Posted on: July 1, 2010 by Jen
This past Saturday morning was the inaugural CLEAR Coffee Klatch. Michele and I got to the CCV Cafe early to brew coffee and set up a few tables, wondering the whole time if it would just be us or if we’d have someone else to visit with. We didn’t have long to wait. The group was small, but the chatting was big and friendships were either begun or strengthened in this comfortable, casual setting.
I don’t know about the other attendees, but I can’t wait for the next one! If you enjoy coffee (or tea) and pastries, and would like to get to know some other CCV women, mark your calendars for the next Coffee Klatch on July 24th.
Posted on: June 26, 2010 by Jen
Last chance to weigh in on the second part of our Spring survey!
Spring 2010 Survey - Part Two
We appreciate your help!
Becky, Michele & Jen
Posted on: May 29, 2010 by Jen
Didn’t receive the link for part one of the CLEAR Spring 2010 Survey? No worries. You can still chime in. The more women we hear from the better! So please take a couple minutes to tell us what you think by clicking on the following link.
Spring 2010 Survey - Part One
Thanks for your input!
Becky, Michele & Jen
Posted on: February 9, 2010 by Terri
Sometimes best laid plans just don’t work out and these plans need to change or die. When we sense a change, how do we know it’s God wanting the change and not us wanting to change because things aren’t going our way or we’re bored or frustrated? I struggle with this a lot. After all, Jesus turned the world upside down in 3 years. Wouldn’t anything he’s at the center of do the same thing? I know it sounds corny, but I truly want to be part of leading women in a radical movement for Jesus! That said, should I be regularly analyzying, re-thinking, and second guessing what I believe God wants me to do?
Since I don’t have any answers right now and the desire to lead something radical isn’t leaving my soul, what I need to do is pray these words from Psalm 139:23-24…
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Posted on: January 26, 2010 by Diane
from Diane’s desk…
Encourage each other daily, as long as it is called Today. ~Hebrews 3.12
Encourage. Daily. That’s a tall order for so many of us.
It’s hard because when we encourage someone else, we actually have to think about someone other than yourself. Their interests, not yours. Their success, not yours. Their joys, talents, success. Not your own.
A few years ago, I was transferred to another position at my company. It was a position that I wouldn’t have actually chosen for myself. I felt way over my head, off my game. A couple of months into this “adventure”, a colleague came into my office, and sat down. Sensing my uncertainties, he said to me, ‘There is no one on the team that brings your expertise, your experience. Never doubt that you have something to offer, even if it sounds different than the ordinary.’
He didn’t have to do that. In fact, the way performance is rewarded at our company, if I blew it outta the park, it may very well affect his bottom line at bonus time. But that didn’t seem to matter to him. He had my interests at heart, not his own. My success, my confidence level. Not his own. What he said stayed with me for weeks, reminding me that ‘I was OK’ even when I felt a bit shaky.
That’s the great thing about encouragement. It doesn’t last a day. It’s like a seed. You sow it, and it comes back to nourish again - on another day, called Today.
Plant a seed of encouragement. Do it Today.
Posted on: January 19, 2010 by Diane
from Diane’s desk…
Here’s an update on the Iceberg Challenge - the January challenge, focusing on a specific gnarly behavior and/or belief to learn about yourself, about God, about others…
Read about this month’s challenge here.
My observations mid-month…
- The one sorta positive thing I can report so far…when I look for more in a person, I sometimes find it.
But the negative learnings certainly are more abundant (sad to say!)…
- It’s easy to not judge another person when you like the other person. When I don’t like someone, I move quickly to assumptions about the rot that is under the surface without ever really finding out. A very dishearterning observation.
- It’s easier to be more tolerant, more forgiving, less judgemental of someone when I am not jealous of their role, their looks, their status, their body, their…whatever. I am appalled at how much Envy (a capital E) I carry around. Just appalled. I can’t comment anymore than that…I’m still in recovery mode!
- It humbles me to know how shallow I can be…let me correct that…it humiliates me to know how shallow I am!
- It crushes me to know that others are doing the same thing to me as I am doing to them.
And that’s just after two weeks of focusing on this!! But I know it will get better - there is hope! And…I’ll report on that at the end of the month!
How about you? Anyone have the guts to take on this challenge? Anyone have the guts to share what they are learning?
Posted on: January 18, 2010 by Diane
CCVers - there’s still some room in the class, What Would the Neighbors Think?. It starts tomorrow night (Tuesday, January 19th) from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in Classroom #1 in the Kids’ Building. This is an opportunity to learn about the Bible from a totally different perspective!!
Description: A 4-week class to learn how to read the Bible with raging curiosity and fresh insight. Using popular Bible stories, the class will explore what the people of the time were thinking as they watched these stories unfold – from across the street, next door, in town.
Hope to see you there!!
Posted on: January 15, 2010 by Terri
I’ve just started doing the On Demand workouts with Jillian Michaels. For those of you who know me, you know that tight abs, muscular arms and a trim physique have always been a struggle for me to achieve. During this morning’s workout, Jillian said something that made sense. She said, “You can’t phone it in, you have to do the work!” Her comment made me think about the areas in my life where I have done the work. The results do come.
I made the decision to follow Jesus some 10 years ago which for me meant committing to do the work - the work of developing my relationship with him, reading and learning the Bible, serving in my church, giving my money and sharing my faith with others. I could have just walked out of the baptism tub and returned to the day-to-day, but I wanted so badly to change who I was! I wanted self-esteem, I wanted to accept and see other people the way God did instead of judging them, I wanted to contribute to something significant, I wanted others to get the same new life I’d been given.
Whether it’s spiritual growth or exercise, the work isn’t easy; it takes time and priority adjustments. The person I was 10 years ago is pretty much gone. I think my family and friends would agree. The hard work has gotten me amazing results. The physical changes are coming a bit more slowly, but Jillian’s comment encouraged me to continue to do the work in both areas of my life.
Phoning in our desire to change isn’t an option. We need to do the work.
Tags: acceptance, clear, God, heart, jesus, Relationship, study, Women Filed Under: Bible, Connecting with God, Faith, Prayer, Relationships, Women
Posted on: December 30, 2009 by Diane
from Diane’s desk…
Whatever you do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. ~Wolfgang van Goethe
As we approach the final countdown to 2010, there are few who do not reflect on the past year and wonder…what if…if only…why…why not? At least that is true for me, or was. Until last year. December 2008. I decided to make a change. To forget about the usual resolution to lose weight. After 20 years of that, it gets a little stale!! But to resolve to be different. Not to ‘do’ different - but to ‘be’ different.
Earlier that year my sister - my friend - died. And with death, went years and years of her resolutions and dreams down the drain. Never to be achieved. Dreams kept at arms’ length by fear that masqueraded as lack of finances. Seeing harp seals in the wild; going to college; starting a craft business. Dreams that died with her. One day before the morphine took her clarity, we talked about missed opportunities, those ‘wish I woulda’ dreams. Still vocalizing hope to do it all, her eyes told the real state of her heart. They were sad and deep and dim - she knew it was too late.
In the weeks following her death, I made a promise to myself to cease letting fears stop me. At the top of that list was to face my fear of real poverty by going to Africa to see and work with the urban poor in Nairobi. What would it do to me? Could I handle it? Would I be strong enough to take on what God wanted me to do about it? So in February, off I went - to Africa. I walked in the abject poverty that I had feared. I smelled it. I heard it. I witnessed the incredible poverty of hope that can pierce the air without a ripple. It moved me in a way that I cannot describe.
That first night - after walking through the slums - I sat at the window of my room looking out into the strange streets of Nairobi. I cried for hours. That kind of weeping that comes from deep inside. Sobbing. Exhausting. Releasing. Grief. Accomplishment. Sadness. Overcome by her death. By the extreme poverty. By the sadness in those people’s eyes that looked so much like my sister’s in those last months. By the emptiness of loss. And somehow, after awhile, a release of extreme gratitude. For having known her. For being inspired by her confidence in me. For knowing that she was finally completely fulfilled and loved in God’s presence. For knowing that God had some stuff for me to finish - and that meant I needed to get started. And not just Africa. I was just beginning, and beginning is only half done!
Fear paralyzes. In the Bible, Matthew writes that after a storm scared the disciples, Jesus said to them, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Fear paralyzed the men who had actually seen Jesus heal with a touch, a word, a look. They SAW miracles. And still they feared. Fear fixates us on what is lacking, instead of what is abundant. God’s love and power and, thankfully, grace are abundant. Fear keeps us from the extreme pleasure of knowing the exciting, enthralling, inspiring goodness that God has in store for us.
And it begins with a resolution - at the start of a new year or anytime. A resolution to stop taking life for granted; to take hold of that fear that stops you from taking the first step. Don’t waste another New Year’s resolution on losing weight. My prayer is that you’ll join me - not in Africa, perhaps, but in the pursuit of what God has created you to do!!!
So, for me, here’s to a New Year, and a resolution to go ‘at it again’ - to trounce on those fears. To feel, again, the exhilaration of relying on God to get me through. 2009 was a year not soon to be forgotten. I resolve to do the same in 2010!!
Older Entries
