Perspective

Changing Seasons, Changing Lives

by Andy Wood on November 27, 2010

in Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Waiting

Years ago a Persian king wanted to discourage his sons from making rash judgments.  He sent the oldest son on a winter journey to see a mango tree.  Spring came and the second oldest went on the same trip.  Summer followed and the third son went.  When the youngest boy returned from his autumn visit, the king called them together to describe the tree. 

The first said, “It looks like a burnt old stump.”  The second described it as lovely and green; the third declared its blossoms as beautiful as the rose.  The fourth said all were wrong.  “Its fruit is like a pear.” 

“Each is right,” the king said.  “You just saw the same tree in a different season.”  

Before you evaluate other people, make sure you have seen them in all their seasons.  No one is always anything.  [click to continue…]

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Batter Splatter: Seven More Half-Baked Ideas I’m Working On

by Andy Wood on October 15, 2010

in Half-baked Ideas

Here are seven more ideas, thoughts, or “wish I’d said thats” baking in my mental oven lately. How about you?  Do you have any half-baked ideas you’d like to share?  Drop it in the comment box below. 

Want to see more?  Try here, here, or here.

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“God is a violent pursuer of a wayward soul.” – Brandon Gilbert

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“Even when we fail to validate the gospel, the way we respond to failure can validate the gospel.”  -Nathan Ables [click to continue…]

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Do You See What He Sees?

by Andy Wood on October 1, 2010

in Five LV Laws, Following Your Passion, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Eternity

“There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels for someone, pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.”(Milan Kundera) 

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Ever read about the double-pump miracle Jesus performed?  Fascinating story, about a blind man in Bethsaida.  Jesus led him outside the village and spit on his eyes.

“Do you see anything”? He asked.

He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

So Jesus double-clutched.  Once more, he put his hands on the man’s eyes. This time he saw everything clearly.

It doesn’t bother me that it took two rounds with the Son of God for a blind man to see clearly again.  It does bother me that many believers, myself included, have gone many rounds with Jesus, and we still don’t see clearly at times.

He saw people that looked like trees.  We see people that look like other things – jobs, economic status, social labels, racial stereotypes, gender.  Jesus saw something else entirely.  You can too, but it doesn’t come naturally. 

“I see people; they look like trees.” 

What do you see?  Butcher, baker, candlestick maker?  Hot babe, geek, hero, freak? 

They may as well be Klingons, unless we learn to see from Jesus’ perspective.  We talk a lot about pursuing our own passions, but you can never fulfill your deepest passion unless you first embrace his.  Take a look: [click to continue…]

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Call Him Benjamin

by Andy Wood on September 1, 2010

in Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Abundance, Waiting, Words

Call him Benjamin. 

Nice Hebrew name for this fictional, but oh-so-real young man who lived outside of Jerusalem in the first century.  Benjamin is 20 years old, and his family raised him in a typical Jewish home.

Until that day. [click to continue…]

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Thoughts on Being a One-Eyed Man in a World of Blind People

by Andy Wood on August 19, 2010

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Five LV Laws, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Freedom

The happiest man I ran into yesterday had a distinguishing feature.  He only had one arm. 

I don’t know is name, but I know his game; he’s a manager at one of the local fast-food Italian restaurants in town.  In the short time we were there during the lunch rush, I saw him take orders at the register, manage those delicious breadsticks they’re famous for giving away, manage his team to make sure orders got out and the place stayed clean, and – most importantly – see to it that his customers were happy.

We sure were.  And it started with him showing us that he was happy to be there.  He has an infectious smile and a good-natured laugh that invites you to laugh along.  Sure comes in handy when the lunch line is snaking out the door.

Hmmm.  [click to continue…]

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The Worst Lawyer Ever

by Andy Wood on July 1, 2010

in Ability, Five LV Laws, Following Your Passion, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Cycle, LV Stories, Principle of Legacy

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…]

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Hindsight is for Idiots

by Andy Wood on January 21, 2010

in Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Legacy, Protecting Your Investment, Tense Truths

Tense Truth:  Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.  But we are virtually helpless to reinterpret history for ourselves.  We need a Source of truth that isn’t subject to the distortions we bring to hindsight.

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Ms. Past, she’s such a wicked lady,

Ms. Past, she’s always there a waiting,

She’s the Devil’s favorite tool,

She’ll play you like a fool,

She’ll try until she rules.

-Michael and Stormie Omartian

Whoever said hindsight is 20/20 needs new glasses.

Hindsight is blind as a bat. 

It’s a house of mirrors.

You can get more accuracy from a weekend weatherman about a 10-day forecast than you can from looking at life in the mirror.

If hindsight is 20/20, why do historians always argue?

If hindsight is 20/20, why do two people in conflict always tell two completely different stories?  (And tell two more a week later?)

If hindsight is 20/20, why does the same event speak to you completely differently from the perspective of a day, a week, a month, a year, or a generation?

If hindsight is 20/20, why does God repeatedly have to remind the children of Israel about their rescue from Egypt and the whole Red Sea episode?  I’ll tell you why.  [click to continue…]

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Optiphobia: Making Peace With Your Dreams (and Disappointments)

by Andy Wood on October 27, 2009

in Exploring the Possibilities, Five LV Laws, Hoarders, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase

StrikeoutVision hurts. 

Don’t believe me?  Try dreaming about something that is exciting and important to you, only to be disappointed.  But the alternative to vision isn’t much better.  Instead of dreaming, you could play it safe.  Be complacent.  Wish for nothing and hit it every time.

Doesn’t sound like much of a choice, does it?  Heartache or boredom.  Tightrope with no net or treadmill with no hope.  How do you make peace with your dreams?  How do you keep from hating the whole process?  How can you avoid “optiphobia” – the fear of vision?

Start with a little perspective.  [click to continue…]

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Confessions of a Self-Pidiot

by Andy Wood on June 8, 2009

in Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Waiting

jackassA couple of weeks ago I asked an associate to pick me up me a cup of coffee when he went out for an afternoon break.  He did.  Since I take cream and sugar in my coffee, I looked all over the church for some form of sugar to put in it, and couldn’t find any anywhere. Even though there were at least three people who could have helped solve the problem, I didn’t ask for help.  I just poured out the coffee.  It felt better to feel sorry for myself than it did to solve the problem.

Self-pity stinks.

I wish I could tell you that this was the first time I had ever felt sorry for myself, but I’m sure you’d know better.  Truth is, at times I’m something of an artist at it.  Given the right mood, the right circumstances, and just the right amount of self-absorption, I can not only feel sorry for myself, I can influence you to do something to “make” me feel that way.

Like the time in Mrs. Trimble’s class in fourth grade when I kept whining and crying, “Nobody likes me.  Nobody!” [click to continue…]

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The Grasshopper’s Dilemma

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

grasshopperThis 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…]

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