What Holds You Captive?

I know my next post was scheduled  to be on priority;  however this hit me today, and I felt the need to share.

What holds you captive? An intriguing question isn't it!

This morning I read the following:

Ephesians 4:7-8 (NKJV)

7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”

Grace, captivity, captive, and gifts.

We all have a measure of grace according to Christ’s gift.  In John 14:26-31 we see a little more about Christ’s gift.  These verses highlight two principles.  The presence of help through the Holy Spirit and the death of Christ in which He took the punishment of the world’s sin (John 3:16).  So we have perfect grace, God’s presence, help, and sacrifice.

The other thing I see is that there is captivity. There is One, however, who is stronger than our captivity and took captivity itself captive and in turn gave us gifts in its place.

So what does it mean to be captive?  It is to be imprisoned or confined. Is there something that imprisons your heart, your mind, or confines your life?  Maybe it is anger, unforgiveness, pride, depression, addiction, control issues, laziness, or more. Whatever holds you captive you can be sure of this, captivity remains until it itself is brought captive.  That means healing.  That means bringing the hidden areas of your life out of hiding and revealing the imprisonment. That means truth and transparency, facing the unknown and the uncomfortable and for some it could mean learning a whole new way of living.  The good thing is that in you and those around you were placed gifts that are meant to work together to free captives.  Jesus gave us the tools and even laid down His life for our freedom, but we must pick them up and walk in freedom.   So if you need release from captivity and have a relationship with Jesus already, take a moment and thank Him that He has already brought your captivity captive and ask Him to show you how to use the gifts in you and those around you to walk in the freedom He has provided.

Unsure about this whole Jesus thing? If there is someone in your life that you know who could fill you in then please reach out to them, or I would be happy to talk with you more!

Do You Have a Process?

Process and priority are two words that have been spoken a lot in my life lately.  Each come with its own struggles for me.  To grasp these words and get an idea of how they should govern my task list and lifestyle, I decided to take a moment to truly identify their meaning.

As defined by http://www.merriam-webster.com
Process - a series of actions or operations conducing to an end
Priority - something given or meriting attention before competing alternatives

Process stands out as something that will take time (a series, more than one) and action, but will have an end result.  Furthermore the time and action poured into the process should directly impact the end result.  So what I can conclude from this understanding is that if I do not take time and go through the series of actions then I have an incomplete process and a faulty product.  Although super simple and possibly overused, it holds true: you can’t put walls on a house before the foundation is set or the house will not stand.  Now patience is a trait that I struggle with greatly.  I like to see things move at super speed and review a whole list of accomplishments, rather than have a list of things still in progress.  What I have learned however is that at that pace I often lose my joy and have no memories to cherish because quite honestly everything is a blur.  I know that I need to slow down and work the processes of life.  I need to allow time to catch up with my actions and make sure that my actions are consistent over time.

What about you, is there a process that you have given time but no action, or maybe you threw in a lot of super speed action and have given it no time? I hope that you can find the peaceful balance of both the time and action that you may see a result worthy of its process.

I know for me there are many things on my ‘in progress” list.  I am going to take some time to look at each. I will see if the current stage is because it is just part of the process or if I have overlooked the process by either lacking action or time.  Once completed,  I will move on to priority which will be discussed in the next blog post.

Will you join me?  I know there are goals out there just waiting on you to go through the process.

What Are You Thinking?

Read a title, hear a portion of a story, or just get caught in passing hearsay without checking facts or knowing the details behind the idea and it could be a recipe for disaster.  I am confident however that you have never experienced this phenomenon on either the giving or receiving side which is why I must warn you!!  Incomplete, incorrect, or even irrelevant information can cause you trouble.  The results of such could cause the following symptoms: worry, discouragement, pride, faulty character, judgemental attitude, instability, and unproductivity.     
For example, in our technology era it takes only a brief time to get a message out to many people which sets a stage for a great deal of hoax articles and false panic to spread.  Many times we pass the information along as truth without ever checking details, facts, or understanding the background story. Because many of the articles that spread like wildfire are outlandish and panic inducing it causes us symptoms of worry, discouragement, and many times lack of productivity. Many times we fill ourselves with false alarm and at other times false hope just because we choose to think on the incomplete, irrelevant, or incorrect information.

Or what about this! The other day I read an article entitled “Why Women Shouldn’t Run.” If I had  stopped at the title and not read the details, I would have been on an unstable plane because I coach a running program and have had many benefits from running; however in my mind I would have continued to see the title of “Why Women Shouldn’t Run” and questioned every running activity in which I participated.  After reading the article, I realized it should have been more appropriately titled “Steady Pace Cardio Training, Is It Effective?”  The article actually highlighted facts that support my current training style and gave me more reason to continue the method in both my workouts and that of future clients.  In this case the details really mattered because the headline was incomplete.

And we can’t forget this one! How many times have we been briefed about a person or situation.  We are given a subjective overview of one’s opinion of a situation we are about to enter or a person that we are to meet. If not careful, we can take a lot of irrelevant information and allow it to cause any of the symptoms listed earlier and all based on someone’s perspective. To be completely transparent and run the risk of embarrassing myself, I will pull an example from my home life.  This is also a nice insight of how I get the frantic description and Chris gets the labeled relaxed.   Deep breath - here goes...we like to entertain and we have a widely diverse group of family and friends.  Earlier in our marriage I would look at our guest list and stress over personality type, lifestyle, interest, language (and I don’t mean a foreign tongue), drink preference, and the such.  I would often express concern to Chris and tell him that maybe we needed to “explain” certain people to others so there wasn’t any surprises.  His response always short, steady, and simple, “Why do we need to do that? They are adults they should be able to figure it out.”    And guess what, it was always fine.

So what’s the point? It is simple, don’t cause yourself or others undue trouble by taking in or spreading incomplete, incorrect, or irrelevant information.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.  Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise
Philippians 4:8  NLT

Think on what is worthy of praise and be an encourager,

Shante