"Which singer’s voice do you know best?"

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I was out walking one of our yellow Labs on our farm. It was a gorgeous day—not too hot, not too cool, just right; a great day for walk to enjoy the outdoors and listen to life.

Well, as we’re walking along, I hear a bird singing. Immediately I recognized it as a bluebird. So I stopped, and our yellow Lab stopped beside me. I told her to “Sit,” she did, and there we were. I was waiting for the bluebird to sing some more.
And he did. He began singing his little heart out. I looked up and directly overhead was a power line. And I saw him for the first time—a male bluebird.

I was rather pleased with myself that I recognized it was a bluebird before seeing it. Then I thought, “I hope I recognize God’s voice that easily.”

You see, God sings to you and me everyday, making each day beautifully special. But you have to put yourself where you can hear God’s voice and listen carefully and often enough to know it. So today, go for a walk or find a quiet place and listen to life for God’s voice singing to your heart.

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"Who do you see when you look in the mirror?"

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I made a new friend at a party recently. We were talking about where we’ve been in life and what we’ve done. He reads Listen to Life often and somehow we started talking about how we look at this stage of life compared to earlier stages. And he says, “Who do you see when you look in the mirror? Now that’s a great story title. I’ll be reading that one, right?”

We laughed a little more. Then I said, “I just realized something. I just put out a picture in my office that I found of our older daughter, my wife and me from about 18 years ago. And I placed a baby picture of her on another desk. I guess I’m just trying to remember.”

I guess that’s why you take pictures out of boxes and put them out on your desk. You’re just trying to remember. Because when you remember how good life was in your yesterdays, you get some confidence that the tomorrows will be, too. You recall how good God was to you in those days and claim the promise that God will continue to be good today and next year and for the rest of your life.

Enjoy God’s goodness always as you listen to life and make a life.

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"What are you worried about?"

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A man was worried that he’d be forced into early retirement by corporate down-sizing. So he was relieved when the company kept him on. That worry was taken care of.

But then the position they moved him into was very stressful with lots of travel involved and other complicated, corporate challenges. So then he moved from being grateful he had a job to worrying about the stress of this job and what it was doing to him.

His stress became so great that he decided to take early retirement just to get out from under the pressure. His company was very generous with him. That worry was taken care of. But now that he’s facing his impending early retirement, he’s worried because he doesn’t have a job.

Does life ever seem to be a bouncing ball of worry for you like it is for this man? Life changes so quickly and unpredictably, you can worry yourself to death as the changes appear.

Today, do the best you can in the midst of all your changes and let God take care of the rest.

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"How'd you get your name?"

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There is a village in South America that changed its name after a miraculous experience. It seems that there was a severe famine in the region. A drought and other devastations destroyed all of the locally produced food. The area was so poor that the residents couldn’t afford to import much if any food. In fact, most of the people barely eked out a living and few if any material possessions. So they did what they could—they prayed for food.

It wasn’t too long before food started arriving from Italy. The food came in wooden crates. The grateful residents devoured the food, stocking their shelves and making sure everyone in the village had enough to eat. Once the food was unloaded from the crates, the villagers began to dismantle the wooden boxes and make furniture from them. Some even built shacks from the larger crates.

Printed on the side of these crates were the words, “From Italy.” The townsfolk renamed their village, “Plains of Italy” so that future generations would remember the miracle of food sent from Italy.

So how’d you get your name?

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"How are you introduced?"

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I had the privilege recently of speaking at an event sponsored by one of the Top 100 Hospitals in the U.S.

Typically someone introduces me at these events and they ask me to provide a script. In it, I write about what I do and who I am—but not the usual boring list of educational degrees and accomplishments, but more about me as a person; as a father of two teenaged daughters and that my wife boards horses and raises yellow Labrador retrievers.

I got to meet and sit with my introducer that day. She’s quite a delightful woman with a marvelous sense of humor. As she introduced me, she came to the part about our raising yellow Labs—now remember this is a hospital-sponsored event—and said, “…and he and his wife raise yellow “LABORATORY” retrievers.” We’ve laughed a lot about her faux pas since.

I guess you just never know how you’re going to be introduced. Regardless, just be who you are—the person, not the credentials—as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living today.

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