"What kind of foolish assumptions do you make?"

We make foolish assumptions every day, don’t we? We assume lots of people die in plane crashes every year, but actually more people are killed by donkeys every year. We assume money is made out of paper, right? Nope, it’s made out of cotton. And we assume a “jiffy” is just an expression, but it’s an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. We assume an ostrich has a decent-sized brain, but actually the eye of an ostrich is bigger than its brain. And we assume the saying, “The good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise” has something to do with a stream of water, but it really is a western pioneer reference to the Creek Native Americans.

Another foolish assumption we make is that we have to be perfect for God to love us. But God loves us despite our imperfections. So be foolish today, and remember—God loves you regardless.

"Do you love all of God's children?"

I have this friend who’s a computer geek. Now I don’t mean that negatively. He’s a really nice young man. In fact, I babysat him for the first two years of his life. It’s just that he’s a computer geek.

You see, he has a server in his apartment. He emails me HTML code and stuff like that for some unknown reason, thinking that I’ll understand it. (Yea, right!) That qualifies him as a computer geek.

Well, recently he started emailing me about ways to improve my website at www.listentolife.org. So I mailed him back that whatever he thought was best that I’d go with that.

“Great!” he mails back. “I’ll put together some flow charts this weekend. Man, I love those things. I think whenever I do buy a place of my own, I’m going to have white boards for the walls.”

And I thought—that would be perfect for him! He could just write his ideas on the wall. So what if he’s a geek to me. I love him anyway. It takes all of God’s children to listen to life and make the world go ‘round, doesn’t it?

"Are you a winner or a loser?"

My wife sat on our bed, playing solitaire. Our then-elementary-school-aged daughter walked in and watched her mom for a few minutes. Then she said, “I want to play cards. Will you teach me how?”

My wife said, “Well, honey, it’s kind of a complicated game.”

And our daughter said, “I’ll watch real closely.”

“Well,” my wife said, “I may not be the best one to teach you. I lose a lot.”

And our daughter says, “How can you lose to yourself?”

Not a bad question, is it? How can you lose to yourself?

Now you know how to play solitaire and understand what my wife said. But take our daughter’s question to life. How can you lose to yourself?

Really you can’t, can you? If you’re having fun, and you’re not competing against someone else to see who’s the winner, you can be the winner regardless of the outcome of the game of life. Just for playing you get lots of prizes, right?

Name your prizes—good health, loving friends, adoring family and so on today. God gives you those prizes as you listen to life and make a life!

"Can you hear me now?"

It seems like today that everyone is in a race to get the latest, fastest, most technologically-advanced communications possible. Wired or wireless, broadband or DSL, T1 or T3 lines—we want screaming downloads and clear voice/data transmission.

But what if you didn’t have something basic like a telephone.

Until recently, Mink, Louisiana didn’t have telephone service. That’s right, no phone service period. Extremely high costs prohibited the phone company from profitably extending service to the area. And nobody passes through the area much so there was no incentive to put up cell phone towers.
And you thought you had it bad when your travels take you through a dead zone in mobile phone coverage. Can you imagine not having a phone at home?

Do you ever feel cut off from talking with God? Like life isolated you and not even God can get a line out to you? “Can you hear me now, God?” Go ahead. Call God and then listen to your life today for what God has to say.

"Who are you with?"

Once upon a time, I had an exercise bike. I rode it for a while, but pretty soon I threw a pair of jeans on it, then a shirt, then some clothes waiting to be ironed, and it became an expensive clothes rack. So one day I moved it to the storage room.

Then I got a ski machine. It was great, after I became coordinated enough to swing my arms and legs simultaneously. And I used it for a while, but then one day I threw a pair of jeans on it, then a shirt, then some clothes waiting to be ironed, and it became a super-expensive clothes rack. So I moved it to the basement.

Then I wanted a treadmill. And I remembered the bike and ski machine. Instead I bought a membership at a gym. And I go exercise there three times a week, missing only when I’m sick. What’s the difference? At home, I exercise alone. At the gym, I’m with lots of people, all of them doing the same thing. I discovered I’m encouraged by people doing what I’m doing.

Surround yourself with God and people who listen to life and make a life.