The Lab
The Lab is where I think out loud. These are my raw notes, half-formed ideas, scripture observations, clinical patterns I’m noticing, things I’m working through, and who knows what else.
I also like to make things, so The Lab is my way of holding myself accountable.
This is where it happens before it gets polished and market-y. Newest posts at the top.
The Saul Trap: Stop Trying to Improve on God’s Plan
/in The Lab/by loriI’ve been in a prayerful quiet place since I came down with a terrible flu in the past 10 days.
I had to cut my 30-day video challenge short because I completely lost my voice. But it presented a unique opportunity for me to reframe the circumstances.
In a previous time I would’ve berated myself for not doing enough, or seeing the inherent challenges of an illness as evidence or proof that I’m not meant to do something.
I forced myself to frame this as part of doing 30 days of videos. Sometimes in life people get sick. And sometimes what you intend to do turns out differently than what you thought.
That’s not some grand gesture from God to shut me down. That’s life in a world where people sometimes get sick.
In those cases, the only choice you have is just to figure out your next move.
I’ve been in prayerful consideration of my own next move. I’ve done a lot of experimenting over the last year without any commitment other than doing something every day, usually writing.
This video challenge showed me enough to know — video may be the place to plant my stake in the ground for now.
I’m keenly aware that I’m not a “social media personality” with lots of charisma and witty takeaways for how to live life.
I’m a person who sinks her teeth into new knowledge, figures out how to apply it in a deep way, and then shares it with others who need or want it.
There are lots of other therapists putting great information out there. There are lots of other Christians putting great scriptures and thoughts out there to help you in your walk with God. I’m not trying to be either one of those.
So what I keep coming back to in prayer: I can’t make this about me. About me being some kind of influencer or personality that attracts or draws people. That’s not my shtick, and it never has been.
To try to be some kind of viral presence is a trap.
It puts the emphasis back on you and what you alone can bring to the table. And it feeds your desire to be validated.
I keep thinking about King Saul. He had every external advantage: commanding presence, the anointing of God, and a clear direction. But there was something in him that couldn’t fully trust God to handle what He said He would.
And Saul’s main driver was the approval of his subjects over his obedience to God.
Saul always took matters into his own hands after God had given him clear direction. Each time God asked Him to do something specific, he was so close to obedience.
But there was always a part of him that thought he had something else to add. Something that would somehow improve on God’s plan. Some workaround that would still bring about the same result.
And it cost him everything.
I don’t want to be Saul.
I have some things to bring to the table, but God gave me those things in the first place. So while my job is to pull my chair up to the table, I am trusting God to serve up the rest.
This is what I intend to do with my channel — share what I’ve learned. Not so you can deepen your identity in your problems and challenges. But so you can find the crevices and cracks where you can get just enough leverage to grow.
To learn enough about yourself and the God who made you to know you’re not alone in what you’re trying to accomplish with your life.
My heart is for people to see they are capable of so much, especially when they rely on God for the ultimate solution.
We can do a lot on our own.
But when God is leading and guiding you, we can do so much more than we think possible.
What I strive to bring to the table is what God can do for you and the actions you can take to demonstrate your trust in Him.
If, with God’s help, I’m able to accomplish this, well, that’s the gold star for me. ⭐️
I covet your prayers as I continue to walk down this path.
MORE FROM THE LAB
Don’t quit before you quit
/in The Lab/by loriI used Blogger back in the day to record some of my observations in my work life.
I ran across this post from 2008. I was in a difficult work situation at the time. I was eager to find something else but we were in the middle of a recession, so not an easy task.
I felt like I was failing, so naturally I leaned in harder to the work. This has always been my knee-jerk reaction. If something isn’t happening for me, I must not be working hard enough.
Obviously, I hold the keys to my own success. But it would be several years before I would piece together the true picture of how much I was being throttled in that role.
At the same time, I was also aware of how easy it is to disengage when you’re unhappy at work. And I don’t like to quit before I quit.
So this post was me trying to remind myself of two things:
When you’re in a tough work situation, It’s easy to feel like you’re trapped.
But you always have control over your perspective and how you choose to engage until something better comes along.
A year from this post I found a great opportunity that built my knowledge in another industry.
Almost 20 years later, I still have to remind myself to focus on the work and let God handle the rest.
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I Came to X as a Mission Field. Here’s What I Learned.
/in The Lab/by loriI originally started posting on X because I saw it as a mission field.
It occurred to me that the Greek letter CHI is expressed as the letter X, especially in the early Christian world. CHI is the first letter of Christos, which is Christ. Early Christians used it as shorthand for his name.
This is actually how we got the term Xmas. Many think that’s disrespectful, like removing Christ from Christmas. But it’s not disrespect, it’s history.
So when I thought about the platform X and its reputation as the global town square, I thought it would be a unique opportunity to simply tell others the story of what God has done for me.
I spent a year posting on X every day, most of the time multiple times a day. But I slowly found myself pumping out more motivational content like many others on X.
Then this past weekend, X implemented real-time translation with Japan, where English speakers can now see posts from Japan in English.
It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s huge.
It opened up a whole new world of a super-engaged user base that none of us really knew about. I saw several posts from Japanese Christians talking about how wonderful it’s been to connect with other believers, because Christians in Japan are a dramatic minority.
Here was a new channel for them to receive encouragement from fellow believers around the world.
It reminded me of one of the first amazing things about the internet thirty years ago. That one person could reach a global audience, which was unheard of before.
It also struck me that this happened during Holy Week.
Not only can Japanese Christians receive the encouragement of Easter week from fellow believers around the world, but others who are not Christians can bear witness to how Christians celebrate their faith and the person at the center of it, Jesus Christ.
So now I’m intrigued.
Because I had kind of abandoned my perspective of X as a mission field. I had largely chalked it up to a great primer for me to start posting consistently in writing every day, which was the more important metric for me. And honestly, that is the real takeaway from this past year.
I am now conditioned to writing every day, short form, long form, it doesn’t matter. I write something from my perspective, in my own voice.
Not many people see it, but I’m okay with that. Because I understand that I am perfecting a craft and learning about myself in the process.
So I pivoted to this video challenge to do the same thing: make videos every day and post them for 30 days, to demonstrate my willingness to be consistent in a more challenging area.
Well, I was right. Video is genuinely more challenging for me.
But I have felt strongly God pulling me into video. And I’m trying to be obedient to that, even without knowing where it goes.
It’s tempting as a Christian — when you get a realization about something, or feel like God shows you something small — to try to read the tea leaves (which, by the way, is not a spiritual concept).
I feel like that’s what he did with me and X. But I got confused, because I came into it seeing a mission field, and then somewhere along the way I blended in with all the motivational speakers.
I’m not opposed to encouraging people — I understand that’s part of the deal. But it wasn’t what I came there to do.
X has been remarkable for getting me to build a consistency that led to this video challenge.
And even now I’m working to improve based on what I’m learning, to figure out how to spread the message on YouTube.
But I still don’t feel like God has given up on that original vision.
I know I’m not the only one who feels this way about X. Many Christians have expressed what a unique environment it is, and many are hosting Bible studies and audio spaces around biblical topics.
My main point is this:
Our job as Christians is simply to tell the story of what he’s done for us.
We make it too complicated. We think we need flashy concepts or big audiences.
But all it takes is two people connecting in some way, and then those two people go out and tell somebody else. That’s all that’s needed for God to spread His wonderful message of salvation.
I’m not trying to read ahead and figure out what he’s doing next.
I’m trying hard to stay in my lane, do what He’s asked me to do right now, and trust Him with what comes after.
This is how I’m living that out.
And here’s my Day 11 video that’s also me living this out publicly.
MORE FROM THE LAB