"Are you hooked up?"

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A guy had just started his own firm. He’d rented a beautiful office and furnished it with antiques. Sitting at his huge oak desk, he saw a man come into the outer office. So the businessman picked up the phone and pretended he was working on a big deal.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “that’s just too small an account for a firm like ours. We only deal with accounts worth $1 million and higher. Now if you want to bundle some accounts together in your company and let us handle all of your business, we can do that.”

He waved the man in from the outer office and motioned him to a chair.

“Sure, we can take care of $250 million for you. No problem! Okay, let’s talk again soon,” he said. He hung up the phone and turned to the man in the chair. “And what can I do for you today, sir?”

And the man said, “I’m here to hook up your phone.”

Are you hooked up? I mean, with someone other than yourself?

Hook up with God today as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"Do you always know?"

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I pulled up to the bank drive-in and found an open lane. It was my first time using this bank’s drive-through service. I’m accustomed to the ones that have the round container that open at one end, you throw your stuff in, close it, place it back on the tube, and push the button. This one was different. It had a blue box and no buttons. Well, the box I figured out and placed it back on the tube. The sign read, “Autoconveyor” so I thought you just put it back and away it goes. So I placed the box back, but nothing happened.

I looked at the person in the vehicle beside me, smiled, and hoped they didn’t see what I couldn’t do. I mean it’s kind of embarrassing, especially for a guy, not to know how to operate machinery.

Just then, a voice came on the intercom and said, “Please push the box up a little.” I did and away it went as I laughed at myself and my concern over who was watching.

When you don’t know how to do something today, don’t be embarrassed. Just listen to your life for God’s voice telling you what to do, and do it.

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"How much “drama” is there in your life?"

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When our daughter was in middle school, we learned that it’s far more traumatic than you might imagine—for her that is. There is so much “drama” in middle school. The “he said/she said” creates “issues” for these kids.

Frankly I don’t remember all of this “drama.” But I was more into baseball, fishing, and hunting than relationships back then. It was a different era. We all wanted to wear Levis, I do remember that. And I do recall getting a lecture or two about peer pressure. Maybe that was what sufficed for our drama. Perhaps with my generation it was about peer pressure.

I read an interview with a 104-year-old woman recently. The reporter asked, “And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?”

The woman simply replied, “No peer pressure.”

Until you’re 104 or so, I guess you’ll have some “drama” or “pressure” to conform to certain social standards. But look, don’t take keeping up with the Joneses too seriously. Just keep up with God and listen to life and make a life, not just a living, okay?

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"What's growing in you?"

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I got on my tractor one of these beautiful days and mowed a portion of pasture. Now you may be wondering if I’ve lost my mind. Obviously nothing grows in a pasture over the winter, right?

Well, not exactly. Broom straw grows over the winter. Occasionally the soil nutrients are a little off of what’s best for growing grass and broom straw jumps up over the winter. It competes with the spring grass for nutrients, water, and sunlight. Our horses don’t eat broom straw. They eat grass. So that’s why I mowed it down.

Negative thinking is like broom straw. It competes for nutrients in your mind. Have you ever noticed that one negative thought breeds another? And another? And pretty soon, there’s an entire field of negative thoughts growing in your mind? And your mind is like the soil—it grows what’s planted.

Today, mow down your negative thoughts. In their place, plant positive thoughts of God’s love and peace so you can make a life, not just a living today.

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"How quickly do you forget?"

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You can imagine how when the temperature went from 18 degrees with ten inches of snow to 82 degrees in less than a week, it was really easy for me to forget that it had actually snowed. Snow is a distant memory when you’re walking behind a lawn mower, cleaning up leaves so the spring grass will grow.

So I’m walking behind the mower and stop to empty the bagger and pause to look out across one of the horse pastures. I can see water moving down the mountain on my neighbor’s farm and emptying into a culvert to pass on down stream. When I see the water flowing, I remember the ten inches of snow and realize that it’s still melting and moving down from the mountain.

Sometimes it’s easy for you and me to forget something we do, hoping that no one noticed or that since it’s over with, it’s gone. But it’s not. The consequences of our actions follow you sometimes for years, even generations. Those consequences are hard to endure, aren’t they?

God’s grace is with you, saving you from the full brunt of those consequences and helping you make a life, not just a living each and every day.

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