Challenging times call for fresh, intelligent ideas!
You won’t find any here.
What you will find is the latest collection of Hanukkah Hams – episodes of brilliance on the Blooper Reel of Life.
The last edition focused on life behind the wheel. This one’s dedicated to power. Electric power. Human power. Kangaroo Power. Hang on, there’s something for everybody.
Starting with this clever photographed solution to every man’s summertime dilemma – how to get your George Foreman Grill to work inside your above-ground swimming pool. God forbid you have to actually step over the three-foot side and cook your burger on dry land. Where’s the challenge in that?
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Hoarding’s back.
I’m sure it never went away, but it’s been back in the news over the last month. Banks are hoarding money. People worldwide are hoarding rice. Myanmar officials and residents are warned about hoarding aid.
People are scared, and when they’re scared, they hoard. OR, somebody else hoards and looks to make a killing off the really scared people.
In a previous post, I mentioned that there are four alter-egos to LifeVestors – consumers, hoarders, gamblers, and codependents. Hoarders are the most unique of these. While consumers live as if there is no tomorrow, hoarders live as if there is a tomorrow, and wherever/whatever it is, it’s gonna be ticked off. Hard. Terrible. And we have to plan for it today.
It’s one thing for literally starving people to make sure they have something to eat for the next few days. It’s another to live with a spirit of fear, even while you’re being wonderfully blessed.
It’s one thing to save and invest for retirement or a rainy day. It’s another thing to create an ongoing bunker mentality based on fear of the future.
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I’ve said it often in church life: there is nothing more useless (and sometimes obnoxious) than a new grandparent.
Uh huh.
So anyway…
Amazing creatures, these babies – resting peacefully in somebody’s eager arms or lying in the bed, quietly watching the world go by. Filled with wonder at times, filling the room with noise at times. Innocent and defenseless, yet powerful enough to hold your heart in their tiny hands. So capable of needing and being needed, even before she takes her first nap. Babies! I realized the other day how long it had been since I had held one, or played with one. I remembered how little we still truly know about them.
How does God do that anyway? How can one life be created in the image of two, a miniature version of her Mommy and Daddy? How can she be so unable to care for herself, yet totally equipped to learn, to grow, and to develop? What’s really going through her mind as she lies there quietly? What will she become one day? Will she be a woman or a witch, an angel or a devil? We talk of “accidents,” but God never does. What does God have in mind for her? How much of God will she ever truly experience? What kind of God will she see in me? Or in her parents?
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4).
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We welcomed you into the world today after a lot of prayer and waiting, filled with joy and anticipation. You didn’t disappoint! Other little girls have been and will be born. Other grandchildren will surely grace our family. But you will always be our first. And your arrival will always be a memorable moment in our lives.
On this day, May 12, 2008, it’s a crazy world. But I guess people would probably have said that on the day I was born 49 years ago, too. It’s an election year in America. Here in Lubbock, our mayor just lost a reelection bid two days ago. Soon the Democratic party will choose between Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama for their nominee for president. Either one will represent an unprecedented step in American politics. Republicans already have their candidate – John McCain. An earthquake hit China today. American soldiers are fighting in Iraq in an unpopular war.
We worry about the world you are inheriting. But we don’t fear as those who have no hope. We know in whom our (and your) hope lies.
For a short time, I get to be your pastor. That’s really cool. But I’ll always get to be your grandfather. And that’s even more cool.
Your parents are wonderful people. [click to continue…]
How do you learn best? Mark Meadows used to amaze me in third grade. He’d just sit there. Never write. Never raise his hand to answer a question. Just sit and listen. And make “A’s.”
Cameron Walker? Never stopped moving.
Me? I don’t think I ever stopped running my mouth. (Hey! I heard that!)
We all learned. We just did it in different ways.
The same is true of people in the Bible. Guys like Paul could go off into the desert for three years and think about stuff. Analyze things. With the Holy Spirit’s help, rehash everything he’d ever believed (incorrectly) about the Law.
Our buddy Peter was different. From the day He met Peter, Jesus began transforming him from a “man of fish” to a man of God. Like Moses before him, Peter learned with pictures and visual objects. Things like coins and nets and fish and swords. I’d like to show you a few objects Jesus used to teach Peter to hear God’s voice. I think you can learn, too. Even if you learn best by talking or sitting there listening, I’ll bet you can pick up a few important lessons from Peter’s experience.
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It’s one of the most amazing transformation stories in history.
From dufus to discerner.
Pathetic to prophetic.
Simon, the wishy-washy to Peter, the Rock.
This fisher became a fisher of men. And the guy who was nearly always getting it wrong ended up writing two books of the New Testament under the most powerful level of inspiration there is.
“He who has ears, let him hear,” Jesus said (Matthew 13:9). Peter learned to listen to God. And if that guy did, you can, too.
I want to show you three ways Peter learned to hear God’s voice. [click to continue…]
I owe Peter an apology. And if the Lord will let me, when we link up in Heaven, I plan on delivering it. I ragged on the man for many years. Laughed at him. Mercilessly dissed him for being the guy who was always making a verbal fool of himself.
But a couple of years ago, I made peace with Pete. And I promised I’d never criticize or mock him again. Why? Because Peter was the one who was willing to make a mistake if it meant learning. Or leading. He was the one who got out of the boat to at least try walking on the water. He was the one who was willing to say what everybody else was thinking. And he, Christianity’s biggest failure, was the one who looked Jesus in the eye after denying Him and said, “Yes, Lord. You know I love you” (John 21:17).
In Matthew 16, this fisherman/disciple speaks out twice. The first time, Jesus responds by saying, “Peter, only God could have revealed this to you.” The next time, Jesus is in his face, saying, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s” (Matthew 16:23).
One minute, Peter is hearing something that is doubtless a revelation from God Himself. The next, he is hearing from Satan.
Uh oh.
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If you believe that God never speaks to individuals any more because He has given us the Bible, you’re a practical atheist. If you’re waiting on the Holy Spirit to tell you whether to order fish or chicken (He’d never lead you to red meat, of course), then you have just elevated lunch to a cosmic event. But if you can learn to turn and tune your heart and allow the Holy Spirit to apply the truth of God’s word to your specific situation, you can experience God in life- and world-changing ways.
I tell men all the time, “Dude, when it comes to marriage, you out-punted your coverage.” Another way of saying, most guys I know anything about out-married themselves. I am certainly no exception. My wife is an amazing partner and discerner. I call her “Elijah” sometimes because of how she can shred proud, lazy, or disrespectful people. All in Christian love, of course. I also envy the way she can tune in to the voice of God at times.
That said, we have this recurring argument. Well, it’s not really an argument because all I do is laugh, and all she does is get exasperated. So far all the sharp knives are still in the drawer and my bruised ribs are healing nicely, thank you.
The argument (I’m laughing even as I say this) is over the Holy Spirit salad. [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on April 23, 2008
in Allocating Your Resources, Consumers, Enlarging Your Capacity, Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Money, Principle of Increase, Time
I mentioned in my previous post that it’s possible to live in such a way that laughs at the future. Just so we’re clear, we’re in “life hack” territory. We’re talking about what to do with your money, your time, your relationships, your attitudes, and your spirit.
Look at this biblical description:
“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.” (Proverbs 31:25)
What is it about this woman that put her in a place where she wasn’t wringing her hands every time somebody predicted the end of life as we know it?
1. Establish trust in those who know you best.
“Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm,all the days of her life” (v. 11-12, NLT).
For years I assumed that her husband trusted her in a moral sense, but this is much deeper. This man trusted her with his business, his family, and his money. She had earned his trust. How? By adding value to his life.
By doing a little more, being faithful to tasks assigned, or by keeping the trust of those who know you best, you create a compelling future. Take it from somebody who has both earned and betrayed trust: it takes months and years to earn trust, and you can destroy it – and your confidence in the future – in a matter of minutes.
2. Buy like an investor, not like a consumer.
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“The winter is over. The rain and snow have gone. Come away with me, my love, come away.
“I miss our time together. How long has it been since I heard the sound of your voice in the morning? Come away with me, my love, come away.
“I have seen you struggling, and I’ve heard your cries in the night. I have been with you, even when you felt alone. I have been faithful, even when you were losing faith in Me. I have been patient, even when you were impatient with Me. Now the flowers are budding, and the time of singing has come. Come away with me, my love, come away!
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