Think About It

If Lou Gehrig is known for anything, it would be for being a winner. Gehrig was an incredible baseball player back in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He has a career .340 batting average, a .447 on base percentage, 493 home runs and 1995 runs batted in (despite often hitting behind Babe Ruth). He played in 2130 consecutive games and is in the baseball Hall of Fame. The guy was a gamer on the ball field, but maybe his greatest encounter was as he battled ALS (what has become known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). “The Iron Horse” would eventually die of the disease, but he didn’t go without a fight! I have grown up with legacy of this superstar, so I was rather intrigued when I read this quote, “I love to win; but I love to lose almost as much. I love the thrill of victory, and I also love the challenge of the defeat.”. It took me a couple of takes, but I think I understand the sentiment – it was being in the “game” that drove him. The thrill was in the contest – win or lose. Winning produce...

Look out your window – what do you see? Now, take another look out your window – what did you miss the first time? I believe that when we approach life we see what we expect to see and all too often, what we expect to see is bad. As I look out my window right now, I see traffic. Even though it is quite a ways away from me, the first thing I noticed was traffic. Yet, as I reset my expectations I can see flowers and trees and nature’s little critters running around. I see a beautiful sunny day with a light cooling breeze. Those things that exist outside our window is a matter of physical record, but what we see it entirely up to us. What would happen if we adjusted what we saw in life? Could we go from seeing a dysfunctional nation to an affluent free society? Could we go from seeing the trash on the side of the road to wildflowers that grow up over the top of it? Could we go from seeing people in need to seeing people doing acts of kindness? When we struggle with a bad attitu...

One of the more interesting books in the Old Testament is Judges. Not only is it full of very colorful stories, it provides us with an interesting look at life. Basically, the story told in Judges is simple: God’s people practice evil … God sends a hardship on them … the people repent … God sends them a deliverer … they clean up their act for a while … then, God’s people practice evil … God sends a hardship on them, etc. From a historic perspective, it seems pretty plain that the Israelites could have avoided a lot of heartache if they would have just done what was right in God’s sight; but they didn’t – so the merry-go-round kept spinning. As I thought about this the other day, I was reminded of another passage of scripture that states, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools …” (Romans 1:21-22). Does this sound familia...

A couple of weeks ago I was dealing with a physical malady. In all honesty, I didn’t feel bad and it really didn’t stop me from doing what I wanted to do – I just kind of felt bad and I was tired of it. I recently heard someone say that if you treat a cold, you will feel better in seven days – and if let it go untreated, you’ll get well in about a week. Honestly, as it turned out, that was pretty much what happened. I tried to medicate myself to help speed up the recovery, but I don’t know that it helped all that much. About a week after I started feel bad, I started feeling better. As I thought about this inconvenience, it reminded me of how tempting it is to try to do things as quickly as possible. We want to fix our issues fast – and we want to limit our exposure to inconvenience to as little as possible; however, for a lot of things in life, they just take time. We can try a lot of quick fixes, but often the thing that makes things better is time – and patience. There ...

Are you in the midst of a lot of drama? Does it seem like that is always contentious activities around you? Have you ever thought about why? The other day I was reading through the Old Testament book of Proverbs and I came across the observations, “For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no gossiper, quarreling quiets down. Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious person to kindle strife.” (Proverbs 26:20-21). As I thought about this presence of conflict in our lives I got to wondering how we can quiet it down. It appears that the easiest way to do it is to remove the catalyst. No, we may not be able to change the situation, but we might be able to extract the person that keeps things stirred up. If we want to enjoy more quiet time, we may have to make sure to surround ourselves with calmer people. However, what happens when that doesn’t work? Could it be that we are the stirrer? If everyone around appears to be on an even keel; but dra...

One of the things that I have noticed about growing older is that I am exposed to a lot more death. On the surface this might seem a bit odd, but when you think about it, it’s pretty understandable. First, the older I get the older my friends and acquaintances get – and the older they get, the more apt they are to die. Another reason for a higher number of deaths around me is the fact that the older I get, the more people I know and with that comes more exposure to death. I always thought it odd that older people talked a lot about sickness and death – now I understand it why. While being around death can be a challenge to us, it doesn’t mean that we are on our own to deal with it. In fact, Jesus seems to offer us hope early in His ministry by saying, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4). While this is a nice sentiment, have you ever thought about how this will be accomplished? I think the comfort promised by Jesus comes in a couple of forms. ...

What does it take to be successful in the world? If we are able to hold our own in an argument with people who disagree with us – will we be the winner? If we are able to embarrass those who think differently than we do – will we be victorious? If we are so committed to our principles that we are able outlast those who confront us – does that make us triumphant? While being proficient and tenacious can be beneficial, the thing that makes us impressive is what we believe. You see, being opinionated isn’t in-and-of itself important, it is holding the right beliefs. The early church was reminded, “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (I John 5:5). In essence, it isn’t how well we can express our opinions, it is developing a reliance on our Lord and Savior. Let’s not get too reliant on our ability to win. Let’s just make sure we are on the winning team. Think About It!