ignorance-in-business-unethical

Did you know that God keeps a record of our sorrows and He records our tears?

Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll, are they not in your record?

Psalm 56:8

Did you know that God keeps a record of those who fear him and honor his name?

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. Malachi 3:16

 

Did you know that God judges our secrets?

On that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Romans 2:16

Did you know that God knows the number of hairs on your head?

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.  Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Luke 12:7

OK…so maybe I went a bit overboard with scriptures on this post but only because these particular verses hit a little closer to home than most do because many of us are just going about our lives living in our own bliss right? Why do I say it this way? Because if any of us actually think we are going to skate underneath Gods radar because we consider ourselves good guys and we never really get into trouble or create problems? If you are someone who thinks because of that you will get to cruise right up into heaven?

I have some bad news for you…

For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord, and He examines all of his paths. The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

Proverbs 5: 21-23

Guys, simply put…Ignorance is not bliss…just because you may NOT spend time thinking about God doesn’t mean He isn’t thinking about you. He pays attention to everything you do, everything you think and everything you say and for anyone to think otherwise is foolish…or at least living in ignorance. He made you in His image and because He is God, He is completely in touch and connected to everything about you…EVEN IF YOU DON’T THINK SO.

Your secrets are NOT secrets to God.

You are NOT the only one who knows your deep personal thoughts.                                             ignorance-is-bliss

God knows them too…

I hope this post is not the first time you are hearing that God knows what you are and who you are? Because if it is…well…that knowledge does tend to change the way you handle what you are thinking about and your deep secrets…or at least it should.

My point is this: because there is a God is out there who actually cares enough to number the hairs on your head, or who pays attention to just you, or keeps a record of your tears…Honestly guys, that is the kind of God you should look into further. Where else on this earth would anyone care like that? Short answer…nowhere. No one on this earth can know as much about YOU as He does…

Please don’t ignore what I am telling you today.

My simple recommendation…instead of living in denial that He doesn’t know anything about you or that all of the verses I quoted above don’t apply to you…

Instead…try calling upon His name, Jesus Christ, in order to change your direction.

Trust me on this one guys.

In the end, Ignorance of God and His ways will NOT be bliss…

Until next time guys…

believe_nischala

I know that a great deal has been written about Abraham, the patriarch of the Old Testament and honestly far more than I could ever begin to convey in a single blog post. The same thing can be said about how many times you or I have heard someone speak about this Abraham in our lifetimes. He is not only important to the Christian faith, but also to Muslims as well because he was the father of Ismael, who as it mentions in Genesis 16:12, was against everyone.

This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; he will live at odds with all his brothers.

Interesting verse, isn’t it? But let’s get back to Abraham because he does something in his lifetime that caused God to award him with status that I know all of us would give anything to have. God saw something very different in Abraham that gave Him confidence in knowing that He could essentially start over with the Jewish nation. Abraham was special in the eyes of God and that has always struck me…what made him different? What did he do that would cause the Creator to think in his mind, “that is my guy”? “He is the one I am going to work with” “I am gambling on him”.

When you read about Abraham you can see right away that he is a doer. He is a man of action when the situation calls for this. He wrestled with God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He rescued his nephew Lot and his family when they were captured. But what I found most interesting with the story of Abraham is that “doing” is not what caused God to find so intriguing about him…it was Abrahams “believing” that actually moved God. In fact, the verse in the center of this post is what made me write this in the first place is in Genesis:

Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:12

Think about this for a moment…for the very first time in the Bible, we see faith and righteousness mentioned together. Why is this so important? Because of this statement:

By Abraham just simply believing in God…down deep his heart, God gave him a right standing or a “different” standing with Him.

Abraham’s heart was turned toward God in an enduring trust, obedience and submissive relationship. Because of that rock solid belief, it changed his status with the Creator of this universe. Abraham didn’t conquer the greatest army in the world or climb the highest mountain…all he did was believe, and that belief caused his position with God…to be BETTER.

Guys, in almost every post I have ever written here on IronManStrength, I have expressed the fact that living in this imagesworld, as a Christian, is not an easy road. I don’t say that to depress you, I say it to encourage you because of the amazing journey we are all on together. What I find extremely encouraging about the story of Abraham is simply the fact that even though what he saw in front of him was contrary to what God told him…He still believed. Here was a guy who was told his offspring would out number the stars and this would all begin with his very own son…and he was over 100 years old and his wife was a ripe young 95…but, guess what? He still believed…

Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”  He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then the Lord said to him, “So shall your offspring be. Genesis 15: 4-5

Guys, hear me out for a second…how does this really apply to you? How does the story of some old guy who lived over 2000 years ago make a difference to any of us right now? It’s simple really…

Abraham had problems – we have problems

Abraham had struggles – we have struggles

Abraham had family issues – all of us have family issues

God spoke to Abraham – God can speak to us

The difference:

ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD

Not lip service…but real belief…that is truly what it comes down to guy’s…actual belief that God can do what He says He can.

When you believe God inside your core that He can be trusted…your relationship with Him changes. When you are obedient and submissive toward God and not allow that arrogance inside all of us to show through…things will change.

I encourage you to take your own belief to the next level by trusting God.

Establish a “right standing” with Him…

Do you Believe?

Until next time guys…

 

 

 

 

Marketing Plan

Has anyone ever accused you of over thinking an idea or a plan? Maybe you were looking at something at work and you analyzed it so deeply that you lost the point in the first place? I am referring to the condition of “paralysis by analysis” sound familiar?

I was recently reading in Luke’s gospel where Christ pushed the disciples out of the proverbial nest and sent them out to spread His gospel and heal the sick in order for Him to determine if they actually learned anything because of the time spent with Him. I think the most interesting portion of these few verses was the fact that God didn’t send his disciples out with the Christian Marketing Plan or lets say, a better planned journey? No, that was not His way. Instead, He sent them out with empty hands.

 

Jesus called the Twelve together. He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to heal sicknesses. Then he sent them out to preach about God’s kingdom and to heal those who were sick.

He told them, “Don’t take anything for the journey. Do not take a walking stick or a bag. Do not take any bread, money or extra clothes. When you are invited into a house, stay there until you leave town. Some people may not welcome you. If they don’t, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town. This will be a witness against the people living there.”

So the Twelve left. They went from village to village. They preached the good news and healed people everywhere. Luke 9:1-6 NIV

 

Why would Christ ask His disciples to begin ministry this way? Why would He specifically send his disciples out and tell them NOT to bring anything, or pack anything, but rather just go? He gave them advice and then told them to depart. He didn’t send them to classes or make them read and test out on the basic tenants of the gospel. He also didn’t load them up with the 5 steps to salvation books.

Does that sound like a great marketing plan for spreading the gospel to you?

Well, that’s the interesting part because to you and me, Christ’s marketing plan doesn’t look like much of anything that would ever succeed, let alone thrive for a couple thousand years. But as I have mentioned here before in this blog, God does not think like you and me. Christ had a very different idea in mind for His disciples while out on the road. He didn’t want them to over think any planning or preparation for this journey but rather fully rely upon Him for the strength. He didn’t want them to focus on the worry that comes from planning the itinerary, but rather focus entirely on Him for guidance.

If I were to analyze myself, I would say I’m a guy who is proactive and more of a planner than not…I do tend to spend certain amounts of my time in preparation for whatever challenge I’m about to take on and I would also say that in some cases, I probably do over think and over plan more than I should.

Now, please don’t misunderstand me here. Christ is NOT coming down on planning or planners like you and me, but rather he’s making a distinction between the “action” versus the “preparation”. In reality, all of us, during any planning process can over think something and then experience the aforementioned paralysis by analysis.

My point is simple, when it comes to just getting out there and doing something or saying something for Him,

Christ’s plan for us is very simple;

JUST DO IT…

Don’t hesitate

Don’t plan

Don’t worry

Just do

All He wants is your “doing”.

Our only job is to trust in Him exclusively and rely upon Him to take care of our needs by providing us the necessary words when we are required to speak. That is exactly the same advice He gave to his disciples.

He just told them to go with the clothes on their back and their empty hands.

To some of you who will read what I am saying you will think this is absolute craziness. There is NO way you would or could ever consider anything I am writing here. Without a plan, it is NOT happening…

Sounds like you may be paralyzed?

All I am asking from you is to just think about the real Christian Marketing Plan…

When the opportunities present themselves…just go…just speak…and He will take care of the rest…

 

Until next time guys…

 

you-decide

When was the last time you stood your ground in a right vs. wrong argument? (And guys, I am not referring to an argument with your spouse) I am talking about when you may have faced a situation where either Gods reputation or yours was on the line and the only one present to defend this situation was you…then what? It will undoubtedly take courage on your part but isn’t strength and courage what you are about?

Stoddard Kennedy was a chaplain in WWII. He was often thrust into the front lines of the battle, ministering in places of great danger to his life. One day, as his battalion was moving through France, he wrote a letter to his son, who was about 10 years old. This is what he wrote him;

The first prayer I want my son to learn to say for me is not God, keep Daddy safe but, God, make Daddy brave. And if he has hard things to do, make him strong to do them.

Son, life and death don’t matter. But right and wrong do. Daddy dead is Daddy still, but Daddy dishonored before God is something to awful for words. I suppose you would like to put a bit in about safety too, and Mother would like that, I’m sure. We’ll put that in afterwards, for it really doesn’t matter nearly as much as doing what is right.

This man had a strong foundation about right and wrong and in very few words, conveyed these strong principles to his young son. Why would this man feel this way? “Daddy dishonored before God is something to awful for words” do you believe that for yourself? Do you, or anyone you know, believe this way? Why does it matter anyway?

Because of this simple reason:

If you are a disciple of Christ and you believe that He is the Lord of your life, then simple principles of right and wrong are the foundation your faith is built upon. Listen to the words of Joshua, the famous Jewish warrior as he addressed the children of Israel:

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day who you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24:15

Just like Stoddard Kennedy, Joshua made a huge stand in front of the entire nation of Israel and simply said, “MAKE A CHOICE!, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” In both of these examples, the person took a stand, and followed what they knew in their heart was right…following God.

One of the greatest examples of standing strong in the face of sure death is the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3:16-18, who would not bow down to the idol set up by the king for every one to worship. If you remember the story, because they would not bow down to that idol, they were thrown into the fiery furnace but they were not killed. In fact, when they came out, there was no smell of flame on them.

Standing in front of certain death, these young men stood and did what was right in the eyes of God and he rewarded them with their lives and ultimately, King Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed that no one in the kingdom can speak wrongly about the God of Israel.

Guys, I want to leave you with this final verse so you can understand that if you decide NOT to take a stand in your life, God also took this into consideration as well when James said:

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:6

Do not waver. God is very clear on this. Take a stand for yourself and your family and then stick to it. Be strong and be clear who you serve…otherwise you will be like that wave of the sea…tossed back and forth…with NO SOLID GROUND…

 

Until next time Guys…

 

 

horseplay-with-dad

A couple of years ago, I recall my 10-year old son asked me a very interesting question that caused me to think about the person I am and the roots where I came from. He said, “Dad, do you think you and I would have been friends if you were younger”? I was kind of taken aback for a second because I was recalling I was kind of a jerk when I was a kid…My response back to him was very quick to say “absolutely, I know we would have been friends”…but in my mind I thought, would we?

Another time, I was over at a friend’s house picking up the very same son from a sleep over and the mother pulled me aside to tell me that my little boy was adamant that when he went to bed, that he be allowed to sleep without his shirt on because that is how his Dad sleeps. She thought that was great…I stood there in amazement thinking my little man is watching me all the time…

I don’t tell you these stories to get the “Ahhh” effect; I tell them to remind you that your children are watching you and me…24/7 and what you say and do now…well, in a couple of years they will also say and do the very same thing…are you are ok with that?

Look guys, let me say it this way, as someone who has lost an older child I know I have a different perspective than most of you causing me to be far more focused on the time I have with my kids because as I found out, you never know when that time will end. I can tell you this first hand, don’t be left wishing you would have said something or did something different, because that feeling sucks…

dad-son-flyingBut if I were to narrow in on your perspective right now, where do you spend most of your time? Are you focused on your hobbies or your business first?, versus your family? It’s a pretty simple question to answer and frankly, not anything you haven’t heard before from someone else or maybe even this blog. The question is, do you understand at your core, what your true legacy will be when you leave this earth? I assure you it will not be all the time you spent at work or at play…It will be the family you helped create and what kind of people they grew up to be…

Guys, I can’t stress that fact enough. Your legacy is NOT your work but your children. Everybody will forget what you did rather quickly, but they won’t forget the people you made and the impact they ultimately had on other people.

I know you know this so I won’t beat this drum forever. Take some time and be the Dad your kids need you to be. Just hang out with them and make them laugh…those can be some of the best times ever and its so easy…you have it in you, I know you do…you just need to let that fun guy out again.

Honestly, this is probably one of the simplest posts I have ever done which stands to reason as to how easy this one is to complete in your own life. TRULY, what I am telling you is NOT rocket science, it’s just Dad Stuff

Until next time guys…

perseverence

I was walking through our plant the other day and noticed an employee really struggling with a machine he was trying to operate. This guy was working hard, sweating and really under some pressure but what I found strange was his boss was nowhere to be found? As I surveyed the area closely, my eye came across his supervisor far off in a corner…almost hidden. When I went to see what he was doing, he told me he had his eye on this guy from a distance and he wanted to see how this young man would handle this equipment problem on his own. I turned around and looked back at the employee again with his head underneath the machine trying desperately to get the thing to run right and then I looked back at the supervisor…Clearly he noticed the look on my face and he said, “this is the kind of problem that can produce perseverance in someone”. I said, “perseverance?” where did that come from?” He said, “I have been doing this a long time…In my younger days, I would run right over right and help the newbies every time they needed help…but I learned over time, this method really didn’t help them…What they needed was to persevere through the problem until they figured out the solution on their own, then they became the kind of operator I wanted working for me”. I said, “Very impressive…and I agree with you”. But of course, that got me thinking about his lesson to this young man. So I went to the dictionary and I found the word; perseverance:

Continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition.

Wow…I know the word and I use the word all the time but when I saw what it meant, I was kind of shocked. Perseverance was the word that was meant for our Iron Sharpens Iron blog audience…this is the foundation we are built upon because perseverance is exactly what God wants Christian men to have…a little fortitude…a little toughness and a whole lot of perseverance.

Even more important, God has something to say on this subject and I found the scripture to back this up for us:

Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2-4

So now it makes perfect sense right? Do you remember that poor guy at the beginning of my post that was struggling mightily to get that piece of equipment to run? Well ultimately… he was successful and that success has made him a better employee…all because of the simple test his boss put him through…but I will point out one key point here…

HE DID NOT GIVE UP…He kept at it, even though it was hard…

And that is why God tells us that the testing of our faith produces perseverance. He already knew before you were made all of the various predicaments you were going to find yourself in that ultimately would be opportunities to show that you can “get up off of the mat” when you are knocked down. So don’t just lay there…get up!

If you are a Christian, you will be tested. If you are tested, then hang in there because you just read a few lines ago that this same testing and adversity will produce a character quality that is huge for you…perseverance…

Because when you finally achieve the ability to keep on, keeping on, in other words, perseverance. God will truly look down from heaven and smile on you…why?

Because He understands everything YOU went through to get there and He admires the person you became as a result…

Let me leave you with this verse:

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

James 1:12

Until next time Guys…

HIDING_toppick_crop

I recently watched the major motion picture “Gods Not Dead” where the plot was a bitter college professor who tried to push all of his freshman students to proclaim that God is dead before his class would begin each semester. He asked that each of them write, “God is dead” on a sheet of paper, then sign it, and turn it into him. In the story, one of his incoming freshman students could not do this because of his faith, which prompted this angry professor to challenge him to prove the existence of God.

From a Christian perspective, I thought the apologetics were very powerful in the movie and frankly refreshing to hear. Moreover, to understand that this was a movie released to the masses in secular theaters was very exciting to see in this current day. But if you know me and have read this blog, you know that something stood out above all else when I watched this film…and that was the verses quoted below from Matthew 10:32-33 in which Christ said,

“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”

Guys, this one hit me like a brick in the head because I know, like you, I am surrounded by hidden Christians who never say anything to anyone about their faith. For those of you who are a light in this world, this post isn’t for you. This particular one is for the rest of us Christian guys who exist in silence before one another and before the almighty God. I am speaking to those who go about their days focused on their “busy-ness” with the light that is supposedly inside of them, is hidden deep inside where no one can see.

My point is that our God is real, no matter how you and I feel about Him, and in my mind I believe that as each day passes, is one more day we will never get back again. For Christians, God continually places opportunities in front of us to share and be an influence for Him…no matter where we are…These are chances just for us. For you and me. They can be opportunities to just say an encouraging word or something more…

Guys…God never intended for you to be undercover. You are not a spy for Christ in this world; you are one of His disciples and its time for you to be a voice for Him rather than silent. I am NOT trying to guilt you or scare you but Christ’s words are very clear in the verse above… But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

Please…please think about those words. They are for you and for me…Do not find yourself in that position someday…

Until next time Guys…

Sin-archery

All of us have had friends or even family that chose to go a different way other than Christianity and for those people in our lives, we continue to pray that they will someday soon, see the light that is waiting for them…In today’s post, I want you to focus on that choice they made and why they made it? Here is what I mean; what was so attractive about sin that made them change their course in life and move towards it, rather than Christ? Now you say, “they didn’t choose sin, they chose (insert choice here)” In reality though, if you did not choose Christ, then you did choose sin. Here is why I think that way…

I have titled today’s post Sins Destructive Purpose because I wanted you to have a better understanding through symbolism, of what sin is and what sin does…

What Sin is:

Sin is dark, Sin is thick, and Sin is dense

In my real life, I work with ink in the printing world and there we have what we call regular black ink we use all the time, but we also have something called dense black for specific applications. Dense black is filled with an overabundance of black pigment to make it ultra-black and highly opaque. You cannot see through dense black and therefore, light cannot pass through. One more point, if you get dense black on your hands, it doesn’t clean off…it takes several times of cleaning to lose the severe stain it leaves.

Please understand that sin is the same way, it’s filled with the darkness of the worst kind and it has a disgusting ability to stick to us. In fact, it’s like dense black like I mentioned above, because even when just a small amount gets on you, sin just doesn’t come off.

Sin has an Odor

Without being completely disgusting, you can think of the worst experience you have ever had that involves smell…road kill, skunk, changing a diaper…the smell of sin is far beyond our ability to imagine. It infects, permeates, and overwhelms an environment like nothing else. Sin is a “senses overwhelming” experience…that CANNOT be hidden. If sin is near, and you are tuned into its presence as a Christian, it cannot hide. However, believe this or not, the stink of sin is attractive at some point…otherwise why would so many people go that way?

What Sin does:

Sin is Alive

Sin is a disease that understands you…and you are a fool if you think otherwise…sin is driven to destroy. Sin’s only purpose is destruction. Satan is behind sin…he controls its desire to seek, hunt, and attack and YOU are in his crosshairs. When you move, it moves. When you think…it stops to wait to see what you are going to do…then it reacts. Sin is the ultimate in negative interactivity…

Guys, After reading the above, you probably feel like you need to take a shower but I felt impressed today to share the reality of what sin really is so you are prepared for defense. The bottom line is right now, you have the same sin as I described above, in you or on you and if you don’t do something about it, well, I think you know what ultimately will happen.

Let me briefly share with you an experience that Christ had and how it moved him when he encountered sin. There is a story in the New Testament about a friend of Christ that was ill and then died shortly after that. His name was Lazarus. Jesus was in another city and when he got word of his friend’s illness, he delayed another two days before leaving (you will have to read the story to understand why he did this) but when Jesus did arrive, he encountered a great deal of sadness and weeping people that leads us to the verse I want to share with you:

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. John 11:33

In this instance, why was Jesus so deeply moved in spirit and troubled? After looking into this further, I found that Jesus was grieved and angered by all the misery resulting from sin, Satan, and death.

The anguish He saw around him saddened him greatly, but it actually made Him angry even more. Jesus hates sin for all of the reasons I showed you above because of what it does to you and me…He hates sin. And guess what? He wants you to hate sin as well…Look at Hebrews 1:9;

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”

I am not going to leave you hanging though…sin can be defeated through the redeeming power of what Christ did on the cross. All of the nastiness I described above can be wiped away by simply submitting to Christ’s plan for you and most importantly, asking for forgiveness…

Today’s title was Sins Destructive Purpose; which means, God has a plan for you, but so does Satan and for any of us to think otherwise is certain death. Guys, I care about you enough to be truthful to you and to share what I think is important for you in your own spiritual lives. Satan seeks to devour and God seeks to save…is sin really that attractive when you know what happens at the end of life’s story?

You get to make the choice…

I choose to eternal life…what say you?

Until next time guys.

responsibility

Responsibility. Have you ever considered where it comes from? Is it an inherited trait we get from our parents or grand parents? Is it inside of our ancestral DNA? Why do some people “feel” responsibility and others do not? Why do some kids learn it and others do not? Why do some adults learn it and other do not? Responsibility. It’s not a difficult word but it can be even more difficult to carry out. Webster defines responsibility as:

The state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one’s power, control or management.

This is my definition:

Responsibility is doing something we don’t want to do at a time when we don’t want to do it…but we do it anyway.

All I know is it seems to be lacking in this world today and I would like to know where it went? You see in my mind, without responsibility what we know and love is changing into something we don’t know and won’t love. Now I know that responsibility is not the only characteristic that is missing or fading in this world today but it’s on my mind and I wanted to write about it to kind of get it off of my chest.

Like you maybe, I wasn’t born into riches…I wasn’t poor either but yet I was taught to take care of what I had and make it last. I was taught to pick up after myself, eat everything on my plate and most importantly, make sure those daily chores were finished before I got to do anything I wanted to do…Hmmmm…I guess I was taught to be responsible.

Now I will tell you that this post isn’t a knock on parenting or those various skill sets that some of us have and some of us don’t…this is a comment on values, and what we all think is important to cultivate in our family. In my opinion, responsibility is a value that is critical for not only for family peace, but success in life.

I had someone tell me the other day that what I was asking him to do “was not his job”. I informed him that this particular task is ALL of our responsibility…everyone who works here must participate in this task for this company to be successful. He just looked at me like I was an alien.

Is that really what we’ve come to as a society where responsibility is as foreign to us as the Edsel automobile from years ago? (Seriously, Google…Edsel) Look…I am NOT a self-help guy where I will give you a 5 step program to get responsibility back into your lives…that is NOT what this post is about. All I want you to do is to think about…does this matter to you? Is responsibility important to you or your wife? Do you want it to be important to your children? If the answer is yes, I am simply suggesting you act by trying to put up some “responsibility guardrails” in your life for you and your family…right now.

I can guarantee that you will be glad you did…and so will your kids…although they probably wont tell you that…

Until next time guys…

 

 

 

reset_button-scaled500

We recently finished a very successful Little League season that had us advancing to and winning our local city tournament. After a 24-game season and then a tournament where we faced 6 more local teams…to actually win first place, was very gratifying…

But I have to be honest it wasn’t always that way.

This season provided many of the normal low points that most seasons typically do with one exception; as a team, we discovered something we dislike universally…playing badly. But even more important, we discovered a way to stop this team from “falling off the cliff”. Honestly, this one simple moment truly saved us from being one of the worst teams into being one of the best.

I remember the actual game and frankly, the one particular inning where we literally could not do anything right. We could NOT get an out to save ourselves…hit after hit and run after run, we could not stop this train from certain destruction. When we finally hit the 10-run threshold and to many errors to count, I told the other coach “let me go talk to them”…he mumbled something completely incoherent because I honestly think he was in shock.

As I walked to the mound, I called the entire team over for a conversation. As I stared into those 11-12 year old boys faces, I saw tears and I saw anger but most of all I saw hopelessness. They literally had given up the thought they could do anything right. They were so upset and had completely lost their direction…does this sound familiar to anyone?

I told them “Guys, you are so much better than what I see here today. We have practiced these plays over and over again…frankly, to many times to count”.

“Here is what I want you to do, in this game right now…I want you to hit the reset button inside of you. From urlthis point on, we are starting this game over. We are playing from the beginning again…We are resetting”.

They all looked at me like I was crazy. Our shortstop Tyler spoke up and asked, “what do you mean coach?” “How do we reset?” I told him, “When you reset something, it clears the past or the previous from affecting the future”. Everything that has happened in this game is now over. We are each going to reset and focus on the next play, our next at bat and all of us are going to try our hardest to get out of this inning”

Our catcher chimed in at this point, “come on guys, we can do this, we have to reset. We have to hit the reset button”

So here is what I will tell you, we did not win that game. But we did get out of that nasty inning without giving up another run. More importantly however, the next time we had the beginnings of another poor inning, our catcher pulled the infield together and gave them the reset speech…and guess what, it worked…

As you can imagine, that simple life lesson got me thinking about you guys and the painful 10-run bad inning equivalents we have in our own lives. News flash: sometimes life hurts and it does NOT go our way. In fact, I firmly believe there are many of you right now reading this that are having a very hard time for a variety of reasons and frankly are just looking for some hope. Guys, I am not going to insult your intelligence by saying to just hit your internal reset button and everything will magically get better. We all know that is not the way anything in this life works.

What I will tell you though is if you hit the reset button with God…that will work.

Right now, God is patiently waiting for you to run to Him. He is not the God who will write in the sky, “Hey (your name here)…call me now and let’s fix this” we know He doesn’t work that way. Our God has a still, soft voice that is always calling…we are just too loud or too busy to hear Him.

Guys…today…take my challenge to you…

Hit the reset button with God by praying this prayer right now:

“God…things are not going well right now and I need you to help. Humbly I ask that you take over my life and cause me to reset my relationship with you. I can’t do this on my own. I need you to direct my steps and make my paths straight.

God, I trust in you and I believe in you and no matter what happens, I know you are in control. Please use your Holy Spirit to help guide me during difficult times and thank you for what you are doing for me right now”…

If you prayed that prayer and believe you hit the reset button with Him, I could not be any happier…congratulations. I would also ask that you leave me a note on this blog if you prayed that prayer. This blog has always been about encouragement and knowing you hit your reset with Him is very encouraging to me…

Until next time guys…