Ignoring Sideshow Distractions

God has created each of us uniquely!  We all have different ways of learning and growing intellectually and spiritually.  I love the uniqueness and creativity of the human race.  I love how God is intimate and personal with each of one of His kids and how He cultivates our hearts and minds based on how He personally designed, fashioned, and formed us!  In other words, God created us and therefore knows exactly how to teach us!

There are 7 learning styles that have been scientifically determined.  My learning style Major, is  "Intrapersonal."  This simply means that I'm private, introspective, independent, and I love to spend time on self-analysis.  In other words, I know my mind!  My Minor learning style, however, is "Kinesthetic" which basically means I learn things by using my body and sense of touch to learn about the world around me.  I'm a hands on kind of person.  My major and my minor are split nearly equally which I absolutely love, because putting those two learning styles together means I have to prove what I learn intellectually, with an experience physically!  Which brings me to share my latest blog, "Ignoring Sideshow Distractions."  So here we go....

I love to read the Bible especially when God gives me an experience to light the truth of what I've read.   Proverbs 4:25 [MSG] says...Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions.


"Focus on what's ahead?"



Everyone knows what it means to focus, or look forward, or straight ahead, etc., but how do we really focus when we find ourselves in the midst of life circumstances that are screaming at us?  How do we silence those circumstances and stay focused on what's ahead?  It's not an easy task, let me tell you!  It's more difficult than anyone may lead you to believe.  Oh, it sure is easy to tell someone else to "focus on what's ahead," but when you yourself are in the midst of the chaos, its more difficult to overcome your obstacles with that less than authentic answer.  Just keepin' it real peeps!  At 41 years old, I think I've finally found the answer - at least for me.  Somehow I'm led to believe that this is also an answer for many others.  Let me share my experience with you that led me to my answer, and possibly yours!

I have wanted to go ziplining for what seems like, forever!  Well, that's exactly what my daughter and I did together the day after Thanksgiving this year.  Ok, I have to say, I thought this was going to be just climbing up to various platforms to zip down a cable and enjoy a rocket fast experience!  Ha!  Was I wrong!!!  To get to the fun, rocket fast, experience, I had to overcome a plethora of obstacles, at some points fifty feet above the ground, just being tethered to a cable!  I mean there were moving planks, hanging posts with little foot pegs that had to be navigated, there was even a place where you walked across the cable and had these little ropes to grab here and there to get you across.  You want to talk about physical!  HOLY SMOKES BATMAN!  I used muscles in my body that I didn't even know existed anymore.  LOL!  There were times I wanted to quit because it was so taxing on my body.  There were moments I was hanging on for dear life and praying to get my "ass across the falls" you could say!  There were times I had to literally place my attention so deeply on a "focus" point (mainly my guides eyes as he coached me through a series of obstacles).  Yep, I needed a coach at times to get through this course and also a solid decision of refusing to quit and to finish this thing!!!   

To get through these obstacles, I came to a point of having to choose.  If I was gonna make it, I had to make a choice that I was gonna make it!  I had to shut out the background noise of screaming kids that were also completing this adventure.  I had to stop looking at how high up I was and how far the ground was below me.  There were points in this journey that I had to take a brief rest on some of the platforms built in the trees to regain my focus.  In the midst of the obstacle, my passion and purpose to finish, had to be greater than any sideshow distraction!  Did you get that?  Let me say that again...."in the midst of the obstacle, my passion and purpose to finish, had to be greater than any sideshow distraction!"  God showed me this incredible truth through my adventure!  

As I reflect upon the book "Love Does" by Bob Goff, which I read prior to my ziplining adventure, I'm drawn to an excerpt:  "Jesus doesn't invite us on a business trip. Instead, He says let's go after those things that inspire and challenge you and let's experience them together. You don't need a lot of details or luggage or equipment, just a willingness to go into a storm with a Father who's kicking footholds into the steep sides of our problems while we kick a couple in ourselves too. He guides us into those footholds with His strong hands while we're safely tethered to Him by a bright red rope of grace, which holds us securely. Somehow in all of this, the terrain we navigate doesn't seem as scary either, because when we're on an adventure with God we're too excited to be afraid and too engaged to be thinking of anything else."

There are a lot of sideshow distractions that enter our story called life!  The question is, will you allow the distractions to consume you; to ultimately get you off track and off of your mission that God designed for you to accomplish, while your here for this brief time?  You must follow what your passionate about and then attach purpose, God's purpose, to your passion!  People don't question what they are passionate about!  They know these things!  The questions come when you attach purpose to what your passionate about!  There is great purpose within you!  You will find that great purpose when you decide to live full out of the passion that is resonating deep within you.  Maybe there are a ton of things you are doing that have nothing to do with your passion!  Begin to evaluate those areas and then determine if it is a sideshow distraction!  Sideshow distractions will keep you from two things:

A. - They will keep you from being fulfilled! 

B. - They will keep you from fulfilling that which you've been designed to accomplish! 

We were all created with passion and we were all created with a purpose to accompany that passion.  Your purpose is for others.  What sideshow distractions do you need to eliminate or eradicate?  What voices do you need to shut up and in some cases shut out?  It's time!  It's your time, if you choose for it to be! 

Tethered To Him,

TDahl

   

The Shift

Sometimes things in life just don't make sense.  Your mind and heart are in serious disconnect and you can't figure out why.  You pray, and seek, and pray, and seek...and nothing, nothing, brings clarity to this internal chaos brewing inside of you.  I think one's first response is to try and find the external source causing the disruption - after all it has to be something external - right?!  However, when you begin to turn inward - listen to your heart, silence your mind, you will soon find clarity.  Most of us try to ignore the discontent beneath our skin, because it appears easier to just cast it off, and take on the attitude of "this too shall pass."  You go about your life until something happens or someone says or does something that jerks you quickly back to the reality of this internal friction you've become so great at ignoring. 

So here's my story...

My shift began a little over 2 years ago.  I can't tell you what started it - not that I don't know, but its just something deeply personal.  One day I'll be able to talk about it, but right now its too emotionally raw for me.  I will say that there are only a handful of people that know all of the details because I've needed to have a venting place to express my heart and my mind and I've also needed solid people that were detached completely from the issues, that know me intimately, to help bring my heart to Jesus, helping me to keep a healthy perspective.  I can say that during this season, as time went on my heart went numb.  I was just going through the motions of showing up to life every day.  I questioned myself over and over again.  I tried calling things that were not as though they were-hoping to see evidence of something different.  I even came to a point where I just wanted to shut down and stop everything.  It was during this time in 2010 that I had decided to go on a mission trip to Haiti.  I was following the best advice I've ever gotten - "when you're down and out, go serve someone in a worse state than yourself!"  

As the wheels of the plane touched down in Haiti, my heart had not even been remotely prepared for what my eyes were about to see.  As we exited the airport, I was riding in the back seat of a truck, looking out the window as I saw my first "Tent City."  It took my breath away - in a not good way!  Tears began to well up in my eyes, and big crocodile tears began to roll down each cheek.  My week in Haiti put a longing in my heart.  A longing to serve on a grander scale; a longing to build relationship with those who are like minded; and sing like I've never sung before!  You may ask what does singing have to do with it?  Well, kinda everything!  That is what my heart has longed to do since I could say "Mama" and that is the very thing that the enemy of my soul has tried to rob from me!  

When I came back from Haiti I was a different person.  I dove into music like never before!   I recorded a debut worship album in Nashville, TN in March 2011 with a 7K investment from my Mom - because after all, when you tell someone you're a singer, you need a calling card!  Then another thing happened.  A friend of mine, Sam Francart, decided she was going to do the "World Race."  This is a year long mission trip which is incredibly intense. It's literally like 12 countries in 12 months.  So, I talked with some friends of mine who are musicians and singers and said, "hey how about we do a "Night of Worship" for Sam's mission trip?  They loved the idea and well, that's exactly what we did!  As a team, we had the best time together.  The Night of Worship was amazing! We created a life memory that weekend in March 2012, and one day when we're old and gray rocking on our rocking chairs, instead of rocking worship venues from a stage, whether were together or apart, we'll still laugh when we recall our time together that weekend! 

The "Night of Worship" we did that weekend, birthed a desire in us to do this all the time!  So, guess what, that's exactly what we did!   In May of this year, I was having a small picnic lunch with a few friends and one of my friends said, "hey you need to do more worship nights" (those same friends had traveled all the way down to Palm Beach from Eustis to attend the event).  I wanted to do that a few years back, but it never came to fruition.  Anyway, I agreed with them and "Supernatural Saturday" was born in my heart that day!  So I put a Facebook Status out there letting people know we needed a venue for a monthly "Night of Worship."  Within 5 minutes I had a message from an Elder from The Church at Whistling Pines in Umatilla.  We had the meeting the end of May and started "Supernatural Saturday" in July and we're still going!  If you ever want to come - its' the last Saturday of every month at 6:30 PM.  Visit my website at www.tammydahl.com for info! 

In August, my best friend Sameer, sent me an email telling me to go get the book "Love Does" by Bob Goff and he said, get it today!  It just so happened that I was passing by a Books-A-Million on my way back from a meeting in Orlando.  I swung in, purchased the book, and basically couldn't get my face out of it - and still can't!  Now listen, I read A LOT!!!  I love books!  Another benefit I have received from my best friend is that he always encouraged me to read, read, read!  I loved books as a child but somehow got away from reading until he came into my life nearly 15 years ago.  As a woman, its usually shoes or clothes that are our weakness, well, I can tell you, books are mine!  I want a huge library in my home one day, not in my garage (as it is now)!  I want a library, fully equipped with a rolling ladder!  On a side note, I realize there are a lot of people into those e-books, but to me there is nothing like having a book in your hands in which you can highlight quotes, scribble in the margins, earmark the pages, etc., because nothing compares!! 

As I read the pages of "Love Does" it was as if someone wrote my heart on those pages!  He said things, I'd only thought!  The entire book resonated in my heart and set my heart ablaze!  Forget a little spark people, this was a fire!!  It was as if someone took a tank of gas and doused the small burning embers of my heart!  This fire lit up my heart, my mind, my senses, and ultimately my entire world!  I saw things clearly!  I took a few months away from everything and everyone to get my heart and mind on the same page and then upon my re-engagement I gave my church my thirty day notice of my departure!  Yes, I left my church!  I sought out Pastor's Ted and Marie Morgan and asked them to be my covering because I needed to have leadership I could bounce things off of, and cover me in prayer, and support me!  I'm called to the world - a world full of hurting people!  I'm called to get my "skin in the game" of life, and to love in action!  I'm called to serve others!  You may find me in a church, or you may find me in a bar - loving people!  My agenda is simply to love!  

I've found my childlike faith again!  When I was a little girl, my favorite song was "Here Am I Lord, Send Me."  I would sing it in the shower, and on my way to school, and on my way home from school, in the valley riding my horse (I liked how it sounded in the valley - it resounded with an echo), and basically everywhere else!  As I grew older, the song was silenced, and in life I settled for a schedule instead of an adventure.  My heart has found that place of adventure again and I sing "Here am I Lord, send me." 

When you're a child, people's hearts are touched by you when all you want to do is serve Jesus.  However, when you're a grown up, and you're playing with the big kids on the playground, or what I refer to as bullies, there is a painful side to following Jesus - I'm not gonna lie!  Unfortunately its also people!  People with their big opinions, fork tongues, and false accusations...all in the name of Jesus, don't you know!  That's a whole other blog that one day...I will write!  However, I know from experience that the best way to silence your critics is to ignore the commentary!  If people want to assume the worst, then let them assume!  God knows my heart and frankly, that is all that matters!  Jesus went about the Father's business and boy, He sure had His critics!  Well, I've got mine and it's ok!  I may not be a cute little kid anymore in the eyes of people, but my heart is like that of a child, filled with faith and hope and LOVE!  I'm holding Jesus' hand and saying "Let's go" instead of asking "Where are we going?"  Who cares!  I'm with Jesus, so where ever we go is fine with me! 

I'll close with the lyrics to a song I used to sing often as a child.  Then, I didn't comprehend all that I do now...but it is refreshing to know I'm hand in hand with the one I asked to take my hand at the tender age of 7. 

My Father Planned It All

  

What tho' the way be lonely

And dark the shadows fall;

I know where'er it leadeth,

My Father planned it all.

There may be sunshine tomorrow,

Shadows may break and flee;

'Twill be the way He chooses,

The Father's plan for me.

He guides my falt'ring footsteps

Along the weary way,

For well He knows the pathway

Will lead to endless day.

A day of light and gladness

On which no shade will fall;

'Tis this at last awaits me -

My Father planned it all.

Chorus

I sing thru the shade and the sunshine,

I'll trust Him whatever befall;

I sing for I cannot be silent -

My Father planned it all.

P.S.  An addition to my "Caper", my best friend Sameer and I are having lunch/dinner with Bob Goff in February!  I get to connect with the man who penned his heart on the pages of "Love Does!"  Isn't that just like God giving His children above and beyond what they ever thought possible!

Living the Adventure,

TDahl

  

Sharing The Playground

This is a follow up to Jesus on Your Playground...

I've titled this blog "Sharing THE Playground."  Notice there is a significant difference in the word YOUR and THE.  I wanted to bring this to your attention first thing because YOUR playground is YOUR playground!  Your playground, as I previously mentioned, will not look like anyone else's playground.  Why?  Because there is NO ONE like you!  Even when someone operates in what appears to be the same gifting and talents you may possess, they are not you, and you are not them!  I'm attempting to drive that so deeply into your mind, that you never forget!!  

Years ago - 1999 to be exact, I was trying to be someone other than myself to attract someone I was interested in at the time.  God spoke to me clearly and directly and this is basically what He said...."Tammy, you rob yourself and others of the gift of you, when you're trying to be someone else.  I've created you and fashioned you with a purpose.  The way I've put you together, needs to be lived authentically, for you to touch those I've called you to touch, and develop the relationships I've planned for you to develop, and to make the impact I've called you to make!"  It hit me so hard when God spoke that to my heart!  It's also then, that I made a conscious decision to live authentically, no matter what! 

So lets talk about "THE" playground.  Erica had made a reference to something by a comment she made  (see Jesus on Your Playground) that was so true.  She said "Too often we get caught up in "Who is the greatest among us" and miss that Jesus is playing with the kids."  Now one thing I know, from raising a child myself, is that kids are usually selfish by nature, but especially when they are playing with others.  There are a few kids that have this supernatural gift of selflessness, but I have not seen many!  Parent's are constantly trying to teach their kids to share their toys, or let someone else have a turn crossing the monkey bars, etc.  You get my point, even if you don't have children!  Just observing them tells you everything you need to know.  I'm thinking back on how every Summer my daughter would go to her godparent's home for a few weeks.  Being a single mom for well, basically the whole time of raising my daughter, I tried very hard to surround her with a healthy traditional family environment (mom, dad, kids, etc.) so she could be in the mix of how one operates.  Well, her godparents have 4 kids and well, my daughter is an only child so for the first few days Mikayla would be struggling to be the center of attention because that's what she was used to at home, being an only child! It was quite interesting actually to watch a child fight for attention using all kinds of tactics.  I'm laughing just thinking of that!  What's not funny, is when we as adult "kids" of Father God, still wrestle with that "center of attention" complex and use all sorts of tactics that in the end hurt others, deeply!  

I for one, do not want to ever hurt anyone, but the fact is, I do, I will, and probably will again, several more times as long as I'm alive!  It's called "not being perfect!"  I do however like to share "THE" playground.  I've always been for the "underdog" for lack of a better term.  I've found at times that kicks me in teeth, but the bottom line is, I want people to integrate "their" playground into "my" playground and see THE playground!!  My heart for building community has been developed over the years.  It started when I was a little girl.  As a child, I was part of a church that was very judgmental.  In fact, if you did something wrong, you were used as the "example" from the pulpit of what not to do.  Even if you weren't used as the example, you were shunned by the "leadership" if you weren't living up to their expectations.  I saw many people walk away from God, leave the church building, and ultimately leave community!!  It hit my life like an arrow as well, because we were one of those families that walked away!  That's why now, when I see a family or someone leave a "church" family I run after them!  In my previous 2 churches, when people left, I literally looked them up, one by one, and went after them!  No one knew I did that!  I didn't advertise it all over the place.  You may ask, why did I do that?  The answer is simply because I wanted to be sure they had community!!  Listen, I don't care when someone chooses a different church home, I just want to know they are building community with others and not isolating!  Jesus left the flock to go after the one!  It is imperative we are part of community!  Being part of community does present its challenges because there are times when "I" gets in the way of "We."  There is a "Who is the greatest among us" complex and we miss that Jesus is playing with the kids, as Erica shared.  "We" is always more powerful than "I." 

We need live in the awareness that Jesus playing on our playground is personal, and intimate, and reserved for us as an individual!  We also need to live in the awareness that Jesus is playing with the other kids on their playgrounds and it will look different, and be different, and is personal and intimate to them!  We need to live without comparing the playgrounds!!!  There is absolutely no comparison!!!  We also need to live with the awareness that just because someone elses playground looks different from ours, doesn't justify selfishness!  We then need to integrate our playgrounds and play together - giving and receiving from each other!  There is so much we have to offer each other as brothers and sisters in Christ!!  Look, if God didn't create another fingerprint like mine, and He didn't create another fingerprint like yours, don't you think He wants us to share with each other to get the full benefit of Him?  We are the body of Christ!!  Some of us are hands, some of us are arms, some of us are legs, some of us are feet, some of us are mouths, etc.!  We are all moving parts of ONE body, yet each part is important for the other to function.  I'm reminded of the scripture that says where one can put a thousand to flight, two can put ten thousand!  I don't know about you, but I'm ready for authentic multiplication in the body of Christ!  

Let's play nice!  Let's appreciate what each other have to offer!  Let's look at the power of multiplication!  The harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few!  Lets link arms and break down the ministry walls that tend to separate, and co-labor together to integrate!!  

See you on THE playground!

TDahl