----------------------------
The
Pink Room: Thoughts About Intentional Living
Chapter
18/ Creativity and Others.
Part
1 (Previous post contain the previous chapters.)
----------------------------
The idea of working hard never
scared me. Now it makes me a bit tired but there was a point where I would work
and work and work and could do more work than just about anyone around me. It
took a toll on my health; it mentally did something to me, too. I learned to
ignore that internal red flag that says “stop, you are tired.” I no longer know
where the line of "it is time to quit, I'm tired" is anymore. And
that is bad. Very very bad. We can use work as a crutch to hide from God if we
are not careful.
It is hard for me to sit still. It
is difficult for me to know there are things to do and not do them. But I am
learning that rest is as important to God as worship as a matter of fact, Sabbath
is a form of respect and worship. And therefore it should be a priority to show
God that honor and in retrospect to honor me, my body, my mind, as well.
A lot of us, who get this part out
of order, are struggling in other areas as well. A lot of the time it looks
like self-worth or messed up priorities.
One of the things I've learned, people
who are hurt push others away. It doesn't always look like "pushing"
though. Sometimes it looks like anger, then they can blame; sometimes it is
being over-emotional, then no one will invest. Sometimes it is being busy, and
then they don't need to deal with “it”... Isn't it better to be scared and
vulnerable and be known?
And
no matter what we do, there will be something that isn’t healed up or we have
not yet gotten over. An old wound that heals so flippin’ slowly that you feel
like you will never ever be okay… All of it is okay though. And we serve as
working walking wounded. And as we do, we are taught through those we help and
healed by helping heal others.
We have a lot of ways to serve God
in this life. Only one of them is as a full-time minister. Most often we are
tent-makers. Like Paul in the Gospels—he was working in ministry while doing
other work to make a living. He did it on purpose. Paul did not want to be
in-debited to anyone with regard to service. He did not want to owe anyone for anything--he
did not want to have anyone think he was doing anything or saying anything
because of a debit of any kind. His words were inspired by God and were through
him, and no one else.
In our culture, like Corinth in the
Bible, people have a hard time receiving without believing they will be giving
back at some point. Many people take this to the point of never receiving
anything or turning down all things and all forms of help or gifts.
Ministering to people can be like
this—where help is subtly refused either because of past pain or because people
don’t want to “owe” anything. In our
culture, I believe it is coming to the point where even authentic friendships
feel like there is something that needs to be owed. Often only superficial
friendships will do—and social media is a replacement. People would sometimes
rather pay for memberships, online services, sometimes life coaches and that
type of thing also happen rather than to risk going deep with a real person.
As we get older we allow God to
parent us and us to parent ourselves. We get creative about how to deal with
past harm and re-learn to risk with the help of God.
We must get creative when dealing
with people, and when they don’t know what they need continue blessing without receiving
repayment, small encouragements, telling others what you like or even love
about them and let them know their positives. Words are powerful.
----------------------------
Words have the power to shape and
create. I believe this is the most interesting part of the scriptures, that
Jesus is the Word of God. That God’s words created and brought everything into
existence; that there is an innate legacy of written and spoken words in our
very DNA.
