"How do you love?"

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When I walked into our home one evening, one of our yellow Labs, Princess, greeted me at the door. She had gotten up from wherever she was in the house and came to see me as I entered.

I had been gone all day and hadn’t really seen her much that morning. In fact, I don’t even feed her that often. But there she was, tail wagging—well really her whole body was wagging—eyes glued on me, rubbing up against me like I was her long-lost friend.

So what was I to do? Of course, I squatted and rubbed her. A lot. I mean, you’d have thought that dog had never been petted before. After I rubbed her back, she rolled over and let me rub her belly. And I honestly think I’d still be there petting her if she’d had her way. But instead I stood up, and she did. She shook, and leaned her head up against my leg as if to say, “Thanks, Dad.”

Wouldn’t the world be such a better place to live if we all just loved like a dog? And didn’t make our love conditional—“what have you done for me lately?”

As you listen to life today, love like a dog; the way God loves you.

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"What's your passion?"

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We all have a passion for something, that is, we care deeply about something in life and we could give a lot of our time and energy, attention and money to that cause. I coach lots of people searching for their passion.

I’ve discovered that maybe you think of passion just as something you can get excited about, something that you have be all revved up about, when that’s not necessarily so. Sure, you want to be enthusiastic about life in general and your passion specifically, but true passion is something a little different.

True passion emerges from that quiet place within you. It feels natural to you, like, “This is what I was created for.” Your passion kind of draws you to it rather than you choosing it. It speaks to you and you listen to it.

You know that peaceful, easy feeling you get, you know how focused your mind is when you’re doing certain things or talking about a certain subject? That’s passion. It’s a gift from God. So today as you listen to life and make a life, listen carefully in the quiet of your heart for your creative design.

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"Do you just sing?"

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As spring sprang into beauty around our farm last month, I got outdoors more and more. While I was outdoors one beautiful Saturday morning early, a bird started singing. Its song captured my attention. Of course most of the birds were gone over the winter and I frankly missed their music. This bird sang so well that I began searching for him. I walked from tree to tree, listening carefully for his song.

Then I found him. I approached slowly so he wouldn’t fly away. Then I stood and watched him as he sang to his heart’s content. So there I am, leaning against a tree, enjoying his music when it occurred to me that this bird was just singing. He wasn’t struggling. It wasn’t an effort for him to sing. There didn’t appear to be any work involved at all for him. He was content with his song. He didn’t struggle to sing a more beautiful song. He just sang.

Today join this bird in just singing your song. Don’t struggle to find the perfect song. Just sing your song as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"Words really do matter, don't they?"

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A blind man sat on the steps of a building on a beautiful spring day. His hat was at his feet along with a sign that read, “I am blind. Please help.”

A woman walked by and stopped to observe the man’s situation. She noticed that the blind man had just a few coins in his hat. So she dropped in a few more coins and, without even asking permission, took his sign and began writing on it. She replaced the sign and left.

The woman returned to see the blind man later that afternoon. She noticed that his hat was full of not just coins, but bills also. The blind man recognized her footsteps and asked, “Are you the one who stopped earlier and did something to my sign?”

“Yes,” the woman said, “but everything I wrote was true. I just wrote the message a little differently than you had.”

The new sign read, “Today is Spring and I can’t see it.”

Words really do matter, don’t they? Ask God to help you see the words you can best say today as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"Do you get what you don't deserve?"

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I recently ate out with some of our family. It was a Chinese buffet and you pay as you go in, before you eat, rather than after.

So I was at the counter, preparing to pay, when the cashier and our daughter almost at the same time said, “Do you have one of the dinner cards?” These cards are sort of like frequent eater cards, i.e., they stamp your card once for each meal purchased and the tenth one is free.

“Yes, I do,” I said, having no idea what was on the card, just that it was somewhere in the farthest reaches of my wallet. So I found it, pulled it out, and handed it to the attendant.

“Oh,” she says, “you get a free meal tonight.”

There I was carrying the prospect of a free meal in my back pocket, and I didn’t even know it. I got something I didn’t deserve—a free meal.

When was the last time you got something you didn’t deserve? Received a gift, a prize, a compliment, a smile that you hadn’t earned?

Thank God for these gifts, great and small, as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living today.

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