Shun the limelight

“I’m not sure I agree with Rick on this point.” That was my friend’s comment as we were discussing "The Purpose-Driven Life" and specifically Rick Warren’s directive to “avoid the limelight.” My friend protested, “But that’s not always possible.”

What exactly did Rick say?
•Real servants maintain a low profile.
•Self-promotion and servanthood don’t mix.
•You won’t find many real servants in the limelight; in fact, they avoid it when possible.

Rick continues with some observations about the subtle dangers and temptations of living in the limelight. I can understand the heart of his warning. However, my friend is also right that it’s not always possible – or appropriate – to avoid the lime-light. In fact, Rick Warren himself doesn’t always succeed at avoiding it. He was recently on the cover of Newsweek – for Pete’s sake!!! Does that make him a hypocrite?

Which is it? Does he have a valid point or should we throw it out because it’s not feasible?

What if we change the word “avoid” to “shun”? Oops; that doesn’t work either. It means pretty much the same thing.
•To avoid deliberately, as a practice
•To keep clear of

So is there another word that might fit better? A word that means the opposite of “to grasp”, “to seek”, “to value.” Maybe I could copy Paul’s choice of words - and “consider it all dung” – so much crap. Rubbish. Not something to be valued.

At any rate, here’s what maybe we should do about the next limelight opportunity.
•Hold it loosely.
•Maintain a “Can take it or leave it” attitude.
•Don’t seek it.
•Don’t “value” it.

We’re talking about an attitude here.
•Instead of seeking to be up front, we operate as a team player.
•Instead of basking in the applause, we deflect the praise to God.
•Instead of grasping the prime spot, we invite others to the place of honor, we encourage them & provide opportunities for them.
•Instead of claiming credit, we watch for ways to make others look good.
•In word and in action (AND in spirit) we value the ministries of others as much as we might hope others would value ours.

Seems almost Biblical, doesn’t it?
•Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.
•Consider others ahead of yourself.
•Don’t choose the seat of honor.

What’s the conclusion?
While it is true that we may have limelight moments – serving “up front” or being appointed to a position of privilege &/or responsibility or receiving this or that honor - seems like we should realize that the spotlight isn’t really on us, but on the One whom we serve. It isn’t MY spotlight moment, after all, but His. “Not to us, but to Your name be the glory.”

A.W. Tozer illustrates:

"It’s the first Palm Sunday, and here comes Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The crowds begin to shout 'Hosanna! Hosanna!' The old donkey pricks up his ears. Some in the crowd throw their coats in the road; others spread out palm branches.

“'Well!' says the donkey, switching a fly off a mange patch. 'I had no idea they really appreciated me like this! Listen to those hosannas, would you? I must really be something!'"

To that story Anne Ortlund aptly adds:
"Friends, if anybody comes around after the service saying, 'Wow! That was terrific!' – they’re not actually saying hosanna to you.

"All you did was bring Jesus to them."


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(This piece was written in 2007 when I was a church leader which sometimes meant being in the spotlight. Today I read a guest blog by Paul Baloche titled "Beware of the stage" - which reminded me of the topic. Edited May 2010)

Further thoughts on aging

"Never resent growing old. Some are denied the privilege."

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"Optimists age like wine.... Pessimists age like milk."

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"You know you're getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you're down there."
-George Burns

Celebrating 59

Tomorrow is my birthday.
Today I celebrate my last day of being 59.
No, not like some women celebrate being 39 - again.

Why are we women so touchy about our age anyway? I wonder about that. Does it have anything to do with how highly we value youth & beauty in our culture? That's not a bad thing. I spend time on Facebook looking at my young friends' photos of their new babies - and my even younger friends' prom pictures from last week-end. So cute. So young. So beautiful. But how sad if our obsession with youth and beauty causes us to devalue age and maturity.

Birthdays are milestones, to be sure, and not always pleasant ones. Lots of thoughts have been swirling in my mind about this big one coming tomorrow. I guess the main thing that bubbles to the surface is celebration. I have so many reasons to celebrate. The most obvious one in my mind is that, after being diagnosed with cancer at age 53, I didn't know whether I would see this day. Yep, I'm a big advocate for getting old - because it sure beats the alternative. I am also blessed to be in many ways in better health than I was at the last big b-day. Back then, I was what my doctor called "de-conditioned" - translated "badly out of shape" - when I couldn't pass a stress test. Now I'm able to walk a mile (or two or three) at a time. Yesterday I walked four!!!

But probably the best thing that has happened in the last decade is that I have been catapulted from religious obligation to spiritual freedom. Not freedom to make selfish choices, but freedom to set healthy boundaries - and especially freedom to discover grace. It really is amazing and I'm so glad that I get to experience it.

Many times during those 59+ years, I realized that mine has been a good life and I'm thrilled to discover that at least in some ways it just keeps getting better. That's something to celebrate!

FOUR miles!!!

I walked an extra mile today - for a total of FOUR!!!
That's a new record.
I'm excited.

Long Wandering Prayer

David Hansen has written a book by that title and describes it as follows:

"Long wandering prayer involves leaving our normal environment for the express purpose of spending many hours alone with God. It involves walking, or at least moving, and stopping whenever we want, to consider a lily for as long as we desire. Long wandering prayer uses the fact that our minds wander as an advantage to prayer rather than as a disadvantage. In long wandering prayer we recognize that what we want to pray about may not be what God wants us to pray about. Our obsessive drive to control our minds in the presence of God, that is, to pray about one thing or stick to one list, may be a form of hiding from God. In this kind of prayer we recognize the wandering mind as a precious resource for complex and startling dialogue with God."

That sounds a little bit like wondering as I wander. I like it.

New word: concatenate

I wonder about a lot of things - hence the name of this blog. Pretty much every time I come across a word that is unfamiliar to me, I wonder what it means. Word nerd that I am, I put an icon for dictionary.com on my desktop so that I can look things up easily and immediately. Before the days of the internets, my kids would chuckle to see me get up and head for the big book. They really gave me a hard time when I designated a spot to keep the dictionary in the kitchen, right next to the table where it would be handy. But now in this modern era I can stay in my chair and let my fingers do the walking - meaning that I don't get much physical exercise with my mental activity. I don't always remember the definition, but the discovery is still fun.

An article caught my attention tonight because it was about beads in a bead shop. I am fascinated by the art of jewelry-making and have been collecting the components for this as a hobby. I was in a bead shop the other day and remembering that some shops offer classes. Sounds like fun to me.

The writer was telling about going into the shop and collecting choice beads in a little muffin cup and beginning to imagine "what dazzling concatenations might emerge from fashioning piles of beads into stunning pieces of jewelry." How lovely that sounded and I began to imagine what "concatenations" might be. So I clicked on my dictionary to find out. To concatenate is to link together, to unite as in a chain. A concatenation is a series of interconnected or interdependent things or events. Cool.

Turns out that she was comparing the beads to words and the dazzling concatenations would be the writing that happens when you put words together in the most pleasing way. 

Michigan's "voice of summer" silenced

Famous recognizable voices can bring to mind certain movie characters, historical news moments, or specific memories from the past. Each spring from 1960 to 2002 Michiganders thrilled to hear the "voice of summer" - the voice of Detroit Tiger baseball, Ernie Harwell. Ernie called the action of Tiger games for 42 years, creating one of my favorite childhood memories. More recently that voice informed us how to prepare for the transition to digital TV and spoke out for fitness and healthy living.

Last year Ernie was diagnosed with incurable cancer and died yesterday at age 92. Ernie was set to receive the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting in New York - today. Al Kaline will receive the award on Ernie's behalf - which is poignant for me because Kaline was "my" Tiger, playing his entire major league career with Detroit.

It is not unusual for radio personalities to begin to feel like part of the family; that was probably never more true in my family than with the beloved Ernie Harwell. I hope my dad has had a chance to welcome him to heaven.

On this early day in May, I join the crowd saying good-bye to Ernie. Thank you, Ernie, for all of those wonderful days of summer.

Happy Star Wars Day!

May the 4th be with you.

Celebrate life!!!

On Easter week-end I declared that I was going to observe a "celebration of life" ritual. Instead of giving something up as some do during Lent I was going to add something each day to celebrate life. I got the idea from a friend but wasn't sure I would have the creativity or consistency to follow through. I had fun brainstorming a list of ideas and tried out a couple of them, but then I got "too busy" and dropped the ball for a few days. Ironic, huh? how life got in the way of celebrating life?

I watched my friend play out his Lazarus Experiment, asking what Lazarus might do after being given a second chance at life. He came up with some really cool stuff and documented them each day on Facebook. His list began to look much more spiritual than mine. He looked for opportunities to serve while I had been thinking more in terms of what I would selfishly enjoy.

I could be tempted to be sad - either that my experiment didn't become a grand thing or that my ideas weren't as meaningful as his. But then that would be just silly to be sad about that. I suppose that my old self might have seen this as some kind of failure or cause for discouragement. But no, I choose to celebrate.

I celebrate life.
I celebrate creativity.
I celebrate joy.
I celebrate fun.
I celebrate health.

I celebrate the fact that I have slowed down to smell the roses. AND to smell my favorite perfume. Yep, during & after chemotherapy, I abandoned perfume because of the constant low-grade nausea. So now, to celebrate life and health, I wear it again & let every whiff remind me how good it feels to feel good again. That's celebration.

Thanks to an early spring, my shoulders are already a bit tanned - and it's barely May! I have watched for chances to catch some rays - again because I CAN - something I was unable to do during chemo & radiation. Not only CAN I sit in the sun, but I'm SUPPOSED to - getting my daily dose of vitamin D to combat the toll that cancer drugs have taken on my bones. So, yay for sitting in the sun. I celebrate sunshine.

I've done only a few ideas on my list, but they have been joyful.

I spent a whole week-end with my daughters and celebrated those amazing women!

I've gone an extra mile on my morning walk - just because I can - and rejoiced that I am able to do it.

I have made some decisions that were healthy and fun for me, and I've made some sacrifices to serve other people.

I have eaten some of my favorite foods and look forward to many more. Yes, I'm going to try a peanut butter and banana sandwich!

I celebrate being alive and healthy.

I celebrate who I am - that I am willing to try new things and establish new rituals.

Most of all I celebrate that I live by grace now instead of by a list of rules.

Let the celebration continue!!!