I truly think that we can do amazing things out of pure determination. Does innate talent play a role? Does opportunity? Absolutely. I’m always amazed by those people who are just gifted at something….just b/c it’s in them. However, not all things great come so easily or just happen. Determination, endurance, dedication,  uncommon effort and other positive character traits can also be key ingredients to great things. That’s the reason I’m drawn to the Andy Dufresne character in Shawshank Redemption. That’s the reason I like the movie, Rudy. It’s the reason I’m watching the OU Sooner’s walk-on running back, Dominique Whaley, who broke an OU walk-on record with his four touchdowns in their season opener.   It’s the reason I love reading and studying about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other influencer of the Civil Rights Movement. I admire those who face something difficult yet overcome because of character. I admire people who set goals and work beyond measure to reach them. I admire those who make change step by step. MOTOR is a organization that admires those things, too.

MOTOR is still in its pilot stage, and was started by a football coach, Tom Reber. It’s based on a concept sometimes used in football. I’ve never played football. However, I’ve been to a few football games, I’m from a football lovin’ state (Go Sooners!), and I do love a good football movie (e.g., the previously mentioned-Rudy, Remember the Titans, Radio, The Blind Side, etc). So, maybe, that’s the reason I like the concept. I really like that MOTOR-ing can be applied to so many different goals from a physical/sports type goal to a career/academic/knowledge goal to a spiritual goal to an emotional well-being goal. It’s about pushing through those obstacles that might seem impossible but yet if worked on consistently can be taken down. It’s about a stream of water carving out a canyon. It’s about going from nothing to something wonderful because of what you’re willing to put in it. What is great is we all have that potential. We might need others to help us MOTOR at certain times in our lives…to cheer us on…to coach us…to lend us wisdom from their experiences, but it’s something we all can do.

What are you MOTORing for?

I love when people are willing to sew into the lives of others, spurring them on to the greatness that might be hidden but is there within them. Empowerment is a an amazing gift. It can pivot a life from what feels static and just drifting to one that feels dynamic and destined for greatness. Triple Threat Mentoring aims to do just that.

Triple Threat is a non-profit located in Chicago and Aurora, IL. They focus on mentoring in three different areas: Athletics, Academics and Arts. They strive ‘to help urban youth realize their potential, to inspire high school and college students to develop a passion for serving under-resourced communities and to encourage adults to become personally involved in urban community development.’  In short, they engage and empower. They engage and empower lives of urban youth, but they also engage and empower volunteers, schools, organizations and communities to take that journey with them. It’s an art of positive influence, and I’m inspired by that.

We all need people in our lives that recognize our strengths. We need those people that can see, and help us see, beyond our current circumstances to what can be. We need those people in our lives that will expect great things from us….push us, encourage us, believe in us, celebrate us, mentor us. We also need to be that person for someone else. Our gifts and dreams are important to the world. It’s important we share them.

 “Get a good education. Decide what you want to do. Whatever you like to do best is exactly the thing you are fitted for . . . be diligent and decent . . . don’t begrudge the fact that you have to work for what you get. The greatest rewards in living come from living outside and beyond one’s self . . . the greatest qualities a man can have are simplicity and humility.” -Judge Alfred P. Murrah

 She allows her past full of pain, abuse, mistakes, hurt and the seemingly impossible-to-survive moments as a “throwaway teen” to become a life designed for something beyond herself. The Road Through Wonderland is a portion of her story. However, the story really doesn’t end at the last page of her book…it continues. In fact, it’s the part of the story I love the most; it’s the life art that I’m watching and admiring. Dawn has leveraged and not wasted those very difficult life moments. All the insight, all the character, all the spirit of survival, and all the other gains are being used as a voice for the voices of  other throwaway teens that are often judged but go unheard…unnoticed…unvalued. Dawn speaks nationwide and pours herself into E.S.T.E.A.M., a non-profit raising awareness and education about throwaway teens that are still journeying through their painful moments. She knows that there is value in the broken. She knows the value of a second chance and the true beauty of grace in unexpected places. She knows what a small glimmer of hope…of love can mean to someone completely surrounded by darkness. She has experienced it, and she extends it.

My soundtrack for writing this post: Shuree’s ‘Broken is Beautiful.’ Here’s a behind the music video:

People of the Second Chance  is one of the organizations to which I’m drawn. I love the concepts: people, second chances, and  the underlying pull of it all: Grace. For me it’s carries an image that we are not alone…we are ‘a people’ that are in this together, that we journey together in our need for second chances, that we all slip, we all have pain somewhere/sometime, that our pain, past, scars and even our self-imposed mess-ups are part of the beauty in our story…especially once the second chance and restoration is evoked in the story.

I love one of their tags: Overthrow Judgement/Liberate Love. It implies action on our part: overthrowing and liberating, two actions that have time and time shown power. However, people, second chances,  and action are simply not enough to change and create the beauty in our story; I believe that is the reason POTSC focuses on Grace as the overarching change agent.

As the therapist , I see the need for grace. I’ve worked with those that have been horribly hurt or in a really dark places, and I’ve worked with those that have caused such hurt or have contributed to the darkness. I’ve seen people that have others by their side but still can’t do it. I’ve seen people have second chances to simply to not recognize them for the opportunity they truly are. I’ve seen people take action but not have movement. Recognizing, receiving, and extending grace is a vital part of the story…of allowing our lives to be art that can reflect God’s grace and glory. Grace extends kindness and goodness beyond deserve and can pierce the darkest places, and because it’s so unexpected in those places, it shines brightly.

Personally, I’m often challenged by the stories POTSC highlights. It’s sometimes difficult for my mind to want to grasp/accept the places God’s Grace reaches, but that’s why it’s radical grace..and those are exactly the places God wants to reach. Those are the stories that reflect no other possible explanation…other than God…other than Grace. Here’s one such story:

As mentioned in my most recent post, I was able to attend Jon Acuff’s Quitter conference. Over my next few posts, I’m going to begin to dream a little again and cover some things/organizations that inspire or motivate me. Jon encouraged us to study these things…kind of like free, top-secret, unknowing mentors. Some of them you will have heard of…others, maybe not. However, I invite you to journey with me. I’m going to start with ‘Quitter’, Jon Acuff, and some of what he wrote/said that has re-motivated me to dream, again.

Here are a few of the things Jon said that got me motivated:

Learn the difference between a passion and a position. A passion is the core of who you are. A position is just a job title.

You shouldn’t expect to be good/great at your dream right away. Believe that now is the best time to be the worst at something new. Ready is a myth.

Match the right energy level to the right activity.

Our dreams matter. The world desperately needs us to follow them.

Of course, Jon was funny. References included but were not exclusive to the following: Jersey Shore, Arrested Development, Harry Potter, skinny jeans, tarantulas, plane crashes, and mother-in-laws. However, you-would’ve-had-to-been-there for those.

Here are a few additional insights gained/heard by my fellow twitter-er quitters:

@lorrieharden: “God uses frustration to birth a passion.” #Quitterconf

@holloway: We all have great ideas in the shower. The solution is not a shower marker, it’s to make deliberate quiet time for thinking. #Quitterconf

@anotherjoy “When you EXPERIMENT for you dream your identity is not at stake.”-Probably my biggest takeaway from the #Quitterconf (big thanks to @jonacuff)

@LorrieHarden “Finding what your called to do isn’t a first date. It’s reunion.” #Quitterconf

Check out my travel partner, Tammy Helfrich’s blog to see her “Top 10 list from the Quitter conference.

Blame it on Jon Acuff. Yep, he and his book are to blame. He’s to blame that I revisited my very first blog post from 11.7.08, ‘Traveling’ (side note: pay no attention that my last post was 3.12.09…he’s not so much to blame for that one). However, the ‘revisit’…yep, that’s all on him. See, just a few weeks ago I went to his Quitter Conference in Nashville. I was not sure what to expect. The basis of his of his book and conference: lessening the gap between your day-job and your dream job.

I haven’t really dreamed for quite sometime….as I referenced in my first blog.  I’m not sure when I stopped. Things (aka., life) became really sad, difficult, dark, and just different, etc….and the dreaming stopped. I kind of think I felt: if I didn’t dream, I wouldn’t get hurt. When things got better and happiness returned…the dreams did not. I became the epitome of living in the moment but not the good-kind…just the robot-kind. I can auto-pilot like no other. Sure, periodically, the dreams would try to return, but I wouldn’t let them. That’s the thing about dreaming; there has to be some intentionality to it. Jon and his fellow Quitter presenters Ben Arment and Bryan Allain made that perfectly clear at the conference.

So, here I am. I’m here…or at least, I’m going to really try to be. I’m not sure what my dream is, yet. However, I know I’m going to have to press in to find out…and for my wish in that first blog post:

“I wish that I could always travel with a deep consciousness of God. I wish that for my husband, my sons, my loved ones and friends, my community, my world.”

to come into light, I should really play a part in the story. Part of Jon’s philosophy is not that we have to discover our dream…but rather that it’s a process of recovering them.

A few months back, I read a twitter from an architect, regarding the power of ‘re’ (I can’t remember all of his but here are a few of his with a few of mine added)….think about it: redesign, revamp, rethink, repurpose, rediscover, refresh, renew, revisit, rewrite, revisit, restore, reengage.

What are some of the ‘re’s in which you see power?

Re-embrace them!

Which one are you?

Larry and I really love the concept of Parenting with Love and Logic….that you let you’re kids fail and learn the lessons while the price tags are small so they will have the coping resources and wisdom to draw from to make positive choices when they are older. It’s not that you want them to ever fail….but you truly view it as a learning experience for them. Larry and I frequently say that God is much like a Love and Logic parent….at least with us. 

However, with Brendan being such a great kid….he hasn’t had many opportunities to gain the skills needed to handle disappointment, redirection, etc. He seems to internalize  things when he feels he let himself or someone else down.

That being said….God allowed me to have a teaching moment with him this week through my experience. 

Monday: Larry left for Aurora, early. So, I get up, get the kids around successfully, get them loaded in my car…tried to turn the car on and noticed the key was not budging and the steering column was locked. Fortunately, Larry had left his car here….so I unload and reloaded the boys…realizing I didn’t have time to figure things out at that moment. However, once we got home from our day and I got the boys in bed, I tried again. I put in the key and kind of jiggled the steering wheel back and forth…b/c in the past that worked….no luck. 

Tuesday…just went with Larry’s car to start off….as I knew mine was still having issues. After work and after picking Brendan up from school, I gave it another try…still nothing, but I grabbed the handy-dandy Nissan booklet and read the portion on how to unlock your steering column. I put the boys in bed and carefully followed the directions in the manuel: “Gently turn the key and slightly move the wheel to the right and left” It didn’t work. So, I re-vamped the technique a bit to something more like: “Forcefully attempt to turn the key and yank the steering wheel back and forth…sigh a few times” Didn’t work. I posted on facebook and myspace about the issue and had a few people give their pointers….tried them and, even still, nothing. 

Wednesday…once again, started with Larry’s car. However, I got home a little early and decided to give it another go. I can be pretty relentless. Put the key in, went back to the gentle and slight approach, and IT WORKED, perfectly. I backed my car up to make sure the steering wheel didn’t get placed in the locked position, again. After all, I’m not a stupid person. Celebrated. It was then time to pick Bray up from daycare. Brendan and I got in the car….and although the steering wheel was not locked and would move….the key did not move at all. Back to Larry’s car we go. Consulted with Larry over the phone. He said, “Don’t even worry about it…you have my car…just use it and when I get back I’ll look at it.” Still feeling relentless…I give it another go once the boys are in bed. Not productive. Look at some random suggestions online…one person wrote that sometimes you can use WD-40 and it allows it to get unstuck. Asked Larry where the WD-40 is….he repeats his earlier spill…but does give me the location of the WD-40. 

Thursday…use Larry’s car as instructed by him. I pickup Brendan from school and while he gets going on his homework…I think, “hmmm, I think I’ll try that WD-40.” Now, I don’t want to spew that stuff all over my car so I just spray a little on a Q-tip. I apply it around the ignition switch and a little on the key. Pointless. And then……..out of the blue….I think to myself, “It’s (the car) acting like this isn’t even the right key…but it fits…and I only have one Nissan key on my keychain so that doesn’t make sense.” I take out the key and BEHOLD: two Nissan keys! One to my car…and one to Larry’s. At some point, either Larry or I must have put one of his spare keys on my keychain. (note: I had been using the extra-limited access key to Larry’s car to drive it around all this time…not this key)  What a grand moment of realization.

Several, relentless times…I had mistakenly used the wrong key…I had even pulled out WD-40 and Q-tips to perform minor surgery to get the wrong key to work. (I had got the right key by accident…once.) I smiled. I went inside the house and shared with Brendan about my mistake that had virtually lasted four days. Four days in which I had thought the car was the one with the issue. Brendan thought it was funny. However, it gave me a great opportunity to, once again, say…we all make mistakes…sometimes we make them a few (sometimes several) times…but if we stick with it and get it figured out we’ve gained something. Mistakes help us learn to use the right key. Rest assured, I will now always double check to make sure I’m using the right key if the one I’m relentlessly using is wrong.

As 2009 begins to dawn, I’m in great anticipation about what God can do. I pray that this year, passions will be (continue to be) ignited in the people of The Orchard…that provisions for those passions will be plentiful….that the impact will thunder through the nations. That the world will know God’s greatness…His faithfulness…His unfaltering love for His creation….knowing the magnificence He has created in each individual life. 

 I have to admit with the anticipation is some anxiety. I know that for my family, personally, to take part in the amazing things God is going to do through the Orchard…a big change will be required (aka. the move into the land of snow where people desire Snuggies). Change is not necessarily bad…but in the beginning it sure can be scary. I long for my family to be ‘at home’ at The Orchard…to have a family there as we have at Sherman Bible. It’s a huge need I have. I’m relying on God to put relationships in place that can fulfill that need.

Recently, I have gained another show addiction, ‘The Unit’. On an episode in S2, one of the main characters was giving her amazing-writer-developed-insight into a military permanent change of station. She discusses how when one moves to a different base you experience something “that will both surprise and delight you.” She said, “When you reach the new base you will find you are still at home’…and that even if  future moves to other bases occur you will always “curiously be at home.” Having no military experience myself, I don’t know if that is true or not. If it is, it is yet another thing I greatly admire about our military men and women. Oddly enough, it’s not always true with pastors/their families, Christians in general and church bases. Why not? Don’t we have something that should tie us together even stronger, more purposefully—something in our very being…in our souls—that connects us.

Paul in his letters to various churches demonstrated such connection. In his letter to the Philippians per the ‘The Message’ paraphrase he wrote: “Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamation of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart…..It’s not at all fanciful for me to think this way about you. My prayers and hopes have deep roots in reality. You have, after all, stuck with me…” Later in the letter he says: “When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you…” 

Now, not every letter to every church  reflected such ‘an awesomeness’…after all, a family calls it like it is…the good and the bad and will reflect both back to you for sincere, yet loving, accountability. It’s what family and home are all about.