Star Wars

I just finished watching Star Wars again for the umpteenth time and loved it.  Although an amazing futuristic fantasy, it is so full of redemptive themes and good lessons that are true to life.

My favorite part is when Luke Skywalker finds out that Darth Vader is his father (Anakin Skywalker) and they are re-united in vanquishing the evil Emperor (Darth Sidious) at the end.  Then in the final scene Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda all appear as apparitions who have “died” and become part of the eternal Force as immortals.

These themes align with my belief system in real life and with most of our hopes and dreams. What could be better than to have good win out over evil and to eternally share immortality with those we love?  Did you ever stop to think about the fact that this is what Christianity offers its adherents in real life?

The one significant deviation of Christian teaching from this storyline is that we cannot save ourselves by good and valiant acts but that we need a Savior who intervenes on our behalf.  No doubt we all see the struggle between good and evil and hope that Good will succeed in the end; but how do we see that accomplished?  This is the all-important question!

Do you remember that Anakin Skywalker had no human father?  So we have a little taste that he was of spiritual origin but then succumbs to the Dark side and becomes an agent of evil for most of the story - so the point is lost.  What I would love to have seen would be for the Hero to have been pure throughout the story despite the challenges of the enemy; more like the character of Aragorn in Lord of the Rings.  So what is my point here?  It boils down to this: We need a savior who is perfect!  

Now let’s shift to a real-life scan of all the major religions of the world and ask two important questions:

• Who is the Hero?
• How do you get to heaven?

Except for Christianity – the hero is flawed in some way and you must work your way to heaven.  Christianity is absolutely unique on these two points.  Think about that and you will have an important clue to the reliability of every other option.

We are living out Star Wars in our every-day life but it is not a fantasy.  Let’s settle down to reality and choose to align ourselves with the Hero who has no flaws and is therefore the perfect Savior we all need.

"Any Hero small enough to fail is too small to be my Savior"

Choices

Tomorrow about 15 girls are coming to our home to eat their team dinner together.  They do this every week of the volleyball season on a rotating basis at each girl’s home.  This team dinner has special significance because it is the last one we will provide for the girls.  My daughter is a senior and it is the end of an era for her and us.

We started volleyball in 4^th grade and have literally played year round since then.  This past March the Lord allowed Tyler to get hurt in a volleyball injury that effectively ended her volleyball aspirations for a scholarship in Division I ball.  Crushing!

My daughter has been a good student all along so this does not mean her life is over by any means, in fact it will undoubtedly take a turn for the better soon, but a lot of effort seems to have been wasted … or was it? You see I believe our life is the sum of all our choices; not just of what we do, but more importantly of how we think.  How do you process the things that take place in your life?  That’s the difference-maker.

“You are born and eventually die and in-between you make a lot of mistakes”

You have a choice as to what you will do with your experiences.  Will you be defeated by them or will they make you wiser and strengthen you for the future? I feel I have made many more bad decisions than good ones, but I have been blessed to understand that failure is not fatal.  I can turn my mistakes into diamonds that will pay for my future if I am wise and thoughtful.  I will continue to make bad choices because I am only human.  But I can also continue to excel if I refuse to let my mistakes and disappointments defeat me.  It’s a mental game and boils down to a choice which only I can make.

When I think about all the girls coming over tomorrow, I pray that they are wise enough to understand the power of choice.  They will not be able to control what happens to them as they progress through life, but they can decide to learn from their experiences and keep growing.  They can be winners no matter what befalls them in life because they have a choice… and so do you!

Work hard to make good decisions.  Don’t be a fool!  But when your good choice turns out to be not-so-good, you are not defeated.  When life hands you a lemon – make lemonade. That is a choice that only you can make.

“You are the sum of all your choices, so choose well!”

Failure and Loss

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. “ 

~ Winston Churchill

I am a very upbeat, optimistic “can-do” guy.  For me the glass is almost always half full.  But tonight I almost lost if for a little while.

Early this year my beautiful daughter broke both bones in her lower leg in a freak accident and had to have a titanium rod placed in her tibia.  She was a great prospect for a Division I volleyball scholarship and that all went down the drain after 9 years of intense competition at a very high level. A month ago we found out that the trauma probably triggered type I Diabetes and she will have to live with that for the rest of her life.

This all started me to thinking about what has happened in my life over the past 5 years.  Both of my parents have died, my son discovered he had Type I Diabetes; I left my employment after 13 years and the organization tanked; I started another venture that tanked;  I am in serious debt, and on and on.  It has not been pretty!  From almost any perspective, my life has been a disaster zone the last five years.

Here is the irony … just before all this happened I told myself how satisfied I was with my accomplishments.  I had made a significant contribution to my start-up church and been a leading elder for many years.  I had brought my ministry out of a long downward spiral and quadrupled its annual income and my new business was thriving,  Last but not least my family was all healthy and serving the Lord – Who could ask for more?

Well now I’ve lost all my pride of accomplishment. But today I am battle hardened to an extent I never knew before.  In the past, I believed the same things about God and His faithfulness but I had never put Him to the test – I never needed to

.

Today the enemy has tried to discourage me.  He has been whispering in my ear that I am a failure and responsible for all the crummy stuff that has happened.  “Maybe God is paying me back for my sin or lack of faith or …?” He wants me to think I am a failure and undeserving of my Heavenly Father’s love and grace. The Devil wants me to quit.  He wants me to forget my God’s promises and His faithfulness.  He wants me to take my eyes off of eternity and my soul and focus on the here-and-now and my present condition.  Satan is a master deceiver who has come to steal and rob and harm me in any way he can, but I refuse to let him.  I’m not even going to stop and feel sorry for myself because I am focused on God and not myself.

Right now I am counting my blessings and there are many … too many to count.  I am focused on the battle I am fighting and humbled that He has counted me worthy to be His son.  I am getting ready for my assignment in eternity and will not let Lucifer pull me off task by his wily strategies.  No one can take my soul and I am safe in God’s hands.  How about you?

“The weapons we use in our fight are not the world's weapons but God's powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds. We destroy false arguments; we pull down every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.”

II Corinthians 10:4-5

Creating Your Own Opportunities

“Man proposes but God disposes.” 

~Thomas a Kempis.

I once heard of a man who proudly proclaimed, “I am a self-made man,” to which he heard a resounding retort from a nearby listener, “That must be terribly disappointing.”

Many of today’s leaders are Type A and very aggressive. When they see something they want, they go for it with all the gusto they can muster.  They make their own opportunities and are not used to waiting for anything or anyone to give them permission to proceed.  All of that is understandable for a person who has no knowledge of God, but it is totally unacceptable for a spiritual man.  A man who understands God’s ways knows that he can never be responsible for his own destiny or success.  I am ashamed to admit that I have been guilty of being too sure of myself and going through closed doors from time to time.  Have you?

Self-confidence has led to some of my biggest failures.  I was working on a very large event a few years ago.  It had a massive budget but we were gathering momentum and sure of our success.  I remember telling our staff one day that we did not have time for a prayer meeting because we were too busy and needed to get right into the work for the day. But now in looking back I see something I did not see then.  It was not my hard work, know-how or even our gathering traction that could make us successful; only God can give us the victory we need.  I was old enough and spiritually seasoned enough to know better but my carnal nature got the better of me and I failed as a result.

Confidence is good but be sure to place your confidence in the right thing; not yourself and not even your gifts. Place your confidence in God.  Only He can make something out of nothing.  He can make your bad plan into a good plan and He can take your experience and throw it into the trash can. My greatest successes have been totally unexplainable and certainly not attributable to my own intelligence or hard work.  Only a fool thinks he can create a lasting legacy apart from God.

So here is a summary of what I have learned: 1.) Work as hard and smart and you possibly can. 2.) Prayerfully observe as God opens and closes doors – be flexible to attend to the movement of His Spirit.  3.) Do not go through closed doors but wait on God.  4.) Give Him the credit for your success. If you follow these guideposts you can never fail. If you don’t you will never succeed.

“A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure.” Proverbs 16:9

Life Happens

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”  ~ Charles Dickens

Today was one of those crushing days for me and my family. When you face failure and disappointment how do you respond? There is no doubt that day will come barreling down on you and Wham! … you are flatter than a pancake with the weight of the world pressing down on you. What did you expect? Did you think suffering was for everyone else and not you? It’s your turn now. Can you handle the reality of life?


I am very blessed. In fact, I am blessed beyond measure, but I’ve had a few tough breaks along the way too. I’ve come to expect them. Not in a cynical way or with angry resentment, but as part of the package we call “life.” It can be very disheartening and even defeating if we do not process disappointment properly, so let me give you a few pointers that helped me today.


1. Things can always get worse. So as bad as life seems, it is not as bad as it could be.


2. Don’t get hung up on the one thing that didn’t work but focus on all the other things that are working. I have many other blessings for which I can be thankful.


3. Every disappointment is a lesson learned and gives me a platform on which I can build future success. My pain is too valuable to waste. I must learn everything I can learn from it.


4. Life is for being on the way and heaven is for arriving. In other words, I am being prepared for something greater than I can possibly imagine. Pain is the price of admission.


5. My limp is a medal of honor which I can wear proudly. If I survive and use my experience to make me stronger, I am in the top percentage of all humanity.


6. If I have committed my life to God and placed my future in His hands, I can rest in the knowledge that nothing but good can come of the circumstances in my life. I can trust God completely.


7. Difficult circumstances prove my faith and make it real. Anyone can believe in God’s goodness when there is nothing for which to trust Him.


All of these things did not take the pain out of my suffering today. I cried a little while. But my outlook gave me hope that I am going to persevere and even prevail in the end. I trust these truths will give you determination to keep on keeping on. Life happens in ways we cannot control but we can respond in the right way and that will make all the difference.

“Life is a battleground in which our mind either works for us or against us. Never give up!”

Crutches

My beautiful daughter had an injury recently and needed crutches to get around for weeks afterward.  Actually, she needed more than that, but her crutches were the last thing to go.  It wasn't easy to give them up either.  At first they were essential and then they became less important physically but more and more important psychologically.

Eliminating your crutches is not as easy as you might think.  There is a fine line between giving them up in the correct time and giving them up too early, which might cause you to develop a limp that you could carry with you for the rest of your life.

Some people use god, or more correctly, “religion,” as a crutch. They are in trouble and religion is just the thing to help them out; that’s not entirely bad, but they need to get rid of the crutch at the right time or they may permanently limp through life.

 

This may sound counter-intuitive, but God is not meant to be our perpetual crutch.  In reality, he is the whole hospital, but if you spend all your time in the hospital, that is a sure sign of being unhealthy!  God has everything we need but he intends for us to eventually be able to stand on our own intellectually, emotionally and psychologically.  We will never be able to handle all our own spiritual problems without God, but he wants us to be logical and normal to the fullest extent possible.  He desires for us to be dependent but not to be permanently debilitated by our situation or circumstances. His goal for each of us is that we would be complete in the power and strength of Jesus.

The danger is in not finding the balance between trying to go it alone in life and ending up limping through it, or never trying to walk on our own and not maturing to become that which we were intended to be.

“Wouldest thou be made whole?  The sick man answered him, Sir,
I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the
pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
 Jesus saith unto him, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.  And
straightway the man was made whole, and took up his bed and
walked.”  John 5:6-9

Report

Ministry Update

Spring 2011

Greetings from sunny Dallas to all of our wonderful friends! We only send out one update a year so I hope you will take time to read this.

An Auspicious Start In 2011

Some of you know that my 17 year old daughter, Tyler, recently broke her leg in a horrible volleyball accident while participating in a tournament.  She had to have a titanium rod surgically inserted in her Tibia, but we expect a full recovery.  What you may not know is that while she was in the hospital and we were searching for some answers as to how all of this could possibly bring glory to the Lord.  Well it didn’t take long to find at least one answer when we had the privilege of leading Roger into a saving relationship with Jesus.  He was at the hospital due to the pregnancy of his wife and the unfortunate loss of one of their newly delivered twins.  His marriage was under stress and his heart was open to the Lord who marvelously stepped in to his life.  I was able to share how a solid relationship with Jesus is the only foundation on which to build a strong marriage and complete life. It was a slam dunk!

The other very big blessing came in the form of having one of our board members (and our pastor), Wayne Braudrick, make a visit to Tyler’s room.  Before he left, Wayne asked us all to hold hands as he offered thanks to the Lord for the blessings of good friends and asked for God’s healing hand to be on our precious daughter.  This small gesture has opened up amazing opportunities to continue to let our lights shine for the Savior – so the answers keep coming.  Jesus is glorified whenever we give him first place; even in our disappointments.  Please remember to pray for both Tyler and Roger and the other friends with whom we are sharing Christ as a result of all these circumstances.

2010 First Full Year of Operation

In addition to my paid consulting, training and coaching work with the Daniel Southern Leadership Group; I serve on a volunteer consulting basis with PROstrata Foundation.  Our budget is not huge.  Last year we brought in about $20,000 and spent almost all of it helping the ministries which the Lord has brought our way.  This year we need your help to keep going.  All gifts are tax-deductible.

In 2010 we took steps to help launch two other very exciting ministries.  Early in the year I connected with Todd Pierce who serves as the chaplain of the Professional Bull Riders Association (PBR).  Todd’s ministry is called “Riding High.” He is focused on ministering to the athletes and staff of PBR but they have an open door to reaching the audience of PRB as well.  You can check out more at their web site:  http://www.ridinghighministries.org.  

  

The other fledgling ministry we are launching is called “Champions2Heroes.”  C2H is based on the concept of helping successful athletes and professionals find the inner accomplishment they have experienced outwardly.  We plan on launching this work May 26^th at a dinner here in Dallas.  Please let me know if this is something you might like to attend and I will provide you with more details.  Anthony Dorsett Jr. will be sharing his thoughts and we have a few other big name professional athletes we hope to see there.  Our strategy is to begin with professional baseball pitchers and we are on a fast track to getting it under way.  You can learn more at: http://champs2heroes.blogspot.com.

PF has taken on many existing resources from other ministries including my work with actor Stephen Baldwin.  It is our aim to be a resource to as many start-up ventures as we can in the hope of assisting them get the traction to become viable and self-sustaining.  It is our aim to equip them so they can reach their segment of the world for Christ.  Maybe you know of a young ministry which needs our help or perhaps you want to get involved with PF as a volunteer.  We all see needs every day as we seek to launch believers into more effective ministry even on a personal level.  We can put you to work or maybe you can put us to work.

Coming in 2011 and 2012

One of our new partners is Jay Lowder’s Harvest Ministries.  Jay is one of the most gifted evangelists I have met in a long time.  Jay will be looking for help in the coming months. See: www.jaylowder.com.  We will be looking for skilled teachers to go with us at their own expense to Ireland and train Christians to counsel and mentor new believers and we are planning a major outreach at a Texas university campus.  So if you are willing to help in some way, just let us know.  We can help you figure out a place of service based on your availability and gifting.

Inspirational Thoughts

If you like this blog, maybe you will subscribe.  I write very sporadically so I promise you will not be inundated with spam in your inbox, but it is a good way to stay up on our work and prayer needs too.

We are thankful for all that we have accomplished in 2010 and look forward to a promising year ahead. I truly believe Jesus is coming back soon.  As my mother used to say: “I am looking for the upper-taker; not the under-taker.”

Your encouragement, prayers and financial support are huge to us and we are so grateful for your friendship. 

An Awesome Portion of Scripture

meditating and memorizing

    “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS!”                                                           ~ Revelation 19:11-16 KJV

Finishing

“Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.” ~ Barbara Johnson

I could hardly sleep last night as I thought about all the unfinished projects and work I have. It’s perplexing and overwhelming at times; there is the ceiling in the garage that needs to be patched; the parking light that is burned out on my truck, the garden lights that quit coming on like they are supposed to at night; the leak in the spa, and the list goes on…

Most of these jobs are not crucial and require a number of steps to complete; so procrastination is an issue because they are involved and sometimes tedious. Other nagging projects are expensive or technically challenging and need an expert to perform them. And then there is the time required which I usually just don’t have very much of. So my life is full of unfinished projects!

I was thinking about this in relationship to Christ. Remember when he was on the cross of crucifixion and uttered the words “it is finished?” That was a project He had been working on for thousands of years if not longer; since we know it was in His heart from the foundation of the world. Then there is the promise that He will come back after He has prepared a place for us. He is still working on that promise made 2000 years ago.

Here is an interesting question to consider: Is God bothered by projects that are left undone until He can complete them? Probably not in the same way we are. He has all the resources we lack and it is not about know-how or procrastination either; it’s much more involved. For God it’s about timing and blending all that He is doing into one consistent and perfect plan – Awesome isn’t it!

So when you wonder why God doesn’t just do something the instant you ask Him to, remember who you are talking to and what is involved. For God it is about the end result and not our instant gratification. God always achieves His goals perfectly; but not necessarily in what we would call a timely manner. He gets the job done but finishes His work in His way and His time; not ours. The good part is that He can be trusted and never makes a mistake. So rest easy tonight. God always finishes what He starts!

“Although the goodness of God may sometimes be hidden, it can never be extinguished." ~ John Calvin

Devastation

"Fight on merry men. I am wounded but not slain. I will lie down to bleed a while, but when I have rested, I will rise to fight with you again." ~ Robin Hood

Today my dear sweet 17 year old daughter is in surgery as they insert a titanium rod in her leg. She broke both bones just below her calf during a volleyball tournament yesterday. Ironically it was the tournament of her life and she was tearing the court up! Then unexpectedly she got caught up with her teammate and boom - you could hear the snapping bones from across the court.

She was a real trooper at the scene of the injury and in spite of her pain, she never gave in to the desire to scream out. When they wheeled her from the court on the stretcher to the ambulance, a spontaneous round of applause broke out and I almost lost control of my emotions.

The prognosis is favorable and we are confident that a lot of good things will come out of this experience.

What do you do in the midst of devastation? Do you have a safe place to go where you can find the assurance that all is well? Right now we are clinging to the promise that our Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for our life and that nothing takes Him by surprise. When things happen that we think are bad, it is because we do not understand how the event either moves us in the right direction or takes us to a mental decision to place our trust more fully in Him.

When I was 17 my parents were divorced. When I was 18 I broke my ankle and missed an entire season of basketball eliminating me from contention for a scholarship to play in college. When I was 21 I dislocated my knee in a wrestling match and could no longer play football or even pass the physical to play intercollegiate sports of any kind and lost my scholarship.

That all sounds pretty bleak doesn't it? But my story is anything but sad. All of these circumstances pushed me to where I am today and gave me a far greater understanding of my God's love and His purpose for my life. These were not stumbling blocks to my happiness but stepping stones leading me to it in a most amazing way.

When you fail or are disappointed, don't succumb to the temptation to give up. Look for the answer to where these things are taking you and embrace the new opportunities with all your heart.

My prayer for my daughter and for you is that you will learn to do more than just accept what happens in your life, but that you will embrace it enthusiastically; knowing that your mental attitude makes all the difference in the effect circumstances will have on you.

"Decide to take what life throws at you and use it as a foundation on which to build your future."

Just wondering … could it possibly be true?

"Faith is reason grown courageous." - Sherwood Eddy

For the last 5 days we have been iced and snowed in here in Dallas. It was fun at first but then the bad stuff started to take place; like frozen pipes and no hot water. It even got a little scary when the rolling blackouts started to take place. Then it hit me how blessed I am to have the things I usually take for granted.

What are you taking for granted? Is it your health, warm food, clean drinking water, shelter, a steady job; we all take something for granted until we lose it. And here is the saddest part; we moan about so many little inconveniences that are really not basic to the good life we are leading. For example did you realize that if you make at least $47,500 a year, you are in the top 1% of the wealthiest people on the earth? Most of us don’t feel so privileged do we?

How much money would you need to be happy? Or put another way, “How much is enough?” For me it is really about security. How much money do I need to feel safe and secure? Then we have to ask, if we are putting our confidence in wealth, “How do we protect our wealth, so it cannot be lost once we get it?”

Jesus said that we should put our confidence in our Heavenly Father’s ability to care for us and not in material possessions. How are you doing with that concept? One test of that philosophy is alluded to in the so called “Lord’s Prayer” where Jesus says, “And give us this day our daily bread...” Do you trust God to provide as He taught the Israelites to do in the wilderness through His daily provision of manna?

How do we get our mind into the right zone to live as He proscribed? How can we learn to live day by day in dependence on Him and not our own power to provide? Is that even realistic? We have been taught from the cradle that we need to work hard to provide for our family and our self. Can a Christ-follower be expected to literally follow God in this way or are we responsible for our own needs? Can we train our self to be completely reliant on God for everything? Probably not … but it sounds like a great philosophy doesn’t it?

I wish it was true, but I doubt God wants me to be so dependent on Him or so stupid as to take that Jesus stuff literally. Jesus must have been exaggerating God’s ability to do for us what we really can’t do for our self; wasn’t He? Well most of us will never know, because we will never try it or anything close to it in our whole life until the snow and ice fall and the pipes freeze and the power fails. Then we may just have to trust Him because we have no other choice. I wonder if He will be there in that day ... at that time ... and in that circumstance?

"If you want to live a genuine life of faith, start when you don't need anything."

Open for Business?

“Dontopedalogy is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, a science which I have practiced for a good many years.” – Prince Phillip Windsor

What is the difference between telling the truth and being honest? Let me put it to you this way: I always tell the truth, but I don’t always say everything on my mind. We live in a world populated by other individuals and need to consider their reactions to the things we say and do. If we are not careful, we can needlessly hurt people by saying that which is better left unsaid. When we open our mouth is there a good reason behind it or is it just business as usual without much thought?

I work with other people for a living and often my success is based on their performance even more than my own. So I have made a science out of trying to think things through from the other guy’s perspective. Now admittedly, that is when I have my thinking cap on and am not just operating out of instinct. I make plenty of mistakes on this score, so don’t throw this in my face later. But I know that if I am wise in my interactions with others, I can accomplish far more than if I alienate those around me.

So what am I trying to say? Well, it’s really just a principal: “just because something is true, it does not always follow that we need to say it.” You can be an honest individual and still be tactful and considerate of the feelings of those around you. A corollary to that concept is that “if the person is not able to receive your thoughts, you may as well keep them to yourself.” We do not always need to say what comes to mind.

Sadly, some of us are almost compulsive when it comes to our interaction with others and we leave a lot of wreckage in our path. I have been guilty of that carelessness far too often. So I am learning to think before I speak. I ask myself if it really needs to be said and then ask a second question. "Will saying it make things better or just make me feel better by getting it off my chest?" These two steps have taken me a long way toward being more effective in my work with others. I hope they will help you too.

“Be sure your brain is in motion before you put your mouth in gear.”