I need your support – "…because you matter!"

Let’s Talk About Loss!

You can win by losing. Really.

I, and some others are doing it. It is going to be fantastic for all of us.

My friend has crafted a plan by which about 24 of us can actually benefit from loss.

Of course, you guessed it; I’m talking about weight.

We will benefit physically, and a couple, maybe more, financially. We will lose and win after a six-month challenge. What could be better than, for the next six months, learning to live healthier, eat better and work out regularly? From where I sit, soon to be working out, I think that is a win.

Now, what about life?

How can you win from losing?

I think that there is a trick to it. Here it is. If you have to go through some tough stuff, make it pay! Don’t go through with complaint; go through with getting a wider angle, a larger reference, a shifted paradigm.

That’s how it works. You either let it wreck you for the bad, or you let it wreck you for the good.

I think that Andy Stanley said it, “Wisdom is simply the widest angle of perspective possible.”

So, if you are going to go “through it” at least get the wisdom, that is readily available, from it.

Then, and only then, you will win by losing.

So, let’s talk about loss!

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!

Attitude, Inconsistency

Inconsistency

So what do you do? What do you do when you find yourself being inconsistent?

I don’t have personal experience here, but others I’ve heard…Right? I’m sure each of us has had times when, being brutally honest, we don’t measure up to the exact measurements that we expect of ourselves. Yes?

Well, one tact is to pretend this is a problem for someone else and just move on. It’s the same idea of, “Don’t worry about where you are, just run faster.” Going faster might show great enthusiasm, but little to no reality for consistency. “But, if people see that I’m busy then they will respect me, honour me, love me…”

Then there is the honest way. I’m human, and I have the exact struggles that you have. Maybe I’m stronger in a given area, but I also am weaker, that’s right, I said weaker, in another.

The bottom line?

I guess I need to grow. I need to struggle to have life work well for me. I guess, “I guess I’m inconsistent.” There I said it.

Now I know where to work. Do you care to work with me?

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!

About Pain, Attitude

How Can Pain Be Good?

Dr. Paul Brand, leading doctor in the breakthrough study of Leprosy in the 70’s and 80’s credited the absence of pain as one of the main contributing problems of this disease. A lack of sensation causes a leprous person to damage their body unwittingly.

It occurs to me that some of us may have removed pain from our emotional docket. Because of incredible, at the time insurmountable hurt we thought it best to not ‘pain’ anymore. For many, that would seem to be a logical decision. Close off to hurt, close off to pain. It’s the childhood vow. “I will never let anyone get close to me again!” After a rape or abuse or extreme humiliation, who would?

Leprosy has done this in the ravage of its disease. It has stopped the pain mechanisms in the body over time of those affected and thus enabled the damage that we have seen in the pictures. Medically it has been battled and has dropped from worldwide millions in the 80’s to hundreds of thousands today. But I wonder how many millions perhaps billions of people have emotionally stopped feeling. How many impenetrable walls erected? How many blockades placed?

At the time, these looked like protection but have proved to be tactics of isolation and loneliness. Eliminating pain can be so damaging and destructive, life altering and sometimes ending.

Today, just for the moment, would you be willing to feel again? Would you be open to taking the path out of your past to begin new?

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!

Attitude, Secure with Who I Am

Those That ‘Have to Say,’ Aren’t (re-print from Blue Collar Theology)

Those that Have to Say, Aren’t.

Over my life, I have had the opportunity on a few occasions to know some very wealthy people. These people probably were able to travel every day to Texas and back to get their Starbucks, and not even feel it in their bank accounts.

During my time with them it didn’t stand out, but later while observing and conversing with others all of a sudden it reminded me of something that was missing with these wealthy friends.

It showed up as people who didn’t have that kind of wealth but wanted me to think that they did. They would constantly drop hints about how much they were making and how often they were spending and where their illustrious buys were landing them.

The extremely wealthy didn’t do that.

Why?

Because, they didn’t have to. The difference was that they had the money and goods. They didn’t need to concern themselves that I would know that. It didn’t matter, and they were secure without anyone giving their support.

I developed through this example a little axiom that I use now and cross many lines with it in my thinking.

“Only those who don’t have it have to flaunt it.” I’ve seen it hold true.

How does that play out in the area of spiritual life?

People who connect with God don’t have to let everyone else know that they do. They don’t have to drop hints like “In my prayers at 4:00 am this morning the Lord told me…” “God told me this, God told me that…” you get the picture. They aren’t just explaining, they are posturing and flaunting.

People who are connected with God and walk in the Spirit indeed do it. They don’t have to posture, they don’t have to prove it, they just do it. They are who they are, authentic and true. They know God and radiate him through their life.

So how about you? Do you just have to say, or, are you?