Why don't you write?

I come in contact with people from all walks of life who really have an amazing story to tell, but they can’t seem to get it out of them, into a computer and share it with others in a book.

Why? There are many reasons or excuses, but one stands heads and shoulders above all others.

“I’m too busy!”

All of our modern conveniences have allowed us to do more with less time – and yet these very inventions have played a part in holding us captive. We have great transportation, so we can get places faster. We have microwave dinners so we can cook and eat faster. We have continually evolving computers which allow us to accomplish more than ever before in productivity. We have instruments and equipment that allow us to do things faster and better. We have healthcare procedures that make recovery faster so we can go back to work. Through the internet we can research more and faster, buy things from worldwide suppliers in an instant, and connect via online video, audio or text to make things happen which would otherwise take days or weeks. I could go on, but you get the picture.

Yet with all of these advances, we seem to cram more in a day without giving our brains any real downtime to think broadly, creatively or systematically. The urgent has taken the priority over the important. Priorities have taken a back seat to the almighty schedule.

And so the things that may have been erupting in your heart as important, never seem to emerge. Your ideas never gel. Your days turn into weeks, months and years, and the pace of life regularly leaves your writing desire by the side of the road. That desire to write a book looks smaller and smaller in your rearview mirror of living, as you speed down the road of daily life.

And the book never gets started.

…or it it was started, it doesn’t seem to have a hope of being finished.
My friend something has to change. Honestly, you have to decide to change, or your dream will never become a reality. More on this in coming blogs...

Adventure or same old same old?

I am sitting in the Orlando International Airport about to take off on another mission's trip to Ecuador. I have been on adventures like this many times.

So what's going to make this opportunity different from others? Will I be alert to "see" the issues and opportunities from God's perspective as they present themselves? Will I get to see the hand of God move as in prior times? Have I prepared my heart adequately to hear Him and my will to respond to His promptings?

Many times in life, we are presented with opportunities to do things that appear similar to what we have done in the past. Do you have a method to keep alert? Sensitive? Expectant? Will I capture those events and opportunities in writing, or let them slide by?

I believe to the degree that we are observant to the God's movement around us, to that degree He exposes new opportunities to us. And, to the degree we respond and move upon what He exposes, to that degree God empowers us to participate with Him in the supernatural. God doesn't want us to live a life of same-old-same-old. He created life to be full -- and a great adventure.

When we step into a new day, do we approach it aggressively, expectant to be a participant in life or more of a spectator? Do we have a "been there, done that" attitude. If we have been simply going through the motions of life and not really alert to the activity of God all around us, maybe it's time to purposefully look for a change. Maybe it's time for our ordinary days to become an ADVENTURE...again!

Transitioning to Focus on the Important

As I was walking and talking with God this morning, while on vacation in New Port Richie Florida, I felt like God dropped into my mind the phrase – “transitioning to focus on the important.”

The implications are clear. Although what I have been doing to date has been good and maybe necessary, the important things of life have been handled sporadically but not regularly. We all seem to let life lead us instead of us leading life.

Daily necessities occupy most of our time and mental focus. If you have a job, you become consumed in the incidences of our daily grind. If your “job” is taking care of energy-filled children, you are consumed with the seemingly never-ending needs they have. Even if you may be retired, your life may be filled with recreation, your favorite television shows, or chores that take longer and demand more.

In short, the ordinary stuff of life becomes all-consuming. The inverse of that – the extraordinary things of life – are left basically without your focus, time or attention.

The result – an ordinary life.

In most cases, an extraordinary life does not happen on accident, or without focused effort, time and regular attention. However, the ordinary life does happen naturally. Live “naturally” and you can confidently expect an ordinary life.

But, by choice, determination, prayer and unrelenting effort, a person can begin to set a course to become an extraordinary person whose life “naturally” brings forth extraordinary evidence of God’s glory on display.

Maybe for some, this change happens with flip of a mental switch in their brain. But I think for most, it happens through a purposeful season of transition.This transition starts when God illuminates our life and shows us that there is more, and we are settling for less. As “dawn” breaks in our understanding of this reality, we come to the point of decision – go forward, requiring a change in focus and lifestyle, or continue on our natural normal path of the ordinary.