Love

The Secret Sadness

by Andy Wood on December 3, 2008

in Insight, Life Currency, Love, LV Cycle, Protecting Your Investment

This just in… modern newlyweds are increasingly dealing with “the bridal blues.”  Doctors report that the expectations of newlyweds are so high, and married life such a letdown after all the planning and excitement of the big day, that an increasing number of brides are suffering post-nuptial depression.  The feelgood factor fades so fast that up to 10 per cent of couples suffer enough remorse, sadness or frustration to seek counseling.

Wow.  You mean it wasn’t whispy clouds and fairy dust as you lived happily ever after?  And Franck Eggelhoffer isn’t there to plan the details of your marriage like he did your wedding?  And Daddy’s not there to pay your bills?  And sex doesn’t cure everything, or come with an orchestra in your bedroom?  And to add insult to injury, you find yourself married to a sometimes-sweaty, stinky boy, who leaves socks and underwear on the floor?  Or to a woman, who – get this – ain’t yo’ mamma, your maid, or your madame?  She’s no Cinderella, and you’re not exactly Prince Charming.

Those expectations take you for a ride sometimes, don’t they?

Dr. Terry Eagan has a name for post-wedding depression. He calls it the secret sadness.  Why? Because the women who suffer from it are often too embarrassed to tell anybody. And men simply bottle up their feelings.

The Secret Sadness is real.  And it isn’t limited to newlyweds. [click to continue…]

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A Love That Redeems

by Andy Wood on November 11, 2008

in Life Currency, Love, LV Cycle, LV Stories, Waiting

You’ll want to read this story… because it’s yours in some way.

Do not fret because of evil men
or be envious of those who do wrong;

What do you do when you’ve done everything you know to do?  What do you do when your tried-and-true system, which has worked before, doesn’t work this time?  How do you respond when God makes a promise and you’ve seen it fulfilled – but this time it doesn’t seem to be “working?”

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

They’ll laugh when they read this, but I sometimes call Kaye and Mark, whom I love very much, Barbie and Ken.  From a distance, they have a storybook life that looks like an 8×10 glossy.  Kaye was a Baylor Beauty; Mark was a quarterback/safety for Frank Broyles’ University of Arkansas football teams. They married, settled in Little Rock, and had four beautiful children.

Delight yourself in the Lord
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Mark and Kaye weren’t just church wallflowers.  [click to continue…]

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Who Are YOU Connected To?

by Andy Wood on October 29, 2008

in Life Currency, Love, LV Cycle, Protecting Your Investment, Tense Truths

Tense truth:  We are individually accountable to God for what we have done with the death and resurrection of His Son and with the life He has given us.  However, we are completely dependent on a community of relationships, and cannot survive or thrive in isolation.  Our community won’t be there when we stand before the Lord, but they must be connected to us until we get there.

+++++++++++++++++++

From the genius of David Hayward comes this funny/sad characterization of a lot of people I have known (and one or two I have been).

No coincidence that David posted this on the same day I made this statement:  There is not enough of you available to live all your life.  You’re a fool to try…

Ever see a sequoia tree?  Fantastic piece of God’s creation.  An awesome living structure that can reach as high as 300 feet.

Ever see a sequoia tree standing by itself?

Chances are, you won’t.  Strange thing, this tree – to be so tall, it has a very shallow root system.  If it stood alone, it couldn’t make it; when the wind grew strong, it wouldn’t take it.  So the sequoias build a network of root systems and together they flourish, side by side.

You and I were designed to function like the sequoia tree. [click to continue…]

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Seven Keys to Standing When the Nations are Shaking

by Andy Wood on September 25, 2008

in Consumers, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, Love, LV Alter-egos, Money, Principle of Abundance, Principle of Freedom

This site is nearly a year old, and I have never written a post I am more serious or urgent about.

There are times when our spirits and/or minds are unusually drawn in certain directions.  Ideas and concepts leap off the pages of the Bible.  Words or names get planted in our consciousness and never seem to go away.  These times, I believe, are no coincidence.  They are times in which the Holy Spirit is bringing grounded biblical truth to bear on current experience.

Simply put, He’s speaking.

I don’t have experiences like this tremendously often, which makes the times I do have them all the more compelling.  What I am about to share grew out of such a time.

As I mentioned earlier , I believe we are entering a season that for many people will be a season of restoration and change worldwide.

We are also living in tense, fearful days.  I called a banker friend yesterday and asked him, in the words of an old Randy Stonehill song, if we should go back to trading seashells and just admit we’re broke.  (He was encouraging.  But then, he’s a banker.)

I also spoke about this Sunday (Listen Here) that these are days in which anything that can be shaken will be.  God is shaking the wealth of the nations.  People are afraid.

How do we stand strong when we’re living somewhere between the faith and the fear?  How can we be in a place where we see the joy beyond what we endure?  How can we allow the Holy Spirit to shake the barnacles off of us and prepare us for a “latter glory” that will come?  How can we be lights in a world of confusion and darkness?

Sparing you the details of how I got there, there are seven things we must do, and do quickly: [click to continue…]

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Leading Broken People

by Andy Wood on September 8, 2008

in Esteem, Leadership, Life Currency, Love, Words

A couple of weeks ago David Hayward, a pastor and gifted artist/cartoonist, posted this picture on his blog site, in a post titled “How I’m feeling about the church lately.”

(Used by permission)

(Used by permission)

I can relate.  For more than 30 years, it has been my privilege, my headache, my joy, and my nightmare to work with broken people or broken churches.  Prior to launching Turning Point Community Church in 2003, three of the four churches where I was senior pastor had experienced major divisions, open conflicts, forced termination of my predecessor, or some other kind of grief or pain.  Some had lived with the crud for so long, they’d arrived at the conclusion that this was somehow supposed to be normal.  “I’m sure it’s like this everywhere,” they’d intone.  “Oh, no it isn’t!” I’d scream inside, all the while smiling on the outside.

The brokenness isn’t limited to the organization.  David’s cartoon reminded me of something we used to proclaim loudly here.  Underneath the doorway leading into our rented facility, our church used to hang a banner that represented a passion and sense of calling for us.  Every Sunday, every worshipper at Turning Point walked under its message:

A Place to Begin Again.

I roughly estimated that for a long season, 80 percent of the people who arrived at Turning Point for the first time came here to heal.  Some came from broken marriages; others from broken lives of addictions or economic messes.  Many came bleeding from the most insidious wound of all – the church wound. [click to continue…]

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Don’t Go Gently: How an Alcoholic Friend’s Death Taught Me How to Live

by Andy Wood on August 19, 2008

in Five LV Laws, Life Currency, Love, Principle of Freedom, Principle of Legacy, Turning Points

(A Turning Point Story)

“Hi, I’m Butch, and I’m an alcoholic.”

He didn’t say it exactly like that the first time I talked to him.  But two minutes into my first conversation with Butch Lowrey, I knew he had been visiting my church, he was a recovering alcoholic, and that he liked what I was preaching.  Butch introduced me to a spiritual program that had changed his life and stopped his drinking forever.  I attended his second A.A. birthday party, and eventually became his sponsor.  No doubt about it, though.  I learned more from him than he ever learned from me.

“Nothing in God’s world happens by mistake.”

Butch believed that, and said it often.  As part of his recovery, there were many other spiritual truths he stood on, and repeated.  Truths such as:  “If all your problems could solved by money, you don’t have a problem,” and, “You’ve just got to let go and let God.”

He also learned a rare and refreshing kind of honesty.  On one occasion he said, “People in [this] county are committed to making everyone else just as miserable as they are.”  Later he told me, “Andy, you preach long because you like to hear yourself talk.  You’re just on an ego trip.”  He was smiling, of course. [click to continue…]

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The Time Capsule

by Andy Wood on June 25, 2008

in Life Currency, Love

Okay, one last swipe at sentimental stuff, and I’m moving on…

The year is 1983.  President Ronald Reagan has proposed to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles called Strategic Defense Initiative — nicknamed “Star Wars.”  McDonald’s has introduced a new product called the Chicken McNugget.  “M*A*S*H” has ended after 10 years on CBS TV, the first longest running TV series ever. Over 125 million Americans tune in to watch the final episode.

Microsoft has developed a word processing software product called “Word.”  Sally Ride is flying (actually floating) high – the first woman in space, aboard the Challenger.  Star Wars: Return of the Jedi is opening in box offices across the country.  Nintendo is introducing a new video game called Super Mario Brothers.  India – that’s right, India –will shock the cricket world on this very day by winning the Prudential Cup.  I know, I know!  Can you believe it?

“I.O.U.” by Freeez is the #1 dance tune in the country.  “Flashdance:  What a Feeling” by Irene Cara is the number one pop hit.  Mickey Gilley’s “Fool for Your Love” is atop the country charts.

The New York Times Bestseller List features Return of the Jedi as the #1 fiction best-seller.  In Search of Excellence is the #1 non-fiction book.

We pay $3.15 to see Return of the Jedi.  We fill up with gas that cost an outrageous $1.16 a gallon.  We also mail a few letters for 20 cents apiece.

And in a little farm and oil town in West Texas called Brownfield, I stand with my fiancé and repeat these words:

I Andy, take you Robin, to be my wedded wife.  I promise to be honest and true to you always.  I will make whatever adjustments are necessary so that I may genuinely share my life with you.  And as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

With the exception of grandparents, the family is still all here, on both sides. That’s cool.  The friends in the wedding party have scattered across the country – to California, Arizona, Canada, Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, and who-knows-where.  Three kids, twelve houses, eight churches, eight dogs, five cats, two hamsters, innumerable fish, one grandkid, and more friends than we can count later, we are greatly blessed.

So where was God when I made those vows?  Giving gifts.  Hearing every word.  Making Himself available when times got tough.  That’s why He says,

“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
And pay your vows to the Most High;
Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me” (Psalms 50:14-15).

May I tell you from 25 years of experience that God’s promise and offer are true?

And so on this most unique of anniversaries so far, I offer to God thanksgiving for the gift of my wife.  I remember (again!) those vows I made, which are as relevant today as ever.  And I am reminded today that whatever trouble we may encounter is an opportunity to experience God in ways that are as new as the sunrise and fresh as the morning dew.

Happy Anniversary, Robin!  I love you more than ever.

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The Language of Letting Go

by Andy Wood on June 19, 2008

in Five LV Laws, Life Currency, Love, Principle of Legacy

CCJ 3Not once did the thought occur to me.  Not once.

We knew at 10 weeks we were having twins, courtesy of those dandy new ultrasound machines.  And we were excited.  Fresh out of school, still using wedding dishes, living in our own home, and picking out not one, but two sets of names. 

Two boys?  Joel Andrew and Jeremy Adam. 

Boy and a girl?  Joel Andrew and Jessica Leigh.

I was pretty quiet as we headed home from that latest ultrasound.  The images were beginning to form in my mind for the first time.

Two girls?

Cosmic shifts started taking place in my little brain.  And they all culminated in a wedding.

Since I was old enough to understand what fathers were, I wanted to be one.  I was blessed to have a dad who loves being a dad, to this day.  In whatever ways I have failed to live up to his example, I caught the whole load on that one.  And in doing so, three deep convictions emerged:

  • I would be the first representation of the nature and character of God to my children.
  • We were called to raise adults, not children.
  • Mommies build nests, but for daddies, children are arrows in their hands, and my job was to launch them.

[click to continue…]

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Worth Dying For

by Andy Wood on June 5, 2008

in Five LV Laws, Life Currency, Love, LV Stories, Principle of Legacy

Bill HydeI never knew Bill Hyde.

I will one day.

Bill was a church planter.  I know a little about that; I planted a church five years ago.  Bill planted six hundred, and just before he died, he hosted a then-record 3,700 participants in a Pioneer Evangelism conference.  His vision:  to plant 3,000 churches.  He took what people were adding in the Philippines, and began multiplying their efforts ten-fold.

I never heard Bill’s deep bass voice, singing or otherwise.

I will one day.

Bill gave up a career in music or teaching because, as one person put it, he wasn’t content leading a quiet, happy life teaching music.  Instead, he and Lyn, his wife, chose the frontlines of the battle.  They were appointed as missionaries in 1978.

I never hung out, played golf, argued, or even shook hands with Bill.  I sure hope I can one day.

Jim Cox, his former co-worker, said that Bill was a big guy:

Big in stature, big smile, big laugh, big hands, big heart. Bill was a musician, a teacher, a planner, an organizer and a doer. He had strong opinions, enjoyed a good argument and a game of dominoes. Bill and I played golf together weekly. He was my perfect golfing companion because he was as bad a golfer as I—not that we kept score anyway.

Bill and I have met in one way.  [click to continue…]

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Red Shoes and More

by Andy Wood on May 26, 2008

in Life Currency, Love, LV Stories, Words

Red ShoesLouise has had a rare kind of kidney cancer for the last 10-11 months.  She believes in prayer, and has a lot of people praying for her.  Add your own prayers to the list on her behalf.  She believes that with God’s help, she can beat it.

She receives chemotherapy treatments, and recently had an idea for a way to brighten her day while she was taking them:  Red shoes.

“I just thought the would make me feel better to look down at my red shoes,” she explained.

So she called Zappos to place her order.  She was greeted with their “usual greeting that is so comforting.”  She skipped the company’s joke of the day, and soon was greeted with a customer service rep.  “Gracious” was the word she used to describe this individual who helped her with her order.  “We talked a little, and I explained why I wanted these shoes.  She, as all of your employees, [went] out of her way to please customers.  That was that.”

The next day, to her surprise, Louise received a beautiful arrangement of red tulips, in a bright red vase and a beautiful red ribbon.  She couldn’t imagine who sent them.  She opened the card and began to cry.  The card read,

[click to continue…]

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