Tag Archives: living intentionally

Invited to the celebration

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Having enjoyed a relaxing picnic on the deck, we find such simple joy in listening to the birds pronounce their greetings on the day. What a privilege it is to be invited into the celebration of God’s goodness among his creation at Thayerapy Gardens, or any place you can get away from the daily grind. The simple joy of being quiet in this too busy world easily evades us. So many other demands beckon us to “get something done.” What if what needs getting done is the restoring of your noisy soul? Such joy and contentment comes only by intentional invitation, only by sacrificing some lesser thing on the altar of living in order to enjoy another more fully.

Would you think it strange to experience such beauty and peace in the battle cries of cancer? Or any other great burden that presses against your own life? It needn’t be strange. But it seldom comes by accident. Whether it is 60 seconds of relaxation breathing at your desk, a five-minute walk outside, a mini adventure of a back roads day trip, or an all out getaway vacation, the decision to introduce peace and quiet into an otherwise noisy day is yours – and mine – for the choosing.

It comes at the cost of so little and offers to you the treasures of the world to be still and wonder at the goodness of the life God has given you – this life, the new beginning this day offers, this moment, this very breath that satisfies your lungs and speaks such peace to your mind.

I wonder when we think ourselves too busy to rest, that we put ourselves in danger of being too busy to live. In my masters studies I discovered the difference between “wreckreation” and recreation. The former is the often exhausting outpouring of energies into pursuits that leave us wanting a real vacation when we’re done. Recreation, as God designed it, offers the opportunity to re-create, rebuild, restore, and recharge ourselves. It turns our inner focus to an outward view that expands our perspective. Maybe you’ve discovered this when you decided to “walk away” from a problem only to find the solution that evaded you now readily revealed.

It’s in such quietness of the mind that God invites us to draw near to him, to sit awhile on his deck and share in the goodness that he freely offers you. Jesus himself invites us: “Come to me all of you who are burdened and I will give you rest.”

There’s so much to do and to be accomplished in this short life. Perhaps one of the most important is to accept the invitation to the celebration of God’s goodness in you, and around you in others.

 

 

Go Light Our World!

Go Light Your World has changed its name to Go Light OUR World (GLOW), emphasizing our community responsibility to bringing light into the darkness. The website change will happen later this week. Www.golightyourworld.org will automatically be redirected to www.GoLightOurWorld.org. The ministry’s home page will come up first and then viewers can click on the Blog page or other ministry pages. We believe the list of ‘followers’ who get daily posts sent directly to their email inbox will remain unaffected. There is a possibility that the website domain change could cause the site to be down for a short period of time.

Did you know… Go Light Our World is a tax-exempt 501c3 nonprofit ministry incorporated to carry the gospel throughout the world with specific mission of helping families discover and pursue God’s best for them. GLOW is governed by a board of directors including incorporators, Bryan and Marcia Thayer. Tax exempt donations to GLOW go directly to ministry fields in Bolivia, Bulgaria, and other places around the globe. GLOW supports vital ministries that promote self-sufficiency and literacy while introducing children and families to the REAL light of the world, Jesus.

Go Light Our World had its beginning during one of our missions to post-Katrina New Orleans. Beyond our teams’ efforts to rebuild houses, these missions were all focused on rebuilding lives by bringing light to shine into the darkness of their world.

Chris Rice wrote a song titled Go Light Your World, which captures the heart of our ministry. In it he writes:
“There is a candle in every soul
Some brightly burning, some dark and cold
There is a Spirit who brings a fire
Ignites a candle and makes His home.
So carry your candle, run to the darkness
Seek out the helpless, confused and torn
Hold out your candle for all to see it
Take your candle, and go light your world
Take your candle, and go light your world.”

We each were created for a purpose. We weren’t created to sit on the sidelines, but to intentionally and passionately live out our purpose by making a difference in the lives of others.

We believe that God gives each of us a light that can bring real and lasting hope to the lives of others and that working together as a community of believers, our light shines brighter.

We will be sharing more in future posts about how you can partner with us to Go Light Our World!

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:14-16

How To Build A Life

I was reading a short article about a couple of entrepreneurs, Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff, who started the organic Honest Tea Company and are also the co-authors of “Mission in a Bottle: The Honest Guide to Doing Business Differently and Succeeding.”

I was interested their foundational principle:

Have an unshakable belief in your product. Build something you’re passionate about … build something you believe in, not just something that you believe in 50 percent of the time.

Doesn’t that strike at your inner core about the essence of how we should build our lives…by knowing and living what we believe in 100% of the time. In my former job, not just a few of my conversations with my employer surrounded the topic of how business analysis, objectives, and strategies best represented our core values, in both small and big decisions, and in not only business but our personal interactions as well. Of course, just like real life, we don’t always get this right, but knowing and living your core values matters!

In business and in life, we have a choice of course. We can momentarily turn away from our core values to achieve what seems like advantageous short-term gains. We can ignore those values and take the easiest path available to us that avoids conflict (temporarily). Or we can embrace our true beliefs with intentionality and use them as a moral compass to guide us through challenging environments. This latter choice is a definition of faith-based living. We live by faith in what we believe, all in, without reservation. To borrow martyred missionary Ed McCully’s phrase, we live with ‘reckless abandon’ for what we believe 100% in. In his case, it was reckless abandon for Christ, whatever the cost.

Do you have an unshakable belief in something that you are so passionate about 100% of the time? One that motivates you to intentional daily actions based not on convenience or entertainment but on the intentional path set by your moral compass? One that guides you steadily through difficult waters and fills you and others with great joy during smooth sailing? One that matters most of all at the end of this life and the beginning of the next?

Really believe God and choose wisely, friends. He believes in you.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew 7:24-27