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Thursday, January 15, 2009

"We miss so much in life, don’t we?"


When my wife and I vacationed in Maui, we were blessed to ride around the island in a Mustang convertible. The weather was perfect. It rained only about fifteen minutes. So we enjoyed Maui with the top down everywhere we went.

One particular trip was especially memorable. We left early in the morning, ate breakfast on the way, and drove down the infamous "Highway to Heaven," the road to Hana. This road is mostly switchback turns, one-lane bridges, and picture-postcard scenery that literally takes your breath away.

Since we had the top down, we smelled the orchids blooming in a rain forest, pineapples growing out in the fields, and hundreds of acres of sugar cane being harvested. If we had driven with the top up, we’d have missed all of those wonderful smells and scenes.

Do you drive the twists and turns of your life with the top up? Missing all of the wonderful sights and smells that God sends your way? Break out of the familiar, put the top down and enjoy life the way God intends it.

"We miss so much in life, don’t we?"

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

"What do you say?"


Some children wrote notes to God and here’s what they said. Joyce wrote, "Thanks for the baby brother but what I asked for was a puppy."

Janet wrote, "I wish you would not make it so easy for people to come apart. I had to have three stitches and a shot."

Charlene wants to know, "How did you know you were God? Who told you?"

"My Grandpa says you were around when he was a little boy," Dennis said. "How far back do you go?"

"Did you mean for giraffes to look like that or was it an accident?" Norma wanted to know.

Peter has a simple request: "Please send Dennis Clark to a different summer camp this year."

"I keep waiting for spring," Mark wrote, "but it never did come yet. What’s up with that?"

I can relate with Frank who wrote to God, "I’m doing the best I can."

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

"What's your angel's name?"


My wife was in one of those large home improvement stores. She purchased a dorm-sized refrigerator for our daughter. She stood in line waiting to check out and she kept looking at this man in another line near her. She knew she knew him, but couldn’t remember how she knew him, where she knew him from, or anything about him. She just knew she knew him.

Well, after she checked out, she stood by the register, waiting for someone to come and load the refrigerator in her vehicle. And up walks the "mysterious, unnamed man," asking if he can help her. She gives him that, "I know I know you but I can’t place you" look. He gives her his name, and how my wife knows him. "Oh yea," she says and he loads the refrigerator for her.

Don’t you just love it when that happens to you?

God sends angels to help us out just about every day of our lives. Some of them we know. Some of them we remember their names. But there are just as many we’ll never know.

Thank God for all of them as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living!

Monday, January 12, 2009

"What does your work seem like?"


I remember talking with our older daughter when she was in her first year of college. She was telling me about everything—her new friends, the school’s traditions, her role in the play—except her classes. So since I’m her Daddy and it’s my job to ask, I said, "Well tell me how your school work is going?"

And she said, "Daddy, the thing is, I’m enjoying my classes so much and love what I’m doing in them, that they don’t seem like work!"

You’ve got to love that attitude! When you love what you’re doing, it doesn’t seem like work! She reminds me of that saying: "Do you what love and love what you do and you’ll never work another day in your life."

Now contrast her attitude with that of the average American worker. Every survey I’ve ever read finds that well over half of all American workers are dissatisfied with their jobs, i.e., they’re not doing what they love.

Life is way too short to be miserable about your work. I mean, it’s already 2009! Discover what God created you to do—the work you love—by listening to your life and making a life, not just a living.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

"It’s the little things in life, isn’t it?"


A friend who listens to life with us through www.listentolife.org emailed me that she lives on a horse farm just as our family does. She and her husband shoveled sawdust into their truck to use as bedding for their horses’ stalls.

She watched the sawdust very carefully for larger pieces of wood that aren’t pulverized completely. Those pieces can’t go in the horses’ stalls because if a horse steps on it, it might pierce the hoof or bruise it, abscess and cause a problem. So she tossed these pieces out.

As she tossed them, she started thinking about how some word or action she might say or do could have the same effect on someone. It might seem insignificant at the time, but it could have far-reaching consequences if not caught. So she decided to watch her words and actions as closely as she does her sawdust.

You and I can learn from her listening to life while shoveling sawdust. Let’s pay attention to our words and actions which seem little, but can have big consequences, as we listen to life and make a life.