Bookends

In my last post, I admired a colleague of mine for her ability to set an intention. It was not easy for her to come to the decision she made to fulfill her intention, but she came to the decision and bravely faced the trade-offs. And that's what this life is really about anyway--trade-offs.

The bookend for the end of this week is that tonight, I celebrate a friend of mine who also set an intention. When I met her 8 years ago, she had no idea how the "hows" would happen or even be possible, but that didn't make her give up her dream of helping women. Tonight, I celebrate my friend who reaps the first fruits of her labor as she is conferred the degree Doctorate of Philosophy. I celebrate that my friend will now be positioned to help women sort through their lives and create wholeness from the context of our fractured world.

It really is the small things that both of these women did each day that allowed them to be who they are today. When I am doing small things, it's sometimes hard to remember why the small things really matter. My marathon training is teaching me this skill. This is my 3rd marathon and I think I'm just getting it this time around--It's the small runs that happen day-in an day-out and it's the small choices I make to eat healthy and go to bed early that will allow me to cross the finish line in 17 weeks with a smile on my face and joy inside my body and filling my soul. It's not about some super-training schedule that makes me look good in front of those unique human beings called runners...it's about me and my running shoes--and my intention.

Every person has an intention, even the ones who look like they have no intention cell in their body. I think people aren't aware that their intentions are defined and shaped by the constricting confines of a consumerist world. And if we only knew the truth, then we would be free.

Tomorrow is a good day--the Leadership Team for UrbanLife meets for the first time as a group. They are 11 very trusting people who have agreed to help build this ministry with me. My intention was 12 on the Leadership Team, so I'm waiting for God to do what God does best--have some holy humor at my expense--reminding me that I'm human and that all I have to do in this world is to Trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understandings.

I think I can.