I’m intrigued by stories of survivors. Is it possible to survive a free-fall from the Sears Tower in Chicago? The answer is yes. Or what if you fulfill a lifelong dream of skydiving and your parachute fails, could you survive the fall? The answer is still yes. The Wiki How-To manual says, “Hundreds maybe thousands of people have fallen from such heights and lived to tell the tale.”
What is your first reaction when you read the word change? Is it a moment of dread and despair? Perhaps, you are thinking of changing the furniture in your living room – excited? Maybe you are thinking of packing all your belongings and moving to a new city with great anticipation of what new things you will uncover.
Whatever your reaction, you are not alone! In a quick search through Google, there were over 12.5 billion results. It seems to be a popular topic!
“Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” Matthew 5:37
I knew Saturday was going to be frantic.
With a baseball parade early in the morning, two baseball games, a soccer game and a car that needed to be repaired, my husband and I were going to have to hustle to make all those activities work.
Leadership development is an important component of the success of any organization, church and even family. The adage that “birds of a feather flock together” is perhaps truer today than at any time in history. We go to church, movies, concerts, trips and just hang out with people, who are in many ways, just like us, or at least share many of our values. Research conducted by Roger Highfield states:
“It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be all right.”
Through the slits in my eyelids I could vaguely see a small crowd of people hovering over and near me as I lay on the floor. But I distinctly heard those reassuring words. Against the bright overhead lights, there was the outline of a woman hovering over me, kneeling at my right side, taking my pulse. Her voice had the assurance of someone who knew about life and death. I decided she must know I was going to live. My anxious breathing evened out and the pain began to subside.
When Moses and his older brother Aaron were both in their eighties, God assigned them to a team with a very demanding, long-lasting, almost impossible task. Working together for 40 years, they successfully completed their assigned task of bringing Israel to the river Jordon, across from the Promised Land, when the nation was ready to enter it.
“How could church people be so mean?” I thought to myself. Just a few hours earlier, my pastor-husband had been told to turn in his resignation. Now, I was the sole supporter of our little family of four with only a part-time job. Bitterness and anger raged inside of me. I vowed, “I will never forgive the men who did this to us.” And I didn’t. Months turned into years, years turned into spiritual strongholds. Unknowingly, I’d built a wall of distrust with bricks of unforgiveness held together with the mortar of anger and hate.
“Oh shoot! No WiFi in this area either!” I had signed in to the free Internet at the Los Angeles airport. However, the signal was so weak in most gate areas that it was of no use. We had a long delay ahead of us, and I was tired of searching for a signal.
Nevertheless I stood up with phone in hand to walk out into the main corridor. And then I saw her. She had a bright orange vest with two words boldly printed on the back: ASK ME
We are blessed to live in a time that offers so many conveniences. We get news and weather by turning on the television or radio, bank via the ATM, cook or call for home delivery. Many conveniences, like cell phone or texting, allow us to communicate with loved ones when we are away, but they can also foster a sense of isolation. How many times have you witnessed people walk past each other without speaking a word, not even a “Good Morning”, texting instead of talking, or walking into traffic while reading their texts?
