Find the Problem

This morning as I was doing some routine Communications tasks that don't require a whole lot of brain power, I was listening to a podcast from a series my line-manager recommended to me called Building a Story Brand and one of the speakers said something that caught my attention. He said that the inability to identify problems well is the root of depression. I had to rewind and listen to it again. Yep, that's what he said. He went on to say that there is a specific kind of therapy called 'Problem Solving Therapy' and that often people fail to recognise what the problem is; it's not even about finding a solution yet. It's the problem that needs to be found. Wow, that makes so much sense to me.

Depression is not something I personally struggle with, but when I'm in an uncomfortable or stressful situation, I often find that my mind continually repeats things that have been said and experienced in that situation; it's like my thoughts are rolling around in a tumble dryer that just keeps going. And my brain is busy trying to connect the dots and find the pattern, to recognise what's going on. Now I realise I'm actually trying to find the problem. Because when a problem is identified, finding a solution is rarely difficult. The challenging task is to realise what the problem is. I think that fits in with what I was saying yesterday, that we often know the right thing to do, but we need to help ourselves out by asking the right questions so we can get to the solution. We ask those questions so we can identify the problem. I've never thought of it like that.

Help Yourself Out

I finally took the time to read and respond to my friend who sent me her sample blog post and I gave her some feedback. I have to laugh at myself now though as I clearly understand what's important in setting up a great blog and what needs to be included and what pitfalls to avoid, but I don't actually do those things myself.

How often in life do we know the right thing to do, but we don't do it? The feedback I gave my friend was not revolutionary. She probably could have thought through all that herself. But she asked me. I often do the same when it comes to life.

I find myself in situations and feel I don't really know what to do. I feel like I need someone to give me wisdom. (To be honest, I sometimes think through who I could ask and come up with no one. Then I'm reminded that the Holy Spirit is our Counsellor, so I talk to Him. And He gives great advice!) Even though I think I often give others pretty good advice and ask provoking questions to help them find a solution to their problem, when it comes to my own life, this doesn't seem to be the case.

But every once in a while, it is. Sometimes I choose to be very intentional to talk to myself as I would a friend, to remove myself mentally from my situation and ask the questions I would ask if someone else came to me with this problem, to give myself the feedback I would offer to another and usually I'm quite surprised at what I come up with.

I think, in general, we often know the right thing to do or to say, but perhaps it needs some drawing out, some provocation to help bring it to the surface, to the forefront of our mind where we can see practically what we need to do and how. I think we're much more intelligent and capable than we give ourselves credit for, but maybe we just need to be more intentional to help ourselves out.

The One Thing

One of the privileges of my job is mentoring my Media Assistant. In addition to the mentoring we do for work, we are going through The One Thing by Gary Keller. This is a great book about 'the simple truth behind extraordinary results' and we're loving it. It's been so encouraging to chat through Keller's ideas and how we can be more effective and more efficient in how we do what we do. Today we discussed the lies of Multitasking and that 'Everything Matters Equally' (everything on your to-do list, that is), including Pareto's Principle that says that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of the work you do. Consider that! This is a great book if you're looking to streamline what you're doing in work and/or life to get the best results you can!

Find it on Amazon here!

Just Write

Last week a friend sent me a sample blog post to read and asked me to give her feedback because she's thinking of creating a blog and wants to develop the discipline of writing. And I felt convicted.

I know I'm supposed to write. It's a calling on my life. I even received a powerful prophetic word about it a few weeks ago. But to be honest, I get so overwhelmed with what to write, I rarely end up actually doing it. There are just so many options of things I could write about. And then there's the actual effort and energy that go into getting those half-thoughts/images/emotions out of my head and into words that make sense to other people. When I simply start thinking about writing about something, the amount of work involved (for me) makes me tired from the outset. But I think, like learning and growing in anything, it's about strength-training. The more you do something, the more you can do.

So I had the idea yesterday that I would write (on here) every day at lunch time. Maybe even before I eat lunch so that I have to earn my food. Haha. I don't know why this has been so difficult for me; maybe I think about things too much and need to realise that I don't need to have every thought, idea, expression planned out perfectly. Maybe I just need to do it. So, prepare yourself, because I have no idea what's coming. It will probably be an imperfect smattering of the aspects that make up my life right now, a mess of thoughts and emotions that I will try to convey coherently, and if you want to read it and are able to get anything out of it, so much the better!

Pressed into Truth

Do you remember the post I wrote last week, Overlooked and Unconsidered?

Yesterday, during part of our ministry training, we had some space to pray for each other, and I felt like God was saying to me, 'You know how you feel? This guy over here, it's the same with him,' and the whole half hour, I couldn't shake that off me. Normally, I would go share what God said to me about someone with that person, but I wasn't willing to in the moment because I didn't have the solution; I couldn't find the encouragement in it.

So I said back to God, 'Ok, but what's the answer?' I thought, maybe we're both experiencing this, but how is it in any way encouraging for me to say that to him? If I asked him if he felt like this too, and he said yes, what was I suppose to say to that? 'Uh, me too. Sucks, right?' That's all I had.

As the conversation with God continued, though, He gave me some insight. He told me it's a safety check. Feeling overlooked and unconsidered, not receiving the recognition and praise of man where I perhaps think I should or would like to, is meant to keep my heart in alignment with His. It begs the question, 'WHY am I doing this? WHO am I doing this for?' I have to keep reminding myself, I stand before an audience of One and I am here to bring Him glory, not to make a name for myself. Any gifts I have were given to me by God and they aren't gifts for me; they're for the Body and they're for the lost.

So that's what I shared with this guy, although nowhere near as clearly as I've written it here. To be honest, I don't think I would have pushed into hearing God's heart about this had I not felt someone else was experiencing the same thing. I would have simply left the complaint on His doorstep, content with trying not to feel sorry for myself. How kind of God to press me on it (He did; I really couldn't shake it), wanting to share truth with me, rather than just allowing the conversation to trail off without me understanding part of His heart for me in it. His words have brought me such clarity and peace and I'm really thankful for that.

In re-reading my previous post and considering some of the people who I believe are easily overlooked--a lot of us are background people; we're not in your face, we're not forceful, we just get on with what we've been given to do. And my encouragement to you is, if you know someone like this, encourage them! Let them know that what they contribute is significant! Help them feel like they're seen and heard and appreciated for who they are and what God has put inside them. And don't just say it; think about how you can action it. One of the best compliments is when someone asks me to use one of my gifts to help them!

Here's a short video I found today from Paul Scanlon about the value of hidden seasons. It encouraged me in this so I hope it will encourage you if and when you find yourself in that season.

Healing on the Streets

Yahweh is a healer. I know that. He is Jehovah Rapha. But what happened today was not what I was expecting.

Here's the story, with a little bit of important background:

Two weeks ago I moved to the north coast of Ireland! I am able to continue doing the work I've been doing with Pais, work I love so much, and I get to be part of a great Vineyard church. The church here have their own internship, and I get to participate in that as well. In addition to the teaching sessions for this internship, we have opportunities to do outreach each week in the city. My host has a huge passion for something they do called 'Healing on the Streets,' and being curious to experience this, I asked if I could tag along and do outreach with them today.

At 10:30 this morning, the Healing on the Streets team set out 6 chairs and a banner, we gathered to pray, and then we were open for business. The church have been doing Healing on the Streets every Saturday for 12 years, so the town is used to this happening. People all over the city know it happens every week, and people from other areas around Northern Ireland will drive, sometimes hours, to be prayed for here.

The idea is simple. People who need physical healing come, they sit in the chairs, we ask how we can pray for them, and we pray. Nothing weird or fantastical, just the simple power of prayer in the middle of the town centre. It's beautiful.

During a lull in our prayer time this morning, the team gave me the opportunity to receive prayer, partly so I could experience it for myself from the other side, but also, I had a physical need I wanted prayer for.

I don't even know when it happened, but I know the first time I experienced it I was about 12. There was something wrong with my back, and at that young age, it 'went out' for about three days. The pain came out of the blue one day at school. I was getting my massive stack of textbooks from my locker, and all of a sudden, I couldn't move. My mom, the nurse, put me on bedrest and anti-inflammatories for three days and it seemed to be fine after that. But for some years now, I've found that if I stood too long without walking or sitting, especially in bad shoes, pain would flair up in my back again and I would be in agony. I learned how to deal with it, what would set it off and how to manage it, but to be honest, it had become a hindrance, and it was painful!

So this morning, my host and one of the leaders sat before me as I sat in the chair, and the leader asked me some questions about the pain. She made me stretch out my legs in front of her, wondering aloud if my problem was sciatica. When I stretched out my legs and compared them, they looked normal to me, like they always had. I didn't see anything wrong. But when she prayed, and I put my feet down on the ground and then stretched them out again, I saw that my left leg had been a tiny bit shorter than my right leg. Now, I know this happens frequently; one leg will appear shorter than the other, and it's an issue of alignment with the body, but I never suspected this was my problem. But right there before my eyes I saw how my feet aligned where they hadn't before. The leader asked me to get up and walk on it, and it felt different. In fact, for the rest of the afternoon, I could feel a difference in my entire leg and in my hip and I found myself even walking differently on the way home. It was such a blessing and I am so relieved and thankful to not have that pain and hindrance affecting me anymore!

Yep, our God is a healer!

Overlooked and Unconsidered

Blessed are you when people overlook you and constantly forget to consider you. 

That’s not in the Sermon on the Mount, but perhaps it should be. Perhaps if God wrote a Sermon on the Mount particularly addressed to me, that would be in there. This is something I feel I’ve always experienced and am really getting to the point where enough is enough. I’m tired of being overlooked and unconsidered. The problem is, I don’t know what to do about it. I’m not a particularly loud or forceful person (unless I’m laughing), which is perhaps why it’s sometimes so easy for people to forget about me or what I contribute or add value to. I'm mostly a background kind of person, and that’s ok with me so far as not receiving public recognition for what I do. I don’t need that. But when it comes to people remembering that I do actually contribute significant things to what we're doing together and should be considered in decisions that are made, I feel like they often don’t until I say something. But why is that? 

In my pity party as I was processing feeling overlooked and unconsidered recently, my mind did actually turn to Isaiah 53. It says that ‘we esteemed Him not.’ The NLT says ‘We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way…we did not care.’ But I know this passage and that’s not all it says we did or that He endured. Suffice it to say, my pity party was cut short. That does not mean, however, that my feelings were not valid. They were. It simply means, He endured more, therefore I could (and can!) endure this. 

So, what do I do about this? I don't know. The only practical advice I can give myself right now is to use it, to take the realisation that I don’t like how I feel when others overlook me or don’t consider me when they make decisions and do my best to intentionally consider and appreciate those around me.

Any thoughts?