100 Words

Vision – More Than Just Hope

by Andy Wood on January 6, 2009

in 100 Words, Exploring the Possibilities, LV Cycle

There’s more to vision than hopeful daydreaming about a desired future.

Yes, vision sees the goal, but it is aware of much more than that.

Vision sees the path from here to there.

Vision recognizes the need for decisive action.  It has a bias toward making the jump.

Vision also recognizes the risks and potential dangers that lurk on all sides, and prepares accordingly for them.

Vision then sees beyond the goal.  It recognizes the larger community, and the visionary’s place in the larger world.

Yes, vision sees the goal.  But true visionaries recognize that success is more than the perfect landing.

(This extraordinary picture of Oberstdorf, Germany as reflected in the goggles of Japanese ski jumper Noriaki Kasai is one of many that can be found here.  PHOTO:  Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach)

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Can You Give Thanks for What You Have Yet to See?

by Andy Wood on November 25, 2008

in 100 Words

There are two ways to say, “Thank you” – thanksgiving by sight, and thanksgiving by faith.

One counts the blessings; one anticipates them.

One traces the path with hindsight; the other blazes the path with foresight.

One leads gently to humility; one calls boldly to expect.

One looks back and connects the dots; the other looks ahead and creates a destiny.

No one expects a “thank you” before the gift is received.

Precisely.

That’s why thanksgiving by faith wields such power.  While sight recognizes our many blessings, faith lays hold of a covenant-keeping God.

Give thanks…

By sight.

By faith.

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Life is Messy

by Andy Wood on November 19, 2008

in 100 Words

Here is a place where stress is absent.

Where the phone never rings, and babies never cry.

Here is a place where neatness, order, and predictability reign.

A safe place, where seldom is heard a discouraging word.

Here is a place where the “ground is level.”

Where there is no prejudice or pride.

Here is a place that remains unimpacted by the news or political scene.

Where nobody cares if you’re liberal, conservative, or anarchist.

Here is a place where there is no life.

Anywhere else, it can get pretty messy.

But God – and life – are often in the mess.

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Follow Me to the Dead End

by Andy Wood on November 7, 2008

in 100 Words, Leadership, Life Currency

From a sign in Chicago.

I’m fairly certain more people turn right looking for North Avenue than they stay straight or turn left.

Why?

Because the mind can’t focus on the opposite of an idea.

People tend to go in the direction of your arrows (your example), not the direction of your words.

They gravitate toward what you tell them to avoid, unless you actually point them in a better direction.

They become what you criticize or fear or hate or warn against or dread.

What you say is communication;  that’s important.

Where you point is leadership.  That is vital.

(Photo by Andy Sernovitz)

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Last House Standing

by Andy Wood on September 17, 2008

in 100 Words, LV Cycle, Protecting Your Investment

(Click photo to enlarge)

(Click photo to enlarge)

This is what hurricanes do.

On September 13, this street in Gilchrist, Texas was lined with homes and probably some businesses.

One Ike later, one house still stands.

This, to me, is a symbol of what life can do.

The winds begin to blow, the floods and storm surge begin to rise, and once-beautiful lives turn to random sticks and bricks.

I want to be the last house standing.

I want to be the one who can prevail, even if all others fall to the ferocious winds.

I just don’t want to have to face any storms to prove it.

(Image by David J. Phillip/Getty Images.  For more Hurricane Ike images, click here)

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Ask, and You Will What?

by Andy Wood on September 15, 2008

in 100 Words

I live in a town that prays for rain.

Not with superstition or religious sophistry, but with humble, believing cries to Jesus Christ.

Averaging 14-plus inches annually, our ag-based economy depends on rain.

I also live in a town that educates students.

Lots of them.

Sometimes educated people scoff at people who pray for rain.

They’re embarrassed to live in the same town with such backwards people.

In this town, there is one place where the praying people and the educated people gather in the same spot.

Thursday it rained.  More than six inches, to be exact.

Gimme a “J”!

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Could You Change Your World with a New Set of Lenses?

by Andy Wood on August 7, 2008

in 100 Words, Esteem, Life Currency

What if you could completely reframe situations or people by seeing them with a different perspective?

What if you could turn jerks into friends, or at least into sympathetic partners?

What if you could gain new courage and confidence in any situation you faced by seeing with a different set of lenses?

What if you could be greatly used by God to make a profound difference in other people’s lives, simply by a change in perspective?

You can.

Why did God say, “My thoughts are not your thoughts?”  Was it to rub it in, or to reach out?

Just thinking…

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The VOMOS Club

by Andy Wood on August 4, 2008

in 100 Words, Gamblers, LV Alter-egos

Sign

Some things should just be obvious.

Coffee cup contents are hot.

Sleeping pills may cause drowsiness.

People with peanut allergies shouldn’t open a bag or jar with the word “peanut” on it.

Microwave ovens aren’t designed to dry wet pets.

Silly Putty shouldn’t be used as ear plugs.

Unfortunately, what’s obvious to most, passes right by the VOMOS club (and we’ve all had a membership card in that one at some time).

And before you think somebody’s nuts for stating the obvious, remember, this is America.  We sue people here.  Shamelessly.  Once they dislodge the pointed fence from our colon.

(VOMOS – “Victim of my own stupidity”)

(Photo by  aikisenshi)

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Hanukkuh Hams – Ladies’ Room Edition

by Andy Wood on July 17, 2008

in 100 Words

Toilet Restroom Sign

Here’s what happens when “public servants” invade the local ladies’ room.

Hey, rules are rules…

Somewhere there is a bureaucrat, who takes us all for fools,

And has a bit of brainlessness interpreting the rules.

He thinks that women everywhere would certainly be blessed

To see their neighbor face-to-face when they sit down to “rest.”

This gives new meaning to the phrase we men think sounds so wrong:

“I’m going to the ladies’ room, you want to come along?”

So if Point Loma, California is your local town,

I’d tell them this is something that you won’t take sitting down!

(photo by  kinpatsu, taken inside an Ace Hardware Store in Point Loma, CA)


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Dude, Where’s My Phone?

by Andy Wood on July 7, 2008

in 100 Words

Hotline 3Problems are real.

Promises are important.

And the faith that clings to them often fragile.

That’s why it’s a good idea, if you’re offering yourself (or your church or organization) as the solution to somebody’s possibly-desperate problem, to make absolutely certain that somebody is there to answer the phone.

Or that the phone is actually there in the first place.

They may not be thinking about jumping off.

Maybe they just need a tank of gas…

A safe, friendly voice…

Or answers without religious jargon or clichés.

Maybe they just need to know where to find a phone that works.

 

 

 

(Photo – Taken on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge by Throwingbull.  Used by permission.)

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