Do you ever struggle with feeling discouraged? Do you ever wonder if you are making a difference and if your efforts even matter? Does it seem like the negatives outweigh the positives? I know I struggle with all of those things more frequently than I’d like to admit.
I’ve found one thing particularly helpful when I find myself wallowing in discouragement and despair. All it takes is a quick glance and I find my outlook and perspective begins to change almost instantaneously.
What is the most powerful part of you? Maybe you would say it’s your brains, or maybe your infectious and influencing personality, or maybe like me you’d say it’s your muscular physique (just kidding!).
Every one of us has the exact same powerful tool. We have different IQs, different personalities, different body shapes, different backgrounds, different life experiences…so how can with all of these differences we all be in possession of the same powerful thing?
We see God creating the world with just His words in Genesis 1. The crazy thing to me is that God didn’t reserve that power just for Himself…He gave us the power of words to create things as well.
Through words we can cast vision, we can inspire, and we can encourage…which leads to the creation of movements, nations, companies, and art. Think about it this way…anything significant that has even been accomplished was accomplished because someone moved others to action through their words.
A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.
Who is your best friend? When did you make that friend? Most people that I speak with have some amazing friends that were made during their college years.
College is a special time and place. You were gathered with other young adults from all over the world with the purpose to learn so that you can change the world…well maybe that was your purpose for being there. You went on weekend road trips, you debated late into the night, you tried new things, you were surrounded by great people and you grew like never before with some of the people you now refer to as your best friend(s).
I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.
If I were to ask you, “where’s home?”, what would you say? It’s much easier to say “I’m from a place” or “I grew up in a place,” but home isn’t always the same place as where you grew up.
As the world grows more transient, home becomes a harder place to identify. Families moving every couple of years lose a sense of place, and worse, their kids lose part of their identity. It becomes difficult for them to even say where they grew up. Another bi-product of being transient is kids grow up learning that the relationships they make rarely last. They will be starting over in a few years anyway. This can even creep in for adults, especially those who tend to be more introverted.
Each week you are writing your own story. You are creating and living the story that will one day be told about your life. The story that your grandkids will hear is being written today by you and the choices that you make. One day your kids will tell their kids a story about you. What would that story sound like from their perspective of you?
Don’t believe me? I’ve bet you’ve told some stories to your kids about your parents. Maybe you shared some fun stories about how your dad took you to the arcade every Saturday or how this time of year always reminds you of picking apples and making a pie with your mom. Possibly you’ve shared some painful stories about how a parent was never around or struggled with alcohol. The point is that you shared a story about someone who probably wasn’t aware they were writing a story that would be shared…and yet it was.
A great way to ensure that you have a regret-filled future is living your life based on one word. What’s that word?
It’s…SOMEDAY. It’s a harmless word. A word that in some ways sounds infused with hope. Someday I’ll finish my degree, someday I’ll start my own business, someday I’ll settle down. That word can lull you into thinking that you didn’t just say “no” or “never” to your dream. That one word can make you think that the future will magically get better on its own if you just keep doing what you’ve always done. But that isn’t really hope.
Not too long ago my wife and I were traveling to Virginia. We left right after church and were planning to drive through the night. Our kids were young at the time and had fallen asleep. As you know, your life goes a lot easier, especially on road trips, if you let your kids sleep. It was around 9pm and we hadn’t eaten yet so we decided to hit the drive thru of a hamburger franchise that will go unnamed (to protect the guilty). I had taken a few boring bites, but that next one did me in. The texture was all wrong. I slowly started pulling something out of my mouth that would forever shade my view of restaurants. I pulled out a straw wrapper! How in the world did that end up on my burger? Straws aren’t even in the same areas as food prep in ANY restaurant. It had to be deliberately placed on my hamburger. That got my wheels spinning…what else was on my hamburger? Was that really mayonnaise?
