Joseph Fehlen – Go! Don’t Stay – June 27th, 2010

Joseph Fehlen – Growth through Suffering – June 20th, 2010

(another great blog written by Christy Fehlen originally posted on www.agrowingfamily.wordpress.com)

Our new favorite game is Blokus.  We have started buying it as a gift for birthdays and graduations .   At first we thought the game  was pronounced blow-kiss and embarrassingly enough called it that for a while.  One day it dawned on us  that the whole point of the game is to block the opponent from being able to lay his or her block piece, thus the pronunciation  block us not blow-kiss.  Funny how obvious it was yet we missed the point completely.  The game is simple lay one piece at a time and every piece you lay has to connect a  corner of the last piece you played.  You have to strategize and watch out because your opponent is always on the look out for ways to block you from your next move.  The goal in the end is to lay every block combination you have been given.  Whoever has the least amount of block pieces left in the end, is the winner. 

In the beginning, I would always end up with my larger combination blocks leftover .  Being the student and competitive gamer that I am, I was not going to settle for less than my best.  After playing a few rounds ending with the same results, I realized I better ditch the bigger combination pieces early on because later when things got more difficult it was nearly impossible to play these pieces.  

This game is a great metaphor for life.  Starting with the name….block us or blow-kiss.  Looking back it is so obvious, duh block us.   Isn’t it funny how sometimes all life requires is a glance back to gain a little perspective?  If I did this than the result would be that. Hindsight, right?   It was all there in the name of the game.  The mission statement, the directions, the course of action, yet why was I blinded to it?  I relied on my own common sense or lack of and proceeded forward without a thought for the details.  Details that could have been easily found in the rules and with a little practice and application.

What I really love about this game is that once you start to figure it out, you start to dream of where the pieces can go and the different combinations of plays that will get you to the goal.  All the while, keeping in mind that you are facing an opponent with exactly the same goal.  You have to adjust and sometimes have multiply plans going at the same time.   

So here is my spiritual link-  God’s will.  As Christians we devote our entire lives to knowing and living in God’s perfect will.  Yet to be honest we struggle to be confident in his perfect will because we don’t even recognize the name of the game.  And in the game we really have many options, but it is up to us what we do with the pieces given to us.  Our strategic plan or application is simple.  Remember the big pieces first.  If not you can’t play them later in the game.  It is called priorities.  Mine go something like this God, Marriage, Family and then the rest of the world….. When I don’t “play” the big pieces first, I have to readjust.   Sometimes I have to scrap all the pieces and start over.  I have never completed the game of Blokus, meaning using all of my block pieces.  I usually end up with 6 or 7 blocks left over.  Yet I am improving and that keeps me returning to the game.

(A blog from Christy Fehlen originally posted on www.agrowingfamily.wordpress.com)

So Moses is floating down the river to a life unknown.  How did he get there?  What circumstances led him to this defining moment?  Who could imagine that the life of this baby would eventually serve as the great liberator of his people?  The Bible devotes 1/8th of its pages to the story of Moses’ time.  Yet as I read of these powerful pages, I want to dissect each chapter.  The story is painful yet provides hope.

The details are vivid.   Mother and daughter assembling  a humble papyrus basket  coated with tar and pitch.  What conversations transpired during this?  How many other people were a part of it?   The depression, the grief, the fear the faith, all  the various emotions that encompassed this time were held in silence because they were in hiding.  The journey of grief and loss does not come with a timetable.  One never knows what will trigger it yet, they had no choice they had to move forward. They had to trust that God had a plan.  Without fan-fare they released what they held dear and waited for God’s supernatural intervention. 

What are you holding on to?  Do you have a dream that you have recently experienced slip away?  Maybe you have a child whom you are hoping will turn his heart back toward the Lord?  What is it that you feel so compelled to hold on to that you are paralyzed with fear to let go of? 

Releasing what one holds dear is agonizing yet provides freedom.  Loving with open hands as my friend Cindy likes to remind me.  If one is releasing something physically, the posture of the hand must remain open?   This mother when she released her child extended to him a life of opportunity and position.  She couldn’t have known that at the time, yet she walked in obedience and God honored her faithfulness.  When she released him into the open water, she had to push him out into the reeds.  Then she had to let go.  She pushed him into the river of unknown and she released him with open hands.

Joseph Fehlen – The Joy of Suffering – June 13th, 2010