Under Pressure

What happens when a tube of paste gets squeezed?  Answer: What is inside comes out.   When I am under pressure, when I feel the squeeze then I let what is inside me out.  It is easy for me.  I can easily release the feelings I have for all to know.  I share my thoughts, my opinions, my perspectives.  They flow out for all to see, hear and know.

Am I bragging.  Hardly. I am confessing.  My ability to ‘let it all out’ is not always the best way to deal with pressure.  I am what is sometimes called, a “Hurler”. That is the opposite of those “Hiders”, who hold it all in, even when the pressure is applied strong; like a plugged up tube.  But a gushing flow out is not necessarily the best thing to hear. 

It really depends on what is coming out -- which is really the point of the question I asked earlier. When the pressure is on you does a sweet response, a gentle answer, words spoken that are helpful to those who hear come out?  Or something else; something mean, ugly, rude, cutting, or hurtful?

It may be too personal to share what your normal, under pressure response is, but what do you think will help a person have a positive outcome when the pressure is intense on them?

To know and be known

Paul wrote about love in his letter to the Corinthian people.  We see it today in the Bible titled, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.  It is a famous chapter, often quoted in times of deep caring between people like in a wedding ceremony or in a church meeting. It is challenging us to love up to God’s standard, like we have been loved by Him.  It is a pretty impossible to live up to without God’s love flowing in and through us.  But, if you have been around a church for any time, I am sure you have heard a lesson on this before. 

There is an interesting statement in verse 12 that says, “Now I know in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known”.  The then part is the future, a time not defined because it is when everything is completed and our incompletes will be canceled. It will all be clear to us. We will see it all then. See it as clearly as God sees us.  We will know Him directly as He knows us.

We may have an interest in knowing God, or we may have had an interest and grown uninterested for some reason.  I can’t begin to try to list all the reasons that a person has felt their love for God grow dim.  I can guess that there has been a time like that for you.  Or right now there is condition in your heart, a pause in your confidence, saying you might feel like He is unknowable.  It is at least foggy, like looking through a mist, Paul says.

Focus on the part about being known.  If there is a clear take-away from any of this, it can be that we are known by the Creator.  Completely known from the beginning of our lives, through everything we have been and done until this moment.  No need to try to hide that, it can not be hidden.  So, if He knows us as we are, and has stirred us to know Him what do we do with that? One thing is to accept that we are loveable.  God knowing us completely, loves us as we are and longs for us to know that.  Do we have things in our lives that we know are not as He would desire and need to change?  Yes.  But, it is easier to conform ourselves to His will and ways, even to imitate Him if we are confident that He cares about us even now as we are.

How does being known by God impact you?  Does it help you accept yourself, even if others don’t? Can it motivate you to seek to know God more?  Does it grow love in your heart that you can share with others?

If you have a chance this week, read these verses and share with me how you feel most loved -- by God or others.

Excited About You?

He slowly, quietly opened the bedroom door and looked into the dimly lit room. The early morning sunlight allowed him to see her on the bed with her eyes closed.  He walked over to her, bent down and gently kissed her on the forehead.  She looked so peaceful and beautiful. With a quick turn, he left with a smile knowing he would not see her before she left out of town.  Actually he would not see her again for several months.

A scene from a paperback romance novel?  No, actually me giving my daughter a good-bye kiss before she left for her drive back to school.  A father’s love is not the love of the steamy, passionate, erotic novels.  It is the agape, unconditional love that gives a child security and tenderness no matter if they are aware it is present or not.  It reminds me of our heavenly Father’s love for us. 

Have you ever considered that God might actually be waiting by your bedside for you to awaken?  After placing a gentle kiss on your forehead, He smiles and waits for you to join Him in the day.  He has people to love that day and He wants to invite you to come along with Him and love them with Him. 

So, what if you wake up, and your mind is on the hurry, worry, flurry of the day ahead? You didn’t realize the wake up kiss had come and you didn’t join your Father in a loving walk that day.  It doesn’t mean His wasn’t there, or that He wasn’t excited to see you, or that He doesn’t love you.  When you realize this, you will know His love is not conditional on what you could do, but on what He does.

I am not always a tender, gentle, unconditionally loving father to my children.  I can be an inspecting dad, or a distant dad, or angry dad with hurtful words.  Thankfully I have a heavenly Abba “daddy” Father who will show me how to love.  It is that love of Him that allows my children to be forgiving to me when I don’t match up my way of love to them like their Abba Father does.  I am so grateful for that.

Do you see the heavenly Father as distant, too busy running the universal to care about little ole you?  Or maybe you think of Him as inspecting?  Watching you and waiting for you to mess up and then He will be right there to convict you. Of what if He is excited to see you and be with you for the day? 

How do you perceive Him;  Distant, Inspecting or Excited?  Why do you think that?

Real Conversations

Three years, nine blogs, no followers, nor comments later, I am finally committed enough to try and really have a blog with active conversations.  My past blog post history is just above a “carving initials in trees” activity level.  Heck, an amateur graffiti artist puts up more thoughts than that in a very short time.

I desire to have “real conversations” with people. I started the blog with the title, “Go Below the Line” to highlight the need we have to recognize our real interests, wants, desires, motivators in our lives.  The surface positions we take in situations have below them these underlying factors.  If we know them about ourselves we can be more real or honest about why we are thinking or doing whatever it is we are doing.  

If others help us know what their needs, wants, desires, or interests are, “below the line”(or surface issues or positions) then we have a chance to respond with more understanding, compassion or mutual interest together. 

There is a chance we can discern more clearly what actions we take, or demands we make, are coming from a selfish, self-centered place and are not really fair to others when we go below the line about ourselves. 

There is also the chance we can do harm to others when their real interests are known and we manipulate the responses to take advantage of that information.

Does thinking about the underlying motivators in conversations help change your reaction to what is being said or done at the most apparent, surface level? 

Let’s have a real conversation about it.  Please share your examples or questions in a comment.

Here I go

Since 2008 I have posted eight, that's right (8) blog posts.  That is not enough to be a blogger.  I can't even be called a slogger at that rate.  Four posts the first year, three posts the second year and one post last year.  One post?  What have I been doing?  Well, it is safe to say, not blogging.  Sometime this year more people will begin to read what I write. That will be because I will have begun to say something they are drawn to read and share.  So, when they go back to the beginning, it will be a quick run through the past to now.

Where am I right now, January 2012,  in being "below the line"?  I am in a position of being willing to accept people where they are, creating a "safe place" for them to be exactly who they are right where I encounter them.  It is about becoming more honest with myself that I judge and criticize too much.

If someone is going to be willing to lower the bricks down from the wall they retreat behind for safety then they will do so when I can be trusted with what I find when they come out, or when they let me look over that wall and see them as they are. So, my interest is to be accepted by others as I accept them.  Maybe we can grow in understanding together that way.  

A Heart Pull

"The odds are against it." "You will need to have patience and persistence." "How many friends or households do you know that would be a financial support to you each month to help fund your ministry?" "Are you sure, you are sure about wanting to do this?" These are just a few of the statements echoing in my head from recent conversations I have had with people who really care about me and what I feel God is leading me into.

What is my Below The Line interest in the effort to be involved with Aging issues? I have to know that to begin. What is it that I need from this to continue to press on and through the many obstacles ahead. I will answer that in another post. I need to really ponder what is below my surface needs of providing an income for my family's support and my financial obligations. It must be larger and more power than the daily, worldly things, or why bother?

"How will I treat Jesus today?"

I ask myself questions alot. They differ depending on the moment or my mood. A new question came after thinking about Jesus alot lately. If He suffered and died as the sacrifice for all sins past, present and future over 2,000 years ago, that means He was suffering then for my/our sins now.

Does He still suffer for my/our sins? I don't think He sits by calloused and unaffected by what we do now. He is quoted in the Bible to say that when we do unto others we are doing it to Him. So, I think about how I treat others and I ask myself, "How am I treating Jesus?". When I am unkind or kind that is happening on the surface. What goes on below the line, that is "below the surface" is I am hurting or blessing Him.

As I continue to blog about going below the line, it becomes clearer each reflection that our surface issues we deal with, or the positions we take, have roots that go deep. What is below the line effects the way we act and respond. If I force myself to direct my actions based on a core value of love for someone, like let's say, Jesus, who has a love for me that has been proven true and faithful then I will chose not to hurt Him but rather love Him. In doing so I love others. So, if I can treat Jesus lovingly today, I will as a result be kind myself and others.