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Oct

07

Go With What You Know – Finding Your Purpose

Posted by : Doug | On : October 7, 2010

Category: Life's Toughest Questions, Living Alive, Living an Epic Life

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Gary Barkalow is a man with a deep calling.  I consider him a friend and ally.  He’s written a book entitled “It’s Your Call”.  I’ll be one of the first to review it in the next few days but in the meantime, Gary wrote a post on his blog that hit me square in the heart.  If you’ve ever wondered what you’re doing wrong in life with your purpose or if you feel like you are missing out on your calling, this post will encourage you and give you permission to go easy on yourself.  Have a look.  Thanks Gary.

For the full post, click here:

http://thenobleheart.com/2010/10/go-with-what-you-know/

Over the years I have met many gifted, aware, devoted people who felt lost, stuck or paralyzed in the pursuit of their calling. Then, of course, I have my own paralysis. Every story and conversation about this issue has caused me to ask “why”.

We have all acted out of what we have believed (be it falsehood or truth) or what we have owned about ourselves at a deep heart level. So, I have scribbled down a few ideas that I will think will help to counter the debilitating ideas that float around concerning the issue of calling.

Go with what you know. You are only responsible for what you currently know, keeping in mind that what you know is partial and incomplete. Walk in the clarity that God has given you – only then will He give you more.

Let go of what you don’t love. Coming to grips with what you don’t love is valuable – it’s not wasted time. We waste a lot of time and energy feeling guilty and condemned over the things that we are not passionate about.

Live like an artist. Develop and create your art simply because you love it, not for a paycheck, approval or promotion.

Keep income and calling separate in your thinking. Don’t complicate things by putting these two together. At some point, they may merge, but one must not be dependent on the other.

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”-John Wooden. Start creating and offering what God has put in you with whatever resources you have in terms available time, technology, contacts, and opportunities. Don’t wait for someone to endorse or “anoint” you, for “large” audiences, a paycheck, position, title or a degree.

God is simply asking us to live honestly and generously in the place we are already in. We must offer the brilliance, strength, beauty, abundance, and splendor God has given us. Walking in our calling does not often require a big transition or life change like quitting a job, starting something new, or living somewhere else.

The development of the weightiness of our life is of utmost importance. Growth always includes knowledge, experience/experimentation, being mentored / coached / modeled, time for assimilation and maturing (fermentation).

Don’t wait for things to be “ideal” – Don’t wait for a job or position offer, endorsements, a certain amount in savings or an inheritance, or a close community of friends and allies to begin walking out your call.

God is comfortable with your trying. God is not afraid and you are not in great danger…if your idea has passed the “moral” and “ethical” filter and you understand your role (husband / wife, father / mother, employee, etc.). Get the perspective of others. Just ask – people are always willing to lend their insight to you.

1 Samuel 10:6,7 The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power…and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.

There is a difference between waiting on God and procrastination, between moving in faith with an assurance of God’s love and striving.

Trying to understand the difference and living on the right side,

Gary

***********

Note from Doug – Gary Barkalow is releasing his new book “It’s Your Call“.  I’ve been privileged to preview this breakthrough book.  Look for it in my next post.  For now, you can order it from his site at http://www.thenobleheart.com/store.

Jul

15

Don’t Fall Asleep

Posted by : Doug | On : July 15, 2009

Category: Living Alive, Living an Epic Life, Uncategorized

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I sat to pray and talk to God this morning.  Man, my heart is so full right now.  Full with worry, excitement, impatience, desire, frustration, ideas, heartache, Vision.  SO much of me right now wants to just lay down and rest. To STOP. Everything. Except Judy and the kids. I just want all the time and energy I have to go there. But I feel the drive, the pull, to our Wild at Heart trip for men in November, to a Vision of the ranch, to our growing online business, to building a true community, to getting in top physical shape.  So deep.  I feel God’s call to all of it.  I love it.  It’s incredible to be tapped into that wellspring.  But, like hypothermia, as the cold drains strength, the desire becomes strong to just lay down and rest.  Give up and give in. But give in to what?  The slumber is the kiss of death.   It’s a resignation.  A false contentment.  Dispassionate and apathetic.   It is a giving of life over to death.  And like the hypothermic slumber, life can go cold.  We fall asleep.  We become falsely content with chasing mediocrity.  There is a strong likelihood that we haven’t actually ever been really awake.  Or we’ve known moments of “awake-ness” but haven’t had the strength or the people around us to maintain it.  So we long to go back to sleep.

Like Cypher in “The Matrix”.  He was wakened by Morpheus and was called into a titanic struggle for the hearts and minds of other people.  Their mission, as a crew, was to pull people out of the Matrix and invite them into a real existence, in a community that was truly alive.  But Cypher became jaded.  Watch the clip in the sidebar to the right.  Or click here to watch it on YouTube.

Surrounded by wine, steak and a fine cigar, Cypher makes a deal to go back to sleep.  “I don’t want to remember nothing.  NOTHING.  You hear me?”

Let the Matrix take over again.

But I can’t.  (Actually, I can.  You can too.)  We can choose sleep.  (In fact, we need to choose rest.  But they are two different things.)  We can choose mediocrity.  We can choose all those things that we think give us life but actually keep us asleep.

Grandfather spoke about those things that stir our hearts awake to the reality of an unseen and eternal life.  From his native language to English, he translated it as “Inner Vision” or “The Voice of God”.  He said the Voice of God gives us Vision for our lives, our true purpose.  And then he said:

“A person who is not living their Vision is living death.”

And I remember.  I begin to remember why I can’t fall asleep.  Because it would mean death.  It would mean ignoring Vision.  It would mean ceasing to live for others.  Death by selfishness.  Death by numbness.  Death by mediocrity.

I can’t do it.  I won’t do it.

One foot in front of the other.  Stay awake.  Stay alert for the needs of others and rise up to meet them.  Fight.  Live.  Pray.  Listen.  Laugh.  Love.  And wake up the next morning to do it again.

Mar

17

Giving or Taking Life

Posted by : Doug | On : March 17, 2009

Category: Living Alive, Living an Epic Life

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I look out my window on the foggiest morning of the Winter. The meadow is shrouded in a veil of mist. The frozen moisture holds on to each twig, blade of grass and spider web.

As I sat in prayer this morning in the woods, in the grey light of pre-dawn, I could hear the rustling of the snowshoe hare under the willows. The boughs of the black spruce tree hung just above my wool cap, each of them detailed with a fine frost. From one icy needle hung an invisible thread of a spiders web, left over from the warm days of late Autumn. On the very end was suspended a treasure to put the finest jeweler to shame. The strand of silk was collecting crystals of its own. A feather of frost, nary the size of snowflake, drifted and floated in the cool drafts of the East breeze. Before my eyes hung the fragility of Creation we so often hear of. With a warm breath, the passing of a sparrow or a sudden gust of wind, this suspended gem would be gone. It won’t be there when I return tomorrow. I will never see its uniqueness again. There will be other wonders, other marvels. But none the same. As it is with the rest of Creation; humans, animals, plants. We must evaluate each act as life-giving or life-taking.

Were my words in that conversation life-giving or did they destroy a piece of that person?

Is my lifestyle making this world a better place for my children’s grandchildren?

Does my family know I love them? What have I done this week to restore myself?

Have I gazed upon the face of my children with the same awe and wonder as this moment?

With the flick of a switch, the utterance of a word, the toss of a wrapper, this suspended gem could be gone.

It won’t be there when we return tomorrow. Let no moment pass with lack of attention to the detail that was poured into it at the time of Creation.

Going where called,
Doing what is asked,

Doug

Feb

28

What Does The World Need?

Posted by : Doug | On : February 28, 2009

Category: Living Alive, Living an Epic Life

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What the world needs now is love, sweet love.

It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.

- Jackie de Shannon, 1965

Love?  Is that what’s needed?

Or maybe we need more time?  What’s the most common response I hear when I ask someone how they’re doing?  (Well, first on the list would be “Fine.”)  But a close second and moving up is “I’m so busy”.  And it’s said with an exhausted sigh.  We must need more time.

Wait.  It’s obvious.  The world needs God.  That’s the right answer isn’t it, for a question on a “religion” blog?  God.  Must be it.

No.  No, wait.  I’ve been in L.A. three days now and, honestly, it’s a little disconcerting.  Our brothers and sisters in the U.S. are getting slammed by this recession.  And it’s getting worse.  There is no pocket of conversation that doesn’t somehow reference the economy.  I’ve attended five speakers sessions so far and without exception, each presenter has referenced the economy and the hardships that are here and the ones yet to come.  The world, obviously, needs money.

Is that it?

Love.  Money.  Service.  Motivation.  God.  Community.  Time.

None of these.  (Nope, not even God actually.)

I ached over this question today as I sat beneath a massive palm tree.  (In plain sight but completely invisible to the crowds just five feet from my toes.)  The world needs something.  People need something.  I kid you not.  There is alot of pain here right now.  I woke up to it in a way I hadn’t before.  Likely because now, it’s my neighbor suffering.  It’s my friend losing his job.  It’s my colleague losing her husband.

And I know exactly what the world needs.

This world needs you.  YOU!  And it needs all of you.  You are holding back.  I AM HOLDING BACK!  We cannot hold back any piece of our truest selves from the world any longer.  This world needs you to be actively seeking out your truest self, the truest and fullest person God created you to be.  And that’s where God comes in.  It’s God’s cry for you.  The tears God sheds for you are for the beautiful parts of yourself that have been taken away and buried by the pain of life, the difficulties you’ve endured.  Oh, the world needs God alright, but God coming in the form of YOU COMING FULLY ALIVE and reaching out to the people around you.  When this happens, when each of us comes fully alive, we will give and the world will get exactly what it needs.  The world needs YOU to make GOD real.

I love this journey.  I don’t want to fall asleep for a single step of it.  I don’t want to miss a single pebble on the path or the slightest whisper on the wind.  And I don’t want you to miss it either.  You….are….needed.

All of me.

For all of you.

With Him.

Doug

Feb

26

Do Less, Love More

Posted by : Doug | On : February 26, 2009

Category: Just Wanted to Say..., Living Alive, Walking with God

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To all my friends, my allies, my most loved,

Over the years, I’ve been blessed with so many incredible lessons and countless teachers who brought those lessons to me. My struggle has always been to filter through all of them, find the most true and profound and (this is the hardest part) live them and make them manifest in my life. Can I share with you the ones I have found to be most true and profound, not only in my story but in the stories you have shared with me?

1. Smile. Smile incessantly. It will catch people’s attention. It will lift your spirit and theirs. And it will make them wonder what you are up to.

2. Cry. Cry when you feel it. Please don’t hold that back. Your tears have blessed me in countless ways. I hope mine have done the same for you.

3. Sit in silence everyday. Once in the morning and once at night, if you can. But at least ten minutes, in silence, in the same place, everyday. Near a window that looks outside. This one single act will change your life.

4. When you wake up in the morning, maybe while you drive or ride, ask God this question: “Lord, where do you need me today?” Then, listen quietly. Maybe for, oh I don’t know, ten minutes?

5. Say thank you quietly. What are you thankful for today?

6. Say thank you out loud. Who would you like to say thank you to today?

7. Drink lots of water. And if you do it in the form of green tea, even better.

8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like prince and dinner like a peasant.

9. Affirm someone whom you know needs it and someone that you think doesn’t.

10. Waste time with people. The greatest gift you can give someone is your unscheduled, agenda-less time. You will show them their worth far more than you could ever tell them. (Thank you Sister Vicki!)

11. In the crises that invariably join us on our journey, ask this question. “In ten years, will this really matter.” The crises will either slip away quietly into memory or you will realize a strength in you that you are only beginning to become friends with.

12. Forgive those who have hurt you before you feel like it. They need it more than you do.

Thank you all, for being a part of my story. However that has happened, I am grateful for you all.

In the Kingdom,

Doug