What if the prize is in the PROCESS?
What if the reward is on the ROUTE?
What if the win is in the WORK?
We’re in Part 4 of New Year, Less Me, and this week our message centers around the idea that no matter season we’re in, God has a purpose that we can live out while we’re there. So instead of looking ahead to what’s next, our job is to find ways to honor God in there here and now of life.
As St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whatever you do, do ALL to the glory of God.”
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"If you are living out of a sense of obligation, you are slave."
Wayne Dyer
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a slave to anything on this earth. Being a slave means you don’t do things because you WANT to, but rather because you HAVE to. There’s a big difference.
Nothing is more frustrating than living without passion and just going through the motions. When there’s no passion, even the smallest and most trivial task becomes burdensome and exhausting. However, when you’re passionate about something, the most challenging and difficult task seems enjoyable and something you look forward to. Passion makes a world of difference!
Read MoreIf you ask any priest what his wish for his church would be, he’d probably say SPIRITUAL GROWTH. And I don’t disagree. But what does that look like?
In this week’s message, I talk about 4 things I as a priest wish for all the members of my church in this coming year. It’s more than just read the Bible and say your prayers. These are four things that I believe God wants to use deepen your faith and bring you closer to His perfect plan for your life.
Read More"The world needs you to STOP BEING BORING..."
"You got a heartbeat? That means it’s time to do something!"
"We were made to be awesome!"
(find Kid President online at kidpresident.com, or on twitter @iamkidpresident)
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Below is a post I wrote almost six years ago - on the first day of school back in 2013. As I was re-reading, I realized that this is exactly how I’m feeling now - I CAN’T WAIT FOR SUMMER TO BE OVER! And it’s not just because I’m a party-pooper and the “fun police” as my kids call me, it’s because I see the value of structure, routine and SYSTEMS! And as I’m prepping for my second message in our latest series, STARTING SMALL, I thought this post would be the perfect lead in to prime the pump for Sunday. Enjoy!
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I’m talking leadership today and those who’ve followed me over the years know that I don’t do that very often – not because I don’t think it’s an important topic, but rather because I don’t feel particularly qualified in that area.
When I think of great leaders, I think of people who started movements and changed the world with their forward-thinking vision. When I think of myself, I think of a guy just struggling to figure out what to preach for this week’s sermon.
Great leaders are the guys who know what they’re doing – the guys who got it all figured out. Great leaders are the ones who have all the answers. Right???
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You asked and now I’m answering. Whenever I get suggestions about topics to blog about, at the top of the list are always questions like: “how do you organize your time?” or “how do you schedule your days?” or (my favorite), “what do you do all day?”
This topic is certainly one that is near and dear to my heart. It is probably the single most important factor (other than prayer and the support of my wife and all that good stuff) that leads to my ability to accomplish what I believe God has set in front of me. Simply put, without this, I’d be lost.
And that is the process of SETTING A WEEKLY SCHEDULE.
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Recently I found some old pictures of myself from my younger days – my pre-priesthood/pre-marriage days. Nothing is more fun than looking through those old pictures (especially with your kids who think the world wasn’t created until they came into being) and remembering what life was life back in the good days of the late 1990s (aka, the Stone Ages for all you younger pups).
Things were so different back then. Life was slower and simpler. We used to "chat" with our mouths, not our keyboards. We used to play outside and drink from the hose and we all lived to tell about it. We used to read newspapers and magazines and books! And get this…back in the 90s, MTV actually played music!!!!
Times certainly have changed quite a bit since then. But as much as the world has changed in 20 years, the thing that struck me the most from those old pictures is how much I HAD CHANGED.
Read MoreIt's the finale of WanderLOST and in this week's message, we talk about the one thing we can do to keep the message in front of us at all times.
We need DAILY time to RENEW our minds. Without it, we'll be in danger of SETTLING for what we merely WANT vs STRIVING for what we truly VALUE.
Read More"What YOU really want and what GOD really wants are closer than you think."
We're in week 3 of WanderLOST and this week we're moving from the question of "What do YOU want?" and now we're asking the question, "What does GOD want?"
And if you look carefully and really consider what you really want out of life, I believe you'll find yourself staring face to face with God when you get there. That's how it happened in my life and if you check out the video above, you'll hear for yourself how I got to the point.
Read MoreThe Well is BACK and started with a BANG! Kicked off a fantastic new series yesterday called WanderLOST where we seek to answer the question: WHAT DO YOU WANT?
What do you want in 2018? What do you want in your career? Your relationships? Life in general? What do YOU want?
That's the first question. Now the second question is this: ARE YOU SURE? Are you sure that what you want is what you REALLY want?
Did you ever consider that your pursuit of what you WANT might be standing in the way of your attainment of what you REALLY WANT???
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What’s the fastest way to learn how to tie your shoes?
Let’s assume we’re back in the pre-YouTube Stone Ages of the 1990s. You just got a new pair of shoes and you need to figure out how to tie the laces. You’ve never done this before but you know others who have.
What’s the fastest and simplest way to learn how to tie your shoes?
Option 1: keep trying till you figure it out on your own
Option 2: find someone who knows and watch how they do it
Which would you choose?
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“Everyone ends up somewhere, but not everyone ends up somewhere on purpose.”
That’s a sentence that I heard several years ago and it’s stuck with me ever since. Of all the fears in life that I have (airplanes, pushy salespeople, being stuck on airplanes with pushy salespeople), my greatest fear is getting to the end of my life and realizing that I missed out on what God had in store for my life.
The regret is too much for me to swallow. The feeling of “I missed out” on what God had planned for me or for my family or for my church drives me to be very intentional about the way I live my life and plan for each year.
I don’t want to just end up somewhere; I want to end up somewhere on purpose.
Read More"Everyone ends up somewhere, but not everywhere ends up somewhere on purpose."
That one thought has always driven me to be very intentional about the way I live my life and the way I approach each new year.
In this week's message, I share about three "turning points" that we all need to make internally if we hope to get the most out of the new year and end up some place on purpose.
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It’s January 4. We’re now four days into the new year. Be honest… have you kept your resolutions for 2017? Are you still doing what you said you’d be doing? Did you even start? Is your year going the direction you thought it would by now?
Studies show that by the end of January, 40% of all New Year’s resolutions will have been tossed aside. And that number jumps to 75% just one week into February!
It’s amazing how easy it is to come up with things about our lives that we want to change and yet how hard it is to actually change them!
Why is that? Why can’t we keep our resolutions? Why can’t we make those changes that we know we need to make?
Did you know that...
Merry Christmas everyone! I know Christmas was three days ago but it seems like the party’s just ending now. I think because it fell on a weekend, this year’s Christmas felt more like a week-long event as opposed to just one day.
And in case you’re wondering how I spent that week, below are a few of the many highlights from an action-packed week:
This is a guest post from Minas Nehad – an office manager living and working in Cairo, Egypt. Minas works with a Coptic NGO that works to help the poor in countries throughout Africa and Asia.
As a graduate with high ambitions, I began my career with a large telecommunications company where I enjoyed the corporate life. I moved between several departments, gaining a lot of experience & real success
Then one day I realized what a nonsense cycle I am running in. A lot of effort… a lot of time… a lot of dedication… for what exactly?
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Decisions, decisions, decisions. Should I accept this job? Should I marry this person? Should I listen to that person’s advice? How do I know what to do?
If I had a dollar for every time I get asked that question, I’d be a rich man. Young and old, rich and poor, married and single, spiritual and non-spiritual people – all struggle with the same question: how do I know the “right” thing to do in the situation I’m in?
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Imagine getting on a sailboat, sailing for 25 years and then stopping all of a sudden. You've forgotten where you came from… you have no idea where you are… and you don’t have a clue where you’re going. All this time you’ve sailed aimlessly with no clear direction and now it’s too late to do anything about it.
Unfortunately, that’s life for too many of us. In a generation where distractions couldn't be more numerous, this is where many of us find ourselves.
But that is NOT what God wants for us. That’s because unlike us, God is intentional. Everything He does is intentional and done with purpose. Everything.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)
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Take it from me – a recovering workaholic – WORKING HARDER IS NOT THE ANSWER! We all have things in our life that we want to change – bad habits that we want to get rid of, or good habits that we want to incorporate into our lives. And most of us think about those changes in terms of effort – I need to work harder to accomplish _________.
Well, I know this might sound strange but believe it or not sometimes working harder is actually counter-productive and takes us further away from our goal, not closer to it.
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