Tag Archives: Spiritual

A Fresh Look at Faith: Meditations on Life in the Spirit

Faith & Surrender | A Series by Dr. Rich Blue of the Center for Christian Life Enrichment on Faith and Spirituality

 

One of the gifts of aging is the wisdom that comes with increasing awareness of life’s challenges and our limitations. When I was younger, if I was worried about any sense of my weakness or failure, then my defense was often to deny the truth. I was determined to do whatever I could to hide my shame from myself as well as others. I dreaded displeasing both Mom and Dad for different reasons. Growing up, I learned that making mistakes, losing and failure was to be avoided at all costs. Looking good and maintaining the approval of others were high values in my family.

 

Size and weight were also sensitive issues in the Blue household. My dad was a big guy and definitely lost his fight with excessive consumption of food and alcohol. My mom, however, was very conscious of her weight and appearance. Looking good was a top priority for her and she too battled with her own insecurities. It was no accident that I became excessively concerned with the opinion of others along with an unwillingness to love and accept myself. From as early as I can remember, I struggled with a distorted body image. No matter what I weighed or how I looked, I was never able to enjoy and accept myself.

 

Historically, compulsive overeating was the area in my life where my sense of powerlessness most often threatened to break into consciousness. Although I was very disciplined in many areas of my life, I continued to lose the fight with food. How many more diets would I try? How many more excuses would I make for not losing weight? How many more medical professionals would I enlist to help me eliminate my defects of character?

 

At the age of 60, I hit bottom. After years of others trying to support me, I finally conceded my powerlessness over food and the unmanageability of my life. I began attending Overeaters Anonymous (OA) and participated in an inpatient program for compulsive overeating. I learned that my problem was not a lack of self-control. I had demonstrated that I could lose weight (having lost 40 pounds at least six times in my life). My powerlessness over food manifested itself less with losing weight and more with my inability to keep the weight off.

 

When I started working a 12 Step Program, I was quickly confronted with the concept of surrender. I had a strong reaction to the word especially given my programming to never give in or admit defeat. The invitation to surrender to my Higher Power was very threatening. I mistakenly thought I had a head start in the spiritual dimension of the 12 Steps. I learned, however, that I did not believe that God would be sympathetic toward my powerlessness over food. It still sounded to me like a weak excuse. I could see powerlessness over an addiction to heroin or cocaine, but food? The message in my head was, “Suck it up. Quit feeling sorry for yourself!”

 

I mistakenly believed that my powerlessness with food was simply a character defect rather than an addiction. At some level, I believed that I deserved to be punished.  I did not believe that God cared about my overeating and would be willing to help. Weren’t there many more serious problems in the world? I still wanted to believe it was my problem and mine alone to deal with. If that were so, then I wouldn’t have to face my powerlessness. How could I ask for help when it was my responsibility to do something about it?

 

My progressive failure with compulsive overeating eventually broke me. I finally surrendered by the grace of God. I threw in the towel and raised the white flag.  For the first time, I was able to see that a life of faith begins with accepting what is so. I was a compulsive overeater and I was not able to solve this problem on my own. I needed help. This is the power of surrender. It begins with choosing to accept what is true about me and my circumstances. Surrender leads to freedom. For the first time, I was willing, to tell the truth about my inability to control my overeating.

 

Living by faith, I learned, is empowered when I acknowledge my powerlessness and inability to manage my own life. Freedom comes when I admit I can’t do it and celebrate the truth that God can. The apostle Paul wrote, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”[1]  Being a person of faith begins with being yourself. It involves choosing to stop managing and manipulating an image in order to look better than one actually is.

 

As pilgrims of faith, we embrace our shortcomings, failure, and addictions. We humbly acknowledge that we are insufficient. Our power and effectiveness are the results of exercising our faith in God, who is willing and able to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. In the teachings of Alcoholics Anonymous, we are those who seek progress, not perfection. The pursuit of perfection leads to membership in the cult of narcissism. Surrender is the pathway to a relationship of faith and hope in God.

[1]Philippians 4:13

Faith in the Here and Now

A Fresh Look at Faith: Meditations on Life in the Spirit
A Series by Dr. Rich Blue of the Center for Christian Life Enrichment on Faith and Spirituality

I yearn to experience the peace of knowing that I am loved unconditionally. Instead, I often live with the fear of something bad happening, doing something wrong, or getting in trouble. The Bible says that perfect love casts out all fear. I understand at a deeper level that in the presence of love I can be assured I am safe and secure knowing that if God is for me, then who could be against me. The Apostle Paul reminded us that nothing can separate us from the love of God.[i]

Yet, if you are like me, I often find that I am continuously scanning for threats in spite of knowing about unconditional love. In many cases, I am hypervigilant in my attempts to ensure my safety and the well-being of those around me. At other times, I live in denial oblivious to the potential threats that encircle me. It is like living on a teeter-totter where one end is hyperarousal and the other end is numbness and denial.

In the beginning, our survival depended upon our primary caregivers’ ability to protect us from danger and nurture our development. The adage, “safety first”, is hardwired into our reptilian brains and is in harmony with the mission of our sympathetic nervous system. When in danger, this division of our autonomic nervous system directs us to fight, flee, or freeze. Our capacity to choose quickly and accurately is closely linked to our survival.

Faith develops as we learn how to trust by choosing who and when we trust. As we learn from our choices, we develop our ability to discern who are our allies and who poses threats. We learn when and how to trust ourselves and how to take in the wisdom of more knowledgeable others (MKO’s).

I am learning that living by faith is a choice to consciously be in the here and now. Faith is not denying challenging circumstances and faith is not hypervigilant scanning for threats. Faith is not the absence of fear, worry, concern, or anxiety. Instead, faith is the conscious awareness of all that is within and around me. It is an acute awareness of what I am feeling and experiencing at the moment. Faith works in collaboration with the truth of our experience.

My attempts to explain away or manage what I am thinking and feeling are acts of bad faith. When I am overthinking things, I am trying to control my life and unwilling to live by faith. It reflects my struggle to embrace the truth of my experience. My need to understand, make sense of, and wrap everything with a bow is a defensive tactic guaranteed to stifle faith. My need for certainty and clarity is an expression of my fear and unwillingness to be where I am in the moment. The hunger for certainty and control interferes with my choice to be, identify my feelings, and accept my powerlessness. I am not God.

When I am feeling anxious and afraid, I am learning to kindly, firmly, and effectively parent myself. I ask myself what I am feeling. I am learning to differentiate between having my feelings and indulging in drama. Feelings are feelings and do not need a story or explanation to justify them. I am learning to use my feelings to tell me what I am yearning for. I anticipate my mind desperately trying to make up a story of what is happening, knowing that most of the time it is fake-news!

Let’s stretch and see how much we can walk by faith accepting what is. As Paul Tillich wrote, let us have the courage to be. Let’s pay attention to what we are feeling, thinking and experiencing at the moment. Let’s learn how to surrender control and let God be God and accept that we are not!

[i]Romans 8:28-29

 

A Fresh Look at Faith

A FRESH LOOK AT FAITH | A Series by Dr. Rich Blue of the Center for Christian Life Enrichment on Faith and Spirituality

I see faith as an essential component of both human and spiritual development. Faith is the muscle that when exercised, empowers individuals to make sense of and face the unknown, exercise trust, and mature into their next level of human and spiritual development. Faith comes from the Latin, fidere, to trust. It is defined as confidence, reliance, and belief, especially without evidence or proof.

How often have we heard things like, “trust God,” “have faith,” or “just believe”? Yet these statements “paper over” the challenges of faith and trust. They suggest we should trust mindlessly, without question, rather than grapple directly with the difficulties we have in holding onto faith. Faith is confused with conformity and seen as a measure of devotion.

My perspectives on faith came to focus through my doctoral research on the role of faith in human and spiritual development. This research was one of the most meaningful and demanding experiences of my life. I went into this research regarding myself as a man of faith. But what I saw was that most the significant obstacle to my study of faith was me. I was afraid to question what I already believed to be true. I was scared to trust truth and afraid to trust God, the source of truth.  It took me a long time to see that holding on too tightly to what I thought was true was not actually faith, but its opposite.

It took faith for me to fight for the opportunity to study faith. Once I had gotten approval for my research, I found myself anticipating imaginary attacks on what I believed at every turn. The greatest threats, however, came from my own lack of faith. I began to see how resistant I was to reexamining everything I believed. My classmates can attest to the countless conflicts I created because I was trying to sound smart, be right, and have everything figured out. At the time, I was much more interested in having all the answers than I was in in asking questions and being in the unknown.

I recall an especially tense moment when the frustration level reached a crescendo. My biggest advocate, the chair of my doctoral committee. was tired of fighting with me regarding my latest theory on faith. He was threatening to pull the plug on my dissertation topic. I was frustrating everyone, including myself, by continually trying to have the answers and get everything right. Ironically, I was trying to figure out faith!

To be more open to what was possible, I needed to expose and dismantle two central silos—spirituality and psychology. I had strongly clung to the notion that spirituality and science were independent fields of study. I mistakenly believed that faith was the exclusive concern of the spiritual silo. I projected that psychology and academia were hostile to faith and a threat to what I valued. I was falling prey to dichotomous thinking—seeing the world as black or white, right or wrong, and characterized by all or nothing thinking. This type of thinking is what mystics refer to as the dualistic mind. I was discovering that the dichotomous thinking of the dualistic mind is hostile to faith.

What I came to see is that faith is more a verb than a noun. Faith is not so much what we believe in, such as our creeds and doctrines. Faith involves the courage to live with not-knowing. Faith is a divine muscle given to inspire and empower our spiritual transformation. Faith is a core yearning longing to be fulfilled. It is active, not static. Faith is a gift we have been given that only grows when it is exercised and stretched.

Please join me in this fresh look at faith. Watch for my next blog on Outoftheblueblog.us

Divine Discontent

Me with kids christmasIf you are like me then you long for meaningful and authentic relationships, You yearn to be seen, heard, and affirmed. You yearn for the love and safety of committed relationships. Accomplishments are great, yet, we will give up all our accolades for love.

From the very beginning, it was God’s intention that He would share in and enjoy an authentic and intimate relationship with His creation. No wonder the garden of Eden was paradise. Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed, open and accessible, with no barriers between each other or God. They enjoyed pure intimacy and unconditional acceptance and belonging.

In the New Testament, the narrative of Jesus reflects God’s desire for intimacy to be restored with His people. Jesus is the good shepherd, diligently gathering together His lost sheep. John 10:14–16 records Jesus’ words: “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”sheep and shepherd

The longing for this garden experience is hard-wired into us. We experience it now as discontent when we are not living a big life, loving others, and fulfilling Jesus’ promise: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father” (John 14:12 NASB95). Jesus’ mission was to introduce the work of reconciling relationships, so that with His assistance we would carry it on to completion—that we would be one flock again. And, we would experience a divine discontent if we were out of relationship with God and with each other.

When Christians do not experience this divine discontent, it signals that they have lost their edge. Their relationship with God has become too comfortable, which in spiritual terms means stale and dead. They live by rote and habit, with no impetus to trust God and live by faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God.” To experience a life of faith is to have a dynamic relationship with God and with others—a relationship that is powerful, alive, and stretches you to become more of who you were meant to be.

Surprised by God is a story of incarnational transformation–second order change from one life to the next. It is the story of one life impacting another and another. Anointed exponential growth! It tells how one person being genuine, telling truth, and seeking to live like Christ can make an eternal difference. Join us in this journey of being continually surprised by the joy of God available to all those who hunger and thirst for more of Him. The secret of getting more of Him is giving what you have away.

Living in Relationship: Consciously Caring for One Another

meerkat_family

The older I get the more important relationships are to me. When I was younger, I took many of my relationships for granted. I assumed that others would always be there for me. I also presumed my relationship with God was a constant—He was always there and what I did or did not do mattered very little.  At least that’s what I thought.

As I have grown, I have come to see, along with A.W. Tozer, that what I believe about God and my relationship with him is the most important thing about me. Surprised by God: A Journey of Divine Discovery is a story about how my relationship with God has transformed and evolved over the course of my life. The way I see it, very few things are as important as dedicating ourselves to being lifelong learners and seekers of truth in God. Please read and reflect on this excerpt from the Introduction to Surprised by God about the importance of relationships.

Although I had grown up attending church, and always believed in God, it was not until I was in my teens that I saw the possibility of having 
a personal relationship with Him. But, even then, it was a limited vision. I thought God was most interested in me knowing Scripture, obeying His teaching, and having the right answers.

Over time, I have trans
formed from a Word-based Christian to a faith and 
relationship-based follower of Christ. I have discovered that insight alone is not sufficient for sustaining our lives and our faith. We need our hearts—our emotions—in order to engage more fully in life. Like any relationship, it is emotions and ideas that connect us.

With Christ, I came to realize that deepening my relationship required emotional expression—not the pretty, sanctimonious kind but real, raw, personal expression and sensing. Genuine emotional experience is critical to our fullest relationship with God.

The power of the relationship is in the persistence on the journey and the discovery, not the knowing: trying, failing, striving, reaching, falling back, and trying again—what I call grappling with God.file3871249263445

As a boy who loved rough sports, especially wrestling, I experienced the visceral joy of physical battle, the toughness of an opponent and what it took to overcome him. During my journey of faith, I have come to see a relationship with God and Christ as an ongoing battle with myself in my relationship to God. It’s a battle to be the real me and express the real me, all of me, in relationship with Him.

As I have grappled with that kind of authentic expression of, and honesty with, myself I have deepened my faith and my understanding of the divine. This journey has taken me far beyond what I thought was possible within my own life and has brought me a maturity and intimacy in my relationship with God, as I have grown more honest and intimate with the people I care about in my life.

It can do the same for you.

 

 

Consciously Choosing Life

Life is to be lived fully in the here and now. All we can know for certain is what is right now. The past is history and the future is fantasy. The past makes friends with regret and the future invites anxiety. Both of these are thieves of life in the now.

What characterizes the here and now?

First, our breath. Our breath not only connects us with ourselves, it is the source of life. Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:11) The material became spiritually alive when we were given breath. Breath is what breaches the great divide that separates life from death. When someone dies, we know they have left this life when they breathe no more.

The here and now is also made manifest in our bodies. We can feel and experience our body in the here and now. We see with our eyes and smell with our noses. We notice our tongue swimming in our mouths. We feel our fingers scurry as we type. We sense our chest expand and contract as we breath. We experience our heart pumping the blood filled breath throughout our bodies.

Our feelings fill every moment in the here and now. Although easy for us to diminish and dismiss, feelings fill every moment of life. We have mountains of feelings seeking to be experienced and expressed in every moment. Feelings are the language of our souls—our deepest and possibly most spiritual expressions.

Become conscious of our breath and we are living in the moment. Feel our bodies and we are experiencing the present. Uncover our feelings and we have found the here and now.

The trinity of consciousness—our breath, our bodies, and our feelings. Treasure these three and we will we will be well served on our expedition of life.

Join us, a community of conscious pilgrims, looking for partners on the journey of becoming our most Christ-like selves. Living life consciously with our eyes fixed on Christ expressing our aliveness authentically. We are looking for those who are hungry and yearning for abundant life. Come play life with us at the Center for Christian Life Enrichment.

This Hallowed Place

This past weekend, the CLE community enjoyed another sacred weekend we call Spring Retreat. We had our largest gathering ever, stretching the limits of our beloved DeKoven Center in Racine, WI. The time was especially meaningful because Eileen Parks (I am using her real name with permission), one of my original clients, joined us to celebrate her husband, Jon, who died three weeks earlier. She testified to Jon’s undying love for God, for people, and for the work of personal transformation–the theme of our weekend.

6012450701_dd9cf2b7d6_oDeKoven was one of Jon’s favorite places. It was a space that became sacred for him. Jon represented the best of what we like to refer to as the DNA of CLE. Jon loved life and wanted to enjoy every moment passionately with anyone willing to learn, grow, and walk with him. Jon loved people and people loved Jon. He had an insatiable urge to share his feelings in the moment. He loved supporting anyone to heal, express their feelings, choose to live the biggest life possible, serve anyone in need, and love God with all their heart.

Eileen shared another one of Jon’s poems, written in February of 1995. Evidently, he wrote this poem following attending his first CLE retreat. May his words give you a vision for the life changing experiences we have on these weekends together.

 

Change

Jon Parks

(First CLE Retreat, February 1995)

This Holy Place will ever shine

Within my heart

Like summer fields drenched deep

In sunlight’s green beams.

Tis perfect place in time,

Where well-worn masks were gently set aside,

And hearts displayed in view for all to see.

This Hallowed Place,

Where humanness touched timelessness,

A glimpse caught of a sweet eternity.

And you O God are all of us,

Warrior, healer, visionary, teacher

And this one thing I know,

That we who shard this sacred place

Have touched eternity,

Our image made in you.

For this beauty and this miracle of

Life, to know and to be fully known,

The cry of every heart,

To Dance and sing and dance again,

Where dancing never ends,

To feel the deepest feelings,

To taste of life itself and find

one day, our hands outstretched to

touch the face of God.

I saw a person standing there, so filled

With pain and misery,

I longed to hold them to my breast,

To comfort them with love.

And then as I grew closer still,

I was amazed to see,

That this poor wounded aching heart

was my best friend called me.

A Tribute to my Friend Jon Parks

It has been about two weeks since the death of my friend, Jon Parks. He fought a courageous 15 year battle against prostate cancer. I had the pleasure of walking with him during this journey along with his wife Eileen. I remember our first couples group after he learned of his diagnosis. I will never forget hearing him cry out to God, “I don’t want to die!” Jon loved life. He loved his wife, Eileen, and he loved his boys.  Jon wanted to live with every cell in his body.

rich eileen jonI miss Jon. The Center for Christian Life Enrichment has lost a vital member of our body and we are hurting. Everyone is hurting. It is our turn to experience the pain that Jon lived with every day. I must confess that I was so relieved when I learned of Jon’s death. It hurt me to my core to see him suffering, even though he handled it with such courage and grace. I feel like it is our turn now, Jon. You have passed the baton of a life lived well to us.

When I remember Jon the word that comes to my mind is passion. Jon was passionate about everything aligned with life. Everyone and everything was his favorite. Jon made you feel like you were the most important person in his life in that moment. A rare gift. Even more rare because Jon meant it. In spite of his boundless enthusiasm, Jon was sincere. An unusual combo.

I will always think of Jon as a poet. I have been blessed so many times through listening to his poetry. I think back to the many times when I was leading a group and I would catch that hungry look in his eye. I knew what it meant. Jon had another poem he had written and it was crying out to be shared in that moment. I would reluctantly relinquish turrning over the mic to Jon, lest I never get it back. How I miss those times now. I want to share one of his poems that is crying out to be shared. I share this in honor of his life.

When you’re dying of cancer,
it really doesn’t matter if the Mets won, or who’s running
for president, or that the windows need painting,
you only notice the tick, tick, tick of the clock as time slips
silently away from you,
and like sand pouring through your fingers,
it scatters into the wind and onto the cold ground,
reminding you each golden moment of life, of your life,
is gone forever once lived,
and that they are not endless,
but finite,
and counted,
and that there are only so many God gives you,
and no more,
just death and then eternity.

So live your moments well my cancerous comrades,rich sue and jon
and do your loving well,
as you battle on against this beast so vile and strong,
let every dawn be one more victory,
each setting sun a crown upon your head;
you who’ve learned the truth of all that’s valuable:
the ecstasy of living for another day,
of knowing you are loved,
and feeling God Himself so close to you.

Sing, robin red breast,
sing your lovely chorus to the day,
and dance around the branches, squirrel,
for all of nature loves your praise for life,
and we will join your chorus,
we who know the glory of this day.

Once again, Jon, my scarcity has been overwhelmed with joy and awe. Thanks for sharing, my brother. Your heart is huge.

Touched by Love

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13:13

Listening to Nancy Rollin’s interview about her terrifying experience at the Boston Marathon touched my heart deeply. I was moved because I could feel how much she cared about all those who were hurt and suffered.

Seeing one human being love another is what touches and inspires me the most. Love is a word that is used and understood by young children as well as adults. The phrase,“Love you,” is a staple in most relationships.Kids know what they mean even though they may have no adequate definition. As adults we recognize that love is easy to say and much harder to do consistently.

Eric Fromm writes in his book The Art of Loving, “Love is an active power in man; a power which breaks through the walls which separate man from his fellow men, which unites him with others; love makes him overcome the sense of isolation and separateness, yet it permits him to be himself; to retain his integrity.”3181451090_d9b3390973_o

Life is about relationships. Alfred Adler believed that the foundation of healthy living was our concern for others, growing out of our respect and concern for ourselves. We too often confuse love with excessive or unnecessary sacrifice. Love involves a mutual exchange between individuals much like the love experienced between a mother and her newborn infant. The infant does not appear to give as much as the mother; however, is there any question that the mother feels loved by her child? Love is a reciprocal experience of sharing concern and giving to one another.

Love is also a transcendental principle and ideal, which has been the base drumbeat driving my life. Looking back, I see how I have been chasing love from my earliest memories. I did not recognize my hunger nor would I have described it as a yearning for love. I have yearned to love and be loved from the very beginning.

2569927379_a34556beeaLove has been North on my compass. When I was younger I thought I understood what love was. I could quote 1 Corinthians 13 and many of the “love one another” verses in the Bible. Time and repeated failures have humbled me. I now experience a sense of reverence and awe when I think of love, believing that apart from Divine Assistance I will continuously fall short of its demands.

At the heart of love is giving. Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) A rich and meaningful life is the blessing for those who will choose to invest their lives in loving one another.

Watch today for the divine appointments that are offering you the opportunity to give and serve others. These are the building blocks of a life of love. Jesus challenged the disciples saying, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 13:35) Remember, loving is an act shared in community with others. In its purest form, it is a mutual and reciprocal act of concern for and giving to one another.

Hitting the Curve Ball

I remember going to watch two friends play in a baseball tournament. Although I learned that the game was rained out, I saw a way to still have some fun. There was a batting cage next to the dugouts and I suggested that we hit a few balls. I had always wanted to tap into my inner Ted Williams. They loved the idea.

 

I dug in and prepared for Dennis to throw me a few pitches. They came straight and fast and I was extremely pleased that I was getting a few hits against a pitcher of his caliber. True to form, my enthusiasm migrated into arrogance and I started trash talking.  “Bring it on…is that all you got!”

 

I saw Dennis get what I now know to be a “pitcher’s grin” and had no idea what he had in store for me. He threw me a couple more fastballs that I devoured as if they were Krispy Kreme donuts. In anticipation of hitting the ball out of the park, I started my swing a little earlier and swung at bit harder at his next pitch.

 

The instant the ball left Dennis’ hand, I knew something was terribly wrong. First, the ball appeared to be coming right at my head and I had no intention of getting close and personal with this rapidly approaching projectile. Second, I was nearly completing my swing and the ball was only half way to the plate. What happened?

 

I desperately tried to slow my swing down; however, my bat was already past the plate rapidly making a run for home.  I was helplessly watching this ball curve down and away from my face as it leisurely traveled through the strike zone. Wow.

 

I was in shock and what brought me back to consciousness was the acute pain in my back resulting from trying to slow down my herculean swing. The howling from my friends was deafening. Dennis was rolling on the ground laughing hysterically and I was trying to find my balance having just been introduced to my first curve ball.

 

I was living in the fantasy of thinking that I was a batting prodigy. With only a few minutes in the batting cage, I was hoping that I would be able to hit like a professional. I see how I have the same fantasies in life. I mistakenly believe that if I were better at things then I would be happy and fulfilled. I confuse the outcome with the process.

 

Life is an ecstatic dance lived spontaneously in the moment. It is free, alive, and mysterious. Attempts to script and control life (both ours as well as others) are lethal.  We habitually seek for certainty and attempt to find comfort in routine and predictability. We mistakenly believe that what we want is to be in control. It may be what we want; however, what we need is to live by faith. Faith is the capacity to move forward in the face of the unknown. It is the courage to act in the face of uncertainty and doubt.

 

A life worth living and a God worth worshipping—I see these as central values in a life well lived. Will you allow me to consider one facet of God using my experience at the batting cage? A God worthy of our worship is like a divine pitcher. He throws the pitches and we try to get a hit.

Our job is to hit the balls we are pitched. Growing in our skill of hitting involves a life dedicated to deliberate practice and a willingness to learn from our mistakes and failings. Winning is redefined as learning and growing from our disappointments and breakdowns. In this game we are a team actively depending on our teammates to be dedicated to becoming the best players possible.

 

We are not the pitcher. It is not our responsibility to select the type of pitch, pace or placement. Our responsibility is to select the pitches we are going to try and hit.  Regardless of their pace and placement, we are here to be continually improving ourselves as batters. Avoid the temptation to focus too much on the pitcher and his pitches.

 

At the Center for Christian Life Enrichment we love supporting players who want to learn, grow and become the best hitters they can be. Join us and become a part of our team. It is a blast and you will see remarkable growth and improvement.