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'.

The Troubadour. Image courtesy of Gary Minnaert on Wikipedia

Our entitlements… they’re the things we often think of as personal belongings. We’ve worked long and hard for them and consider ownership over them; retirement benefits, a good job that pays well as a result of our completing certain educational requirements, or even the narcissistic belief that we have the right to demand reimbursement from fate. They may even be “given” by virtue of legislation or the principles of our culture today. How did we earn them? We worked hard at school for our education, socking away savings with every paycheck, or otherwise contributed to or served our nation or society.

So we were talking in Disciple Group a while ago about the future. It seemed years ago that people cruised through life banking on retirement. Then what? Interestingly, a leader in the group was also an investment banker. He told stories of people who have planned their whole lives around retirement and what they plan to do THEN. Did they really miss the boat? Many people got there and found out they did. Entitlements from a worldly view are sort of like living for tomorrow – we make huge sacrifices, even working in jobs or careers that are distasteful all for the promises of tomorrow… then everything changes. The economy goes south, our health takes a turn for the worse, or we’re passed over… hey, what about my entitlement?

Our epic entitlement? We have just one…

The tremendous entitlement that we each have is opportunity. Think about it: the power of choice is opportunity. Even writing a blog is an opportunity to serve and help other people. Opportunity is what we make of it. Nothing more, nothing less. Have you ever let a good opportunity pass you by? Sure, we all have. We’ve also all made bad choices that turned out to be more like a stiff jail sentence than the journey down the road to a fairy tale ending.

Our epic entitlement is simply opportunity through freedom of choice. (Click To Tweet) That’s huge. Think of it as the free will to do what’s right.

Say you went to high school and graduated. Yay! You have a diploma, but more importantly you gained knowledge that you can use to help create opportunity. Are you entitled to anything? Not really. From there, you are accepted into a fine university and work hard to complete your formal education. Many consider this milestone to be an entitlement only to be humbled time and again. Your degree creates opportunities for you that you didn’t have before. However, they’re only what you make of them. There are highly educated people, including doctors and lawyers, who can’t hold down a job. Entitlement? Not. Opportunity creates fulfillment when we succeed, by virtue of our abilities and character. (Click To Tweet)

So I got to thinking about The Sad Cafe… The Troubadour. A metaphor in the making, this icon in West Hollywood has a history of opportunity and freedom. Here’s the video of some of the famous faces that have passed through the place. The Troubadour hosted the who’s who of rock and roll.

The Troubadour is no blip on the radar screen. Local hero’s are way cool but don’t get the wrong impression in the youthful penchant for trendy hipsters that there is something magnetic other than momentum. Show up, take the stage and be a rock star at The Troubadour back in the day and you were IT. Then, you’ve seized and fulfilled the opportunity. As the Eagles song goes, some of their dreams came true and some just passed away; some of them stayed behind inside the sad cafe. The song beckons our emotion to remember a time filled with hope and opportunity. I dig that. Pretty hip, and way cool.

“Look for the good in others, speak only words of kindness, and for poise walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” Audrey Hepburn

Indeed, we can still find goodness even in places which seem very distant from the Lord. We’re all entitled to the opportunity that Jesus provides. Like Andy Stanley says, “everyone’s invited, everyone gets in the same way, everyone meets the requirement.”

Moving forward… whenever you hear the word entitlement think opportunity. That’s it, nothing more or less. It’s good enough for me! 🙂

What entitlements or expectations do you have for the future? What opportunities do you see as most important for your future?

The post Our Epic Entitlement first appeared on I'm Just Thinkin'.

The post Our Epic Entitlement appeared first on I'm Just Thinkin'.

Rachael and her buddy Pooh Bear

God was interested in unconditional love when he created man. To get that he gave us something special… freedom, or what we refer to as free will. It’s the power to choose. This turned out to be a very painful journey for God and for us too… but necessary to have the purest and truest of love, and one that endures.

I wanted to share with you today a story about my older daughter Rachael and one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made as a parent… a story of The Beauty Of True Freedom.

Rachael is headstrong. She’s always been that way. Her mom and I separated and divorced as Rachael hit the teenage years. This left me in a heartbreaking situation of not seeing my daughters every day, and in having little parental authority over Rachael and her sister.

When Rachael hit the teenage years things began to happen… she demanded her freedom.

A little freedom? No biggie granting this to a growing teenager. We want them to spread their wings a little and grow, right? “Rachael wanted freedom, but no responsibility” … Grammy Ann’s words, not mine (like how I avoided that one! :))  And that seems to be where we go astray sometimes… thinking that Freedom comes without responsibility.

My experiences with Rachael included…

International calls/voicemails from a friend at home in the States fielded during a work trip…

“Chris, I stopped by to check on your place and didn’t enter the house but think there must have been someone inside… the sound of moving around… noticed the computer was on in the living room…”

“Chris, I stopped back by and by golly all the pool furniture and gas grill were in the swimming pool!”

“Chris, good news and bad… everything’s out of the pool now but your bicycle is gone…”

and on other occasions unexpected signs of life at my place…

parties, parties and more parties…

lunchtime visitors (the local high school was just 3 blocks from my front door)…

(did I mention there were some parties at the house while I was gone?)…

I’m leaving out considerable detail here but hoping that you’ll get the picture…

This all became beyond unacceptable when my younger daughter Allie decided that she wanted to live with me. After numerous convo’s with Rach about the events… something else had to happen… I simply could not allow this to take place any more, especially with the possibility of unexpected visitors on any occasion when Allie was at home by herself.

I told Rachael that I loved her but that she was not allowed to come over any more. I took away her key, changed the locks and barricaded the back door for good measure… and laid everything in God’s hands.

I had tried everything else and nothing seemed to help…

I did what every parent hopes they will never in their life have to do… I had to stand by my principles and follow the advice of a pastor as well as a counselor, and stand firm by the rules with the faith that Rachael would grow to love and respect me for it.

I reassured her that I loved her and let her walk out of my life to the “freedom” that she desired.

All I can say is Ouch!!

One of the most difficult actions I have ever faced is shutting the door on my own child… not something you would ever want to experience as a parent.

We didn’t speak for months. I would call and leave her voicemails at least once a week. It was really a couple of years later that we came to a peace agreement… she started to come back around when little Nolan was on the way… as she realized that I really did love her… what love, respect and freedom was really all about… she must have realized that I trusted her again when she was the only person other than me with a key to my home. Now we can laugh and talk about it openly.

I had to choose my principles and believe in faith that God would watch over Rachael, take care of her, and that my choice was being made for the bigger picture… that she would grow to respect me and the choices that I had to make as her father…

Rachael wanted freedom that she thought would bring happiness, and she may have even found that in the short-term… but happiness is just a temporary fix we can find here on earth… and a temporary fix is of little value in comparison to the enduring love that comes with free will… and true freedom. You see, because of our past… our sins… and our poor choices we can never know true freedom without God’s grace… and committing by faith to a relationship with Him. We may think we can find it… but it eludes us… and will until the very end… unless our choice is to live our life for Him and the freedom that He provides.

Rachael found true freedom through the love and respect that she developed with her earthly father… and for that we owe all the credit to our Heavenly Father.

I Love You Rachael 🙂

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The post The Beauty Of True Freedom first appeared on I'm Just Thinkin'.

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“The wind blows wherever it pleases.

You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.

So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

I ran across this verse while reading through the Gospel in the Bible and it really sunk deep into me.

I think in part that it hit me because I’m very much a free-spirited person. I try my best to bounce off whatever is thrown at me and take life’s ups and downs in stride.

John 3:8 says, to me, that…

The wind is free (even elusive?)…

It’s presence in our lives is somewhat mysterious…

Some of  that mystery seems to be harnessed when we find and start to understand the Holy Spirit…

After I marinated in the verse for a while I started to think about Forrest Gump. I’m a huge fan of Gump, you might say that I have a bit of a man crush on him! I’ve written before about Gump… here’s the jist of what I love about him:

Forrest was free…

Forrest was… a true gem!!!

Forrest was full of the Holy Spirit…

and Forrest was a man of God!

The movie Forrest Gump starts and ends with thought-provoking scenes that include a feather floating with the wind. The scenes leave us with no explanation of the significance of the feather.

John 3:8 makes me think of Forrest’s feather, about how Forrest’s character was so much like the man God wants me to be! And it makes me think about needing to submit to and follow where the Holy Spirit is leading me… even if it is a direction that is not in line with my own agenda.

Do you feel God leading you in a direction in your life that may be different from the one you think you should be headed?

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