​For the past week I have been chasing a lizard that has gotten into my house.  It looked pretty fat and healthy when I first saw it.  It was so fast that I was unable to capture it.  My intentions are good, I just want to throw it outside so that it can be someplace where it can eat and flourish.  My home is not the right setting for that.
Now a week later it is still too fast for me, but it appears to be slowing down, and worse yet it doesn’t look as fat and healthy.  Unfortunately if I don’t catch it soon and return it to the outdoors it will just die a quiet death behind a piece of furniture.
This morning as I sat down from another failed attempt at lizard catching it occurred to me how like the lizard I am at times. 

• I wander into places innocently, but those places are not places where I can be healthy and grow.
• I get stuck in those places at times, not seeing my way out.
• I have someone, my heavenly father who is trying to capture (my attention) and reveal to me my path to health and freedom.
• I run in the opposite direction, not understanding His intentions, or not believing that being captured is part of His will for my growth.

We use the term the lizard brain, or reptilian brain to identify behaviors such as our fight or flight responses.  It is instinctual and helps us to survive.  The lizard brain is thought to be part of our primitive nature. However as creatures who are designed by a loving God, god has released us for the impulsivity of our reptilian responses, and has given us a brain that can think beyond surviving to thriving.
My poor lizard doesn’t have this, otherwise it would have remembered the open door that it came through to enter the house.  This door stands open several hours a day to let the dog in and out.  It only feels fear of my approach but cannot save itself. 
When I start to feel like this lizard, that I can’t find my way out of something, that I can’t make something come out right, and the panic starts to rise in me, then I am operating in my lizard brain.  That is when I know that I have to tap into the higher executive functioning of my brain, the brain that God so lovingly crafted for me and let Him direct my steps and capture my heart and mind so that the solutions can become evident. 
I love Paul’s words in 1 Ephesians 1:17-19a: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
God is committed to giving us knowledge and wisdom to overcome if we will only stop running from him and operating like my lizard.  I hope to get him out before it is too late.  My prayer is that anyone who is stuck will allow the God who loves them to do the same.
Want to speak to me directly about places where you are finding yourself stuck? Contact me through this link https://page.co/v3kR  You can receive a 15 minute consultation for FREE.  That may be the first step towards a longer journey to your freedom.

​The dreaded holidays are upon us.  The stress and discomfort of having to interact with so many people and smile when you don’t feel like smiling is a constant worry.  The financial expectations and obligations that you feel compelled to fulfill are looming.  If this is the gloomy view of the holidays that you entertain, you may be experiencing a form of depression that is very prevalent during this time of the year. 

It is not necessarily a clinical depression that needs to be treated with medication or therapy, but it should be addressed in a healthy manner.  The key here is to identify these emotions as temporary, only associated with the holidays.  If they persist past the holidays then we may be looking at clinical depression. 

But assuming that these feelings manifest themselves only around this time of the year, here are 3 tips to get you through.

1. Manage your time wisely.  This season is just that, a season.  Although you may feel that there is too much you have on your plate, you can approach it the way a diner approaches an overfilled plate of food.  Eat what is in front of you and palatable to you, leave back the rest.  Take one bite at a time and focus on what you have already committed to chewing. 
2. Take care of yourself.  Your investment in your self-care is necessary if you are going to be of benefit to those you care about and who care about you.  Rather than being selfish, some down time to engage in healthy activities that nurture you (reading a book, going to a game, or just playing a video game) may help you feel more energized for that day of gift shopping that you feel you need to do. If you don’t see your own worth it is unlikely you will be able to see the worth in those around you. 
3. Revisit those things that you feel obligated or compelled to do.  Make a list of them and journal why you don’t want to do them.  Who is the one “making you” spend so much money.  Who is going to be angry at you if you don’t go to your in-laws house?  What is the worst case scenario if you “rebel”?  Will relationships be irrevocably broken, will you fail at your career and perhaps lose your job or will your spouse leave you?  Sometimes when we step back from a problem we see that we have adopted a catastrophic view on things that are not in and of themselves so catastrophic.  You may not be able to put aside all your perceived obligations, but there may be one or two on your list that you can let go of and free up energy to engage in the ones that are more rigid.

 
Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas as Christ’s birthday, use this season as a time where you can reconnect to others in a healthy way.  At the end of the day, a season that is supposed to focus you on “Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men” should not leave you feeling less peaceful and more at odds with your fellow men. Forge some real relationships and work on valuing yourself enough to be able to see the value and worth of others. Christmas from a spiritual point of view is really about the fact that God thought us worth the pain of coming to earth and giving up his life for us.  That is how much you are Loved.  This season, bask in that love!!!
 

When we think of leadership we usually think of the person up front.  That person who leads is usually an expert, the brightest, fastest, strongest or most charismatic.  Because of this they are destined for leadership, right?  Well what about the rest of the world.  Can those who are not the brightest, or most charismatic, can they still be leaders?

We should all strive to be the best at whatever we engage in and do so with confidence, but we should also know that there are other attributes to leadership.  On your way to being the best, all the positions along the way can offer you can opportunities to display leadership.  You can lead from where you are. If you are not positioned up front, or in the corner office, your contribution and influence still matters.  Seeing influence and contributions as key attributes to leadership is as important as positioning. 
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If you change your thinking about leadership your position may follow.  Remember Jesus was a servant leader, he lead by serving others.