Momentum

We all get off track once in a while. One of the things I do to get back on track is to practice excellence in the little things. Do more than what's expected, dig a little deeper and see what you can do to improve a situation. Do it without condemning others though, just because they are not practicing excellence. Most people don't and it is easy to slip into prideful thinking. Do the best you can and leave the consequences to God. In Mt 25:21 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!" I think this applies to us as well. When I get off track spiritually I have noticed that I slack off in the little things and slip back into mediocrity. One of the quickest ways to get back on track is to practice excellence in the small things. Like when you empty a roll of toilet paper, put on a new one. Or, if you see some trash on the floor pick it up. Or putting the shopping cart back in the buggy parking space instead of leaving it in the parking lot. It is funny how doing this helps you to get back on track and stay on track spiritually. I think it has something to do with thinking about others first.
Taking it to the street:
1.) Ask God to help you to see the things where you are practicing mediocrity.
2.) Think of something you can do above and beyond the normal, then do it.
Pressing on with excellence!!
 Keith    

Do you struggle with low self-esteem?

http://hissideofthelookingglass.com/self-esteem-scripture-verses/

I bet you will find that people (myself included) who judge and condemn have low self esteem. Low self esteem causes me to be judgmental because if I can point out something in someone else, then I don’t have to look at myself. In other words, because of my own insecurity, I seek to find something wrong with others, to point it out and tear them down to make myself look better.

Poor self esteem is a sin and a lie to myself. How? Because I don’t accept God’s love and forgiveness---if I say to myself I’m fat or I’m stupid, I can’t do anything right or I should be better than this, then that is wallowing in self pity and guilt. If I do this then I’m not accepting God’s love and forgiveness. This is really a pride issue because God says he forgives me. But I can’t forgive myself and that is putting myself above God and I am greater than He.

This is one of the reasons self forgiveness is so important. I believe that Satan uses this guilt and self pity to keep us as Christians from being effective. See the thing is, Satan knows you’re forgiven and if he can keep you from feeling this freedom, then he’s won. Because with this feeling you can’t stop it. It will show. What we need is God esteem because we fail often. But God’s forgiveness is real and refreshed every moment.

Taking it to the street 1.) Ask God to help you to see when your being judgmental with others and to be sensitive to how you talk to yourself. 2.) Practice forgiving your self.

Pressing On With Excellence!!
Keith

12 Steps to Financial Freedom

What does financial freedom have to do with worry? Everything. Finances are one of the things we worry about the most and, when our finances are in order, much of our worry goes away. So here it is, the 12 Steps to Financial Freedom.

12 STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM

 

1: We admitted we were powerless over stuff and our lives have become unmanageable.

2: Came to believe that stuff had complete control over us and that a power greater than stuff could restore us to sanity.

3: Realizing that it is our will that desired stuff, we turned our will and our lives over to the power greater than stuff.

4: Made a list of all our stuff and became willing to sell it all.

5: Admitted to God, ourselves, and to another human being that our selfish, self-centered, and prideful selves were the main cause of our troubles.

6: Became willing to have God remove all of our stuff if it is necessary to achieve financial freedom.

7: Humbly asked a power greater than stuff to remove our stuff.

8: Took our list of stuff and sold it high or low and used the money to pay off our credit cards.

9: Made direct deposits into a savings account whenever possible.

10: Continued to take inventory of our stuff and when we got too much, took it back or gave some away.

11: Sought, through prayer and meditation, a relationship with this power greater than stuff.

12: Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we carry this message to others still suffering from stuff-i-tous and continue to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Others

Do you ever wonder if you are having an affect on others? I know that if you want to, that it starts with a relationship. People are more apt to take your advice if you show you really care. I met a lady where I work about four months ago and she is a sweet lady. She had a physical problem and had started to let herself go down hill. They moved her from independent living to assisted living and she developed some resentment. I had been in to do some work for her and had given her a few rides to get her hair done and had developed a friendship with her trying to encourage her through this time. She had been eating alone and not cooperating with the care givers and kind of bitter. Last week I took her to get her hair done and on the way back she asked me if I thought she should go to physical therapy. I told her that she should go every chance that she got. Since then, only because I told her to, she has been going and all of a sudden she is starting to eat meals at the dining room instead of in her own room. She is having better days and is more cheerful. I believe God works through us to affect others. Most of the time we don't even know it, but once in a while he gives us a little glimpse and it
has an affect on us also. What relationships are you investing in?
Pressing on with excellence!!
Keith
   

The Gifts Of The Spirit

I had been a Christian for a good 16 years before I really accepted Christ's forgiveness, When I finally did, I grew more spiritually in the next four years than I did in the sixteen years prior. I found myself asking why or how that happened. I think it is because of the influx of the Holy Spirit and with it the fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I could not produce these on my own, I tried and tried and failed. It also seemed that the harder I tried, the more I failed. I knew what I needed to do but I couldn't do it on my own. The spirit produces these in me as I turn my will over to him. When this does happen, things change rapidly. You actually give a rip about others, you care. You let others go in front of you. You know instinctively when to shut up. You are quick to forgive and fast to straighten out situations when you were wrong. You are able to say no to yourself. These are how the fruits of the spirit showed up in my life. How about you? Do you have the gifts of the Spirit? Is life different for you? Do you want it to be?
Pressing on with excellence!!
Keith

No Price Too High

So, its Easter weekend and its got me thinking about what Jesus went through his last few hours. Think about it, they put a crown of thorns on his head, then they beat him on the head. then he was flogged. All that then they hung him on a cross and killed him. You can read through it pretty quickly in the bible and not feel really what he went through. I try to slow down when I come to those scriptures and allow myself to be put in his position. Can you imagine what it must have felt like? Whew I can't really, only a little. Like I know what it feels like to get hit in the head, but not over and over again and again. I can't say what it would be like to be flogged. Then to be crucified the most painful way; to die slowly. I have heard that when you are crucified  you have to push up with your legs just to get a breath. Can you imagine the pain? I can't in reality. I can't wrap my head around it. Yet God chose this on purpose, why? because you are worth it. He paid this great price for you because of his love for you. I can't wrap my head around that either. Only to say that His love for us drove him to pay the price for our sin. Because of His love for us no price was too high.
Pressing on with excellence!!
Keith

The Present of Fellowship

In December of 2010, I wrote about the present of the present: The gift of the moment and how staying in the present helps us to have peace. Currently, I’m thinking about another present that God gives us: Fellowship and how it is that I can be feeling down and spend some time with others and feel completely renewed. I’m not sure what it is that causes me to be pulled out of the blah’s, but something about being around others gives me a new outlook.

I remember, early in sobriety, feeling like I was about ready to give up. Then I would go to an A.A. meeting and come out pumped up, with a renewed sense of purpose in my life. I also can get that way when I help someone or just spend time with others. I think it has to do with getting out of myself. I can isolate easily and I don’t think that is good for me psychologically or spiritually. I’m really a people person and if I isolate and feel lonely it messes with my head. So I believe God gives me the present of fellowship to draw me out of myself and isolation. That refreshes my spirit and gives me direction in my life. It really is a gift.

Pressing on with excellence!

Keith

Living in the Unknown

Well, I don't know what to write about. First, I want to apologize that I haven't written a blog for a couple of weeks. We went on a family vacation and then I was in an accident at work. Now I've been thinking about the unknowns. I have a lot of unknowns in my life right now.

1)         I don't know if I will be able to go back to work

2)         I don't know if I want to
3)         I don't know if the woman that I hit is okay or not
4)         I don't know if I want to know

I'm doing okay under the circumstances. I haven't worried about what's going on very much. I've really had to practice what I've been preaching lately. And I'm glad to tell you that it has been working. I know that God is in control and I have had a lot of peace, no matter what happens.

I've been suspended from work while they investigate and that has given me time to process through a lot of things. I've been doing all that I can do and that is all I can do. I have to let God do the rest. Whether I have a job or not does not matter to me. I just pray that the lady is okay. Pray for her right now please. That is all that really matters. Everything else is replaceable.

Pressing on with Excellence,
Keith

New Life

This Christian life seems hard sometimes. I fail constantly. I don't always treat people right. I judge, condemn, and ridicule them. I know that God wants me to treat them the way I want to be treated, but old habits are easy to fall back into. I must forgive them for what they do to me and I also must forgive myself for how I treat them. I need to change the way I treat them. To begin with, I used to think that just not hurting anyone today was good enough. From where I've come from that was a monumental feat.

Now I'm trying to be different and I'm sowing seeds for a new life that I want tomorrow, so it's not good enough to just not hurt someone today. Now I want to see how I can help someone today; to listen to them, to really care about them.

This is a big change for me to actually care about someone else and their concerns. I used to just worry about myself and my concerns all the time and not care about others. I'm glad for this new life and, even though it seems hard sometimes, it's a lot easier than the life I used to live. So, I will plant seeds of peace and sow a harvest of righteousness. (See James 3:18.)

Pressing on with Excellence,

Keith

What Motivates you to Excellence?

I want to write about stewardship a little bit. Not just in the sense that its generally talked about, which is traditionally money, but how stewardship should play a vital role in all aspects of my life. Yours also, if you dare to go there.

How does stewardship look in other areas of my life? It goes back to what Jesus says in Luke 6:38. "Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." What does that mean to me? It means you truly do reap what you sow and how you sow you get to receive it back. How does that relate to stewardship? It means if I strive toward excellence in my life, I will get back the same. If I put good effort into my marriage, it will come back. If I put good effort into watching what I eat, I can be slim. If I push myself physically, I get to be fit. If I put time into relationship building I get friends and I get a great return for the effort and excellence that I put in.

What would happen if I put time and effort into my relationship with my kids? What would happen if I put time and effort into my relationship with God? What kind of rewards would I receive? This is worth trying just to see. What if I put energy into learning about all the areas of my life? What if I put time and energy into refining what I do know and started doing the things that I do know better and better? Would that pay? I believe that it will.

"The enemy of good stewardship is mediocrity. The beginning of mediocrity is pride."

 

Pushing towards Excellence,

Keith

Fake it till you make it

Now that I had a sponsor or mentor and a written inventory, I
was entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character. After sharing
my liabilities and assets with God and someone else, I saw some patterns in my
thinking which caused me to act a certain way.

My beliefs about things, whether true or not, decided the
action I would take which could either be good or bad depending on the
situation. One thing I found out was that I couldn't change anything by myself.
It was similar to when I realized that I was powerless. It was as if I had no
power no matter how much I wished I did. I could quit doing some things, but I couldn't do it all. Here I was supposed to be entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character. I had asked him to, but he didn't and I kept doing the
same things over and over again wishing that I wouldn't. Some days it seemed
that God would indeed remove them. But other days, I failed miserably. God
could remove them but was there something I could do? I believe there is.

The only way to have real lasting change is to change your
thinking. I could act as if God had already answered my prayers. Isn't that
real faith? Fake it till you make it. Act as if that defect of character has
been removed by concentrating on doing the opposite. For example, if I believe
that God has removed fear then I will practice trust. If I struggle with
selfishness then I will practice thinking of others. If I struggle with pride,
then I will practice unconditional love.

"Fake it till you make it" is faith in action.

Pushing towards excellence.

Keith

The Scariest Place to Be

My mind is a dangerous neighborhood, I shouldn't go in there alone.

Step 5 in AA is admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. For this step we will need a sponsor or a spiritual advisor to talk to. When it comes to revealing yourself totally to someone else that can seem pretty frightening. It was for me, but I knew if I didn't do it I would drink again. The thing is, if I would have let myself off the hook, I believe I would have suffered the consequences of half-hearted efforts. You truly reap what you sow and this way is difficult sometimes. But I believe it to be the easier, softer way when you compare it to the way I was living before.

When I forced myself to open up, my sponsor was kind and loving and forgiving. I thought he might think lesser of me because of my past, but he wasn't judgmental and he shared with me some of his experiences from the past. When I left I felt like a ton of weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. I think that sharing things about my life was a test from God just to see if I was really willing to do whatever it took to be sober. When it was over, I had the same feeling you feel when you ace a test.

Pushing Towards Excellence

Keith

WILL LIGHTNING STRIKE?

 “Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the Light, 
even though for the moment you do not see.” –Bill W.

I became a Christian when I was 10 or so. I gave my life to Christ. I did what most Christian kids do like go to camp and Sunday School. But for some reason I never was taught to turn my will over to God. Some things happened to me when I was a kid that should never happen to any kid and it affected my perception of myself. I grew to believe that I was not good enough to be a Christian and thought that I was going to go to hell. I also thought that I might as well enjoy the ride there.

Flash forward 14 years. Reaching the bottom of my alcohol and drug addiction, I’m faced once again with the question of God. I believed in God. I believed that I had to change my perception of God or I would drink again. It’s hard to turn your life and will over to a God you think is going to strike you with lightning. So I changed my thinking. What if God were all loving and all forgiving? Would that idea of God work for me? I would try it and find out. Sometimes I forget and break out the guilt club. Then I remember that my God is all loving and all forgiving. What is your perception of God? Does it need to be changed?

Keith
Pressing On With Excellence

THE LONELIEST PLACE TO BE

In the parable of the prodigal son, the son found himself longing to eat the pods that the hogs were eating. When he realized this, I believe he came to the end of himself. I have been there.

 My thoughts were: “if this is life I’m sick of it and I don’t want this anymore.” This is the loneliest place to be. You don’t want to be here long. Still I think I needed to be there long enough to figure out that what I was doing wasn’t working anymore and that there has to be something better than this. Someone told me around that time that my best thinking had gotten me there. That was a hard pill to swallow, but it was true. And I couldn’t go any further until I truly admitted this. I was on my own, truly powerless.

Do you find yourself here? If you do, it is a bittersweet place to be. But, it can be a great place to start over. It’s never too late for a do-over. If you’re truly powerless then you need power. And you’re at the place where you’re willing to accept that power. That power is the Father, run to Him now. Be free and change your life for good. God wants to have a relationship with you. That is his greatest desire. Then, you won’t be at the loneliest place any more.

Keith
Pressing On with Excellence

Negative Spirals

Low pressure system over Iceland. Image from NASA, taken on 2003-09-04. http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=6204

I want to write about negative spirals because I seem to have little or no control of my thought process at the time. The endless cycle would go something like this: Sin, then self condemnation, to discouragement, to unforgiveness, then back to sin. What if I could change this? What if I didn’t do this any more? Was this even possible and what would that look like?

This whole process can be short circuited or stopped. It would look more like this: Sin, ask forgiveness, forgive myself, and move on. I suppose this is the way it goes if you are a normal human being, but for me, for years I would go through these negative cycles. I don’t believe that this is God’s will for anyone. How can this bring glory to God? It can’t and doesn’t. How do you stop this?

First, I would say that you should pray and ask God for help recognizing this. Second, when you realize what you’re doing, stop and ask yourself: does this kind of  thinking bring glory to God? Third, I used Tommy Newberry’s Five Questions to help me learn how to think differently.

These questions are based on Philippians 4:8. A 4:8 question is any question which extracts a positive answer. Examples are: Who are Five people who love you the most? What are Five things you’re good at? What are Five things you’re looking forward to in the next week? What are Five things you’re grateful for right now? What are Five of your strengths or positive traits? Any question which gets you thinking about what is true, good, and right; things that are pure and lovely, and good things in others; and anything you can praise God for and be glad about is a 4:8 question.

Keith
Pressing On With Excellence

Spiritual Brillo® pads

Let’s talk about relationships. We all have them. The way I see it there is three types of relationships that I have; with God, others, and myself.

 I have a relationship with God.  That’s what the tools are all about. They are designed to remove blockages and to grow my relationship with God.

I have a relationship with others. If that relationship is stressed then my relationship with God is blocked. God is present in others and one way he speaks is through others. If I’m mad or judgmental or criticizing or complaining about someone then I’m effectively putting up a wall between myself and God. I sometimes think God puts people in my life that are like a spiritual Brillo® Pad. They just rub me wrong or we just don’t see eye to eye. Anyway, God uses these people, Christian or not, to help me to become a better person. I used to sit around and complain about these people until I realized that God was using them to shine me up for him.

The third relationship is with myself. This is really not often looked at. Yes, I do have a relationship with myself. I believe we all do. I talk to myself all day long and I have found that if my relationship with myself is messed up, it too will have a tremendous effect on the others. For instance; if I have unforgiveness towards myself I become bitter toward others. I may be easily offended, or become angry when they don’t perform the way I think they should. This is really a pride issue, but I think it also stems from unforgiveness. But it causes me to be judgmental and insecure. (If someone makes me mad there’s a pretty good chance that there is something in that person that reminds me of myself.) And if I’m not right in any of these relationships. It will mess with both of the others.

What’s the tool to use to fix this. Well, here’s what I did. For example: I would be driving down the road and someone would merge and cut me off. I would be mad. And it would go something like this: I would call them some name. Then I might even make a gesture. Then, I would realize that this is not the person that I want to be so I would ask God to forgive that person for being an idiot and I would ask God to forgive me for judging that person. Then I would say out loud to myself, “Keith, I forgive you.” It took around six months of this before I realized that when someone would do that it didn’t hardly bother me any more.

 Self forgiveness is one of the biggest tools that I can use to improve both my relationship with others and God. How are you doing at forgiving yourself? Do you think about your relationship with yourself? Do you have your own tools for forgiving yourself that you could share with me?

Pressing On With Excellence,
Keith

A Look Back

This has been the hardest blog for me to write because I want to stay positive, but I know that there has been a lot of people that have gone through some rough times this year.

Well now that we’ve talked about staying in the moment in the last post, and because it is coming upon a new year, I want to look back a little at the past year. Maybe it didn’t turn out the way you thought it would.

But I also know if you look hard enough you can find good. Pain can be good sometimes. God uses it to draw us to himself. Have you gone through some pain this past year? Did you take that pain to the Great Physician? He wants to heal your pain and bandage your wounds.

I had an over all good year this year. I was able to meet some goals that I had made at the end of last year. I pushed myself further than I thought I could go. I took up a new hobby that I never thought I would. I was able to get in the best physical condition of my life as an adult. And I paid off some debts.

After that I injured my back and was off work for 2 months. So, I had a little of both good and bad. I believe the good has outweighed the bad. I’m sure that I know God better now than I ever have in the past.

I sometimes think that God wants to be involved in the good in our lives. It’s easy to run to God during the bad times, but do you include him in the good times as well? Thank Him for all that he does. Have you ever praised God in the bad times? It’s hard to do and seems counterintuitive, but I believe that God wants us to. For me it seems weird, but if I trust and praise him in the bad times I don’t have to stay in the pain as long. God is God and he allows us to experience pain. When we learn to run to God in our pain, it helps us to have empathy for others and to grow closer to God.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)

Keep watching, God has good things ahead.

Pressing On With Excellence,
Keith

The Present of the Present

Well, since it’s Christmas, I thought it only fitting that I should look at another gift that God gives us. That is the gift of the Present. Right now is where we can enjoy the peace that God gives us. Not in the past or in the future, only right now.

Too many times I find myself worrying about what is going to happen in the future or re-hashing what has happened in the past. There is nothing wrong with mulling over what has happened in the past. Especially if it concerns making things right. But I can’t spend all my time there. If I do then I miss out on what God is doing in my life right now. It is also good to think about the future and make goals to give me something to strive for. But if I spend all of my time there, once again I miss out on what God is doing right now.

Sometimes I worry about only having a small amount of money in my wallet till payday. And I’m not grateful that I have money in my wallet right now. I don’t know what the future may bring but right now I’m okay. I need to think about how good it is right now rather than to worry about what it could be. I don’t know what the future holds, but God does.
But at this moment I have food, clothes, money, and a place to live. I have a wonderful wife and 2 great kids. Things are really better than I deserve.

What are you thinking about right now? The Bible says in James 1: 17 that everything that is good and perfect comes from God. Can you see anything good in your life right now? If so then know that God is working in your life right now. The time is now. It is the only place that you can enjoy the Presence of God.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Pressing On With Excellence,
Keith

The Choice

Once you believe that there is a loving, forgiving God then you have to make a choice. Do I go back to the former life that I was living or do I allow God to set the direction of my life? If you are anything like me and you truly have the gift of desperation there is really only one choice and it’s time to choose. That is it. Just turn your will and life over to God. Here’s the way I look at it. My best choices got me to this point so far and it didn’t work out so well for me. I will make this choice and see what happens. If it goes well, then good. If it doesn’t, then I can always go back. I can get a refund of my misery and I won’t miss out on anything. I really don’t have anything to lose.

How do you know when you have made this choice? You have some peace and serenity. Things don’t bother you as much. This is a process over and over, turning your will over to God. You can and should use these three tools together. Use the desperation to drive you to forgive others, ask forgiveness of yourself from God, and forgive yourself. Then choose to turn your will over to God. Simplified version is:  I can’t, He can and I think I will let him. Every day of our lives we have to do this and the more we do this, the easier it becomes and the more peace you will have. Over time it will become second nature but for now you have to practice it.

Let go and let God.

Pressing On With Excellence,
Keith

The Solution

I would like to write a little about the solution: God. I couldn’t describe God’s character. If I spent the rest of these blogs trying, I wouldn’t be able to.  I do  however like this song by Fredrick M. Lehman:

           The love of God is greater far
           Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
            It goes beyond the highest star,
            And reaches to the lowest hell.

            Could we with ink the ocean fill,
            And were the skies of parchment made;
            Were every stalk on earth a quill,
            And every man a scribe by trade.
            To write the love of God above
            Would drain the ocean dry;
            Nor could the scroll contain the whole
            Though stretched from sky to sky.

            Oh Love of God, How rich and Pure!
            How measureless and strong.
            It shall forever more endure
            The saints and angels song.

This song is right on target. God’s love is amazing! For so long before I got sober I just couldn’t really believe that He could love me. Because the person that I was, was so bad, but God IS love. He can’t help but love you. That’s His nature. He is not limited in his ability to love. What’s more, he knows all of our past, present, and future sins and loves you anyway. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. I think that is because I had a hard time forgiving myself for all the things that happened in my life. And because of my lack of forgiveness of myself, that blocked me from allowing myself to be loved by God and to accept God’s love. So forgiveness will be a good start for our toolbox. Use it early and often. For others and especially for yourself. It is enough to know that God loves you.

Pressing On With Excellence,
Keith