Life Currency

The Awakened Spirit

by Andy Wood on October 27, 2010

in Ability, Exploring the Possibilities, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Abundance

I hate sleep.  I’m afraid I may miss something. 

Yeah, yeah, I know.  I “get it” and I get it.

I know that, too.  God’s design and all that.  It just chaps me a little that somebody who lives to be 90 will spend 30 years of their lives physically unconscious… and then talk about “sleeping in” as if it’s a life goal.

What’s even more disturbing, though, is how easy it is to be asleep when our eyes are open.  Spiritually oblivious to a world of life and movement and transformation and possibilities – all ready and waiting… for the awakened spirit.

Snapshots of Awakening

February 3, 1970.  In a small Kentucky Christian college, students showed up for what they thought was a routine chapel service.  It was anything but.  What was supposed to be an hour-long service lasted for 185 hours round the clock.  And the lights never went off in the chapel until Ju [click to continue…]

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God Doesn’t Give Snakes When You Ask for Fish

by Andy Wood on October 22, 2010

in Ability, Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase

“He who is powerless before God is powerless before men” (Watchman Nee). 

On September 16, 2001, an amazing phenomenon took place in churches across the United States.  Civilians came out of their foxholes in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11.

And they were talking about God.

On that day, in churches everywhere, they came looking for answers.

Within a matter of weeks, however, things had settled down to business as usual.  Not long after, The Washington Times had a story that predicted that within a decade Americans would “invent” a religion of their own that met their needs.  The article said that when they revisited the places that had once nourished them, they didn’t find what they were looking for.

Ouch.

To be fair, maybe they were looking for a place that let them have a god of their own making.  And the fact that people may try to invent a religion of their own doesn’t bother me – we’ve been doing that since Adam and Eve were escorted out of the Garden.

What bothers me was that when they came to our house – the church – looking for answers, evidently something was missing.

What if they came to our house looking for answers, and we were just as confused as they were?

What if they came looking for life, and we were just as dead?

What if they came looking for supernatural power – some evidence that God is still on the throne, still works miracles, and still has the power to change lives – and all they found was platitudes, programs, and politics? [click to continue…]

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Team Ginger Ale

by Andy Wood on October 13, 2010

in Esteem, Life Currency, LV Cycle, LV Stories, Protecting Your Investment

Last night the Texas Rangers won their first-ever postseason series.  

And they celebrated with ginger ale. 

Why? 

Because Josh Hamilton, the Rangers’ star outfielder, graciously refuses to go anywhere near alcohol. 

When the Rangers clinched their division in Oakland back in September, as beer and champagne flowed in the visitors’ locker room, Josh changed in a side office and left the clubhouse to go speak to a church group in Oakland about his life and testimony. 

But last night, after winning the division series – something the Texas Rangers (and former Washington Senators) had never done – the team made sure it would be a team celebration. [click to continue…]

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Storming the Gates of Loneliness

by Andy Wood on October 11, 2010

in Esteem, Life Currency, Love

“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.” (Carl Jung) 

In an eastern hospital years ago, a group of medical students were doing a pediatric rotation.   As they worked with these hospitalized kids each day, they noticed that the patients responded with great joy to one particular med student.  Nobody could figure out why.  So they talked one of their cohort members into doing a little spying. 

The observer followed him around all day and discovered nothing.  Finally that night, the mystery was solved when the young doctor made his last round. [click to continue…]

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The Lamp

by Andy Wood on October 8, 2010

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Esteem, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Legacy

What comes to mind when you hear the name “Solomon?”

Yeah, that.  Wisdom.  Too bad he lived long enough to throw his life into reverse. 

Solomon was a piece of work.  He went from healthy, wealthy and wise to hedonistic, weird and wicked.  Finally, toward the end of his reign, the Lord had seen enough.  He spoke to Solomon and told him he was going to tear away all but one tribe from his son (1 Kings 11:13).

Okay.  But why not clean house?  Why not do a clean sweep?  He’d done it before with Israel’s first king.  And may I just say… Saul may have gone from compromiser to crazy, but compared to Solomon, Saul was a saint.

So what gives with God? [click to continue…]

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Demands and Desires

by Andy Wood on October 6, 2010

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase

(The Squeeze, Part 2)

In the previous post I introduced the idea of the squeeze – that when life comes calling or the world comes knocking and we get squeezed, whatever is on the inside comes flying out.  Specifically, when life or the world squeezes, two things quickly become evident – what’s in your character (your decisions) and what’s in your heart (your desires).

That why Peter addresses this encouragement to a group of Christ followers who were living life in The Squeeze:

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good (1 Peter 2:1-3, NIV).

When Our Flesh Demands Relief

People who are hurting instinctively crave relief.

NOW!

Like Job, the tendency is to move from “Lord I’m trusting you for deliverance” to “Lord stop it now or explain yourself!

When we stubbornly hold onto the demand for God to change things, five kinds of behavior emerge. [click to continue…]

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Do You See What He Sees?

by Andy Wood on October 1, 2010

in Five LV Laws, Following Your Passion, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Eternity

“There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels for someone, pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.”(Milan Kundera) 

+++++++

Ever read about the double-pump miracle Jesus performed?  Fascinating story, about a blind man in Bethsaida.  Jesus led him outside the village and spit on his eyes.

“Do you see anything”? He asked.

He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

So Jesus double-clutched.  Once more, he put his hands on the man’s eyes. This time he saw everything clearly.

It doesn’t bother me that it took two rounds with the Son of God for a blind man to see clearly again.  It does bother me that many believers, myself included, have gone many rounds with Jesus, and we still don’t see clearly at times.

He saw people that looked like trees.  We see people that look like other things – jobs, economic status, social labels, racial stereotypes, gender.  Jesus saw something else entirely.  You can too, but it doesn’t come naturally. 

“I see people; they look like trees.” 

What do you see?  Butcher, baker, candlestick maker?  Hot babe, geek, hero, freak? 

They may as well be Klingons, unless we learn to see from Jesus’ perspective.  We talk a lot about pursuing our own passions, but you can never fulfill your deepest passion unless you first embrace his.  Take a look: [click to continue…]

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Playing to the Standard

by Andy Wood on September 27, 2010

in Five LV Laws, Gamblers, Life Currency, Love, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Principle of Eternity, Protecting Your Investment, Time

Halftime, Durham, North Carolina.  The Duke Blue Devils have just scored the first touchdown that top-ranked Alabama has surrendered in two-and-a-half games. 

Not exactly a moment to panic, however.  Alabama leads at the half, 45-13.

Cue the halftime interview with Coach Nick Saban.  “Coach,” Sideline Babe says, “Were you upset about giving up your first touchdown of the season?”

“I don’t care about the touchdown,” Saban replies.  “I’ve just been talking to our guys about playing to a standard.”

Fast-forward one week.  Halftime again.  This time, nobody wearing white and crimson was strutting to the locker room.  The defending national champions are trailing a very strong Arkansas Razorbacks team in Fayetteville 17-7, and it’s no fluke.  These Hogs are good, and Bama’s looking rough.

Somebody… not namin’ names here… but somebody woke somebody up.  Final Score:  Alabama 24, Arkansas 20.

After the game, Coach Nick had this to say:

“I want them to remember what it’s like not playing the way you’re capable of playing, not playing with the intensity and focus you need to have. We have a standard we want to play to, we want to play to it all the time. We certainly didn’t get that done in the first half.”

Another Clock is Counting Down

Football is not the only place where the clock is ticking toward zero.  [click to continue…]

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The Unremarkable Life of Barry Wheezer

by Andy Wood on September 13, 2010

in Esteem, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, LV Stories, Principle of Eternity, Waiting

There wasn’t much about Barry Wheeler to command respect.  He was certainly no athlete.  His skinny frame was the product of a lifetime of allergies and a bad case of asthma that earned him the cruel nickname of “Barry Wheezer.”

Barry was no musician or class politician.  He couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, and his shy, withdrawn personality made him just another face in the crowd at high school in Topeka.

Barry was no geekzilla either.  A “B” student in regular classes, nobody called Barry out for the National Honor Society – or any honor, for that matter.

Barry was just a guy.  But he had one thing going for him. [click to continue…]

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Passing Sighs of the Longing Heart

by Andy Wood on September 10, 2010

in Five LV Laws, Life Currency, Love, LV Cycle, Principle of Eternity, Waiting

I still miss her sometimes.  Pity I’m so busy I don’t miss her more.  For me it’s mostly in passing sighs… Like now.  (-From my journal a couple of days ago, referring to my mother, who died earlier this year.)

Heard any sermons on longing lately?

I doubt it.

In spite of the fact that it’s such a common experience, and one that is treated a surprising number of times in the Bible, “Dealing with Longing” doesn’t typically generate offerings, baptisms, or slick series brochures from the local worship establishment.

And yet it’s there… right in plain sight.  The Bible’s own version of “Miss You Like Crazy.”

Paul wrote those wild child Corinthians a pretty dress-you-down letter (we call it 1 Corinthians).  Their response?  They turned their hearts, and longed to see Paul.  His reply?  Same thing.  [click to continue…]

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