Last weekend I co-facilitated a retreat for ministerial students in Santa Barbara, CA. And let me just say this before we go any further…Santa Barbara is special. Love it. Beautiful, small, laid back, sunny. Great place to spend some time. Word.

Now to the meat of the matter. I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with about 27 individuals who have committed their lives to serving others. How awesome is that? Very. We explored, examined, dialogued, investigated, celebrated, laughed, cried and generally did things folks on the path to ministry do. It was wonderful. Whenever groups like this get together there is an unspoken identity that bespeaks a band of misfits. Folks that have chosen the narrow path, rebuking conventional wisdom to stand for plenty in the face of lack, health in the face of disease, love in the face of misunderstanding and grace in the face of trying to figure every tiny damn detail of life out through will-power and effort. It is sometimes clumsy, sometimes smooth and always inspiring. What a walk.

Here is what I discovered while on this retreat; there is something entirely holy about allowing oneself to be contributed to while simultaneously contributing. To receive alone is bankrupt. To give alone depletes. To circulate is fulfillment. I healed and was healed. I led and followed. I asked and answered. I gave and received. And at the end of our weekend together, my heart was renewed.

So I ask you…what are your gifts? Give them. What do you desire to be gifted? Receive it. Do it over and over and over again. And experience the blessing of real wealth.

Love.

It happens from time to time…or perhaps often! You catch a wonderful idea that inspires your soul. It makes you want to sing and makes you want to dance. Or it simply feels good and puts a bit of a smile on your face. It’s a blessings. It feels right. It feels at home.

And then, without you even knowing what happened, you begin to doubt your idea. You begin to stack it up to what others are doing and decide it isn’t a very good idea after all. Someone else knows how to do THAT waaaaay better than you. OK. So you decide to just leave it to someone else. You don’t act on behalf of your idea. You just let it die. Right there…before it even got legs. Boom.

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Many, many years ago human beings thought the planet was flat. They were convinced of it. People that thought otherwise were persecuted and ridiculed. However, no amount of thinking or conviction was going to turn the world flat. It was round and would remain round. At some point those that intuitively knew of the roundness would venture out, take a risk and reveal the truth. Were they scared? Probably. Was it a risk? Sure. Was it necessary? You bet.

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There comes a time in our lives, on the pathway to total freedom, when we must give the entirety of our life to God. If we desire to life in grace, then we must give way to Grace. I see a little bit clearer now how I have resisted this idea for a long time. I would give part of my life to God but reserve some parts of it for myself…the parts in which I really didn’t trust and just knew I could do a better job than God. And in doing that, God became exactly the size of my thinking. Painful. And embarrassing.

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Last week I attended the annual Centers for Spiritual Living Convention is New Orleans. It was a powerful week of community and fun! Perhaps the biggest item on the docket for our time together was the fulfillment of the integration process for the organizations formerly known as International Centers for Spiritual Living and United Centers for Spiritual Living. This process has been in the works for many years now, and with a few votes last Monday the deal was sealed. We have a brand new organization, newly elected leadership and a renewed vision for a healthy and vibrant human family. Genesis is blessed to be a member community of our worldwide organizations Centers for Spiritual Living.

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