If I took time to list all the medical\/dental issues I\u2019ve had in the past two years, readers would get depressed and I\u2019d go beyond my intent to share a one paragraph spiritual jump-start. Needless to say, it\u2019s good that I retired so I\u2019d have time for all my medical\/dental appointments. The problem is I keep getting invitations to speak\/teach\/consult\/mentor and the medical\/dental issues sometimes cause me to have to cancel my engagements, and I hate cancellations. I need to remember some advice from an early colleague who said when unwanted or impractical invitations come, open your calendar in front of you, cover both eyes, and say, \u201cI don\u2019t see any way that I can accept your gracious invitation.\u201d But that is incredibly difficult for me to do, having been raised and mentored by workaholics with a degree of perfectionism mixed in. I confess I need help with this \u2013 when and how to say \u201cno\u201d especially when everything in my calling says, \u201csay yes.\u201d Research is mixed on who first said, \u201cI rather burn out than rust out\u201d but I confess to be on a rather slow burn, struggling with Paul\u2019s advice, \u201cDon\u2019t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame\u201d (Romans 12:11, MSG). So I will press on slowly\u2013 in between medical\/dental appointments. In the words of Robert Frost, \u201cI have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Join me this week in remembering the following global concerns:
\n\u2022 Pray for ten major cities in Southeast Asia that are being targeted for church planting among the Chinese. The total Chinese population of these ten cities is over one million.
\n\u2022 Many Americans who live outside of America will still celebrate American Thanksgiving this week. Pray that their celebration will reflect thankfulness to God for the blessings of life.
\n\u2022 Pray for Joe in Ukraine as he continues his annual tradition of displaying Christmas cards in the corridor so his neighbors can enjoy them. If you\u2019d like to send Joe a card, let me know and I\u2019ll give you his mailing address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If I took time to list all the medical\/dental issues I\u2019ve had in the past two years, readers would get depressed and I\u2019d go beyond my intent to share a one paragraph spiritual jump-start. Needless to say, it\u2019s good that I retired so I\u2019d have time for all my medical\/dental appointments. The problem is I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}