Tag: joy

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Influence and Others

Last weekend I saw this quote from Andy Stanley, which I just loved. I actually shared it with several people last week and even posted it on my office wall. To me it optimizes how followers of the Christ should live- also looking out for the best in others and always trying to make others better.

How can you leverage your power and influence to make others successful?

Now if I could just live that way!

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:13 NIV)

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Ode To Busyness

I feel like my life has been shot out of a cannon since school has started.  Over the last two weeks it’s been a combination of new practices, new routines, school meetings, and over various events that eat up the calendar from sun up until sun down.  The lazy days of summer ended in such incredible fashion that the memory of those days in only re-callable with pictures!  And it seems to be set to continue like this for some time.

This weekend I have been thinking about these weeks ahead and the ‘business’ that they are filled with and have decided to not be stressed by it.  There are so many positive things about to happen as our children discover their own strengths and weaknesses.  I can’t imagine the amount of memories that I will gather as a parent observing and challenging those guys. Maybe I am a little crazy, but I have decided that this busyness is life. Oh, sure some of it can be reduced, and lots of it can be managed.  But instead of ‘just getting through it’ or trying to find another way, I am going to try to embrace it head on.  (This may be the biggest mistake of my life!).

I am starting to think that the things we do each day are not barriers to us living life, but actually are us living life.  So today, on this Monday morning the beginning of a week with a schedule that is quite full, I am rejoicing.  Not because I am ‘busy’, for there is not doubt I would rather be laying on beach somewhere, but because I am starting a a day that is a gift from the Lord and the number of opportunities that lay ahead of me in this busyness are enormous.

So off I go, rejoicing ( I hope I can make it past 10am!!!)

 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4 New International Version (NIV)

 

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Friday Funday

 w00t woot!  it’s Friday and it’s the start of football!!!!  (oh did you know that woot is a now an official word?  yep it is now in the Oxford Dictionary)

Well since it is Friday, here is just a simple thought to consider. (plus I am already jammed up with 7 and 8 am appointments)

Did you know you can’t create darkness?  It just exists.  But you can create light, and so here are some random Friday thoughts about creating light:

First an ancient chinese proverb (or so I am told, it’s still pretty cool):

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

And then this thought which I always find encouraging:

Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky  NIV Philippians 2:15

And finally just a little bit more:

 14-16Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing. Philippians 2:15 The Message (MSG)

Shine your light today! ( and forget about all that cursing!)

 

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He’s Back…

Yesterday, I was in a conference call in the morning that got a little tense.  It was really no big deal in the scheme of things, and for the most part was just a misunderstanding of who was going to do what part of this project that we are all working together on.  I felt good about the meeting, and I knew that this topic would come up.  During the first minutes of the meeting I proclaimed to a coworker via instant message  that I was going “to take a new tact”.

Then it got tense, and there we some mild disagreements and debates and I felt him coming back.  Who do you ask?  Me!  The selfish, short tempered, brash me.  And I could sense that others where seeing, or I guess in this case hearing him as well.  ARGH!  Now, I had a platform to stand on that was well positioned.  More than likely I may have even been in the “right”.  But really, it’s not about me, and the tone that was coming across the phone was changing the tone of the meeting in the negative in a hurry. ARGH!

Later in the day I watch a video clip about how we live lives behind veneers.  The talk presented two views the human view and the God view.  Interestingly enough the human view was about well, the human itself, and the God view was about all the other humans on this earth.  It all ended with a fantastic summation and a challenge – are we exposing the human like veneer or the God like veneer?  Is it about me, or is it about everyone else.

It seems to me that life actually works out better when we take the God like approach and focus on others.  Somehow in some way, that way always seems to have some way of making it better in the end for us!  Yet, we still want to put ourselves in the lead.  It’s quite a paradox!

Well, I hope I was able to push myself back into the background as the meeting went on.  What I do know is that the rest of the day, I felt like a black cloud of frustration was hanging over my head, since I know I let him back!  The great thing is that I have a new day to start over and let God shine in my interactions.

How about you?  Are you choosing the human like thing or the God like thing?

 

 1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

 5In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Philippians 2:1-5 New International Version (NIV)
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Peanuts or Cashews Anyone?

Alright! Today is Grab Some Nuts Day.  If you have some cashews or peanuts or pecans handy – reach out and grab some and read the rest of this always surprising post.  And speaking of surprises and nuts, did you know that almonds and pistachios are the only nuts mentioned in the Bible?

I am a little bummed that I missed Ice Cream Sandwiches Day yesterday, so here is a link to a post earlier this year about those delicious deserts.  Evidently yesterday was also Wi-Fi day (8.02.11 b/g/n/n+), and so the geek inside of me is double sad about that.

And all of that reminds me of this fascinating verse in Nehemiah

10Nehemiah told the people, ” Enjoy your good food and wine and share some with those who didn’t have anything to bring. Don’t be sad! This is a special day for the LORD, and he will make you happy and strong.” Nehemiah 8:10 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

or maybe the ending in some other versions is better:

Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” NIV

So, on this nutty day, eats some nuts, and maybe an ice cream sandwich. In fact – share them! And as always remember that the joy that comes from the Lord provides you incredible, but probably not edible, strength.