"A New Year Bring New Chances"

"Lets take a chance and..."

Ever said that or been with someone or a group who decided to take a chance.  What is chance?  Certainly it is not the guarantee that success is around the corner of decision!  It is taking the opportunity for success.  It is measuring the possibilities and deciding such risk as is involved is worth it and then moving in some direction or another.

What keeps us from taking a chance?  For some I suppose it is fear.  For some it is comfort.  For some it is irresponsibility.  Irresponsibility?  That is right.  A story...

Imagine that there was a garden of the most delightful fruits and vegetables that one might imagine.  Though untended there were no weeds and the soil was so rich that plants effortlessly grew, and the fruit and vegetables were abundant.  There was a natural spring of the purest water which kept the soil moist.  There was so much produce that it would feed the dozens and dozens of families that had need.  In addition there would be so much left over, it could be sold and the monies earned could then be used to meet other needs.  

Then imagine that next door to this garden lived a miser.  He would go and harvest for his own needs but gave no thought to others.  You see the thing needed to share the produce was someone to arrange for those with needs to come and harvest the produce.  It needed someone to arrange for those who could harvest to provide the bounty to those in need, who could not do so themselves.

Yet the miser was only concerned with himself and so he built a fence around the garden and hoarded what was there.   

Now imagine that another man lives on the other side of the garden and he does all of the things just mentioned.  He take some for himself.  However, here he differs from the miser.  This man is possessed of a soft heart.   He arranges for the needy to come and harvest for themselves and others who cannot do so.  He arranges for the extra to be sold in order to meet other kinds of needs.  He begins a business and supports not only his own family but causes important to the community.

The question..."Which man would you like to be?"  Before you answer consider that years later both men are on their death bed.  One will die fulfilled and feel like life was well lived surrounded by family and friends from the community.  The other will die empty, unfulfilled, bitter, and alone.

Now change the story so that instead of a garden you have giftings, skills, ideas, and abilities.  What do you suppose would happen if in just one small area of your life you decided to share these things with others.  To give of yourself?

Maybe you are gifted in finances.

What if you took a chance on an IPO (Initial public offering of stock in a company that is going to be public)?  What if you invested in an income property?  What if you helped someone who is in a problem situation which they did not create?

Maybe you are gifted in business.

What if you took a chance, decided where need exists that opportunity exists, and began a small business?  What if you helped someone else begin a small business?

Maybe you like to learn and then teach others.

What if you took a chance and went back to school?  What if you found a struggling student and helped them achieve academic success?

Maybe you have time and material good so that you could give time to others.

What if you found a new place of service?  What if you became a volunteer at your place of worship?  Maybe you could serve at the USO, a veteran's home, the Boy Scouts, or some other place of service?  

Maybe you are well off and have more than you could ever possibly need.

What if you decided to give away more of your material goods this year?  Maybe start a charitable trust?  Maybe you could began a foundation to reach out to some need or another?  

Maybe you are....

What if you...?

About now could you be asking why?  Let me share anecdotally.

In the course of my life I've known two people who were wealthy beyond what anyone even close friends knew.  They both had inherited almost all of their material goods.  Though they did not know each other and were separated by time and miles, they both shared a common attitude and two common experiences.

The attitude was insecurity as to their financial future.  Neither could spend all of the interest their money earned  but neither would for fear that they would be left destitute.  They had placed their trust in finances instead of the Faith they both claimed.  I remember presenting a need to one of them, a need that would not have made a small dent in his wealth only to be met with a verbal if not violent response.

The common experiences?  Both of them had people unrelated by marriage or blood who sought to separate them from their wealth.  In one case it seems to me that the person died in need for the unscrupulous did succeed.  If such was not so, at their demise it was.  In the other case we (my wife and I) were able to intervene and with the help of a high powered attorney saved the considerable wealth from an unscrupulous individual who had already made some inroads.

The other common experience they both shared was that they died.  Neither took one dime of his or her wealth with them.

What is the point?  May you find this to be the year in which you take a chance in one or more of the areas listed above.

"Thank You..."

In the last 51/2 months, and as of today some 500 times someone has gone to the blog and hopefully read something that helped them along life's way.  Outside of the US the most hits came from Russia and the UK.  Other places include Latvia, Indonesia, Germany, Columbia, and others.  Again thanks for stopping by.

"Purpose and Meaning, But What About Initiative"

“Don't Leave Out Initiative”

When you consider the message that we receive from many quarters in western culture, and if you are like me, you feel bombarded with the notion that life has lost much of its meaning and purpose.  The message seems to be that we individually have no opportunity and that in order for us to know any success in life, we need the help of government.

However, such thinking diverts our attention from some vitally important things.  For people of faith it turns focus away from that fact that God is still on His throne and very much in charge of His followers.  Therefore, we as Christians need to hear His words as to the meaning of our lives and our eternal purposes.  For those with no faith life, it short circuits certain thought processes having to do with personal responsibility, opportunity, initiative, and genuine success (success as measured by one's own values).

A personal thought.  To be candid about it, I become comfortable in my life style.  There was little challenge and less initiative.  Then one day as I wrote in another blog, it came to me that we and especially we who know Christ are not disadvantaged by culture and country as much as we lack initiative to take it to life.  Man’s circumstance and situation can be overcome by Godly initiative and we who name Christ as Lord have certain responsibilities to lean forward.  We must live out genuine Godly initiative.

We do so not just in matters of faith but also in our personal lives, our economic lives, our relational lives, and in the living out of how we were designed, created, and gifted.  It is indeed a matter of personal responsibility which should bring each of us to contrition and humility.  And to the critic who sees this as some selfish personal thing, know that when one is blessed it is to be a blessing.  In other words one does well to see himself as a conduit through which others may be challenged and blessed and not the end point of such blessings.

As to the one who thinks the age of opportunity is now gone read on.

I recently heard the story of a young woman.  Hard times and failure had fallen upon her and yet it did not stamp out her initiative.  Some of her difficulties were of her making and in some she was a genuine victim (Note:  victim is a much over used term.  There are not as many as claim to be.  In most cases it is more convenient to claim victim than to seize the reigns of responsibility).  This young woman was horribly in debt, living on the beach and in her car.  She decided to began a business using a public payphone number for her contact point.  Within a year because of her initiative she was out of debt and had an income.  Today she presides over a very successful company.

Before you  dismiss this thought as an anomaly, consider that people who come to our country have not been influenced by impossibility messages that surround us and thus see the US as people have for two centuries, this indeed is the land of opportunity.  It is still possible through initiative and hard work to become successful, both in man’s eyes and more importantly in God’s eternal view.

The above observations, have great implications for our faith life.  If we do not exercise a sense of meaningfulness, purposefulness, and initiative in matters of faith, we will never rise to the level that God intended for us.  In addition we will never fulfill our Kingdom of Heaven responsiblilies.  None of us are only one in three billion.  Each one of us is uniquely endowed by our Creator for His great and eternal purposes!!!  However, understand this one thing.  

God is not sitting around Heaven waiting for any one of us to get underway but is moving forward with His great Kingdom of Heaven plan.  It will go forward with or without any one of us.

"Do I Really Want The Pain Go Away?"

Dismissing the Discomfort

Maybe you have noticed as I have, that there is a rejection of and even a rebellion against that which is  painful.  Such attitudes have progressed or we might even say regressed until there is rejection of and rebellion against that which is even mildly disagreeable to us.  How often have you heard someone in a mildly objectionable circumstance make the statement that they deserve better.

Yet in considering those situations and circumstances most people with any self awareness at all understand that when difficulty comes, their emotional reaction fits somewhere between mildly disagreeable to deep agony.  Certainly there are a number of words that one might employ to describe his emotional reaction.

Another element is that different people respond to the same circumstances with different emotional reactions.  In other words ones' capacity to deal with difficulty is very individual and thus what one person might view as mildly unpleasant, another might view as extremely offensive.

Why is this rejection and even rebellion so?  Would it not be easier to just move to contrite acceptance.  Consider the following as a possible answer to that question!  

Consider as well that such a desire for restoration creates a tension with the world in which one lives as one seeks to negate the effects of living in and among fallen people, in fallen bodies, in a fallen world order, and in a fallen environment.  This falleness is is not as God intended in the original creation.

Since mankind is created in the image of the Divine, there is within each of us a spark of the Divine--a vestige  though marred by self and sin of the "created in God's image" part of man.  Within that spark are a number of the higher values of man such as creative expression, justice, etc.  There also is the desire for restoration.


It then follows that as we are in a straightened circumstances, that we should be stressed.  However, there is more and it is that we who live with the Divine in view before us, should  stress these things!  That is we should be a stress to those elements of life that create or should we say occasion our reactions on the mildly disagreeable to deep agony emotional reaction scale.

Said another way, just as God's provision of a way for man to be restored to Himself so too within mankind in general and within each man there is that penchant for restoration.  For example, suppose sees another person who has lost the capacity to walk.  Further the first person knows of a medical miracle worker who can restore the capacity to walk.  Most people even though risking scorn, would tell the person in hopes that the stranger who they might never see again would be restored as opposed to simply accepting the situation.


So it is when we are emotionally embroiled in the discomforts and inconveniences of the unpalatable situations and circumstances of life.  Such a "restorative" desire occasions action and such action in some sense seeks to redeem or buy back ourselves and others from the negative situations, circumstances, and feelings that come upon a person.  Another example would be seeking to once again be healthy following major surgery.

However, there must be a healthy caveat in this discussion and it has to do with God's intervention in the lives of  His followers for His purposes.  

Yes, we want to fix the objectionable elements of our lives.  However, it may be that God's intention is that we gracefully carry the uncomfortable elements of our lives.  You see there are some things for which we must be responsible.  On the other hand, there are other things, even if we were vested with all the responsibility in the world, we can do nothing about and those things we must make it our business to make them God's business.  

Think with me about the notion that everything that I find objectionable in life must be fixed!  What might be some of the unintended outcomes. One outcome is that we would then place unfair burdens upon the one carrying the difficulty.  Thus one might hear the following,

Why are you not healed?  Why do you keep on falling back into your sinful habits?  Why do you consistently fail in the Faith?  Why do you not have victory in this area of your life?  Why is it impossible for me to win over some other reflection of my selfishness?

I suppose you might sum up these and other life'e experiences with the thought, Life is at times very trying!

Then ask the question, What do these unfair expectations say about God? You've no doubt heard the questions as I have.

If you are God, why don't you heal or provide, or give me (or them) strength, or victory over a sinful habit, or some other thought about being an over-comer? 

I suppose you ight sum up these and other question with the thought,  God is at times very trying!


It seems to me that if God were to take away the objectionable elements of our lives it would also mean that He would then be removing some key elements of our relationship with Him.  For example,

To remove all that is unpleasant and trying would be to remove the necessity for trust in the Lord.  It also would mean that the necessity for grace is now gone.  What would such a thing say about the opportunities to grow through developing a forgiving heart?

Admittedly there are more questions than answers in the above.  However, there are two things that we do know.  First and of prime importance is this.  When our days of trouble are ended we who follow Christ, will know perfect and complete victory. Those nagging vestiges of our sinful flesh will be left behind.   Second, though we are to be responsible, show initiative, live out ethical qualities, still in all, we are but reader-observers of our day.  The true author who is writing the eternal Kingdom of Heaven story is the only one who knows the great purpose in all that is discussed above.

Though it is of little comfort in the midst of trial, temptation, failure, and frustration, it is not that it is our story but it is His story and we get to be a small part of that narrative.  At least for the days we are given on this earth.  Could it be that the pains and discomforts of this life are a part of His story.  Is that not the point of "...all things work together for good for them who are called for the purposes of God?"

"The Cost of the Loss of Personal Initiative?"

Recently I read an interchange on Facebook and it set me to thinking about an aspect of what is constantly being presented to the American public under the guise of news.  It was an interchange in which one respondent spoke of "the man" and "corporations."  His contention seemed to be that these nebulous entities were disadvantaging people.  For the sake of this discussion I shall forgo the fact that even if such entities as did exist they do not possess the power that seem to be given to them.  What was missing in the discussion was the whole matter of personal responsibility. 

Perhaps the reason that there is "the man" and "corporations" is that such notions seek to absolve one of personal responsibility by seeking to blame others.  If I can blame “the man” then I can safely assume victim status and therefore gain a plethora of benefits.  For example if I am a victim, then I can commit a crime and not be held responsible.  If I am a victim then I can assume an entitlement mentality.  If I am a victim, then I “should” be, rather entitled to have that which the next fellow has worked for.  Then comes another of those words, “deserve.”  If I am a victim, then I deserve to have what others have.  It is almost as if there is a proactive entitlement.

Let’s do a reality check here.  In terms of the “corporations” it was as though the employees of those entities were entitled or deserved to work there.  It was an opportunity that had become a right and thus when said corporation did something that may have made perfect business sense but that did not fit the paradigm of "best interest of the employee" the company was seen as "getting over on" the poor disadvantaged employees.

Look!  All of us are victims of something or another.  However, some choose to get on the victim train (a train that goes to nowhere) and some choose to keep a firm hold on personal responsibility and press on with life.   The reality is that the NO ONE can make anyone do anything they are not willing to do.  No one including the large corporation and the unions that are involved can make an employee continue to work for that company, keep an employee from being personally responsible for his own welfare, his own future, etc.   As I read the Facebook interchange a thought two thoughts came to me.  

The problem is twofold.  First, as has been discussed there is the matter of personal responsibility.  Second, there is the matter of personal dependence.  In the matter of dependence, the individual must have become so dependent upon the employer, union, government, etc. that he cannot see himself moving on to a different situation and better opportunities.  This of course is a matter of choice.  

The simple truth of the matter though often avoided, one cannot hand off one’s own personal responsibility.  Problems abound when one comes to believe he can do so and invest these and other entities as their ultimate source of security and care. 

The sad part is that when this happens, another element of life flees from us.  It is the whole matter of seeing and seizing opportunity.  When I divest myself of personal responsibility and become dependent upon another be it union, business, or government, then there is a very real chance that I will not exercise the initiative to seize such opportunities as may be present in my world.  This is the whole problem with extending unemployment over and over again.  Interesting how suddenly people find jobs when the unemployment benefits end.

The real tragedy is not that opportunity is gone it is that initiative is gone.  Even when one comes from a “faith in God” view, still in all it is a matter of personal initiative.  Such is gone because we have come to believe more in what goes on inside the union leadership, corporate office, and government than we believe in and trust in God. Still in all it is personal responsibility lived out in personal initiative with a healthy dose of faith in God, that will carry the day!

Finally, people make choices and we must respect their right to do so.  However, I highly resent that the Congress seems to think that it is their role to fund safety net programs for people who have and continue to make stupid and irresponsible choices.  People must be allowed to be responsible for and to suffer the consequences of their choices.  If nothing else it is a great learning tool.  

So the question becomes, should a person choose to trust his employer, the union, or the government with his present care and future security?  The question then becomes what happens if that business or the union, or yes, the government should fail.  Such a person should then be allowed to suffer the consequences of his choices.  The same would apply to any other “dependency” entity that you might list. 

If a person does not exercise personal responsibility and initiative, and if that person does not provide for the lean times, and if that person then does not put something aside for the future, there is nothing at all wrong with allowing that person to "enjoy" the consequences of his choices!   Now before you class me as a less than caring conservative/libertarian, yes, there are exceptions.  Certainly there are people who need a helping hand up, people who need care because of unfortunate circumstances not of their making, etc.  However, know this one thing!  There are not as many in genuine need as are on the welfare rolls.  There are not as many as the mass media, the evening news, those on the left, academia, and the Beltway Gang of Thieves have led us to think that there are!!!  

Reduce the government give aways, allow people to deal with the harsh realities of personal responsibility, allow people to experience the consequences of their choices, encourage people to be productively take initiative, and watch the economy heat up as people go out and productively resume responsibility for themselves.   Remember this one thing, you cannot give up nor can you give away personal responsibility.  It is one of those things that one simply cannot give away.