Living Beyond the Tough Stuff

by David Delp | Dec 16, 2015 | Uncategorized

Every difficult life experience affects us, it affects the way we “walk”. Sometimes a loss or a wound is so great that it affects every single step we take for the rest of our lives. I feel that way. But when the Spirit of God breathes upon us, gets under our wings and lifts us off the ground we soar, our wound doesn’t stop us, we equalize, our limp becomes irrelevant.

Our wounds affect the way we walk, but when we fly our limp is not obvious.

The other day I sat in the conference chapel of our office, looking out the window facing the parking lot. A flock of geese worked their way from the adjoining property onto our parking lot. They picked at the ground and they leisurely waddled across the grass and asphalt.

One goose was wounded. It walked with a decided limp. It struggled to keep up, but it stayed with the flock. I’m not sure what happened to the goose. Perhaps a car clipped it, maybe it almost lost its life in a struggle with a dog. Whatever happened, it’s life was forever changed by what was most likely a brief encounter.

The goose went on with life, stayed with the flock, and kept doing what geese do. The other geese seemed oblivious to the limping goose, it was just another goose.

It occurred to me that when this goose walks it is different, it limps, it is wounded. When the goose flies it looks just like the other geese, you can tell no difference.

I live with a limp. Not physically, but I “walk” with a limp. Actually, most everyone who has engaged life “walks” with some kind of a limp. But we can soar when we transcend the confines of the temporal and move into God’s intentions for our lives.

My lessons from a limping goose:

Ok, so you’ve been wounded, just live life and limp. 

The fact that their comrade was limping didn’t seem to bother the other geese. Sometimes we live in our pain to such a degree that we let the rest of the world walk away from us. Engage. Really, your limp doesn’t keep you from engaging life.

The limping goose did not flap its wings and try to constantly draw attention to the fact that it was limping. 

When the goose was first injured it probably did flap its wings a lot, keeping pressure off the wound. As time and pain passed the goose normalized. Now, the other geese are like, “oh yeah, that’s just George, he limps, whatever, he’s cool.” At some point we merge back into life with our limps and scars and we roll on. God will use our limps and scars to His glory and our transformation forever, but it becomes a vital accessory and not the focus.

There is a difference between walking and flying.

The events that slam us in this temporary realm (2 Corinthians [4:16]-18) do not dictate what God can do in us and through us. We equalize when the wind of the Spirit gets under our wings and we lift off the ground because we all depend upon the same wind when we fly.

We have to engage both the ground and the sky.

We have to navigate the realities of the world in which we live and we must engage the sky. As long as we live as human beings we will engage the ground, but as followers of Christ we need to learn to engage the sky. Limits yield to the power of the Spirit, present realities yield to the Lordship of Christ.

Yes, I have a limp, and you do too, most likely. I have decided that my limp doesn’t limit me, in fact it only helps me realize how normal I am when I fly. My limp makes me want to fly more. Perhaps that is one purpose of wounds, to teach us that flying is what we’re were really created to do. After all, we can fly and when we like the ground a little less we spend more time in the sky, and that is what we were meant to do–fly.

Excuses Don’t Get You Closer

by David Delp | Sep 7, 2015 | Uncategorized

If I want the results I want, I have to do the things that create those results. Sabbath is one of the things that I have to contend for in my life: Our body, soul, and spirit need refreshing regularly or we will fry. I strive to align life and leadership by resting once in a while, but I find it a challenge. Whats up with that?

What are the things in our lives that demand adjustment before we can obtain the prize? The following principles apply broadly:

• Just because my circumstances do not allow something does not give me a free pass.
• If my circumstances do not allow a non-negotiable imperitive, then I have to change my circumstances.
• Decisions always cost us something, we just have to decide what’s most important to us.
• Rarely do we accomplish our goals in a single bound. Make a plan to align your life.

Hard work is important. Rest is important. I sometimes feel life is simply too busy to take a day off. I know the importance, but circumstances just do not permit it.  A lot of people, regardless of vocation, have such conflict. God worked six days and rested seven. Our physical body, emotions, mind, and spirit are wired for regular periods of rest.

Our physical body, emotions, mind, and spirit are wired for regular periods of rest.

Here are some thoughts that apply broader than just sabbath. In fact, let’s think of sabbath as an example and feel free to plug in whatever it is that you need to calibrate, but just cannot for some reason.

Challenge the circumstance.

Just because my circumstances do not allow something does not give me a free pass.

It is the dog-ate-my-homework syndrome. We call it “excuses”. Whether the dog ate your homework or you just didn’t do it, you still don’t have it. At School of Ministry we occasionally have a student whose computer glitched and they lost their completed study guide. We have compassion, but we can’t grade something they don’t have. Back up your work. This is self-leadership.

Whether the dog ate your homework or you just didn’t do it, you still don’t have it.

If I rarely take a day off, however noble the reasons, my kids are still going to grow up, my wife is still neglected, my body will still wear out, and my emotions will still fry. No free passes on the requirements of God and life.

Change the circumstance.

If my circumstances do not allow a non-negotiable imperitive, then I have to change my circumstances.

In a coaching situation I had a guy once tell me, “My job takes me away from home four nights a week and it is destroying my marriage, but the job pays too good to quit; good jobs are hard to come by.” Hmmm… Wow…

Quit your job.

Easy for you to say.

These are the tensions of life. When circumstances prevent us from obtaining the prize for which we strive, we need to adjust the circumstances when it is within our power to do so. Therein lies the discernment. Most of the time we really do have the power to decide.

When circumstances prevent us from obtaining the prize for which we strive, we need to adjust the circumstances.

Decide what’s most important.

Decisions always cost us something, we just have to decide what’s most important to us.

I believe a healthy, long-term pace for life is working 5 days, taking care of personal business on the sixth, and resting the seventh day. Sometimes the personal business can be mixed in with the other work, but we work 6 days a week. “Rest” is open to broad interpretation. It may mean inactivity, it may mean doing something you enjoy, but it is disengaging from stress and changing the pace and focus.

Life is constantly weighing decisions in a balance. Sometimes we can have many things if we think strategically, at other times, we can only have one of two things we want. We just have to decide what’s most important to us… not what is more urgent, but what is more important. I usually have to let go of something in my hand to reach for something else.

Progress toward the ideal.

Rarely do we accomplish our goals in a single bound. Make a plan to align your life.

Sometimes we have to build a runway before we can get the plane off the ground. To change the pace of our lives sometimes involves strategic thinking, laying ground work, and working toward the ideal. Don’t give up if your correction requires several steps, just start taking the steps.

Back to the thought of sabbath…

I once had a wife. I regularly took time that belonged to her and gave it to something else. I gave it because I was already doing what I was paid to do, this was above and beyond. People applauded, they told me how great I was. I would make it up to her later. Guess what… there was no later.

I now give to my wife what belongs to her. I am intent on living healthy. Funny thing, when we keep our priorities straight and make hard decisions, we put on wings and fly. Maybe its because we are refreshed, we have energy, we think straight, we are more productive and everything else in our lives works a lot better.

Take the word sabbath out of this article and replace it with other words: pray, sleep, write, work out. We reap what we sow.

Think about your life and leadership alignment. What changes do you need to make? Hey, I am still working on this. I still mess up the sabbath thing sometimes, but I’m getting better and I am going to keep aiming at the prize and making wise decisions as long as God helps me!