You don’t know what you really think until…

You don’t know what you really  think until you say it.

I’m struck by the amount of times people will make appointments to see me in hopes that I’ll have the answers to all their problems. I can tell, as they sit down, that their plan WAS to show up and articulate their thoughts in a clear and concise way. Yet something common happens when they open their mouth. As they begin to talk, a look of bewilderment and confusion covers their face as the unexamined thoughts that lived in the seclusion of the mind crosses the threshold of their mouth into the light of day. What they thought was a settled issue evolved and changed into something entirely different as it went from being internalize to being verbalized.

You don’t know what you really think until you say it. Our thoughts can deceive while community reveals the genius as well as the frailties of our thoughts. We all need people who we can bounce ideas off. Not every little thought that crosses our mind needs to be shared but the ones that take on a life of their own and have the power to begin to shape, or reshape us, need to be shared.

Speaking of which ….Have I ever told you the idea I had about a car that can use extinct birds as fuel? Birds that you’ve never head of like the Tahitian Red-billed Rail or the Mauritius Blue Pigeon would now be able to be burned to power your car. Now for all the tree huggers that are reading this take heart, this car would have a great exhaust that would produce ZERO toxic emissions thus making it Eco friendly. Net result: No more high fuel bills and no more annoying lists of lonely extinct birds.

…. Tell me what you think

greatest counseling how-to video EVER!!!

I literally thought this was how to deal with just about any problem when I first started working with people(God forgive me lol)

COMMANDING VS. DEMANDING RESPECT

Command: To direct with authority; give orders to. Deserve and receive as due
Demand: To claim as just or due
Respect: High or special regard
Its sounds cute to say, “everyone deserves respect”. I hope when people say that, they AREN’T saying that I have to give every person I meet high or special regard. I mean really?!?! I think everyone deserves civility and consideration but not everyone deserves respect by definition. Which brings me to my point. There are two way in which you can garnish respect. The first is to demand respect while the other is to command it. I’m blessed to have great leaders around me that set an example of commanding respect.
You want to be a person that commands respect do the following:
- Love those under you and care for your subordinates like those you’re subordinate to.
- Walks the walk and don’t just talk the talk. Lead from the front and don’t be afraid to get your nails dirty
- Truly celebrate when others succeed, even when they are succeeding at something you are pursing.
- Focus on where you’re going. That’s the only reason people follow you… because you’re actually going somewhere.

OR you can be a person that demands respect by neglecting the above items and do all the following:
- Insist people ALWAYS refer to you by your title.
- Obsess over superficial things. Spend you energy looking like a leader. Right cloths, body language, words ect.
- When something is getting done make sure you’re right there. Don’t worry about being a part of the productivity, but make sure you’re right in the middle of it.
- Push your subordinates around and suck up to your superiors. In other words, memorize and be an active part of the pecking order
- In general make sure you don’t spend a lot of time on your content and character but focus you attention on your image.

If you command respect, you will positively effect countless lives having the comradery of both your superiors and subordinates and when you reach your goals you will have tons of people that will celebrate with you. If you live your life demanding respect you might reach some goals but it will be lonely when you get there and those that DO rejoice with you will do it only in an obligatory manner and thus your successes will be shallow. in his book Into the Wild C. McCandless said, “Happiness is Only Real When Shared”. When you’re a true leader you will not only be able to joy in others success’ but you will always have people around you that will truly joy in yours.

HERE’S TO YOU NIKO CHAMPION

A 16 second video that will explain everything you need to know about why my wife is amazing(and tired) and why my son is crazy. He’s a quick one…. and a cubs fan.

THE LAW OF REVERSED EFFORT

Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

Judges 15:14-15 As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists. 15 Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it.

-Have you ever seen someone panic in a pool? They fight hard against the water but sink.

-Have you ever “tried” to sleep, knowing you needed rest for the day to come? All that resulted was a sleepless night.

-Have you ever made a relational mistake then try to kick it into overdrive to make it better? It most likely got worse.

-Have you ever racked your brain to place a song or a name or such? Net result: you usually can’t… until later, when you stop trying and it pops right into your head.

All these and a hundred more examples point to the truth of the law of reversed effort. According to Aldous Huxley the law of reversed effort states; The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed.

If you know me or read my blog you know I’m all about hard work and effort. However, there are times that the harder we fight for something the more ground we seem to loose. It may be that we are fighting to take a hill that we were never meant to take. It may be that we’re taking a hill that we’re not YET meant to take. Or it may be that we’re going about the fight wrongly empowered.

Rogue wisdom says, “pick your battles carefully”. This bit of wisdom has always been counter to my impetuous nature. Every battle has often looked worth fighting and so I’ve fought. Problem is, even when I win, I loose because I rise from the fray exhausted, with little to show for my efforts. I’ve learned, or rather I should say, I’m learning to pick my battles more carefully.

I’ve had my moments, those rare, beautiful moments of clarity. It’s in these moments when I truly get it. You see when we pick the right battle, for the right reason, at the right time, empowered by something greater than us, it all comes together.

God help us to never drift from the reality that we need you and the strength that you give.

I KNOW YOU’RE ALL HURTING ABOUT MICHEAL BUT…

Today the world grieves at the loss of Michael Jackson. The sang, he danced……(trying to think of something else)… Ya that’s all I got. People are calling his death a tragedy. The truth of the matter is, his entire life was tragedy. Here’s a man that is a clearly wounded soul that pushed through who knows what kind of childhood traumas to make money for those that worked around him and “supported” him. Michael Jackson perfectly exemplifies the dysfunction in our culture. We celebrate talent over character and mental stimulation over mental health. Dog fight if you will if you as long can catch a football. Take an Argentinian lover as long as you’re a charismatic Governor. Slap your girlfriend around just make sure you’re a snappy dresser with a great lawyer and song that’s top 10 in iTunes.

Bono once said:
“My own dad didn’t encourage me much, maybe to save me from being disappointed. And my way of rebelling has been to prove I can go out and win the love of the whole world. But it’s a funny need for compensation that makes you need fifty thousand screaming people telling you they love you in order for you to feel normal.”

I’ve always thought that there is a hidden wound and a need for acceptance in those that need the lime light. Michael Jackson was walking wounded. He wasn’t misunderstood. I think the world wants to believe he was misunderstood because it’s easier than facing the fact that we are entertained of the back of his dysfunction. He had two of the most bizarre marriages ever… Fathered two children(the biggest victims here) that he used like publicity props… Faced MULTIPLE allegations of pedophilia… Had his face shaped and reshaped by plastic surgeons like modeling clay in the hands of child… and on and on and on. I watched HUGE crowds gather outside the courthouse at his child molestation trial to “support him”. I thought “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?” Child molesters are tried every day in this nation and when do you see hundreds gather to “support” them…..OH! I forgot this one sang and danced. Shakespeare said “The evil men do lives after them the good is oft interred with their bones” but I would have to disagree. John Gotti at his death was given the burial of a dignitary instead of a criminal murderer and now Michael Jackson will be honored and enshrined as a saint.

Parents lost a son yesterday and siblings lost a brother and that is sad. Its sad because he died before his time. Its sad because the time he DID live didn’t really look like living from my perspective. The saddest part is that America won’t learn anything here. I know i know America is saddened and grieving and if you listen carefully you can hear our culture collectively saying,

“Bye Marilyn Monroe, Bye Anna Nicole, Bye Chris Farley, Bye Micheal….. Give us the next star to amuse ourselves with as we watch them slowly self destruct…”

I THINK I HAVE A PROBLEM

I’m planning my next Ultramarthon and realizing that my running may be more of an addiction than a pass time. Here are some of the reasons.
1 -I spend more time in the drug section than the food section of Wal-Mart.

2 -I can expound on the virtues of eating salt.

3 -My son cries harder when he misses a training run with me than he does when he gets hurt

4 -I know the location of every corner store, public restroom, and water fountain within a 25-mile radius of your house.

5 -People at work think I’m in a whole lot better shape than you think you are.

6 -I always have at least one black toenail.

7 -Every summer i strongly consider preemptively having all my toenails removed

8 -I really envied Tom Hanks’ long run as Forest Gump.

9 -I think its  totally logical to get up for a 20 miler at 4am

10 -I gleefully share the refining qualities of pain and suffering to anyone who will listen

11-I don’t go on any trips without Google mapping a run before I get there.

12 -As an infant I was dropped on your head.

13 -I can easily listen to 3 audio books a week…while running

14 -When I see the “SYRACUSE 50 MILES” sign on the thruway it reads like a dare.

15 -I drink from a water bottle at the dinner table and don’t think its weird.

16 -My wife doesn’t believe me  when I say “never again” after a ultramarathon.

Well I gotta go time for my second run of the day

Any idiot can run a marathon. It takes a special kind of idiot to run an ultramarathon.
–Alan Cabelly

EX NIHILO – PART 3 – REPAIRING FRACTURED FREINDSHIPS

In 1975, an angry man rushed through the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam until he reached Rembrandt’s famous painting “Night watch”. He took out a knife and cut the painting up. In 1990, a man sprayed acid onto the painting with a concealed pump bottle. Security guards intervened and sprayed water onto the canvas. Luckily, the acid had only penetrated the varnish layer of the painting and the painting was fully restored.

Rembrandt painstakingly created a masterpiece that in a moment of impetuousness was almost destroyed. E.R. Bulwer-Lytton said, “It is difficult to say who do you the most mischief: enemies with the worst intentions or friends with the best.” So what do you do with a relationship that is so valuable and precious but now lays cut, broken or fractured through harsh words or foolish actions? What do you do with the pain, the heart wound and regrets? I think the answer lies in the way in which Rembrandt’s painting was treated. The curators would never decide to simply throw this iconic work away because it was damaged. WHY? Because it is priceless. Rather the painstaking process had to begin to restore what was deeply damaged.

I hear people say silly inaccurate things about relationships one being, “you shouldn’t have to work so hard for to make a relationship work” WRONG! In fact I would say you only get out of a relationship what you invest into it. Especially when one or the other or both has been wounded ‘work’ is exactly what its going to take to fix it. Here are a few thoughts on how to try to redeem something from a relationship that’s on the brink of nothingness…

-Assess the value: Some relationships are for a season, some should have never been and some are for a lifetime. Relationships, even great ones, go through seasons of conflict. But whatever the case you must asses the relationship you are in before you seek to reengage and repair it.

-Handle with care: Like a damaged Rembrandt, a damaged relationship must be repaired with care. Its can’t be fixed haphazardly since it was most likely haphazardness and impetuousness that brought the relationship into it’s broken state.

-Own your part: They say it takes two to tango. I don’t tango but I do know that it doesn’t always take two to make a relationship go wrong. If you did the cutting, OWN IT, and repent of it… from the heart.

-Forgive freely: Healing can’t come were forgiveness isn’t granted. It doesn’t mean opening yourself to get cut again but rather forgiveness is a balm that heals the cut that’s already there. Forgiveness is more a gift to the wounded than to the one who did the wounding.

-Forge forward with new wisdom: To learn from others mistakes is wisdom. To learn from your own mistakes is smart. To refusing to learn from your own mistakes is just plain stupid. Make every conflict count and let it make you and your relationships better.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” -C.S. Lewis

EX NIHILO – PART 2

This last week I had the distinct privilege of spending a couple days with some amazing people. In the heart of Brooklyn N.Y. is METRO ministries headed up by Pastor Bill Wilson. They exist to serve the most at risk children in the five boroughs of New York City. I rode on one of the buses that’s dispatched to get the kids. As I rode the first thing I was struck by the poverty.the feelings where reminiscent of those I experienced in the barrios of the Dominican Republic or the slums of Mexico. Having kids of my own a deep empathy welled up in me at what I saw. These kids have nothing it seemed.

How will they make it? How will they rise from the nothingness they’re surrounded by?

Even as I was contemplating that question I began to see the answer. The two assistants that rode along got off every time the bus stopped to greet the kids and hug the mothers. It was ALWAYS moms, not one dad, which is almost always the case in these neighborhoods. Once every seat was jammed with 3  kids I began to see what all this was for. The assistant, a big high school kid, began to lead the kids in song… “God is a big God oh yes he is. He will pick you up, he will turn you around, he will place your feet on solid ground”. The kids sang so loud it left my ears ringing and my minds eye seeing how something can rise from nothing.
We where on one of the last buses to arrive and fill an auditorium filled with about a 900 other kids. The amazing team was  the kids the lessons of the week entitled, “storms will surely come”. Instead of the normal storm that you’d hear taught to this age group i heard them say things like, “maybe your dad went to jail this week and you don’t know when you’ll ever see him again” and “you mom may be on drugs” and “maybe you got an eviction notice and you’ve been forced to live on the street”. I looked around to see little kids beginning to cry. I realized that these illustrations where are all too real. This is a world that few of us are exposed to but one that Pastor Bill Wilson has chosen to surround himself in and live for.

It’s easy to misunderstand Pastor Wilson. He’s rough and to the point with the look in his eye like that of a prize fighter. Ones that’s battled but hasn’t been beaten. He reminded me of Jesus how he seems to draw the children and frighten the timid and religious. He don’t mince words and he lives will intentionality. That intention is clear to be a voice that bring hope. Its easy to look at these kids and say they’re hopeless but he clears that up in short order. He says, “These kids aren’t hopeless, they just don’t have hope”. He, and the team at metro ministries have made it their mission to bring that  hope, the hope of Christ, in a place that others say, “nothing will come of these kids”.

Metro Ministries proves that  ex nihilo(from nothing), something beautiful can come.

Matthew 19:14 (NIV) Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

EX NIHILO – OUT OF NOTHING

In the different theories of creationism is that of creatio ex nihilo which is “creation out of nothing”. It begs the question, could God take nothing and make something? Can something rise from nothing? In the beginning God created…. and it was good. Then he handed it over to us, his creation, and it got bad in short order. Maybe the theory of creatio ex nihilo is absolutely correct. Whether or not this theory is correct frankly doesn’t concern me too much. Whatever he did, he did. However he did it is great. I believe that God created it all. I have a strong faith that can accept, without doubt, that God created it all. But this blog post REALLY isn’t about that at all. My question and concern is much more current.

God makes something out of nothing. –We take that something and turn it into nothing. –Can God take my nothing and again make it something… something of real value?

We take what’s good and by our own self will and egotism run from the creator of good and turn the good thing bad. The good opportunity, the good friends, the good gifts…. If we aren’t careful we can take them all and reduce them to nothing.

ex nihilo – out of nothing

I believe that God can take a universe void of a single particle of dust and create all we see and have yet to discover. The real question is this: do i deeply believe that he can take a broken relationship, gift or life and out of nothing create something again? I’m staking my life on the fact that he can. For the next few days I want to share stories of how we can make something out of nothing with God’s help. We are created in the image of God and that includes his creative nature. That part of him that CREATES. We posses that same quality. We feel it in us when it all falls down. It’s that stirring, that discontent, that hunger to be whole and right and good. ex nihilo… out of nothing, i believe can come something…. something beautiful.

I FEEL GOOD I FEEL GREAT I FEEL WONDERSFUL…REPEAT

I’m at the peak of my training for an upcoming marathon and feeling great. One of the academic fields that fascinate me (I mean other than music therapy, English lit, dance, philosophy and art history) is sports psychology. It has everything I love about psychology MINUS the blaming your mother for failure to breast feed and your father giving an inadequate amount of hugs. Every elite athlete that I have ever read about has enlisted the help of a sports psychologist at one time or another. I’m specifically fascinated by the mental conditioning techniques that are taught to these athletes.

1. SELF-TALK. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” What you think about affects how you feel, act and perform. The long and short of it is: your life will go in the direction of your most dominant thought.

Here are a few examples published in TRIATHLETE magazine:

“My mind is quiet.”
“I am at ease.”
“My mind is calm & quiet.”
“I have great athletic skills.”
“I am tough and strong mined.”
“I’m energetic and alive.”
“I am confident.”
“I am in control and on a roll. “
“I am quick to make decisions in a stressful situation.”
“I see myself getting better and better each day in every way.”

What is your mantra? What are you saying to yourself?

2. MENTAL IMAGERY. In his book serious training for endurance athletes, Rob Sleamaker says, “The Mind creates an image of a movement before initiating the movement.” Self-talk and mental imagery go hand in hand in my estimation. You have to see yourself finishing strong and with a smile on your face. Maintaining a positive mental state is difficult as we are more inclined towards negativity and quitting

3. FOCUSING SKILLS. Focus on the moment. Don’t stress about the past mile, but focus on the mile your in. Don’t worry about the miles that lie ahead but be present and be positive.

4. RELAXTION TECHNIQUES. RELAX. Remember in life no one gets out alive. Ya, I said it. Point is, live well and ENJOY the ride. Perfectionism in egotistical, so stop it. When you do ANYTHIING perfect come tell me. Until then, if you’re plagued with perfectionism, you will be equally plagued with and inferiority complex as you will constantly find yourself falling short of your self imposed insanity. A better goal is optimal performance. “The optimization mind-set combines the desire for the greatest possible performance with the understanding that training and competition happen within variable and often unpredictable conditions”(Jeff Simons PhD). Might I just say this is equally true of life.

GOOD GRIEF (PART 4)

“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”~Kahlil Gibran

I was recently at a conference where Ed Young Jr. was speaking. In his talk he used the made up word “brutiful”. He was talking about service to God, indicating that it was totally brutal and totally beautiful…in other words Brutiful.
I would say also of grieving and loss that it too is brutiful. There is a headstone in Ireland that reads, “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.” I think that says it well (mental note: come up with a witty and pithy epitaph for my headstone).

Psalms 30:5 says “Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” In the darkest seasons of our soul, our hearts reach out. It reaches out for something real and lasting and true. Someone said “the death of a loved one produces emotions that can be described as the feeling of reaching out for someone who has always been there, only to find that when we need them one more time, they are no longer there.”
Grief, unchecked, can cover us in indescribable darkness. A feeling that no one can understand me, and no one can help me. But the truth is that there is comfort for those that grieve. Matthew 5:4 says; “Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” When you’re hurting and suffering loss, God himself offers comforts. I know that in pain, the finger of blame often points upward towards God, but where else can we turn when what we thought was sacred and unshakable gets shaken? Only God is unchangeable. Not only does God offer comfort to those that mourn, but he also offers empathy. You see, God also knows the pangs of loss and grief as he endured watching his son suffer and die. And when his divine finger could rightly point to me and assign me the blame for his son’s death, he reaches out his arms in love. WOW! It was our sins and short-comings that made Christ’s death a necessity. Yet instead of giving us what we deserve, God gives us the comfort and forgiveness we NEED.
In your grief and pain, don’t turn from the only one that can truly offer you the help you need. Today, except and embrace the divine gift of comfort God offers to the grieving and let him hold you through the pain. If you do, you can discover what the psalmist discovered in Psalms 147:3 that: He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.

HERE’S THE FACTS FOLKS

-If you vote for John McCain because he’s white, YOU’RE A RACIST
If you vote for Barack Hussein Obama because he’s black YOU’RE PROGRESSIVE

-Harvesting baby carrots in the prime of their youth simply for human consumption is wrong.

-To say you love the smell and look of autumn is REALLY to say you love the smell and look of decay and death. That’s sick and you need to talk to someone .

-To kick off your campaign for presidency of the United States of America in the home of William Ayers is OK. After all, we ALL know people that have participated in domestic terrorism from time to time. Relax he only bombed the New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, of the Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972. And in 2001 he said he wished they had bombed more. BUT, its not like he bombed an abortion clinic…that would be morally reprehensible.

-“Why did the chicken cross the road?” Here’s a bigger question! What kind of world do we live in when livestock can’t cross a road without their motives being called into question?

LEVERAGING PAIN FOR PURPOSE

St. Francis with a Leper

It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word
And then that word grew louder and louder
Til it was a battle cry
-Regina Spektor  (the call)

How do we leverage pain for purpose and loss for gain? I think a sign that we are healing from grief is when we are able to move past the need for others to see how much we’re hurting to sharing in  the hurting of others. Who better to empathize with the hurting but one who has suffered loss.  But so often we stay cocooned in our own conscience pain and  fail to be moved by those that are suffering all around us.

I believe pain CAN be leveraged for purpose. I believe the subtle feeling that, “I can make a difference”, can be metamorphosized into a world changing battle cry. BUT HOW? Well I don’t think simply being aware of a need is enough. I think you have to feel it. I mean you have to feel it deep in your gut. A tear jerking, goose bump producing, sleep loosing, heart sick feeling. Now there are needs all around us every day that we ought to do something about. I don’t need a sign from God to step up in those cases and help but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about finding that “thing”, that need that moves you to your core.

You don’t move till you feel.
You can’t feel till you see.
And you’ll never see if you don’t look.

I encourage you to open your eyes and look with “God eyes” to see needs that are all around. There are needs in your family, neighborhood, city, nation and the world. I for one sat and watched documentaries on the genocide in Darfur today. I watched them until I wept, and than I watched some more. I wanted to feel it, not just see it. Seeing life through another mans eyes makes me see my life different.  It makes me want to live my life different. There is a Chinese proverb that says “I was sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.”

Look around until you see something that moves you. Let it pull you out of the cocoon and release you into doing what you where created to do… Help and serve the world around you.
I was reminded lately of this powerful story of St. Francis. He was young and wealthy and had it all, at least according to worldly standards until he had a life transforming encounter.

“One day, in a singular moment of personal conversion, Francis encountered a leper. In his age, lepers were forced to ring a bell wherever they went and to cry out the warning: “Unclean!” Society had embedded in Francis an incomparable loathing for persons afflicted with this class of illness. He had always feared both the disease itself and the horrible disfigurement it wrought. Customarily he reacted to lepers with repugnance and anxiety. Like so many of his contemporaries, his personal revulsion affected the further humiliation of these afflicted persons and added to their suffering. Nonetheless, in a decisive moment of illumination, Francis suddenly perceived in this leper the embodiment of God’s beauty, a human being to be loved and cared for tenderly. By embracing the leper, the Saint learned to embrace all people just as Jesus did.” (from shrinesf.org)

AN UNSUNG HERO

Carl Wilkens

I recently listened to a lecture on “ethical responses to genocide” that took place at Stanford University on February 27 2007. In it I heard one of the most moving stories that I have heard in a long time.  It was a so inspiring that I want to share it here.

Carl Wilkens is a hero whose name you probably have never heard. In 1994, he was the only one out of 257 American who chose to remain Rwanda after the horrific genocide began and stayed there throughout the duration of the 100 days of hell that claimed the lives of 800,000 innocent people.  Wilkens was there as a missionary for the Seventh Day Adventist Church

Here is part of his epic true story….

…On April 9 and 10, the remaining American citizens, with the exception of Carl Wilkens, drove out of Rwanda to neighboring Burundi. U.S. Diplomat Laura Lane describes the struggle to get every American citizen out alive.

“I was the political security officer at the American Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, and I remember calling all the Americans and saying here’s your evacuation point – here’s where you need to go, and I remember making the call to Carl and he said, ‘Laura, there’s people here, they’re depending on me. I can’t go.’”

Carl says, “You know, right there in front of me was our house girl who’s a Tutsi. Worked for us for several years. I knew as soon as we left she would be slaughtered. There was a young man who was our night watchman. A Tutsi. He’d be slaughtered. And there was no way convoys were letting anyone take Rwandans with them. And at the time my family was evacuating, we lived on a dirt road, and I watched my family drive away down the road. I walked back up to the gate. Closed it and locked it, but as I went back up there and knelt down on the floor with our house-girl and night watchman, and we prayed for the safety of my family, it was a pretty empty feeling.”

Carl stayed there in Rwanda to care for hundreds at the Gisimba Orphanage.

One day the genocide came right to his front door. Carl recounts “And then, all of a sudden, these militia guys began to appear, circling the whole compound. All of them with assault rifles and grenades and stuff. Then all of a sudden, a car comes sliding in the dirt parking lot there. A cloud of dust, and out gets a guy we called Little Hitler.” … “I called Phillip at the Red Cross and said We’re surrounded. Looks like we’re about to have a massacre. How can you help me?’”

Carl eventually got Kigali police to show up and stop the attack.

“I drove out of there, past all the barriers. Militia didn’t hassle me. I said I’m going to the prefecture office. I went there and the secretary who had befriended me said, ‘Listen Wilkens, the prime minister is here today. Why don’t you ask him for help ? [This was] after I had explained my situation and I said, ‘What?! The prime minister? That’s like asking the devil for help!’”

“When you’d get into situations where you’d look for an ally, you’d look around for some sign of sympathy, whether it was just a look or a glance, and you’d appeal to that part in them. And so, when the prime minister comes out with his entourage, I stand up and say, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, I’m Carl Wilkens, Director of ADRA.’ And he looks at me and says, ‘Yeah, I’ve heard about you and your work. How’s your work going?’ I say, ‘Not well sir, all the orphans are going to be killed.’ He stops and confers with assistants. Turns back to me and says, ‘I’m aware of situation and we’ll see to security of your orphans.’ And he was gone.”

That singular appeal to the most unlikely of advocates led to the lives of hundreds be spared.

It has been said that Mr Wilkens single handedly saved more people during the genocide in Rwanda than the entire Clinton administration. Can one man make a difference? Carl Wilkens answers that question.

(Excerpts from The few that stayed by Michael Montgomery and Stephen Smith)

WHO KNOWS ONE?

Rabbi Michael Strassfeld

WHO KNOWS ONE?
This is a A Passover reflection by Rabbi Michael Strassfeld which was recited during the Passover Seder in 2006. It really stirred me.

Who knows one?
Who knows one?  One is the Janjaweedmilitia cleansing Darfur.
Who knows one?  Two is the stealing and killing of livestock.
Who knows one?  Three is the poisoning of wells and the destruction of crops.
Who knows one?  Four is the deliberate use of rape to destroy and humiliate families.
Who knows one?  Five is the creation of 2.5 million people: displaced, hungry, susceptible to disease.
Who knows one?  Six is the over 400,000 people who have already died.
These and more are the plagues of Darfur.
Who knows one? I know one.
Send a postcard to President Bush. Urge him to takeleadership on this issue.
Lo dayenu-but it is not enough.
Who knows one? I know one.
Encourage institutions to hang SaveDarfur banners
outside their buildings.
Lo dayenu-but it is not enough.
Who knows one? I know one.
Attend the rally in Washington, DC on April 30th.
Lo dayenu-but it is not enough.
I know one.
Encourage others to go to the rally.
Lo dayenu-but it is not enough.
Who knows one? I know one—Rwanda.
Who knows one? I know one—Bosnia.
Who knows one? I know one—Cambodia.
There are too many ones. And I am the child who does not know how to count:
One. Two. Four hundred thousand. Six million.
For six million are the lips of our dead mouthing
“never again” in eternal silence.
Who knows one?  I know one.
For I am that one.
One person created in the image of God.
It is for me alone to speak out. I and no other.
Not a messenger, not a congressperson, not a president.
I alone am here to tell the tale.
Who knows one? I am that one.
And who knows–I may be the one who will make
the difference.
SAVE DARFUR.

THE “REAL” ME.

“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.” “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This quote has haunted me since high school. I guess it cuts to the heart of us all in that we are all trying to discover what of us is “true”. All of us in some way are living contradictions. There is the “me” that I want to be and the “me” I really am. The only difference between all of us is how big of a gap exists between the “me’s”.
Youth is, as “Nate”(as his frat brothers called him) Hawthorne put it, bewildered. I would go further to say that they are plagued with bewilderment. The question arises again and again…”Who am I? Not the me I let my parents or friends THINK I am… WHO AM I REALLY”??
St. Augustine say, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” Our purpose is not to be invented but discovered. It is God who puts eternity in our hearts and purpose in our step. And every step we take away from him is a step away from our assurance that our life has purpose.
We all must take a good hard look at our lives and take inventory of both the things that are viewed by the multitudes and the things only we see in the mirror and deal with it. If its something that’s shameful, change it, remove it or redeem it. If its something you’re proud of but no ones sees value in but God take a stand for it today and stop letting the crowd box you in.
Let today be the day you walk away from contradiction and towards continuity. Discover the purpose for which you where created and pursue it with passion.

“If you hate it, change it. If you love it, LIVE IT OUT LOUD. And don’t let anyone shut you up or shut you down”

VIDEO BLOG WITH ANNA

Qualifying for Boston

My blog says “faith, family, fitness and fun” but rarely do I talk about fitness. But his weekend I ran a Marathon near Cleveland Ohio. I did it in 3:14:50. Its was good enough to quality for the Boston Marathon and good enough for second in my division. I can’t “feel” my legs as doctors like to call it but that will pass. Remember, what doesn’t kill you gives you a permanent limp and and ugly scar(I think that’s how the expression goes). So ya, that was my weekend. Not EVERYTHING went perfect, but hey, that’s life.

THIS JUST IN…..!!!!!

To qualify for the Boston marathon, 18-34 year old men have to run a United States track and field certified course within one calender year with a finishing time of 3 hours 10 minutes… that would be a 7:15 average mile. I did a 3:14:56 averaging a 7:26 mile. I was under the false assumption that 3:15 was the time. This must be what  an Olympian feels after he’s been stripped of his metals for drug use… Only difference is I’m NOT an Olympian, i DIDN’T win a gold or even enjoy the high of using performance enhancing drugs. Other than that it’s EXACTLY THE SAME. So yup I am a loser that’s failed my family my country and my God…. OK maybe that’s a bit much but you get the idea.

Lessons:

1. Get your facts straight and not on your iPhone while on the way to the start line.

2. Sleep good the night before.

3. Don’t post to your blog till you do adequate fact checking.

4. Don’t be a slacker and STINKING GET IT TOGETHER and qualify next time…..

THE REAL DREAM

Proverbs 13:12 (NLT) Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

At this weekends race there was something that left an indelible mark on me, and it had nothing to do with me at all. At the start line there were hundreds gathered in a gymnasium that served as the staging area for the race. Among the crowd there was one man that looked to be in his early 40’s. He was wearing a shirt with this impressive list of marathons on his back that he’d run this year with corresponding check marks for those that he’d completed.

• Winter Buckeye Marathon
• Athens Marathon
• ORRRC Marathon
• Glass City Marathon
• Flying Pig Marathon
• Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon
• United States Air Force Marathon
• Road Runner Akron Marathon
• Towpath Marathon
• Nationwide Better Health Columbus Marathon
• Inland Trail Marathon

Needless to say I was impressed as were his friends, family and fellow runners that I observed offering warm wishes as this marathon would serve as the final check mark on this awesome list.
That’s not what left the indelible mark. What blew me away happened at the finish line. I bumped into “Mr. Marathon” after the finish. The same gym that was crammed before the race was now all but empty, except for tables covered in the usual post marathon food. There were only 6 or so runners in this huge gym. I guess you could say it was the front runners (if you’re allowed to call them such a thing in a race with 200 runners lol). As I walked over to graze on some fruit and water I approached him and this was our conversation.

Mark - “Great job”
Mr. Marathon - “I did it”
Mark - “Ya man, 11 marathons… AWESOME”
(At this he burst into tears)
Mr. Marathon - “NO, I did it, I qualified for Boston. I did it. It took 11 times, but I DID IT. No one knows but I was just trying to qualify but I couldn’t. It took 11 times but I did it. Everyone thought I was doing this just to run 11 marathons in a year but I was just trying to qualify for Boston”.

At this point I got a little emotion myself. For all the non-runners its NOT about a race or a time alone. Its about accomplishing a goal. There isn’t anything quite so beautiful as seeing someone achieve a hard fought for goal. What’s tragic about this to me is that for TEN marathons everyone congratulated this guy, but he went home feeling like a failure. Everyone thought he was a “success” but when he looked in the mirror he saw a failure because he was defining “success” differently than all those around him.
I wonder how many people have cars, jobs, houses and all sorts of accomplishments that win them fan fair. Things that they can list on there back to feel like it all matters but only serves as a constant reminder that there not achieving the thing that’s deep in their heart. At the end of my life I don’t want a long list of things I simply got or accomplished or did… I want to be able to say I did “IT”. The “IT” that God’s placed in my heart…I want to accomplish the dream, the hope, the reason that I’m here. I deeply believe that everyone has an “IT” that God has placed in his or her heart. Pursue it with passion and if you fail, run again! If you fail again, try again! If you feel heart sick your most likely not pursuing it. If your life feels fruitful you’re most likely pursuing it… But if you’ve been sidelined or sidetracked I’d like to encourage you. Don’t give up or give in until the dream is fulfilled and the mission is accomplished.

MAJORITY RULES…!!!

Good job Democrats you did it! You got the majority. So now its go time. No more Teleprompters, no more kissing babies its game day! All those dirty republicans are out of the way with their antiquated ideologies of keeping your hard earned money and such. I’m going to sit here and wait for you all to blow my conservative mind. Fill me with hope, transform me with a warm cup of “change” I’ve been hearing so much about. I’m not cynical… I’m ready. And I don’t want to hear A WORD about republicans because we lost and you won. PLEASE, show us how simple it is to transform the world.
I sit here with baited breath to see how Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and our new president will convince Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Osama bin Laden and Kim Jong-il that this whole “death of the west” thing is silly and to join them for hors d’oeuvres at the white house followed by a tickle fight in the east room (no pun intended…. Wait.. that pun was intended).
I anxiously anticipate how President Obama(I just threw up in my mouth a little typing that) will make socialism look sexy again. So you have 4 year…..READY… SET……ROCK MY WORLD!!!

Oh! and P.S. Obama took over 15 minutes to vote in Hyde park… Most likely he was looking for the yellow “present” button. Well first lesson of the presidency, there is no yellow “present” button in the oval office… Good luck with that one lol

BOYCOTT THIS BLOG!!

WHY do you want me to boycott your blog?! Well I’m glad you asked. I’ve taken the time to review some of my previous blogs and it was to my horror and dismay. Seems I’m 2 parts dyslexic, 1 part crazy, and 4 parts how-did-this-guy-get-past-sixth-grade-English. It was brought to my attention by my editor that I seem to have a minimal grasp of the English language. Furthermore, it was stated that I should be quarantined as to not pollute the general population with my ineptness. (Wow, harsh)

Here are some of my editors comments:

“Mark shows a complete inability to properly use there/their/they’re also were/where/we’re and lets not forget then/than.”

“Mark’s contempt for proper punctuation is a cause of concern, not only as it relates to his writings but also it seems to be a negative indicator of his mental health as a whole.”

“Mark shows a gross flagrancy in his use of capitalization. I can only assume that he was taught that capitalization was merely a suggestion more than a hard and fast rule. Either that or he was mercilessly beat by a gang of capital letters as a child, thus making him a bit skittish in their presence.”

So while I begin a path of personal healing in this area of my life, I ask you to help in one of the following ways:
1. Every time you observe a grammatical error snicker to yourself.
2. Write a seething comment pointing out my mistake…which I will totally post.
3. Boycott my blog all together fearing that I’m making you dumb.
4. Hug an elementary school teacher.
5. Hug me. (my personal favorite)
6. Be patient and realize that you aren’t perfect either JERK….ok…ok… I’m sorry I didn’t mean that. But it’s too late I said it and there is NO way to take it back.

STOP SAYING THE FOLLOWING….OR I’LL SLAP YOU

1. “Fairly unique”
-Either its unique or its NOT… Decide.
2. “At this moment in time”
3. “With all due respect”
… followed by something TOTALLY mean or disrespectful.
4. “I mean it in the best possible way”
…No you don’t your mean and you thinking prefacing your mean comments with that will soften the blow…It won’t..
5. “Peace out”
… Say it again and I will slap your mouth!!
6. “24/7″
7. “It’s not rocket science”
8. “Literally”
…Unless your health was detrimentally affected by your laughter, you DIDN’T “I literally died laughing”.
9. “My bad”
…REALLY, do I need to even address this one?
10. “Anything over 100%”
…There is no 110% no 200% ONLY 100%… and folks giving 100% should still matter. To say anything over 100% is to spit in the face of every statistician (which on the other hand might be a good thing).
11. “Poke”(FACEBOOK)
… I HAAAATE that word… you click that button I WILL call the cops.
12. “Conversate”
… You think it sounds smart… it really just sounds stupid.
13. “Peeps”
…. Unless its Easter or you’re Jay-Z don’t say it.
14. “When God closes a door, he opens a window”
…What is God a cleaning lady airing out my life?

IDIOMS?!….more like IDIOtic :-)

Here are 10 idioms that you have either heard or said recently. You understood it but I DOUBT you can articulate what they mean. Have fun and PLEASE leave a comment with your favorite idioms or genius explanation of the ones listed.

1. An Axe To Grind

2. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch:

3. Make No Bones About

4. Raining Cats and Dogs

5. Rule Of Thumb

6. Son of a Gun

7. Spitting Image

8. Start From Scratch

9. Tie the knot

10. Down To The Wire

A BIG FYI TO ALL Restaurants everywhere

Dear owner of restaurants everywhere,

When I go out with the family to eat, I go to feel good. I go to enjoy a hot fresh meal. But we need to talk. Somewhere, someone thought it would be funny to put ridiculous names on the menu. I don’t know why this happen although I have some sneaking suspicions. I think that the wait staff is unhappy with pay or work conditions or something and they derive some sick satisfaction from hearing ME order….“Ah, yes, I’ll have the DRAGONFIRE CHICKEN”. I’m SURE they’re thinking “heehehe, ah yes sir, would you like extra dragon or extra fire with that”. And YOU outback steakhouse, you’re the WORST offender with your Toowoomba Pasta, and Kookaburra Wings. Are you for real?

And if I go to the Cheesecake factory and I’m trying to be healthy(P.S. its the CHEESECAKE factory so healthy is a joke) I have to actually say to a complete stranger who is taking my order “yes, I’ll have the WEIGHT MANAGEMENT GRILLED CHICKEN”! You’re really making me do this? Are you seriously making me say that?

And one more thing. I feel really foolish when your menu forces adjectives like “incredible” or “awesome” or “worlds best” in front of menu selections. Tell ya what, bring me the chicken sandwich and I’ll be the judge of whether or not it’s incredible or awesome or worlds best. Until then, restaurant owners, have a chat with your menu and tell it to stop acting so pompous and bragadocious

THE ADVENT CONSPIRACY

I’m SOoo excited for what our church is doing during this Christmas season. Take two minutes and check out our promo video for Christmas campaign.

CRISIS ADVICE

GE CEO Jeff Immelt

I thought I’d pass alone something I read on Harvard Business Review Editors blog. In it, Steve Prokesch passes along some great advice for leaders from GE CEO Jeff Immelt.

Be decisive: Make decisions, including some occasions when you don’t have perfect information.

Be accountable: Stand by your decisions, admit when you’ve made a mistake, and make sure you and your team are accountable.

Be transparent: Don’t just tell the truth, share the intent behind your decisions.

Be a unifier: Make people feel like they’re part of something that will last.

Be willing to change yourself: Embrace personal growth.

Leadership, Immelt said, is “an intense journey into yourself. It’s about how much you want to learn. It’s about how much you want to give. It’s about personal change and just being ready to renew yourself every day.” Amen!

GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFTS – INSTALMENT 1

This is the perfect gift for the wanna be S.W.A.T team member that’s been sentenced to 25 years to life at an office job. Don’t let the cubicles get you down my corporate commando friend because this year Santa stayed up nights crafting you the PERFECT gift. You wanted a GLOCK but life delt you an iPhone. You wanted handcuff to slap on the bad guys after a foot chase but fate landed you with pen embossed with the company logo to jot down all your systems passwords.  Up till’ now you thought for sure there was no way to reconcile the contradictions in your soul, BUT NO MORE. Thanks to the good folks at e-Volve you can now throw on their new Gadget Shoulder Holsters. Now peter from H.R will be saying things like “have you seen (insert your tough as nails name here) from accounting? He looks like he can take on an arm.”  Or maybe you’re a single chap that’s trying to stand out in the khaki clad crowd. Just throw on your new e-volve Gadget Shoulder Holsters and watch the ladies swoon. Around the water cooler you will surely overhear the ladies say things like, “(insert your soon to be single no more name here) seems 10 time more studly than he did at that one day ergonomics seminar?”

THANKFULNESS

Job 1:21 (NLT)
He said,
“I came naked from my mother’s womb,
and I will be naked when I leave.
The Lord gave me what I had,
and the Lord has taken it away.
Praise the name of the Lord!”

I want to take a few days to ponder the issue of thankfulness.

• Why gratitude and thanksgiving is important?
• What we ought to be thankful for?
• What Thankfulness produces in us and those around us?

Today I want to begin reflecting on the words of Job. His words are laced with enormous implication for anyone who follows Christ. It’s so easy to be thankful when we feel the hand of God is stretched out towards us benevolently. Thankfulness slips from our lips to Gods ears with ease at his giving, as rightfully it should. Job, this afflicted child of God, says words that expand, to an uncomfortable degree, the margins of thankfulness. You see the standard response for me is that when the Lord gives I praise his name but when what he’s given me slips through my hands like sand, I grieve and question his goodness.

Helen Keller said, “I thank God for my handicaps, for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God.” As I read her words I think of MY shortcomings. I think of the things that I wish I had or things I wish I could get rid of the things that I’m just generally unthankful for.  I see God and am thankful when I can see Him writing neatly in 12-point font across the pages of my life. But I’m starting to realize that God is outside the margins as much at he’s in the neat print. I’m also starting to realize that if I can learn to be thankful in retrospect I can learn to be thankful in real time. I pray that in this season of thanksgiving God will grant me the grace see him even beyond the margins and be thankful. Not thankful for the trial or trouble but moreover that he is with me and working on my behalf.

“You say grace before meals.  All right.  But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.” ~G.K. Chesterton

SO THANKFUL

SO THANKFUL

Thankfulness, in my estimation, is a great way to combat the American epidemic of entitlement. It’s gross how people think they “deserve” so much. WHY do you deserve that car, that outfit, that house, that…. ANYTHING? Is it because you woke up today? Is it because you’re special? We often read the 23rd Psalm this way: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want”. And we think that means he’s our genie in a bottle that exists to give us every little thing we WANT… Right? That’s what the Bible says…Right? But really it’s more accurately interpreted: “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need”.  There will always be things I WANT. That’s the mistake so many people make, the mistake of confusing wants and needs. Life, water, food, shelter and cloths… THOSE are needs. The more I focus on my wants the less grateful I am.

Yesterday I took the family to a Madagascar 2. There was not one person in the theater but us. We watched until the kids got wrestles than I let them run all over. They went up a down the stairs and when the music would play we all jumped up and down in the isles and danced all around up front…. It was so much fun. I thought “I’m blesses, thank you God for this moment”… Oh and the whole thing only cost $11.50. (I put Niko up my shirt and Anna in a duffel bag only to find out they are both free…..joke)

Barbara Fredrickson, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina, “Gratitude has the potential to change everything from its ordinary state to being a gift.” There are so many things to be thankful for, seemingly ordinary things that go overlooked and under appreciated.

During this thanksgiving season don’t let any good word go unsaid. CHOOSE to look for opportunities to express gratitude.  And watch, not only will your gratitude warm the hearts of those to whom its’ expressed, it will also transform your heart.

Thank you God for all my blessings and help me to see more and more each day just how richly blessed i truely am. Amen.

I’M THANKFUL

-For the innocence in the eyes of my children
-For friends that love me
-For a wife who knows when to NOT let me leave the house when I’m dressed like “an 8th grade science teacher” (whatever the heck that means)

-For a wife that puts up with me….THIS IS NO SMALL FEAT(ask her)

-For a wife who knows when to NOT stop me from leave the house in an outfit that she hates cus’ she knows I’m attached to it for some strange reason.-I’m thankful for my son who is strong, wild, brave and funny beyond words.
-I’m thankful for my daughter who won’t let me leave the house without a hug.
-I’m thankful cus’ this week she put her two tiny hands on my cheeks and told me I was her best friend.
-I’m thankful for my wife who is smoking hot!
-I’m thankful for the breath in my lungs today. It means I have at least one more change to improve on yesterday
-I’m thankful cus’ when I woke up God had brand new mercy for me.
-I’m thankful that my “job” is helping others find God and meaning for there life through him.
-I’m thankful for my son who shares his WHOLE heart with me…. Even though I don’t understand 90% of the words he uses to do so.
-I’m thankful that as I write tears are in my eyes because I realize JUST HOW MUCH I have to be truly thankful for.

Write a list. Write a long list. Don’t just think it…WRITE IT! Look at it and realize that even though things aren’t exactly as you’d have them to be… They’re far better than they could be.

Happy Thanksgiving

QUESTION EVERYTHING

Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

I wanted pass along and interesting excerpt for Martin Linstroms book BUY-OLOGY. In it he challenges why we do what we do.

Play along with me for a moment as we head to the supermarket. Shouldn’t take long; there are only a couple of items on our list.
Lets make our way to the peanut butter section first. There’ Skippy, peter Pan, Jif. The generic supermarket offerings, plus a few virtuous organic brands- salt-free, no sugar added, the sort where the oil rises to the top.
Most consumers think about their choice for all of two seconds. In this case, let’ say you grab the Jif, and we’re on to our next stop.
Was your decision rational? It may have seemed that way to you as you made your choice, but it wasn’t, not by a long shot. If your decision-making process was conscious and articulated- my guess is it might have gone something like this;

I associate Skippy with childhood…Its been around forever, so I feel it’s trustworthy…but isn’t it laden with sugar and other preservatives I shouldn’t be eating?…Same goes for Peter Pan, plus the name is so childish. And I’m not buying that generic brand. It cost 30 cents less, which makes me suspicious. In my experience, you get what you pay for…The organic stuff? Tasteless, the few times I had it…always needs salt, too…Plus, didn’t I read somewhere that “organic” doesn’t necessarily mean anything, plus it’s almost double the price…Jif…what’s that old advertising slogan of theirs: “Choosy Mothers Choose Jif”…Well, I am a fairly discriminating person…

These are the subconscious conversations that go on in our heads every time we choose one product over another. Except, they are rarely, if ever, uttered aloud. Instead, we rely on almost instant shortcuts that our brains have created to help us make buying decisions.

As I read this I wonder how many 100’s of unchallenged decisions I make every day. Who cares about peanut butter? I’m more concerned about how many of my thoughts, emotional responses, coping mechanisms and words are simply outworking of an unchallenged, subconscious, inner life. My default mode is to do what I’ve always done.  It’s not exactly what I want but it gets me through the day. Problem is, I don’t want to “get though the day”.  Like you, I want to live a full life, and to do that I have to clear the clutter. I have to remove the unproductive and resolve to allow truth to permeate every area of my life.

Question everything. You may find that your have some grounded, godly and highly productive subconscious  behaviors.  You will also inevitably find that you have some silly, baseless and downright godless subconscious behaviors. Let the discovery of the good encourage you that you CAN be strong and you CAN make good decisions and let it be a propellant to change the bad .

Mandela on leadership

Nelson Mandela is 90 and passes along to Richard Stegel 8 leadership lessons.

Number 1: Courage is not the absence of fear- it’s inspiring other to move beyond it.
-”I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world.” But as a leader, you cannot let people know. ” You must put up a front. And that’s precisely what he learned to do: pretend and, through the act of appearing fearless, inspiring others.
Number 2: Lead from the front- but don’t leave the base behind
-”Once your arrive at the beachhead, then you the people to move on”.
Number 3: Lead from the back- and let others believe they are in front
-”The trick to leadership is allowing yourself to be led too”.
Number 4: Know your enemy- and learn about his favorite sport
-Mandela realized that even the worst and crudest could be negotiated with”.
Number 5: Keep your friends close- and your rivals even closer
-Mandela recognized that the way to deal with those he didn’t trust was to neutralize them with charm.
Number 6: Appearances matter- and remember to smile
-”For white South Africans, the smile symbolized Mandela’s lack of bitterness and suggested that he was sympathetic to them. To black voters, it said, I am the happy warrior, and we will triumph”.
Number 7: Nothing is black or white
Number 8: Quitting is leading too
-”Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make”.

A MESSAGE TO GARCIA 1899

1899

A Message to Garcia

By Elbert Hubbard

In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain & the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba- no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.

What to do!

Some one said to the President, “There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.”

Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How “the fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, & in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.

The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing- “Carry a message to Garcia!”

General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.

No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, & half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, & sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office- six clerks are within call.

Summon any one and make this request: “Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio”.

Will the clerk quietly say, “Yes, sir,” and go do the task?

On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:

Who was he?

Which encyclopedia?

Where is the encyclopedia?

Was I hired for that?

Don’t you mean Bismarck?

What’s the matter with Charlie doing it?

Is he dead?

Is there any hurry?

Shan’t I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?

What do you want to know for?

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia- and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not.

Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your “assistant” that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile sweetly and say, “Never mind,” and go look it up yourself.

And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting “the bounce” Saturday night, holds many a worker to his place.

Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply, can neither spell nor punctuate- and do not think it necessary to.

Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?

“You see that bookkeeper,” said the foreman to me in a large factory.

“Yes, what about him?”

“Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for.”

Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?

We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the “downtrodden denizen of the sweat-shop” and the “homeless wanderer searching for honest employment,” & with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.

Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with “help” that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away “help” that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer- but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go.

It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best- those who can carry a message to Garcia.

I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, “Take it yourself.”

Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.

Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry & homeless.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds- the man who, against great odds has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.

I have carried a dinner pail & worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; & all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.

My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the “boss” is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets “laid off,” nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: he is needed, & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.

THE END-

WHERE’S JESUS GOING FOR CHRISTMAS?

Hebrews 13:1-3 (NLT) Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. 2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, 3 Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.

LITTLETON, Colo. —  This time last year, Monique White was living in a tiny motel room and looking for work, pining for the Thanksgivings of her childhood when dozens gathered for the holiday feast.
On Thursday, White will fulfill her holiday wish. She has a home and a job, and thanks to an impromptu Craigslist posting, more than 30 strangers are gathering at her house to share a banquet of nine turkeys, four hams, 16 boxes of stuffing and a dozen or so pies. White, 36, posted a two-sentence invitation on the Internet classifieds site last week. The receptionist at a dentist’s office was feeling a little lonely, her two sons spending the holiday with their dad. So she figured maybe four or five strangers would reply to her ad and join her and longtime partner Doug White at their suburban Denver home for Thanksgiving dinner.
Instead, dozens replied. People laid off work. People with no family. People ashamed to bring their children to a charity Thanksgiving dinner at a soup kitchen. “I thought there was no way I could judge who is worthy of sitting at my table. I have to invite them all,” White said, sitting at her dining room table as she went over some of the e-mails. So all 32 people who responded are coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. White’s boss heard what she was doing and said he’d pay for the food. A local hotel is bringing over tables and chairs. A professional magician in the area replied and offered to come perform for the kids. National media outlets have shuffled through the Whites’ modest town house writing about the unusual offer.
It’s a far cry from last year, when the Whites were living in a motel room. They had a long-haul trucking business that had gone out of business. “Last year it was just us two. It was horrible,” she said.
Things have turned around. Both are now working, and they’ve bought the town house. With the economy as it is, the Whites say they’re barely making ends meet. But they feel compelled to share what they do have with others. “That’s what Thanksgiving is about: Helping other people out however you can,” Doug White said. He’s had little time to contemplate the meaning of Monique’s Craigslist gesture. He was busy making the first turkeys, putting one in the oven as soon as another came out. But there’s truly plenty to give thanks for over the past year. “People need to stop being so worried about me, me, me, my bills, my life. You stop worrying, and look what happens?”

This should be a common story of every Christ follower!

Matthew 25:35-37 (NLT) For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ 37 “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink?

WHO IS A STRANGER:

1. The misjudged

• “They probably bought that car by selling drugs
• “That homeless person is probably a drunk or a crazy”
• “See that tattoo? That’s a gang tat… He’s trouble”
• “See how terribly dressed that person is? They’re lazy”

• AND ON AND ON IT GOES…

“We judge other by their actions and ourselves by our motive”

-WE ALWAYS LET OURSELVES OF THE HOOK and place others on it

1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT) But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

-Lets look past the visible and peer in on the invisible. See people with fresh eyes and see what others don’t see. See the beauty and value that God sees when you look at others.

2. The Lonely

Psalm 25:16 (CEV) I am lonely and troubled. Show that you care and have pity on me.

“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty”. -Mother Teresa

(2006) In a new University of Chicago study of men and women 50 to 68 years old, those who scored highest on measures of loneliness also had higher blood pressure. And high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, the number one killer in many industrialized nations and number two the United States.
Lonely people have blood pressure readings as much as 30 points higher than non-lonely people.
Richard Suzman of the National Institute on Aging, which funded this research, said he was “surprised by the magnitude of the relationship between loneliness and hypertension in this well-controlled, cross-sectional study.”
The study concluded that about one in five Americans is lonely, a gnawing emotional state that is a patchwork of feeling unhappy, stressed out, friendless and hostile.
Some psychologists think that associations between loneliness and health or physiology are just part of a generic stress response, but this new research suggests loneliness has a unique impact.

-Who is within your reach that is lonely?

-It’s easy to say that if they are close enough to touch they probably aren’t lonely but it’s NOT true. Use this Christmas to pull someone that’s lonely close. You may find as you seek to relieve their loneliness yours will be relieved as well.

3. The desperate
“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” -Henry David Thoreau

-Don’t judge people by the actions that arise from their desperation but resolve to bring them in out of the cold and speak hope to the desperation.

4. An outsider
There is this great interaction that occurs in  Les Miserable.  Jean valjean the quintessential stranger is welcomed in to the home of a bishop. Jean valjean is a desperate outsider with NO ONE that believed in him. He stole from the bishop and when Jean valjean is brought to the bishop by the police the bishop says “I gave those to him and then he says this most moving line:

“Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to  evil, but to good. It is your soul I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!”

In this epic story you see that this single act of love and deep hospitality done by the priest totally turned Jean Valjeans life around. I believe we can all be used in similar ways

“People are drawn to Christ not by crosses or creeds but by Christians that live like him” -Mark Schilling(lol)

Who can we take in this Christmas? Maybe not literally into our homes, but MAYBE. Be open and ask God if there is a stranger within your reach who you can bring in.

Jeremiah 22:3 This is what the Lord says: Be fair-minded and just. Do what is right! Help those who have been robbed; rescue them from their oppressors. Quit your evil deeds! Do not mistreat foreigners, orphans, and widows. Stop murdering the innocent!

GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT – INSTALMENT 2

This is the PERFECT gift for grandparents who loves their grandchild. Nothing says “I love you and couldn’t care less if this gift will make your parents have to move to a bigger house” like giving a 6 1/2-Foot  40 pound Teddy Bear to your grandchild. Grandma & Grandpas of the world just imagine how your little grandchild’s face will light up with joy (and how their parents face will light up with disdain for you) as they see what you got them from Christmas. You will definitely shore up the spot of “Best grandparent”(and most loathed parent) with this $499.99 monstrosity.  “But Mark can you really put a price on love?”… Great question. I’ve got $499.99 that says you can…. What I MEAN is, Grandma and Grandpa can ….So get out there and tap into your 401k and say I love and watch the surge of Christmas emotion.

Clarity and Complexity

How we define success and significance will set the trajectory of your life. If success equals money, you will do whatever it takes to have a bunch of it. If significance is defined as being known and envied, you take jobs that are visible and admired by the masses. “How do you define success?”… This is a great question to ask yourself in the mirror…TODAY. When you are able to define it, the hunt is on. Donald Sensing said, “The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you discover why.” The moment of discovery is a moment of both clarity and complexity.

There is Clarity because you now know the pursuit that brings fulfillment.
There is Complexity because often the prerequisite to stepping into and engaging your call is a season of preparation, which quite frankly can be a drag. Also, there is complexity because what you should do isn’t always what you desire to do. I think this is because we often desire base and carnal things. We buy(sometimes literally) into the lie that if we own that or drive that then we’ll feel fulfilled.

In my humble estimation fulfillment, success and significance, in so many ways, is rapped up in helping others. It’s found not in the acquisition of things but in the giving of love.  Even though I know that fulfillment is found in giving and loving, I can find myself still pursuing vein things.  Everyone talks about what you will look back and wish you did different when you arrive at the end of your life. But as I’m nearing the end of my…. 20’s I can look back and point to the things that mattered and the things that didn’t. I’m not saying “man I’m soooo glad I got the Turbo instead of the straight 6 cylinder” I’m saying “I’m glad I invested in that relationship” or more often “I wish I HAD invested MORE in that relationship”.  These are the moments of clarity that help me overcome all the complexities and help me regain focus and pursue the things that really matter .

Emily Dickenson wrote a great poem that I love entitled Not In Vein.

Not in Vein
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain:
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Be Still My Heart

The other day I woke up with the weight of a 1000 thoughts and worries. It was that vague, “I’m not sure EXACTLY what’s stressing me out but I’m stressed never the less” feeling. The kind that makes you lose your appetite and your chest to get tight. All this happened in the 30 seconds it takes for me to close the distance between my bed and coffee maker. Have you ever had a day like that? You wake up and the stress of yesterday has bled into today setting its tone before it has begun.
The reason I write is not to share stress but to share what happened in spite of this. There was a phrase that kept coming to mind: “BE STILL MY HEART”… First, I felt as if I was  “hearing” that phrase deep inside me but then I decided to consciously speak it to myself. As I sipped my coffee and began my day I kept whispering to myself “be still my heart”.  Don’t ask be where this exact phase came from. Homer (the epic poet, not Simpson) said,  “Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this”… but I don’t read that much Homer so idk.
As the vague stress became more defined, having names, dates and dollars I would whisper “Be still my heart”. I don’t rule the world; I don’t appoint the rising or the setting of the sun… But sometimes I stress as if I did. Don’t look at me like that! You do it too! But as I choose to speak peace to myself I could feel my chest begin to unknot and the weight on my shoulders begin to lift.

Psalm 116:7 (The Message)
I said to myself, “Relax and rest.
God has showered you with blessings.
Soul, you’ve been rescued from death;
Eye, you’ve been rescued from tears;
And you, Foot, were kept from stumbling.”

SIT DOWN WE NEED TO TALK

As one commissioned with the shaping of young minds there are several topics that need to discussed. There are several factors that make a young person rise to prominence and achieve true success. The question is often posed “What contributes to success?” Also “What are the factors that keep a young person from succeeding?” Well, after some keen observations I have discovered what I feel to be some of the claws that are tearing the moral fabric of our society to shreds.

The first is underwear and the second is sweat pants.

When I grew up my mom loved me (and still does). Chapter 32 of the mom handbook is titled “inside voice vs. outside voice”. This helped me as a young man to learn how to choose socially acceptable volume levels. Choosing a proper decibel level is CRUCIAL when saying a Hail Mary vs. hailing a cab (& no I was never catholic). Now I don’t know how often the mom handbook is revised but clearly its time for and update.

First: Underwear. Now this is a two way street and applies to both guys and gals. I know, I know you paid good money for them but by way of review lets dissect the word “underwear”…. UNDER – WEAR. Pretty clear what the inventors intended. Its not cute, its not attractive and it’s not cool. Get yourself together and put it back under your wear.

(MOMS- if your child tries to leave the house and you can visibly see boxer, brief or brassiere showing, SLAP THEM IN THE HEAD… I won’t call the police… promise)

Second: Sweatpants. Unless you plan to sweat in these pants… DON’T WEAR THEM. Not to the mall, not to church, not to school, not ever, no exceptions… And no, UGG boots don’t make them an outfit. Like there cousins “inside words” sweatpants are inside cloths. Write all the words you want on the butt, you STILL shouldn’t wear them past your mailbox unless you are continuing on to the gym. The same goes with pajamas. I’m not sure what everyone’s problem is with jeans, khakis, skirts and “slacks” but please, you are destroying our nation faster than the liberals in Washington with these unfashionable and nasty behaviors.

(If you agree with this blog… I wrote it… If not my wife wrote it)

NOT AS EASY AS YOU’D THINK

When I was a kid I remember around Christmas time my parents would give my sister and me money to shop for Christmas presents for the family. This didn’t strike me as weird for a while but one day it hit me that my parents where giving ME money to by THEM presents…”does that count” I began to think to myself. It was at about this time (or the decade surrounding it… my childhood is a bit hazy) that I noticed these wooden deer in some shop somewhere. As a young kid I remember thinking “I bet I could make those with my dads tools”. So there I was in my dads shed cutting and hammering and cutting myself and hammering my fingers and just TRYING to make something that I could proudly present to my dad. I remember hearing my dad approach the shed. I remember him not barging in but asking from outside the door “Mark, you need some help”. In annoyance I said, “I’m fine”(I’ve always been determined…ok stubborn). 10 minutes went by and he came again, “You sure you don’t want my help, I can help you?” and again I rejected his offer. Finally the third time a few minutes when he said, “Mark, lets do it together.” We (ok HE with ME “assisting”) proceeded to craft a small heard of little wooden deer. I should pause here and say  “Thanks dad” I would still be in that shed today if he didn’t help me.
I wonder if this is what God must have felt like as he looked over the mess of humanity, from the failure of Adam and Eve to the struggle of Mary and Joseph? He had to watch as his stubborn children cut, hammered, toiled and struggled futilely trying to live life apart from his intervening hand.  He offered help through the giving of the law, the ministry of the prophets and through angelic visitation but man couldn’t construct a life that was presentable to God on their own. Finally he said, “I’ll go myself”. And he comes, not kicking the door off the hinges but as a baby, in a stable with a gentle knock. A gentle “you need some help”.  Sadly man rejected him the baby grew to be a man and as he taught in the streets and the synagogues if it was saying, “I can help you”, yet again he was rejected and condemned to die. But he rose from the dead and now he sits at the right hand of the father in heaven whispering to you this Christmas. It’s the familiar voice behind the door you’ve been ignoring; it’s the whisper that speaks to your heart saying “Let’s do this together…you can’t do this without me.” Your time and resources are wasting away, your life is bruised and your heart is aching…It’s time… Let him in.

Revelation 3:20 (NLT) “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.

SEASONS GREETING???…. REALLY?!?!?!?

I stopped the store  the other day, in between appointments, for a delicious, cold, Perrier. After paying my $1.57 and before exiting I was offered this salutation “seasons greetings”…SEASONS GREETING!!!??? I asked him “what does that even mean? ” Is that like “howdy winter” or “welcome winter solstice”?? He just gave me a blank stare. Stick with me cus’ I really do have a point. Here it is; WHERE’S THE BACKBONE?

In 2005 FOX NEWS conducted a poll and among the questions they asked;

Which of these late December holidays do you celebrate?

1. Christmas 96%

2. Hanukkah 5%

3. Kwanzaa 2%

4. (Other/Refused) 1%

5. (None) 1%

That means that 96% of people won’t mind if Brad from the GAP says “Merry Christmas” or “Happy birthday Jesus”. I know I know “corporate” instructed them to do that so as not to offend the Jew or occasional Zoroastrian that might swing in for a new pair of chinos. But please people if this is truly about offense lets do this by the numbers. Of the 96% how many do you suppose you are, straight up, ticking off with “season’s greetings?” Just guessing it’s much higher than the percentage of Muslims, Jews and Hindus combined that got warm fuzzies when you offered up your spineless “happy holidays.”

Now I’m not trying to be a jerk I’m just saying if I walked in to, lets say, Hollister and was getting cashed out by an athletic young kid sporting his Yamika and he offered me a “Happy Hanukkah bro” I wouldn’t be mad. I’d probably say, “You’re a Jew, awesome, my savior’s a Jew, Merry Christmas.”

So lets go over the numbers one more time shall we. 96% want a “Merry Christmas”. %1 of people didn’t have the gull to give an answer to a telephone poller thus wont put up too much of fight if you give THEM their “Merry Christmas”. 1% said, “None, thus, they don’t give a rip, so, give um their “Merry Christmas. %5 are Jews so look for the Yamika and tread lightly. As for the %2 of observers of Kwanza….it was made up in 1966!!!

Lets cut all this PC stuff and stop the non sense and show some backbone. I mean 40% of teens are EMO and don’t want to “have a nice day” but that doesn’t stop every sales clerk in the world from subjecting them to THIER world view and forcing a “have a nice day” on them everytime they leave their establishmesnts. So MERRY CHRISTMAS and thanks for the Perrier Mr. “seasons greetings” man.

NOTHING SAYS CHRISTMAS LIKE UGLY BATS

I was reading through my collection of The New Yorker magazines (as I do every year around this time). I came across a great article in the February 1988 issue entitled “Bats” by Diane Ackerman.

“As the bat closes in, it may shout faster, to pinpoint its prey. And there’s a qualitative difference between a steady, solid echo bouncing off a brick wall and the light, fluid echo from a swaying flower. By shouting at the world and listening to the echoes, bats can compose a picture of their landscape and the objects in it, which include texture, density, motion, distance, size and probably other features, too. Most bats really belt it out; we just don’t hear them. This is an eerie thought when one stands in a silent grove filled with bats. They spend their whole lives yelling. They yell at their loved ones, they yell at their enemies, they yell at their dinner, they yell at the big, bustling world. Some yell faster, some slower, some louder and some softer. Long-eared bats don’t need to yell; they can hear their echoes perfectly well if they whisper.”

Her writings made me think about this reality; there are so many people  around us that are hurting and silently screaming waiting for something to come back at them that will guide them in the midst of their darkness. I’m thankful at Christmas that Christ came to answer the heart cry of humanity. He hears us when we prey, weep AND scream. If you cry out to him your breath won’t be wasted.

Life lesson #25 for my son; “Bones heal and chicks dig scars”

Twas’ Christmas morn and all through the house unwrapped toys where strewn about. Sounds quaint right?  WELL Niko being Niko had to sauce it up a bit and add a little excitement to our Christmas morning.

His papa had given him a sweet trike on which he was tearing it up and what happens next we are unclear. What we do know is this, Yiayia found the wreckage in the ditch (the trike on its side next to the kitchen sink) and him bleeding from his head. Having received stitches so often as a kid I that got one of those punch cards so the 10th stitch was free, I knew right away that he needed a couple himself.  With a sense of urgency I did what any dad worth his salt(whatever the heck that idom means) would do… I immediately grabbed the camera and took pictures for posterity. Knowing the seriousness of the situation I carefully set the aperture, f stop and shutter speed to ensure a quality picture. THEN Stephanie and I took him to the ER…. Now Niko and I prefer trauma room 36b. There is a window, a rocking chair and 27 in LCD T.V. with cable. Also it is right next to the nurse station so it’s Business Class as far as ER’s are concerned. Unfortunately, we had to go to the “Minor procedures” room… no window, no T.V. , no fun. But we made the best of it and 4 sutures later my boy was a man… ok ok so he’s a 19 month old with 4 stitches but you get the idea. All and all an awesome Christmas, fun was had by all.

2008 OF MY FAVORITE MEMORIES OF 2008

1. Bonding with Niko in the E.R. …. Several times.
2. Discovering the key to clean coal technology…But I forgot to write it down.
3. Anna declaring, “Dad, I don’t talk to boys”. No sweeter words has a Dad ever heard.
4. Setting a P.R. in the marathon 3:14:50… next year, PRIZE MONEY!!
5. Finishing in the top 10 at the North Face Endurance Challenge 50k with my friend Corban.

6. Kissing my wife a lot…. I really like doing that.
7. Disney with the family… Magical (I have to pay Disney World Inc. 5 cents for using that word… crap.)
8. Being involved in the process of God in so many people’s lives… always humbling.
9. Watching Sarah Palin tick off EVERY democrat by helping the republican ticket … priceless… did she mention her husband races snowmobiles?
10. Meeting A GREAT new friend (you will have to figure out if I’m talking about YOU.)

I had 1999 others but they got deleted and I’m NOT retyping them.

NEW YEARS DAY “HANGOVER 10K” & GETTING OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE

So this morning, while the most of the sane world was sleeping I got up to run the annual Hangover 10k. Today it was minus 2 with the wind chill at minus 10… But it was a dry cold so it was OK (that’s what people say about heat and it ticks me off every time). Any-who, people ask me why I do silly things like this and the answer is quite simple… It puts me out of my comfort zone.
I think as often as possible it’s good to push yourself out of your comfort zone in as many areas of you life as possible. It’s where the good stuff (stuff sometimes being frostbite) happens.  Today it was fitness but tomorrow it might be that pivotal conversation I’ve been avoiding because it’s out of my comfort zone. Or maybe it will be asking someone in my life that loves me deeply to be truthful about what things in me could handle a little change.
What areas in your life have you chosen a comfortable groove over growth? Maybe it’s the emotional pain you’ve been denying instead of dealing with. Maybe it’s the abundant waistline that’s keeping you from enjoying an abundant life. Whatever the potentially painful thing is… face it. The discomfort of a heart attach is far greater than the pain of the treadmill (although some of you may disagree). The pain of loosing a friend to addiction and wondering if there was more you could have done is FAR more difficult than the discomfort of an intervention.
Comfort is not the measure by which we ought to make life decision. Decisions ought to rise from a right perspective, right principles and potential for progress.  So this year push yourself out of your comfortable groove and into uncomfortable growth.

Oh, P.S. I came in 8th… and also I WASN’T hung over… and others where which may account for my high ranking.

“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same” – All At Once, The Frey

IGNORE THE HECKLERS

There will always be things that will come to rob you of vision. I want to take some time to talk about things you can do to protect the vision you have over the course of the next few blog posts . But let me say one thing about vision before i jump in. If your vision is some self-centered, ego driven, humanistic vision… let it die. BUT, if it is a selfless, godly vision you need to learn to fight for it.
So without further ado:

1. Ignore the hecklers
Nehemiah is a great book of the Bible as well as a great story of receiving, maintaining and fulfilling vision. In it we see a man who gets a burden to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and along the ways faces more than a little opposition. He faces opposition from both enemies AND friends.

Nehemiah 4:3-4 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was standing beside him, remarked, “That stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along the top of it!”

Nehemiah 4:12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.”

Tobiah was a knucklehead dude with a beef with Nehemiah so we expect a little razzing, but the Jews, really? He’s doing this in part and parcel FOR THEM and he has to put up with them heckling and trying to deter him.  There is a hard lesson to be learned here; sometimes the people that SHOULD support you DON’T.  Just deal with it. You can cry yourself to sleep every night telling God how people are mean and loose years or you can hear the following two words: PETER, JUDAS.  Build a bridge and get over it. Sometimes the people that should support you DON’T. Wish they did, but they don’t always. You can’t let it keep you from you goal.
No matter who you are or what you do or what you accomplish you will ALWAYS have a heckler or two.  Knowing that should help you, to some extent, to not feel so abnormal.  If you’re a million dollar pro ball player or you work retail at the mall you will have a heckler or two from time to time. You have to find a way to shake it off. If you don’t they will get in your head and short-circuit your vision. So ignore the hecklers, take to the stage and rock the world with what you have to offer.

“It is not the critic that counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or the doer of deeds could have them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the Arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives valiantly who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming but he who does actually strive to do the deed who knows the great devotion who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls, who know neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

VISION DEFENSE…PART 2…REFRAIN FROM THE COMPLAIN

Neh 4:10… there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.

Proverbs 4:26-27 (The Message)
Keep your eyes straight ahead;
ignore all sideshow distractions.
Watch your step,
and the road will stretch out smooth before you.
Look neither right nor left;
leave evil in the dust.

SHUT IT! Seriously! Didn’t your mamma teach you that if you don’t have anything good to say don’t say anything at all? The Truth is we are creatures of habit. People that are in the habit of looking for the negative will ALWAYS see it. Whether it’s the economy, politics or the weather these people can bust out a complaint faster than Paris Hilton can say, “that’s hot”. But just like you can train your brain to see the bad you CAN train it to see the good. In pursuit of your vision there will always be junk along the path. There will always be issues that you can complain about. Now, here’s the deal, if the issue you’re complaining over is unchangeable than your complaining over it is a waste of time and energy. If the issues are changeable than spend the time and energy you’ve dedicated to complaining on actually changing it. In the book of Nehemiah people began to complain that there was too much rubble to accomplish the vision. But although Nehemiah saw the rubble he didn’t spend his energy on complaining about it but rather spent his time and energy on building. Here are some tips to shift from complaining to obtaining.

1. Disassociate yourself from a negative, complaining mindset.
-When a negative thought comes into your mind and the urge to complain arises instead of berating yourself and saying “I’m so negative” say “That’s not me, I refuse to give space or expression to that negative thought”.

2. Fill the newly found space with positive and uplifting words.
-When to leave negativeville you will begin to realize just how much mental real estate you have. Begin to give voice to EVERY positive word that enters you mind, even if you are alone. You really can retrain your brain and create new, positive, neurological pathways.

3. Own your mood.
-If you dwelling on that your thought its your decision and its you choice. The sooner you own that fact the sooner you can change. If it’s not your fault you cant change it so own it and begin the process of change.

4. Let people know.
-Let people around you know that you’ve committed to NOT complaining and ask them to give you a gentle nudge (or a slap right on the mouth) if you go negative. I’m more apt to hold the line on a personal resolution if I know I have to explain WHY I punked out or backed down.

THIS COMMENT COMES FROM A FAN OF THE BLOG

I received this email from “Dave”, a BIG fan of my blog. He wrote it in response to number 9 of my fav memories of 2008, which was;  “Watching Sarah Palin tick off EVERY democrat by helping the republican ticket … priceless… did she mention her husband races snowmobiles?”

“Well, thank you Sarah Palin for not knowing what the Bush Doctrine was, and showing off your great executive experience. I thank Mr Mccain for picking her. Hey, if the GOP had picked Romney, Governor Polenti, or Kaye Huchinson, it wouldn’t be so good for us Democrats because we have not had such an easy campaign. Obviously Palin didn’t piss me off as much as amused me. I guess those abstinence programs really work when you have a daughter who obviously didn’t know about protection.” –“DAVE”

His email was poignant, articulate and idiotic. You see “Dave”, what bothers me about your comment is that you think the fact that GOVERNOR Palin’s kid got pregnant in some detracts from the truth or effectiveness of abstinence programs as a whole. I suppose the “problem” is that conservative Republicans have a stated morality. And since conservative Republicans are human, they are apt to make mistakes and transgress the standards they strive to uphold. And of course the moment they do, the blood thirsty piranhas in the far left media have a feeding frenzy.  Where the left wings Dems are “smart” is that they lace their agenda with ambiguity, vagueness and a lack of stated values. That way we can’t accuse them of hypocrisy like republicans are so often accused.
You see, if Sarah Palin was Pro-choice (Pro-Abortion sounds so harsh… clever marketing by the libs for mass infanticide) and her daughter had a baby WHO could throw a stone?… NO ONE! Kill it, keep it, either way she wins. WHY?, well  “Dave” I’m glad you asked. You see, when there is no stated morality you can’t be accused of being wrong. Because in the morally ambiguous world of the far left there is no right or wrong, thus, you can never be wrong. You guys are sneaky, sneaky like a fox…or should I say a donkey.
So in closing, PLEASE “DAVE”, tell me clearly what your party truly stands for. Also, I’m glad you’re so amused by Mrs. Palin. You know what I’m amused by? I’m amused by how your candidate is ALREADY backing off clearly stated campaign promises… Guess he’s finding out it’s a little easier organizing a city slum than it is organizing the greatest super power on the face of the earth.

“Has anybody seen my yellow ‘present’ button. I haven’t seen it since I’ve moved into the oval office?” -President Barack Obama                                                                                                                            “Sorry sir, yellow buttons and Blackberrys aren’t allowed in the oval office” - Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel                                                                    -January 21st 2009

VISION DEFENSE PART 3…Refuse to let exhausting cripple you

HOUR 8 - MILE 48

Hebrews 12:2 (The Message) Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever.

“God wants me happy”. You would be shocked to hear how often people say that to me as a “man of the cloth”. REEEaaaaaallllllyyyyyy, he wants you happy? I wonder if Jesus said that as he was humiliatingly nailed naked to a cross? He didn’t! Ya know why he didn’t? Because Jesus understood something that we need to get: God is more concerned about accomplishing his purposes than he is micromanaging our happiness. Let me share a little story.

There was once a dad with a VERY active, 18 month old son. And this son seemed to have a secret agenda of being hospitalized daily. The father, because he loved his son would sometimes have to slap his sons hand to keep him from, say, crawling into the broiler. The son would cry not understand the heart of the father. The fathers heart of  course was to keep his son alive long enough to be potty trained.  -THE END

(THE EVENTS, CHARACTERS, AND FIRMS DEPICTED IN THIS MOTION PICTURE ARE FICTICIOUS. ANY SIMILARITY TO ACTUAL PERSONS,  LIVING OR DEAD, OR TO ACTUAL EVENTS OR FIRMS IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL.)

My point is that in pursuit of any worthwhile goal you WILL as some point reach the breaking point of exhaustion. And when you do, focus on the reason for your struggle, the purpose in the pain and goal you’re after. Reach up to God for strength then REACH DEEPER in yourself and keep going!!! I love what 7 time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong said, “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

“Whenever there was an opportunity for it, one had to give them a why – an aim – for their lives in order to strengthen them to bear the terrible how of their existence. Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was lasoon lost.” –Viktor Frankl (in his book originally titled “from death-camp to existentialism”)

VISION DEFENSE PART 4…Remember that the fight isn’t just a fight for YOU

Nehemiah 4:14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”

All great pursuits have to have a touch, or a ton, of altruism. Martin Luther King, Jr. said; “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” To really endure through the pain of the pursuit you HAVE to have a goal that’s not me-centric. There can’t be anything emptier than to reach the finish line of life only to realize that no one is there because you ran for yourself and by yourself. By our very nature we are obsessed with ourselves and our own self-interests. So complete, so unfailing and perfect is our love for ourselves that Christ himself used it to set the bar on how we ought to love others. He said, “you see how you wake up thinking about YOU and go to bed thinking of YOU, try doing that for someone other than YOU.”(paraphrase).
If you’re fighting for a vision that is all about you, you need a new vision. If you’re fighting for a dream that isn’t about you than fight as if someone else’s life depended upon it. Today we honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther Kind, Jr. He was a brilliant and privileged man that CHOOSE to lay down his life for others. He could of lived fighting for himself and those in his immediate circle but rather he choose to fight for the rights of the oppressed.  He died fighting, but the fight didn’t die with him because the fight wasn’t FOR him.  I want to live a life fighting for others and join, in some small way, in the legacy of those that choose the same.

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

VISION DEFENSE PART 5 – BALANCE

Neh. 4:16-18 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.

Nehemiah understood something that we all struggle with; we can’t sacrifice tomorrow for today. We all want to have a smile on our face today but not at the expense of the smiles of tomorrow.  There is ALWAYS a battle that’s right in front of us, a fire that needs extinguishing.  But imbalance comes when we allow nearsightedness to rob our future. At some times Faith, Family, Work, Play, Finances, Health/fitness will demand more attention from us than at other times. I’ve found in both my reading and experience that balance comes as we are able to properly manage the following two things:

TIME – Your most precious resource is not money but time. The rich and poor have this in common, they both have 24 hours in their day.
PERSPECTIVE – How you see it is as important, if not more important than WHAT you see.  Your attitude about “IT” is as important as whatever “IT” is you’re facing.

Every day is a good day to ask yourself how you may be giving a disproportionate amount of time to something that’s creating imbalance. And every day is a good day to ask yourself if you’re viewing something in a wrong or tainted way which is resulting in imbalance.  The journey towards your purpose is a tightrope walk and unless you can learn the art of balance you will inevitably fall far short of it.

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.” -Thomas Merton

VISION DEFENSE PART 6… THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING A FAILURE AND BEING A LOSER

Yesterday I was on the treadmill at the gym listening to Glen Beck on FOX news. He was talking to Chris Gardner, the man for which the movie THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS is based upon. Glen said to Chris “I relate to your story because I was a failure most of my life. I was NEVER a looser, but I was a failure”. I thought that was a unique and thought worthy distinction. At first the two words may seem interchangeable but they are not. Failure is simply no meeting an intended objective. But to be a looser is to internalize failure and to make it into WHO you are. You make the switch from being a failure to a loser when you accept failure. It can also be said that you become a loser when you quit. If you rise to fight another day you will never be a loser.
Truth is, we need to change the way we see failure. I’ve seen it taught this way…

S U C C E S S <->  Y O U  <->  F A I L U R E

Seeing it in that way creates an enormous amount of undo stress and tension as we pursue our goals. But really, we ought to see it in this way…

Y O U  –>  F A I L U R E  –> S U C C E S S

Instead of seeing failure as something that only happens to looser see it as something that is along the path of winners, because truly it is. See failure as a necessary evil on the path to greatness, an obstacle that YOUR winning attitude can push through.

Consider the following:

-Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.” As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

-Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was “sub-normal,” and one of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams.” He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. He did eventually learn to speak and read. Even to do a little math.

-Henry Ford  went broke five times before he succeeded.

-Jack London who wrote “call of the wild”, received six hundred rejection slips before he sold his first story.

-27 publishers rejected Dr. Seuss’s first book, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

-Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”

GUEST BLOGGER – JORDAN BOYCE

In the next couple weeks you will hear from some of my friends from around the country and around the WORLD(ok Canada) on the topic of vision. The first in the line up will be the youngest of my guest bloggers. Jordan Boyce is dynamic 18 year old that serves on the leadership team of GROUND ZERO a minsty of New Life Worship Center in Rhode Island. He is presently serving as in intern at THE CITY CHURCH in Seattle Washington.  Here’s what he had to say…

I Can Do That
I believe most teenagers lack vision because they have never seen vision in anyone else their age.
My youth group was set up for many years with the exact components to be a success. We had a youth pastor, a band, and free pizza- all the perfect ingredients for growth, right? Yet, week after week apathy permeated myself and every other teenager in that place. It was as if we showed up to take a 2 hour nap every friday night- then go to Chillis.
One Friday night i woke up. If i was honest i think it was my friend Nate that woke me up. It was if i had been in a haze for months seeing the same worship and hearing the same message week after week. In one moment my being came into focus as I saw my 17 year old friend stand up to preach. It was only a 15 minute message, but it was not the message that spoke…It was the fact that a 17 yr old was preaching. My eyes seemed to be opened and mind activated to one thought: “Pshh, i could do that.”
It was as if Nate reached into my head and flipped the “on” switch. A teenager was actually doing something viable in our youth group! A teenager actually had a vision better than surviving those forced 2 hrs of church! I had an example set in front of me, and it allowed me to have my own vision activate. I preached 1 month later.
Paul writes to his young protege Timothy to be an example to all believers- essentially he is telling Timothy to live out his Christianity so that other believers can think to themselves “Pshh, i can do that”. Vision begets vision. One teenager waking up is sure to wake up other teenagers. Just one man named Moses woke up an entire nation called Israel to the fact that they were greater than slaves. Teenagers have become slaves chained to the daily grind of hanging out, showing up at church, and watching movies. These teenagers are actually a mighty nation, the called out ones. Yet, so many settle for a menial existence simply because they have never seen someone their age who has a vision bigger than going to Chillis on a friday night.
Its as if many of our youth groups are trapped in a massive room that is pitch black. Just one match needs to be lit. One match that gives off just enough light for a few other teenagers to find and light their own matches- until whole youth groups are illuminated by people who have seen a match lit and lit their own matches.
Whole youth groups need to be illuminated- but it starts with just one teenager. One teenager who does something that will make their friends think: Pshh, i can do that.

(you can hear more from Jordan at jordanboyce.wordpress.com)

LOVE PEOPLE, USE THINGS

2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NLT)You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

January 24 Erik Salvador Ayala went on a shooting rampage in the streets of  Portland, Oregon. He killed two and injured seven before shooting himself in the head. If that’s not depraved enough look at a portion of the suicide note this unemployed, depressed 24-year-old left his roommate:

“You know my ps3 is special,” it said. “Similar USED ps3s go for AT LEAST $450-$500. Our landlord guy wants a ps3 like mine. Let him know that $400 would be a GOOD deal. If he doesn’t want it, format the drive by going to Settings>system Settings>Format Utility. You can say that it “comes with the latest firmware software” to help market it on the Internet. In case you don’t know, it’s the special “100% backwards compatible” (60GB) ps3.”

Why am I posting all this? It’s simple really. What bothers me here is that this messed up story doesn’t shock me. It SHOULD but it doesn’t. It doesn’t surprises me because this is the end of a culture that obsessively loves things and heartlessly uses people.  The aforementioned idiot is more concerned about his stupid PS3 than he is about the harm he was about to bring into the lives of an untold number of people. SOOOO SELFISH. This story punctuates my point about the warped value system in culture but we ALL have been guilty at one time forgetting what’s important and valuable. LOVE people, USE things…. just a reminder

ALL IN – WINS COME WHEN YOU’RE ALL IN

We’re starting a new a series entitled simply entitled “WIN”.  The first in the series was was about missions. I’ll post the notes later. ANYWHO  I thought I’d make a video to illustrate the point…

(LEGAL DISCLAIMER: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. THIS WAS DONE WITH MEDICAL AND SAFETY OVERSIGHT)

MAKE UM’ FEEL IT

Microsoft founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates at the elite Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference made a powerful point about the deadly sting of malaria.

“Malaria is spread by mosquitoes…I brought some. Here I’ll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected.”

Gates said this while opening a jar onstage at a gathering known to attract technology titans, politicians, and Hollywood elite. Gates waited a minute or so before assuring the audience the liberated insects were malaria-free. He went on to say:

“There is more money put into baldness drugs than into malaria,” Gates quipped, triggering laughter. “Now, baldness is a terrible thing and rich men are afflicted. That is why that priority has been set.”

Lessons to be learned from Bill( Mr. Burns) Gates through this:

- There isn’t anything like an illustration to prove a point.

- Bill Gates would be scarier than Osama bin Laden, Kim Jong-il & Nancy Pelosi combined if he turned his powers towards evil.

– People generally don’t care about something until it affects them

– Bill Gates is SOOO rich that he knows where and how to procure a jar full of mosquitoes!

- Learning has to be mixed with experiencing to be effective.

ANOTHER ALCOHOL RELATED RACE

For my fellow runners, I wanted to tell you how I spent the first part of my Saturday. I competed in the Kuyahoora kickers Beer and chili 10k. I finished in a less then respectable 42:28, which was good enough for 7th. The conditions where so so and since I finished 7th, clearly it wasn’t stacked with elite runners. It was 25 degrees and windy. It was by far the hilliest 10k I’ve ever competed in.

One small observation…. Today it was the Kuyahoora Kickers Beer & Chili 10k. The last race I competed in was the hangover 10k and in the summer I’ll do Americas largest 15k, which finishes at a beer factory where sweaty runners get trashed at 10:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. With races like these it’s surprising that there isn’t a stronger correlation between running and alcoholism.

FAMILY FUN DAY

Every family should have a day. If not a full day at least a solid evening. Since I’m throwing out mediates here are a couple more: husbands you should have 10 significant minutes of conversation with your wife every day… not ya ya ya, REALLY listening. You my think “what’s 10 minutes?” but ask your wife if you do it now…. case closed.  You also should have one night a week for date night. But here is a one minute “how to” video to help you have your very own family fun day

WWW.OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE.COM

WWW.OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE.COM

Question: how did you just read that?

There are two ways that you might have read it;

Opportunity is nowhere OR opportunity is now here.

Do you see and ugly or a beautiful lady?

Interesting how we all see the same things every day and yet we “see” it different. I see a tragic downturn in the real estate market another sees the EXACT same condition and sees an investment opportunity.  A civilian sees one thing while a cop may see another. You see curdled milk I see cottage cheese…. Ok, that one was just plain gross. The point is we generally accept that the way we see it is the only way to see it. If it’s not the ONLY way we secretly know it’s the right way. But I propose that maybe you ought to look at it again. Look at that job, relationship or loss again… for the first time. Look at it with fresh eyes. Life is as much about prospective as it about position. Too often we obsesses about changing our position when it can’t be changed. At the same time we tragically neglect the one thing that CAN be changed which is our perspective about the position/place we’re in…. Ironically our position often won’t change until our perspective changes.

That relationship might not heal until you see them as wounded instead of wicked.

That past pain might not heal until you see you can leverage it for purpose.

You may only see a broken life but begin to see where they’re at as the first chapter of an epic tail of a transformed life.

PERSPECTIVE….”Today is a good day for you”

Two years ago I had some word done on my nose. I had and extremely deviated septum that needed to be drilled out. Ya, sounds unfun right? IT WAS! After drilling out by face in surgery, my doctor, and excellent ENT Doctor, packet it with gauze like a civil war muzzle loader. I had to come in for a check up feeling uncomfortable from the intense pain and self-conscience due to the blood dripping for my gauze packet nose for the last 4 days since the operation. The doctor came in the examination room and declared in a thick Lebanese accent “today is a good day for you”. To his absurd declaration I retorted “NOT REALLY”. He listened patiently while I outlined all the reasons why it was NOT a good day: the pain, the discomfort, the annoyance…. When I finished, he said, “I see”, then he said “today is a good day for you”. He excused himself saying he would return in a minute. I was a little annoyed and bewildered by his behavior. He had my attention to say the least though. I listened as he went to the examination room directly adjacent to mine. I heard a husband and wife ask abruptly, “Is it, is it cancer?”… There as a pause and the doctor said, “I’m sorry, it is, and its stage 3”. That’s when I heard them cry. It was a bitter, scared, broken kind of cry that hopefully you only cry a few times in life. I cry that was fitting for a TRULY bad day…. I cried too… I cried because in one minute my entire perspective changed. I literally didn’t feel any pain or discomfort. The only thing I felt in that moment was a deep empathy for the faceless strangers that where hurting right next door The doctor came in a few minutes later with some paper work for me to leave with. He looked me in the eyes knowing I heard everything that had happened only a few feet away and said…“today is a good day for you” to which I replied, with visible tears still in my eyes  and a radically changed perspective, “today is a good day for me”.

Don’t ever loose perspective. See God, see hope and see the good.

“BALENTINES DAY”

THE FALLACY OF A PRIVATE LIFE

Ignaz Semmelsweis was a Hungarian physician called the “saviour of mothers” who discovered, by 1847, that the incidence of puerperal fever, also known as childbed fever could be drastically cut by use of hand washing standards in obstetrical clinics. While employed as assistant to the professor of the maternity clinic at the Vienna General Hospital in Austria in 1847, Semmelweis introduced hand washing with chlorinated lime solutions for interns who had performed autopsies. This immediately reduced the incidence of fatal puerperal fever from about 10 percent (range 5–30 percent) to about 1–2 percent. At the time, diseases were attributed to many different and unrelated causes. Semmelweis’ hypothesis, that there was only one cause, that all that mattered was cleanliness, was extreme at the time, and was largely ignored, rejected or ridiculed. He was dismissed from the hospital and harassed by the medical community in Vienna, which eventually forced him to move to Budapest. Up to the point of his discovery 1 in 10 otherwise healthy women DIED after HE treated them. 1 in 10!! Since Semmelsweis was in innovator and since Vienna General Hospital was a teaching hopital he worked on cadavers on nearly a daily basis. He would go from working on cadavers to birthing babies WITHOUT washing his hands.

This great Doctor considered every other variable that might be the contributing factor to the demise of his patients but kept coming back to the chilling reality… HE WAS THE PROBLEM. It’s told that there where women that birthed their child in the street to avoid coming in contact with him. Something that was on him got was getting on his patients and eventually killed them. He touched death and transferred it to his healthy patients and it brought death to them. Try as you may to convince yourself to the contrary, we are holistic people. You can’t compartmentalize who you are. What you touch in private affects your public life. Touching death in your private life will bring death in your public life.

ONE… ITS WAY MORE THAN JUST A SHIRT

Wearing my heart on my sleeve

I’ve learned that one of the tricks of life is keeping a soft heart and developing thick skin.

Act… React

Act… React

Act… React

“They” say 80% of all statistics are made up right on the spot… So let me add to the 80%. I would say 10% of your life is spent in action and 90% is spent in reaction. When people act vengefully we’re tempted to act vengefully. When someone subjects us to hurt it’s easy to respond in a hurtful way. You yell… I yell. You use harsh words…I use harsh words. This ISN’T the way it’s supposed to be, at least not for those that claim to follow Christ. He said, “Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also’. So I get the part about doing good, blessing and praying it’s the “offer the other cheek also” part that I struggle with. The problem is I think the old saying “fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me”, is engrained deeper in our souls than the words of Christ. I want to be like Christ. I want be able to put my heart out there. I want to be able to love deeply and wildly. I want to keep a soft heart. I don’t want to become cynical and jaded and I realize that that’s a divine attribute. To be able to love like Jesus and open my arms to people when I know it may result in them putting nails in my hands is the character of Christ. But to love in a way that matter is put your heart out there. Its to risk a broken heart so that you can help in the healing of someone elses broken heart. If our hearts, hands and heads are connected to Christ we’re experiencing pure love and are able to wear our hearts and our sleeve and love deeply and in a way that people desperately need.

“I Shall Not Pass This Way Again”

I shall not pass this way again-
Although it bordered be with flowers,
Although I rest in fragrant bowers,
And hear the singing
Of song-birds winging
To highest heaven their gladsome flight;
Though moons are full and stars are bright,
And winds and waves are softly sighing,
While leafy trees make low replying;
Though voices clear in joyous strain
Repeat a jubilant refrain;
Though rising suns their radiance throw
On summer’s green and winter’s snow,
In such rare splendor that my heart
Would ache from scenes like these to part;
Though beauties heighten,
And life-lights brighten,
And joys proceed from every pain,-
I shall not pass this way again.

Then let me pluck the flowers that blow,
And let me listen as I go
To music rare
That fills the air;
And let hereafter
Songs and laughter
Fill every pause along the way;
And to my spirit let me say:
“O soul, be happy; soon ’tis trod,
The path made thus for thee by God.
Be happy thou, and bless His name
By whom such marvelous beauty came.”
And let no chance by me be lost
To kindness show at any cost.
I shall not pass this way again;
Then let me now relieve some pain,
Remove some barrier from the road,
Or brighten some one’s heavy load;
A helping hand to this one lend,
Then turn some other to befriend.

O God, forgive
That now I live
As if I might, sometime, return
To bless the weary ones that yearn
For help and comfort every day,-
For there be such along the way.
O God, forgive that I have seen
The beauty only, have not been
Awake to sorrow such as this;
That I have drunk the cup of bliss
Remembering not that those there be
Who drink the dregs of misery.

I love the beauty of the scene,
Would roam again o’er fields so green;
But since I may not, let me spend
My strength for others to the end,-
For those who tread on rock and stone,
And bear their burdens all alone,
Who loiter not in leafy bowers,
Nor hear the birds nor pluck the flowers.
A larger kindness give to me,
A deeper love and sympathy;
Then, O, one day
May someone say-
Remembering a lessened pain-
“Would she could pass this way again.”

~ Eva Rose York

STAND UP FOR THE SUDANESE

This week Sudanese president Omar Bashir denounced the United Nations and all related aid agencies. He demanded that 11 agencies that are there for the sole purpose of feeding and keeping alive 2 million of HIS citizens cease and desist and leave the Sudan. WHY you may ask. He’s doing this in protest to the fact that the ICC(International Criminal Court) have issued warrants for his arrest for genocide and crimes against humanity. As they should since he is possibly the worst living dictator. He’s a deranged psychopath that through ethnic cleansing has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands and has displaced millions more. Bottom line is he seems to be making it his personal mission to spend eternity in hell. His expulsion of the U.N. and aid agency means the emanate demise of hundreds of thousands if not millions of innocent Sudanese men, woman and children. Here is where the issue is for me. The ICC is a joke and something that presidents Bush and Clinton saw unfit for the U.S. to be part of. WHY? Because if you where to poll the world they would say 90% percent of what the U.S does is a crime against humanity including all military action and the teen choice awards. SO, if we where to join the ICC they could put former U.S. presidents, military leaders and any other U.S. citizen in jail they find guilty.

The kicker here is that its rumored that President Obama has softened his resolve on joining the ICC in the face of its recent denouncement of president Bashir. Although the ICC got it right on the issue of president Bashir realize that even a broken watch is right twice a day and the U.S. should not be in cahoots with the ICC.

You should do 3 things on this matter

1. Study out the matter for yourself and come to your own conclusion.

2. Call and write your congressmen and senator and tell them you don’t want America to ever be a part of the ICC

3. Tell them that we as a nation must act on behalf of the helpless of the Sudan by force if necessary.

THE 2%

A phobia is defined as a persistent, irrational, and severe fear of certain objects, activities, and situations. Millions of Americans have one whether it is of heights, spiders or clowns. Those that have a Phobia, not simply a discomfort or a fear but a true phobia, have what Physiologist call a phobic response better known as “fight of flight”. When this happens the sympathetic nervous system kicks in. So when your are exposed to what ever it is you have a phobia a signal goes from the eyes to the feet almost illogically bypassing the brain. This is when you will see grown men squeal like a girl and run like a scared child at the sight of a mouse.

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman in his book ON COMBAT, says the universal human phobia is human combat or interpersonal human conflict. He says, “If I walked into a crowded room and emptied a pistol in one of them, or hacked at one of them with a machete, up to 98% of the average audience would experience a true phobic-scale response.” So what is to be said of the remaining 2%, they are the warriors, they are the fighters. Most people run from a fight, most think that preservation of life is the highest value but some think preservation of justice is the highest value. They are the ones that don’t run from the fight but straight into the fray. These are the elite soldiers of the Navy SEALS or RANGERS or S.W.A.T. member. They are the firefighters of 9/11 that ran into the twin towers when everyone else was running out. They are the truest leaders of all.

Tragedy, pain and injustice WILL happen in your life, I can guarantee it. What’s not guaranteed it that there will be someone willing to run into your mess when everyone is running out. I may forget those that ran out when it all went wrong but I’ll NEVER forget those that ran in. They are the ones that sustained me in the pain. They held my hand in the mist of the hurt. They where the ones that spoke faith in my heart when fear was in my eyes.

I want to be in the 2%.

“Is there something wrong with these people? No. There is something gloriously right with them. Because if we did not have warriors, men and woman willing to move toward the sounds of the guns and confront evil, within the span of a generation our civilization would no longer exist.” Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

Things in your life outside of your control? Go take a nap.

Psalm 37:7 (NLT) Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.

There are times when my human action can bring about definitive change and there are many other times where the change that’s needed can only be an act of the divine. my attitude, behavior and actions are in the realm of MY control. This isn’t to say that I can have whatever attitude I want and do as I please, it means that my attitude, behavior and actions are issues that I ought not to be sitting around waiting for God to act. If I swear like a sailor I don’t need to be, “waiting patiently for him to act” I need to slap myself in the mouth and knock it off. There are issues far outside of my human control. I can do WHATEVER I want but I’m not going to will myself or others out of a serious illness. I can’t pull my retirement account out of the toilet by getting angry as Chris Brown on the way to the Grammy’s(ya I DID just say that). There are issues every day when we have to truly put our trust in God.

Ways to demonstrate trust in God:

1. Refuse to speak in a fatalistic matter. Any reference to the “end times” is strictly forbidden. Don’t worry your stock values WILL come back up. What you say in crisis DOES matter, so fill your mouth with with prayer and words of hope.

2. Fill your head with the right stuff. Get Gods words in your head. Greater than what the doctors, prognosticators or pundits  say.

3. Sleep. As you lay your head to rest at night its like a prayer of trust. It’s saying, “God I believe that as I sleep you are taking care of the things that are outside of my control.”

Imagination is not creation by Steven Furtick

I thought I’d pass on along to my readers a truly great thought by Steven Furtick. I would encourage you to click on his name and read the full entry… GREAT stuff

Imagination is not creation Some people fancy themselves as being “creative”, or ”creative-types” because they have a lot of ideas. Cool. You have ideas. So does my 3 year old. That doesn’t make you creative. An idea without implementation isn’t creation. It’s imagination. By definition, being creative requires that you create something. True creative people don’t just dream it-they do it…or oversee the strategy to get it done. True creativity results in a product. Not just an idea.

ONE WAY TO GET THE LADIES TO NOTICE YOU

Meet Craig Clasen, your average 32 year old spear-fishing snorkeler. Last June he decided it would be a hoot to get in a battle royale with a 12-foot tiger shark.  He spent 2 hours fighting this beast until he finally finished it off by stabbing it in its skull. He’s quoted as saying, “Once I shot it in the gills I felt a moral obligation to finish the job,”…. “In the end we put a knife in its skull.”

A couple things Craig did here: one, secured the “OMG you did WHAT!!” award and also fashioned for himself the greatest line to land a perspective wife….”pardon me, I’m Craig, I stabbed a 12-foot shark in the skull on it’s own home turf and killed the sucker”, BAM, DONE, see you at the wedding. Moral of the story is, if you you’re a single guy and you’re ready to wed but can’t seem to get the ladies to notice you …fight a shark.

I know what your thinking, “Mark does the fact that this guy got in a death match with a shark and won make him more of a man than me?” Well, mister anonymous question asker guy, the answer to your question is YES!!!… Unless of course you performed the same feat blind folded.

(The proceeding was satire and in no way do I want to have any of my readers fight a shark)

ME ON ONE.org

I was asked to contribute to ONE.org. ONE is a great organization that’s making a huge difference and one that i believe in. They posted my sermon to their site and you can link on it by clicking here….“HERE” .  If you like, vote for me.

HEALTHY THINGS GROW

Hebrews 10:24 (NLT) Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

I read a story covered by ABC news about a baby that is a medical mystery because of the fact that she won’t grow. Atlanta Ruzman of the U.K. said her first clue that something was wrong with her pregnancy came at seven months, when she was barely showing a bump. Suraya Brown entered the world at just over two-and-a-half pounds. That was 14 months ago. But today, doctors in England are baffled by the case of Baby Suraya who, it seems, has refused to grow. Even now, her daughter is barely above the weight of an average newborn at 7 pounds, 7 ounces. This is only two ounces heavier than the birth weight of her older sister, Akilah, who was born about a year prior to Suraya.

As a read this story I have this thought “WHO CARES”……… Now that I have your attention….

Truth is, OF COURSE I’m concerned. I’m not brash or indifferent to the obvious tragedy outlined in this story. It’s an obvious tragedy because babies are supposed to grow. Healthy things grow. At the first sign that growth isn’t happening the normal, natural thing for any loving parent to do is to stop everything and investigate why. The question that comes to mind is this. Why is someone a jerk for acting indifferent to the retardation of natural growth of a child but its ok to not even flinch when fellow Christ followers around them haven’t grown ONE BIT in years? We need to have a high level of vigilance to ensure that we and those around us are growing. Why? Because the Bible commands it and to settle for anything less than your best is to squander your God given potential. Hebrews 10:24 says, “motivate” or “provoke” which come from the greek word to “incite” or “irritation”. Its more than suggesting or nudging its getting fully engaged in the helping those around us be their best.

AT THIS POINT

...the pictures just cus i like U2 and their song

John 6:60-68 Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”61 Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to heaven again? 63 The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But some of you do not believe me.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn’t believe, and he knew who would betray him.) 65 Then he said, “That is why I said that people can’t come to me unless the Father gives them to me.”66 At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. 67″You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

There are three very note worthy words in the above passage and they’re. “AT THIS POINT”. Jesus is doing his thing and preaching up a storm and making it real clear that following him wouldn’t be a cakewalk and as some of the disciples got it they exited stage right. They where with him to a certain point but then something happened that made then reconsider. As we walk out our faith there will always be points where walking away will seem better than walking on. The pack always thins on the approach to the finish line of any race. The start of a thing is always filled with excitement and anticipation but the ensuing journey is often filled with complexity, confusion and difficulty. So who makes it to the finish line? The answer to that question is found in the response that Peter gives; “to whom shall we go”. What keeps your feet firm on the path of faith in Christ is a realization that there really isn’t any other path. Life will inevitably throw you ‘points’ where quitting actually seems to make sense, but hang on and walk on. Where else can we go? Who else has the answers? The truth is even when difficult things slip through Gods permissive hand and into my life he is STILL my only hope. When things happen that confuse and bewilder God alone is STILL my only source of comfort and truth.

You may me at this point where you may want to walk away but don’t. Stay in it and walk on and lean into the truth that Christ alone is the source of life.

DON’T LOOSE YOUR GRIP

2 Samuel 23:9-10 (CEV) The next one of the Three Warriors was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite. One time when the Philistines were at war with Israel, he and David dared the Philistines to fight them. Every one of the Israelite soldiers turned and ran, 10except Eleazar. He killed Philistines until his hand was cramped, and he couldn’t let go of his sword. When Eleazar finished, all the Israelite troops had to do was come back and take the enemies’ weapons and armor. The LORD gave Israel a great victory that day.

I love this story for so many reasons. I love how two guys, David and Eleazar, dared an army to fight them. I love how, even when those that where suppose to fight ran off, David and Eleazar kept fighting valiantly. I love how Eleazar cleaved to his sword and wouldn’t let go. It’s as if they knew that they where so far into the fight that it was shorter to go through than to retreat.

I think everyone is moved by stories of valiancy and bravery followed by victory. The stories speak to something deep in us. These stories show us in others what we sense might be true of ourselves. That sense is that we’re capable of far more. Truth is you can go ten times further, endure 10 times more pain and accomplish 10 times more than what you think you can.

As we focus on the prize on the other side of our current struggle in enables us to endure the pain and discomfort of the moment. You may be wounded but you’re not dead so fight on. The Bible says “every one of the Israelite soldiers turned and ran” and as their back turned from the battle history turned its back on them and there names where forever forgotten. Eleazer charged ahead and became immortalized THROUGH the fight. Know who you are, know whose you are know the reason that you fight…. THEN FIGHT.

A WATCH CAN SAY A LOT ABOUT A MAN.

There is something that I feel I must draw attention to and that is Secretary of the treasury Tim Geithner. He seems to be on a one man mission to help usher in an new era of unprecedented government oversight in finance. On top of this he has the gull to stand up to the nation and basically say “trust me with the future of your freedom and finance”, having personally dodged paying his OWN taxes for four years. Now these facts are alarming but what REALLY makes me mad is his wearing a $15 plastic Timex wherever he goes. Now let me set the scene. Tim Geithner is THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY! Him wearing a plastic watch is the equivalent of wearing white tube sox with a tuxedo. I don’t know that’s going on in his head. If I had to guess it’s the 5k he must be running this weekend. I’m sure he wants to keep his running watch on to remind himself to stay focused on what’s REALLY important. Looking at his job performance I would guess what’s really important to him is placing in his age division at the 5k fun run he’s obviously training and dressing for.

So good luck Mr. Secretary don’t let your work get to you. This whole financial mess, I’m sure, will work itself out, so don’t you stress… you don’t want to pull a hamstring or anything. All work and no play will make you a dull boy so lace up your sneakers show this nation what you’re made of.

SAY NOPE TO DOPE

On Thursday, March 26th the President, as part of his “It feels so good to talk” campaign decided to take questions from the good folks on the internet. This is is how it unfolded…

“…we took votes about which questions were going to be asked, and I think 3 million people voted or 3.5 million people voted,” he said. “I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation.”

Now here is how he responded…

“The answer is, no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy,”

Now I’m not a genius, but I think the president missed the point. Call me old school but I think drugs are bad. I know I know, I need to relax but i think special “K” should stay a delicious break cereal and ecstasy is something you feel after setting a PR in the marathon, but i guess I’m a prude. I must have missed the part where drugs stopped being an ethical, moral, health, and social issue and became a purely economic issue. I mean I get it people I’m not an idiot like I let on, I understand the issues surrounding the issue of the legalization of mary-j but PLEASE. When the leader of the free world fields a question from the brownie munching pro-potters on the world wide web he shouldn’t just hop scotch over the obvious and implicite dangers of drug use. He, at some point, should have thrown in a “just say no” or “say nope to dope” . This really gets me fired up as I’ve seen young people throw there lives away with drugs. The last thing the crying parents ask me is, “I wonder what affect this will have on the economy”. Every person who reads this should Email thier congressman, senator and the white house and tell them (OMG I can’t believe its coming to this), “SAY NOPE TO DOPE”!!!

PROTECT THE FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE

You have a vitally important opportunity to immediately send a message to prevent a critical loss of access to healthcare professionals who are being systematically pressured to violate ethical standards. Here’s what’s been happening:

1. In August 2008, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) took long-overdue action to address a growing crisis of abortion-related discrimination that could force thousands of conscientious healthcare professionals out of medicine. After several months of public comment on its proposed regulation, in December 2008 HHS finalized a regulation that made clear the protections offered by three civil rights laws passed by Congress with bipartisan support.
2. The civil rights laws declare that American tax dollars will not fund programs in which healthcare professionals are fired, penalized or otherwise subjected to discrimination because of their ethical stance related to abortion and other morally controversial issues.
3. However, in March 2009, following protests from abortion special interest groups, the new administration officially declared plans to rescind–get rid of–the conscience-protecting regulation. The administration has, as required by law, called for public comment on the proposed plan to get rid of the conscience-protecting regulation, with a deadline of April 9, 2009.

This move by the Obama administration is a bold and aggressive move that undermines the “right of conscience” that has been protected for 30 years. You can argue for abortion(which I clearly oppose) but to say that a Doctor MUST perform what they consider to be murder or else face being disbarred is obhorable.

If you agree that this is wrong let your voice be heard. Click on this link and speak up —>  FREEDOM2CARE

WHERE IS GOD

If there is one things that will forever fascinate me is to watch people demonstrate incredible strength in the face of unimaginably difficult circumstances. Last night I was awe inspired as i watch the great singer/song writer Steven Curtis Chapman take the stage. Under the spotlight he begin to sing of the greatness and yet the mystery of God. This might not be so note worthy if it weren’t for the fact that the Chapmans faith  has been tested in the most profound way. Last May in a horrible accident they lost their 5 year old little girl maria in an accident at their home. There’s nothing like a song sung by a survivor. I could see it in his face. There was pain, yes there was pain, but through the pain i could see strength, great strength . It was truly inspiring. He said “There is more mystery to God than there’s ever been”. But he added, “I’ll carry with me those mysteries and this brokenness until I go home to be with God”. WOW!

Dean Karanazes, writing in the April issue of OUTSIDE magazine said about a completely not spiritual activity:

A great run definitely involves suffering. I think any adventure athlete will tell you that there’s honesty in suffering. You feel more alive than when you’re just cruising along. There are moments where you have very lucid thoughts. On day four, running across the Sahara last year, i nearly passed out at mile 23 of a 28-mile stage. I was dehydrated, it was extremely hot, I had exhausted my salty foods, and i was rationing my electrolyte tablets. My ears were ringing. My head was spinning. I was seeing stars. I finally sat down in the sand and just looked around. There was no one there. And I sat there for probably 15 minutes and got in my own head and said: Don’t get ahead of yourself. Be in the moment. Don’t think about the race to you have to do tomorrow. Just take on step. Do your best on the next step. There’s magic in misery. I talked to God out there. (Karnazes, 46, won the 2008 Four desert Challenge, a 621-mile stage race across the Atacama, Gobi, Sahara, and Antarctic deserts)

There are many things in life that shift, trend and change . And when they do we instinctively reach for what is secure and unchanging. There is a taste, a feeling, an experience about deep pain. Steven called it mystery, Dean called it magic but either way there’s only one person who knows the hows and whys… and it’s NOT me.  When we can entrust the mysteries of life to our maker   My prayer is that when life’s race produces suffering and misery that I’ll reach out for God, the unmoving anchor of my soul,  and let him turn my suffering into a song that will strengthen others in their race.

sermon notes – TREASURE

Trading up- from the tangible to the intangible
-we all want to trade UP -

Dr. James Dobson: I arrived on campus before the other students got there, went over to the Administration Building—kind of         strolling around, getting the feel of the campus.  I was 2,000 miles from home.  I remember walking up to this trophy case that was there in the Administration Building.

There were the trophies from past athletic victories that the college had had—mostly basketball.  In the  center of this case was a tennis trophy.  It was about, at least, two foot high.  They build them five foot high to    day, but in those days, that was a big trophy.  It was spiral in nature.  It had a cylinder n the center of it, and on it were the names of the students who won the school tournament every year back to 1947.  Here were the tennis greats through the years at Pasadena College where I was a student.
I remember salivating as I stood before that trophy case. I looked at that list of names, and I said, “Someday,     someday, my name is going to be engraved on the tennis trophy.  I’m going to get my name on there as the     best tennis player in this school.”  I had that as a goal.  It’s hard to believe today that that would be that  important to me.  It’s interesting how your values change over time.
But as an 18-year-old, that was one of the chief goals of my life…was to win the school tournament and to get my name, especially, on that trophy, so that freshman, 10 years later, would come and stand before that case and look at my name among the tennis greats.  That tells you a little bit about my ego needs at that time.  As it turned out…I succeeded in 1957 and 1958.  I won the school tournament, and they duly engraved my name on the trophy.  That was my legacy to future generations.
I left the school, and that’s been many years.  About 10 years ago, Will Spaite’s (a friend) son was up on campus of Pasadena College rummaging around, looking for something, and he found that trophy in the trash. My trophy, with my name on it, and all the tennis greats down through the years since 1947, was  summarily thrown away.  He found it in the trash.  He rescued it, took it home, and they cleaned it up, and Will brought me that trophy.  So, I have it in my office today, and there my name is.

Dr. Dobson discovered the truth of what Jesus taught…
Matthew 6:19-21 (NLT) “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
-Your heart is where your treasure is
-You will pursue what you treasure
-Your life will be defined by what you pursue

Solomon:
Ecclesiastes 2:8-11 (NLT) I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many       beautiful  concubines. I had everything a man could desire! 9 So I became greater than all who had lived in  Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. 10 Anything I wanted, I would take. I  denied myself no pleasure. I even  found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my  labors. 11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so  meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worth while anywhere.

The body of David Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey, London England where he was born, but his heart was buried, as he requested,  in the  Africa he loved. At the foot of a tall tree in a small African village the natives dug a hole and placed a box containing the heart of the man who they loved and  respected. If your heart were to be buried in the place you loved most during life, where would it be?
-Money
-Sports
-Career
-High School Relationship
-Possessions
-Image

Isaiah 33:5-6 (NIV) The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high;  he will fill Zion with justice     and righteousness. 6 He will be the sure foundation for your times,  a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge  the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.

SERMON – VOICES IN THE STREET

Prov. 1:20-33 the voice of Wisdom

Prov. 7:6-27 the voice of the immoral woman (strange woman: to be a stranger, be one alienated)

-5 Truths about voices-

Two types of voices-Internal -External

1. The right voice doesn’t always say what you want to hear

-the voice of wisdom it direct and confronting

Proverbs 1:20-23 Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square. 21She calls out to the crowds along the main street, and to those in front of city hall. 22″You simpletons!” she cries. “How long will you go on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish your mocking? How long will you fools fight the facts? 23Come here and listen to me! I’ll pour out the spirit of wisdom upon you and make you wise.

-the voice of the adulterous woman is smooth and seducing

Proverbs 7:13-15 She threw her arms around him and kissed him, and with a brazen look she said, 14″I’ve offered my sacrifices and just finished my vows. 15It’s you I was looking for! I came out to find you, and here you are!

2. The right voice isn’t always the loudest voice

1 Kings 19:11-13 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: 12And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

3. You’ll always hear the wrong voices when you’re in the wrong places

Proverbs 7:6-9 I was looking out the window of my house one day 7and saw a simpleminded young man who lacked common sense. 8He was crossing the street near the house of an immoral woman. He was strolling down the path by her house 9at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in.

4. You can tune you ears to listen to the right voice

Proverbs 2:2 Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding

5. What voices you listen to will determine where you go and what you will become.

Prov. 1 –wisdom will make you wise, make you to live in peace & safety unafraid of harm

The voice of sin:

Prov. 7:26 for she has been the ruin of many; numerous Men have been her victims. Her house is the road to the grave. Her bedroom is the den of death

BEEN ON VACATION

Well I havent been getting mt blog on as i was on vacation with my family in Florida. We had a great time of fun and frivolity. And we cought up on some sleep… OK, niko did. But I’m back know and look forward to all that this summer will bring. Also I’ll be blogging for the next 5 days or so on the subject of Valleys. -GOD IS GREATER THAN YOUR VALLEY-

WHAT DOES GOD HAVE TO DO TO GET YOUR ATTENTION?

I love varied terrain. i’ve driven in the Midwest and i get board. No hills, no valleys, just level even corn fields. Life is the same. We love the mountain tops and hate the valleys but the Mountain tops wouldn’t be so amazing if it weren’t for the valleys and the blood sweat and tears of the climb to get to the mountain top(gosh I sounded a little like Hannah Montana there). The Bible mentions 32 different valleys and i want to draw attention to just a few.

1. The valley of trouble or The Valley of Achor. Achor is the valley of punishment.

Achor is the valley where Achan was stoned to death. The Lord said, “Do not take anything that is in Jericho.” Achan took money and a coat, and sin came into the camp. Then the battle of Ai was lost. Joshua called all the people and cast lots. The lot fell on Achan. God said, “Take him out to the valley and stone him to death.” They stoned Achan and his wife and his children. They named that place the valley of Achor (the valley of chastening). Achor in Aramaic means, literally, “oh-no-you-didnt”. Achan DID and got the God slap down. God kindda has a God complex and with God is his way or the high way. And P.S. the highway is the hard way.

Hosea 2:6-7 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

To this God replied …

Hosea 2:15 (NLT) I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble(achor) into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.

When we do it our way and reject the chastening of God it gets tougher. But when we turn to God and away from our foolishness he always makes a way of escape. he transforms our stupidity into serenity and our trouble into triumph.

Leadership lessons of the navy seals

I have been so busy that my blog has taken a back seat as it should as it isn’t on my top 10 most important things in my life. But i hope to get back at it and continue sharing about valleys in the bible but i thought i’d throw this on in there to mix it up. I went through a book this weekend i thought id pass along for your consideration

Leadership lessons of the navy seals by Jon Cannon is a great book that translates the lessons of the battlefield into use in the board room. Thought i would pass on some of the thoughts found in this great book.
(chapter 3) Leadership – The Hardest Easy thing
1. Forget the Village concept – one person has to be in charge
2. State your mission
3. Choose your opton while the choice is still yours
4. Stand up ad take the hit
5. Make a Gosh Darn(edited for content) Decision
6. Put you stand on things right away
7. Give them the big picture
8. Point the boat in the right direction
9. Get comfortable with chaos
10. The vast majority of the time, you know what you should do
11. If you think no one else can replace you, you’re an egotistical GUY(edited for content) who’s failed
12. There’s no “I” in “shut up and do the work”
13. Don’t become a leadership stereotype
14 Know which leadership style to use
15. Ensure that you possess three primary leadership tools
16. Increase your number of leadership vehicles
17. Assign an honest broker to bring you back to earth
18 Then seek out and listen to the rest of your people
19. Be unapologetic when you fire someone
20. Enforce your chains of command
21. Don’t make work your employees life
22. There is a fine line between tradition and obsolescence
23 Let them be angry when they have the right to be
24. Them them when the ship is sinking
25. Communicating hysteria wont drive production
26. Communicate that you trust them
27. Kicking them unnecessarily reveals your incompetence

“the price at which he was valued”

Matt 27:9 This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that says, “They took the 30 pieces of silver – the price at which he was valued by the people of  Israel.”
The point came for Judas that will come for each of us when we will see how much we truly value Jesus. “The price at which he was valued by the people”. As I read those words they jumped off the page. When Christians talk about Jesus and their relationship with him they don’t ever say, “Jesus has some value to me” or “following Christ is kindda important”. But they would be real honest if they did because saying he’s priceless is a bit disingenuous. The truth is we all place a price on him. However aware or oblivious we are to it there IS a price we assign to him.
I pray that Christ would dwell richly in your hearts and as you come to the realization of the great value he has a placed upon you and the great love he has for you that you would value him more and more with each passing day.

Valley of decision! (The Valley of Eschol)

Numbers 13:23-25 (NLT) When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them! They also brought back samples of the pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol (which means “cluster”), because of the cluster of grapes the Israelite men cut there.

Number 13:25-29 …“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
Eschol is located just inside the Promised Land. The Israelites came to the door of the Promised Land at Kadesh-Barnea and they appointed twelve spies. Those twelve spies went over into the Promised Land. They said it was a land that flowed with milk and honey. But they also saw the very real obstacles they had to overcome to take hold of it. The valley of Eschol is where the Jews made the decision of their life. It was at Eschol where they had to decide, “Shall we go forward or shall we go backward?” We will all go through valleys of decision.
Should we keep what we got or go after that which we where born to take hold of?
Should we run in the face of a fight?
Should  we settle for second best or fight for first?
There are crossroads in life where a decision must be made. Do we go our way or God’s way? Our faith isn’t faith until it’s tested. The Israelites had to decide if they where going to go by what God had promised them or by their fears. When we are in the valley of decision we generally feel it. It’s as if the fabric of our faith is being pulled apart and we can feel that what we are really made of is about to become evident. It’s in these times that we must decide that the words and ways of God will win out. Faith is generally not absolute but its the winner in the fight with doubt. And in the valley of decision is when faith MUST win out because it is a decisive crossroad.

For those in the valley of decision, a place of deciding if God can be trusted and if his words are true, I pray you would feel his presence and that you would find your way through this valley in that your faith would be found tried and true.

The valley of battle (The Valley of Elah)

1 Samuel 17:17-20 (NLT) One day Jesse said to David, “Take this basket of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and carry them quickly to your brothers. 18 And give these ten cuts of cheese to their captain. See how your brothers are getting along, and bring back a report on how they are doing.” 19 David’s brothers were with Saul and the Israelite army at the valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines. 20 So David left the sheep with another shepherd and set out early the next morning with the gifts, as Jesse had directed him. He arrived at the camp just as the Israelite army was leaving for the battlefield with shouts and battle cries.

In the valley of decision, God is there. In the valley of suffering, He is there and in the valley of battle, He is there. There is a thought that battles in life are to be endured and tolerated. And although I would say that the resting state of our life ought to be peace there is something that needs to be said of the battles we faith. we believe that God is a of peace but the psalmist says in Psalm 24:8 “Who is the King of glory?The Lord, strong and mighty;the Lord, invincible in battle.” God is a God of battle. This is good news because this means that when we take on righteous battle that God doesn’t turn his back and tell us he’ll meet us on the other side? It means that God is ready to get right in the thick of the fight.

Hebrews 11:32-34 (NLT)How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. 33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.

I love this verse because it show that you not only don’t have to die in battle or simply survive the battle in the valley you can thrive and grow strong in the valley of battle. Whatever you valley, God is greater than ANY valley and will prove that he is still God in  your valley of battle.

1 Kings 20:27-28 (CEV) The Israelites also prepared to fight. They marched out to meet the Syrians, and the two armies camped across from each other. The Syrians covered the whole area, but the Israelites looked like two little flocks of goats. 28The prophet went to Ahab and said, “The Syrians think the LORD is a god of the hills and not of the valleys. So he has promised to help you defeat their powerful army. Then you will know that the LORD is in control.”

You thought Hiroshima was a tragedy try hibachi

Last night i was out celebrating a friends 25th birthday. 15 friends enjoying fun and frivolity. Now here is where the plot clots and my blood boils. As much is I would like to walk the line with the masses of Americans that believe that nachos bellgrande is a traditional mexican dish or that Australians actually use the words “kangaroo” or “boomerang” ANYWHERE in their dining experience… I CAN’T. Hibachi makes my blood boil like the onion stack filled Saki lit aflame under the guise of “look, Japanese mount Fuji”(a volcano that hasn’t erupted since the 17TH CENTURY!!!!).
Lets get right to it. Any “typical” cowboy hat wearing, gun slinging, gang banging, Michael Jordan and Levi’s 501 loving American can see that something is clearly not right about this dining experience.

One, they are cooking the food in front of me. WHY?!?! The very reason i go out to eat is to avoid the kitchen and all its trappings all together.

Second, I don’t need ANYONE offering to throw food in my mouth during dinner unless I magically turn into cocker spaniel between the appetizer and the main course.

Third, call me crazy but when I’m looking for an “authentic” Japanese meal it would be great, as a base line, if the chef WASN’T Chinese…. Ya I can tell the difference.

Fourth, lighting the grill top in such a way that it singes my eyebrows isn’t impressing me. I was able to burn and blow things up when I was 10 and I got what you should get if you do it again… a beating.

Fifth I don’t know what banging and flipping a spatula incessantly have anything to do with your rich heritage.

But in all kidding aside if anyone out there can answer these questions that plague my soul email me at ilovebrucelee@yahoo.com

NO ONES LAUGHING AT GOD WHEN….

I’ve always liked Regina Spektor but she really hit a cultural nerve with this one. Its all fun and games til your backs against the wall…

Regina Spektor – Laughing With

OUR DEEPEST FEAR

I was listening to a conversation about what our attitude ought to be in athletic competition. whether it ought to be humility, confidence or cockiness.  To that conversation was sighted this amazing poem. hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear
is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness,
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually who are we not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people
won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine as children do.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And when we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

-Marianne Williamson

YOU CANT HAVE IT ALL

YOU CAN’T HAVE IT ALL. The sooner you get that the sooner you can focus on the point of life which is taking hold of all that is yours to take hold of. The old adage goes, “you can’t have your cake and eat it too”. I need to pause to say I hate adages that lack clarity. The bottom line is life is about choices, clarity and focus and unless you’re at a Las Vegas buffet you can’t choose it all. At some point Michael Jordan had to choose between basketball, baseball and golf. As a side note remember when he thought that he could do it all and choose it all and tried to play pro baseball too…. he was a laughing stock. At some point Beethoven had to choose between classical piano and that Emo band that was trying to get him to go on the road and do clubs in germany. I really think he made the right choice. OH, and that guy that came up to me after making the life transforming decision of making Christ the center of his life. He said “I was a Unitarian Universalist and was struck by the notion that EVERYONE can’t be right I had to choose and I’m choosing Christ”. EXACTLY. You can’t have it all.

In our youth we need to get out hands on everything and try to find what we’re made of and what we’re good at and have a grace for. As time goes by we need to choose carefully but we have to choose…. Why? You guessed it, you cant have it all. So many people that you could marry. So many ways in which you could spend your life and serve the the kingdom of God, the world and your neighbor. So many places your could live. But you have to choose. If you don’t your life will be and inch deep and a mile wide. You will live a indistinct, ordinary and unexceptional life.

I want my life to be clear. I want your life to be clear. I want my mission to be clear, not only to me but to everyone who crosses my path. You can’t have it all but when you choose rightly you will truly have it all.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

“EVERYONE” doesn’t exist

“Everyone hates me”
“Everyone loves it”
“Everyone thinks…”
“Everyone knows that…”
“Everyone loves…”

If there is one thing that can bring a fight with someone to a whole other lever it is broad sweeping generalizations such as, “You ALWAYS” or ”you NEVER”. If you don’t believe me find someone that is deer to you and pick a fight and throw out some generalizations and just see what happens….. Wait, that’s a HORRIBLE idea, on second thought, don’t do that… Just trust me, its true.

There is no ‘everyone’ anything.  Why does EVERYONE(see what i did there…tricky right?) insist on throwing that word around? Because everyone can’t all agree about anything… well except that airline food is gross and that Joshua Tree was the best U2 album ever.. but other than that consensus is a bit of a misnomer.

People will often come in my office to talk to me about some issue in their life and the very first words that come out of their mouth will be “everyone…”. I’ll stop them dead in their tracks and say, “Who is ‘everyone’”. To which they will give a VERY short list of people. Its funny what the net result of this is. It deescalates the situation from a world wide crisis to a regional or more accurately a personal event. I mean, come on, don’t be an ego maniac. EVERYONE doesn’t even know you exist. Of those that know you exist a bunch don’t care. Of those that care that you exist even fewer have taken the time to formulate an opinion about anything about you. So lets all just take a deep breath and realize we’re not that cool and that EVERYONE isn’t staying up nights formulating opinions about us.

When people say “everyone” what they are saying is “the group of people whose opinion of me matters”.  There are a ton of people who’s option doesn’t matter to me and the same should be true for you. I’m not giving you license to be a jerk and not give a flip what people think of you. What I’m saying more over is that you can do EVERYTHING right and there will STILL be people out there that will hate you. Deal with it. Its reality.

I guess the logical question here is, who is your ‘everyone’? Although my family, mentors and close friends are a small number, if they all felt something about me it mine as well be the whole world (everyone). Because, as wrong as it may seem, my little world feels like the whole world.  You need to be careful who’s opinion of you matters. When you’re young you want the whole world to love you, but HEY your teen age years called they want their false reality back. If you’re a teen reading this and take a play from the grown ups playbook and concern yourself with the right peoples opinion.

And as i have heard it said, “Above all else, God’s opinion of you makes every other opinion not matter”

ACT NOW!

A bill (A6702/S4779)-is being rushed through the New York legislature that would allow minors to receive any vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease without parental knowledge or consent. And there is no minimum age limit contained in the law.

This bill would, at the least, allow minors to receive vaccines for hepatitis b and human papilloma virus (HPV) sold under the trade name Gardasil.

Gardasil has been associated with an unusually high number of adverse reactions including severe neurological damage and death.
Three hepatitis b shots are already required to attend kindergarten in New York. Why then the need for additional shots. And why are we vaccinating newborns for a sexually transmitted disease?
Please call the following key legislators and ask them politely not to pass this bill:

Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver
(518) 455-3791
Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith
(518) 455-2701

Or go to www.mykidsmychoice.com for more information. PLEASE don’t take my word for it read the bills for yourself I think you will agree this ISN’T g0od.

I don’t believe its the goverments job to decide how to protect or raise my kids or yours. I don’t want a Goverment that can’t figure out how to pass a budjet on time deciding what should be injected in my kids.

As Christians i TOTALLY believe in the power of prayer but when there are steps we can take i think its incumbant upon us to TAEK THEM. I already call both the Speaker and  Majority Leader this morning and told them i am AGAIN these bills and it took no more than 5 minutes. Please call and and respectfully tell them the same