Welcome to the February 14th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
The Story of My Week
I returned to a practice I started last year but stopped during the whole lockdown of the pandemic.
It wasn't stopping - it was more of a leaving undone more times than usual.
It's the practice of "Pausing" during the routine of every day.
I pause for anything between 1 - 10 minutes. During that time, I turn my focus to God and give everything on my mind to Him.
This practice has been greatly helped by John Eldredge's Pause App
It's free and available for Apple & Android. You have the option of 1, 5 & 10 minute pauses.
The pauses are driven by scriptures and help to bring your mind to the effective power of God in the maddening rush of every day.
You have the option of having 2 pauses during your day which you can set up.
One of the scriptures I use of my pauses outside of the app is “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” Ps 46:10.
This scripture has a way of stopping me and reminding me that God rules over all things.
It's a perfect way of slowing me down and telling myself that God is in control.
I was glad to reclaim my habit of pauses this week.
It helped me find God's peace in the rush of work coming at the speed of over 120km per hour.
And sometimes that is what you need.
Things I Learnt
1-Today's Decisions Before Tomorrow's Decisions: One of the things that this whole COVID-19 puts in full glare is the need to make decisions on a day-by-day basis.
This is even more important when it comes to competing decisions with limited resources and uncertainties driven by economic realities.
I faced that more than once this week.
I had to reduce it to this question "which of these is today's decisions that keep me on the overall business vision and keeps us competitive tomorrow with putting today at risk?"
That made the decision choices clear but not easy.
There are no easy decisions only the best decision for today.
It's a clear case of "So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today." Matt 6:34
These times are freshly teaching me scriptures.
2-No Out-of-Service on God's Network: I have a prayer list that I work with during my prayer times.
When I pray for my list, I occasionally practice "listening prayer". It's pretty simple.
As I try to pray for a person on the list, I take a short pause to see if God is putting anything specific on my mind for that person.
I sent a text to one of the friends on my list at the beginning of the month to find out how he and his family was. I was getting some specific prayers as I "listened" when I prayed for him.
Last week, I also heard some specific prayers for him as I "listened".
I had been traveling for a bit and didn't realize that my phone had not been receiving some of my messages.
He had responded on February 1st to say that a member of the family had tested positive for COVID-19 and the family was going into isolation. I had "listened" to pray for their health.
Last week, he had sent me a message to pray for arbitration that they were going for after their daughter had been hit in an accident. They were trying to negotiate the compensation. I had "listened" and prayed for them.
When I got home over the weekend and got all the messages on my phone, it reminded me that God will always raise people to pray for His people even when they can't get their voice out.
God's network has no out-of-service issues.
It's always within coverage as long as you are in God's universe.
This is my comfort and my encouragement.
Postscript
May the assurance that God always has someone praying for you give you hope in everything you have to face. May you be reminded that they are joined by Jesus who always lives to pray for you. Amen
Tata,
Tola
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