Just Continue That Thought...

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“Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior.”

A thought by Philip Yancey (2014-10-21) from his book, Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News ? (p. 263). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) This is a thought by Eugene Peterson in his introduction to the book of James and share here by Philip Yancey. And he continues, “They are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced and dealt with.” I was a pastor of churches that were hospitals. A place where hurting people came to be healed, emotionally, relationally, physically and spiritually. And the truth is we were not “model communities of good behavior.” We were for the most part a mess but we were people who knew that God loved us and that each other loved each other and accepted each other. That to me is what the church is. As Philip says, “We must always remember that we bear the news of that lofty good as humble pilgrims, not as haughty power brokers. Somehow Chri

“Without recognizing our own emotions, we will be poor at managing them…”

A thought by Daniel Goleman; Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee, (2013-07-23) from their book, Primal Leadership, With a New Preface by the Authors: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Kindle Locations 618-619). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) In finishing the statement they say, “…and less able to understand them in others. Self-aware leaders are attuned to their inner signals. They recognize, for instance, how their feelings affect themselves and their job performance. Instead of letting anger build into an outburst, they spot it as it crescendos and can see both what’s causing it and how to do something constructive about it. Leaders who lack this emotional self-awareness, on the other hand, might lose their temper but have no understanding of why their emotions push them around.” Know thyself is so important. At one point I realized that my moodiness was hurting me in my relationships

“When people feel good, they work at their best.”

A thought by Daniel Goleman; Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee, (2013-07-23) from their book, Primal Leadership, With a New Preface by the Authors: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Kindle Locations 379-380). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) And a lot of people today are not working at their best. They continue, “Feeling good lubricates mental efficiency, making people better at understanding information and using decision rules in complex judgments, as well as more flexible in their thinking. Upbeat moods, research verifies, make people view others— or events— in a more positive light. That in turn helps people feel more optimistic about their ability to achieve a goal, enhances creativity and decision-making skills, and predisposes people to be helpful.” That is true with your friends and the people in your family. How does your family feel when they head out to school or to wo

“Negative emotions— especially chronic anger, anxiety, or a sense of futility— powerfully disrupt work, hijacking attention from the task at hand.”

A thought by Daniel Goleman; Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee, (2013-07-23) from their book, Primal Leadership, With a New Preface by the Authors: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Kindle Locations 362-363). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) And so many people come to work each day and they live each day with something negative that is effecting their emotions and in turn will affect their work and of course their relationships. The authors share a couple of examples. “For instance, in a Yale study of moods and their contagion, the performance of groups making executive decisions about how best to allocate yearly bonuses was measurably boosted by positive feelings and was impaired by negative ones. Significantly, the group members themselves did not realize the influence of their own moods.” I think I would want my boss to be in a good mood when he is thinking about my bonus. An

“Both good and bad moods tend to perpetuate themselves.”

A thought by Daniel Goleman; Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee, (2013-07-23) from their book, Primal Leadership, With a New Preface by the Authors: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Kindle Location 356). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I have found in my own approach to life, both of those to be true. The people around me always were afraid of what mood I was in and usually it was a bad one. Until I came to the place in my life that I realized that I was hurting myself and those around me with my bad moods and started striving to get control of my emotions and of my moods. Here is what the writers here say, “Both good and bad moods tend to perpetuate themselves, in part because they skew perceptions and memories: When people feel upbeat, they see the positive light in a situation and recall the good things about it, and when they feel bad, they focus on the downside. Beyond this

“Unless we love natural goods — sex, alcohol, food, money, success, power — in the way God intended, we become their slaves, as any addict can attest.”

A thought by Philip Yancey (2014-10-21) from his book, Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News? (p. 80). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) “In the way that God intended” is the key to a fulfilled life. Philip says, “When I leave the doctor’s office after an annual checkup I have a clearer picture of my ideal health, which will include exercise, proper diet, and careful attention to some nagging ailments. From time spent with God, I have a clearer picture of spiritual health too — not an anxious, furrowed-brow perfectionism or an uptight legalism, but a relaxed confidence in God’s love and a trust that God has my very best interests at heart.” Philip continues, “I cannot imagine anyone following Jesus around for two or three years and commenting, ‘My, think of all he missed out on.’ More than likely they would say, ‘Think of all I am missing out on.’” So what are we really missing out on?

“Living ‘in the world,’ we can look for natural opportunities to dispense grace — not just words — to those around us.”

A thought by Philip Yancey (2014-10-21) from his book, Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News? (p. 74). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Consider this… Philip says, “What would it take for church to become known as a place where grace is ‘on tap’? All too often outsiders view us as a kind of elite club of the righteous. An alcoholic friend once made this point by comparing church with AA, which had become for him a substitute church. ‘When I show up late to church, people turn and look at me. Some scowl, some smile a self-satisfied smile — See, that person’s not as responsible as I am. In AA, if I show up late the meeting comes to a halt and everyone jumps up to greet me. They realize that my desperate need for them won out over my desperate need for alcohol.’” Oh that we would see that and convey that. The world doesn’t need condemnation, judgment and criticism. It needs love and it has been given the