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Building A Dream Life

Why is it That We Don’t Think What We Have to Offer is Worth Anything?

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Even The Smallest of Things Can Make the Biggest Difference

Feeling that we have nothing to offer is the perspective of most people. God has given each of us a purpose to fulfill and when we don’t…we’re letting Him down.

We have this mindset that if we aren’t doing some huge earth-shattering thing that it isn’t important. This is s a lie.

This self-defeating perspective is something that Satan uses to keep us from fulfilling our God given mission.

The importance of small actions used for the right reason is made clear in Mark 12:38-44. Here Jesus explains this to His disciples when they watch the poor widow give everything she has to God, while the rich leaders, teachers and lawyers make a big spectacle by giving only a small portion of what they have to God. Their focus was on the wrong place.

This is about priority…not quantity.

In Matthew 6:19-24, we’re told that we cannot serve two masters. Where our focus is, that’s what is the most important to us. A priority is only one thing…not multiple things. It’s up to us to decide what that one, most important thing is going to be to us.

If we are faithful in our giving…God will use it to do amazing things.

Oseola McCarty was born in March of 1908 and moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi as a child. When she was in the sixth grade, her aunt (who had no children of her own) was hospitalized and later needed homecare, so McCarty quit school, never to return. She later became a washerwoman, like her grandmother, a trade that she continued until arthritis forced her to quit in 1994.

McCarty’s grandmother died in 1944, followed by her mother in 1964 and her aunt in 1967. McCarty never married or had children.

What she earned from washing clothes for others was not much, but she was faithful with it. Her focus was on the right thing.

Even before dropping out of school, McCarty was taught by her mother to save money. Over the years she opened several savings accounts at various area banks, eventually she appointed a trustee of her trust and executor of her estate.

With the assistance of a local attorney, for whom she had done laundry, and the bank’s trust officer, McCarty set out the future distribution of her estate. She set aside 10% for her church, 10% each for three relatives, and 60% for Southern Miss. University.

She stipulated that the funds should be used for students, preferably those of African American descent, who could not otherwise attend due to financial hardship. When news of McCarty’s plan was made public, local leaders immediately funded an endowment in her honor. The amount was estimated at $150,000.00, a surprising amount given her low paying occupation.

This small thing that Oseola did…made a huge difference in other’s lives.

God can make big things out of little one…if we’ll just give them to Him.

We all have talents and gifts. Give them to God and prepared to be amazed at what He does with them.

Big things are built out of small pieces.

 [SY1]??

What is True Love and What Does it Look Like?

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Life is Full of Difficulties, But Love Makes It Easier to Get Through Them

We all experience difficulties in life. Some are more severe than others. Sometimes these situations can suck us down into depression and we just want to hide under the covers and stay there.

This is how Naomi felt after their family moved because where they lived was experiencing a famine. Then after moving, her husband died. Her sons both married and then a few years later they died. This was a lot to handle.

Then Naomi heard that the famine was over. She still had family there…so she decided to move back. Her daughters-in-law decided to go with her. Naomi told them they would be better off staying there with their families. Ruth, one of the daughters-in-law was having none of it. She loved Naomi and was going with her.

Ruth told Naomi, “Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you sleep, I will sleep. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and that is where I will be buried.” Ruth 1:1-18

Life is full of difficult decisions, but they are much easier when we have the support from people we love and that love us.

This is what true love looks like.

Too often, we associate love with romance and forget how much more it is. It is so much more than the romantic love. There are four types of love –

  • Affection – Affection covers an array of loves. The care of mother to baby is a picture of affection. It relies on the expected and the familiar. “Affection almost slinks or seeps through our lives. It lives with humble, un-dress, private things; soft slippers, old clothes, old jokes, the thump of a sleepy dog’s tail on the kitchen floor, the sound of a sewing-machine…”
  • Friendship – Friendship is the love dismissed. “To the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves, the crown of life and the school of virtue. The modern world, in comparison, ignores it.”  Friendships have begun faith movements, developed entire areas of thought, and contributed to many projects from art to business.
  • Romantic – Different than friendship, lovers, “are always talking to one another about their love” and “are normally face to face, absorbed in each other.” There’s a reason Scripture teaches this bond of man and woman, from Genesis onward, is the picture of God’s love for the world, Christ for his bride, the church. When we discover afresh that romance is more deeply set than the drivel served up by our culture, then we will more rightly hold our spouse in the model of unconditional love.
  • Charity – This is our chief aim, the unconditional love of the Father given to us through his Son. Affection, friendship and romantic love are each the training ground for charity to grow. We are made to love and we are in want of it. If we play it safe, we are not living out the Gospel, but burying the coin in the safe ground, as the parable says. We are taught in the Scripture to love those who are broken, not for some vague humanitarian effort, but to make disciples of all nations, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Jesus is love. He is what true love looks like.

After Naomi and Ruth got home, Ruth married Boaz, they had a son named Obed, who was the father of Jesse and Jesse was the father of David. This is the family of Jesus. The love that Naomi and Ruth shared changed their lives and the world’s.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

We come from a long line of Love. Go and share that love with everyone you can.

The Untapped Power of the Mind is the One Thing That Keeps Most of Us Stuck

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But the Mind Can’t Do It Alone…it Requires Action as Well

Why is it that we doubt what we know? There are countless examples of the power of the human mind, yet we think… “this power only works for other people, doesn’t apply to me”.

Not only is this lack of belief directed at ourselves, ultimately it shows our lack of trust in God.

In Mark 10:46-52, there’s an example of the power of belief and acting on that belief.

The blind Bartimaeus is sitting along the road begging for money as Jesus goes by, he begins shouting. The people told him to be quiet. He shouted for Jesus to help him even more.

Jesus told him to come to Him.

He got up and went to Jesus.

Jesus asked him what he wanted. He said, “I want to see again.”

Jesus said, “Go. You are healed because you believed.”

This is the power of believing and acting on those beliefs.

Too often people find themselves in a bad situation like Bartimaeus and give in and give up. They feel angry, hurt, defeated or afraid and just stay there. It’s okay to have these feelings…just not to stay there. We can fight the pain, or we can accept it, learn from it and move forward like Antoinette Bosco.

During her eventful life, Antoinette “Toni” Bosco had plenty of reasons to feel abandoned by God. A mentally ill mother, heavy responsibilities early in life, a disastrous arranged marriage, the death of three of her seven children – the list is a painful one. But, instead of turning her back on God, she decided to embrace Him even more.

She attributed much of her ability to cope in these difficult life situations to her Italian father who came to America as a young man. He taught her, “To be good to people, to help people, never be cruel and never be angry.”

There was a point of suffering when she just wanted to pull the covers up over her head and hide from the world. She was telling herself; I just can’t get up anymore. Then she heard another voice…

If you think you can’t or you think you can…you’re right.

“I would not have gotten through my life without my faith. I do believe that the Lord Jesus is with me all the time.”

Bosco has learned that you never know what’s going to come next in life, but no matter what, it is essential to keep the faith.

“I know every day my prayer is “Be with me and let me know that You are with me,’” she said. “So far that has sustained me.”

Use the power of your mind, given to you by your Creator and start moving forward to fulfill your life.

It’s Time for “Hot Chocolatey Mornings and Toasted Marshmallow Evenings”

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This is a Great Perspective for the Season of Autumn

Some people like the season of autumn…some not so much. Some people find the shortening of the days and the cooler weather depressing.

An example of this is the lady that noticed her husband becoming grumpy as the days got shorter and overcast. She noticed his mood was sulky and sullen and he was continuously pouting. It had been raining the last two days and she noticed him just standing there looking through the window.

She realized that if something didn’t change, she was going to have to do something. That’s when she determined that if it was still raining tomorrow, she would have to let him back inside.

We all have seasons that we like better than others. Some like the warm sunny days of summer. Others like the new beginning of the spring. Of course, there are those of us that like the slowing down that comes with the cold days of winter. And don’t forget the beautiful colors of the leaves in autumn.

Everything needs a season and there’s a season for everything.

Seasons are part of God’s plan as shown to us in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

Christopher Robin gave Winnie the Pooh a calendar as a way to track the days, weeks, months and seasons. The calendar stopped at each season, which lead Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit and Owl to explore the world around them and noticing the changes. Among them: the water in the pond becomes hard and slick to skate on when it gets cold in the winter and becomes refreshing and fun to swim in when it gets warm in the summer.

As is typical of Winnie the Pooh, he found the positives rather than the negatives in the changing of the seasons. This is evident in his statement about autumn.

“It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!”

Every season of the year and life has good and bad things about them. It’s up to us to choose which we’re going to focus on in each season.

We would all be happier if we looked at the seasons and everything else in life more like Winnie the Pooh.

Everything is always moving and changing.

The changing of the seasons is a way to physically see the movement of time.

It’s up to you to decide what your seasonal focus will be on.

What You Treasure the Most is Where Your Focus Will Be

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Lack of Clarity About This Comes with a High Price Tag

Most of us have heard the story about the rich man unwilling to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor. Mark 10:17-27 This story often leads people to a misunderstanding of what God is asking of us. It’s not that God is against us being wealthy.

It’s about what’s most important to us.

This man’s focus was on his worldly wealth, not God. He had kept all the rules and regulations. But Jesus knew where his heart was. That’s why He tested him with this.

There are plenty of examples of wealthy people doing God’s work that aren’t asked to give up their worldly possessions.

It’s about where our focus is. Is it on the world or God?

Having spent our lives in the world it only makes sense that the world would be our point of reference.

Being rich is so much more than just monetary. Rich is also having a high value or quality. Being well supplied or endowed. This sounds a lot like something God would want us to have and would give us. He has given each of us a high value and qualities. It’s up to us to be focused and spend them wisely.

Having possessions isn’t limited to worldly possessions. Possessions are things possessed. We have been given so much more than just worldly things. We can possess skills, abilities, talents, insight, understanding, thoughts, ideas, etc. It’s our responsibility to use these possessions in the way the Giver intended.

The cost to being unclear about what we should be focused on first and foremost is expensive…just ask the rich young ruler.

We live in a time where we have more things clamoring for our attention than any other time in history. So many of these noisy things just pull our focus away from what’s matters most.

Like talking pants.

Everybody needs pants that tell them when they aren’t zipped up. Right? How novel. It is easy to be pulled away from the things most important. Don’t get me wrong…there are a lot of really fun and interesting gadgets and gizmos out there, and there’s nothing wrong with gadgets and gizmos. We just need to be clear about what our focus is on.

We can choose where our focus will be.

What will you focus on?

Open Your Eyes and Ears…You Don’t Want to Miss Out

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Use Your Observances and Experiences to Build a Better You

You know how children’s curiosity is on the go nonstop. It’s runs wide open with no parameters. This is why as adults we have to keep them from touching a hot stove or chasing a ball into the street without looking.

On the other side, experience is a great education tool. Once you burn your finger you understand why not to touch that hot stove.

The 15th century proverb, children should be seen and not heard, originated in religious culture and was a part of that learning process. This was an effort to teach children to respect others, especially adults.

In Mark 10:13-15, Jesus tells His followers to not stop the children from coming to Him. This was an uncommon thing. At that time in history children were seen as non-persons until they became adults. They were to not be heard or seen.

Children shouldn’t be ignored or treated as adults…they’re children. They should be encouraged to be children.

As we grow up, we forget to keep this children’s eagerness to learn. We become stuck in the rut of life with our heads down shoveling our way forward.

We never look up to see God’s wonders that are all around us.

I see our relationship with God like a child’s relationship with an adult. He knows a lot more about things than I do. At the same time, He wants me to open my eyes and ears to the world around me. He loves it when I come to Him and ask Him questions.

We need to open our eyes and ears.

I approach my relationship with God as a mentor/advisor. Someone to ask questions of and get advice from, to help me build the best me. Too many people’s relationship with God is like children in biblical times. They try not to be seen or heard. This isn’t what God wants. He wants a relationship with us.

Pastor Lee shared some examples of billboards that show us God’s human side.  Here are a few –

  • “Come over to my house before the game on Sunday” …God
  • “You know that “Love Your Neighbor” thing? I meant that” …God
  • “Loved the wedding. Don’t forget to invite me to the marriage” …God
  • “Keep using my name in vain and I’ll make rush hour longer” …God

Recently my niece Hannah was having a chat with God while on her way to work. As she was asking if He was hearing her, she saw the small end of a rainbow. Okay she thought…is He hearing me or is this my imagination? Then the rainbow got longer. As she continued the conversation, it continued to get longer until it became a full rainbow.

Oh, but God didn’t stop there. Before He was finished there were two complete rainbows, one above the other so bright that she said they were the most brilliant and bight rainbows she had ever seen.

But this story doesn’t end there…

Hannah shared this with Pastor Lee and what do you know. He was looking at the same rain bow at the same time.

Open your eyes and ears…you don’t want to miss out.

Salt is a Preservative That Makes Things Taste Better

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It’s Amazing…Kind of Like a Multipurpose Tool

Most of us are familiar with multipurpose tools. A multi-tool is a hand tool that combines several individual functions in a single unit. There are a variety of different kinds, but all have one thing in common…this one tool can perform multiple tasks.

Basic Multi-Tool – usually includes a blade, a can opener, a bottle opener, screwdrivers, scissors, wire cutters, and pliers. With these, you can cut your food, gut a fish, slice or cut almost anything, open bottles, etc. 

Oscillating multi-tool – is a diverse tool with a variety of different attachments. The head of the oscillating power tool moves side to side up to 20,000 times per minute.

Rotary multi-tool – is similar to an oscillating multi-tool. It is a small handheld tool that features a rotary tip that spins in a circular motion at very high speeds and can accept a wide variety of accessories and attachments.

Similar to these tools, salt can serve multiple functions.

Salt enhances the taste of food and also serves as a preservative. Both of these things make life better, but only if used.

In Matthew 5:13, we are called to be “the salt of the earth”. We’re told that if “we lose our saltiness we will be thrown out”. Like the multi-tool we each have different tools we can use to make the world better. Like salt, if we don’t do our part to make the world better, we’ll be thrown out.

Salt has been used as a preservative for ages.

Salt draws water out of food and dehydrates it. All living things require water and cannot grow in the absence of it, including bacteria. Salt is used to preserve beef jerky by keeping it dry.

In Mark 9:38-50, once again we are compared to salt. We can preserve others from hell by sharing Jesus. Hell is a place where “the fire will never stop”.

Jerky is meat that is prepared and preserved without cooking or refrigeration. Think about this…

Being salt to the world is helping others be preserved without having to experience the fire of hell.

There were a group of Mensa International members having lunch when they noticed that the salt and pepper were in the wrong shakers. Mensa is a non-profit organization of people who score in the 98th percentile of IQ.

As they studied the situation with the salt and pepper, they began trying to figure out ways of getting them switched from one shaker to the other, using only the things on the table, without wasting or spilling any. As they were contemplating this, the waitress came to the table. The group being proud of their intellectual ideas, they shared the dilemma with the waitress. She listened to their ideas and then…she switched the shaker caps.

Don’t make being salt of the earth more complicated than it needs to be. Determine who God has called you to be and live that out in the world every day.

Salt does no good if it’s left in the shaker.

It’s Jesus Inside of Me That Makes Me Want to Do This

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What Does Jesus Working in You, Make You Want to Do?

Now there’s a question for you to think about.

Pastor Lee shared a story about Trevor Ferrell, who at 11 years old was moved to help homeless people in Philadelphia in the 1980s. His story garnered a large public support and Presidential recognition. In an interview he was asked what made him do this work, he responded…

“It’s Jesus inside of me that makes me want to do this.”

Jesus wants to work in and through all of us…if we will just let Him. The problem is, most of us think we’ve got this. We don’t need any help.

In Mark 9:30-37 Jesus and His followers are on their way to Capernaum. Along the way some of the followers were arguing about who was the greatest. They were looking at it from a selfish worldly perspective. They weren’t thinking about what they could do as a team, with Jesus and each other.

Jesus told them that to be truly great they needed to be focused on helping others, not what was in it for them. It’s so simple kids can do it (Mark 9:36-37).

We need to be focused on what we can do for others…not what’s in it for me.

Putting other’s first doesn’t mean that they are more important than we are. It means that we have been given certain skills, abilities and insights that will make the world better if we share them with the people who need them.

The Disciples were competing amongst themselves, each wanting to be the greatest. We are competitive by nature. This can be a good thing if we are clear on what we are competing for.

Pastor Lee told another story about a medical student who was extremely competitive. He consistently scored at the top of his class, but it was beginning to take a toll. He was feeling overwhelmed and burnt out.

During a school break he went on a mission through his church. While on the mission he found a new and refreshed since of purpose and decided to take a semester off and continue working in the mission.

In a letter home to his parents, he wrote about how nice it was to not feel the pressure to be the best. He went on to tell how great things were. He said, currently he was ranked second and if things continued the way they were, he thought he would be first in a couple of months.

He was seeking greatness. I’m not sure that he was clear on what that was. We’re all seeking it and many of us aren’t clear on it either.

Greatness isn’t about me, it’s about God working through me.

Throughout history God has used normal people to do great things. He has given each of us something that is special to us. It’s up to us to find that thing and use it to make the world better.

It’s Jesus working inside of me that makes me want to do this.

Questions Lead to Thinking and We Could Sure Use More of That

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Never Stop Asking Questions

You know how kids go through that stage in life where they ask why…why…why…why…

Parents get so tired of this non-stop asking they find ways to subdue these questions. Ultimately this squelches the appetite for learning. Then at some point we just quit asking.

This suppression of questions has led to a society of yes people. Too often things are just taken as face value and left at that.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” Confucius

In Mark 8:27-38, Jesus asks His followers, “Who do People say I am?” This is just one of hundreds of questions that Jesus asked. There were several different answers. Some said John the Baptist, others said Elijah, some said one of the prophets.

The people had preconceived answers based on what they were told rather than reality. These conclusions without questions led many people to miss the answer to eternal life. A lack of questions left them lost. It does the same thing to us. 

Peter answered Jesus, “You are the Messiah.” Jesus goes on to tell them of the suffering that He would go through. The fact that the Jewish leaders would not accept Him and ultimately put Him to death and come back after three days.

This didn’t match Peter’s preconceived answer that Jesus was going to rule like a king, and he called Jesus out. In turn Jesus tells Peter, “Get away from me Satan.”

How often do we answer questions right, but come to the wrong conclusion?

We want “easy” and asking questions isn’t easy. It can lead to answers that are difficult. There is “true” and then there is the “truth”. These aren’t always the same.

Like a kid, at some point it seems easier to just stop asking questions and go along with what you’re told. This isn’t how we were made. This is why as kids we ask why…why…why…why… As adults we need to be asking more questions.

Never stop asking questions.

Doing YOUR BEST is More Important Than Being “The Best”

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It Takes Radical Commitment to Accomplish Excellence

Doing our best requires attention to detail.

Pastor Lee told a story of a restaurant that was striving for excellence in the workplace. They had a regular customer that ordered the same soup every time he came in. One day after his soup was brought, he asked the waiter to taste it. The waiter assured the customer that it was the same exact soup as always. The customer was adamant that the waiter taste it. Finally, the waiter gave in and then reached for the spoon and realized there wasn’t one. Of course, this was the customer’s point.

Amazing soup is no good without a spoon.

Doing our best requires commitment.

Last week I wrote about the reduction in commitment. Commitment is needed if we are going to do our best.

When Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird started playing ball, he was committed to working hard to be the best he could be. At 13 he would get out of bed early to go to the gym to practice free throws. He would shoot 500 free throws every morning before his first class.

He was one of the highest ranked free throw shooters over his 13-year career with an 89% average. That’s 9 out of every 10 shots.

Doing our best requires never quitting.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers he says,

“In fact, by the age of twenty, the elite performers (violinists) had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice.” — p. 38

“The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything,” writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin. — p. 40

“To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about ten years. (Only the legendary Bobby Fisher got to that elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years.) And what’s ten years? Well, it’s roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.” — p. 41

Never quitting requires overcoming obstacles.

Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby shared a lesson her mother taught her about overcoming obstacles.

Her mother was stricken with polio when carrying her first child and was confined to a wheelchair and crutches. She never let that discourage her. She managed to raise five children and have a career as well.

Cathy was totally absorbed with gymnastics and by 1972 she was on the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team going to the Olympic Games in Munich. She could think of nothing but winning the gold medal.

After performing to the best of her ability, she didn’t win a gold medal and was crushed. After the winners were announced she joined her parents in the stands, all set for a big cry. She apologized and said, “I’m sorry. I did my best.”

“You know that, and I know that,” my mother said, “and I’m sure God knows that, too.” She smiled and said ten words that I never forgot:

“Doing your best is more important than being the best.”

We can never be the best this side of heaven, but we can do our best. Jesus is our example of being the best. Follow that example!