Basking with Palmy

Oh sure! Doesn't a full calendar mean and full life?

Hmm . . . I ran across a blog in my reading that jumped out at me. A guy named Tod Bolsinger writes it. He's a pastor . . . of a Presbyterian Church . . . on the beach in San Clemente, CA. Tod says we need to put a basking time on our calendars. Plan on just sitting and thinking. Plan a time to put the headphones on and listen to a favorite CD. Do NOT multitask! (How in the world would things get done if I didn't multitask?)

I have a friend who actually really does help me keep on time. His name is Palmy. He's a Zire 71. That's rather cold sounding, isn't it? I named him Palmy because I knew we'd have a close relationship. Palmy let's me know by alarm (and in plenty of time) about upcoming events in my day. For instance, when I have to take my mom to a doctor's appointment, Palmy reminds me about 45 minutes ahead of time. That means if I've forgotten, I can get ready, drive to pick her up and be at the doc's on time. Palmy also has my daily devotions ready and waiting for me each day. He's always ready to take in my creative ideas (silly or not). If I need a phone number, he's able to provide that as well. When I have a mindless moment or two, he serves up Bejeweled for a few minutes of game time. If a "Kodak moment" drops in my path, Palmy's camera is there for me. If I choose, he would even search the internet for the weather or other downloads I want. Sometimes, I feel rather selfish regarding Palmy. I do have a nice case to protect him, although who knows how safe anything is in my purse! I feed him regularly. There haven't been too many times that he lets me know his tummy is almost empty. Just a couple of times have I switched his power on to have him say he is "resetting". Somehow, that thought just about takes the breath out of me. Thankfully his screen displays my life once again. I haven't told him that I keep a record of everything he has, just incase he'd have a rebellious moment in the future.

Am I finding time to bask? Don't know about that, but my friend certainly has my thoughts, plans and Lifeline (Bible) at my fingertips.

I'm wonder if Palmy knows about basking time yet?

What To Do With All this Information?

There's a reason I've not written in my blog for a few days. I am on a steep learning curve. Sometimes I think I'm going to fall off the curve!

I have been looking for ways to get a mission/message out for friends who aren't too internet friendly. I know the ways of blogs and podcasting are taking off. Some have been doing that for awhile, but there really are such great advantages for these possibilities. My mind just about explodes thinking of the possibilities though.

What about . . .

• a place for news updates
• a place for testimonies
• a place for thinking outloud
• alerts (you know . . . that's what the world needs . . . more 'lerts'!)
• calendar
• future announcements

Hmmm . . . that's almost sounding like a website. I don't know how to do that either. Help! I'm falling OFF my learning curve! I guess I'll have to keep thinking about this.

The Change Begins . . .

Today is the first day of my new schedule!

Am I excited? Am I looking forward to the new and different? Well, uhm . . . I'm not sure. How's that for a very confident answer?

It' s going to be a busy morning at the store, I'm sure. Great sales going on this week! I do know at the place where I would have been today, they will be brainstorming about ways to spend money. How funny that I would have enjoyed a meeting like this! Oh well . . . I'm praying for good decisions on their part.

It was a full weekend for sure. My voice barely made it through two worship services. I think I need to spend more time singing. My voice doesn't remember as much as my hands do when it comes to making music to the Lord. I woke up this am singing, "Let Your Glory fall in this room, let it go forth from here to the nations . . . ". Great song to set my mind on today.

I'm in Exodus in my Bible reading these days. I loved my college classes around the Tabernacle. While I don't have time to really expound on that now, suffice it to say that as I was reading about the High Priest's garments this morning, I was reminded that the names of the 12 tribes of Israel were carried on his shoulders. I had to read that twice. I was thinking that the 12 stones on the breastplate were significant of the 12 tribes. Hmmm .. I'd forgotten about the onyx stones on the shoulders. What a picture of intercession!

How privileged we are to be able to come boldly to the Throne of grace to find help in time of need! Today I have a friend who is praying through some issues in her life and is looking for the deliverance of the Lord in these things. Another friend's daughter is in need of great emotional healing. Another friend's marriage is at a very shakey place right now. I was picturing myself coming to the Father with the names of those people on my shoulders. As I approached Him, I was gently taking each person off my shoulder and placing them at His feet. I saw Him lifting each to His heart and holding them so carefully. He really IS touched with the feelings of our infirmities.

Thank You Father for Your working today in each of these situations. May Your Kingdom come! May Your will be done! Let Your glory fall . . .

Progressing Through Changes

Well . . . it's done! (at least some of it is anyway)

Work schedule has been changed. I'm working on Monday nights and Tuesday and Friday mornings. I'm sure that's not exciting news to anyone really, but actually, it's big. The office manager at work went right to calculating and figuring. She saw that with other changes in personnel, "This change is going to work quite well actually!". Interesting for sure!

The progressive changes will be as I get people trained for the other ministries. We're just one week on this track, so it will take a few more, I'm sure. It's a little more demanding of me at this time because I'm not only actually doing the work, I'm teaching as I work. In the next few weeks, the change over will come as I begin to watch others do the work. All of those leadership training things I've read for years are helping at this point. Thank you John Maxwell!

I'm wondering what I'm supposed to do with myself after all of this? A good friend was praying for me and sent an email with some thoughts. I'm going to include them in my blog so I'll have them recorded (and I can clean out my email).

She said:

As I was praying for you today I sensed a couple of things that I want to submit to you for consideration.
1) Keep your schedule open to alot time to seek Him in the midst of this transition (as you would call it - a place of change).
2) This is a time to be quieting your spirit and listening to Him, focusing on Him, and being in His presence. It is the cocoon stage.
3) Your value to Him is not based on WHAT you do for Him, but who you ARE in Him! Don't look for a place to fit or belong.
4) There is a new season coming - you will spread your wings and fly. But this is the preparation time! Be patient!

It's nice to know others are praying for me. Those words are almost identical to what has been said to me in times past as well. Thankfully God is still faithfully trying to get it through to me. I'm looking for that place to be alone with Him for more than a couple of minutes. (OK, are you trying to guess WHERE I was suggesting?)

Cocoon stage? I need to look up more on that I think.

The Cocoon

Cocooning is the third stage in transformation and it is a time of rest and emptiness. Cocooning refers to people who withdraw from the world and prefer to stay home and enjoy simple pleasures. Men and women might cocoon by leaving their highly paid, high stress jobs with large organizations to work at home for themselves or to a lower-paid job with less responsibility. This also happens when individuals take a sabbatical to meditate and reflect on their life purpose, or move to the country for a more peaceful environment. You might cocoon and still remain in your present job but now you decide to work only eight, not twelve hour days, refuse to take work home and instead, spend your evenings and weekends with family and friends. Cocooning is an inner time. On the surface it doesn’t appear as if much is happening, but inside the cocoon the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly is occurring. At this time in our human evolution many men and women are going through this cocoon stage. They know that being an egg or a caterpillar are no longer options. They have the desire to become a butterfly and so withdraw from their previous ways of being to reflect and meditate. These individuals are creating a space to allow the universe to complete their process of transformation. We become what we must be and by surrendering to the process of divine will, our transformation will naturally take place.

Rethinking My Time

Is it time to change?

Changing schedules is usually a challenge. It looks like changing this time will be very easy. My middle son will no longer have his work at the church, so that schedule will change. I talked with the office manager at my work and she is very comfortable with the changes I'm requesting. My cleaning job works around me, so this change thing seems to be very comfortable.

My other scheduled times are schooling and church work. Because I am training other people to do the things I do at church, with this new schedule, I would be more available in the late afternoons or evenings around their schedules. Rach can do Math at Gramma's and another subject or two. We can do work in an evening if needed, as well as a Saturday. I will still work every other Saturday.

After my dream a week ago, I have really been pondering "change". It seems that I have some control over the changes in my life - some I do not. When requesting changes in times past, there have been doors completely closed and yet other doors swung open at my tiniest request. It's almost jolting at the opposite reactions! I realize that I wanted the "door closed" opportunity so much that I would continue to press on the continually closed door. Now how silly is that? (insert smiley face here for a chuckle!)

Romans 12:2 (LLT) says "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is."

I am wondering if I was trying to "make a place for myself" in the place where the doors were closed? I might have been trying to do so much that those at that place would see that they needed me and open the door for me to come in. I think my motives were pure. I began to realize that there would not be a door opened for me. It wasn't that the door was not opened for others. It was that the door was not opened for me. Why have I not seen this? I had great desire to be in the room on the other side of the door and I really thought I had quality to add in that room. Maybe because I wasn't really invited to that other room, what quality I was offering was really only my passion to be in the other room. Sometimes my mind can play funny tricks on me. My confidence has been fairly shaken in thinking I can hear the will of God. I'm trying hard to go back to the beginning and do what Jeremiah 33:3 says.

"Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." (NASB)

"Ask me and I will tell you some remarkable secrets about what is going to happen here." (NLT)

"'Call to me and I will answer you. I'll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.' (The Message)

I am coming to believe that there are other doors out there that God will open. Because I don't have a clue about which ones, I don't feel the pressure of trying so hard to open them. I think my heart is realizing that I am changing. Must be my age?!

Those who have so impacted my life and the doors in my life really don't have that impact anymore. I think I am letting go of something that really barely had hold of me in the first place. Goodness . . . what a revelation! I don't know that I'd have ever really figured that out on my own. People have told me that my expectations were higher than those behind those doors. I think I just thought people weren't giving those behind those doors any credit or understanding. My longing to be on the other side of those closed doors really blinded reality. I don't know that I'm even all that sad as I sit here and type. It will probably hit me sometime. That's ok though, God has my heart. He is my foundation!

Yep . . . time to change.

Friends' Thoughts about My Dream

I thought I'd try to encapsulate what the various thoughts are about my dreams. Several people have dropped thoughts and ideas off to me. Here are some of them. These thoughts are in reference to the dream I had posted here: http://yadahthoughts.blogspot.com/2005/01/it-began-with-dream.html.

Certain words in the dream seemed to be noticed by these people. These are not "hard and fast" interpretations as much as impressions people had. More may come later, but at this time, this is what I've received.

"change" - Was there too small a place for that to happen? Couldn't find a place that change was not only doable, but acceptable; the church structure didn't afford a place to change; is there fear and shame around "changing" in some place other than a private place?; Can I risk not appearing to be "ready"?;

"guys in the recliners" - judgement; fear of not measuring up to their smirks;

"wedding" - trying to find the true meaning of the bride the church; You want to be there but it always seems like you never quite get there, are just a little behind and a little late, and not attired just right.

"my son" - He is the fruit of your loins just as worship is the fruit of your spirit and the desired product of your life ministry; My son just wanted to know if I got there on time or if he had to lead the thing by himself!; Am I the link from one generation to the next in my church?

"clothes" - You really want to put on a NEW garment of praise but there just doesn't seem like there is room for you to get "dressed." There is too much business with too many other things going on in the "church." When you think you have found a spot - its too small. But when you find a "spot big enough" there are religious judgments there to watch and smirk at you. You had the clothes, but there just wasn't a place to get them on.

"cell phone" - You want communication but it just isn't there. You know instinctively that without it you will not connect with your fruitfulness that you so desire. You are frustrated.

These are the salient points I gathered from my notes. I might have missed some things, but these are the main ideas. I'm still praying for discernment and direction around all of this.

Great days ahead for sure!