final days forum

Don't fear, innovate

Change is good, originally uploaded by kennymatic.

In this rough season of economic upheaval, don't drink the Kool-Aid of fear. I don't care if it's strawberry-red Kool-Aid and it makes you feel yummy all over. Unchecked anxiety is a deceptive elixir; it dulls vision and stalls strategies.

I urge you today and prod myself as well: Don't fear, innovate.

Here are five things to think about right now:

1. Identify your purpose.Who are you to the world? What do you have to give that no one else does? If you haven't already heard of him, check out Lance Wallnau on this subject and get a vision of why you are on the planet and why you are on the planet for such a time as this. This isn't feel-good babble, this is necessary truth. The more we know about who we actually are, the more we make decisions that are best for us in the long- and short-term.

2. Weigh all options. Before proceeding on any decision, consult with innovators and thought leaders. For business owners, this could be key consultants. For families, this might mean learning from those who seem to know how to live frugally, yet fully. (My new blog favorite is beingfrugal.net.) Talk with older generations about how they got through hard times. Respect their viewpoint. The wisdom of the past always offers keys for the future.

3. Embrace people, don't neglect them. As individuals and families we can become submerged in our problems. We ignore others because we have too many problems of our own. But by staying in contact with others we glean strength from them. In turn, they are strengthened by us. It's a wonderful thing to watch how connections with others generate ideas and strategies that help everyone during a collective crisis.

4. Give. Many nonprofits are hurting because donors are running scared. Again, that's the deceptive Kool-Aid of fear. Spit it out and help somebody else. Give money, time, support, or prayer. If you are out of work but you know how to organize an office, don't spend your days just looking for a job. Volunteer at a struggling nonprofit organization that needs your skills. When all this is over and the economy recovers, may that the recovery bear your fingerprints because you chose to help.

5. Share your ideas. Hoarders flash on the landscape for a moment, but they aren't the stuff of remarkable life histories.Wisely share what you know, even if it seems like you won't get a dime in return. If somebody abuses your gift of ideas, don't drink the Kool-Aid of fear even then. God sees. He has a way of replacing what we seem to lose and incredibly granting us more.

Judy Howard Ellis

 

Share the mind-wealth, fight the poverty

Donations for the poor, originally uploaded by szlea.

 

Some major American ministries have long ago caught the vision about feeding the hungry. Slick advertisements depict hungry children either in the United States or abroad in an effort to tug at the emotions of potential donors.

Rarely have I seen those same ministries show the adults whose lives are whittled away by physical need. Poverty deepens in its visual impact when you witness adults struggling to feed their families and keep them sheltered. Poverty aches when you watch a grown, healthy man search for employment or try to build a small business just to feed his kids. This is the real face of poverty: The distress of an entire family.

If we are serious about combating poverty, then our approaches must rise above just shoving a few bucks in a can for a homeless person or sponsoring a child overseas but never connecting with the youngster's family. Perhaps a more effective way to crush poverty is reaching out to people with a multi-generational approach. And we shouldn't just share our money, we need to give of our mind-wealth. By mind-wealth I mean skills, resources, compassion, creativity, experience, and wisdom.

Americans are generous, but the nation's current economic pain may help some of us finally grasp why  global anti-poverty efforts must reach the whole family and include the vast resources of our collective creativity. Every day on national and local television, Americans can see how it's not just the kids who need care in America's urban, suburban, and rural areas.  Their parents, adult guardians and relatives need to be empowered. These adults need housing relief, jobs, incomes that grow instead of shrink, medical insurance that actually covers what they pay for, affordable education for their children, and access to work with their employers and local governments to improve the plight of their communities. 

If you are so blessed and so wise to have survived this financial meltdown, share your mind-wealth, don't hoard it. Do the same in conjunction with anti-poverty efforts overseas. Offer to assist the poor as they pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Offer technology that has benefited your life and can benefit theirs. Be humble to set aside your social agendas and let those facing hardship develop their own. That's what I heard today when I listened to a segment on Blog ActionDay  hosted by Easton Ellsworth on BlogTalk Radio, and what I read on one of my favorite blogs, Skelliewag.org. Skellie wrote a great piece about"30 Ways to Battle Poverty with Technology." 

When I use the term mind-wealth, don't think that I worship the human mind. However, I have learned that a mind infused with God's ideas can be a compassionate instrument to accomplish great things. That's the message ministries should send when soliciting support for anti-hunger programs. Real people are hungry and dying every day. Yes. Whole families are being destroyed because of it. Yes and yes. But impoverished imagination and selfish ambition guarantee that the fierce enemy of poverty will win the war.

Judy Howard Ellis

 

The passing of the past

Round the bend, originally uploaded by nugib.

When a girl I liked moved away from our neighborhood in East St. Louis, it was an early lesson about letting go. The girl was fun and sweet and from my viewpoint as a child, 24th Street seemed dimmer after she left. I couldn't stop her passing through my life and neither could she or our other neighborhood friend, who also did not want to see her go.

In life, there are many passings. And we mourn them. When both of my grandmothers died during the same summer after my college graduation, my family walked away from a life we once knew when we left Sunset Cemetery. We will see them again one day, but their time with us in the old way had passed.

When I once lost love, I had to re-orientate my sights to new dreams. When I changed jobs or relocated to other cities, I found my footing in new places. When new opportunities meant exchanging abundance for fewer material things, I learned simplicity. This is the captivating nature of letting go. New understanding is gained; freshly minted maturity is experienced; more profound empathy is shown.

One of the essentially paradoxical things about God is that he does not change in character, perspective, and ability, but his kingdom is anchored in constant change. He's always building, rebuilding, structuring, and restructuring. He's always loosening our moorings.

And we must not be offended by the King of Kings because he maneuvers in our lives this way. It's "craven fear" to do so. While writing this post I am reminded of the character in Hannah Hurnard's beloved book, Hind's Feet for High Places. Even the onery Craven Fear in Hurnard's story was transformed. May we allow God to lovingly guide us through these changes in life, no matter how painful, so that we also can be transformed.

Right now, America is experiencing a great passing of the past. That passing is more than acknowledging that a 720 FICO score and a decent down payment does not guarantee you a house. This passing of the past also is about more than who will occupy the White House in January. These are shadows reflecting the intense movements of heaven. Isaiah 43:19 is cited so often it sometimes seems cliche, but it is fitting here: Behold, God is doing a new thing. Will we not know it?

During this Jewish New Year, 5769, what we can't see is the extensive work of God. He's adjusting the perception of everyone to catch the expansive dream of the kingdom. He wants everyone to realize that kingdom-building  manifests in more ways  than overflowing church parking lots and television programs drawing millions of viewers. Indeed, the Father wants a great company, but they will likely resemble David's men, unlikely recruits who know their God and the demonstration of his power. 

These kingdom-seers display God's glory in the checkout line in the grocery store, and in the neighborhood business that gains a reputation for hiring as many people as possible instead of laying off workers to boost its bottom line. They are the small coterie of saints whose work among the incarcerated restores dozens upon dozens of families. Their labor is identified by miracles, not self-righteousness.

They don't fluctuate like the stock market when God carries them through one season and then the next with rapidity.  They travel his breakneck highways with joy.

Judy Howard Ellis
 

Link to Hannah Hurnard's book, courtesy of books.google.com; link to Isaiah passage courtesy of biblos.com; link to information about the Jewish New Year courtesy of http://joyofthetorah.org
link to David's men in 1 Samuel, courtesy of studylight.com

Time to practice what we believe

little house on the hillside, originally uploaded by iChaz.

All of us know what it feels like to face the day of an exam. Hopefully, we feel prepared because we've listened in class, taken careful notes, aced quizzes, and diligently studied.

When test day comes, we browse through the exam.  We say to ourselves: This look familiar. OK, I remember that. We then let out a breath. A couple things on the test seem like trick questions, muddled collections of sentences seemingly intended for our demise. We try to stay calm and complete what we know. This leaves us time to gather our thoughts about the questions that stump us.

Life is a bit like that now. Some parts of our current circumstances look familiar. Those who experienced the Great Depression or who remember the old folks talking about that era, see familiar themes in the anxiety expressed from the White House to U.S. Congress to Wall Street. But other situations look awfully unfamiliar, as if we woke up in another bed. What do we do then?

We follow what God says to believe. We pray for discernment and wait for his various responses throughout the day. It's like standing in an open field; the clouds are gathering, but we are listening for God's voice.  Remember the story of Elijah? Imagine him bowed down and waiting for the sound of rain after three years of drought.

This is not the time to agree with the devil that God will not speak, that he will abandon us, that he will not accept our repentance, and that he ignore our cries to him.  Say this, no matter how silly it may sound the next time the bill collector calls: God will. God does. God can.

Seek the strength of God. Paul wrote to Philippi that he could do all things through Christ. So can we. Our faith matters all the time, but its worth is proven during times like these.

To strengthen my own faith, I need more Word and more prayer. I also will lean on God's gift to me: the movies. I am a story-loving person and a good film helps me exercise the truth I know. Films such as The Patriot and "Gladiator" are among my favorites. I don't look at them for their historic value -- both films have been criticized for the "history" they portray. I don't recommend them to children or others who are troubled by its violence. But when I want to be reminded of stories of survival, choices, and leadership, I like looking at them for that purpose.

I'll also pull out my "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. Those films remind me to be honorable, even in dishonorable times, to remember that Mordor will fall, no matter what it looks like. 

Judy Howard Ellis

 

Great Depression and film links courtesy of Wikipedia.com; Paul and Philippi link courtesy of Studylight.org

 

Wanted: 'godly apps' for a troubled economy

Wall Street subway station, originally uploaded by epicharmus.

If ever there was a time for adherents of marketplace ministry to flex their strength, it is now. We need business leaders who have absorbed the wisdom of Proverbs, who have watched God's discernment purify their business practices and elevate their level of productivity. Change agents clothed with humility, they are not bound by money or politics.

All help can't come from the corridors of Washington, whether that help is a bipartisan bailout or not. We need leaders on the ground who know that they must look to God for answers. These leaders are the carriers of "godly apps" that can problem-solve and inspire the nation through the current financial turbulence. Just as a "killer app" refers to computer software that provides a core value, as Wikipedia explains, this country needs a multitude of godly apps that will steer our country into a more stable and productive direction.

What I am describing is a grass-roots effort, a neighborhood-by-neighborhood, city-by-city, board room-by-board room, sales call-by-sales call movement led by business leaders who don't think the way to lead the world to God is by pointing a finger and yelling, "JESUS LOVES YOU!"  They understand evangelism, but they operate in heavenly subtlety. These leaders are gifted to rethink our energy resources, restructure our financial systems, create reasoned plans that can rebuild an aging infrastructure, and pump resources into our cities and schools. Without broadcasting it, they know that their practical contributions display eternal power.

I've written about this before in "Where is Joseph?" and "A recession? Maybe it's a holy opportunity," but it needs to be said again. God wants to innovate our world for his purposes and he wants to do it through his people. Please step up, man or woman of God who interpret the reports of the Wall Street Journal and CNBC through the ancient, yet still relevant wisdom of Scripture.

Please don't restrain your skills because you fear inadvertently underwriting sin or perpetuating a system that loves mammon. Ask God for understanding and he will guide you through love. Paul wrote this to the church at Philippi and it still applies today: "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best..."

Judy Howard Ellis

Links courtesy of www.nytimes.com, www.wikipedia.com, www.blackaby.org, www.online.wsj.com, www.cnbc.com , www.studylight.org

 

Got worry? Free your mind

Nine, originally uploaded by moriza.

No joke, there is plenty to worry about: the historic upheaval on Wall Street, the gas shortage in the southeast, the devastation in Galveston and the struggles in Houston after Hurricane Ike, the financial shortfall some entities are facing (the Dallas Independent School District and the state of Colorado as cases in point), company layoffs, the rising cost of food, and the dropping costs of homes. Even Bank of America is refusing to loan McDonald's money to update their coffee machines!

People are giving less to their churches and their favorite nonprofits.  Small business owners are getting creative to drum up customers. More multi-generational families are expected to live together, and that's partly because of the worsening economy.  Things look bleak all over. The temptation is strong to retreat instead of advance, to give up instead of endure, to create our own escape routes instead of seeking God's way out.

And that's where it really gets tough. When we wait for God's plan of escape, we must kick worry out the door. We must be disciplined to wait on God to provide a way of escape. We must believe that yes, God can give us wisdom that matters to us right now.

Joseph, the biblical leader who led his people out of famine, faced demeaning captivity before he stepped into his destiny. For years God used Joseph as a business strategist, although he was a slave in an Egyptian official's home. Then Joseph was lied on by the official's wife and thrown into prison. In both places, despite Joseph's enslavement, God made his gifts bloom. When two of Pharaoh's officials were put in jail with Joseph, God used Joseph to interpret their dreams. When one of the officials was freed from prison, Joseph asked him to put in a good word for him with Pharoah. 

Wrong move.  Joseph's request revealed his frustration. Maybe he was tired of waiting on God. Maybe Joseph reasoned that God's silence must be an OK for him to generate a D-I-Y moment. Whatever Joseph's reason, it was still misguided. The freed official promptly forgot Joseph's request and God's strategist remained in jail another two full years. What would've happened if Joseph had stood still and waited for God to act on his behalf?

It's foolish to heed alternatives, options, and plans that are not delivered from heaven. Satan relishes the opportunity to draw us away from God when problems escalate as they are doing now. He wants us walking the floors at night, anxious and depressed. He wants our prayers to cease so that we will not experience God's creativity and resolve to press forward.

Jumping ahead of God to ease the pain of waiting for his help is easy. Waiting on God-- despite the whipping waves of life-- is a discipline birthed in tears. But guess what? It tickles God! Our disciplined waiting says to him that we believe he's worth waiting for.

Judy Howard Ellis

Links courtesy of dallasnews.com, denverpost.com, bloomberg.com, abcnews.com, chron.com

 

 

The benefits of hardship

I remember being a kid and looking through Miss Pinkie's basic white refrigerator. Not much seemed to be there. Maybe some meat, milk, and eggs. Probably some fruit, turnip greens, and other vegetables. As a kid, I wasn't always keen to explore the freezer. That didn't interest me. It was always the stuff that was ready to eat that called my name. Maybe I hoped a McDonald's Filet-O-Fish would appear. Of course, one never did!

Miss Pinkie, as her neighbors and friends called her, was my grandmother. Although she has been gone for more than two decades, I still remember that sitting at her table meant savoring a feast. She whipped up meals like liver and onions and spaghetti and fish and I wondered how when it seemed like she had so little. She also often had a tin of my favorite candy, Kathryn Beich's Katydids.

My grandmother tutored me to be gratified by simplicity. An intrepid entrepreneur and a woman with a sense of style, my grandmother is an enormously powerful example for my family and others. Our nation grapples with many problems simultaneously, but the way to cope is not to mimic the Joneses or to bind ourselves to stress, the unforgiving slave master. We must return to the best we've learned from elders like my grandmother: 

• Love of family is not just spoken, it's demonstrated.
• Diligence in work yields benefits for your life and the generations after you.
• Your life imprint should be stamped on your family and your community.
• Teaching children to be responsible for household chores and helping out with the family business helps them grow.
• Vision -- like encouraging children to attend college, start a business, or try something new --  is a gift of a lifetime.
• Generosity is a characteristic you nurture, whether times are good or bad.

My grandmother did not live to experience the conveniences and opportunities we now enjoy. But she taught her grandchildren to dream and push forward -- even in hardship. That's God's word for us right now, I believe. Hardship burns off excess. Hardship clears a clouded eye, exposes greed and bares pride. It's a weird principle to humans because we prefer comfortable places, but it is an eternally true one, nonetheless -- in difficulty there is magnificent blessing.

Judy Howard Ellis

"In Every Dream Home..." photo courtesy of  Fast Eddie42 on Flickr,com

A recession? Maybe it’s a holy opportunity

With all the talk about whether the U.S. is already in a recession or falling headlong into one, it's a great time for church communities to serve the nation.

Churches could step up their Crown Financial Ministries classes to teach good money use, host Q&A sessions with savvy financial experts within their congregations, survey and then address the financial needs of their members, increase benevolence funds, encourage members to collaborate with each other and partner with reliable mortgage lenders, bankers, realtors and businesses to help those snared in the housing crunch.

Ministries with enormous platforms on TV and the Internet could talk more about surviving and thriving when the economy goes south. They could specifically address handling finances and give a mike to those who don't mind describing their former money struggles and how God revealed powerful lessons for success.

Charlatan-led prosperity gimmicks should die off like parasites. Whether the gimmick is peddled by unsavory ministers or business people who deal with a sleight of hand, every financial idea should be tested by whether its ambition is to please the heart of God. Only the lasting financial, spiritual, physical and emotional wholeness that God offers should be sought, for He is not only the Giver of provision, He is Provision.

Now is not the time for Christians to allow a bunker mentality. We must talk about money. We must take care of our own homes and reach out to those within and outside our churches.  Those who are a whiz at coupon-saving, trading stocks, maintaining cars, shopping, explaining insurance, balancing checkbooks, running businesses, investing in real estate and scores of other skills should not hoard their gifts. Share them and refuse to judge the people you help. And for those who are on the receiving end, be humble enough to be taught.

Despite the hardships of the current economy, I believe fresh opportunities are on the horizon. Though stocks may plunge and the credit crisis worsens, those who know their God can and will do mighty exploits for Him.