Tag Archives: Dream

Thanksgiving Perspective

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” – Mark 9:37 (NIV)

It is Thanksgiving Week in the United States. Many of us use this week, and Thanksgiving Day, to connect with family and friends to enjoy fellowship and share what we are thankful for in our lives.

I’m not going to spend a lot of words today trying to guilt you into feeling bad about the good and wonderful things God has blessed you with this year. I’m simply going to ask you to click on the links below.

Read the stories.

Investigate the opportunities to share.

Rejoice. Give thanks. Share as you are able.

Opportunity #1 – God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage in Haiti – November 29 through December 1!
My friend Tom Vanderwell works for GLA. He lives near me in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tom is passionate about his work and the incredible opportunity that is available through a partnership with Family Christian Stores and Best Selling Author, Karen Kingsbury.

Click this link to read about the opportunity to help raise $500,000 to build a new neonatal facility in Haiti: The Haiti Challenge. Three Days, One Orphanage & You.

Opportunity #2 – SafeWorld Medical Clinic in Uganda – NOW through December 12!
My friend Matt Chambers is the Director of SafeWorld projects. He has assembled a team with a dream for Uganda.

The goal is $50,000.

1,000 people $50 each

WHY BUILD A HOSPITAL?
In the United States, we have 1 physician for every 390 people. In Nakaseke District, Uganda (where SafeWorld is based), there is only 1 physician for ever 29,000 people. As we researched the most immediate, effective, community-building ways we could help, this seemed the most crucial need. When we met with all the village, parish, and district leaders, they were unanimous that this should be the first building we construct.
Affordable access to excellent healthcare changes EVERYTHING.

Click this link for more information and to donate: http://hopemob.org/s/1ts-help-us-open-a-medical-clinic-in-uganda

Rejoice. Give thanks. Share as you are able.
Have a great week!

Holding On

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Recently I discovered myself holding on to something.

I had been holding on to it for quite a long time. I can remember when I began holding it. You would think I would have let go by now. I couldn’t.

The brutal honest fact is that most of the time I didn’t know I was holding it. I had become so comfortable with it that I forgot I was holding it.

During a counseling session a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly realized I was holding it.
(Yep. Counseling. Mom it’s okay. People can know that your 42-year-old son is seeing a counselor.)

It was heavy. Unbearably heavy.

How did I become so comfortable with this extremely heavy burden?

Over the course of almost three decades I had learned to live with it. It is a close comfortable friend. Well, not really a friend.

I’m sure you understand. I’m sure there is a person in your life that is always around. You’ve tried to leave a few times, but the separation never really happens. They are with you.

Always.

Many times they are present during the good times. But you know in your heart the soul piercing dagger they wield will show up eventually. Once again you will wonder why you put up with their mere presence in your life.

But you know why you let them remain. They are comfortable. An always present baseline of sorts.

Soul sucking people. Soul sucking events. Soul sucking, joy killing actions.

Why do we hold them so tightly?

What I’m holding isn’t a person. It is an event. More accurately, a series of events.

These events came to me one at a time. Each one found a place to sit in my psyche. One at a time doesn’t weigh too much. All together is a different story.

Are you holding something tightly that is destructive? How long have you had a death grip on it? What would happen if you let it go?

**Read “Letting Go” to learn more about my depression and ongoing recovery/”battle”.

SELFISH

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“Dreaming and walking down the road to awesome is not inherently selfish” – Jon Acuff

Is it wrong to want to publish an award-winning blog or to write a New York Times best-selling book? In a word: No. If you have been called by God to do something, it is never selfish to desire to be wildly successful at it! God has called you to a task, a mission, with a purpose for you. God wants you to be wildly successful.

Let’s make sure we are clear though. You have to desire that success for His glory. His glory alone. For many of us (myself included) this brings up the question of how to combine “wildly successful for God’s glory” with “wildly successful for my income and for my family”. It can sometimes be difficult for us to come to terms with success. Satan does some of his best work when he twists our success into pride. He also does some of his best work when he takes our success and plants rapidly growing seeds of guilt in our psyche.

I was brought up with the guidelines that I was to work hard at my job, do my best, don’t rock the boat, and collect the pay check. These things are all good. But why have these ideas become purveyors of guilt, and why have they put in us a fear of asking for something better? Is asking for a raise a selfish act if you’ve been a loyal, hard-working employee? Is it wrong to desire a job you truly enjoy?

I’m trying to walk down a road that will bring me to my personal “awesome”. Fear sometimes tells me to stop dreaming and stop walking down the road. No more. I am going to walk down the “road to awesome” with a purpose and a goal. I will walk and dream with intent. I’d like to invite you along for the walk. Join me.

What dream have you put aside because fear has told you to “do the right thing”?

If you want to see how some other people are being “selfish”, check out my friends at FrankenStart.