10 Prayers for the New Year

From Rabbi Moffic

1. Looking Backward and Forward: The name January comes from the Roman god "Janus." He had two faces so he could look forward and backward at the same time. Eternal God, help us to know this truth. We can look back, and in so doing, we can help create the way forward. The past need not hold us back. It can lead us ahead.

2. Unwrap the Gift: Eternal God, You gave us the greatest gift: the gift of life. In the coming year, help us use it wisely. May we grow in generosity, kindness and forgiveness, hope, faith and love. Amen.

3. Beginnings are blessings: Eternal God, bless this new beginning with an extra spirit of your strength, so that we may turn our days into blessings of Your name. Amen.

4. Possibilities: To begin again is not a dream. It is an everlasting possibility. God, help us to grab hold of it and make it real in the coming year. Amen

5. The Book of Life: A new year is a new page in the book of our lives. May we write with color, wisdom and humility. And may your grace fall upon it consistently and unceasingly. Amen

6. Waiting for Us: The good we missed last year waits for us still. Eternal God, give us the eyes to see it, the ears to hear and the heart to find it. Amen

7. Strength: God, we do not ask for a life of ease and comfort. We simply ask to be uncomplaining and unafraid. May you give us that strength for the New Year.

8. The Possibility for Change: The Hebrew word for "year" also means "change." Change is a possibility for each us. May we embrace that possibility for change within ourselves, change within our families, change within our communities, and change within our world.

9. Change is inevitable: Growth is not. It depends on our will, our hopes, our dreams. And it rests on Your Grace. Give us an extra portion of it, so that we may fill the New Year with your Presence. Amen

10. Presence: The greatest gift we can give to others and You can give to us, Oh God, is Presence. May we be present for others during the coming year, and may You bless us with Your presence at every moment. Amen.

Elbow Room for God

Many years ago Oswald Chambers said to a group of students in a college chapel service: “We have to learn to make room for God -- to give God “elbow room.” Yes, we calculate and estimate, and say that this and that will happen, and we forget to make room for God to come as he chooses. Expect him to come, but do not expect him only in a certain way. At any moment he may break in. Always be in a state of expectancy, and leave room for God to come as he likes.

How would you change your prayer if you gave God “elbow room?”

Axiom #14: Osmosis

There are certain things we learned in school that for one reason or another, just stick with you. Quite often there is no rhyme or reason as to why they stuck so plainly, they just did. For me, one of those items is the principle called “osmosis.” I imagine most of you recall it. In brief it states that a substance will always move from a place of greater concentration to a place of lesser concentration. My chemist friends can give the exact reasoning, but the principle is true whether or not an individual understands why it works.

I have seen that leadership works in a similar way. If there is void in leadership in an organization or a group, something will always fill that void. This void could be created by a leader’s departure or by a leader’s abandonment of leading, but the void will not remain a void for long. If the concentration of leadership is low, some leader(s) will move to fill that void coming from the place where there is more leadership.

In almost every case, you will NOT like what moves to fill that void. Seldom does a good leader move into a void created by the leader in place not fulfilling their responsibilities. I have seen it occur where a good leader assumes the leadership of the situation, but more often than not it seems to me that a bad leader will take over that role if the situation is left to its own devices.

That leads to the obvious fact; you should never leave an organization or group without a leader in place. If a group you have responsibility for has a leader resign, take steps quickly to determine who you want in that place, even if it is an interim leader while you locate the correct permanent one. If you want your vision to be carried out, you simply do not want to allow leadership to rise on its own. Have a hand it determining who is in that position. 

Axiom #13: Higher the Rung – Greater the Influence

Leadership is a strange thing. While we can often see where bad leadership has caused an organization to take downward trajectory, it is often not readily apparent the exact cause and nature of that downward path. I would venture to say that more often than not, if an analysis of an organization that has moved toward disarray is taken, you will find  that the root cause began long before the actual demise was visible to those on the outside, and perhaps to most on the inside.

Having spent time watching organizations and their leaders take specific directions over the years, there is a very real fact that, from my perspective, will always be true. This is true for CEOs, Pastors, Boards and any manner of leadership.

When you evaluate those at the top of any organization, one of the first things noticeable is that the when you are higher in an organization’s structure, the longer it takes for the effects of your bad decisions to be become apparent. The second thing is the impact of those bad decisions is far greater. Finally, you will notice that the correcting the effects of those bad decisions takes far longer, if they can be corrected at all. In fact, some decisions at the top can be irreversible and therefore devastating to the organization.

Let’s take an example here. Before I do so, let me state that with the illustration I am about to use, I am asking you not to read value judgements on the positions in question. I valued every person’s contribution to their locale. I am simply observing cause and effect.

As I stated earlier, the higher you are in an organization the longer it takes for the impact to be noticed, the greater the impact and the longer it takes to correct it. If you are a custodian for a company, a church, or any other organization, and you do not complete your tasks, it is evident almost immediately. Clearly within just a day or so, everyone will notice that the rubbish is not cleared, the bathrooms are not cleaned and stocked, and the overall place is getting dirty. The effect is visible quite easily. While this task is indeed important, it will not take the organization down, and you can correct it in fairly short order.

This is not true if you are the leader of the organization. In fact, I would argue that almost always in all three comparatives the opposite is true. If a CEO or some other senior leader makes a bad decision in hiring, or vision, or values, or structure, it probably is readily noticed by only a few, if any at all. The effects of those decisions, however can take an organization down and if you are in a position to seek to correct them, it can take a tremendous amount of time, energy, and resources. All of this is the opposite of the person lower on the organizational chart. In fact, those bad decisions at the top can prove devastating to those lower in the organization. The effects can potentially be even worse the lower down the organizational chart you go. This makes the effects to be “people impacting” on a far greater level than immediate issues at other levels in the organization.

Maybe this is partly why James wrote, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”  wrote, (James 3:1) It is not necessarily that teachers (read leaders for the sake of this discussion) are more important, but if you are a teacher (leader) you have a far greater influence. You words become the words of your students. Your ideas become the ideas of those you lead. Your methods become the methods of those who follow you. You plans become the plans of those who follow your lead. Your mistakes become the mistakes of those whom they impact.

Are you in a position of leadership? Do not take it lightly. You hold the lives (figuratively) of those whom you lead in your hands. Think over, pray over, and ask for assistance with, your decisions while they are still in your mind, before they become reality. Once they are into the world of reality, they effects can be far reaching, hard to notice and at times almost impossible to correct.

Musings on Leadership

Leadership is one of the areas that I have spent a great amount of time studying. I have read on the subject, spoken on the subject, written on it,and gone to numerous conferences and teachings on it. It was one of the items that Jesus, and later Peter, John and Paul would write on. It has quite a variety of aspects of the subject matter. They range from leading, to teaching leaders, to growing leaders.

A few years back, I began a series of posts on leadership that tried to boil them down into pithy statements that I would then unpack. It is along the lines of Bill Hybels book on Leadership Axioms. While talking about this to a friend, he challenged me to write down some of the leadership axioms I had been talking about for some time. I began writing those axioms then, and intend to write on this topic for a few more posts. You can go to the beginning here and read Axioms 1 – 12.

Maybe I will continue for a while. Maybe I will write some, then take another break. We will see how this goes in the upcoming days and weeks. Next will be Axiom #13, Higher the Rung – Greater the Influence.

When the Ashley Madison Scandal Causes an Inward Look

Great view of the current scandal of Ashley Madison here.

Internal Bleeding

The other week I was doing some remodeling work on our home. Included in the carpentry, painting, installing a drop ceiling, sub-flooring and laminate flooring was some electrical wiring. (Do not be overly impressed, my electrical skills drop off quickly under scrutiny.) This particular project required me cut and splice wiring as I installed new electrical outlets in our new pantry. As I was cutting the wires I noticed that the blade on my razor knife was dull and needed replacing. I took care of that and was eager to get back at the job with the tools in proper working order.

I climbed the ladder and began cutting and splicing numerous wires in some very tight locations. It had me in some odd contortions of my body atop the step ladder.

Don’t get ahead of me here.

While making one cut, the knife slipped after hitting a stud and sliced into the finger on my left hand laying it open about 1-1/4”. It was one of those cuts where you look at it and for a split  second think to yourself, “Oh man, I just cut myself!” (or something like that.) before the blood begins to gush out. Now I am a bit strange when it comes to cuts and stiches. I simply do not go get myself sewn up when I should. I have at least 4-5 scars on my body where I have been cut over the years and did not go to a doctor to have it looked at. I keep my tetanus up to date, so there is no issue there. I am not afraid of needles or anything; I donate blood every eight weeks and have for 40 years. It is just . . . well . . . I do not know what it is. I think the only explanation is that I am a male. Either that or I am just stupid. Either works.

All of that to say, I did not go to the doctor. I went upstairs, my wife Kay poured alcohol over it, put some anti-bacterial ointment on a bandage, wrapped me up, pulling the wound tightly together, and back to work I went to complete the job. (Hey! Kay was a nurse for 20 years. That counts for something.)

It is funny though, as I was working and thinking about the few seconds before I bleed and the many seconds afterward where I was bleeding, I began to think about people and their internal pain. How many folks do you pass daily who are bleeding? I do not mean physically, I mean they are in deep hurt over something in life that has scarred them. They were hurt deeply and the blood still seeps from the wound. They tell you about it, and it provides some relief, but it will take some time for the wound to heal, just as the cut on my finger took weeks to heal. We should be glad they are aware of the cut and the need to heal. Holidays often cause some folks to recall cuts, be it Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas or whatever. It serves as a reminder that I am bleeding and have not healed.

Then there are others. Some people are bleeding, but are unaware of it. Bleeding internally. If you ask any physician they will most likely tell you that internal bleeding is the most dangerous. It is because you are unaware that your life source is seeping from your veins into places in your body it was never meant to be. If this goes unchecked, depending upon the severity, you could bleed to death and never know what was wrong. At least external cuts, even bad ones, are visible and show there is a need for assistance.

Again, how many people do you pass daily who may be bleeding internally. Something horrible may have been done to them, but they will not admit it. Perhaps they are unaware. They are hiding it. It is internal bleeding. It is taking their life from them as it were and they are not aware it is happening because of denial or fear to face the issue, or any number of things.

Perhaps if you are a woman, when you were younger you were raped. Perhaps it was on a date. You were pressured by someone and you gave in but you were saying “No,” and it was ignored. Others have convinced you it was no big deal, but you were raped, plain and simple, and it silently affects you to this day. You may not admit it, but it is affecting your intimate relationships. It is affecting them deeply. You are bleeding internally.

Maybe when you were a child you were abused. You may have been physically or emotionally or intellectually abused.  Someone with power over you used that power in a way that hurt you deeply. It may have been that you were sexually molested. Those scars do not go away without time to process them and allow them to heal. If you do not address the violence, admit that the other person was indeed wrong, and allow yourself to heal you will continue to bleed internally affecting your self-image, your sexuality, and who can tell where all the damage will go. Your relationships will all suffer until you address the source of the bleeding.

Did someone betray you? They made promises to you and broke them. It hurt you. It hurt you deeply. It has caused you to bleed internally. No one can see it. They may have gotten off scott free as it were. But the hurt you feel is relentless. Have you looked at what happened and made a decision to not let it hold you back from what you desire any longer?

Were you neglected love and affection due you from someone as a child or as an adult? We all have those needs. When we do not receive them it can cause us to seek to fill that need in unhealthy ways. Isn’t it time to admit there is bleeding taking place and get help addressing it?

One more. Were you abused by someone spiritually? Someone in a position of spiritual power used that power, perhaps even sincerely, but they have laid such a guilt trip on you that your relationship with God is affected. It is often in the name of godliness or conviction or some other spiritual platitude. Has it corrupted your view of God? Has it made you see God as your enemy instead of a loving heavenly parent whose desire really is for your best and seeks to welcome you, love you, guide you and accept you? The bleeding internally from this can cause issues that are almost impossible to diagnose, unless you are honest with yourself and a close trusted person who can help you admit what took place.

I could go on, but you get the picture. How many of us are bleeding internally even now and are afraid or unwilling to admit it?

Maybe it is finally time to do so.

Prayer that Hits Home

I saw this on a friend's site. I am not sure where it originated from, but it sure hits home on many levels.

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Dear Lord,

Help me to relax about insignificant details, beginning tomorrow at 7:41:23 a.m. EST.

Help me to consider people’s feelings, even if most of them are hypersensitive.

Help me to take responsibility for the consequences of my actions, even though they’re usually not my fault.

Help me to not try to run everything – but, if you need some help, please feel free to ask me.

Help me to be more laid back, and help me to do it exactly right.

Help me to take things more seriously, especially laughter, parties, and dancing.

Give me patience, and I mean right now!

Help me not be a perfectionist. (Did I spell that correctly?) Help me to finish everything I sta

Help me to keep my mind on one thing … oh, look, a bird … at a time.

Help me to do only what I can, and trust you for the rest. And would you mind putting that in writing?

Keep me open to others’ ideas, misguided though they may be.

Help me follow established procedures. Hey, wait … this is wrong …

Help me slow down andnotrushthroughwhatido.

Thank you, Lord.

Amen