Would you like to really, I mean really, have this be the year you are more productive and feel less stressed? It’s easier than you think. I feel that somewhere along the way we got the misconception that we’re not worthy unless we are doing a bunch of things at once and feeling stressed out and overwhelmed…

…It tires me just to read that sentence.

The main reason I can get so much done during the day is that I first prioritize my work by what is the most important use of my time to what is the least. And then I start at the top of the list and focus on one thing at a time.

If you’re feeling brave, take one hour one day this week and try this exercise. For one hour simply work on one thing at a time. That means if you’re going to answer your e-mail you don’t answer the phone, you don’t allow interruptions, and you don’t go interrupt someone else yourself. Or if you pick a different project to work on —  don’t even think of looking at your e-mail.  Focus on the one thing for one hour.  You will be absolutely amazed at how much you’ll get done. If you take this challenge I’d love to hear all about it!

I can just hear some of you now clamoring that there is no way in your work you cannot answer the phone for one hour or not look at your e-mail for one hour. Perhaps, perhaps not…

One of the main ways to change things in your life is to change behavior. If you’re constantly saying that there aren’t enough hours in the day and you feel stressed all the time, what actions are you taking to change this? It’s really up to you.

Several weeks ago I was invited to attend a meeting that was supposedly for the purpose of building a partnership. Excited to partake in the conversation, I showed up feeling optimistic and ready to brainstorm.

However, within moments of the meeting starting I realized there wasn’t going to be a partnership. This was not going to turn into a win-win situation but, if I let it, it would be a win-lose and I would be in the latter category. It was at that moment that I heard the words: Your time is worth more that that…

…and that’s how the meeting ended.

I drove home with a new sense of pride while analyzing the rest of my life. Where else was I not getting paid what my time was worth? A few of my clients came to mind as did the feeling  that came along with those assignments. The best description for that work was draining. It was in that moment I decided to cut all things that waste my time, don’t add fulfillment and, most of all, don’t pay me what my hours are worth. When I returned home I drafted a letter to a client that my next assignment would be my last.

Then, something magical happened. Within hours of making this final decision I received an email with an opportunity for an assignment that paid triple of my old assignment and it was a fraction of the work. Later that day another nice assignment popped in my in-box! A few days later another high-paying piece of work landed in my lap. Not only was my schedule now clear, so taking on these assignments wouldn’t be a burden, but I was enjoying the work. Best of all…

…I was getting paid what my time is worth.

I wondered if this was HIS was of saying, “Trust in me.”

I called my best friend Tara and told her what had happened and she excitedly told me she had a similar situation in her field. She had recently raised her rates and no one balked. Why? Because her time is worth it!

“Why did I wait so long?” she said. I laughed, knowing exactly what she meant. Everyone’s time is worth more than we believe.

Remember, “pay” and “worth” don’t have to refer to money. Some things are priceless.

Spending time with my kids and husband brings joy, taking time to exercise  gives me energy and keeps me healthy and spending time alone reading or reflecting renews me.

Do you know how much your time is worth? If not, it’s time to find out.

Just trust…

I hear the whispers. The internal dialogue that becomes louder and louder the more attention I give it. Soon I hear the shouting and I become a defeated little ball of nothing: sitting in the corner, crying and pouting about my life.

NOT ANYMORE….

From now on, I will stand up to the voice in my head that says “you’re not good enough”. I will no longer give attention to the whimpering little chicken-version of me that wonders if it is true. Of course it is true— if… I were only the sum of my parts.

But I am made of more than just stuff.

I am full of the Spirit of God. I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I am more because Christ dwells in me and is making me into something new.

I cannot be ruled by an old mentality: not when I am being remodeled from the inside-out. God has added value where there was none before and I will not devalue His gift or His purpose for me by believing a lie told by a defeated foe.

The enemy gets personal though, doesn’t he?

He fights dirty. He attacks us about our bodies, our families, even our very personalities. There is no area in which he will not try to defeat us.

But, where there is an attack, I know there is grace and strength enough to overcome it!

Not on my own…through Christ.

I know who I was before Christ has nothing on who I am in Christ.

I am more than...

• My body
• My family
• My personality
• My career
• My talent
• My weakness
• My wallet
• My past

I am more than a conqueror in Christ and I will not let anyone or anything rob me of living His purpose for my life any more.

So today I pray this:

Father, give me strength to stand, give me wisdom to chose, give me eyes to see, give me ears to hear, cleanse me and make me new. Renew my mind and let me see myself as you see me. Help me overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my (test)imony. Let today be the day that I trust you and what you say about me before I trust or rely on what the enemy says about me. Like the man who asked for Jesus to heal his child said, “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.”

Today is the day. I will no longer believe the lies of the enemy. I will trust God and his plans for me.

“Blessed is the man who makes
the Lord his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie! “Psalms 40:4 ESV

What lies does the enemy tell you?

I was recently out of town and ready to start the ten-hour drive back home. With a full tank of gas, some snacks and a bottle of water, I felt well prepared for the drive.

However, there was something that I hadn’t anticipated; a thick, dense layer of fog that covered all but a few feet of the road ahead of my car. I wasn’t prepared for that! However, I knew the one who always has provision and I called out to Him. I prayed, not just once, but every few miles. I asked God to provide a calm heart, clear sight and sharp focus. I then experienced the inner peace that comes only from relying on God.

Nearly an hour into the drive the fog began to lift, and by then I also had the advantage of daylight. The combination meant I felt much more confident of my ability to handle the situation and therefore, could have easily forgotten my reliance on God.

The more I thought about it, I realized that is a much more dangerous place to be. Relying on myself is where trouble begins, and to do so is absolutely ludicrous when I have an open invitation to rely on God.

It would be like walking through a heavy rainstorm and choosing to go by yourself (with just a newspaper for protection) rather than going arm-in-arm with a friend who has a raincoat and boots for you, AND is holding a large, industrial strength umbrella over your head. Why would anyone make such a foolish choice? And yet that is often what we are tempted to do.

The more I reflected upon the situation, the more I realized this simple truth: Only when I am as reliant on God as I was in the mist of the fog, can I truly experience the peace and joy that God has prepared for me. What a tragedy to bypass His perfect provision, in rain, fog or ANY situation.

Question: What is the “fog” in your own life? What situations prompt you to rely on God?

…my faith journey.

The ropeholder story is found in Mark 2:1-5 in the New Testament. Jesus is teaching in someone’s home. A paralyzed man learns Jesus is inside. He wants to talk to Him. Both the man’s condition and the house being packed with people prevent him from getting in through the door. There seems no way inside.

But to the paralyzed man’s surprise, his friends come to his aid and climb the roof of the house in which Jesus was visiting. They remove the roof tiles, and, using ropes tied to a mat, the men lower their friend through the space they had opened up so he can encounter Jesus. And the paralyzed man’s life is forever changed by the Savior.

My earliest spiritual ropeholders were my parents, who not only modeled the Christian faith but also believed and talked about Jesus. Many a Sunday night we read devotions from Little Conversations with God. A prayer of blessing over the food was said at every meal. Never skipped. If we accidentally forgot, we stopped eating and prayed. Our family attended church every week, usually a minute or two late…

…but we were there.

I am so thankful to these ropeholders for showing me the way to go in life and that following Jesus Christ is the only way. Other ropeholders include the countless Sunday School teachers, church choir directors, and camp counselors, who taught me about Jesus. From the Henningsgaard family, I learned the importance of making connections with church families outside of where we worshipped. How early Mrs. Henningsgaard must have risen to make the hundreds of Swedish meatballs she did for our hungry family when they had us to Sunday lunch.

Pastor Jim Schwartz and his wife Karen were other ropeholders. I learned from them that pastors and their spouses were not scary. They were approachable, nice, human. This young couple helped me, like the paralyzed man, get to God.

In the early ‘70s, my mom taught piano lessons after school to bring in extra income for my brothers’ braces and my piano lessons. Church youth choir practice was 4:45 p.m. on Wednesdays. We lived far enough away that I couldn’t walk to choir. The only way I could get there was if someone was kind enough to give me a ride.

Pastor Jim was that someone. He led a youth group after choir so every Wednesday, for several years, Pastor Jim willingly left his home early, roared up my parents’ driveway in his green Porsche. I’d hop in and away we’d go. I can still see his right hand, with a class ring on his ring finger, on the stick shift, as we made our way to church. He’d ask me questions about my school (“Fine”), how piano lessons were going (“Loved to play, hate to practice a half-hour every day”), and how I liked choir (Choir? You mean Social Hour? “Loved it”). I tried to retain something from his sermon the previous Sunday to talk to him about during the fifteen-minute drive.

Karen was a ropeholder too. Before Pastor Jim started driving me, Karen invited me up to their apartment. I looked around their modern apartment, so different from the French provincial and Duncan Phyfe in our home. Art made of dots and swirls. Modular furniture in metal, leather, green, white and orange. My mood ring and bell-bottoms fit in in that cool, California-kind-of-place. She was friendly, made actually talking to a pastor and his wife feel ordinary, a comfortable thing. Most of all, she seemed to want to know me; she thought a teenager might have an important thought.

I kept a church bulletin from August 11, 1974. It was my first participation in helping to put together a youth church service. The music of that era — what we call now call “New Age,” was reflected in the service. As youth, we were oblivious to our song choices. I look back now and see a brave ropeholder in Pastor Jim.

Ropeholding has two points of view. The ones holding the rope are trustworthy. They are secure that God, and strength from Him, will be enough to hold, and they are willing to risk a rope burn or two. In Pastor Jim’s case, I’m sure older church members raised an eyebrow or two or gave him a lecture afterwards about the service and the songs selected. But Pastor Jim never once buckled. From his point of view, he held the rope steady, secure, knowing he was getting the youth to God in the best way he knew how: By allowing them to be themselves on the way there, expressing their love to God at the stage of their faith development they were in at the time.

The other point of view of ropeholding is from the person on the mat. She is the one trusting she will be held, whether by way of being given a ride to choir every Wednesday throughout the church year, talking to and seeing a pastor as human, and trusting that self-expression by way of singing Neil Diamond songs in church is Sanctus. Kyrie. A beautiful noise.

How about you? Who held your mat? Who helped you get to God? Aletheia is the Greek word for “truth.” It means “to remember.” More than 200 times the Bible tells us to “remember.” Today, remember the Creator of your youth and thank Him. Speak the truth to one of your spiritual ropeholders. Remember those who modeled the Christian faith and helped you to a deeper faith journey with God — and tell them “thanks,” for they are people whom God put in your life to help you grow closer to Him. They are your new-life-in-Christ influencers.

And, as for you: Remember, you too, are a ropeholder — to the next generation. You are a carrier of faith. Don’t be afraid to use your voice, heart, hands and feet to do so. Ask God to give you the strength. He will. By your sacrifice, by your rope burns, others will get to Christ, too.