Wow! The end of a brief but very significant era in Cornerstone Church WInchendon’s history has come. Yesterday was the Pastors Lewiston’s last day. It was a seventeen hour day for me (hence the reason for my lack of posting), but it was one I shall not soon forget.
Here is Pastor Dan and Jen’s final service with us at Cornerstone.
Now we move as a church into that space called transition!
I find that particularly during the season of cold and ice, I need to find something to keep me busy that is productive but does not involve the structured planning side of my brain.
I need time everyday to just let my mind run wild, free from the constraints of schedule, housework, meetings, ministry and the needs of people.
I find such time in prayer.
Prayer for me is becoming an exercise in waiting on the Lord for inspiration. I do pray for people and things in my prayer time, but a vast amount of my time is spent sitting in the presence of the Lord listening to His Scripture and waiting on Him to tell me what He will. This I am coming to believe is the genesis of my creativity.
I also find the space of recreative freedom in reading.
I am learning to break my reading into two categories….Story and Improvement.
Improvement reading is the reading I do for work: It includes leadership books, ministry manuals, reports etc. I love this type of reading but it is decidedly not something that sets my mind free. This kind of reading creates the structures I need to be successful at work. I am just starting a new book called, LEADING CHANGE.
![Leading Change, With a New Preface by the Author by [John P. Kotter]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41a2i1XdzzL.jpg)
The type of reading that I need to do to set my mind to run wild and free is story. I have worked my way through several stories this year….
And the one I am currently reading….
But reading is not enough to truly set my mind free from the shackles the world creates for it.
Prayer leads me to creating something of my own from the depths of my own soul to offer the world.
Sometimes this comes out as sketches.
Sometimes it comes out as photography….
Most often it comes out as the written word, here in a blog or in a story or a poem of my own.
I heard from my editor this week and she said the edits for my upcoming book, PORK CHOPS WITH THE SENTINELS OF AZATAN are on target to be completed by early spring.
That book has been my creative outlet for several years and now it is about to enter the organization phase. I am sensing that as I subject this work to the publication process, I also have to prepare myself a new outlet for the creative side of my being.
I am already praying about it.
I am running a bit behind with my posting today. It has been a busy week with many distractions. Distractions are not good for me on the whole, but sometimes they cannot be avoided.
Anyway last night was Pastor Dan’s final night with us at The Wall Prayer meeting. He will preach his final sermon at Cornerstone on Sunday and then Amanda, Brenda and I will take the LEwiston’s out for a final dinner and they will be off to their new posting in Tennessee.
Here is the video of our final night together at The Wall. Next week I shall carry on with the teaching regarding the letters from Revelation 2 and 3.
Pastor Dan preached a good one today…..
Pray for our church as we walk into this transition.
This has been a year of seismic shifting for the whole world. It’s left all of us feeling a bit out of breath and a bit cracked. It’s left us reeling at the sudden shifts in culture and the big problems those shifts have seemingly caused.
Here’s the thing….all of this is part of God’s plan and if we can accept it, it is happening for our blessing. Not that it is all a blessing but…we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Sometimes I doubt that verse…DO YOU EVER DOUBT THE PROMISES OF SCRIPTURE?
Well when I find myself in doubt I have learned a few habits that help me regain my equilibrium. HERE ARE FOUR:
2. I REALIZE WHILE THE WORLD MOVES FAST I DON’T HAVE TOO. I SLOW DOWN AND TAKE THE TIME I NEED TO MAKE THE DECISIONS I NEED TO MAKE.
3. I REALIZE THAT SMALL SUCCESSFUL STEPS ARE BETTER THAN BIG MISSTEPS. SO I FIND A SMALL STEP I CAN TAKE.
4. PART OF MY PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS IS TO REALIZE THAT SOME PROBLEMS ARE NOT MINE TO SOLVE. SO I FIGURE OUT WHICH PARTS OF THE PROBLEM CAN BE SOLVED BY MY GIFTS MIX AND WHICH PARTS I NEED TO ASK HELP FROM OUTSIDE.
There are other habits too, but for the sake of space we’ll stop here. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Great Scott! We have already accomplished one whole month of this new year!!!! We have walked through 4 share your worlds already and today it is time to SHARE OUR WORLDS for a fifth time in 2021.
In case you do not know, Share Your World is a weekly challenged hosted by SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND. In this challenge Melanie asks us several questions and in answering them we all share our worlds! This week’s questions and my answers are found below. Once you have read my answers please hop on over to Sparks… to see what Melanie’s other contributors have said.
NOW ON TO THE QUESTIONS……
OH HECK NO! We have seen what can happen in less than twenty four hours when law enforcement and laws were still in place. How much more dissipation would there be without any safe guards in place?
Ummm….Yeah…..I will not be upping my creep factor by answering this question.
As a child, what did you think would be great about being an adult, but isn’t as great as you thought it would be?
Somehow I thought making my own decisions would be a lot cooler than it is. Things look so black and white when you are young. The older you get the more you understand that most decision do not fall into the strictly right or wrong category. There is lots of gray in the world.
What, in your opinion, has been blown way out of proportion?
The importance of opinion.
Gratitude Section (Optional as always)
Where is your ‘happy’ place? My happy place is the prayer place.
It is the last day of this particular spiritual journey……
Here is today’s prayer point on entering into discipling relationships…
Here is today’s video on servant leadership…..I would love to hear your thoughts
Here is today’s prayer point concerning our failures in the light of faith…..
