"You haven't given up, have you?"

Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment, said in 1977, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” A Western Union Telegraph Company internal memo in 1876 read, “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.” When Gary Cooper turned down the lead role in Gone with the Wind, he said, “I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” When in 1962 Decca Recording Co. rejected the Beatles, it was because “We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”

“Given-up thinking” is everywhere, isn’t it? But don’t you give up. Conventional thinking isn’t always on target. God’s thinking is. The dreams you have in your heart are God’s gift to you. Follow those dreams. Never give up pursuing no matter how old you are.

Hang in there as listen to life and make a life, not just a living today.

"None of us were created to stay here forever, were we?"

It’s been a couple of years now since my grandfather died. I still miss him and I want to call him and tell him something one of our daughters did, or share some other exciting news, or get some advice, but then remember I can’t. But that’s okay. As he was so fond of telling me, “None of us were created to stay here forever.”

An elderly woman from Brooklyn realized that she wouldn’t be here forever so she prepared her will and made preparations for her funeral service and other last requests. She told her rabbi that she had two final requests. First, she wanted to be cremated, and second, she wanted her ashes scattered over Bloomingdales.

The rabbi was so shocked that he didn’t quite know how to respond to her second request. So he simply said, “And why do you wish for your ashes to be scattered over Bloomingdales?”

And the woman said, “Then I’ll be sure my daughters visit me twice a week.”

April is National Humor Month. Find something to laugh about today as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

"Do you always know?"

I pulled up to the bank drive-in and found an open lane. It was my first time using this bank’s drive-through service. I’m accustomed to the ones that have the round container that open one end, you throw your stuff in, close it, place it back on the tube, and push the button. This one was different. It had a blue box and no buttons. Well, the box I figured out and placed it back on the tube. The sign read, “Autoconveyor” so I thought you just put it back and away it goes. So I placed the box back, but nothing happened.

I looked at the person in the vehicle beside me, smiled, and hoped they didn’t see what I couldn’t do. I mean it’s kind of embarrassing, especially for a guy, not to know how to operate machinery.

Just then, a voice came on the intercom and said, “Please push the box up a little.” I did and away it went as I laughed at myself and my concern over who was watching.

When you don’t know how to do something today, don’t be embarrassed. Just listen to your life for God’s voice telling you what to do.

"Does God exist?"

A hair stylist and customer had a conversation about God one day. “I don’t believe God exists,” the stylist said.

“Why not?” the customer asked.

“Because if God exists,” the stylist said, “there would be no pain or suffering or abused children. I can’t love a God who allows all these things.”

The customer didn’t know how to respond so he just kept quiet, paid the stylist and left. As he left, a man with very long hair, down to his waist, walked by. He looked pretty dirty and unkempt. The customer came back into the shop and said, “You know what? Hair stylists don’t exist.”

“What do you mean? I’m here,” the stylist said.

“Hair stylists don’t exist,” the customer said, “because if they did, there’d be no people with long hair like that guy.”

“Hair stylists do exist, but people just don’t come to us when they need to,” the stylist said.

“And that’s the point,” the customer said. “God exists, but people don’t always come to God when they need to.”

"Who are you?"

You’ve probably heard me talk before about the horses we enjoy and the yellow labs we raise and the barn cats at our farm. And then there’s the farm mascot, a little beagle named Maxie.

Maxie was the runt of her litter, a timid puppy cowering in the corner of the pen when my wife picked her out. But now she is the queen of the farm, or so she thinks. She struts around as if she owns the place. But even more hilarious than that is Maxie thinks she’s a Lab. You see, she was raised with Labs who love to retrieve balls and bumpers. So she thinks that’s what God created her to do. She’ll sit at your feet, waiting for you to throw the ball or bumper, run to get it, retrieves it and drops it at your feet, wagging her tail for you to do it again. She’s forgotten she’s a beagle and thinks she’s a Lab.

Like Maxie, sometimes you and I forget who we are. We start acting like someone else whom we want to be like and forget to be the incredible, wonderful person God created. Be who God wants you to be as you listen to life today.