LifeVesting

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Here’s a little exercise we actually take worship service time to practice occasionally.  Follow the instructions carefully (yes, I mean I want you to actually do this):

• Take a deep breath
• Let out half of it.
• Hold
• Smile
• Repeat the following out loud, in a calm soothing voice:

“No.”

Repeat this exercise regularly, just for practice, and as needed in live game situations.

Not, “No because…”

Not, “Maybe later…”

Not, “Let me pray about it…”

Certainly not, “See if you can find somebody else, and if you can’t, I’ll see what I can do.”

Learning to graciously, kindly refuse is one of eight steps to building or rebuilding margin in your life.  Margin has to do with creating gaps – cushions of time, money, energy, or spiritual strength that act as living shock absorbers for those who have them.

Imagine how it could revolutionize your attitude, relationships, productivity, and health if the next time somebody says, “Got a minute?” you actually do! Read the rest of this entry »

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We pass a word around our office that my associate once used to describe me, and it stuck:  Crispy.

He used it a few years ago when he and our office manager decided they’d seen enough of me in the state I was in and informed me that I was taking my wife on an R & R trip to the mountains.  My reservations had been made, and they weren’t taking “no” for an answer.

I hope to God you have somebody who looks out for you like that.  I wasn’t aware of how emotionally and physically fried I was.  The sad truth about stress, crispiness, and burnout is that often others see their effects on us before we do.

It wasn’t the first time I’ve been crispy, and it probably won’t be the last.  But there’s a further step that can be devastating.  Burnout, in a clinical sense, means you have completely exhausted every form of energy necessary to continue.  More than just losing interest (“I’m sort of burned out on jazz these days”), I’m talking about those times people go to their wells and find them completely dry.  Times when people shock those who know them best by walking away from relationships, careers, or wisdom.

“Stress makes people stupid,” a management consultant once told Daniel Goldman. Burnout reveals it to the world.

So how do people get in such a state - past stress, past crispy, all the way to emotionally nuked?  Let me suggest three quick and easy recipes for complete emotional, mental, or spiritual exhaustion: Read the rest of this entry »

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(This is a piece I wrote a few years ago after meditating on 1 Corinthians 15:10.  It amazed me how quickly the words came, and it always seems to get a surprising (to me) response.  I recently received a very nice note about it from someone I’ve never met.  Since I’m traveling today, I thought I’d share it with you.  I hope it’s an encouragement.  And, of course, if you are encouraged by it, I would be encouraged if you would encourage somebody else with it by clicking “Share This” below.  Most of all, I hope you can say it’s your testimony, too.)

A Product of Grace

by Andy Wood

 

I am a product of grace.

No measure of performance could ever achieve in a lifetime

what the grace of God performed in an instant.

No failure to perform could erase

what the Spirit of God has completed for all of eternity.

 

I am a product of grace.

No nod of any human’s approval could compare with the fulfillment, the joy,

the wonder of knowing my Heavenly Father has turned His face toward me.

No amount of mortal rejection can change the fact that my Lord God

has made me accepted in the Beloved.

 

I am a product of grace.

No sin of the past, no matter how grave,

can resist the transforming power of a Risen Lord.

No future failure can change the fact that I am an heir of God, a joint heir with Jesus Christ.

 

I am a product of grace.

No situation, no pain, no frustration can rob me of my hope.

No force without or within can deny or change the fact that I am a new creation in Christ -

that every old thing is passed away and everything has become new.

 

I am a product of grace.

And grace never sleeps.  It never gets tired or weak, old or crippled.

It’s as new as the sunrise, and as powerful today as it was the first Easter.

Grace is my testimony and I its trophy.  There is never a time when grace is not

covering my sin or revealing me as God’s work of art.

 

I am a product of grace.  And I have a story to tell.

Once I was lost, but now I’m found.

Marvelous!

Once I was blind, but now I see.

Infinite!

Once I was afraid, now I am at peace.

Matchless!

I am what I am.  That’s grace.

But I am not yet what I will be.  That, too, is grace.

Oh, how amazing!

Grace.

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I have a confession to make.  It won’t come as a big surprise to those who know me best or work with me closest.

Deep breath – here goes…

I have a hard time saying, “No.”

There, I said it.  I like making people happy, and for as long as I can remember, I couldn’t stand to disappoint people or hurt their feelings.

In balance, that can be a good thing.  Helps with the whole relationships and people skills thing and all.  Out of balance, it can lead to some bad choices at work and some really unhealthy life choices as well.

In its ultimate expression, people-pleasers become codependents.  Originating from our understanding of the behavior of the spouses of addicts, we have since learned that you don’t have to be involved with an addict to manifest that type of behavior.

Like the other three LifeVesting alter-egos – consumers, hoarders, and gamblers – pleasers twist a virtue into a vice.  In the area of their life resources, they use their resources to buy love or approval.  Often cloaked in an illusion of responsibility, these people give out of an unhealthy desire to “fix” someone they love, or rescue them (often repeatedly) from a crisis.

Read the rest of this entry »

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