Fear sneaks up on us. Primarily, it manifests itself in everyday life as worry. This worry-fear burdens us and in more extreme cases it cripples us. Of course, we all have some overt fears, but more often than not our fears are subtle undercurrents that slowly but surely move us…or keep us stuck.

Fear hijacks our thinking. It steals our peace. The irony is that we become consumed over events that haven’t happened. By definition, fear is focused on what hasn’t yet occurred. Fear is built on what we think is impending, a rational or irrational threat. We worry about what might happen. Every human being has plenty to worry about. We may lose our employment, our house, our health, a family member, or a friendship. We may get robbed, taken advantage of, or even killed. Or to the opposite, we can worry about nothing ever happening. We may hope endlessly and nothing happens.

This new fears resolution is not a ‘try harder’ resolution. Waking up each day and straining to defeat fear isn’t a suitable approach. This approach would make it worse. To the contrary, the solution is an internal affair. It’s a God job. The solution to dealing with fear is not to establish and commit to a resolution. Instead, it’s surrender. It’s a continual surrender to the love of God. It’s learning to fully lean into the graceful empowerment of a God loves us completely, no matter what. It’s living with a raw, real, Christ in us faith. It’s a ruthless trust that leads to an incomprehensible assurance. The substance of this assurance is that no matter what happens all will be well.

Surely, 2012 will bring some unpleasant events of some form or another. That’s life. Fear not, God is always present, in control, and he cares. Plenty of passages in the Scriptures convey this message. A couple of my favorites... Jesus tells his followers not to fear people. The worst they can do is kill you. Nice, huh. He emphasizes that God is sovereign and he cares for you (Matthew10: 28-30). In another passage Jesus says don’t worry, period. It gets you nowhere. Intensely seek God, and don’t worry about anything (Matthew 6: 25-34). God will take care of the details. The devil isn’t in the details, God is.

God’s grace will empower us to surrender our fears. We are meant to admit our fears, release them to God, and move on. Flush fear and keep on living.

In 2012 and always, rely on the power of God to carry you through your fears to freedom. Remember, fear focuses your attention on negative events that haven’t happened. There is no grace for what hasn’t happened. It’s not reality. God grants us grace in the moment, no matter how happy or horrific the circumstances. God is in the present, live there with him. Take it one day at a time, relentlessly trust God, and all will be well.

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. - Julian of Norwich

It’s easy to get stuck in grief when we lose something significant or simply when our expectations are not met. We may find ourselves in a seemingly endless downward spiral or fighting hard to put on a good face. We suck it up and try to move on. In the midst of these times we need support. Actually, loss or no loss, grief or no grief, we all need genuine support in life. Often we get sympathy but we need something deeper. We need empathy.

Empathy is not a word that most of us use in our everyday vocabulary. Empathy is the identification with or experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. It’s not feeling bad for someone; it’s feeling bad with them. It’s recognition, connection, and solidarity. Their pain becomes our pain.

Empathy is the ministry of presence. To some extent, those who empathize with you experience what you experience. They fully understand. When someone empathizes with you, they are nonjudgmental, safe, and supportive. Empathy helps us become and stay whole.

But what does empathy have to do with the advent season? Advent is a time of preparation and renewed expectancy. Literally, advent means a coming into a place, view, or being. It’s an arrival, onset, commencement, or start. Advent represents our expectancy of God doing something new and profound. The birth of Jesus brought the presence of God to humanity in a new and profound way. It was the birth of a new, more intimate way of relating with God, one in which we experience divine empathy.

God came in humility and vulnerability. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a rural town of little consequence. His actual birthplace was most likely a lowly basement cave. Jesus spent his first nights of sleep in a feeding trough. He grew up in a working class family at an incredibly difficult time in human history. Despite all this, Jesus modeled what it means to live in intimate connection with God and offered himself as a bridge to make this intimacy a reality for us. Ultimately, God proved in Jesus that he empathizes with our every situation.

The advent season is a fitting time for us to pull back and reflect. We consider past expectations against what has actually happened. We face current reality, make adjustments, and look ahead. Hopefully, we look forward to what might come next.

During our advent reflection, we may consider God’s consideration of our pleasure and pain. How close is he to it? The advent of empathy is the advent of compassion. God understands and identifies with us…completely. Empathy has come. God feels with us.

Take some time to consider the advent of empathy. During this advent season, expect empathy. Entertain hope. Embrace the empathy that came in the birth of Jesus. Hope is here.

Merry Christmas!

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And we will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.   - Isaiah 9: 6

Artie @ the finish

Back in late May I completed a triathlon. The race consisted of swimming just short of one mile, biking twenty-five miles, and running six miles. This was my third triathlon at this distance and the best experience I have had to date. Learning from seasoned racers and past painful experiences helped me have a better race. Endurance racing is difficult. To succeed takes wisdom. Wise racers create a good race strategy and stick to it. It may be a flexible strategy, but a strategy nonetheless.

Establishing a plan encompasses training smart, having adequate gear, and self-management during the race. Training smart means not over or under doing exercise. We need to train and rest with reasonable intensity and consistency. As for equipment, we don’t need the best gear, but we need it to be functional and dependable. Self-management during the race means maintaining a healthy pace and staying hydrated.

In our faith-life, like an endurance race, establishing and staying with a ‘race strategy’ takes grace, courage, and focus. New Testament writer Paul encourages us to run in such a way as to get the prize. We grace-race with a purpose rather than aimlessly. In a word, our faith strategy is trust. We race along wholly trusting God for guidance and strength…and everything else. We betray trust when we self-sufficiently push too hard or irresponsibly lay back. This leads us to burn out or drop out. Either way, we’re out.

So, what’s the prize? The prize is eternal life. Eternal life is not simply pie in the sky, flying high, be with God someday when we die. The Bible tells us that God has given us eternal life in his Son. He gave us the life, Jesus. Eternal also means now, here. The race is not merely to get somewhere, but to know and experience God now, during the race.

God desires to guide our race and empower us. He is our endurance for whatever we face. A triathlon reflects life in that it entails activity in various contexts or events. In every circumstance we have an opportunity to keep moving or quit, to experience God or withdraw. We’re meant to keep on keeping on at a divinely inspired pace.

In order to be a successful endurance racer we need to closely monitor our heart rate and continually hydrate. We don’t want to blow our cardiac engine or dry out. Either can slow us to a crawl and damage our health. The same is true for everyday life. The Bible repeatedly tells us to watch after our heart and guard it…from it flows the wellspring of life. Heart health is vital for the long haul. Hydration is critical as well. Life easily dries us out. We keep our souls hydrated by trusting in our intimate connection with God, the ultimate thirst quencher.

God uses others to refresh us as well. We’re not going it alone. Community plays a significant role in endurance racing. There’s a distinct, “we’re all in this together” camaraderie among endurance racers. During races, participants often encourage each other by saying things like, “keep it up,”  “great job,” “just a little farther,” “you’re going to make it,” and “hang in there.”

The faith-life is an endurance race. Are you heart healthy and hydrated? If not, slow down and drink up. Are you experiencing God along the path? Is God guiding and empowering your race plan? He delights in doing so. You can enjoy your race or despise it. Actually, endurance racing can be fun…yes, fun. You have the choice every day to flourish or flounder, thrive or just endure. God desires for you to run a hearty race and finish well.

Wrestling in everyday life reflects my Jr. high wrestling experience. It takes courage to step out take on life. It’s easy to let fear and panic get the best of us. We wrestle our anxieties, and by using a few basic moves and brute strength we get by. But this is no way to live. We recognize that to thrive in life we’ve got to get better at wrestling.

I had great wrestling coaches in high school. I got better at wrestling by listening and responding to my coaches. More specifically, I did well because I learned to rest. By rest I don’t mean being lazy. I mean rest as relaxed trust. I dropped my fear and panic and learned to trust my coaches and my God-given abilities. During matches I wrestled and listened carefully to my coaches simultaneously. I trusted them and all that I had learned from them.

Many of us don’t realize that God desires for us to rest. God wants us to trust him completely. He provides us his Spirit to teach, coach, and empower us as we wrestle whatever we face in life. We’re not meant to live in fear and panic. God longs for us to rest in him. As a matter of fact, he commands it. Anything else is disobedience.

You may remember the biblical telling of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. They were bound for a Promised Land, a land of milk and honey. When they came to the edge of the land that God said was theirs for the taking, they sent twelve spies inside to check it out. Ten spies returned frightened by the prospects of entering the land. To the contrary, Caleb and Joshua trusted in God’s promised rest and lobbied for entry. Refusing to rest in God’s promise, the Israelites turned back to the wilderness where they roamed for another forty years. Tragic.

The writer of Hebrews revisits this ordeal in light of God’s doings through Jesus. He tells the Hebrews to make every effort – be diligent, eager – to enter God’s rest. Trust God with everything as a way of life. Anything else mirrors the disobedience of the Israelites, a waywardness that leads to wilderness wandering.

We are meant to wrestle at rest. When I wrestled I was exerting myself completely but also at rest. I was fully engaged with my opponent and tuned in to my coaches’ voices. Notably, the word rest resides in the center of the word wrestle. Whatever the landscape of our life, it is a Promised Land. He lives, moves, and has life within us. In every location God implores us to listen, respond, and rest. Walk forward into the land with peace rather than panic.

God encourages you wrestle to rest. Shuck anything that prevents you from trusting God with everything. Rest is God’s gift to you. It’s your birthright. Don’t let life or your need to control everything steal your rest! The Spirit of the living God wrestles for you, through you, so you can rest in Him.

“Faith is a refusal to panic.” - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Sacred flow integrates flow, a sought after peak-experience, with the Christian faith in order to foster a faith that flows. Like athletes fluidly performing with extraordinary grace, I believe God designed us to gracefully move in His Spirit.

Most of us have some experience with flow. The flow experience is an oasis characterized by fluid connection with whatever we are doing. To describe flow we typically use the expression the zone. All of us have experienced flow at some level through competition, intense conversation, absorption in work, or while engaging in a hobby. While flowing, both our sense of self-consciousness and self-effort fade. We float; totally engrossed in our activity. A flowing faith embodies these same characteristics.

Flow leads us into the rhythm of God’s Spirit through focus, challenge, and feedback. Jesus modeled focus, challenge, and feedback. He focused on God and the moment. He embraced challenges continually. And he always followed the feedback his Father offered. These particular roots lay the groundwork for flow and daily Christian spirituality.

Focus. To flow is to focus. It’s crucial that we fully give ourselves to God and whatever we are doing. Seeking God’s kingdom means seeking God in each moment, each day, whatever we are doing. We needn’t waste a moment obsessing over the past or the future, we’re meant to give our full attention to today. Of course, we will continually wrestle with distraction and doubt. But we can trust that God will continually draw our attention back to him. We’ve been given the opportunity to flow with God into the here and now, whatever its content.

Challenge. Challenges nurture flow. Life brings us challenges and we have many opportunities to challenge ourselves. Daily we are challenged to live deeply focused upon God and whatever the moment entails. Since God is love, the predominant challenge of our life is to love as God loves. Embracing this challenge and every other challenge becomes a way of life in a flowing faith.

Feedback. Being responsive sets the stage for us to flow with God continuously. God serves up feedback from within and without. God may use practically anything to speak to us. God’s feedback is not always welcome or easy to detect and follow, but it’s essential nonetheless. We need to remain open, alert, pliable, and responsive. Ultimately, God’s feedback always leads us to love. If we aren’t receiving God’s love and loving in return, then we aren’t listening to God.

Sacred flow invites us to ebb and flow in God’s Spirit. It promotes an active faith absorbed in and empowered by God’s indwelling presence. It inspires an intense intimacy with God that makes loving God and others come more naturally. You can’t escape the harsh realities of life in this or any other year, but you can deal with them differently. As life brings you difficult challenges you can flow through them with God.

You can purchase Sacred Flow: Discovering Life in the Divine Current at www.thesacredflow.com, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, and www.booksamillion.com.

Restoring Christ to Christmas is easier than we think. In reality, only we can take the Christ out of our Christmas. What happens (or doesn’t happen anymore) on the public square needn’t affect our Christmas.

Christmas is an inside job. It’s an incarnation celebration. To incarnate means to give a bodily or concrete form to, especially human form. Christmas celebrates God physically coming to be present with us, among us. Through Jesus, a God who was already near miraculously became a living, breathing local. Jesus modeled for us the best of humanity and later died to save it. His presence is certainly worth celebrating. Christmas incarnation made the way for another. We’re meant to embody the Christ of Christmas.

To incarnate Christ means to allow the Spirit of Christ to live in and through us. This is the central ideal of the Christian faith.We do this by trusting in God as Jesus did. He trusted God for everything, even which words to say. In doing so, we give bodily, concrete, or tangible form to God in the here and now. No, this doesn’t make us divine, but it makes us bearers of divinity. The light of Christmas means to shine in and through us.

There are several ways in which our presence gives tangible expression to the Christmas presence. Primarily, our presence expresses Christ’s when it gives off love, life, hope, and peace.

Jesus, the Christmas presence, loves deeply. Above all else, we’re meant to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. To love means to give. We give ourselves. Loving means advocating for others as we would for ourselves. Giving form to God means giving form to love.

Jesus is a life-giving presence. His life brought God’s life to us. Wherever he went he offered life. Our lives may do this as well. To incarnate Christ means that our life breathes life into others’ lives. As life-givers, when people see us from afar, rather than avoid us, they seek us out. Our presence is desirable and contagious.

The Christmas presence offers hope. Jesus redeems and recovers us. He sets things right. Unthinkable change becomes a reality. He restores humanity to truth, beauty, and goodness. Following his lead, we’re meant to act as ministers of reconciliation, ambassadors of restorative hope.

Jesus is the prince of peace. He makes real peace possible. Everyone needs peace. Jesus offers us his peace, “Peace be with you, my peace I give you.” We certainly need peace in the midst of a harried Christmas season. Possessing God’s peace, we incarnate Christ by offering it to others.

Keeping Christ in Christmas means choosing to let our presence continually radiate his presence. Don’t let any disappointment you have with culture sour your Christmas. Incarnate Christ. Allow the Spirit of Christmas to live in and through you. This way you’ll give Christmas presence year round. Love, breathe life, exude hope, and offer peace. Merry Christmas!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. – Isaiah 9: 6

This post was published in the Henry County Times, 12/15/10

Pre-thanks. Some pre-holiday reflection is always good idea. Before the holiday season gets into full swing, take some time to think and pray over this past year. Really contemplate what you are thankful for...rather than offering the usual at the Thanksgiving dinner table just seconds before diving into turkey and dressing. Pre-thanks gives us time to really think through our year and even write down some thoughts. It allows us to give genuine thanks to God and others for our life and its richness.

Invite. Consider inviting someone to your Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s festivities who has no meaningful place to go. Keep an eye out for people that God may be nudging you to invite into your holiday season. This will likely benefit them and you in ways that may not be superficially or immediately apparent. Meaningful connection is important for everyone, especially this time of year.

Serve. A great way to spend time during the holiday season is to volunteer. Consider where you can invest some time. You can easily do this through a church or a local non-profit. Research has shown that helping the well-being of others helps our well-being. Beyond the actual service to others, giving of our time or finances gives us more meaning and perspective. Remember the words of Jesus, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others...” We are meant to walk in step with his spirit of service.

Exercise. I know, I know...everyone tells you to exercise more often. There is a reason for that. Among various other benefits, exercise is a proven stress buster. This season can be the most stressful and depressing time of the year for many of us. If we’ve lost someone close to us recently or we’re facing financial difficulties (or both), this season brings a lot of strain. Exercise reduces the weight of disappointment and depression. Speaking of weight, in a season when you will certainly be moving your jaw more often, it’s always beneficial to move your whole body more often.

Me-time. The holiday season surrounds us with people. Shopping people, party people, and family people will be invading our personal space very soon. It will be easier to tolerate crowds at the stores, party after party, and that annoying family member if you have taken some time to pull away and refresh your soul. Make a point to pull away for your sanity’s sake. Related to me-time, I will be leading a reflective day retreat entitled “Off the Grid” on Dec. 4. If you would like more information about it email me at: artie@artiesposaro.com.

Acknowledge God’s presence throughout your holiday season. Pay attention to the people God has put in your life. God is with you and you are richly blessed. In the midst of the upcoming season steal some moments to just “be” with God, yourself, and others. Happy Holidays.

(This post was originally published in the Henry County Times, November).

Then, one evening a few weeks ago I received an email from a couple in my church. I had never officially met them. They acknowledged that they barely knew us and admitted that the content of their email may seem strange. They went on to say that they own a beach house in Florida and that they had a strong sense God was leading them to offer us a week at it for free. Normally the house is rented, but one week in mid-September was available.

They followed through with the offer knowing that we would likely not be able to accept since we have three kids in school. They were shocked and pleased when I explained to them the incredible timing of their offer. I explained that we were in dire need of time away and the week available matched our kid’s fall break from school.

This little divine arrangement may seem like a small grace, but to us it was an extremely big small grace. It refreshed us, provided us with quality family time, and encouraged our faith. It also affirmed the faith of the couple that owns the house.

Big small graces happen in our lives in many ways every day. They range from gifts we barely notice to life itself – from breathing to a near death experiences. God often orchestrates big small graces in a mysterious fashion. They are not always straightforward. These graces often include unexpected people, places, and timing. I believe these mysterious gifts mean to refresh our faith in God and others.

Big small graces can be difficult to receive. Often they overwhelm us. Even as providential as our vacation seemed, I wrestled with guilt. How could we receive such a gift? Plenty of people are worse off, and struggling through without a break. Why should we get a break? We were truly humbled by the experience.

Big small graces humble us. Something out of our reach or beyond our control is given to us. Big small graces are reminders of God’s ongoing activity in our lives. All too often we try, push, arrange, manipulate, and strive to no avail. Meanwhile, God glides making things happen, effortlessly. When he does, it makes us feel silly for all of our fretting and sweating.

God is proficient at big small grace giving. It’s his nature. God’s grace continually flows into our lives. Because big small graces are in fact grace, they don’t occur because we put on a good face. They happen because God is God. God loves beyond reason and without an obligation to explain his timing, instruments, or methodology. I believe it brings God pleasure to love us in the mysterious form of big small graces.

Given God’s penchant for these graces, let’s recognize, receive, and even expect them. Let’s keep our eyes open for big small graces in our life. Embrace and enjoy them fully. Also, let’s participate in God’s grace-giving to others. Having just been on the receiving end of one of these big small graces, I know I will.

This article was originally published in the Henry County Times, September.

You may have heard it said that the medium is the message. Everything about the way we communicate something communicates as much or more than what we actually intend to communicate. The way is as much the message as the what. We send messages with our posture, attitude, tone of voice, gestures, clothes, hairstyle, shopping patterns, personal habits, and yes…even our facial hair or lack there of. The type and location of our house sends a message. The type and condition of our vehicle sends a message. Our job title sends a message. Our work ethic sends a message. Etc. Etc. Etc. This being said, the medium doesn’t always give fair representation. Culture rather than character oftentimes dictates the meaning of these messages.

Everything communicates, and we can’t always control what people interpret. Sometimes they misread us, i.e. I’m not unkempt, rebellious, coarse, or unprofessional…most of the time. My lawn maintenance irregularity serves as another simple example. I’m not great at keeping my grass cut. This may lead my neighbors to believe that I’m lazy, sloppy, irresponsible, or all of the above. In reality, my lack of lawn maintenance has to do with the lack of free time in my life. I would rather spend my ‘extra’ time with my wife and kids rather than cutting the grass every time it grows an inch or two. This higher priority sends a meaningful message that my neighbors may never get. I can live with that.

Our choices create an overall lifestyle that sends a message. The reality that everything sends a message can be overwhelming. How can we pay attention to everything all the time? Rather than stressing out, just be more mindful and prioritize. Let your true self and related priorities guide your choices and therefore the messages you most desire to send. Don’t buy into pretentious, godless materialism and self-preservation. Simply live into being who God created you to be without any charade. Engage in an intimate ongoing conversation with God about who you truly are and how to have him dictate your life. Don’t obsess over what others might think or waste time worrying about your life being misread. Fully live.

In the longer term our consistent life-message becomes a model. To model is to lead by example. I believe modeling is the most powerful human change agent available. The late Thomas Merton wrote, “The saint preaches sermons by the way he walks and the way he stands and the way he sits down and the way picks things up and holds them in his hands.” We are God’s message. The medium and the message are the message. Our whole life speaks. Let’s have it speak of God and God’s love.

Be mindful of who you really are and the messages you are sending.

Message sent.

(This post was originally published in Henry County Times, August 2010)

Learning is crucial. It’s vital for success no matter how you define success. The most important thing we can become is a lifelong learner. So, it’s back to school, forever. This may mean reorienting our approach to life and may sound daunting. Don’t fret. It’s also energizing. A curious life equips us to live well in a world where information is doubling faster than ever and will continue to do so.

Fortunately, we all like to learn though we may not recognize it. Humans are learners. We adapt intentionally as well as instinctually. Learning brings joy. I don’t mean that the dreadful discovery of a serious illness brings us happiness. I mean learning something new from an interesting article, a class, a friend, a song, a coach, a teacher, a book, or a television show. Learning brings us pleasure, especially when we implement what we’ve learned and it improves our life or the lives of others.

For lifelong learners school is always in session and the subjects run the gamut. Despite our season of life there is plenty to learn. Ongoing learning makes us better parents, grandparents, spouses, siblings, friends, employees, employers, coworkers, students, professionals, and people.

Learners are open. They incessantly seek to understand or know something or someone better. They seek first to understand rather than be understood. Learners withhold judgment. They are inquisitive and compassionate. They want to know the story behind the person and the story behind the story. They desire to understand the inner workings of practically everything.

It’s easy to see how this learner lifestyle integrates with our faith. To patiently listen, understand, learn continually, and withhold judgment is the way of one who walks closely with God. Walking with God is an ongoing dynamic learning process. People of faith are meant to spend their lives learning (and doing) what it means to love God, others, and themselves with all they are and possess.

God desires to teach us throughout every season and circumstance of our life. Not long before his crucifixion, Jesus tells his followers that when he goes away the Father will send the Holy Spirit to remind them of him and teach them all things. I believe God uses virtually anything as a mouthpiece…God is God after all. We have the incredible benefit of continually learning from God.

God constantly invites us into new discoveries. Sure, some of these discoveries are painful at first, but as we move through them wholeness results. Ultimately, learning as a lifestyle leads us back around to joy.

So, embrace your inner nerd. As the kids head back to school let it remind us to do the same. Go back to school listening and looking for every divine learning opportunity that life offers, and teach others to do the same.

(This post was originally published in the Henry County Times, July 2010)