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Vision

The Awakened Spirit

by Andy Wood on October 27, 2010

in Ability,Exploring the Possibilities,Five LV Laws,Life Currency,LV Cycle,Principle of Abundance

I hate sleep.  I’m afraid I may miss something. 

Yeah, yeah, I know.  I “get it” and I get it.

I know that, too.  God’s design and all that.  It just chaps me a little that somebody who lives to be 90 will spend 30 years of their lives physically unconscious… and then talk about “sleeping in” as if it’s a life goal.

What’s even more disturbing, though, is how easy it is to be asleep when our eyes are open.  Spiritually oblivious to a world of life and movement and transformation and possibilities – all ready and waiting… for the awakened spirit.

Snapshots of Awakening

February 3, 1970.  In a small Kentucky Christian college, students showed up for what they thought was a routine chapel service.  It was anything but.  What was supposed to be an hour-long service lasted for 185 hours round the clock.  And the lights never went off in the chapel until Ju [click to continue…]

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Do You See What He Sees?

by Andy Wood on October 1, 2010

in Five LV Laws,Following Your Passion,Insight,Life Currency,LV Cycle,Principle of Eternity

“There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels for someone, pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.”(Milan Kundera) 

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Ever read about the double-pump miracle Jesus performed?  Fascinating story, about a blind man in Bethsaida.  Jesus led him outside the village and spit on his eyes.

“Do you see anything”? He asked.

He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

So Jesus double-clutched.  Once more, he put his hands on the man’s eyes. This time he saw everything clearly.

It doesn’t bother me that it took two rounds with the Son of God for a blind man to see clearly again.  It does bother me that many believers, myself included, have gone many rounds with Jesus, and we still don’t see clearly at times.

He saw people that looked like trees.  We see people that look like other things – jobs, economic status, social labels, racial stereotypes, gender.  Jesus saw something else entirely.  You can too, but it doesn’t come naturally. 

“I see people; they look like trees.” 

What do you see?  Butcher, baker, candlestick maker?  Hot babe, geek, hero, freak? 

They may as well be Klingons, unless we learn to see from Jesus’ perspective.  We talk a lot about pursuing our own passions, but you can never fulfill your deepest passion unless you first embrace his.  Take a look: [click to continue…]

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The Buoyant Heart

by Andy Wood on August 23, 2010

in Ability,Life Currency,LV Cycle,Waiting

“Sure I may be tuckered, and I may give out, but I won’t give IN!”  (Molly Brown, from “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”) 

We spend a lot of time thinking about sinking. 

In the mental and spiritual circles I travel in, we focus a lot on discouragement, sadness, grief and such.  The most-read article I have written this year is titled, “The Sinking Soul.”

And for good reason.  We live in a broken world.  Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted.  A significant part of the New Testament was written to people who face severe, mind-numbing hostility and pain.  And left to our own devices, the devil has sinking souls for breakfast.

But maybe it’s time for a different look.  [click to continue…]

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To Feed the Hungry and Heal the Brokenhearted

by Andy Wood on August 18, 2010

in Five LV Laws,Following Your Passion,Life Currency,Love,LV Cycle,LV Stories,Principle of Increase

What turned my head was the sign for Aunt Beaut’s pan-fried chicken. 

Why is it when God wants to get my attention, the easiest way to do it involves chicken?  My belt really is a leather fence around a chicken graveyard.

Anyway, last week we were in downtown Charlotte on vacation.  And there on the corner of West Trade and Tryon Street was the King’s Kitchen.  Open for lunch or dinner, the restaurant trumpets “New Local Southern Cuisine.”

They had me at “Southern.”

True, I can get fried chicken anywhere.  But when was the last time you went into a restaurant that had collard greens, cream corn, and butter beans all on the menu for lunch?

So I staked the place out, and the next day my wife and I walked the block from our hotel to sample the King’s Kitchen for lunch.

I immediately knew something was different about this place when I read the quotation on the wall just inside the door [click to continue…]

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Waiting on Your Harvest

by Andy Wood on June 7, 2010

in Enlarging Your Capacity,Five LV Laws,LV Cycle,Principle of Freedom,Protecting Your Investment,Waiting

News flash!  As a culture, we don’t wait well. 

That’s why, in the previous post, I mentioned that it’s easy to get into trouble when we’re in those waiting seasons.  (In theory, of course… not that I have ever actually gotten so impatient that somebody in a uniform decided it was time to have a little chat… but I’m sure you know somebody like that.)

One of the problems we have with waiting is that we don’t know how.  We think of waiting as the kind of thing you do in a bureaucrat’s line or a doctor’s office (now you know why they call them “patients”).

In the Bible, James offers a different idea.  And when I read this during a particularly hard waiting season, it really got my attention: 

“The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts…” (James 5:7-8). 

I happen to live in the middle of the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world.  My neighbors know a thing or two about waiting on a harvest.  Their livelihood depends on it.  And believe me, you won’t find a busier bunch. [click to continue…]

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Leading and Loving “Bent Nail” People

by Andy Wood on March 21, 2010

in Ability,Enlarging Your Capacity,Leadership,Life Currency,LV Alter-egos,LV Cycle,Pleasers

(The Law of the Nail, Part 2)

In the previous post I introduced you to The Law of the Nail.  A corollary to the Law of the Hammer (“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”), the Law of the Nail says,

If you are a nail, and especially if you’ve been pounded a time or two, everything (and everybody) looks like a hammer.

That’s even true when you’re a light bulb, not a hammer.  Just watch the video:

YouTube Preview Image

Everybody gets banged up by people or by life sooner or later.  But sometimes we are faced with situations in which we must work with, lead, or love people who, in nail terminology, are really bent up.

Because you are on the same planet, much less in the same building or  room, they don’t trust you.  Doesn’t matter whether you have earned their mistrust or not.  They perceive, speak, and reason through their woundedness.  And as far as they’re concerned, you’re just another hammer, waiting for your chance to pound away at them.

So what do you do with these people?  Make their fears come true?  Write them off?  Get offended?  Ignore them?

I’d like to suggest that you have an opportunity to both get the job done (whatever “the job” is) and be an instrument of healing.  Here are some ideas: [click to continue…]

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Aiming for Average

by Andy Wood on February 21, 2010

in Insight,Life Currency,LV Stories,Turning Points

I hated Ann Finch.

Three times she sent me to the principal’s office, and two of those times I emerged with a butt-on-fire.

One time she made me stay after school in an Ann-imposed detention.  I lied to my mother and told her I needed to stay late because of band.  When she picked me up, who should be walking out of the building but Miss Finch?  She tattled on me, and then it was double trouble.

Once I ended the grading period with an 89.4 average.  She gave me a “B” for the quarter.  One lousy stinking tenth of a point!  Too bad.  She wouldn’t budge.

I liked Ann Finch.

Probably for the wrong reasons, but I liked her nonetheless.  She was so easy to pick on.  [click to continue…]

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So Change It! Eight Steps to Making a Difference, Beginning Where You Are

by Andy Wood on February 5, 2010

in Enlarging Your Capacity,Executing Your Plan,Exploring the Possibilities,Five LV Laws,Leadership,Life Currency,LV Cycle,Principle of Increase,Principle of Legacy

I want to take you to a place where, frankly, we aren’t invited.  For just a minute, let’s be one of “those” people we often gripe about – those rubberneckers on the highway, who seem fascinated with somebody else’s messes.  

In this case, we’re creeping up to a closed bedroom door, where on the other side, we can hear muffled sobs. 

A man’s sobs.

A few days ago, somebody from home had rocked his world.  The news was bad, and every ounce of optimism he once had was crushed.

You should have been here yesterday.  He was really blubbering then.  And he will be again tomorrow.  Fasting, too.  And praying.  Lots of praying. 

But as he cries and prays and cries and fasts and cries some more, something happens.  [click to continue…]

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Giving Up My Small Ambitions

by Andy Wood on October 28, 2009

in Ability,Consumers,Exploring the Possibilities,Five LV Laws,Hoarders,Life Currency,LV Alter-egos,LV Cycle,Pleasers,Principle of Abundance

highway 2Today I give up my small ambitions.
I will give thanks for the pleasures God has designed for me to enjoy,
But no longer will I allow my life to be driven by the pursuit of pleasure.
I will no longer sacrifice joy on the altar of happiness.
I will never again measure my success by my ability to escape pain.

Today I give up my small ambitions.
I will give thanks for the material blessings God entrusts to me,
But no longer will I associate money with happiness.
Never again will I believe the lie that gain is godliness,
Or that my worth is measured by what I own.
From this day forward, I will use things and love people,
Not the other way around.

Today I give up my small ambitions.
I will give thanks to God for the ways
I can be a blessing to others.
I will accept with humility
The words of gratitude and honor I receive from others.
But I will never again live to please other men.
Today I choose to get off the pedestal,
Knowing that I don’t have to live in the gutter to do so.
I will find my honor in being no more than a man,
But no less than a child of God.

Today I give up my small ambitions.
And instead, I reach for the stars.
I will spend my life in pursuit of my God-given destiny.
By His grace I will fulfill the purpose for which
I was created and redeemed by Christ.
By His love I will touch the lives of those He died for.
And by His power
I will span the breech between time and eternity.

From this day forward,
I will seek dreams as big as the heart of my God
And visions as great as the need of this world.
And though through human failure
I may never see all those dreams come true,
When I stand to face my Lord and my God,
I pray He will see a heart determined to do exploits for His glory.

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Optiphobia: Making Peace With Your Dreams (and Disappointments)

by Andy Wood on October 27, 2009

in Exploring the Possibilities,Five LV Laws,Hoarders,LV Alter-egos,LV Cycle,Principle of Increase

StrikeoutVision hurts. 

Don’t believe me?  Try dreaming about something that is exciting and important to you, only to be disappointed.  But the alternative to vision isn’t much better.  Instead of dreaming, you could play it safe.  Be complacent.  Wish for nothing and hit it every time.

Doesn’t sound like much of a choice, does it?  Heartache or boredom.  Tightrope with no net or treadmill with no hope.  How do you make peace with your dreams?  How do you keep from hating the whole process?  How can you avoid “optiphobia” – the fear of vision?

Start with a little perspective.  [click to continue…]

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