Define; Great?

I am having a hard time defining great. Yeah, I know but great just doesn't seem that great anymore. It appears more and more like good is masquarading around saying it is great when it really isn't. What is even worse is people are beginning to recognize good as great and it is really starting to upset me. So I tried to put some limits on great but found that great had no limits and then I tried to put some standards on good and found out good has no standards either. It seems what some would say is good, others call it great, and still others call it bad.

So I told someone we had a great service. Well we did, the Spirit of GOD was moving and challenging lives, we were basking in the presence of GOD and I left thinking we had a great service. But what accounts for a great service? Is the presence of GOD the clincher? Well then I have had great services in the car and in the shower before. Is it when someone gives their life to GOD? Well we have had dull services that people have responded, and we have had great (there I go again) good services that people have not responded.
So I am needing some help in defining great. Abraham Lincoln said the enemy of great is not bad, it is good.
Lord, help me be great for you. Help me be great for the people I lead and teach. Lord help me be great for the kingdom.
And make me really good at golf, because other than Tiger, it seems no one is near great.

Are you up to the Challenge?

Challenges are all around us. Some are dealing with financial challenges, others with physical challenges, still others with challenges of other natures. But one thing is certain, we will have to deal with challenges in our lives.
Most people look at a challenge as a negative. But I am choosing to look at a challenge as a positive. It is when we are challenged that we rise up. We might not rise high enough to get above that challenge we face, but we do indeed rise up to meet it. So we are definately higher than when we first started. Challenges should be faced, relished and if we do our absolute best, respected as they bring out the best, or the worst in us.
It is when the worse is brought out, when a challenge is failed. I may challenge myself to run a marathon in under 6 hours. If I ran a marathon in 8 hours have I failed? Well I did not meet my goal but I did finish the marathon. It is a matter of perspective.
So in this troubling time, are you up to the challenge to keep your perspective on the positive side?

dealing with disappointments...

You know I was thinking the other day that life would be so much better if we were never disappointed. If everything went exactly how we wanted wouldn't the world be a better place?
I mean what if everything we ever tried to do came off without a hitch? Learn to play the guitar, be a computer genius, make a bundle of dough on Wall Street, make some great dough and be a great chef, start a new business, whatever we decided to do, instantaneously we become really good at it. Wouldn't that be great?
Well I have come to realize that it would not be so good. For you see we would not have to work for anything, it would all just happen naturally. We would not have to practice, it would just automatically happen without hours and hours of hard work. What good would it be then to be able to play the guitar? You could not impress your friends because they too could play like you in two easy lessons. You could not impress anyone with your computer skills, because everyone could be a computer genius.
The differences in people are what makes us unique and our disappointments shape our differences. There are things that I get disappointed in all the time that do not work like I would like them to, but through those disappointments I am shaped and molded into the man I am today. Sometimes those disappointments lead to more effort on my part to get better. Sometimes those disappointments show me that what I am trying to do is really not in my "giftings" and I should look at other avenues. And sometimes disappointments are just that, disappointments which we should get over and move on.
So bring on the disappointments, not just all in one day...

Two steps forward and one step back...

Or is it, one step forward and two steps back. I am in the middle of a remodel project, and it seems that everything that I am doing has to be done over again each and every time because of some change that effects everything. By just changing a bathtub, I have had to change my framing, the flooring and a couple of other things to make it work.Life is kind of like that. By the choices that we make early in life, they affect us for a long time after as we keep having to fix things that were caused by those mistakes.I remember thinking that the decisions that I made as a young adult would not last forever. But how wrong I was, some of the decisions that I made still haunt me today. But thank GOD I did not do anything that really drastically affected my life like I have seen in the lives of others.So life is like remodeling a bathroom. It takes careful consideration, detailed planning and dilligent execution to make it all fit together and work.Now hand me that hammer, I got to make this thing fit...

Green Acres...

Is the place to be...

Farm livin' is the life for me...

Yep, got that song caught in my head. For that person who was singing that, I asked you please not to, because I knew what would happen.

Yep, I am driving home humming that theme song. So what to do? Watch the original Lone Ranger series on TV.

How different TV was back then. Everything was about honor and truth and justice. The Lone Ranger would only shoot to wound, not kill. Tonto was bound to his "Kimosabe" because his friend had saved him when he was a child and now Tonto returned the favor and became his side kick and friend.

You knew who the bad guys were, you knew who the good guys were and life was so much simpler...

Da Dada Dum Dada Dum dada dum dum!! The Lone Ranger, Hi Ho Silver AWAY!!

Our surroundings...

I witnessed a softball game yesterday that made me think about our surroundings. My daughter and her team had a home game scheduled, first of the season and we were talking about it during the weekend that it should be nice as the high was going to be in the 70s. Well it was around 10:30 then the tempature started to drop. By game time it was in the low 40s and the wind was howling out of the north about 20 miles an hour. Well you can guess it was a bit cold out there. Many of our girls were not prepared to play in cold weather, I heard over and over that it was not that cold this morning. We we played a sloppy game at the first, finally got into it in the last inning, tied it up and eventually lost in the 13th. Now here are my reflections on it.


1) Some of the girls were prepared for the cold. I don't know if they looked ahead or had stuff stashed in their car but they had the right equipment to play in the cold. As leaders of the Faith, we need to be prepared for everything and be aware of our surroundings, looking ahead and prepared for the things that might come.


2) Some of the girls ignored the cold, others did not. What I observed was that there were some girls who just forgot about how cold it was and played the game. What I noticed was these girls made the plays that they had to make, while the others that let the cold affect them failed to make the plays that they normally make. As leaders, we need to not let the conditions surrounding us affect how we perform. Conditions are going to change, that is part of life but our performance can still be at the highest level if we commit ourselves to it.


3) Strength comes in numbers. The first part of the game at least for our team it was every man (or girl in this case) for themselves. What I saw was that when they came into the dugout between innings, they were all individuals. Sitting or standing by themselves. By the 7th inning, when they came back to tie the game, they were so cold they started huddling together. It was pretty funny to see two or three girls all wrapped up in one blanket or sharing a coat or just standing side, by side, by side. All of the sudden instead of being a bunch of individuals, they were unified and I believe they drew strength from that. We draw strength from those around us, so when we are feeling down the last thing we should do is draw away from others, we should lean in and let them warm us up.

Chuck Norrisisms...

I am amazed at the things that I find funny that other people do not find funny at all. I was telling my wife yesterday these great ChucK (you have to spell his name with a capital K for KICK!!) Norrisisms that I thought were hillarious. My wife, well she looked at me like I was one of those special needs kids that ride the short bus...
I mean, "ChucK Norris doesn't fall in water and get wet, the water gets ChucK Norrised"
"the boogieman gets up in the middle of the night and checks his closet for ChucK Norris"
"Waldo is hiding because of ChucK Norris"
And my favorite.
"If you can see ChucK Norris, he can see you. If you can't see ChucK Norris, you may be just moments from Death!!"

So what is it that keeps a person's sense of humor from developing? Did they get to much Humorglanized milk growing up. Did they grow up around large eclectic plants? Did they not get enough kugs and hisses growing up?
I still think my wife's funny bone was broken when she was younger and it never got reset...
ChucK Norris probably roundhoused kicked her!

Greetings from Iowa

Wow,
It is flat, brown and not very pretty.
And it is a long way from home. But I am heading home today and am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and being in my own home.
Got me thinking about home...
Home is where you feel safe, where you feel comfortable. Home is where you can be yourself and share yourself with others.
Home is where all the cares of life can disappear, where the heart can soar.
Home is a place of anticipation of which I am waiting for.