Processing Influence…

Will you influence other people? Absolutely. We all do. The question is HOW you will influence them. Here we find the most valuable consequence of influence… the ability to create positive change.

The secret to change is not resisting what we’re called to leave behind, it is the burning desire to build upon what is new. (Click To Tweet)

How did I get on this gravy train anyway?

The new year brings many people to some desired change, even if it is temporary. How do we as leaders muster up change… or, effectively, process influence? And so January began and I got to thinking about this…

The more I read the more intrigued I became. It seems two of the key ways to create or “process” influence are:

– Inspiration. When we share certain values or ideals, we can process influence by inspiring other people. If you follow me around on social media you are well aware this is a favorite activity of mine… sharing the stuff that I find inspiring. Inspiration is also a long-standing category here at I’m Just Thinkin’ – we call it “Soul Food.” All good stuff!

– Relationships.  Remember All Sorts And Conditions Of People: The 7 Essentials Of Extraordinary Relationships. Yep a relationship book written by yours truly. I am fascinated by people, personalities and the dynamics of relationships – be it at work, within a family, or when we socially engage. We influence the people around us, even those we casually encounter at the grocery store or gas station.

Inspiration and relationships… is this all sounding familiar now?

“Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.” George Elliot

On a related note I wanted to give you a heads up on a change here at my blog: I have turned off comments.

Why?

Great question!

Here’s my take on the evolution of comments and influence:

– Comments were once thought of as a measure of the success of a blog. I started to wonder about this a couple of years ago… and so I changed some things around. Sure enough, others are dancing to the tune of the same drum. While comments afford a venue to build community, they are being replaced by interaction on social media. This is happening for a few reasons, but the important point is this: I appreciate community (remember I write a category that includes “unity”) and hope to continue to hear your feedback and carry forward conversation. My readership continues to grow and for that I’m very thankful. However, for the most part, my readers both loyal and sporadic, by and large don’t leave comments… and I’m ok with that. Think of it this way: would you rather have someone comment on your blog or share your post on FB or Twitter? I’ve been thinking the latter for some time now. It’s the mere circumstance of exposure. Seth Godin never had comments on his blog (He seems to be a pretty sharp guy). Are you catching my drift?

As a side note to all this I can’t even tell you how many books that Thomas Nelson Publishers and others provided to me in advance of their release. I gladly returned the favor by writing a review of them and graciously giving them to friends. All through that process we built influence and community. It was a win for everyone involved. That opportunity is still available to up and cummers. What comes around goes around…

– This has been a long time coming for me (pulling the comments). As I mentioned there are other like-minded writers… you can read about Michael Hyatt’s reasons here. While I successfully eliminated electronic or robot-generated comment spam from my world years ago, I still get them. When Michael says his 10 minutes a day culling the spam amounts to 60 hours a year… I’m getting on-board (though I don’t spend even that much time on mine). When friends ask me about the spam issue, “why do you get them?” there are only two scenario’s here… it really goes back to processing influence… remember, Jesus told us we would face resistance in the world today.

“Conversations matter. That doesn’t mean comments sections are the best place to have them.” Michael Hyatt

Influence is important and conversations matter. Curating a sense of community is important to anyone who chooses to be an agent to invoke positive change.

So we’ll continue to have the conversations…

Thanks for your interest in my writing. I hope you will continue to stop by to read here then share and discuss my content on social media.

Question: What do you think about “processing influence” and blogs without comments? You can share your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

Image courtesy of James Willamor on Flickr.com

The post Processing Influence first appeared on I'm Just Thinkin'.

The post Processing Influence appeared first on I'm Just Thinkin'.

If you’ve got the gigawatts, one day there just may be another way back to the future. Today, there’s just one honorable way.

The summer doldrums… do you know the feeling? I love the longer days of summer but the heat is a bit much here in Jacksonville, Fla. By the time Labor Day rolls around every year I am yearning for the season of change. Fall. As my mind wandered to change I got to thinking more about it and came up with two ways to change history…

The secret to change is not resisting what we’re called to leave behind, it is the burning desire to build upon what is new. (Click To Tweet)

Until there is a time machine gizmo to take us back to the future, like Dr. Emmett Brown’s, we’ll have to settle to some other ideas for changing history. Fortunately, I bring good news today. If we think of every moment as moving on the continuum from past, through present, and into the future, there are two ways to change history:

– I’m first going to share with you an unbecoming way to change history: to muddle the truth. My example: the attempt to convince that Martin Luther King Jr. was not an awesome guy. Wait what what? Yep, the notion that if we throw him under the bus his influence with be diminished. I believe MLK Jr. came in the name of love, as the U2 song goes. If you try to change the truth you’ve come to raise the dead. There is only One who can and will raise the dead. His name is Jesus. Raising the dead by anyone other than Jesus is spiritual attack. We can effectively defend that by using God’s word (the sword of the Spirit), putting on the shoes to keep moving in the forward direction of the future (shoes point that way for a reason).

– The second way to rewrite history is to Change it before it occurs. Remember “#52: Thankful It’s A Keeper” – maybe not lol… I wrote an inspiring piece about the last week of the year. It was several years ago. I ventured into a challenging week with an optimistic spirit. In doing so, I was able to be a change agent in what otherwise might have been an embarrassing and ill-fated journey down a dark road for a few folks. We collectively changed history in that moment.

Be it the summer doldrums or some other season that needs a spark in the right direction, we can change history as it happens. Changing the past by manipulating the truth is looking for trouble – I wouldn’t suggest venturing down that one. Let the truth speak for itself.

If you’ve got the gigawatts, one day there just may be another way back to the future. Today, there’s just one honorable way.

In what ways are you being a change agent to the glory of God?

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Time to saddle up and ride?

Life change can be super scary. I’m not going to kid you and try to convince you otherwise. I think that’s why we’re often so resistant to change, because it requires a leap of faith. It leaves us in an uncomfortable place called vulnerability. Change takes guts, sometimes just to recognize and then profess that we need to change, and to take the resultant, formidable action. Yikes.

“Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.” John Wayne

Well said Duke, on the courage to change, or saddling up in the spirit of doing good.

How do we know when it’s time for a change?

• Whenever we yearn for the future or escape by daydreaming about memories. I know what you’re thinking… it is good to be excited about the future, and to have fond memories – we’re in the same boat on that one. However, if we’re not living for the here and now, we’re missing something. There’s a disconnect for some reason. Figure it out, and give it a twist – just saying…
• When the daily routine seems like we’re just going through the motions. Life becomes stale and stagnant. We’ve essentially stopped growing at this point. The routine is drab. This is as draining as being stuck in hypothetical paralysis. Dude, it’s time to lively up yourself.
• If you find yourself avoiding the truth. You could just be lying to yourself or to other people as well. The truth is foundational to change and growth. Remember, where there is truth there is freedom.

“Being true to yourself means living in truth with each person in your life. It means refusing to say or do something that you don’t believe is right. Living in truth with other people means that you refuse to stay in any situation where you are unhappy with the behavior of another person. You refuse to tolerate it. You refuse to compromise.”
— Brian Tracy

Time for a cool change?

Something or someone got you down… but you’re beginning to see the light?

Remember, there may be some resistance or hesitation… so you may need some help.

Strap on the armor brother and join the enlightenment found in the Word of God!! Memorize some “it is written’s” to carry with you throughout the day, and lock down some friends of the faith as prayer warriors. They’ll also be there like a rock to help you move forward. If there is anything ailing you that you need to give up to the Lord, jettison it. You have a choice to make and the choice should be to be happy.

Change is good. It happens. Embrace it for all the goodness this world has to offer.

How do you recognize the need to make change in your life? Do you have a close circle of friend who you can count on to help you move forward in life change?

Image by Auntie Rain on flickr.com

The post How You Will Know When It’s Time For A Change first appeared on I'm Just Thinkin'.

The post How You Will Know When It’s Time For A Change appeared first on I'm Just Thinkin'.

Andy is a noticer, as is the drifter, sage of a wise man named Jones, the protagonist of Andy’s book, “The Noticer,” and it’s sequel. Jones is a bit of a healer who notices little things about people and creatively finds a way to help them. It’s an inspiring story of love and putting everything into its proper perspective.

I must say there are times when I wish I didn’t notice things. I recall an abrasive co-worker from many years ago who I tried to help out and it just turned into an adversarial situation. Bummer. First and foremost, people have to want to recognize their own shortcomings and want to change before we can really help them. This usually goes back to the condition of our heart.

Like a compass always points to the north, the course of action of a helpful servant guides a path toward positive change and improvement. (Click To Tweet)

The compass always aligns with the earth’s magnetic field.

 

How do I use this ability to help other people? It’s a gift to be able to pick up on something, and it takes a master noticer to figure out how to be able to use the knowledge to influence and bring someone to a better place through forward motion. I have found 3 keys that have been helpful to mastering the skill:

– It involves putting everything into its proper perspective. I write a lot about perspective. One of my favorite recent pieces has been “God, Politics, America and Morality: Why I Remain So Encouraged.” Our world can seem pretty crazy at times… until we are able to put things into perspective. In Andy’s books, Jones touches the lives of a struggling married couple, teenagers, businesspeople facing bankruptcy, and many other people struggling through the obstacles of life. Jones teaches that no matter how bad things look, it’s all in how you look at things that helps to keep life’s many challenges in perspective. Perspective always goes back to one key facet: our way of thinking, the same as cultural change always focuses us back to individuals, and to their thinking. How do we create positive change? It all starts with noticing, and effectively fostering change… consider how we think, instead of what we think.

“Every human has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… the power to choose, to respond, to change.” Stephen Covey

Waiting on the world to change? Hmmm….

– An influential noticer works through the opportune season of connection. Even a comment in passing to a stranger comes through a brief interlude of connection.

Disciple groups at church are a great place to connect. We also connect with lots of different people at work. All of our friends count as connections, and opportunities to influence as well. From a warm smile that is shared with the passing stranger on the street to the deep purposeful process of engagement with a spouse or coworker, the bigger picture of hope is developing with every day spent serving the needs of other people.

Please don’t confuse being a noticer with being a gossiper. Living as a noticer calls us to help other people. Gossip is never that way – it only says something about you and literally nothing at all about the person that you’re talking about. It defines your heart and not theirs. That’s just the truth that I overheard from God. In order to help someone out you have to talk with them, not about them. Whatever handicap we’re looking at, whether it’s a biggie like Tiger Woods’ or simply a smoldering blemish from the past, it’s all going to be OK when we’re connected in God’s dysfunctional family… and with a keen noticer intent on doing good in the name of Jesus.

– The influence of a noticer happens in the right time.

We know there is season for everything under the sun…

“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

I’ve also found, in life, there are experiences that occurred that I can’t really “tie back” to anything definite until years later… then, when the “ahhh haaa” moment shows up, I can put the pieces of the puzzle together and everything fits together just right. That’s everything coming full circle.

It’s funny how God’s timing is often very different from mine. Being a noticer is often the same way… sometimes it is evident we can interject constructive input in the here and now, other times it may be years later that we’re most effective. That can be a heavy weight to carry when you’re trying to help your kids. It comes with the territory but another given in finding contentment whatever the circumstances. Plus, there is always a feeling of joy when you can help someone else move forward in their journey. Praise the Lord for that and for the gift!

Do you think of yourself as a noticer? What do you find to be most effective in ministering to other people?

Image courtesy of “Vero Villa” on flickr.com

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My sweet daughter Rachael graduated from UF Health Jacksonville! She worked hard and earned it, so excited for her!!

I just finished this way cool book by Andy Andrews called “The Noticer Returns.” Since I don’t write book reviews here any more please feel free to follow this link over to Amazon.com where you can read my review and those by many other people who also love this book. I was pretty stoked when I started reading “The Noticer Returns” and realized that we’ve been thinking in parallel, surely moved by the Holy Spirit in some very similar ways recently. All this year I’ve been thinking more and more about having influence beyond what we typically consider traditional boundaries. From everyday heroes to participating in a Disciple Group that is the truest slice of community that I’ve ever seen in a church, I am inspired to say that for the sake of unity and furthering God’s kingdom, change is taking place in our community. Those that matter are making a difference. Andy’s book left me with the usual warm and fuzzy feeling, and it tied up some loose ends for me, providing wisdom and understanding.

Developing a better understanding of culture was one outcome of reading this title for me. Andy’s character Jones states, “If you are ever going to change a culture, you have to understand how it was created in the first place.” He shows us how it all starts with our thinking…

• Thinking determines choices.
• Choices create actions.
• Actions yield results—good or bad.
• Results determine reputation—collectively resulting in a culture.

So it really does all go back to how we’re thinking. If we are focused on our entitlements or enforcing our values on other people, we’re not thinking clearly and in a way that will create cultural change. The how of thinking is the thought process of creating change through influence. It starts at home or in a small circle of close friends, and radiates out from there. Sounds pretty simple, right? It gets messy when we don’t all agree on every issue. It’s sort of like a dysfunctional family, or even within a congregation at a church. I’m not even referring to the variety we see when we visit a different church, or when we look up a different denomination or religion on Google to see what they’re all about. Goodness, to think even further, what about different political affiliations or even the variety of opinions we see across the globe on cultural issues. And so we do tend to congregate, or circle up the wagons in groups of people who are similar to us. Do you know the most segregated day of the week? For most people, it’s Sunday, of course, the day when we spend the most time with our family, at our church and in our close circles (key word here being most).

My current epiphany transgressed to my daughter Rachael. Last week she completed her program at UF Health Jacksonville. She worked hard and earned it, juggling a growing family that includes two little boys that I love and adore. Two of her classmates spoke at her graduation ceremony, and they both shined a light on Rachael’s personality and demeanor, saying what a joy it was to work with her and how bubbly she is even in the midst of stressful days. I told her that was a HUGE compliment to her as both of these traits will take her very far in life. Plus, it’s infectious, creating an atmosphere around her that transforms other people and their lives. Pretty sweet. And therein lies the how of changing…

• culture in our tribe…
• culture in our city…
• culture in our country.

I truly believe the next 2 decades will possibly see more cultural changes, especially in America, than we have experienced in any other time in our history. I expect this will be very unsettling to people my age and those over 35 now as their influence is eroded as a byproduct of this process of cultural change. Things that our generation thought mattered will not mean all that much to a growing population that will become our new leaders.Think of this in terms of what is transpiring in our cultural acceptance of gay rights. The idea spreads from there. Our greatest opportunity is helping to transform the “how of thinking,” and it centers on the love of Jesus.

“Rapid change sweeps aside the status quo and those that defend it (the stuck former geniuses and the stuck bureaucrats). It replaces them with those willing to leap.” Seth Godin

Our thought process and the how of thinking determines our culture. Thank you Andy Andrews.

So how do we influence thinking, as in how to think?

– We have to keep it extremely focused, simple and forward thinking.

– We have to define our core values that matter, and the process.

– We have to work from the inside out.

– We have to emulate the love of Jesus.

That one word brings it all back together. Love.

To be continued…

How would you go about encouraging someone on how instead of what to think?

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Ben The Avalanche Rescue Dog.
Photo courtesy of dafuriousd on flickr.com

As I’m wading through my email last week and I ran across this one, from About.com, “The Psychology Of Heroism.” I never realized that being a hero was all that complicated. Doesn’t it usually go something like this: Clark Kent finds a telephone booth, pops the buttons off his broadcloth double Tattersall dress shirt, and whoosh, off he flies into the night sky to save some damsel from an everyday thug.

So I read about it and sure enough, there is substance to this mindset, you know, of being a hero.

Contrary to what this make look like at first glance, there is substance to this notion, and these everyday heroes are a step out of the ordinary. Here’s what they look like:

• Heroes are servants, they have compassion and empathy for other people.
• When a challenge arises, heroes have confidence in their ability to handle the situation.
• Heroes have a strong moral compass. They are willing to sacrifice their own personal comfort for the sake of doing what is right.
• Heroes are positive thinkers who take action. They are blessed with the ability to look past fear and danger, and foresee a positive outcome.

Does this sound just like Jesus? Yep, I thought so too!

I found out that we can actually learn heroism, and there are initiatives underway to help teach it. The Heroic Imagination Project is one, a non-profit that teaches people how to effectively take action in challenging situations. HIP believes that heroism is a mindset or set of habits that anyone can achieve.

Through the Psychology of Change, HIP empowers individuals to “transform situations by building skills and awareness around five universal, socially based tendencies that are a part of our shared evolutionary and cultural heritage. They are our default mode for good reasons, as these tendencies are normally helpful and adaptive. Yet, when we find ourselves in challenging or stressful situations, uncritically relying on these tendencies can limit our options, hold us back, and lead to poor decision-making.  They can also divert our attention away from important aspects of what is going on immediately around us – our social environment and the psychological dynamics that govern the various situations we encounter on a daily basis. These powerfully influential dynamics are so pervasive that they affect us all, but can be hard to spot without training, and thus are “hidden in plain view.”  That is the bad news. But there is good news.  Recent research in social and educational psychology has uncovered tools and techniques we can put to good use in understanding and changing our reactions to these social forces.  These tools can help us to loosen the grip of our unconscious tendencies and can free us up to exercise leadership and help us to be a positive influence in such situations and in the lives of the people around us.”

So here are the 5 factors, or tendencies that HIP identifies:

– Tendency #1: to react automatically to the things we are not paying close attention to. This tendency states that since we have a limited attention span, we often react automatically out of routine or habit to some situations. We limit our choices in doing this, and also miss key information. To react differently, we have to pay closer attention to our internal and external world.

– Tendency #2: to rely on labels and categories in making judgments about ourselves and others.  T #2 says we often make hasty assumptions about others and the groups we think they belong to, and we use negative labels for ourselves when things don’t go well.

– Tendency #3: to depend on those around us for our own interpretation of what’s going on. This natural social tendency can cause us to miss opportunities to act on behalf of another when we feel less personally responsible or more inclined to misinterpretation.

– Tendency #4: to seek acceptance and avoid rejection. Yikes. We all want to be liked and accepted, right? Maybe following that moral compass is more essential than heading down the wrong path for the sake of fitting in and promoting what is actually a false sense of harmony or unity.

– Tendency #5: to assume that certain aspects of ourselves and others can’t be changed. Ouch, this one is pretty tough for a change agent to read! The assumptions that we make about certain aspects being unchangeable are mostly wrong.

Well, with all that said, HIP leads us to a key change-making strategy: the power of pause. When we hit the pause button, we have time to choose our response, instead of acting on the fly and in autopilot more to a stimuli.

HIP says in the moment of mindfulness we have the opportunity to change our behavior by:

1)  Bringing Yourself Fully into the Present Moment
2) Checking for Automatic Behavior
3)  Considering Alternative Options
4)  Selecting a Preferred Response

That’s it, the power of pause, one path to becoming an everyday hero.

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” – Arthur Ashe

Is there anyone in your community that you see as an everyday hero?

Can you identify with “the power of pause” – where taking a moment to reflect on a situation could change your response to a challenging situation?

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That’s the place!

Just over a year ago the church where I am connected found a home. We had been a “portable church” for 5 years (I’ve been there for 3.5 years now…). Being a portable church was a challenge. There was a small group of people who showed up to church very early on Sunday morning to help unpack 30,000 pounds of our environments from a truck and trailer to set up for our services. Because we had a solid group of people contributing to the effort it was accomplished in just a few hours before and after the service.

After we moved into a facility our lives changed a little and became much easier.

No longer were people showing up for church at 6 am. Now, we could sleep in on Production Team and show up at 7:15. Many other people who used to come in at 7:00 could now show up to volunteer for activities as late as 9:00. This was more dramatic than it may appear as our service time was moved up one hour, and we now have two services instead of just one. Before, many volunteers didn’t even have an opportunity to sit in worship service. A few would show up for the early rehearsal to sing to God.

Here are the two apparent changes that I noticed when our portable church landed:

• We lost some level of connection that we had experienced before. I was having breakfast with one of the elders from church not too long ago and we were talking about how we both missed connecting with other people at the church in the same was we used to when the church was portable. I couldn’t put my finger on why and he zeroed in on the reason… we no longer spent time with the folks we had come to enjoy volunteering along side. Now, if we saw them at church it was a very brief smile and hello. We still have the camaraderie within the service teams, but it doesn’t feel as we’re as connected as before. I miss that.
• Our church grew. Once we moved into a facility that seemed to be more permanent we instantly blossomed. Part of that seems to have been the location, an existing church property in an established residential neighborhood. Maybe the most exciting part of this growth is in the children’s ministries. Lots of new faces everywhere. That is exciting to be a part of.

Our pastor Rich Barrett always emphasizes trying to make an impact on our city. I see that happening at Access Church in so many ways. Praise God. This place is diverse.

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. Henri Bergson

Sometimes being responsive to change is a healthy sign of maturity. Change usually involves uncertainty. We often get comfortable in our setting, and change can be scary. We never know what new possibility that change may bring about. Think of change as a new opportunity to see the world differently…

It is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. Charles Darwin (Click To Tweet)

I don’t know what God has in store through the changes occurring at my church, but it is pretty exciting to watch it unfold!

The Q: Do you find yourself wanting to go back in time due to change? How do you see God at work in your world through the opportunity created by change?

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A new way to look at you’ll never walk alone.

So you want to change the world? What you do today will affect your future, and how you will be living tomorrow. When I think back to my past there are many things I would possibly change. But then I start to think… I’m blessed with an amazing family, having 4 generations of family that live within 3 miles of each other, and I see my grandchildren nearly every day; I’m in a solid, healthy relationship; my heath is excellent for a man my age (If you’re wondering I’ll be 5-0 this year!); and I’m living a dream in being able to fulfill a life-long ambition to be an author and write books. That’s not to say everything is perfect. While I do tend to focus on the positive, there are many challenges for me, like everyone, on my daily walk through life. I feel extraordinarily blessed with joy, peace and love in my life, and if I could and did change the past, would I be in the same place right now? I don’t know, but I can share this with you: my experiences from the past have helped to shape the person that I am today, and I’m thankful for that.

Every day I have an opportunity to change the world. It starts with two choices: I choose to focus on changing me. I choose to be kind. Some days it seems we’re so caught up with our very own agenda we forget the capacity to change the world through simple acts of loving kindness.

So you want to change the world? Here’s my advice on the starting point:

• It only happens in the present. “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today. Let us begin.” Mother Teresa. Enough said.
• I have to begin with me. If you’re spending your time trying to conform to the norm and be a part of the herd maybe consider focusing on that one relationship that means the most… a personal relationship with Jesus. Our witness… that testimony we give before God. It’s our true self – our character when the lights are out. Is that really me? Yep, while I may not always want to admit it, that’s really me… it’s the stuff we find in our heart. But that’s just where the journey begins… that’s where we have a choice to make. The most important choice in trying to changing the world is to make the one choice every day to take a step forward.

Real change begins within me and only ends when, for example, the bad habit, whatever that may be, is broken… that’s a good start. Then, and only then, can a transformation of the heart occur. That occurs one day at a time. Then I can receive the joy and hope found in the Holy Spirit, and be a disciple…

Jesus said, “I now send you, to open their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . .” Acts 26:17-18

Every day we have a new opportunity to change the world. I want to change the world. I want to change me. I’m ready to take a step forward. It feels good. I’m eager to share this experience with others, through kindness and the model that Jesus gave me. Will you join me?

Christian Writers Blog Chain

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Change sounds good. Being endowed to make choices that can bring about positive change feels great. Changing for everlasting… euphoric!

I’m writing today as a contributor to the Christian Writers Blog Chain. Our theme for this month is “Change.” Christianwriters.com is an excellent place to network if you’re a Christian writer or author.

“Every human has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… the power to choose, to respond, to change.” Stephen Covey

WoW, that’s powerful stuff!! These 4 human endowments, or natural abilities, are up to us. We have them and utilize them as we please. If we are focused on doing the right stuff the four endowments work for us, keeping us out of trouble and in His good graces.

How grateful I am to see the power of human will at work in the spirit of change, in my world and also in the people who fill my close circles… when we put our mind to it, we have the ability to change… improve… grow.

The power to change is our most omnipotent choice! (Click to Tweet)

Just think about it… whenever we can modify or alter our behavior, and do so repeatedly so that we develop a new behavior pattern, we’re exercising our free will, through self-awareness, to change. If that takes the influence of our conscience and a pinch of creative imagination, we’ve utilized all 4 endowments in the process.

OK, so I have an example… the HB and I share this pretty crazy connection, it’s like being cut from the same piece of cloth. That makes life very interesting because we share an electric passion that you just don’t find very often in life. Well, there’s an up side and a down side to this… and one thing we’re finding out is that we need to get to know each other better, just as friends. This is very important if we want to carry us to the next level… to a deeper, more meaningful intimacy and everlasting (i.e., the longest term). Why? Well, whenever I think about the world and everlasting, I wonder what we’ll carry with us from this world to the next. This connection that I share with HB… if it is truly a gift from the Holy Spirit, as it seems, will we take that with us? Or, is it just something to enjoy and share while here on earth? I have no idea what the future holds, and so this is a conscious choice as believers… a choice or a change for us. So we had some tidying up to do…  in a nutshell, it goes back to the connection between harmony and morality… focusing on friendship for us means we have something we know we’ll share the rest of our lives here… and that’s relevant to our everyday lives… now and in the future…

Let’s face it, we all have some tidying up to do. We all have some choices, or changes that we could make, right? Once we fess up to this (i.e., have self-awareness), we can move forward to the next hurdle… do I want to change? Often this is the question of conscience… the question of do I really care? This is the point at which we often find out who… and who’s we really are… what’s motivating us… what are priorities are. Next up, exercising our independent will… do I REALLY want to do this deep down in my soul? Will power… we can do most anything if we really set our mind to it… yep, just keep focused on everlasting and that will help ;-)… finally, we may feel the need to use our creative imagination to keep moving forward over the next hurdle… and the one after that. Sure, I can make a short-term change… but will it really stick? Time will tell…

Change sounds good. Being endowed to make choices creating positive change feels great. Changing for everlasting is euphoric! (Click to Tweet)

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Q: Do you believe that change is the most powerful choice we can make? What change have you made in your world that has proven most valuable?

Christian Writers Blog Chain

Image courtesy of seksuwat / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Often when we think of creatives we think of artists and writers… however, we all use creativity in a unique way when we apply our gifts. For instance, if your gift is to serve, you might think outside the box and commit a random act of kindness… show God’s love, hope and compassion to a homeless person on the street… giving them your time and encouragement… listening to their needs, helping them and praying with them. You’ve just completely changed this person’s day… creating a loving environment… maybe even reconnecting a lost soul to the body. Post it on your Facebook status if you like… or just give Him all the glory and keep moving and grooving on your blessed day!

I wrote about creativity a while ago… What Pings Your Creative Juice?… got some excellent feedback and comments on that one. Since then, quite a lot has changed for me personally…

Change… I’ve found it to be refreshing…

Your environment… I believe we are all different when it comes to our tastes… styles… preferences… “beauty is within the eyes of the beholder” right?

The bottom line… here is this:

The majesty of a glowing light shines from within.

Much like the story of resilience paints the picture of a persons’ resolve, every environment is framed in darkness… or light… or some shade of grey… what does yours look like?

What makes your creative juice flow? I looked back on my thoughts and the comments… the juice that makes creativity flow is from either change or the environment.

A lot has changed for me… while much of my personal life is just that… very personal… I will share with you that I am extremely grateful for where I am today… I continue to be inspired by life itself… and so I’m grateful for those experiences along the way that have brought me to this amazing present-day… and while I continue to experiment with adapting my creativity through enormous changes… new environments… and sharing what I learn along the way…

I’ll continue to talk to strangers…

write with a real pencil…

yearn for sunrises…

savor those first few moments upon awakening…

act like a kid…

live life…

and…

love…

yep, just love…

Are you experiencing change now? How is it helping you grow? Are there environmental factors that support your creativity?

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