I read this quote by Bobby Knight the other day. I’ve heard things similar to this in the past, but this one just hits perfectly.
“Everybody wants to be on a championship team, but nobody wants to go to practice.”
Everyone wants the results, but no one wants to do what it takes to get the results.
What do you want?
What are you willing to do for it?
Iced animal cookies in that big pink bag used to be great. They skimp on the icing now.
I find those windmill cookies with the slivers of nuts again, but they are hard as a rock. Either my child teeth were sharp as a razor or they’ve changed that recipe too.
Fudge stripes are good. I like to eat up to each stripe.
The original chips ahoy are for babies. Give me the chunky chips ahoy in the brown package.
I one time found a delightful Christmas shortbread cookie in a paper bag with a cellophane window in the front. They were sprinkled with colored sugar crystals. I’ve never found them again.
Oreos are always great with milk. I eat them intact. I do not split them apart.
Fig newtons aren’t really cookies but I can eat them.
Iced oatmeals are great. They used to look like flowers with a hole in the middle.
Biscoff taste amazing. They have their own store at Pier 39 in San Francisco.
No doubt, God is a God who wants us to pray and is eager to answer our prayers.
He also is not a genie in a bottle.
Some take prayer to be the ability to call upon God to fix everything that is wrong in their lives with a crossing of the arms and nod of the head.
They fail to consider that God does not and will not do for us what we can do for ourselves. As my children have grown and matured, their mother and I have stopped doing certain things for them. We no longer diaper and change them. We no longer feed them by hand. We do not carry them when their legs are tired. We expect them to do what they can for themselves. Once their abilities and resources have been exhausted, we then will step in and help with what they cannot do for themselves. But not until then.
It is time for me to begin cutting weight again. No matter how much I pray for the weight to go away, God will not take it away. He has already given me the ability to close my mouth when food should not enter it. He has given me the ability to walk, run and exercise my body.
No matter how much I pray that God bless my pepperoni pizza and large coke to the health and nourishment of my body, it ain’t gonna happen.
Please do not let this idea hinder you from praying. Please pray frequently and often. Please take your needs and desires to God.
But also, please stop thinking that things are going to change in your life, if you aren’t willing to do some changing.
As a pastor, people want me to wave a magic wand of prayer over their lives to fix what is broken. Then they want to go right back to doing the same things they have always done. This also ain’t gonna happen.
In most cases, nothing is going to change for you until you change.
Proverbs 18:1: Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
Occasionally, Shannon and I will have a disagreement that is based on a difference of perception.
She sees a scenario one way and I see it another. It would be similar to an auto accident as viewed by a mechanic and a medical doctor. They both saw the same accident, but they will view it in very different ways. Two different people will see the same event in uniquely different ways.
I have been interviewed by reporters on several occasions. After reading what they have written or put on television, I was baffled. What is reported is vastly different than what was asked and answered. I am convinced that it’s not simply a matter of perception in these cases. With perception, you can at least see the other person’s point of view if you look at it from their perspective. With agenda, there is no logical understanding between what is seen and how it is reported.
I swear, if you say to someone with an agenda that it’s a beautiful sunny day, they would tell everyone that you said that darkness was coming.
Those who attack our person, our property or our freedom are the enemy.
Those who simply disagree with us are not.
Our culture is being groomed to crave drama. Reality tv is good evidence of this. The more groups we can get arguing, fighting and attempting to destroy each other, the better off we are. Or so we are told.
The circle of churches I am associated with has a proclivity to behave this way. We criticize over non essentials even to the point of separation. Biblical separation certainly has its place concerning biblical issues, but not the color of my tie or my decision to wear facial hair.
Good people are hurt and sometimes lost because of friendly fire.
Relationships that could result in persuading someone to our perspective are lost because of friendly fire.
Be careful who you are shooting at.
The only thing that comes when you call is a dog.
Anything else you want, you have to go out and get.
If you’re unwilling to go get it, you better be prepared to live without it.
I know them and you know them.
The people who love to spread bad news. The ones who are quick to point out just how terrible everything is going to get.
Last winter in Michigan, we saw snow in mid November that was on the ground until late March. We received a record amount of snow and a record number of consecutive days of snow cover. The week of Christmas, we enjoyed an ice storm that left many people without power for up to seven days. It was a pretty severe winter.
As fall approached this year, the talk began. “I hear this winter’s going to be pretty bad.” “I hear it’s going to be even worse than last year.” “I hear it’s going to make winter last year seem like Florida.”
The reality? We got a little snow in November and then it melted quick. December was amazing with a few days in the mid 50’s. Yesterday we got a snow that mostly covered the grass. Today the high is 12 degrees. It has been nothing like the spreaders of doom and gloom predicted.
I remember when gas prices started to climb a few years ago. Two, three and eventually four dollars was seen. The same crowd came out screaming that $10 gas was in our near future. Yesterday I passed a Speedway that had it for $1.56 a gallon.
The truth is that no one knows what tomorrow holds. They say they do. They cite their sources and their logic, but they have no clue. They create a lot of hand wringing and panic, but they know no more than you do about what tomorrow holds.
Who would have guessed that gas would be back to $1.56?
Proverbs 27:1: Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
In fact, He may have spent as many as twenty years working His craft.
I’m going to start doing carpentry. If Jesus did it, I want to do it.
It may just be that it will provide me something I do not currently have that can only be gained by doing such work.
Time will tell.
you will lose everything you have.
Every time I ask this question, the answer I most often get is “win.” But you don’t win playing the slots unless your idea of winning is simply entertainment or losing all your money. Casinos have nicer buildings and furnishings than anyone who gambles in them. They are set up so that the house wins in the end.
There are some pursuits that aren’t worth pursuing.
Sometimes it is better to quit while you’re ahead.
Persistence does not always pay off.
What we have to decide is, is what I am pursuing worth what it is costing me?
This can exist even within noble pursuits. Sometimes you have to know when to walk away. Sometimes you have to know when to run.
Then there are the boneheads who keep destroying their lives by pursuing shortcuts, dishonesty and unethical behavior.
Thinking that rebelling against God and living wickedly is the way to a great life. This is wrought with foolishness.
You play that game long enough and you will lose everything you have.
We don’t like to start new things because we fear failing.
Every conceivable reason that our new adventure will not work springs to the forefront of our minds.
We follow the stream of consciousness that ultimately ends up in our losing everything.
And so we are defeated before we even begin. We have quit before we even start. Fear has caused us to fail.
That’s the good news. The good news is that failing to start is failure. I have already failed. I have faced that which I was afraid of. Now, i don’t have to fear it anymore.
So if doing nothing is automatic failure, we may as well try. We have nothing else to lose.
Joel Stiff's Adventure 