Building Wealth in the Land of the Clowns

by Andy Wood on November 6, 2008

in Five LV Laws, Life Currency, Money, Principle of Abundance

Isn’t it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.

Isn’t it bliss?
Don’t you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can’t move.
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
-from “Send in the Clowns”

No, that’s not the theme song to the next installment of the U.S. Congress.  Then again…

Yesterday I introduced you to a group of Christ followers who were living in a world of mirrors.  The good people of Laodicea were living with the bling, but God had a different estimate of their true wealth.  And in His correction, He revealed some things about a completely different economy that is in operation all around us.  For review, here are the principles we looked at yesterday:

Principle #1:  The root nature of sin is a declaration of independence from God.

Principle #2:  God has a system of economy unlike the world’s system.

Principle #3:  “Economy” is the exchange of all the commodities of life.

Principle #4:  Money has a unique place in the commodities of life.

Principle #5:  It is possible to be rich in the world’s economy and bankrupt in God’s.

So here the scenery changes, and God has some encouraging things to say to His loveable losers: [click to continue…]

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God Has an Economy, and You CAN Be Rich In It

by Andy Wood on November 5, 2008

in Five LV Laws, Life Currency, Money, Principle of Abundance

It was the Beverly Hills of ancient Asia.  A center of wealth and high-end commerce.  A medical haven, where people came from miles around for treatment of various ailments.  If you wrote your mama and told her your job was transferring you there, she’d have something to brag about the next day.  This was some place.  And there was a church in town.

How would you like to get a personal letter from Jesus Christ, where the first thing he said was, “I know what you’ve been doing”?  That can be a little unnerving!  But that’s exactly what Jesus said to the First Church of Coolville, alias Laodicea.  He had a few other things to say as well.  Let’s peek at their mail:

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see (Revelation 3:15-18).

Looks like the guys and dolls in Lala Land had a few things to learn about wealth.

So do we.

They thought they were loaded; Jesus said otherwise.  Remember, though, that in spite of its scathing message, this was a love letter.  And in his love, Jesus gave them, and LifeVestors everywhere, a few pointers on His economy. [click to continue…]

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Halftime: Scenes From My Weekend in the Locker Room

by Andy Wood on November 4, 2008

in Uncategorized

Pardon the cat blog entry, but I turned 50 today.  The way I measure it, that’s halfway to Heaven.  So my kids insisted we all converge on the DFW Metroplex for the weekend to celebrate.

I don’t think I could have possibly conjured up a better celebration and memory maker – provided by my family, my awesome team at TPCC back home, and some help from people with names like Harrell, Crabtree, and Edwards.

It all started with the confidence that I could leave home and work for the weekend, knowing that the church was in very capable hands.  I am so grateful for the staff and leadership at Turning Point.  So when Chad, our youth pastor, calls me on Friday to ask it if was OK to title his message on forgiveness, “The F-Word,” I didn’t think twice about it.

We went to Cassie’s house in Euless and had the official family celebration Friday night.  (If you know Carrie, you’ll have to ask her what kind of birthday cake they served up.  I couldn’t mention it unless you paid me lots of money.)  It was there that they presented me the surprise they’d been teasing and hinting about for weeks – two tickets to the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.  As big a NASCAR nut as I am, I’d never been to a race in person.  Needless to say, I was very excited.

Saturday we drove to Canton, Texas – home of the (literally) world’s largest flea market.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  There had to be more than 150,000 people there, and this is a monthly occurrence.  One entire section – about the size of most flea markets – is devoted almost exclusively to pets and livestock.  Hundreds of puppies, along with miniature goats, long-haired rabbits, half-sized calves, llamas, donkeys, exotic birds, and even baby pigs.  We came home with Gracie – a seven-week-old Maltese.

Saturday night I shouted myself hoarse watching Texas Tech shock Texas.  From the Longhorns first play from scrimmage (a safety) to Tech’s last (an incredible touchdown), I was blown away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaN_ce47MOY

Who would have ever thought that, nine games into the season, the top 5 BCS teams would look like this?

Alabama is #1 for the first time in the regular season since 1980 (Roll Tide!).  And my wife’s alma mater is close behind.  Incredible.

The race was a true spectacle.  TV does a good job of presenting it, but there is no way to compare the 3D effect of actually being there, along with 171,000 other people.  And it was pretty cool that we pick up a couple of Carl Edwards #99 caps, and he proceeds to win the race.  The view was incredible, the weather perfect.  And for all uncultured folks that think NASCAR fans are a bunch of beer-throwing rednecks, let me just say these were some of the friendliest, most gracious and sportsmanlike fans possible.  Even, the Earnhardt fans.

Of course, through it all, the most fun part was sharing it with family.  It was the first time to see all seven of them together in a long time, and we totally enjoyed that.  We also hadn’t seen Laura Kate in a good while, so we were glad to have some time with her.

My eardrums have returned to normal, and my voice is nearly back.  The kids have all gone back to home and work.  Carrie, Cassie and Joel did such a wonderful job of helping me celebrate.  Robin and I are back home – ready to start the third quarter.

I do so want to finish strong.

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Who Are YOU Connected To?

by Andy Wood on October 29, 2008

in Life Currency, Love, LV Cycle, Protecting Your Investment, Tense Truths

Tense truth:  We are individually accountable to God for what we have done with the death and resurrection of His Son and with the life He has given us.  However, we are completely dependent on a community of relationships, and cannot survive or thrive in isolation.  Our community won’t be there when we stand before the Lord, but they must be connected to us until we get there.

+++++++++++++++++++

From the genius of David Hayward comes this funny/sad characterization of a lot of people I have known (and one or two I have been).

No coincidence that David posted this on the same day I made this statement:  There is not enough of you available to live all your life.  You’re a fool to try…

Ever see a sequoia tree?  Fantastic piece of God’s creation.  An awesome living structure that can reach as high as 300 feet.

Ever see a sequoia tree standing by itself?

Chances are, you won’t.  Strange thing, this tree – to be so tall, it has a very shallow root system.  If it stood alone, it couldn’t make it; when the wind grew strong, it wouldn’t take it.  So the sequoias build a network of root systems and together they flourish, side by side.

You and I were designed to function like the sequoia tree. [click to continue…]

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Eight Ways to Rebuild Your Gaps

by Andy Wood on October 28, 2008

in Ability, Allocating Your Resources, Consumers, Enlarging Your Capacity, Insight, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Money, Pleasers, Time

Here’s a little exercise we actually take worship service time to practice occasionally.  Follow the instructions carefully (yes, I mean I want you to actually do this):

  • Take a deep breath
  • Let out half of it.
  • Hold
  • Smile
  • Repeat the following out loud, in a calm soothing voice:

“No.”

Repeat this exercise regularly, just for practice, and as needed in live game situations.

Not, “No because…”

Not, “Maybe later…”

Not, “Let me pray about it…”

Certainly not, “See if you can find somebody else, and if you can’t, I’ll see what I can do.”

Learning to graciously, kindly refuse is one of eight steps to building or rebuilding margin in your life.  Margin has to do with creating gaps – cushions of time, money, energy, or spiritual strength that act as living shock absorbers for those who have them.

Imagine how it could revolutionize your attitude, relationships, productivity, and health if the next time somebody says, “Got a minute?” you actually do! [click to continue…]

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How to Burn Yourself Out in Three Quick and Easy Steps

by Andy Wood on October 27, 2008

in Ability, Consumers, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, Money, Pleasers, Time

We pass a word around our office that my associate once used to describe me, and it stuck:  Crispy.

He used it a few years ago when he and our office manager decided they’d seen enough of me in the state I was in and informed me that I was taking my wife on an R & R trip to the mountains.  My reservations had been made, and they weren’t taking “no” for an answer.

I hope to God you have somebody who looks out for you like that.  I wasn’t aware of how emotionally and physically fried I was.  The sad truth about stress, crispiness, and burnout is that often others see their effects on us before we do.

It wasn’t the first time I’ve been crispy, and it probably won’t be the last.  But there’s a further step that can be devastating.  Burnout, in a clinical sense, means you have completely exhausted every form of energy necessary to continue.  More than just losing interest (“I’m sort of burned out on jazz these days”), I’m talking about those times people go to their wells and find them completely dry.  Times when people shock those who know them best by walking away from relationships, careers, or wisdom.

“Stress makes people stupid,” a management consultant once told Daniel Goldman. Burnout reveals it to the world.

So how do people get in such a state – past stress, past crispy, all the way to emotionally nuked?  Let me suggest three quick and easy recipes for complete emotional, mental, or spiritual exhaustion: [click to continue…]

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Your Glory Story

by Andy Wood on October 24, 2008

in Esteem, Exploring the Possibilities, Life Currency, LV Cycle

Somewhere in the back story of the drama that is your life, you are rehearsing a Cinderella story.  One that transforms you from zero to hero, from reject to regal.  You imagined it as a kid in ways that were unique to you.  This dream may have been fed by caring parents, or it may have been an escape from the harshness of your world.

Simply put, you dreamed of glory.

Not vainglory, mind you.  Something more.  An image that said you mattered.  Belonged.  Were wonderfully adequate for the role you’d been chosen – for your quest.

Then came the collision.  Dreams were broadsided by disappointments.  You never quite figured out how to translate that high school stardom into a career or a destiny.  Or worse, you actually found your place in the world, but stared in the mirror at a fraud.  Maybe you got what (or who) you’d always wanted, and you bombed.  Maybe you just settled into paying the bills and keeping house, and woke up a generation later wondering what happened.

Sometimes I think our greatest fear or vulnerability isn’t the evil we’re all capable of.  What we most dread or most grieve is that we’re just so ordinary. [click to continue…]

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What Are You Waiting For?

by Andy Wood on October 22, 2008

in Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Hoarders, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase

Another saint doing battle with the powers of darkness

“Arose.”

Fascinating word.  Occurs 173 times in the New American Standard Bible.  Nearly always, something interesting, if not transforming, follows.

Jesus uber-arose, as I hope you know.  As in, from the dead.

Abraham arose, too, as in from the bed.

Jacob arose, and bugged out of town.

A new king arose in Egypt, and things got ugly for Jacob’s descendents.

Moses arose and went up the mountain.

Balaam arose and got up on his donkey.

Arose is the difference between sleeping and moving.  Between sitting and acting.

Arose changes things. [click to continue…]

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The Day of Small Things (and People)

by Andy Wood on October 20, 2008

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

You were born little, with bigness in your DNA.

You were born naked, longing to be warmed and dressed.

You were born penniless, and learned fairly quickly that this was not good.

Even of you’re a twin or other multiple, you were born completely alone, but wired to be relational.

You were born on purpose.  And your purpose may still lie in front of you.  (What DO you want to be when you grow up?)

To get from here to there, you will most likely pass through a series of completely lame, boring, and maddeningly time-consuming stages.  Yes, you’ll experience a few leaps.  For the rest, you’d better get used to celebrating some baby steps.

God called it the Day of Small Things.

The Day of Small Things is the crawl that comes before the walk.  The work that comes before the reward.  The doing-something-anything that comes before doing something awesome.  It’s boot camp and kindergarten, school and internships, and progress-before-perfection. [click to continue…]

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Three Questions You Can’t Ignore

by Andy Wood on October 15, 2008

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

So you want to design a life, not just make a living?  You want to experience the sensation of victory, or spiritual power?  You want to build something, not just take up space on the planet?  You want to say you’ve run your race, won your prize, fulfilled your calling or purpose?

If that doesn’t describe you, don’t waste your time reading any further.  Go back to the Food Network or CNN or something.

But if that does describe you, and you believe you were put on this earth to do more than recycle gases and other organic stuff, read on.

In any meaningful endeavor, but particularly in one that involves the fulfillment of a spiritual vision, people (and leaders in particular) are faced with three inescapable questions.

1.  Do your actions demonstrate a commitment to that which is most important?

2.  Will you continue to move forward, even when surrounded by a hostile or apathetic majority?

3.  Where will you look for the internal power to finish the job? [click to continue…]

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