Trading what you can't keep for what you can't lose.

Jim Elliott's words, not mine. More precisely, "He is no fool, who trades what he cannot keep, for that which he cannot lose." Trading the temporal for the eternal, not just the trading, but the willingness to trade. God judges the intent of the heart, and what that heart is willing to give. Jim Elliott was a man who traded his life, so a group of people he didn't know could come to know Christ. He traded what he could not keep, his life, for what he could not lose, eternity. I have to stop and ask myself sometimes: How much are you willing to give? When I think about Jim Elliott, the question becomes: Are you willing to give everything?
What would happen if you told all of your friends and loved ones about Jesus? You might annoy some people; some people might quit hanging around with you; or you might see someone's life changed by Christ. For a Christian, life is not about being comfortable, it's about sharing Christ with others; so tell everybody the Good News!

Frustrating day. . .

Do you ever have one of those days that everything seems to go wrong? Today seemed to be that kind of day. Not one thing, but half a dozen tiny things that just kept adding up. Anger and frustration kept adding up as well; but anger and frustration don't solve problems, they make them bigger than they seem. It's best at those times to stop, breathe, and pray for a little while or a long while. But, we or I don't always do what is best. At the end of this day, I can thank God that He is patient, and gracious. Looking back, I wasted hours that are now in the trash can of eternity. Now, I am calm and reflecting on what was not my best effort. God is good, and I will have to do better.

Going out into eternity . . .

Three icons of pop culture went out into eternity this week, two of them on the same day. It is another reminder of just how short life is. One thing is certain, they all needed Christ as their Savior. We all do. And, you have just as long as you travel this earth to accept him. And for those of us who do know Christ, it should remind us that no one is promised tomorrow, and we need to work while it is still day. If you know some one who needs Christ, tell them about Him, don't wait for someone else to do it, because time is running out; and they may not have a tomorrow.

Writing . . .

Sometimes, I would call my writing: creative stealing. I love sounding brilliant, but much of the time the credit goes to whomever I was smart enough to quote, or in worst cases pass their words off as my sound wisdom. So in that spirit, I will complete today's blog with the words of James Russell Lowell:

It’s not what we give,
But what we share,
The gift without the giver is bare,
Who gives of himself,
Of his alms feeds three
Himself, his hungry neighbor, and me.


Share something with somebody.

A few secrets to being a success in life

If the phone rings: pick it up. You'll spend less time answering calls than you do avoiding them. If you screen your calls in front of anyone; everyone will know that's what you are doing when you don't answer their calls. Then you get pegged as a jerk, every time you don't answer a call no matter what the reason is. It affects people perception of you, and eventually it affects you.
Do you best at everything. It's what football players (if you know me at all, you know how much I love football) call leaving everything out on the field. Namely their best effort. Vince Lombardi, told his team that they would relentlessly pursue perfection, knowing full well that they would not catch it, but in the pursuit of perfection, they would catch excellence. In short, every person needs to know the satisfaction of walking away from something knowing that they had given it their best effort.
Learn how to use a broom. No one thing can do more for you in the work place than this. This is the one thing that can make you stand out in a crowd. Taking the initiative to pick up or sweep up what everyone else walks by. It takes almost no time, but it speaks volumes about you. You become the kind of person who sets the standard, and not the kind that has to be given a standard to follow.
Now, go do your best!

Too much me

Worrying about me, we have a whole country that is obsessed with it. I myself am more guilty of it than I would care to admit. As I worry more about me I become increasingly useless to others around me. So here's the question, how well do you take care of the people around you? How much do the things that concern the ones you love, concern you? Billy Graham talked once about what others would call "puppy love," and then he remarked, "It was real to the puppy." The people who made the biggest impression on me when I was little, were the people who concerned themselves with the things that concerned me. I have always meant to be that kind of adult, but sometimes I find that I am just another adult who is way to concerned about me.

Summer day. . .

Sometimes, I like to just not think. Doing everything right all the time, is exhausting; not that I do everything right all of the time, I want to, I just don't succeed all of the time, or much of the time (depending on who you ask.) There is more than enough to occupy my mind while I am awake and asleep. It's times like this, when I like to think about God being in control. For everything I know and all the decisions I have to make; it's nice to know that the Maker of Heaven and Earth has a vested interest in me, and suddenly it's more about Who I know and not what I know. Then all I have to do is fear God and keep his commandments, and try to do a better job tomorrow than I did today.

My father

Since everyone is thinking about their fathers today . . .
A few years ago I started working on a devotional book, which I haven’t finished. I used some poems that I liked, Scripture and added my own commentary. Long story short, I wrote this the winter after my father passed away. I hope that you are blessed by it.

An Old Story
Edwin Arlington Robinson

Strange that I did not know him then,
That friend of mine!
I did not even show him then
One friendly sign;

But cursed him for the ways he had
To make me see
My envy of the praise he had
For praising me.

I would have rid the earth of him
Once, in my pride. . .
I never knew the worth of him
Until he died.

Scripture: Proverbs 1:8,9 (NIV)
8 Listen, my son, to your father's instruction
and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
9 They will be a garland to grace your head
and a chain to adorn your neck.

Once in a while, you receive the blessing of having someone come into your life that sees more than you see; someone that pushes you further than you believe is fair; and sometimes requires more of you than your best. The typical response is childish resentment, but time being the great equalizer that it is, one day you are faced with the exact same situation, only this time you are the old goat. You instantly realize what that horrible person meant to you, and how you would have never known that you had more to give, had it not been for someone who knew that you had more in you than what you had shown.
I recently lost someone like that in my own life, my father. I knew him all of my life, yet I still did not understand how deeply or how many ways he touched my life until he was gone. The man he was made me the man that I am, and I carry with me everywhere I go, the lessons learned from hard fought battles between a father and a son, and I am glad that he wasn't always so easy to please.