"Relax Into God's Presence"
The phrase "Relax into God's presence" was coined by Steve Cuss, author of "Managing Leadership Anxiety" and so much more. (Curious, click here.)
His premise is that God always offers us peace if we can still ourselves to receive it.
This thought poses so many coaching questions.
- What keeps us from stilling ourselves to accept God’s peace?
- Are there lies we have come to believe that supersede His peace in our lives?
- Do different people have different thought patterns that keep them from relaxing into God's presence?
- Should good coaching lead us into a place of peace?Â
- Can quality action steps be accompanied by peace?
- Is it possible to have peace in seasons of transition, waiting, or healing?
- Are there times when peace is not what we should be experiencing?
Even a short word study on peace gives us a picture of what could be. We can have peace IN the midst of stuff, not just when everything is resolved. His peace is not what the world gives.Â
That is great news!Â
But it ...
Being Stuck Can Go Both Ways
If you're an active believer, you have probably faced a situation or two that have been just plain hard.
It looks like this – someone shares something they are going through with you, and you listen and care. Maybe you give some advice, maybe you aren’t sure what to do, but you offer a caring heart. They feel seen. You feel like you were there for them.
Then it happens again. It feels a little like déjà vu.
Somehow you see them again, and they share again, and you listen again, but it’s the same stuff. Again, they feel better. They feel seen, and you feel like you were there for them.
When it happens three+ times, you start to wonder -Â am I really helping them, or are they just feeling better in the moment, with no actual change happening?
Maybe you start to avoid them.
Maybe you can’t understand what they really want from you.Â
Maybe you don’t know why they aren’t listening to advice.
Those are the typical responses to conversations that aren’t going anywhere: avoidance, conf...
How Do You Actually Maintain the Gain?
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Tags: coaching tools, road model, dedication, maintain the gain, christian coaching, coach training
Most change doesn't fail on day one. It fails around day seventeen.
The first conversation goes great. Someone recognizes what's really going on, takes ownership of their part, and commits to a concrete action. And it works — for a while. Then life gets loud again, the old pattern feels easier, and slowly, without anyone deciding to quit, the gain disappears.
Dedication is the "D" in ROAD, and it might be the most overlooked of all four letters, because by the time you get here, the hard emotional work already feels done. It isn't.
The parable that's really about this
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells the parable of the sower — seed scattered on different kinds of ground. Some of it springs up quickly on rocky soil, looks promising, and then withers because it "has no root." That image has stuck with me for years, because it describes almost every failed New Year's resolution, every b...