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Daily Life Coaching from Pastor Dave Housholder
“Devotions" is a word with about as much sizzle as "Montgomery Ward." It just sounds dated. It also implies that the thrust of the Christian life should be primarily religious and otherworldly.
We believe strongly in the supernatural realm and the power that flows from the Kingdom, which is a spiritual reality. But we don't see our daily spiritual check-in as being in a different life-drawer from relationships, money, jobs/vocations, health, and emotions.
Jesus came to dwell in the flesh and the Word has to become flesh in our lives too. Check our site every day for a fresh look at your walk in the Spirit of God.
Dave Housholder is the former Hosanna! Teaching Pastor. He is currently the pastor and leader of Robinwood Church in Huntington Beach, California. Dave is also the owner/operator of ThornHeart Empowerment.
Watch a Cat
Monday, July 21, 2008
“Our most fundamental need as humans
is to spend and recover energy.”
–Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
All mammals, including us, are oscillatory beings. We sleep at night and need rest. We are capable of bursts of amazing creativity and productivity.
Watch a cat. They lie around like limp rags with what appears to be no muscle tone at all. But in a blast of speed they can outrun a person or leap onto an 8-foot wall in a single bound.
Life is a series of sprints; not a marathon. Scientists have shown that we, like cats, operate in circadian and ultradian rhythms (you can Google these if you want to learn more…).
We need to “make hay” while the sun (of our energy) shines and rest when it’s recharge time. We are like cell phones that need to be plugged in regularly to operate free of a cord.
The Lord mandated rest for us, a Sabbath; or a day of total rest. Not to be legalistic with us, but in recognition of our biological nature.
How do your rhythms work? When are you at your best? Do you set the tone for your work or do others?
Pay attention to your energy level today and all week…
Pastor Dave Housholder
Lie Down in Green Pastures
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,
he leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul.”
–David, Psalm 23
David was not a lazy lie-about.
He picked up five smooth stones as a middle school kid and went up against Goliath the super soldier.
And took him down…
But David did lie around and write music. We have them today as the “Psalms.”
To kill the giants that oppose us in life, we need down time and creative time.
Allow God to “restore your soul” today. Take a break and don’t stop until the Lord has recharged your batteries.
Yield to his desire to rest you up for giant killing (which will come later).
Pastor Dave Housholder
Nap Time
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
“You must sleep some time between lunch and dinner
and no half way measures!”
–Winston Churchill
In most warmer climates, people take a nap/siesta after lunch. It heightens productivity.
My grandfather the school superintendent had a lounge chair in his office and slept every day after lunch. “It’s nobody’s business if you take a good nap every day” he told me. He bought me a LazyBoy for my office for the same purpose.
Jesus was sleeping in the boat when the storm came up, and indication that he had no trouble napping when others were active.
Most Americans cannot get through the marathon work day we have without at least two “coffee breaks” to ingest chemical stimulants through Starbuck’s, etc.
Try a nap today. If it worked for Winston Churchill and Jesus, it can work for you.
Pastor Dave Housholder
It “Matters”
Thursday, July 24, 2008
“All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute atomic solar system together….we must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind.”
–Max Planck
The design of matter is sublime.
One simple strand of DNA in one of your cells has taken a generation of the best and brightest the world has to offer just to map it (the “genome” project).
When non living things are left on their own, they get MORE decayed and messy. This will call the law of entropy. But life tends to swim upstream against entropy. Life multiplies, builds and creates.
Deep down inside, we just sort of know that there must be some grand intelligence behind all this. Trusting this intelligence is the essence of faith.
Pastor Dave Housholder
Time is Slippery Stuff
Friday, July 25, 2008
“Time is not at all what it seems.”
–Albert Einstein
The Hebrew language, which most of the Old Testament was written with, does not recognize a past, present or future.
There really are only two tenses in Hebrew: verbs that indicate an action is completed and verbs that indicate an action “in process.”
The Bible says that a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.
Time before the flood (Noah and co.) seems strange to us. People living hundreds of years…
And as you get older, the time starts to accelerate. Remember when you were 10 and summer vacation seemed endless?
Time works better for kids because they spend less time worrying about the future; and their past, by definition, is tiny and less significant. They live in the here and now.
Time goes a lot more slowly and meaningfully if we live “in the moment.” Kind of the spiritual equivalent of chewing your food before swallowing…
Time is funny stuff. And the Bible promises “big time with no boundaries” (eternal life) to all who respond to the creator of time and work on His schedule…
Pastor Dave Housholder
