OK, it's official

I'm a Lucado nutcase. Every time I read an email from his website, it hits close to home and timely. Here's the next nugget of wisdom.

Today I Will Make a Difference
by Max Lucado

Today I will make a difference. I will begin by controlling my thoughts. A person is the product of his thoughts. I want to be happy and hopeful. Therefore, I will have thoughts that are happy and hopeful. I refuse to be victimized by my circumstances. I will not let petty inconveniences such as stoplights, long lines, and traffic jams be my masters. I will avoid negativism and gossip. Optimism will be my companion, and victory will be my hallmark. Today I will make a difference.

I will be grateful for the twenty-four hours that are before me. Time is a precious commodity. I refuse to allow what little time I have to be contaminated by self-pity, anxiety, or boredom. I will face this day with the joy of a child and the courage of a giant. I will drink each minute as though it is my last. When tomorrow comes, today will be gone forever. While it is here, I will use it for loving and giving. Today I will make a difference.

I will not let past failures haunt me. Even though my life is scarred with mistakes, I refuse to rummage through my trash heap of failures. I will admit them. I will correct them. I will press on. Victoriously. No failure is fatal. It’s OK to stumble… . I will get up. It’s OK to fail… . I will rise again. Today I will make a difference.

I will spend time with those I love. My spouse, my children, my family. A man can own the world but be poor for the lack of love. A man can own nothing and yet be wealthy in relationships. Today I will spend at least five minutes with the significant people in my world. Five quality minutes of talking or hugging or thanking or listening. Five undiluted minutes with my mate, children, and friends.

Today I will make a difference.


Yeah, good stuff. "What you focus on expands." Focus on the good stuff above, it expands.

Dale

Asking for prayer

Just got a call last night from my cousins who manage our apartment complex in TX. Seems there was a big fight last night, and a couple of young guys (not even tenants -- friends of tenants) beat the hell out of a young Mexican (I think they said he was 17 or 18) whose family lives quietly in our apartments. Stephanie and Edie had to spend about 2 hours cleaning blood off of the breezeways where the incident occurred. They said there were pieces of hair and skin in the staircase, like they beat his head into the concrete.

The boy is in the hospital now, and he’ll be fine. The two thugs were arrested.

This isn’t the first fight on our premises. This isn’t the first time (by a LONG shot) that the police have had to arrest someone on our property. This isn’t the first time that my cousins have had to get stern with tenants. Suffice it to say, the tenants involved in the beating are being evicted.

I don’t think that the apartments have ever been prayed over. I know we haven’t done it since we’ve owned them (July 2006). There was a drug dealer that lived there, but he was arrested in November 06. There are still drugs on the premises, according to the police and to other tenants. There are always fights and bad blood.

Gary and I pray for wisdom and guidance constantly, but I don’t think we’ve ever actually prayed for peace in our buildings. Like a blessing on the property.

So I just ask for prayers for our place. We are putting financing on them and selling them now, but it’s been a hard road to plow. Pray that God opens the doors He wants open and closes the doors He wants closed, and they we be wise enough to know the difference. Pray that whatever “powers and spiritual forces” exist there be cleaned away. Pray that the sale goes smoothly and without incident. Also, pray protection over my cousins as they lead the charge.

There are two properties: The Tropicana and The Country Place apartments, in Longview TX.

Thanks! Blessings!

Dale

Martin Luther King

Ran across this quote from MLK. I've always been struck by how wise-beyond-his-years he seemed and was. Learned, yes, and intelligent. But even something more. Something almost supernatural. Like he could see things we couldn't.

He was WAY before his time. He was living in the 50s & 60s, which I would say was the pinnacle of the hey-day of the Western Christian church, before the "hippies" got a hold of society. The "moral authority" still had huge influence over politics, the media, and education (remember Ricky and Lucy didn’t sleep in the same bed?)

I would suggest that the backlash that we saw during the “Free Love” era of the 60s grew partly from an unrest regarding the moral authority’s reliance on tradition and power rather than a real sense of love and service. I have this image of Truman-esque men with Fedoras and horn rimmed glasses looking at the young with condescension and disappointment instead of humility and compassion.

I think MLK saw this. This quote encapsulates this:

"The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority."

How would you define “prophetic zeal”?

Once again Lucado hammers it home

Peace for Anxious Days
by Max Lucado

When my daughters were single-digit ages—two, five, and seven—I wowed them with a miracle. I told them the story of Moses and the manna and invited them to follow me on a wilderness trek through the house.

“Who knows,” I suggested, “manna may fall from the sky again.”

We dressed in sheets and sandals and did our best Bedouin hike through the bedrooms. The girls, on my instruction, complained to me, Moses, of hunger and demanded I take them back to Egypt, or at least to the kitchen. When we entered the den, I urged them to play up their parts: groan, moan, and beg for food.

“Look up,” I urged. “Manna might fall any minute.”

Two-year-old Sara obliged with no questions, but Jenna and Andrea had their doubts. How can manna fall from a ceiling?

Just like the Hebrews. “How can God feed us in the wilderness?”

Just like you? You look at tomorrow’s demands, next week’s bills, next month’s silent calendar. Your future looks as barren as the Sinai Desert. “How can I face my future?” God tells you what I told my daughters: “Look up.”

When my daughters did, manna fell! Well, not manna, but vanilla wafers dropped from the ceiling and landed on the carpet. Sara squealed with delight and started munching. Jenna and Andrea were old enough to request an explanation.

My answer was simple. I knew the itinerary. I knew we would enter this room. Vanilla wafers fit safely on the topside of the ceiling-fan blades. I had placed them there in advance. When they groaned and moaned, I turned on the switch.

God’s answer to the Hebrews was similar. Did he know their itinerary? Did he know they would grow hungry? Yes and yes. And at the right time, he tilted the manna basket toward earth.

And what about you? God knows what you need and where you’ll be. Any chance he has some vanilla wafers on tomorrow’s ceiling fans? Trust him. “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes” (Matthew 6:33-34).




DAAAANG .. perfect timing for me in my life. It's not fair -- I think Lucado has like a Batphone that connects right to God.

"OK, what should I say now, God? (licks his pen) Ohhh, that's good."

The Secret

To my Christian brothers and sisters out there: Has anyone seen this movie? What's your take on it? Where does it line up with the Truth, and where does it veer off?

www.TheSecret.tv

There is some wisdom here (all true wisdom comes from God, even if the person speaking it doesn't acknowledge it). I'm just curious what the general consensus is for this in our group.

Now it feels like Coffee Talk:

I'll give you a topic. Rhode Island -- neither a road, nor an island. Discuss.

Let me know what you think ..

Dale