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Category Archives: Life

Catching Up

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Seeking Peace in Faith, Life

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No posts in almost 2 weeks.  It’s been busy.  It’s been rough.  It’s been fun.  It’s been defeating at times too.

My son turned 17.  I can’t believe it’s been 17 years.  I’m not old enough to have a 17 year old and I’m certainly not ready for a kid one year away from leaving for college. 

Summer baseball started.  We had a WET weekend in San Antonio after our previous tournament was rained out on the last day.  SA was full of mud and I was the one getting to watch the baseball uniform.  Lucky me!  This past weekend was great for baseball and my son played great.  He won game 1 as a starter and went 5-for-11 at the plate in the remaining games.  The team went 3-2 so it was a decent weekend over all.  We also saw his summer coach from last year.  He gave me lots of compliments about my son that I passed along to him.  Cool stuff.

I got to spend about 10 days with my daughter.  She’s an interesting kid.  She loves to sleep late, stay up late and not do much but when she gets going she’s like a whirling dervish.  She’s also artistic and we are hanging several of the photos she’s done around the house.  I’m so proud of her abilities and her desires to teach and do well in school.  I like hanging out with her and learning from her whether it’s technology or something she is learning in school.  Such a cool girl.

The job hunt/business acquisition hunt is still going slow.  It’s hard to wait and wonder what God has in store but I am working on my thankfulness and gratefulness for what I do have.  And for what God may be doing in my life. 

I’m speaking to a management group Friday night on Time Management and to a church Sunday night on Identity.  I suppose I should be putting something in writing but it’s all floating around in my head right now. 

That’s all.  That’s catching up and reminding myself about a few things that the last 2 weeks have brought. 

Now it’s off for a little more prayer and petitioning to God for what I hope He has planned for me.  That’s confusing isn’t it?

Grace and peace.

Controlling the Mind

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by Seeking Peace in Faith, Life

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My mind runs wild.  I find concentrating often hard to do because one thought triggers another.  I’ve tried praying where the object is to clear the mind and listen.  Talk about tough.  Wow.  When I pray and speak to God, my mind often wonders off course even in that time.  I’m sure God wants to reach down and thump me on the head at times.

I was reading Jesus Calling today and the writer talks about turning my mind over to God.  I would really, really like to do that but I seem to have a mind that He created that doesn’t stop spinning, doesn’t stop finding new tangents to travels.  In all of that whirling madness, there is fear and wondering if God’s will is so far from my hopes that I’m 90 to 180 degrees off course.  Do I think I’ll find a job that pays well, let’s me stay close to my son, provide support for my children and to give generously and God’s will is something so different that I’m fighting against it?  Or is it that He is still developing something in me and wants to run the string out until I’m about to break – mentally, emotionally, spiritually?

I’m thankful for the encouragers in my life.  I’m surrounded by people who keep telling me great things are going to happen.  People who tell me that God is working in me preparing me for something that will blow me away.  People telling me that the right moment is still ahead of me.  I appreciate it and really do try to take it to heart.  I really do.  It’s just hard.

God, take control.  Make my mind full of your thoughts.  Cover me up with you.

Grace and peace.

Planning

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Seeking Peace in Faith, Life

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How much planning do I need to do?  I can only respond to what happens today, so why do I spend so much time thinking about 20 other things that could happen?

Yesterday, I was in a Bible class discussing Nehemiah.  The teacher suggested Nehemiah had spent much time planning what he would say to the King if given the opportunity to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls.  As I have thought about that lesson, I don’t think Nehemiah had thought much about it at all.  He had simply prayed for favor, not solutions.  I think Nehemiah may have simply been reacting with thoughts God was pouring into his head because he was open to God’s design.

I think I often plan God right out of the picture.  Or, I create an elaborate plan and ask God to do what I need Him to do to fulfill my grand plan.  Maybe I have it backwards?

Grace and peace.

Just Listen To Me

10 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by Seeking Peace in Life

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advice, friends, hear, listen

There are times I want people to just listen to me.  I want to talk out loud, to process, to clear my mind by letting the words flow so I can refine the thoughts I need to spend time with in my mind.

There are times I need to listen to people.  There are times they can see things I cannot…or that I refuse to see.  We are warned in the Bible about pointing out the speck in our brother’s eye while we have a plank in ours.  Sometimes people try to tell me something they see in me that needs work and all I can think is that they have their own planks to deal with.

Regardless, I can simply say there are times to listen and times to help.  I hope I know when those times are for my friends and I hope they know when those times are for me.  I don’t always get it right.  Neither do they.  I just hope I pay attention when there is a nail in my head…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg

Grace and peace.

Counseling

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Seeking Peace in Life

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counselor, teacher, vision

I advocate for all my friends to go to counseling.  Whether they think they need it or not, they do.  How can I be so sure?  Call it a hunch.  Or experience.

I love going to counseling.  I have used three and all of them have added beauty to my life.  They are all believers and all care deeply about me.  It is evident in their words, in their eyes and in their prayers over me.

One reason I think I appreciate counseling as much as I do and encourage my friends to go is because I am a counselor at heart.  I have taken many assessments of personality type in the past few years.  Myers-Brigg, DiSC and Strengthfinder and all come back with two words always consistent in my description.  Teacher.  Counselor.

For years, I thought of myself as a businessman.  An accountant.  An IT guy.  An Ops guy.  Today, I am learning to think of myself in a natural state – teacher and counselor.  Now, being a teacher doesn’t mean I have to be in a classroom.  The world is my classroom.  I can teach whomever will listen.  Being a counselor doesn’t mean I have to be in an office with scheduled hours.  I can be a counselor to anyone who is willing to talk to me.  All of that can happen in a business as well as the grocery store, at church, or in a parking lot.

The joy of learning more about who I am is that it frees me to be me and not try to squish myself into a mold someone else wants me to be.

I’m working on a new vision statement for me.  I am a teacher and counselor who, at heart, wants to be a peacemaker and difference-maker in the lives of others.  It’s a work in progress and a starting point.

I look forward to seeing the path God will lead me down more clearly in the days to come.

Grace and peace.

Chaos

29 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Seeking Peace in Life, peace

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chaos, fountain, overflowing, peace

“Man has tended to make himself the measure of all things.  But man’s measure is too tiny to comprehend My majestic vastness.  That is why most people do not see Me at all, even though they live and move and have their being in Me.” – Jesus Calling

I tend to live in chaos.  I have more things on my to-do list than I can accomplish.  And, I see them all as priorities.  I operate in a messy environment because I jump from one thing to another.  And, I see them all as priorities.  I look around me and see a vastness of things I must do and accomplish and prove to myself and others so that I may measure myself good and worthy.

What I see as huge, God looks at through a magnifying lens to see.  Oh, not that He doesn’t see me clearly.  He does.  He only looks at the things I try to make important as small.  He knows who I am.  I struggle with remembering that most of the time.

I live in chaos because I focus on me and not on Him.  I live in chaos because I choose the small things to be my big things instead of choosing the Big Thing to be my big thing and letting the small things play out as small things.

I want each day to be more focused on God.  To be clothed in Him.  To be consumed with Him.  I want God oozing out of me so that each person I come in contact with gets God on them because I am overflowing.

I love to stop at fountains and be still and quiet as I hear the water running and feel the peace it brings.  A fountain is something that is overflowing.  There is more water than it can contain so the water comes flowing out to create a calm, a peace.

I want to be a fountain, unable to contain all of God that is within me, creating a place of calm and peace.

Grace and peace.

Clarity

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by Seeking Peace in Faith, Life

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clarity, joy, pain

“The problem with clarity is you might not like what you see.” – Ryan Morrison

My friend spoke these words this weekend and they have stuck with me.  I always want to see the picture more clearly thinking it will bring understanding and insight.  While that is true, I seldom think I might not like what I see; that seeing the truth may call for changes, major changes, even hard changes.  I want clarity when it brings me new hope and new paths full of roses and sunshine.  I am not as big a fan of clarity when it helps bring light to the dark I didn’t have to look at before.

Seeing God with more clarity is a double edged sword.  I get to see the Creator and Savior of all, the LORD sitting on a throne shining more brightly than I can begin to imagine right now.  And in this moment, I also can see the areas where God wants to keep molding, shaping, chiseling to remake me into His image.  In the long run (which is where my focus really needs to be), the molding and re-shaping will make me stronger, more refined but there may be pain in the making.

It is in these moment of clarity I get to choose what I want – comfort or joy.  Comfort for today or joy for the days to come.  With clarity, I can see where I am and I can see where I am headed.  What I fail to realize is that even in the comfort I think I might have today, there is worry, fear, trepidation about what might happen next.  In looking to the future, I can see the journey has turns, bumps and hills to climb but I can appreciate, if not enjoy, those obstacles knowing there is great beauty and peace ahead.

Grace and peace.

Praying For What?

16 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Seeking Peace in Faith, Life

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perfect, plan, prayer

There are some good things that come with not having a job.  One, people I meet with buy my lunch most of the time even though I asked for the meeting.  Two, I get some Godly advice.  (The downsides are that I am going to need to buy a lot of lunches when I get a job and some advice is less than Godly, even depressing at times.)  That said, I met a guy for coffee the other day.  It was our first time meeting.  He was a friend of a very good friend and a strong believer.  I told him about my times of depression, of panic, of wondering if God was on the journey with me and was going to answer my prayers in a positive way.  Here was the response…

“You can pray very hard for what you want and God will answer your prayers.  Or, you can pray very hard for God’s perfect will to be done in His timing and God will answer your prayers.  Which prayer do you want answered?”

BAM! WHAP! KA-ZOWEE!

I want God’s perfect will answered in His perfect timing.  Oh, I may not keep encouraging Him to advance His perfect answer a little faster but I rather it be God’s design than mine.  I’ve seen what I can do with life…I think I will prefer God’s plan for my coming days.

Grace and peace.

The Who

14 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by Seeking Peace in Faith, Life

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destiny, hardship, peace

Who are you?  Great lines to a song.  Great question for life.  It is something that I have asked myself many times and many times found myself trying to be someone that someone else wanted me to be.  I’ve been the good boy who didn’t talk too much.  I’ve been the good boy who was the youth group leader.  I was the good student.  I was the accountant.  I was the good Christian following all the rules.  I was the person others told me I needed to be or should be…but I usually wasn’t myself.

I have heard people wonder why teenagers were drawn to alcohol and drugs. Or, why are adults drawn to alcohol and drugs?  What would possess them to ruin their life and, potentially, hurt others in the process?  I think the answer in the most simple form is that they are not happy with who they are so they are either trying to be someone else or just trying to forget who they are for a little bit.

There are people today who think I have lost my mind.  I have made some decisions that don’t fit the norm and, looking at it from one angle, have put me in a precarious position financially.  Yet, I have a strong sense of peace as I think about who I am and what I want to do with the rest of my life.  I have a strong faith that God will provide all I need.  Sure, He isn’t working on my time frame but I was reminded the other day that God’s time frame is perfect, mine probably isn’t.

The last few years have allowed me to explore who I am and to begin finding contentment with the answers.  It is restructuring my faith.  It is restructuring my financial condition.  It is restructuring how I see others.  It is restructuring what is truly important to me.  And it is giving me more internal peace than I’ve ever known.

C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”  I am trusting and I am praying that the hardships I go through today while learning who I am and living my life more in line with who God created me to be will lead me to an extraordinary destiny.  I pray that for my friends too.

Grace and peace.

Weekend Recovery

13 Monday May 2013

Posted by Seeking Peace in Life

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faith, hope, patience

What a weekend.  My daughter came home from college and I graduated from college.

It’s so good to see my children.  They bless me in so many ways and I really can’t get enough time with them.  Every time they are with me I wish we had more time, had talked about more things.  I worry that I don’t always say the things I need to say, to go as deep as I need to go, to teach them what I need to teach them.  On the other hand, there is only so far a dad can go without an open invitation.  I hope my life, the highs and the lows, are teaching them about patience, steadfastness and the ability to get back up when you’ve been knocked down – whether by your own mistakes or the actions of someone else.

I am a Master!  I graduated with a Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation.  I have not created world peace yet but it’s on my list of things to do.

Now I’m back to consulting work, job hunting and thinking about how to position a new blog, a potential book and a new life journey.  It’s good to have something to do.  Along with that, I keep trying to understand God and His work in my life.  I’m trying to better understand patience, hope, hearing God and when I am supposed to act and when I am supposed to be still.  If I can figure all that out, I’m going to be in a really good place.  I continue in prayer that He will make His paths clear with neon lights, that I will not be able to escape the sound of His voice in whatever form I need to hear it and that He will put me on the right path, soon, so that I can be active and fulfilled in the work He has planned for me.

Grace and peace.

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