Faith Built in Darkness

October 10, 20161 Comment

A photo by Todd Quackenbush. unsplash.com/photos/Nk5rSNq13sM

“In the northwest corner of Harvard Yard stands a building as massive as the man whose name it bears. At six feet, four inches and nearly three hundred pounds, Phillips Brooks, A. B. 1855, S. T. D. 1877, was an outstanding figure of Harvard’s Victorian age.,” reads the Harvard Magazine.[i] It goes on to say, “What was the secret of this man’s remarkable life and influence? Brooks wrote in 1891, ‘…These last years have had a peace and fullness which there did not use to be. I am sure that it is not indifference to anything I used to care for. I am sure that it is a deeper knowledge and truer love of Christ…I cannot tell you how personal this grows to me. He is here. He knows me and I know Him. It is no figure of speech. It is the realest thing in the world. And every day makes it realer.’”

A pensive clergyman and author, Brooks experienced a depth of faith through the struggles of life. He wrote, “I often hear people praying for more faith, but when I listen carefully to them and get to the essence of their prayer, I realize it is not more faith they are wanting at all. What they are wanting is their faith to be change to sight. Faith does not say, “I see this good for me; therefore God must have sent it.” Instead, faith declares ‘God sent it; therefore it must be good for me.’ Faith, when walking through the dark with God, only asks Him to hold his hand more tightly.”[ii]

Isn’t that an amazing perspective on faith? Even in the gloomiest moments of our lives, God does not leave us. When the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah was at his lowest point, he was still able to rally his faith and find his hope in God. We will all face discouraging moments especially as we stand up for what is right. But even though Jeremiah faced rock bottom emotions, he knew he could look up and find his hope in the Lord. He waited on the Lord through the troubling times. In his book of Lamentations, Jeremiah wrote a powerful commentary of hope rising up from despair.

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord

Allow Jeremiah’s words to be your strength through troubling times. When you feel alone. When you feel like no one else is listening. When you feel like you have made a mistake. When you feel rejected by your own people…may Jeremiah’s words be your comfort and reminder to keep your eyes on the Lord and wait patiently for Him. He does have a good plan. We may not see the fruit until we stand with Him in eternity, but let us remain faithful to the message He has given us no matter what the cost.

This is an excerpt from Positive Leadership Principles for Women

[i]www. Harvardmagazine.com/1996/05/vita.html

[ii] Jim Reimann and LBE Cowan, Streams in the Desert (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008) May 1 entry.

Finding Courage to Move Forward

September 26, 20161 Comment

Fear tends to grip all of us in different areas and at different times in our lives. When we allow it to get the upper hand, it captures us in its net and keeps us from experiencing the abundant and fulfilling life God intends for us. “Where fear is,” the philosopher Seneca said, “happiness is not.”

The story is told of an old farmer who was sitting on the steps of his rickety shack when a stranger approached. Trying to initiate conversation, the stranger asked, “How’s your wheat coming along?” “Didn’t plant none,” the farmer replied. “Really?” said the stranger. “I thought this was good wheat country.” “I was afraid it would rain,” the farmer said. “How is your corn crop?” the stranger persisted. “Ain’t got none. Afraid of corn blight.” “Well, sir, how are your potatoes?” “Didn’t plant no potatoes either. Afraid of the potato bugs.” “Well, then, what in the world did you plant?” the exasperated stranger asked. “Nothin,” said the farmer. “I just played it safe.”

Oh, the stifling effect fear can have on our lives! Take a moment to stop, think and pray about an areas in your life where you are allowing fear to rob you of your joy – or worse, rob you of your desire to use your gifts and talents. It has often been said, “Courage is not the absence of fear; rather it is the ability to take action in the face of fear.”

This week, take an honest look at your fears and make a decision that you will not allow them to control your life. Instead turn your eyes upward and remember that you are not alone. Ask God to guide you and give you strength as you use the gifts and talents He has given you. Step forward one courageous step at a time.

For more positive insights check out: The Power of a Positive Woman

September 20, 2016Leave a comment

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If given the opportunity to choose our path in life, most of us would pick the easier road with less bumps, pot holes and challenges. I know I would. Simply put, few of us would deliberately choose a difficult journey in life, one riddled with heart ache, pain and loss. Yet in a way, if we choose to be compassionate people, we are choosing to join into someone else’s pain. The word compassion actually means “with suffering.” The root word passion comes from the Latin word “suffering.” If we want to be compassionate people, then in a way, we are inviting suffering into our lives – the suffering of another person. How far are we willing to go to reach out and touch the life of someone else?

Recently I heard the results of a study by the Cato Institute stating, “Poverty is perpetuated through poor parenting.” That statement stuck with me. I must admit, my heart grieves for “at risk” kids who have little hope of breaking through the cycle of poverty. As I began thinking about what I could do to make a difference, My mind was flooded with the thought, “Karol, you go all over the nation teaching men and women how to be positive parents, why aren’t you going to the impoverished communities in your own city?”

That prompting led me to write a discussion-style curriculum for parents. The lessons enable moms and dads to recognize their responsibilities in raising their families, and guide them to positive action steps. With the concept in place, my next step was to figure out where to implement this unique parenting class. I didn’t know where to go, so I prayed and asked the Lord to show me. Funny thing, I opened up the newspaper and saw an article about Buckner Children and Family Services of North Texas. Buckner has an outreach program in one of the housing developments in Dallas. With a little bit of fear and trembling, I emailed them and asked if they were interested in parenting classes.

They said yes! Oh my, now I had to take a step of faith and step out of my comfort zone and into the lives of men and women that I had never met. I knew that I didn’t understand what their lives were like, but God did. So I prayed for God to love through me and make this a fruitful and meaningful time together with the parents. He answered that prayer! Since our start 4 years ago, God has done an amazing work and has allowed me to build bridges through loving relationships with the parents in the community. I call the program ENGAGE Positive Parenting Initiative, and we have trained over 60 volunteers and have touched lives in 12 different locations around Dallas and Fort Worth.

It’s time to build back the strength of the family in communities across the nation. I feel like a woman on a mission! Where is God calling you to take a step of faith and step out of your comfort zone?

If you would like to join in our mission through volunteering or praying, we invite you to join us:

www.EngageParenting.com

We are participating in North Texas Giving Day on Sept 22. Here is the link and be sure to choose Engage Parenting in the Organization box. http://womensnpa.wpengine.com/donate/north-texas-giving-day/

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September 13, 2016September 13, 2016Leave a comment

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When we walk in a room and switch on a light, we can be thankful for an unlikely genius named Thomas Alva Edison. Moving pictures and audio recordings are also a result of this one man’s perseverance. With very little formal schooling, and numerous mishaps and failures, few people expected young Thomas to amount to anything at all. But…he had a mother who looked past his shortcomings and saw his potential. He spoke with affection about her, “My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint.”

Thomas was a curious boy and his mother had every reason to be discouraged about his actions. He burned down the family stable and was kicked out of school, yet his mother Nancy, a devout Presbyterian with a formal education ,was able to put her education to good use by teaching “young Al.” Thomas was an ambitious entrepreneur and started a small business selling newspapers on a local train, but he lost his job because he nearly blew up one of the train cars with his science experiments. His life was marked by many other failures and mishaps, but oddly that’s not what we remember about him. We remember him for his successes. Aren’t you thankful for the influence and leadership of his mother who taught him to look at each failure as an opportunity to learn and grow and discover new things.

Edison had a unique drive and perseverance that kept him learning and growing despite his mistakes. He didn’t allow discouragements to linger, rather he pushed forward with curiosity and commitment. On the 50^th anniversary of the electric light bulb, Henry Ford organized a celebration of his dear friend Edison. President Herbert Hoover spoke about the variety of ways that the electric light had made life better, “It enables our towns and cities to clothe themselves in gaiety by night, no matter how sad their appearance may be by day. And by all its multiple uses it has lengthened the hours of our active lives, decreased our fears, replaced the dark with good cheer, increased our safety, decreased our toil, and enabled us to read the type in the telephone book.”*

The light bulb represent countless hours in the laboratory filled with failed experiments and frustrations. When asked by a reporter with the New York Times about the seemingly incredible difficulties associated with developing the light bulb, Edison responded, “I have not failed 700 times. I’ve succeeded in proving 700 ways how not to build a light bulb.” What an extraordinary perspective! Can we look at our mistakes as successes, or are we so caught up in the disappointments and frustrations that we can’t see the positive aspects of our failures? As leaders, let’s determine to look at life with and attitude that includes the joy of learning and the opportunity to discover the lesson behind each challenge and mistake.

*Herbert Hoover: “Address on the 50th Anniversary of Thomas Edison’s Invention of the Incandescent Electric Lamp.,” October 21, 1929.

This is an excerpt from Positive Leadership Principles for Women.

Eyes That See Beyond

September 6, 2016Leave a comment

In the middle of the city of Chandigarh, India, is a quite unusual garden. It is an amazing testament to the artistic value of trash. That’s right, trash. Celebrated artist Nek Chand used materials people discarded as trash and formed them into an artistic wonder called the Rock Garden. Chand considers it an expression of his hope for humanity. While others may look at trash as a problem that needs to be hidden away, the artist saw it in a different way. He saw the trash as objects that could be creatively transformed into art.

“It all started out of personal curiosity,” says Chand, who started building the garden in the 1950s using urban and industrial waste. He began by clearing a little patch of jungle in order to create a small garden area for himself. He collected boulders, metal pieces, lag stones, overburned bricks, broken pots, chinaware, rags, plastic dolls, battered hats, broken bangles, shoes, bottles, you name it! All of it was used in his work to transform trash into a grand mosaic of treasure and beauty. There was no limit to what he could envision and create out of the trash.

Gradually his creative art display developed and grew, eventually covering several acres that displayed hundreds of sculptures. For the first eighteen years of his project, he had to work in the secrecy of night, fearing he would be discovered by the authorities. The funny thing is, when the government officials did discover the garden, they were confused as to how to handle the situation. The art garden was illegally built on a forbidden area, which meant they had the right to demolish it, but they recognized its beautiful and unique qualities. So instead of demolishing the sculpture garden, the city decided to give Chand a salary to allow him to work on the garden full time. They even provided a workforce of fifty laborers. The garden was finally opened to the public in 1976. Today there are more than twenty-five acres with thousands of sculptures set in large mosaic courtyards, linked by walled paths and deep gorges. There is also a series of interlinking waterfalls.

The Rock Garden is now admired as one of the modern wonders of the world and is considered one of the greatest artistic achievements seen in India since the Taj Mahal. Currently they have more than five thousand visitors a day. Carl Lindquist, who works with the international program at Arkansas State University, described it this way, “Built of industrial waste and thrown-away items, the Rock Garden in the city of Chandigarh is perhaps the world’s most poignant and salient statement of the possibility of finding beauty in the unexpected and accidental.”

Amazing! Objects that were once considered trash were turned into a beautiful work of art. I love Lindquist’s phrase “finding beauty in the unexpected and accidental.” Nek Chand didn’t see trash; he saw treasure. That’s what God sees in our lives! He holds the broken pieces of our life in his hands and fits them into a beautiful mosaic for eternity. We may see a mess here, a mistake there, a tragic loss, or an unfortunate incident, but God sees potential. Singularly a piece of trash isn’t so lovely, but like Chand, God sees the wonderful work that can be formed. As we draw close to him and hear his voice, we begin to hear the whisper of the Master Artist saying, Trust me. I can make something good come from this.

This is an excerpt from Thrive, Don’t Simply Survive

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