Wednesday, April 1, 2020

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. Life and relationships are acts and actions of give and receive to keep you in balance. Activity and Rest. Work and Home. Learn and Lead. Public and Private. Mentor and Mentee. Journeying though this very different Lenten season, I’ve been thinking these past couple weeks about relationships. How relationship choices form our lives. And the need for balance of receive and give in order to thrive with Christ at the center of our core. With that thought process playing in my mind, I keep finding myself being drawn to the lives and relationships the disciples lived. Balance…We typically think two weighted items that draw against each other to come to a place of level. But there is also that center point. We have the need to be poured into, to learn and receive. But what good is all that knowledge and wisdom if there is no one to offer it to? You know, those that in turn have you as a source of knowledge and wisdom. On one end we are taking it all in. On the other end, we give it away. And then there are those with equal receive and give, equally yoked relationships. So, if I were one of the 12 disciples it might look like this. I receive from the Lord. I give to those the Lord takes me to, in cities and towns as I journey this road. But then there is that balance. The other disciples that I share so much of my time and journey with, where there is an equal balance of giving and receiving knowledge, wisdom and love. When the Lord pours into us, it is an undefinable gift that many times we overlook. We see these gifts as challenges that we don’t really want to deal with and in the moment could care less that it’s going to make us a better person down the road. Right now, you only feel growing pains, maybe beat down and weary from the journey. You know we could get an Amen from the disciples on that point. Surprisingly as we pour into others, we can walk away with a similar feeling of being beat down and weary thinking and questioning, how long will it take for them to get this and understand. Right now, I’m hearing an Amen from God. Both these ends of the spectrum are needed. And that brings us to the balance. Those other disciples that pour into us and us into them. A real give and receive balance finds you full and still able to pour forth from the overflow without becoming drained and empty inside. Search your heart and identify the sources that fill you. Now, identify the sources that draw from you. Finally, identify those disciples (family and friends) around you that allow your cup to flow without ever running low. All three sources are needed and wanted, but we must always start and allow ourselves to first be poured into and molded by the One True Source. Bless others and be blessed.

#CastingCrowns – In the Hands of the Potter