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The Heart of a Community

May 4, 2010 in Family and Friends, Inspiration, People, Uncategorized with 12 Comments


Photo credit-The Tennessean

Images like this have made me cry this week.  By now, you know all about the great 500-year flood we had in Nashville over the weekend.  The damage is heartbreaking.  The stories of lost friends and family members, ruined homes, and flooded cars is gutwrenching.  We have a long road ahead of us to get Nashville and many parts of Tennessee back to what it was.

But beyond the loss, was something amazing.  A community rose up immediately.  Folks were putting boats in the water and risking their lives to help those stranded.  Local media teams were taking chances in volatile weather to keep us informed. Within a 24-hour period, over 7,000 people had signed up as a volunteer at Hands on Nashville.  And even still, there are teams of people who will spend at minimum, the rest of this week helping folks get back into their homes, but more likely, weeks and months.

Many tears have been shed and hearts ache as we watch those we love struggle with what will be a long road back to “normal”.    I can’t help but wonder what the silver lining is in all of this.  One thing is for sure…residents of Nashville and surrounding counties will never again wonder if we are a real community.  Lifelong friendships have been borne and faith has grown out of the muddy waters of this flood.
I am so proud of this city and thankful to be Nashvillian.

If you’d like to donate funds, here are two (of the many) reputable sites: Hands on Nashville and CrossPoint Church.

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Is the lesson in the waiting?

April 25, 2010 in Family and Friends, Inspiration, People, Work/Life Balance with 17 Comments

Waiting Pete Wilson, one of our pastors at the Nashville campus of  CrossPoint Church has been doing a series on Shattered Dreams.  Today, the lesson was on “Waiting on God”.  There were so many good nuggets in the message that it was almost hard to keep up with my notetaking.  I kept thinking about things going on in my life-even right now-where I really need the words he spoke today.

In my last post, I talked about some radical things I’m going after both personally and professionally.  And since writing it, I’ve been actively working on each thing.  My body definitely feels the effects of more rigorous exercise.  And the career pursuits are moving along. It’s been an exciting time all around, as I feel the inertia of moving forward.  The hardest part has been in asking God for a radical assignment.  Because the “homework” I’m doing right now…sucks.  My little girl has been struggling for 22 straight days with migraine-like symptoms.  We’ve been to countless doctors; she’s been poked and prodded, she’s had fluids put in and blood taken out.  And she’s been put on medications that have made even our pharmacist nervous.  And Nothing has worked.  At this point, I’m emotionally exhausted.  It has noticeably altered our lives, and has caused me many tears as I watch her struggle with the pain. There are moments here and there of her sweet, happy personality.  But the first and last words I hear each day are about how bad it hurts.

Pete asked a really hard question this morning.  When times get tough, will we trust or control? Though I’ve been saying that I was believing God for a change, and have been asking Him daily for a break in the pain, I’ve mainly been aggressively pursuing treatment and “driving the bus” to try to find an answer for why this is happening.  Don’t get me wrong–I absolutely believe in doctors and medicine…but first and foremost I know I should be looking up for guidance.  In our sermon notes today was this point: Hope does not come only from believing God’s power, but also from accepting and trusting His timing. Nothing about what’s been happening with her is normal.  I think it’s time for me to move from trying to control what’s happening and truly trust Him to protect her and heal her.  Because I know that God heals. And I have to trust that He made her for a purpose that’s not going to be destroyed by this pain.  I asked for a radical assignment, and this ordeal has definitely tested my faith.

Does this hit you in any area your of life?  Where do you need to let go and let God?

P.S. If you are running low on hope, or feeling that life hasn’t turned out the way you thought it would, please check out this website about Pete’s new book, Plan B.  I’m reading it now, and it’s the perfect message for this journey.

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The Pleasure of Being Known

December 14, 2009 in Family and Friends, Inspiration, People with 6 Comments

Knowing

I know you

A week or so ago, Mary Graham and Sheila Walsh were tweeting.  It’s wonderful to see the Women of Faith ladies interact, as it’s clear they truly are family.  In one of her tweets, Mary was referencing an artist on the tour and said to Sheila, “One of life’s greatest pleasures is in being known.  And she Knows You.”  That phrase has stuck with me ever since, and I’ve been pondering why God planted that little nugget so tightly in my mind.  I didn’t understand it until this weekend.  God knew I’d need to chew on it a bit.

In a very unplanned twist to our day, we ended up at Davis Kidd bookstore on Saturday evening. As we wandered downstairs to visit the kids’ area, I noticed folks setting up for a live performance.  I paused as a man uncased a beautiful bass cello.  You could tell from the worn wood that it had been a well-loved instrument.  At that same time, someone began warming up, and I knew we’d be staying to see whoever was performing.  Music moves me.  All music, and not in a small way.  God knows that about me.  I think music is one of His very best gifts to us.

The event turned out to be a tribute to a woman named Ruth McGinnis.  She and her band had been regular performers at Davis Kidd (and many other places), and she had sadly passed away from ovarian cancer in October.  I hadn’t seen Ruth perform before, and it was only when her quiet, gentle-spirited younger sister, Erin McGinnis Long, shared that I began to catch a glimpse of who this amazing woman was.  It made her death more real, but also made the tribute that much richer.  Through Erin, I felt like I knew Ruth. 

Thinking back over these past two weeks, here’s what I keep coming back to:

  1. We all want to be known.  We want a mate, friends, and our family to “get” who we are and love us, warts and all.
  2. We want to know others.  To understand what makes others tick.  To know their joys and pains before a word is spoken.
  3. Being known and knowing others is such hard work.  To get past the superficial is hard.  It takes commitment.  And sometimes, it’s painful. Most of the time, though, it’s truly rewarding.

But I think more than anything, we have this insatiable hunger to know and be known by our maker.  There are days when I struggle with both.  But after those bad days, I wake up thanking God that He hasn’t given up.  That, as in Isaiah 46:19, our names are carved in the palm of His hands.

Who knows you best?  And what keeps others from knowing you more?

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Seeing Ourselves as Others Do

September 14, 2009 in Family and Friends, Inspiration, People, Thomas Nelson, Work with 12 Comments

mirror, mirro, on the wall

Mirror, mirror, on the wall

 

 Today, our CEO,  Michael Hyatt, blogged about an author we publish in the Fiction division (Ted Dekker and his new book, Green) .  One of the sections of the post was about the marketing done for the book.  As I read through his post, I saw this line “…and his intrepid marketing director, Jennifer Deshler“.    Though I know what it means, ”intrepid” is not a word that pops up in my vocabulary often enough so I decided to hit the dictionary and brush up on the full definition. 

  • Main Entry: in·trep·id
  • Pronunciation: \in-ˈtre-pəd\
  • Function: adjective
  • Etymology: Latin intrepidus, from in- + trepidus alarmed
  • Date: 1680

: characterized by resolute fearlessness, fortitude, and endurance <an intrepid explorer>

Me + Intrepid?  Resolute Fearlessness?  That’s the woman I want to be every day when I wake up, but rarely feel I’ve shown the world when I lay down to sleep at night.  It was such an empowering moment. 

Why are we so held back by our own limited image of who we are and how the world sees us?  And how do we begin to see ourselves as others do?

Since I am constantly challenged here, I’m speaking to myself when I make these assumptions about how we can change our perceptions of who we are:

  1. Ask our friends, coworkers, and family for transparency-When they have good feedback, we need to know it to help transform our internal images.  And when it’s a critique, we really need to hear it.  Who wants to walk around making the same mistakes over and over?
  2. Be willing to step out of our comfort zones-When I’m not at work, I’m pretty gutsy.  There’s not much from an adventurous standpoint I won’t do; especially on a dare.  But at work, part of me wants to stay in the pack so I don’t ruffle feathers, while the other part of me feels driven to stand out from the crowd and make my own way, mistakes and all.
  3. Learn to love who we are-Boy, this is a biggie.  I can rattle off a list of my faults far easier than I can list my unique talents and abilities.  Often, the thing  that keeps me grounded is remembering that we were made in the image of God and trusting that He has a divine plan for each of us and knew this would be one of our hurdles.
  4. Face the fear of failure-One of the most freeing moments of my adult life was while sitting in a meeting with a group of leaders hearing that every person in that room struggled with a fear of failure.  I had thought for so many years that I was alone in this battle.  And it seems that sometimes the best thing that can happen is for us to royally screw up so we learn a new pattern of behavior. 

Does this boil down to an easy fix?  If yes, what would you say is the one thing helps the most? 

We all know people who exude self-assurance.  Because they know inside themselves that they are smart/talented/tenacious, they are seen by others that way.   I’m working to get there…without trepidation.   

 

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