"What if that guy was God?"

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey tell his story!

One of my coaching clients emailed me recently. It seems he was walking into a Starbucks recently when he noticed a guy standing outside the door. The man’s face obviously had suffered from severe burns and his hands, too. The disfigurement he had made it kind of hard for my client to look at the guy. The guy stood there, with his burned hand out, asking for money. He was panhandling. My client walked on quickly, not making eye contact, just as everyone else did.

As my client stood in line for his coffee, he started thinking, "Aren’t we here to help others? To make the world a better place? Isn’t that part of making a life, not just a living that Dr. Joey talks about? And what if that’s God standing there, disguised? And I just walked past God?"

He got his coffee and went to his vehicle where he cleaned out all of his change—a couple of dollars worth—and gave it to "God" standing outside of Starbucks; and made the world a little better place to live…at least for a day.

Make a life, not just a living today…God is closer than you think.

Discover more great stories like this one!

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

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey tell his story!

I speak to lots of business and service groups. And everywhere I go lately, there’s talk about the recession—"Is it coming or is it already here?"

Seems to me all this talk is wasted. Some very famous and successful have proven that predicting what’s coming is very difficult.

For instance, 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. But don’t you give up. God has a special plan for you to enjoy the very best life offers and it can be yours. Don’t give up. Instead listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

Discover more great stories like this one!

"How do you decide who goes first?"

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey tel his story!

You quickly learned as a child that there are two situations in life—"me-first!" and "you-go-ahead." And you discovered that there’s a huge difference between the two.

You learned to yell "Me first" when you heard the ice cream truck coming down the street or choosing sides for basketball or Grandma was serving chocolate cake. You screamed "me first!" because you wanted the best selection, the best player, or the biggest piece.

But as a child you also learned that there were some situations where you definitely don't want to be first. These were the "you-go-ahead" situations. You said, "You go ahead" to avoid the last serving of brussel sprouts or to let someone else jump first in the creek in early spring or to take a bath. You enjoyed knowing that you put it off as long as you could.

Some days are "me first" days and other days are "you-go-ahead" ones. God has already gone ahead of you into this day and prepared the way for you. So relax, let God go first, and make a life, not just a living today.

Discover more great stories like this one!

"Who do you want to hurt?"

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey tell his story!

A friend of mine has a daughter who’s four almost five years old. He calls me recently to tell me about discovering that a squirrel had gotten into his attic. Of course the furry-tailed little guy only came into the attic because of the cold weather and only at night. He played immediately overhead of my friend’s bedroom, keeping him up for much of the night. This nocturnal nuisance continued for well over a week…

…until my friend declared war on the squirrel. He got a trap and put it in the attic and finally caught the squirrel. So here’s my friend, operating on little sleep over the last week, he goes into the attic, retrieves the trap with the live critter in it, comes down the stairs, and his daughter says, "Don’t hurt him, Daddy. God made him."

Sometime soon, you’ll want to hurt some nuisance in your life. You’ll be pushed to the limit by her or want to eliminate him. Just remember—God made him. So don’t hurt her. Odds are that person is a lot like you—just trying to come in out of the cold world. So listen to life and give him a break, okay?

Discover more great stories like this one!

"Are you right all the time?"

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey tell his story!

When I worked for just one radio station, I worked for a man who knew his way was always the right way. Now this way of doing life worked just fine for him, until something went wrong.

For instance, I was instructed in how to operate the transmitter. So one morning, it was my turn to work the morning shift and I went in and turned the transmitter on just like I’d been taught. Only this time it didn’t work. So I called the engineer who came and replaced a part, and we were back on the air.

But for some reason, this guy decided somebody had to bear the blame for the transmitter malfunction, and I was that somebody. I tried to explain I just turned it on, but he wouldn’t listen. Finally, he screamed at me, "There are two ways of doing things around here—my way and the highway." It was then that I realized his rage wasn’t about me, but about something he couldn’t control in his life—parts breaking.

You know, most of life is beyond control. Rather than having to be right all the time and blaming each other, let’s listen to life today for what God has to say.

Discover more great stories like this one!