A Rare Gift Indeed

The challenging invitation of what it might look like to be 'fully present' to another soul kept tumbling around in my head as I trotted along on today's early morning walk.  

For each of us has a special person {or two} in our life who is yearning for some undivided, focused attention that only we can provide.  The good news is that we get to decide if / when / how we will offer that lovely gift of ourselves to another.

I'm not talking about some kind of weird, exhausting co-dependent relationship, but the willing, gentle offering of a healthy grace-laden presence to someone who's struggling.

One beggar showing another beggar where to find bread.

This is not about doing, but about being still.  

This is not about offering advice, but about listening well.  

This is about laying aside what's good to invest in what's best.

Not to mention clearing valuable space in our overloaded calendars and unplugging from all that grabs for our attention so we can go there unhindered.

Literally.

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Being fully present to another soul requires 4 gratitude-fueled distinctives that have been cultivated over time:

~  We are at peace with God, yielding to a sacred stillness in the depths of our own beings, an emotionally healthy spirituality, a well overflowing with all the fruit of His Spirit's faithful, delightful presence ... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control {Galatians 5:22}.

~  We have experienced our own broken woundedness, our own grief and sorrow ... and embraced a hard won healing along the way.

~  We are comfortable in our own skin so that we have no ax to grind, no hidden agenda to fulfill, nothing at all to prove to ourselves or anyone else.

~  We are humble in our own self-evaluation so we know that any ability we have to embrace the calling to become a wounded healer is only because of God's powerfully redemptive work in our own lives.

Pondering with you,
Linda

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Five years later, these words still ring true.  I share this June 2017 essay in honor of the exceptional Stephen Ministries team at CCBAC.  You guys were born to do this sacred work.  To God be all the glory.