Slow Accumulation

Life is a slow accumulation

...of good or ill.

Plans

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

-- Peter Drucker

Even If You Fail

Pursue something so important that even if you fail, the world is better off with you having tried.

-- Tim O-Reilly

Far-Reaching Purposes

Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback...God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ.

-- John Piper

Poverty

Poverty is not a natural condition; it is man-made.

-- Nelson Mandela




Some time well-spent...a Charlie Rose interview with Bono at the Spotted Pig.

Liberties

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Self-Interest

We are on the back-side of democracy when citizens vote primarily in their self-interest based on unrealistic promises.

-- David C. Baker

Parents Obey

The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children.

- King Edward VIII

Only 7 Percent

Only 7 percent of the information people take in comes from the words they hear. Most of the information comes from vocal inflection and body language.

-- David Mann

Good Listener Gets Rewarded

You can’t really talk effectively until you understand what your audience wants. Digital is creating all sorts of hints and clues that a good listener can interpret. In the digital space, brands must continually keep a finger on the virtual pulse to understand what they want from their brand or product experience. A company that shows it’s a good listener gets rewarded. A survey by InboxQ found 64 percent of customers surveyed are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that responded to them.

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Power of Listening...and Telling

I've been collecting observations about listening this week.  I've been doing more listening this week.

It is a powerful action to listen to others, to another person.  In fact, there may not be much that could be more sacred.  Listening creates the space for another to actually tell something, something important about them.  We don't often stop long enough to do this great service for another person.  But, everyone has a story...one that needs to be told, if not for the sake of the one listening, then for the one telling.  Our lives take shape through words, through telling our story. Sometimes words aren't needed, but often not indefinitely.  Because a good story needs to be told, it needs to be heard.  The need for communication is the bond of our humanity.  It creates the mortar needed to build the substance of good life.

I listened to lot of good stories this week.  Stories of people I hadn't met before, stories of people that I live around and now know better. People now that I love more...because of what they told me.  I also learned more about myself because of what I learned about others.  I know how we are connected, in deeper ways.  I know how to identify with them more, to view them as more alike than different from me.  All because I took the time to listen to them.

A group of young people attended a conference this week, a conference where great stories were told, where great thoughts were shared, where stretching experiences were participated in, where people profoundly worshiped together.  I was struck by the range and depth of what people carry around within them.  By the importance of sharing these things with others.  By the ways a person is expanded through deep, rich, and good experiences with other people.  By the telling.  By the listening.

It is a privilege to listen.

Listening and Healing

To enter into solidarity with a suffering person does not mean that we have to talk with that person about our own suffering. Speaking about our own pain is seldom helpful for someone who is in pain. A wounded healer is someone who can listen to a person in pain without having to speak about his or her own wounds. When we have lived through a painful depression, we can listen with great attentiveness and love to a depressed friend without mentioning our experience. Mostly it is better not to direct a suffering person’s attention to ourselves. We have to trust that our own bandaged wounds will allow us to listen to others with our whole beings. That is healing.

-- Henri Nouwen

What Isn't Said

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.

-- Peter Drucker

Most Basic of Needs

The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.

-- Ralph Nichols

Listen Completely

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

-- Ernest Hemingway

Momentum 2013 - VSF Youth

 

...plus Joel and Makenzie are participating in the Momentum 2013 Youth Conference this week at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Click here for links to sessions.

...or here to see some pics being collected (new pics added!).

Keep Seeking

The secret to joy is to keep seeking God where we doubt he is.

-- Ann Voskmp

Our Hands Are Too Full

God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.

-- St. Augustine

Unexamined Life

The unexamined life is not worth living.

-- Socrates

Want Something New

If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.

-- Peter Drucker

Change - Con't

Speaking of change:

Let nothing upset you, Let nothing frighten you. Everything is changing; God alone is changeless. Patience attains the goal. Who has God lacks nothing; God alone fills all their needs.

-- St. Teresa of Avila

It is interesting to note that Theresa and Darwin had deep roots in their beliefs about God.  Perhaps they ended with quite different perspectives about change...or did they?  Someone else said, "Change is the only constant."  Many struggle with change, others get used to it, while yet others welcome it eagerly.

It seems to me, like many things, that your starting points are pretty important to your view...

...of things, like change.

Change

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

-- Leon C. Megginson

Hard to Fail

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

-- Theodore Roosevelt

Pictured Rocks 2013

 

For more pics click here....

Single Step

For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step.

-- Thomas à Kempis

Long Walk

At times it seems like a long walk through this life.  It strikes me that it takes a while to figure out what is going on. We often start the process here.  And, we end here...with lots of stuff in between.  Good stuff.   Hard stuff.  Beautiful stuff.

We hurt people along the way.  We get hurt along the way.

But, we are guided, if we are willing to follow...

"...who for the joy set before him, endured the cross".

Keep walking; there is always more.

With Joy

...with joy!

And what is often the beginning of the journey towards joy?  Click here...for one perspective.

Surprises Us

And, it is service that surprises us...

What I Really Need the Most

I regularly have to be brought back to the truth that what I really need the most is something that someone else cannot provide...only God can provide it.

For one thing, I need to be weaned from myself.

Odor of Outdoors

I stand holding the apple in both hands. It feels precious, like a heavy treasure. I lift it up and smell it. It has such an odor of outdoors on it I want to cry.

-- Margaret Atwood

Break the Connection Addiction

In an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review, Ndubuisi Ekekwe wrote, “There’s an assumption that using smart devices boosts productivity, since they allow us to work constantly. But, we’re also jeopardizing long-term productivity by eliminating predictable time off that ensures balance in our lives.”

-- Steve Anderson

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