Spiritual Autoresponders

Once in a while we get a chance to escape our daily routine and take a vacation. If we plan to truly unplug, in order to be responsible, we program our email or voicemail with an autoresponder. So, when people attempt to contact us, they receive an immediate response telling them we do not plan to respond to their communication—anytime soon.

 

Or when someone signs up on a new website, they receive an automatic ‘welcome’ message with instructions or sales pitch—to convey that ‘personal touch’. 

 

When you receive an automated response, don’t you feel special?

 

Once, I tried to leave an encouraging comment on a friend's blog.  It failed.  I got an automatic email that called me a 'spambot' and said my comment was 'illegal'. So much for good intentions.

 

We live in a time of computerized voicemail systems, programmed customer service mazes, self-help online troubleshooting—all designed to herd us toward a solution with as little personal connection as possible.  I’m not bashing this wonderful technology…even though it can be infuriating at times, like when my needs don’t fit the pre-determined scripts. I admit I usually feel relief when a real voice of a real person answers and offers help.

 

Taking the idea of autoresponders to a more personal or spiritual level, I think we would benefit by an occasional ‘system wipe and restore” to re-examine how we interact with folks: 

 

o     If we want someone to help us, can we do a better job in honoring them, treating them as though their time is valuable, and asking for assistance nicely and humbly . . . instead of assuming they are like a vending machine where you push a button and expect immediate ‘output’? 

 

o     Can we learn to listen fully first to someone’s situation, to hear their heart, before we launch into ‘fix-it-advice’ mode? 

 

o     Do we allow ourselves to get in a rut in our relationships, where we may get lazy and fail to laugh, get creative, affirm, encourage, or say, 'thank you'?  When is the last time you responded differently to a friend and surprised their socks off?

 

o     When ugly, unwarranted, vicious words attack, are we skilled and alert enough to put up our ‘shields’ and let those curses deflect back to the attacker without allowing our peace to get even slightly disrupted--sort of like an auto-responding anti-magnetic force field?

 

o     When we ask for God’s help, are we willing to take time and effort to process—and wait—to see the bigger picture and to work on a deeper relationship as we go?  God is not a vending machine, either, and I don’t think he feels the pressure to always produce solutions for us--right NOW.

 

Thank you for reading today’s Destiny Dreamz blog.  For more information regarding dream interpretation or other spiritual topics, please go to www.DestinyDreamz.com or contact usfor further questions, but you may have to wait 5 – 7 business days for us to get back to you.

 

Pioneer Power

Pioneer Power

A funny thing often happens on the way to follow your life’s calling. You discover what you love to do, what you are gifted at, and once you fully commit to ‘go for it’--you invest heavily of all of your resources to get educated and forge forward. The way is difficult, but glorious--as the horizon comes into view! You turn to celebrate with your friends, only to find that no one has followed you.

Such seems to be the experience of the pioneer. Uncharted wilderness beckons you to venture out, traveling light, plowing and breaking rocky ground—with your FACE. You question and analyze your mission, your approach, even your own sanity, because nothing seems to go smoothly. No one can define success or failure, because the guidebook hasn’t been written yet. You get to brave all sorts of dangers, pitfalls, unknown elements, and dark places, because most folks are too fearful or uninterested to accompany you.

It takes supernatural strength to conquer new territory AND endure the disparaging attacks of the ‘normal’ status quo opinions ‘back home’.

People describe you as ‘weird’ or ‘misguided’ because they do not understand the pull on your spirit, the dreams that compel you, the Voice that no one else hears that encourages, “You can do this—you’re making an eternal difference for multitudes by your willingness and faith to stand alone as a trailblazer.” In the process, you come to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is God that leads and empowers you in the challenge.

Because of Destiny’s Direction, you go where no man has gone before, wielding revolutionary approaches, hoping to show others that ‘it’ can be done, even if you are not quite sure yourself how it will eventually work out. After you do the groundbreaking, you can summon the others to tell them what lies ahead—to assure them that the way is ‘viable’.

Keep up the good work! Your loving labor and extravagant cost is not wasted. If you’ve been called, you will also be equipped.

It takes time for anything innovative to get established and become standardized. Followers will catch on, and then go faster and farther than you, but only because you’ve prepared the way and paved the road for them to travel on.

In good character, you can delight in their progress and cheer them on as they push past you to re-work and rebuild your efforts into something even better.

But you may not ever realize the full results—because you’re a pioneer at heart, and you are probably already dreaming about...your NEXT assignment.

"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You'll be changed from the inside out."  Romans 12:2