Quick question: If you’re going 30 miles per hour and wanted to make a 180-degree turn, how fast could you do it and how much ground would you lose heading the other way?
Quick answer: It all depends on the vehicle.
And that matters more than you may realize.
If you’re on a motorcycle doing 30, a good rider can execute a 180 pretty quickly and only lose a few feet before he darts back in the opposite direction.
On the other hand, if you’re at the con of an aircraft carrier traveling 30 knots per hour, it would take about 72 seconds. And in the process, you’ve lost about half a nautical mile.
Changing direction takes time. And momentum isn’t always on your side. And because of that your resolve will be tested.
Changing Direction Takes Time
I’ve never seen a hummingbird or bumblebee make a U-turn. [click to continue…]
John Smoltz was famous for getting himself in trouble.
He’ll be in the Baseball Hall of Fame for the ways he could get himself out.
Smoltz didn’t always start well, but he knew what to do when he got himself into trouble. He describes the mental process he would go through in his book, Starting and Closing. At some point he would take his game to an entirely different level. And the mental signal he would give himself: Rally time.
That’s a theme that I’m seeing all over the world these days. In one situation after another, we’ve gotten ourselves into trouble. In baseball language, there’s one run in, the bases are loaded, and nobody out.
Rally time.
It’s rally time in places like Colorado and Pennsylvania, as people are looking to make sense out of the senseless and somehow create a world where kids can be safe. But the rally comes from recognizing that our hope isn’t built on metal detectors and psychobabble, but on the peace of God that passes all understanding.
It’s rally time in places like Washington and state capitals everywhere, as incumbents try to keep their jobs and others try to take them away – all based on promises and politics. But the rally comes from recognizing that our hope isn’t built on Republicans or Democrats, but on the government of the Lord God. [click to continue…]
It’s a little hard to feel sorry for Mo, even when at times in his childhood you would have been tempted to. He was a sickly child, and his short, thin physique was no match for the other boys who were good at sports.
Mo was no geek, either. Something of a slacker in school, the truth was, book learning was way past hard for him.
But he had his looks, right?
Uh, no. Sitting atop his bony, wiry frame was a giant schnoz. The dude was seven shades of ugly. [click to continue…]
(How to Restore Your Losses, Part 2)
Ground Zero Construction Site, New York
In the previous post I talked about the fact that at the end of Job’s saga, the Lord restored his losses. For most of this righteous man’s painful episode, the end of the story was yet to be told about him… an important thing to remember when we encounter seasons of great loss.
One thing I left hanging was that Job was required to participate the process. Make no mistake about it: this was a man who was intimate enough with God to be honest with Him about his feelings and pain. But something changed between the ranting and the receiving. I have a feeling the same may be true of you and me, too, if we want to see our losses restored.
1. Recognize God as a God of purpose.
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted,” Job said (Job 42:2, ESV). Job acknowledged not just that God had a plan, but that His intentions and purposes are good. He also submitted to that purpose – even when he didn’t have answers. [click to continue…]
Quick question: If you’re going 30 miles per hour and wanted to make a 180-degree turn, how fast could you do it and how much ground would you lose heading the other way?
