Hey all,
I ran across this quote today and wanted to share.......I am not sure who Og Mandino is but they sure "nailed" it with this quote in my opinion!
“Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!”
Og Mandino(1923 - 1996)
Good stuff huh? Life is happening and available now.....today......not just tomorrow! We just have to choose to be part of it instead of a spectator.
Strength and Honor,
SW
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Saturday, November 26, 2011
A "Thankful" perspective
Hey all,
Why does it take a weird holiday where you cook more than you could possibly eat in one setting to remind us that we are to be thankful? Maybe there is something in turkey that is supposed to trigger the "thankful" hormone. Maybe it is the pumpkin pie. Maybe the combination of food, fellowship, and football is the combination.
Whatever it is......I suppose that it is a good thing that at least one day a year when we can stop and think about what we have and all that we should be thankful for. If it really is the turkey, then we should eat a portion every day shouldn't we!
I have so many things that I am thankful for. A wonderful wife, a great family, a home, a job, an awesome church, and friends to share life with. But most of all, I am thankful that in 1998, I came to know the Lord Jesus. And it is HIS unconditional love for me that I am most thankful for. Lets face it, without Jesus......we would not have the other things that we say we are thankful for since HE provided it all to us to begin with. Let's not forget what came first.
So we don't really need all the turkey, friends, and football to remind us to be thankful. We only need to remember that HE loves us..........HE provides for us.......and thankfully.....that is all we need.
Ok I will admit, the turkey and other stuff is pretty good too!
Strength, Honor, and more life!
SW
Why does it take a weird holiday where you cook more than you could possibly eat in one setting to remind us that we are to be thankful? Maybe there is something in turkey that is supposed to trigger the "thankful" hormone. Maybe it is the pumpkin pie. Maybe the combination of food, fellowship, and football is the combination.
Whatever it is......I suppose that it is a good thing that at least one day a year when we can stop and think about what we have and all that we should be thankful for. If it really is the turkey, then we should eat a portion every day shouldn't we!
I have so many things that I am thankful for. A wonderful wife, a great family, a home, a job, an awesome church, and friends to share life with. But most of all, I am thankful that in 1998, I came to know the Lord Jesus. And it is HIS unconditional love for me that I am most thankful for. Lets face it, without Jesus......we would not have the other things that we say we are thankful for since HE provided it all to us to begin with. Let's not forget what came first.
So we don't really need all the turkey, friends, and football to remind us to be thankful. We only need to remember that HE loves us..........HE provides for us.......and thankfully.....that is all we need.
Ok I will admit, the turkey and other stuff is pretty good too!
Strength, Honor, and more life!
SW
Saturday, November 12, 2011
More Life
Hello all.
I have been encouraged recently by my friend Viet to re-start my Blog to share my heart for what it means and looks like to have "More Life"in this world that we live in! If you are like me, you have struggled with (or currently are struggling with) what it means to experience the "full" life that Jesus speaks of in John 10:10.
"The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy....but I have come that they may have life and have it to the full".
If you are like me.....some days it seems like there is a heck of alot more stealing, killing, and destroying than there is "life". This world we live in is tough. There is nothing easy anymore is there? Most everything we hear is negative. Some days it seems everything is just too hard. The world wants us to dwell on the negative and take life from us each day. Am I the only one or do you feel that way sometimes? As Pastor Derwin Gray asked today at TC...."How many of us live life and still miss life?" Man, when he said that.......I could relate. I have gone through seasons in my life where I was living life but was not experiencing life! Seasons where life seemed to be a movie and I was just a person in the theater watching, wondering what the heck was gonna happen next.
But I have realized (and experienced) that we all have the opportunity to experience "more life" each and every day. We really can. It is available to us if we choose it. It is there for the taking. All we have to do is choose. We have to choose to live each day instead just "surviving" and being one day closer to dying. We have to choose to allow ourselves to really experience "life" while we live.
So how do we do that? Even though our circumstances and the enemy tell us different, it really is a simple choice. We must choose to show up and allow the Spirit to work through us. We have to choose to be a conduit of life. We have to choose to give our self up and allow the Lord to work through us. We have to choose Life through Him first. When we do this......we allow the God to use us at the catalyst that we are intended to be. We allow Him to use us for His purpose. Not ours. And in return.....guess what....we experience the abundant life that Jesus describes. Today. Not just when we die. And by experiencing for ourselves, we become conscious of it when it is happening around us. My beautiful bride (Lou) described it great yesterday when we were Uptown and walking along the sidewalk towards a coffee shop. The group that we were with (and myself) had walked ahead and were waiting as my daughter Ellie (who is 7) had decided that rather than walking on the sidewalk, she was going to climb the wall next to it and climb along the wrought iron fence, picket by picket, to the end where we were waiting. As Lou and Ellie finally approached (which seemed forever)......Lou said....."Sometimes we are in such a hurry to get to where we are going that we miss the life that there is along the way." Wow....is she right. Sometimes we miss the life along the path that we are on don't we. Thank God my wife slowed down enough to enjoy our little girl climbing along that fence and having a blast doing it. So simple yet so hard. Know what I mean? I was reminded that Life is not complicated.....we just make it that way.
I started this Blog as a way to help all of us see what More Life looks like in this world. Today. Some days it may be scripture, other days it might be stories, other day's it may be best described by what it doesn't look like. Regardless, I hope to instill hope and encouragement for those that might take the time to read it. I know at the least, it will bring me More Life by writing it. And that is enough reason to do it.
Until next time.
Strength and Honor.
SW
I have been encouraged recently by my friend Viet to re-start my Blog to share my heart for what it means and looks like to have "More Life"in this world that we live in! If you are like me, you have struggled with (or currently are struggling with) what it means to experience the "full" life that Jesus speaks of in John 10:10.
"The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy....but I have come that they may have life and have it to the full".
If you are like me.....some days it seems like there is a heck of alot more stealing, killing, and destroying than there is "life". This world we live in is tough. There is nothing easy anymore is there? Most everything we hear is negative. Some days it seems everything is just too hard. The world wants us to dwell on the negative and take life from us each day. Am I the only one or do you feel that way sometimes? As Pastor Derwin Gray asked today at TC...."How many of us live life and still miss life?" Man, when he said that.......I could relate. I have gone through seasons in my life where I was living life but was not experiencing life! Seasons where life seemed to be a movie and I was just a person in the theater watching, wondering what the heck was gonna happen next.
But I have realized (and experienced) that we all have the opportunity to experience "more life" each and every day. We really can. It is available to us if we choose it. It is there for the taking. All we have to do is choose. We have to choose to live each day instead just "surviving" and being one day closer to dying. We have to choose to allow ourselves to really experience "life" while we live.
So how do we do that? Even though our circumstances and the enemy tell us different, it really is a simple choice. We must choose to show up and allow the Spirit to work through us. We have to choose to be a conduit of life. We have to choose to give our self up and allow the Lord to work through us. We have to choose Life through Him first. When we do this......we allow the God to use us at the catalyst that we are intended to be. We allow Him to use us for His purpose. Not ours. And in return.....guess what....we experience the abundant life that Jesus describes. Today. Not just when we die. And by experiencing for ourselves, we become conscious of it when it is happening around us. My beautiful bride (Lou) described it great yesterday when we were Uptown and walking along the sidewalk towards a coffee shop. The group that we were with (and myself) had walked ahead and were waiting as my daughter Ellie (who is 7) had decided that rather than walking on the sidewalk, she was going to climb the wall next to it and climb along the wrought iron fence, picket by picket, to the end where we were waiting. As Lou and Ellie finally approached (which seemed forever)......Lou said....."Sometimes we are in such a hurry to get to where we are going that we miss the life that there is along the way." Wow....is she right. Sometimes we miss the life along the path that we are on don't we. Thank God my wife slowed down enough to enjoy our little girl climbing along that fence and having a blast doing it. So simple yet so hard. Know what I mean? I was reminded that Life is not complicated.....we just make it that way.
I started this Blog as a way to help all of us see what More Life looks like in this world. Today. Some days it may be scripture, other days it might be stories, other day's it may be best described by what it doesn't look like. Regardless, I hope to instill hope and encouragement for those that might take the time to read it. I know at the least, it will bring me More Life by writing it. And that is enough reason to do it.
Until next time.
Strength and Honor.
SW
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