Think About It

          The other day I was reading a book by John C. Maxwell where he quoted another writer, Bob Moawad.  Maxwell’s book focuses on ... well, focus.  The concept is that if we are going to live successful lives, we must have a purposed life.  To demonstrate one of his points, Maxwell refers to Moawad’s observation, “Most people don’t aim too high and miss.  They aim too low and hit.”.  In essence, we have become deadly accurate in our mediocrity.  We don’t expect much from ourselves and we achieve it time and again.           As I reflected on this I kept coming back to the concept that “good enough” is “good enough” or as a friend of mine used to say, “If the minimum wasn’t good enough there wouldn’t be a minimum”.  The problem with setting a minimum standard and reaching it is that with each new effort we might be tempted to keep lowering the bar.  Since we are the ones ...

I am not much of a basketball fan, but even I get excited about this time of year.   March Madness is contagious – and this year is even more interesting for me because my alma mater, Abilene Christian University, is making their first appearance in the Big Dance.   (Those of you who attended ACU might find a bit of irony in that statement, but it is exciting nonetheless.)   The thing I enjoy about this part of the college basketball season is the presence of the longshots (I prefer to call them the “Davids’ in the field of NCAA Goliaths).   The chance of these lower seeds making it to the Final Four is slim, but for now – for a couple of days – hope springs eternal.   The odds don’t matter, the chance to participate does. As ponder this bit of Americana, it reminds me of another “Cinderella Story”, the beginning of the Kingdom of God.   The early church – who followed Someone perceived to be a martyred teacher – wasn’t given much of a chance at succes...

One of the troubling things I have found in today’s society might be called the “polarization phenomena”.   I am sure there is some other name for it, but it is a belief that to be true to our commitments we have to fervently choose one side or the other.   Through the years we have seen this in our sports teams (we like all of “our” players and will defend them no matter how poorly they perform or how bad they act), but this type of mindset has crept into more important things such as political agendas and moral beliefs.   The only way we can be true to our core beliefs is if we completely accept everyone who stands with us and shun anyone who isn’t as committed (radical) as our group.   For example, all liberals are good and all conservatives are bad (or visa-versa).   As such, only certain news networks are truthful, only certain spokespeople are reputable, only certain political parties (or sub-parties) are worthwhile.   Another example is that only th...

           Folks, I like Tim Tebow – I am not ashamed to admit that.  I realize that he was not be most polished football player and may not be the most talented baseball player, but as a person he has a lot going for him.  Tim has had to endure a lot of teasing because of his “good guy” image, but through it all he has managed to come out on top.            The other day I read an interesting leadership quote by him, “ When you try to be a role model, not everybody can relate to some of your highs - awards, championships. But everybody can relate to the lows. Everybody's gotten fired from a job or gotten cut. People learn more about you in those lows than they do in the highs.”.  For those of us who have watched Tebow’s life we tend to see his blessings, but in all honesty, the thing that makes him intriguing is how he has dealt with failures.  Whether it was public ridicule, an awkwa...

Do we have any unused Christmas parents laying around?  It is now the middle of March but if some of us looked we would probably find some Christmas gift still sitting in a closet or drawer.  We may have looked at it and we may have acknowledged our thanks to the giver, but we just haven’t done anything with it.  When we ignore these gifts (whether we are thankful or not) we are missing out on taking advantage of the joy or blessing the gift was meant to provide. The reason for this question is less related to Christmas than it is to Christ.  Before Jesus left the earth He told his disciples, “   Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” (John 14:27).  Wow, that sounds pretty cool doesn’t it?  Yet the problem is that many of us have not taken advantage of the gift of peace that Jesus has offered us!  We still find ourselves at odds wit...

          We live in a caustic, confrontive world – and honestly I think it is getting louder.  Today’s personalities coupled with the expansion of media outlets and the removal of social and emotional limiters have paved the way for an argumentative culture.  We are becoming more apt to ruffle people’s feathers than we are to smooth things over.  Even religion has the tendency to fall in this trap – and unfortunately Christians tend to be louder and more boisterous.  On one hand, we might be able to justify our argumentative style by saying we are “fighting fire with fire”, but is that what we are called to do?  The other day I came across a passage that instructed early Christians, “T o sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit;   not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very pur...

If you are like me you are finding all those old-school clocks that don’t have the capacity to automatically adjust to the time changes.   I have changed a few over the last couple of days, but I am sure there will be a few more in some out of the ordinary places that will be an hour off for the next few days (or weeks).   As I was changing one clock in my office I got to thinking how nice it might be to adjust the times in our lives as easily as it is to change our clocks.   Wouldn’t it be neat to fast forward through the tough times or go back in time and change some of the things from our past?   We all know that this isn’t possible, so how do we deal with living life in real time?   Here are a few suggestions: 1).   Practice forgiveness .   Whether it is forgiving others for wrongs they have committed against us or forgiving ourselves for the mistakes we have made, forgiveness (also known as “letting go and moving on”) can make a world of differ...