One day, before Christmas, I went shopping at a local Target store. I parked my vehicle and wandered into the store. After making my purchase, I exited the building and returned to where I had parked looking for my van. When I arrived at the spot, behold, it was gone! I stood looking around. Our van is not that hard to find. As I was scanning the parking lot, I noticed a gentleman sitting in a car watching me. I did not want him to think that I could not find my van, so I began to wander across the Target parking lot looking for it.
After walking completely from one side of the lot to the other and back again, I could not find my van. I was sure that someone had stolen it. Just as I was about to start the journey again I remembered … I drove our car. Glancing around, sure enough there it was right where I started looking in the beginning.
Have you ever lost something only to discover it “right in front of your nose?” Or have you ever just known that your appraisal of a certain situation was true only to discover much later it wasn’t?
One of the ways the brain works for handling problems is to create mental models. We all have a mental map of how we think or perceive things to be. It is the way we learn to make it through our world. However our mental maps can be flawed. What happens is we tend to see what we expect to see. You tend to see what makes sense to you at that moment. Yet that doesn’t make it true. Every mental map comes with its own underlying assumptions based on our experiences, memories, and emotions – all of this influences what we expect to see and what we plan to do about it. (Adapted from the book, Deep Survival)
In reality our mental maps can be surprisingly strong and the abilities of working memory surprisingly fragile. We all say that the mind plays tricks on us, but few really believe it. What we tend to do is to take all information and fit it to our own mental models. We shape the things we see, hear and feel to fit our mental maps of life. So we are in a sense trying to shape our environment to fit our view of realty. In the end we end up losing ourselves in an unreal world that we have shaped to fit our view life.
It is great to know that God comes to seek that which is lost. God works in our lives to lead us out of our unreal world into the true world he created. We must learn to see life with His eyes, hear with His ears and understand with His heart. As we do this, life takes on new meaning. The truth sets us free, that which was lost is found and we enter into the adventure of life as God created it to be lived.
Is God working to change your mental map?
Friday, January 25, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Booming Beans
Have you ever been humbled?
My family and I had gone camping. I enjoyed “roughing” it. The smell of the campfire, the fresh air and family time was relaxing. I was thrilling my boys about my tales of being a Boy Scout when we began to cook our afternoon meal. I told them how we used to cook our meals as scouts. That day we were fixing baked beans for lunch. I regaled with how we used to just place the can of beans in the fire and let them pressure cook. I was not a baked beans fan, but I really enjoyed those that we ate with the Boy Scouts.
As we prepared our meal, I decided I would cook our beans just like we used to in the scouts. We rolled the can into our roaring fire. I excitedly told my boys how great these beans were going to be. They would be steam and pressure-cooked. In my excitement, I forgot one little detail about cooking baked beans over the fire. We always poked a little hole in the top of the baked beans can before we rolled it into the fire.
KABOOM! Beans flew everywhere. The can was blown 15 feet into the air. The fire was blown completely out. And my son and I were covered with freshly steam cooked baked beans.
There was a couple strolling by our campsite just as the beans exploded. I certainly did not want them to think I had done anything foolish. Yet, do you know how difficult it is to look nonchalant with baked beans dripping out of your hair?
Why did this happen to me? I was proud of the fact that I had been a Boy Scout and knew some things about how to cook out in the open. I just knew that I could remember all that we had done to cook beans over an open fire. I wanted to impress my family with these facts. Pride, self sufficiency, the desire to succeed, and ignoring the truth has a way of making beans blow up in our faces.
God has ways of humbling us. He shows us that being self-sufficient and ignoring what he tells us will make the beans blow up in our faces.
Peter tells us: “Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:5-7 NIV
How many lessons will it take before I, we all, learn to walk humbly before our God?
My family and I had gone camping. I enjoyed “roughing” it. The smell of the campfire, the fresh air and family time was relaxing. I was thrilling my boys about my tales of being a Boy Scout when we began to cook our afternoon meal. I told them how we used to cook our meals as scouts. That day we were fixing baked beans for lunch. I regaled with how we used to just place the can of beans in the fire and let them pressure cook. I was not a baked beans fan, but I really enjoyed those that we ate with the Boy Scouts.
As we prepared our meal, I decided I would cook our beans just like we used to in the scouts. We rolled the can into our roaring fire. I excitedly told my boys how great these beans were going to be. They would be steam and pressure-cooked. In my excitement, I forgot one little detail about cooking baked beans over the fire. We always poked a little hole in the top of the baked beans can before we rolled it into the fire.
KABOOM! Beans flew everywhere. The can was blown 15 feet into the air. The fire was blown completely out. And my son and I were covered with freshly steam cooked baked beans.
There was a couple strolling by our campsite just as the beans exploded. I certainly did not want them to think I had done anything foolish. Yet, do you know how difficult it is to look nonchalant with baked beans dripping out of your hair?
Why did this happen to me? I was proud of the fact that I had been a Boy Scout and knew some things about how to cook out in the open. I just knew that I could remember all that we had done to cook beans over an open fire. I wanted to impress my family with these facts. Pride, self sufficiency, the desire to succeed, and ignoring the truth has a way of making beans blow up in our faces.
God has ways of humbling us. He shows us that being self-sufficient and ignoring what he tells us will make the beans blow up in our faces.
Peter tells us: “Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:5-7 NIV
How many lessons will it take before I, we all, learn to walk humbly before our God?
Friday, January 11, 2008
A Grace Disguised
I am reading a book entitled: A Grace Disguised. It is written by a man who talks about his journey though terrible loss. He, his wife, their four children and his mother had taken a day trip to a Native American reservation in Idaho to attend a powwow. They experienced the beauty and the trials of the American Indian. At the end of the day, they piled back into their van to head home. Ten minutes into their return this father noticed an oncoming car driving extremely fast. At a curve, that car jumped its lane and collided head-on with that minivan. He lost his mother, his wife and his four year old daughter.
This book tells the story of his grief and the way he dealt with it, and discovering the power of God’s grace in it all. In one chapter he talks about feeling like his life was sailing into the sea of nothingness. He did not want to forget the memories of his past, but was grieved whenever he remembered. He writes: “These memories (of his wife, daughter and mother) were, and are, beautiful to me. I cling to them as a man clings to a plank of wood while lost in the middle of the sea. But they are also troubling because they are only that –memories. They are vestiges of a past I will never again possess. They involve people I will never see again. I cannot live with the memories, and I cannot live without the.” (Page 70)
He shares how sorrow never really leaves the heart of those who go through severe loss. “But this depth of sorrow is the sign of a healthy soul, not a sick soul. It does not have to be morbid and fatalistic. It is not something to escape but something to embrace. Jesus said, ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’” (Pg 73)
He learns that sorrow can actually enlarge our souls where we can feel mourning and rejoicing at the same time. We can feel pain and discover healing. Sorrow forces us to face life and ask life questions. Though he was overcome with grief, he discover how focused he could become. Things that had previously meant so much to him, he discovers are not really that important. He learns again the joy of fatherhood, spending time with his children, enjoying God’s creation, and discovering peace in the midst of life.
The grief brought focus and clarity into his life like never before. He learned to enjoy the present moment. Enjoying the present moment “makes us aware of the wonder of life itself, gives us a keen awareness of the world around us and deepens our appreciation for each moment as it comes to us. Even in loss and grief we can embrace the miracle of each moment and receive the gifts of grace that come to us all the time.” (Page 77)
We all suffer loss and grief. We often question God, others and life itself. We will never fully understand the paths that we walk down. Yet, there is a purpose in our journey. There is a grace from God for each moment. Our calling is to listen for His voice, place our hand in His and trust in the power of the One we are walking with. God helps us to enjoy each moment!
This book tells the story of his grief and the way he dealt with it, and discovering the power of God’s grace in it all. In one chapter he talks about feeling like his life was sailing into the sea of nothingness. He did not want to forget the memories of his past, but was grieved whenever he remembered. He writes: “These memories (of his wife, daughter and mother) were, and are, beautiful to me. I cling to them as a man clings to a plank of wood while lost in the middle of the sea. But they are also troubling because they are only that –memories. They are vestiges of a past I will never again possess. They involve people I will never see again. I cannot live with the memories, and I cannot live without the.” (Page 70)
He shares how sorrow never really leaves the heart of those who go through severe loss. “But this depth of sorrow is the sign of a healthy soul, not a sick soul. It does not have to be morbid and fatalistic. It is not something to escape but something to embrace. Jesus said, ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’” (Pg 73)
He learns that sorrow can actually enlarge our souls where we can feel mourning and rejoicing at the same time. We can feel pain and discover healing. Sorrow forces us to face life and ask life questions. Though he was overcome with grief, he discover how focused he could become. Things that had previously meant so much to him, he discovers are not really that important. He learns again the joy of fatherhood, spending time with his children, enjoying God’s creation, and discovering peace in the midst of life.
The grief brought focus and clarity into his life like never before. He learned to enjoy the present moment. Enjoying the present moment “makes us aware of the wonder of life itself, gives us a keen awareness of the world around us and deepens our appreciation for each moment as it comes to us. Even in loss and grief we can embrace the miracle of each moment and receive the gifts of grace that come to us all the time.” (Page 77)
We all suffer loss and grief. We often question God, others and life itself. We will never fully understand the paths that we walk down. Yet, there is a purpose in our journey. There is a grace from God for each moment. Our calling is to listen for His voice, place our hand in His and trust in the power of the One we are walking with. God helps us to enjoy each moment!
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