“I have you in my heart.”
Sounds charming, doesn’t it? The stuff of Hallmark cards and chick flicks, BFFs and boyfriends.
What if I were to tell you that the person who said this wrote it from a prison cell? That he (yes, he) was a time-hardened traveler who never could take “no” for an answer? That he once was a religious terrorist and murderer? A 63-or-so-year-old man who had argued his way in and out of trouble so many times, many of his closest associates had hit the road?
And yet from prison he wrote to a group of VIPs – friends who had been sources of great joy to him. And this is what he said: [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on June 19, 2009
in Allocating Your Resources, Consumers, Enlarging Your Capacity, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, Love, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, LV Stories, Money, Principle of Increase, Principle of Legacy
Things got a little weird that day at the Taco Bell in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. A customer tried to pass two 1928 five-dollar bills as cash to pay for his meal. The clerks had never seen such old money before, presumed it to be counterfeit, and called the police. Here’s the sad part – as currency, the cash was legit. As collectors’ items, they had to be worth way more than a bean burrito combo or a chalupa.
What a waste, right? Right up there with Esau, selling his birthright for a bowl of peas. Or the prodigal son, wasting his inheritance on a never-ending party.
But another part of my brain wants to defend our fast food shopper. After all, maybe he was hungry, and that was the only cash he had. Maybe he had no idea what he had! I’ve learned that if you don’t know the value of what you possess, it really doesn’t matter to you what you waste it on. Esau and the prodigal learned that, too – the hard way.
Anyway, what’s so different about the taco king? [click to continue…]
(10 Things God Uses to Enlarge Your Legacy)
Okay, take your mark. You’re about to take off on a marathon. Your coach is the Lord Jesus, the Author of your faith. Under His direction, you’ve cast aside any weights that may hinder you. At His instruction, you clear your way of any sin that might entangle you. At His signal, you’re off! And following His wise counsel, you have focused your attention on him, because he’s the Finisher of your faith as well.
You lengthen your stride and settle in. You know this is no sprint; you’re in it for the long run. Before long your body, mind, will, and emotions, begin signaling you, this won’t be easy. But about the time you reach your first obstacle, God has a surprise for you. You are not alone! You’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses! And they’re “in the grandstands” cheering you on.
These aren’t just spectators. They’re your “friends in high places” – people who have run the same race and faced the same obstacles you face. In this greatness are models of faith and perseverance who
by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment (Hebrews 11:33-37).
These aren’t just dead figures from the past. Their faith – and witness – live on. They’re watching you. Pulling for you. Believing in you. Teaching you. They’re here to testify – that’s what witnesses do – that you, too, can influence a new generation. They also testify of the tools our Father uses to deepen your message, and enlarge your influence. Here are a few: [click to continue…]
I want to let you in on a poorly-kept secret. I can’t dance.
There. Now somebody besides, well, everybody who knows me is aware.
It’s a disappointment to my ballroom-longing wife. It was a “you-can-get-over-it” point of conversation to my daughter when she planned her wedding reception. I knew I couldn’t, but tried. She insisted I would, and was grateful for the moment. My tuxedo pants nearly fell off, and given the way the dance was going, that would have been a relief.
That said, good dancers fascinate me. The skill. The agility. The confidence. The creativity. But dancing is one of those skills I have relegated to the pile items left off my blueprints.
There are others. [click to continue…]
Spring is a season of new beginnings and exquisite beauty. Everything that just appeared lifeless and grey is bursting forth with new energy and color. I call it the Renaissance, because it reminds me of new birth. And for me, that’s a multi-dimensional experience.
Because so much life appears all around us, it’s easy to assume that renewal just sort of happens automatically. But nothing could be further from the truth. Springtime represents a triumph – a victory won through a fierce, even savage struggle and patient determination.
We love, for example, to see the trees or vines begin their growth for the year. But it’s easy to forget how many of those plants were pruned – some of them nearly all the way back to the ground – in order to produce maximum beauty.
Plowing is another struggle of spring. [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on April 17, 2009
in Allocating Your Resources, Consumers, Enlarging Your Capacity, Executing Your Plan, Exploring the Possibilities, Five LV Laws, Following Your Passion, Gamblers, Hoarders, Life Currency, Love, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Money, Pleasers, Principle of Abundance, Protecting Your Investment, Waiting
This week a friend sent me a poignant and compelling image that describes what it’s like to live in a climate or with a spirit of fear. But the image is so strong, I think it describes anybody who feels as though they are in a no-win situation.
I feel like a grasshopper on the ocean hanging onto a leaf. I cling to the leaf to keep from drowning. If I eat the leaf to keep from starving, I lose my life preserver, and drown.
I’ll tell you later what he learned in the process. But can you relate? [click to continue…]
It was, without a doubt, one of the lowest periods in my life. I was broke and jobless, living in the wake of my own failures. My whole world had turned upside down. I was torn between two directions – to stay in that part of the world that I had always considered home, or to venture out to a place I had only seen on trips to my in-laws’ house.
My wife wanted to be near her parents during that season. I wanted to live in Anywhere Else, USA. “If the world was flat,” I said, “Lubbock would be on the edge of it!”
But my world was flat. [click to continue…]
Some of the rules have changed.
- Time Magazine, in it’s provocative “Ten Ideas Changing the World Right Now,” reports that having a job is cool again. Rather than regarding employment as a necessary evil to be escaped as soon as possible, jobs are now considered an asset. (Nothing like losing something to recognize its worth, I guess).
- Someone just told me about his father, who for eight years tried to make a go of his home-based business and now, in his 60s, realizes the need for an employer. He’s finding it difficult.
- My favorite job/career-hunting book, What Color is Your Parachute?, which has been updated annually since 1970, was back on the best-seller list in December.
So with the new demand for paying day-jobs and the shortening supply, I thought it might be helpful offer some strategies for improving your chances. [click to continue…]
I don’t know geology, but I know generally what they’re talking about when they use the word, “fault.” Somewhere deep in the foundations of the earth are places where cracks produce shifts at times in the earth’s foundation. We experience them as earthquakes. Destructive and deadly, they leave scars on lives and landscapes that time alone doesn’t fix. All the result of faults that, may have seemed nonexistent a day earlier.
Faults show up in the Bible, too. “Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other,” James says, “so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results” (James 5:16, LB). First thing I notice is that even “righteous men” have faults. And who better to pray for our faults than someone who is painfully aware of their own?
Of course, we have other names for faults… character flaws, weaknesses, besetting sins, vices. [click to continue…]
The apostles came back and told Jesus everything they had done. He took them with him to a city called Bethsaida so that they could be alone. But the crowds found out about this and followed him. He welcomed them, talked to them about the kingdom of God, and cured those who were sick.
Toward the end of the day, the twelve apostles came to him. They said to him, “Send the crowd to the closest villages and farms so that they can find some food and a place to stay. No one lives around here.”
Jesus replied, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish. Unless we go to buy food for all these people, that’s all we have.” (There were about five thousand men.)
Then he told his disciples, “Have them sit in groups of about fifty.” So they did this.
Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and blessed the food. He broke the loaves apart and kept giving them to the disciples to give to the crowd. All of them ate as much as they wanted. When they picked up the leftover pieces, they filled twelve baskets. (Luke 9:10-17, GW)
How do you feed 5,000 men, plus women and children? That was the assignment. And it wasn’t Jesus’ job.
“Uh, Lord, dismiss the crowd so they can go find somewhere to sleep and eat. We’re out in the middle of nowhere.”
“You feed them,” Jesus said.
Get the scene. [click to continue…]