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“Ears that hear and eyes that see – the Lord has made them both.”  – Proverbs 20:12 

Several years ago while struggling to discern what to do next after leaving my thirty year corporate career it was suggested to me that my creativity had been suppressed from so many years of working in a large organization and in a highly regulated industry, causing me to become too linear in my thinking.  Hearing that message was a watershed moment for me, exactly what I needed to hear.  It’s as if the scales fell off my eyes, as scripture describes the Apostle Paul’s experience after encountering Christ on the road to Damascus.  For the first time perhaps since adolescence I had ears and eyes that began to hear and see life from the heart as well as the mind.  No longer confined by tunnel vision I began to see and hear in a new way, openly and relationally.  And I started to become something I never dreamed I could be – an artist.

In her inspiring book The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity Julia Cameron describes art as “not about thinking something up.  It is about the opposite – getting something down. . . If we are trying to think something up, we are straining to reach for something that’s just beyond our grasp, up there, in the stratosphere, where art lives on high . . . When we get something down, there is no strain.  We’re not doing; we’re getting. . . Instead of reaching for inventions, we are engaged in listening.”

For the longest time I believed artists to be those gifted individuals with the ability to paint, sculpt, compose music or write poetry.  But before putting brush to canvas, hands to clay, notes to tunes or poetry to paper artists are first of all listeners and seers, with ears to hear and eyes to see.  They pay attention to life.

Having no ability to paint, sculpt, compose or write I never dreamed of myself as an artist – until that watershed moment.  That’s when I began to see and hear what is going on around me and in the world and discovered that I too have the ability to express and interpret what I see and hear, but in different ways – through the way I live, how I treat others, what I teach and model to my children and grandchildren, caring for and loving others.  That too is art, which makes me an artist. . . . And so are you.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”  John 15:16 

A man sat with a friend complaining bitterly about all the troubles in his life.  After listening for a while his friend finally spoke up.  “Look, Joe,” he said, “this is your life, and these are the conditions.  Now, what’s the invitation?”

One of my favorite scenes from the movie “Forrest Gump” occurred when Lieutenant Dan climbed up the mast of Forrest’s shrimp boat.  A storm arose, yet there he remained straddled to the mast throughout the night, all the while screaming at God about all the troubles in his life.  It was there that Lieutenant Dan, who had lost both his legs in Vietnam, came to a moment of truth with God.  Bitterly, he had kept asking the same questions over the years since his tragedy.  Why did this happen to me?  What am I good for now without my legs?  Finally, atop the mast of a rickety old shrimp boat in the middle of a violent storm he laid it all on the line.  Shaking his fist toward the sky he challenged God to either grant him some peace and show him a purpose or let him die.

Later, as you’ll recall, the storm subsided, the seas calmed, and miraculously Lieutenant Dan survived the storm.  More importantly, he had faced the moment of truth about his life, an acceptance of the fact that this was his life, and these were the conditions. Now, “what’s the invitation?”

The next morning beneath the clear blue skies Lieutenant Dan leapt off the shrimp boat into the calm waters like kid in summer diving into a swimming pool, where he playfully backstroked about, smiling at the sun, catching its glorious rays – free at last from his bitterness.  Forrest Gump narrated in the background that Lieutenant Dan had made his peace.  Invitation received, invitation accepted!  “You did not choose me,” Jesus said, “but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”  God did not choose our condition; rather He invites us from whatever our condition – and appoints us!! – to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. . . . This is your life.  Your conditions are what they are.  Now, what for you is the invitation?

“You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.”  – Matthew 5:14-15 

Can you imagine what the world would be like if you had never been born?  Neither could George Bailey, the main character in the classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, until his guardian angel Clarence took him on a journey back through George’s lifetime, except without George – who had never been born.

Recently I was facilitating a team-building workshop for a group of young leaders, and one of the exercises required that each participant be evaluated by his or her peers as a group, and without exception the peer group viewed each individual teammate as much more valuable to the team than the individual perceived him or herself to be.

“O wad some Power the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us!” the great Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) wrote in his classic poem “To a Louse”.  Or translated into modern English, “Oh, that God the gift would give us, to see ourselves as others see us.”

Like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, or the participants I observed recently in the team-building workshop, most of us tend to perceive ourselves as much less significant than we really are.  But what if we could see ourselves as others see us?  George Bailey was given a gift to be able to see his life through the eyes of Clarence his guardian angel – or as it were, what life would have been like had he never been born.  Likewise, the young leadership group received the gift of seeing themselves through the eyes of their peers.

We all are much more valuable than we perceive ourselves to be.  After all, God created each of us in his own image, and that very fact empowers us to do great and wonderful things.  So as you embark on this new year, may you see yourself as others see you, or better yet as God sees you, so not to underestimate the impact you have on others; for you are the light of the world.  Do not hide it, but let it shine forth for others to see.

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  – John 10:10 

Dining with a couple of friends recently the discussion shifted to the subject of what each of us wants his life message to be.  That is, what message do you want to pass along to the world that you passionately feel it needs to hear in order to help others and make it a better place?  After some thought it occurred to me that my own message is manifested in these little weekly missives, which as of this issue marks ten years of writing them.

It all began one year when Luz, a faithful co-worker from my corporate days, suggested that we should consider abandoning our traditional office gift exchange and instead pool the money we otherwise would spend on each other to help someone in need, which led to our group adopting a needy family who lived in a very poor part of town.  So, late one cold December afternoon we traveled as a group to the home of our adopted family to deliver a very welcome but unexpected Christmas to them.  It was an unforgettable experience, one that changed all of us, me especially; for within that couple of hours our concept of abundance began to shift ever so subtly from the Wall Street culture of money and material possessions to the things that really matter – relationships, family and friends, God’s many blessings, and the joy of sharing those blessings with others.

Eventually that experience led me on a mission to deliver a message about what it means to have life in abundance, which is when I began to express my thoughts – my “message” if you will –  through these writings.

Jesus came to earth that we may have life, and have it abundantly . . . and that’s what we celebrate at Christmas.  So, in this Christmas season may you experience the blessings of God’s richest abundance.  And may I also take this opportunity to thank you for encouraging me to continue writing these messages each week and for sharing them with others.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Abundant Living will return January 5, 2015

“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.”  – Proverbs 10:4 

“A farmer, being at death’s door, and desiring to impart to his sons a secret of much moment, called them round him and said, ‘My sons, I am shortly about to die.   I would have you know, therefore, that in my vineyard there lies a hidden treasure.  Dig, and you will find it.’  As soon as their father was dead, the sons took spade and fork and turned up the soil of the vineyard over and over again, in their search for the treasure which they supposed to lie buried there.  They found none, however:  but the vines, after so thorough a digging, produced a crop such as had never before been seen. . . . . There is no treasure without toil.”  [From Aesop’s Fables]

Once upon a time I was convinced that the goal of education and hard work was to be able to free oneself from the drudgery of having to work at all.  Perhaps that is what attracted me to the arena of Wall Street investment banking, the notion that since that is where the money is I might have the opportunity to actually accomplish that goal.  But over time my attitude changed as I came to realize that the real reward from working had little to do with wealth, and much to do with the privilege and pleasure of work itself.

In his parable of “The Rich Fool” Jesus tells about a rich man who had the good fortune of producing a big crop.  The man considered what to do so he decided he should build bigger barns in which to store his great wealth of grain, then he would have plenty so he could “take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”  “But God said to him, ‘You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded of you.’”  (Luke 12)

Once upon a time I would have been tempted to claim “The Rich Fool” as my hero.  I thought I wanted to be like him.  But now I find myself thanking God each day for giving me work to do and pray that he will never cease doing so; for as the wise father so cleverly taught his two sons, there is no treasure without toil, and the hidden treasure from our labor is in the pleasure derived from having the opportunity to grow, serve, and be productive each and every day.  As the Proverb says, “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.”