"Do you bag life’s beauty?"

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

I was in a meeting last month and someone turned to me and said, “Well, have you raked up all of your leaves?”

“Not yet,” I said.

“Oh, do you wait until they all fall so you only have to get them up once?” he said.

“Well,” I said, “they all are fallen when I get them up, but that’s not why I wait. Have you ever left those beautiful red, orange, and yellow works of art on the ground long enough to enjoy the gorgeous carpet they roll out?”

“Not really,” he said. “I usually get them up as they hit the ground.”

“What do you do with them?” I asked.

“I bag them,” he told me.

“You’re bagging and throwing away a lot of beauty,” I said.

Do you treat life the way this guy does his leaves? Just because something falls in your way, you dispose of it as quickly as possible?

Life takes you off your usual path at times, especially during the holidays, right? Don’t avoid it. See the beauty in it. And discover God there as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

Discover more great stories like this one!

"Where’s your trash?"

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

I read recently about a major corporation that transformed the way it handles its trash. Previously they paid millions of dollars to have the trash hauled to a landfill where it was disposed. The transformation came when the corporation started sorting its trash into various categories, such as those items like plastic and metals that could be recycled, and food stuff that could be converted into compost. The transformation was so effective that they turned a deficit situation into a positive cash flow, i.e., they make money from their trash.

This company’s response to their trash started me listening to life about other forms of garbage like the “bad things” in life that happen to us. How can we recycle those?

God can transform every experience you have in life. Sure, it’s smelly and gross sometimes, but God can help you learn from it. Just push through the pain, see beyond it, and ask, “Please show me, God, what I can learn from this trashy experience in my life so I can turn a negative into a positive.” Then listen to your life and make a life, not just a living.

Discover more great stories like this one!

"Can you see clearly?"

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

A couple moves into a new home. They’re eating breakfast together in their new kitchen when the husband looks out and sees a neighbor hanging out some laundry.

“Man, that laundry isn’t very clean,” he says. “She doesn’t know how to wash clothes right or needs a different kind of detergent.” His wife doesn’t say anything.

Every time the neighbor hangs out the laundry while the couple eats breakfast, the husband says the same thing. His wife says nothing.

Pretty soon the couple has spent their first month in their new home and they’re eating breakfast together again. Once again, the neighbor starts hanging out the laundry. But this time, the husband says, “Well how about that? She finally learned how to wash her laundry correctly. See how clean it is?”

And his wife says, “Actually yesterday afternoon I cleaned that window.”

As you listen to life and make a life, not just a living today, make sure your own window is clean before you comment on someone else’s dirty laundry.

Discover more great stories like this one!

"What’s your choice—passion or misery?"

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

I walk into lots of new places, most of them businesses, and have discovered that I get lots of different receptions. The receptions run from “Hi! How may I help you?” to “Yea? Whadda you want?”

You’ve gotten those same receptions. You can tell almost immediately who’s passionate about what he’s doing and who’s not, who’s doing a great job because she loves what she does and who she is and who’s just miserable.

So what creates the difference between “How may I help you?” and “Whadda you want?” It’s the personal choice to make a life and a living or to just make a living. If you make a life and a living, you listen to life for opportunities to invest yourself in others’ well-being, knowing that’s the path to spiritual and financial success. If you just make a living, others merely interrupt your pursuit of money.

So what’s your choice? God gives us one another to help along the way so choose your passion, not misery as you listen to life today and make a life, not just a living.

Discover more great stories like this one!

"Where’s your watch?"

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

Someone asked me recently, “Did you forget your watch?” They noticed I wasn’t wearing one. “No,” I said. “I stopped wearing my watch about five years ago.” I went on to tell them how much I like my watch. It’s a very well-known brand of watch.

So why did I stop wearing it? To help me focus less on what’s coming up next and where I’m going and by when and more on where I am now, what I’m doing now, who I’m with now, and what’s going on now.

You’re probably wondering how I get anywhere on time. I have a mobile phone and it keeps time. And there are clocks everywhere—restaurant walls, the car, my friends’ wrists. I haven’t been any later than I was earlier in the year for any of my appointments, but I sure feel freer.

I feel freer to listen to the person I’m eating lunch with who has cancer. I feel freer to answer email from around the world from people searching for life answers. I feel freer to have fun at the gym with my daughter. I feel freer to share with my wife.

So just put your watch in your dresser drawer and try it for a day. And listen to life and make a life, not just a time-driven living.

Discover more great stories like this one!