BETTER YOUR BRAIN

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.

C. S. Lewis

Let that sink in for a second.

I was honored to share the dais recently with a physician, Dr. Nicole Labor.

https://cover2.org/ep-45-treating-addiction-neurological-disease-dr-nicole-labor-summa-healthcare/

She like me has struggled with substances and via a walk of spirituality and steps has found her way to recovery and amazing effectiveness.

Yet it was something she shared in her talk that I found most interesting.  She spoke of a study where NARCICISM was identifiable in brain scans.  In other words, technology is giving treatment professionals a ‘PICTURE’ of selfishness and self-indulgence, of INVULNERABILITY.

That blew me away. She said that the in the brains of folks like Mother Teresa this area would be much “less pronounced” because she was an ALTURISTIC lover of others, had great empathy and was deeply selfless.

As one who was labeled as a narcissist 10 years ago by one of my psychiatric squad, it was fascinating to hear that I wasn’t just an emotional self-centered jerk, I had the physical brain map to prove it.

NOT GREAT!

LOL.

But something else that Dr. Labor shares is that as individuals learn to GIVE of themselves, as they work their recovery, be it 12 steps or otherwise, this scan “IMPROVES”.  As selfishness is replaced with selflessness the scans change for the better!

CRAZY RIGHT?

Not really…

(YOU CAN) be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes] – Romans 12:2 (AMP)

And that brings us back to C.S.’s quote. 

How’s your SELFLESSNESS today; your vulnerability as Lewis labels?

Are you GIVING of your heart or have you decided to squirrel it away only to risk it hardening?

Remember…

this is the goal: to live in harmony with one another and demonstrate affectionate love, sympathy, and kindness…

Let humility describe who you are as you dearly love one another. – from 1 Peter 3:8 (TPT)

So friends, today's message is clear!

Let's embrace vulnerability!

Give our love away!

It will BETTER OUR BRAINS!

And our hearts!

Have a blessed weekend!

LOVE YOU ALL

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE

DEFINITIONS

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

… remember that your difficulties do not define you. They simply strengthen your ability to overcome.

Maya Angelou

True.

Hard to keep that in mind when the difficulties come.

I mean when we pray how often do we pray, “GOD thanks for the day and for life and if you are not too busy send some trouble my way.”?

We don’t.

But what Jesus did promise is that adversity was inevitable.

John 16:33

But it doesn’t have to define us.

Yesterday I was leading a meeting with some of the Miami Valley’s FINEST folks in the field of recovery.  Faith folks, social workers, public health executives and the like.  And we were TALKING about the MESSAGE of RECOVERY.  

You see sometimes we DEFINE people by their DIFFICULTIES.  In fact, in my line of work we use their DIFFICULTIES to not just define them but IDENTIFY them.

Greg the alcoholic.

Casey the addict.

Tina the trafficked.

But we don’t do that with other challenges do we?

We don’t say Jim the “Cancer” or Sally the “Bankrupt” do we?

Friends, difficulties shouldn’t define us. 

We will go through them but even at the zenith they don’t strip us of WHO we are and often they do advance us into what WE CAN BECOME!

Lord Byron once remarked that,

Adversity is the first path to truth. 

That is good. At least it is for me. My adversity led me to NEW TRUTH about the LORD and our relationship that is for sure!

The Bible says it this way…

after your brief suffering, the God of all loving grace, who has called you to share in his eternal glory in Christ, will personally and powerfully restore you and make you stronger than ever.

1 Peter 5:10 (TPT)

So, friends never allow your difficulties to become your definition.  

They are temporary.

And while they do have purpose they will and do pass.

Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option. We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (TPT)

REMEMBER...

If you have your mind in the right direction, and your heart is full of the right kind of stuff, you'll succeed, and you'll triumph over adversity, over really anything. - Ventimiglia

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

LOVE YOU ALL

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE

IRRESVERSIBLE ADOPTION

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

“To live as God’s child is to know, at this very instant, that you are loved by your Maker not because you try to please him and succeed, or fail to please him and apologize, but because he wants to be your Father. Nothing more. All your efforts to win his affection are unnecessary. All your fears of losing his affection are needless. You can no more make him want you than you can convince him to abandon you. The adoption is irreversible. You have a place at his table.”

This is an anonymous quote extracted from Max Lucado’s book, Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine

Some of Max’s critics say this book goes a “little overboard” on the grace thing.  But to be frank, I am happy for the perceived over-indulgence for I know I NEED all the grace I can get.

As many of you know I grew up in a church where PERFORMANCE was PARAMOUNT.  EVERYDAY there was a scorecard.   

Cuss – a mark in the “L” column.

Pray – a mark in the “W” column.

Drink – a BIG RED MARK in the “L” column. That was going to take a few weightier prayers or good deeds to fix that one.  Spend a little too much time on the computer or club leering, well those “L” not only were HUGE but they accumulated and came with severe judgment. 

And given my desire to overachieve, when the “L”’s started to MOUNT, I began to believe I couldn’t get out of the hole and to be honest, cashed out for a minute.

And it wasn’t until someone “re-educated” me about grace that things began to change for me.  It is why I especially like this little quote above.

God’s grace was for me because He is my Dad and He loves me. 

Period.

Nothing we did could ever earn this salvation, for it was the gracious gift from God that brought us to Christ!  So no one will ever be able to boast, for salvation is never a reward for good works or human striving. – Ephesians 2:8-9 (TPT)

Whew!  Big whew!

And no, this gift didn’t and doesn't give me license to stay in my mess, but it did OFFER ME THE ENERGY, HOPE, PROMISE and POSSIBILITY that I could emerge from it.

Suddenly my striving to please Him was and is no longer motivated by desperation but rather love and gratitude.  My mistakes, which are many and often, weren’t being tabulated for condemnation (Romans 8:1) but could rather be used to re-calibrate me and refine me.

All my fears of losing his affection were needless. All the prayers in the world as our author explains wouldn’t make Him want me more nor could all my sins which are plenty can convince Him to abandon me.

don’t be frightened, because the Lord your God will go with you. He will not leave you or forget you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6 (NCV)

Perhaps you are like I am today feeling a little “unworthy”, feeling a little “less than”. 

Let’s both relax.

Before we go straight to striving, let’s settle down and take our seat at the table and embrace a hearty helping of grace.  

That more than anything will get us and keep us both on track!

Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely – Matthew 11:28 (MSG)

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

LOVE YOU ALL

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE