"Have you learned that when you give to others, you also receive?"

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About 20 friends got together to serve in a soup kitchen one Saturday. The group included a teenaged boy who absolutely loves playing music.

Well, this teenaged boy spots a piano there in the soup kitchen and asks the man in charge if he can play during the meal. “Sure,” says the man, and announces to the 100 or so folks there that this young man would play for them. The boy didn’t bring any music. He just sits down and plays, and quite well.

A woman whose husband died recently is among that group of friends serving. She watches the teenaged boy playing for everyone’s enjoyment and gets an idea. She asks the boy’s mother if it would be okay if she gave him a keyboard as a gift. She had bought herself one, not played it much, and wanted to reward his generosity. Of course the mother said, “Yes,” and so at a surprise party for someone else, she asked the teenaged boy to go to her car with her and presented him with a very expensive keyboard.

When you give to others, you also receive. And that’s one way you can make a life, not just a living today.

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"Do you understand?"

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Has anybody cut you off in traffic lately? You know, pulled in front of you and made you hit the brakes to avoid an accident? If it hasn’t happened lately, odds are it will if you drive much.

Now when it happened in the past, what did you do? How did you react?

I guess it’s natural for you to yell at the driver, as if he could hear you, right? Or, to blow your horn, more than once maybe, and flash your lights.

But did you stop and wonder, “Why did she do that?”

Maybe she was distracted by something stressful in her life like she can’t pay her mortgage because she was laid off by her company. Or, she’s going home from the doctor’s office after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Or, maybe his wife left him and his best friend, too…and together. Or, maybe he had a shouting match with his teenaged son that morning.

Now I know that person should drive more carefully, but try to understand what might be happening with that person rather than just expressing your displeasure. The way God understands you as you listen to life.

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"Do you remember what it was like trying to tie your shoes for the very first time?"

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You probably don’t remember it, but what was it like trying to learn to tie your shoes? If you were like most children, it was something new to you which meant that you had to learn how to do something that you’d never done before. And you might have wanted to get it right the first time. But you didn’t.

So you kept trying and trying to tie your shoe. Your mom or your dad continued to show you how, maybe even teaching you a little song or saying to help you get it. Or, maybe it was your teacher who patiently worked with you to learn how.

You had to make a few mistakes before you got it right. In fact, you may have wondered if you’d ever learn how to tie your shoes. But then that magical moment bursts forth when you tied your shoe and said, “I did it!” And you did it again and again. You wanted to tie everything you could find just to prove you could. But you never would have learned how if you had been afraid of making mistakes.

You’ll make some mistakes today. Keep on doing life until your magical moment bursts forth and you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"Do you get it right every time?"

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So many people I coach are paralyzed by the possibility of making a mistake. “What if I fail?” stops them dead in their tracks, creating a fear of doing anything lest they get criticized by others or embarrass themselves or go bankrupt or a hundred other potential negative outcomes.

And I realize that trying to be perfect is a huge mental block, but then I think about Thomas Edison who discovered nearly two thousand ways not to make a light bulb before he got it right. And the country group, Alabama, seller of multiple platinum albums and owners of night clubs, played at the Bowery in Myrtle Beach for about 12 years before they became an “overnight success.” Freshman Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team in Wilmington, NC. Robert Allen, the “No Money Down” real estate guru, went bankrupt at one time.

Listen to your life today and make a life, not just a living, and discover that God is in your life’s adversity, too, giving you everything you require to truly succeed. Make a mistake and learn from it as you listen to life today.

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"Where do you look when you drive?"

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Last month, my car’s air-conditioning unit developed a problem. When I was traveling out of town on the hottest day of the year was when it quit working.

When it worked, the air was really cold. So I figured it wasn’t out of coolant and started watching the indicator light on the switch. I noticed that it blinked several times, turned itself off, and then the air warmed up. And of course the solution to this problem is not for me to get it fixed by a repair shop, but to stare at the indicator light as I’m driving and try to switch it back on before it disconnected itself.

So I’m driving down the road, looking through the windshield, but glancing a lot at the indicator light. That means I drove down the road not looking where I was going, making me a hazard to myself and other drivers.

How often do you drive your life staring at something that’s wrong rather than keeping your eyes on your goals that you’re driving toward? Life indicator lights that are negative are there to tell you to fix something. So ask God to help you fix it, don’t dwell on it, and move on down the road to making a life today.

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