It’s hard not to like Mike when you first meet him. He looks like an 8 x 10 glossy, has a charming smile, and a welcoming demeanor. When he tells you that he’s the pastor at Grace Church just around the corner, it makes you want to visit.
What you can’t see at first, but will discover soon enough if you get to know him, is that Mike is running on emotional and spiritual fumes. He’s exhausted from carrying a mental and spiritual burden for so long, as if he has carried it all by himself.
But Mike’s not in trouble yet. And that’s too bad. He’d be better off if he was.
Sarah’s in a tight spot. She’s not the public charmer that Mike is, but she is bright, resourceful, and has a clear head for retail business and marketing. It’s no wonder the local Chamber voted her the businesswoman of the year last year. Her entrepreneurial drive and instinct for customer tastes have served her well.
Until now. The first couple of years of the recession drained all her reserves, but Sarah found a way to navigate through those challenges. Now she’s faced with tough competition, over-extended credit, and changes in employee healthcare laws. It’s getting ugly at Sarah’s Boutique and Bridal.
Sarah is in a tight spot; but she’s not in trouble yet. And that’s too bad. She’d be better off if she was. [click to continue…]
I’m a big believer in cross training – especially since no less than Solomon said that “a wise man will hear and increase in learning.” Under the banner of “all truth is God’s truth,” I make my living helping people find truth and wisdom in places where they may not otherwise look. That starts with scripture, of course. But even scripture sometimes points us to learning from other sources. Check this out:
Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise… (Proverbs 6:6).
So in the spirit of being teachable, I have previously suggested that there are things you can learn from an orange salesman, a party crasher, a baseball franchise, a ghost house, and a fired CEO.
Today’s teacher is a little less dramatic and a lot more in line with Solomon’s insect example. [click to continue…]
Despite the apparent rudeness of its interruption of our slumber…
Despite our appeals to caffeine or “just five more minutes…”
Beyond the duty of deadlines or starting times…
You and I were created to embrace the celebration of the Glory of the Morning.
“Glory” refers to something made beautiful by another,
Despite its clumsy raw form or ugly beginnings.
And in that context, perhaps nothing starts out clumsier or uglier
Than the forced march of time into a new day.
But the beauty of your dawn is that it’s not up to you to make it beautiful.
The same God who said, “To everything there is a season, [click to continue…]
Got caught last week. I’m talking deer-in-the-headlights, flat-footed, let-me-know-if-I’m-drooling caught. All with a simple question.
I was having lunch with a friend to told me he got caught flat-footed with a question he didn’t have an answer for. “So I thought I’d ask you the same question.”
Gee, thanks, I think.
The question: What are you looking forward to right now?
Huh?
Say that again?
What are you looking forward to?
“Duh….”
“I know, right!” he said gleefully.
I was coming off a couple of weeks of intense work, up until about 2:00 every night. I was in head-down, just-get-it-done mode. Who has time to think ahead?
Precisely.
I had no clue how to answer that because I wasn’t looking forward to anything.
Enough about me. How about you? What are you looking forward to?
I’ve had some time to think about that question a lot since then. Especially since Cassie, my daughter, came over the same night with her planning notebook for the Disney trip we’re all taking this Christmas, adorned with vintage Mickey on the cover.
I should probably confess here that my “anticipation” of a Disney trip for 11 people somewhere has the words “legalized theft” in it. But that’s beside the point.
The point here is that she’s living the trip now and we’re still nearly four months out. She’s already picked out the restaurants where we’re dining, gotten detailed maps of the whole Magic Domain, logged onto the advice sites as to how to avoid the long lines and all that.
In short, Cassie has her A-Game – her anticipation game – at least when it comes to Christmas this year. And she was pretty inspiring to me to find my own.
Here’s the bottom line: [click to continue…]
(A Conversation)
The Kids
I’m impressed with your kids. Well, most of the time.
They’re not my kids.
What?
Not mine.
(Gasp!) You mean…
Noooo, not like that! I’m their father.
Oh, so they are your kids.
Nope. I gave them away a long time ago. In fact, on the day they were born.
To who?
To God. He’s the one who gave them to me in the first place. “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands” (Psalm 127:3-4, NLT).
Okay, whatever, but they’re your responsibility.
Oh, of course. God gave them to me for a season to help turn them into strategic weapons for His kingdom. So I feed them, clothe them, and train them.
Train them to do what? [click to continue…]
For all the ones who wouldn’t give up on me
When I would have given up on myself…
For the ones who modeled patience
As they gave and gave me the gift of waiting…
Thank you for showing the sweetest of love.
For everyone who saw what I saw before I saw it –
The many changes I need to make in me…
For everyone who showed me grace
When they found me stuck in my own stubbornness…
Thank you for showing the sweetest of love. [click to continue…]
This is a true story. The names are changed.
Will was an insecure, painfully shy 11-year-old boy who came from a very poor family. But his sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Goodwin, saw something special in him – not just in the student he was at the time, but as the adult he could become. And through that year, she began to give Will a gift that no one to that point had ever dared offer – the gift of confidence.
She told him he was the smartest student she ever had. She said it to him personally and to the class.
She told him how much potential he had.
She took him to her home.
She even took him to the junior high school he would attend the next year to introduce Will to his teachers and tell them what a great student he was.
She told him that the only other student who showed his potential became the vice president of a well-known university.
True to Mrs. Goodwin’s prediction, Will became the first person in his family to go to college. Buoyed by her care and concern he went on to a successful academic career… as a… (you guessed it) vice president of a major university.
Mrs. Goodwin was more than a teacher. She was a leader. She saw in an awkward kid a destiny that nobody else saw. Put in leadership terms, she had a vision. Then she set about investing the time and service necessary to put Will on a path toward that vision.
And the tool she used: Influence. [click to continue…]
Once there lived a hard-to please husband whose wife was determined to try her best to satisfy him, if just for one day.
“Darling,” she asked that morning, “What would you like for breakfast? “
He growled, “Coffee and toast, grits and sausage, and two eggs ‑ one scrambled and one fried.”
She soon had the food on the table and waited for a word of praise. After a quick glance, he exclaimed, “Well, if you didn’t scramble the wrong egg!”
Now that’s hard to please!
Of course, critics are nothing new. As long as people have aspired to rise above the level of the mediocre masses there have been people who attacked their motives for doing so.
As long as people have exhibited qualities of leadership there have been those in positions of power who used verbal attacks, “coaching,” and “constructive criticism” to “keep them in their place” and maintain control.
As long as somebody has offered to try to make something better by (gasp!) changing some things, there have been gossips and fish heads who questioned their right to be there, or anywhere for that matter.
Other than politics, nowhere will you find more criticism than the kind that’s hurled around in the name of God or religion. And if that describes you, I have a message for you: God just called and He wants His name back. [click to continue…]
Okay, time for a little famous brands trivia.
Without Googling for answers, see if you can guess how many of the following brand names were/are actual people:
Aunt Jemima
Ben and Jerry
Betty Crocker
Chef Boy-Ar-Dee
Duncan Hines
Marie Callender
Martha White
Orville Redenbacher
Sister Shubert
Uncle Ben
Answers are below: [click to continue…]
It’s hard not to like Mike when you first meet him. He looks like an 8 x 10 glossy, has a charming smile, and a welcoming demeanor. When he tells you that he’s the pastor at Grace Church just around the corner, it makes you want to visit.
