ASH WEDNESDAY

ASH WEDNESDAY

I live on the Alabama gulf coast where Mardi Gras is a big thing. After all, we started it and New Orleans copied us. Parades, throws, costumes, moon pies, beads, etc. are signs of Mardi Gras celebrations. Suddenly they stop on Ash Wednesday when many of us go to our churches for a service that includes having a cross marked on our foreheads with ashes. It’s a visible sign that reminds us of two things:
(1) Our humanity: “remember you are dust and to dust you will return.”
(2 )The gift of God’s forgiveness and new life: “repent and believe the gospel.”

During the forty days of Lent, we are given the opportunity to intentionally discipline ourselves to let these two things find deeper root within our lives. For example, to claim our humanity with its time limited opportunity on this earth may propel us to savor the sunrise/sunset; to take great delight in our loved ones; to reach out beyond our divisions to others; to live in the here and now more than the then and there; and to really live our life with gratitude and courage.

Likewise, to be more consciously aware of God’s forgiveness and strength for beginning again can motivate us to cultivate our relationship with God; to find ways to help others to know that they too are loved and given new life; to serve the least, the last, and the forgotten ones as if they were Jesus in disguise; and to live more congruently with our words (beliefs) and our actions.

After the Ash Wednesday service many youth and adults who leave the ashes visible find people in stores mentioning to them “Did you know you have a smudge on your forehead?” It becomes an opportunity to say “Yes, and this is what it means to me.”

We live in a world that needs a visible reminder of our humanity and God’s forgiveness. The forty days of Lent lets us “be” the ashes others will see. So my question to you is this...
“How will you make a ASH of yourself?”

"BEGIN AGAIN!" - A Coaching & Christian Perspective For 2009

"BEGIN AGAIN!"

Those are words I often heard in the Co-Active Leadership program of The Coaches Training Institute (CTI), and they are also very appropriate for Christians and other people of faith as we begin the New Year. "Begin again!" These words are similar to Jesus' call to Matthew to "follow me" and the effects of his healing the bleeding woman.

We really do get to "begin again" and do things differently. Usually we vow to make the New Year "better" than the previous. In order to prompt your own thinking about what it will take for you to CREATE A REALLY GREAT 2009, I offer these 3 questions. I invite you to take time to ponder them as you begin 2009.

1. WHAT AM I BRINGING FROM LAST YEAR INTO THIS NEW ONE? - joys & sorrows, what is working & not working, hopes & dreams, my sense of calling & following where God leads, unfinished business & new possibilities...

2. WHAT WOULD MAKE THIS YEAR "WILDLY SUCCESSFUL" FOR ME?
- my dreams and God-given yearnings, the "hunger of my heart," specific goals that are pulling me forward...

3. WHAT ADDITIONAL RESOURCES WILL HELP ME "BE" MY BEST?
- people, experiences, and structures that will help me "be" what I desire in order to pursue my dreams...

I invite you to "begin again" with new clarity and intentions. As the author of the Book of Hebrews wrote, "... and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...." (Hebrews 12:1b, 2a) (NIV).

Begin Again!

Jim Robey is the first United Methodist clergy to be officially endorsed by the UMC for the Ministry of Life Coaching. Jim earned his Doctor of Ministry degree from Emory University and is a graduate of the renowned Co-Active Leadership Program of the Coaches Training Institute.

Dr. Jim Robey is the Executive Director of Attentional Growth Inc. Jim brings a passion for helping people become more of who they are called by God to be. Included in his coaching is his humor, life experiences,37 years serving churches, love for God and the church, and a profound commitment to partnering with others in their own life on purpose. He has been involved in ecumentical and inter-faith activities.

An Advent Prayer for YOU

I am a life coach and a United Methodist minister. In our Christian tradition, we use the four Sundays before Christmas to prepare us for celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus. My own Advent reflections this year focus on Mary and Joseph and their roles in the God’s great Christmas gift to the world… Jesus.

If I could be a life coach to Mary and Joseph, these are some powerful questions I would ask:

MARY: What was it like for you, a young teenager… to be visited by the angel? …To be told you were to become pregnant by the Holy Spirit? …To tell your fiancé Joseph what the angel had said? What helped you to believe the angel’s words and continue on as “the Lord’s handmaiden”?

JOSEPH: What was it like for you… to have your fiancé tell you her pregnancy was from “the Holy Spirit”? …To face embarrassment and humiliation? …To have an angel visit you and confirm Mary’s story? What assisted you in believing the angel’s message and to continue your engagement?

As Christians and coaches we are privileged to work with people to create more fully their God-given life. Christmas reminds us that God cared enough to send the very best…his own son…into our world. God was, and is, and will be, at work in our lives also.

So my Advent prayer for YOU:

As Mary was attentive to what was
happening in her,

and Joseph attentive to the
possibility of God at work in the events of his life,

so too may you be attentive to God’s
Spirit at work in you. Amen and Amen!

Dr. Jim Robey, CPCC, ACC

It’s Sabbath Time

Thank you Lord – for Sabbath time.

Time to rest
To play
To pray
To renew
To focus on
You
Me
The ones who share my life.

You invite me to a rhythm
of work & play & rest;
to “waste time”; to do things differently;
to reboot my MindBodySpirit; to see
I do get to choose this time & it is
HOLY TIME by my choice and allowing the
joy of choice to be felt.

Lord, I confess that I need Sabbath time,
and that often I am “too busy” to take it;
that my busy-ness becomes a way
to deny my human-ness;
that I forget how much I need Sabbath time.

So right now – in the midst of this Sabbath –
I say “thank you”
That you are God, and I’m not;
That you send reminders of my need of Sabbath time;
That I get to choose Sabbath time;
That you are always waiting for me.

Lord, in your mercy, hear my prayer. Amen

So…when will you choose to make TIME a SABBATH?

Jim Robey
3/29/08