this last week, i was amongst a group of people, most of whom believe in jesus.  we met together, but not in a physical church building.  each night, we heard short messages from the book of john in the bible, and talked about jesus.  then, we said grace and ate together and had meaningful conversations.  during this last week, i’ve had conversations around  generosity, grace, faith at work, the love of jesus and experienced these in action – love, patience, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.  and we witnessed god’s goodness and faithfulness through his wonderful creation of sun, snow and wind.

each of us came bringing food and drink to share it with others in the group.  and there was no lack.

was this gathering called “church”?  or do we physically have to be in a building to bring joy and worship our maker?   i believe this was an example of the church scattered.  we all came together, drawn by the love of snow.. and in the midst of life, deep conversations occurred.  and people who haven’t experienced the church gathered in a physical building were able to experience the depth of fellowship that exists because of our common love of our creator, our maker, our God.

the last few days i’ve been skiing.  and improving as you would expect each day.  but yesterday, for whatever reason, i had a really bad day on the slopes – and it felt like i reverted back to how i was 3 years ago.  my bad skiing habits came back, i lost my confidence and then my thinking got me going in a downward spiral – and it definitely showed in my skiing.

my ski instructor friend heard about the terrible time i was having and the first moment she had a break, she kindly gave me a quick lesson.  it took 5-10min and i was back on track again.

i think we all need friends like this.  it only took a few small corrections and i was set to continue the rest of the day by myself.  in life, if we catch things quickly enough, it’s easier to make small adjustments then when we let things escalate.  by that time, the change we have to make is bigger, and harder.  sometimes all it takes is a friend to ask you the right question, with honesty, and love and the right motive.

that’s the power of accountability.  for someone to ask you the tough questions when you might not be so forthcoming in initiating sharing about the issue you’re facing.  i blessed to have such a friend where we check in with each other every week.  there’s been times where i’ve been in a great season of my life, and she hasn’t – and we’ve been able to share each others joy and burdens.  and there’s been times where it’s been the opposite.  over the year or so that we have been doing weekly checkins, we have built up trust where we can openly share what areas of our lives are not going so well.  we are able to ask the hard questions – “how’s your heart going?”, what do you need prayer for?  and to help each other out.

thank you d… xoxo

glean has a few definitions and the one i’m referring to is = to gather (leftover grain) after a harvest.

i wrote about this in a different context before.  today, i’m pondering what gleaning looks like in a work context.  i’m used to working to my fullest potential, to do wise deals that mean that things are pushed to it’s maximum.  but perhaps instead of acting on all the opportunities i’ve been given – i can allow gleaning to happen and to give others the opportunity they might not have.  two examples of this that are fresh in my mind were both shown to me by the same friend.

one. there was a property deal where he was fortunate to get at a good price due to some possible foundation issues. upon further inspection, those potential issues were not causing any current major issues.  he  renovated it and rented it out so the property was cashflow positive.  9 months, he then sold it gaining a 30% profit.   the agent told him that he could have probably received $40,000 more if he wanted.   i asked him why he didn’t push the price higher and he replied simply saying that he was happy with the profit and wanted to leave the buffer for the next person for the possible foundation issues.

two. we had both independently identified a great property that was going for auction and upon chatting to each other about it, he generously offered that if i wanted to buy it, he would not bid on it and let me go for it as he knew i was trying to get into this area.

these show me examples of gleaning, to decide not to do something so that others have opportunity for their own fruitful labour. it also shows me a person that realises that there are plenty of opportunities to go around.  this friend has an abundance mindset and he does not think that by being generous to someone else, he will lose out.

how about you? in what areas of your work can you allow for gleaning?

this is one word i’ve deliberately emitted out of my vocabulary.

nowadays, busy is a word used almost like an award to indicate that what you’re doing is significant, like something to brag about.  that if you live a busy life, you must be important.

according to dictionary.com, it also means you are not accessible.

don’t get me wrong. i live a full life.. but it’s intentionally filled with people i want to hang out with, things i want to do and actually, it’s full with space.

space to think, breathe, relax, sleep, recharge, read, have fun, surf, ski, play

space to spend with friends, space to spend time with God

and space for emergencies

joel a’bell had an interesting take on the old testament law of harvesting (e.g. deuteronomy 24:19), where the israelites were told not to reap the harvest of their land right to the very edges of their field… but to leave some for the poor and the alien.  so that they are able to glean from our harvest.

joel commented that some people have maxed out their time, energy, space, mentality, emotion… and as a result have nothing left for others.   i’ve experienced this when i’ve met up with some people and there have been many times where i might have wanted to share something deep with them and needed their friendship in particular times.. but as they just didn’t have time.. and over a period of time, i’ve lost touch with these people.   i don’t want to miss that opportunity to help someone.  i used to pack my schedule one after the other, but now, if i’m meeting with friends, i’ll deliberately leave space after so if our catchup goes over time for whatever reason, my schedule has allowed for that buffer.  whilst the old testament might have described the poor and needy as financially poor, i think today, there are a lot of people poor of emotional support.

 “if i harvest right to our time and emotional boundaries, than i’m not interruptible and people who need help can’t glean from me” – joel a’bell

sometimes, i don’t realise the significance of something cos’ in the beginning it looks small.

but long term habits start from a will. well at least good habits do! then grow to be regular things.

or in my case, creative ideas merely start as a thought and then as i give it attention, it could grow.

today, i’m excited to say that i recorded my first podcast interview with the amazing luke from hope property investing.  i’m currently learning how to edit an audio file so won’t be released just yet to the world… but i still can’t believe it’s actually happening!  i’ve had this vision for my passion project stories worth telling for a long time now and it’s nice to see things progress.

the things i’ve learnt to set up stories worth telling has been enormous.  i started with a vision to want to share real stories of amazing people with others – with the hope of encouraging someone to find their own purpose.  i had plenty of people give me advice on what they thought would be great … but i stuck to my own vision.  however, i never thought i would be doing a podcast and i’ve learnt, sometimes you just got to start… and see where the road leads.