leader or you’ve got younger leaders on your team, I hope you’ll encourage them to tune in and listen with you to Ebony’s encouragement and inspiration.
Enjoy a free chapter from Ebony's book, "The Leader in You" and then order here.
Bethany would love to connect with you on social at:
Instagram @bethanyssmall
Facebook @ebonysmallauthor
Twitter @EbonySmall
Youtube @ebonyssmall
January 27, 2021
Morning Coffee, Morning Communion
I start most mornings by making my favorite cup of coffee. It starts with some hand-roasted beans. I roast them by the half-pound on our BBQ propane burner using a Whirly-Pop popcorn maker. I grind the beans by hand with a manual grinder. I measure precise grams of ground coffee to precise grams of water. I preheat my mug because I enjoy my coffee as hot as I can get it. I use a one-serving French press because I’m the only regular coffee drinker in our family. I lightly heat the heavy cream I will add to it, and work it a bit with a handheld frother. I usually drink only one large cup of coffee a day, and this is my unhurried way to prepare it.
Why bother giving you all this detail about my morning cup? Because I then take that cup to our home library where I work most days, and I take time to reflect on a passage of scripture. I try to make it unhurried, even when the day is full of appointments and projects. The other day, it was a couple of passages from the prophet Isaiah. I sipped my coffee, and I enjoyed the passage. Here is what I journaled that morning.
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.’
11From the east I summon a bird of prey;
from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about;
what I have planned, that I will do.
Isaiah 46:10-11
The Lord, my Father through Jesus, knows the end from the beginning. He knows the beginning of my life and the end of my life. He knows the beginning of Unhurried Living and its end. He knows the beginning of our marriage and the end. He knows it all from ancient times until eternity future. What is ancient history to me is just a few minutes ago for him.
And he not only knows everything and all time, but he makes these things known. Isn’t it good to know that the Father is generous with wisdom? Don’t you want to welcome whatever the Father would like to teach you about his good and beautiful kingdom? Wouldn’t it be good to enjoy these rich resources and share them with others?
God’s purposes really are good, and they will prevail in the end. When God does whatever he pleases, that is only good news. God is at work to fulfill his good intentions for our world, regardless of what we see in the moment.
This is what the Lord says—
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go.
18If only you had paid attention to my commands,
your peace would have been like a river,
your well-being like the waves of the sea.
Isaiah 48:17-18
Lord, thank you for being my redeemer. I need redeeming. I need rescuing. More than forty years after I began following you, I still need restoring and renewing. And I can’t renew myself, but you can do it because of your love for me. You are my God. Thank you for all the ways you teach me what is best and guide me in good, fruitful, joyful paths.
When I pay attention and follow, I experience rivers of peace and waves of well-being. Open my eyes, my ears, my heart and my mind to discern your teaching and your guidance today. Enable me to walk on the path that is so rich and full of peace and goodness. May Gem and I both find our way to carrying with us the goodness that you are continually granting. May this day of work be enriched in it. Amen.
Reflect
What might help you enjoy even more a meeting with God in the morning? What might make it even more special—a favorite morning beverage, a special location, a beautiful view out one of your windows?
How might you take your time with such a meeting? How might an unhurried approach make it even richer?
Photo by Sydney Angove on Unsplash
January 25, 2021
Podcast 159: Prayer in the Night (Alan with Tish Harrison Warren)
We continue to find ourselves in unsettling times, don’t we? I’m sure I don’t need to unpack that any further for you, right? Many of us have struggled with what prayer looks like in this season when things are happening we never asked for. How do we pray when life feels more like a threatening night than a bright and dawning day?
It was good to have a chance to speak recently with Tish Harrison Warren about her new book, releasing tomorrow in fact, called Prayer in the Night.
Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. She is the author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, which was Christianity Today's 2018 Book of the Year. She has worked in ministry settings for over a decade as a campus minister with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries, as an associate rector, with addicts and those in poverty through various churches and non-profit organizations, and, most recently, as the writer in-residence at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
She is a monthly columnist with Christianity Today, and her articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Comment Magazine, The Point Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a founding member of The Pelican Project and a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum.
Download a a FREE chapter of Tish's new book "Prayer in the Night" HERE.
January 21, 2021
Save the Date for Group Coaching
January 20, 2021
Overwhelmed by the Waves
Do you ever feel like the child in the image? You’re just out there trying to enjoy the waves. And all of a sudden a big one comes and crashes into you. Water up your nose, a little discombobulated, you gather yourself and head back out.
This is resilience. Get knocked down, get back up again. Of course, this image is our son, in Hawaii, having fun. But in real life, this dynamic can begin to wear you down.
It’s perfectly fine to decide you don’t want to be hit by waves right now. For most people, the waves are rolling in faster than usual. And you’d rather be sitting on the shore reading a book.
Sometimes we forget that we have the choice to step out of the surf and move to the sandy beach…where we can take a rest.
Is there a situation in your life right now that feels like non-stop crashing waves? How might you gather yourself and make your way back to your own metaphorical beach?
I say metaphorical beach because I know many of us do not have choices about the circumstances that surround us. But we always have choices about what we think about them and how we, ourselves, behave within them.
Reflection
Pause for a moment and discern what your metaphorical beach would look like.
Are there some new boundaries that you can set? Some new “no’s” that need to be in place?
What is one way you can remove yourself from the waves and make your way to the beach?
Don’t be a slave to time or to the crashing waves. “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” is real counsel from Jesus. How might you enjoy that easy yoke today?
January 18, 2021
Podcast 158: Uncovering Hope in a Broken World (Gem with Nikole Lim)
My guest today is Nikole Lim and she’s written a book entitled, Liberation is Here. Nikole weaves together a narrative of God’s grace and healing amid fear and trauma. Her journey proves that liberation is not just near, but it is here―in the eyes of the broken, the hearts of the oppressed, and the untold stories of our global community.
Because of today’s subject matter, I want to extend a trigger warning for those of you who have or are experiencing capital T trauma right now. Nikole’s book is, of course, empowering, and yet it is full of raw stories and our conversation may be too much for some of you. So please take care of yourself in this regard.
As I introduce our guest today I want to share this from the book’s description: As a freelance filmmaker, Nikole Lim's career allowed her to step in and out of the lives of marginalized people around the world. But when confronted with the prevalence of sexual violence in Kenyan and Zambian communities, she commits to advocating alongside the courageous survivors whose lives have intersected with hers. These women's powerful stories inspire her to embark on a new vocation, partnering with survivors of sexual violence to launch a nonprofit organization that equips women to lead through the rewritten stories of their lives. But as Lim seeks to help her friends experience healing and liberation, her perspective is altered. Spiritually depleted, she finds herself ministered to by the women she came to serve―the once oppressed become her liberators.
Nikole Lim is a speaker, educator, and consultant on leveraging dignity through the restorative art of storytelling. She is the founder and international director of Freely In Hope, a nonprofit organization dedicated to equipping survivors and advocates to lead in ending sexual violence through their rewritten stories. Nikole graduated with a degree in film production from Loyola Marymount University and is currently pursuing a masters in global leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Find the first chapter of Nikole's book, Liberation is Here, HERE and enjoy.
January 13, 2021
Being Guided Along Unfamiliar Paths
A new year hasn’t brought as much change as I’d hoped it might as we came to the end of a hard 2020. What has been your experience? I can’t think of anyone who predicted a year ago what we would be facing and experiencing today. Sometimes I feel like a blind man being led somewhere I’ve never been. Does that sound familiar?
That’s why I was so helped when I recently read one of the prophecies of Isaiah that said something along the same lines:
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.
Isaiah 42:16
How do I come to a place where I am able to connect again with the life, joy, reality and goodness of these words of God?
Pray this prayer with me:
Lord, have mercy. Open my blind eyes. Open my deaf ears. Grant that it might be the new me created in Christ who listens to what you say. Grant that I might be nourished, refreshed, restored and renewed by what I read here in Isaiah.
I welcome your leading me by ways I have not known up until now. I welcome being led along unfamiliar but good paths. May that which has been dark for me become light at your touch. May that which has felt rough become smooth for me by grace. May I feel unforsaken. Forgive me for those ways in which I have sought what I need from someone or something other than you.
When you feel like you haven’t been in a place like this before, it may be because you actually haven’t. And the good news is that what overwhelms me does not overwhelm Jesus. He is bigger than the things that feel too big to me. And his is bigger inside me.
I carry within me a participation in the divine nature. God is making himself at home in me. Trusting this helps me see where I’ve been blind, helps me hear where I’ve been deaf, helps me make my way where I’ve been lame. Because the Lord is leading us, even when the way seems too hard, too rough, too steep.
Reflection
When you read those lines in Isaiah, is there one in particular that seems to be especially timely for you? Which one? How does it intersect with your experience today?
When you are overwhelmed, are you tempted to see that as evidence that God is no longer with you? How might the words of Isaiah be encouragement and help to you right here?
Photo by Yasong Zhou on Unsplash
January 11, 2021
Podcast 157: Reforesting Faith (Gem & Alan with Matthew Sleeth)
Creation is a living masterpiece of God. It is full of life, beauty and vitality. And maybe one of God’s greatest creative expressions is a tree. They are the longest-lived of God’s creations. They are the lungs of the planet. They are a wonderous reminder that the good God does develops over decades, even centuries. Trees remind us of God’s unhurried way.
Recently, Gem and I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Dr. Matthew Sleeth about his book Reforesting Faith. In it, he shares his own journey of discovering the importance of trees for our world and for God’s creation. And it’s that conversation that we’re sharing in today’s episode of the Unhurried Living podcast
Enjoy a free chapter of Matthew Sleeth's book, Reforesting Faith HERE.
January 6, 2021
Myths About Living An Unhurried Life
Here we are in the new year. And, don’t worry, no one is going to encourage you to make resolutions. They rarely last more than a couple of weeks anyway.
All I want to do today is remind you why it’s good to engage unhurried living. And I’m not talking about our organization. I’m talking about your very own life.
Let’s begin with some common myths about living an unhurried life.
It’s pain free.
It’s a luxury.
It’s lazy.
It’s out of touch.
These ideas could not be farther from the truth.
An unhurried life is actually:
Willing to see and move through the hard stuff because you know that healing awaits on the other side.
The essential core as we sustainably engage our relationships and our work.
More fruitful than that our regular frantic busyness.
Sees beyond the surface. It's rooted in kingdom reality.
An unhurried life is about making time for what matters most. It is connected to the most essential realities of our lives.
An unhurried life is good for our physical and mental health.
So let me encourage you. Don’t give up. Let’s double down on healthy rhythms of life this year. Let’s put times of reflection, replenishment and play on our calendars and guard them like a doctor’s appointment.
Unhurried time is always counterintuitive and nothing in our culture will push you to engage it. But I encourage you to make space and time for God, for your loved ones, for rest, and for the fruitful work to which you are called.
Here are some practical steps you can take to calendar the important stuff.
Decide what you want to engage. Here are a few ideas to get you rolling:
Weekly Sabbath (rest and play)
Monthly solitude half day*
Quarterly overnight retreat*
Yearly vacation
Go out to the part of your calendar that has more white space in it. That may be two or three months out, but start there.
Schedule the ideas from above that work for you (and come up with your own).
Calendar your rhythms for the remainder of the year (before the powers that be take up space in your calendar).
Yes, it’s that easy. Discern it. Schedule it.
*If you have young children at home, give each other the gift of swapping solitude days or even overnight retreats.
Give it a go and let us know when you calendar all this goodness. We’d love to hear from you.
Blessings to you in the new year!
Photo by Veronica García on Unsplash
