The Sharpening

I would like to write about accountability. Why is it important? There was a study done on horses. One horse by himself could pull 2,500 pounds. They repeated the test with two horses and together they were able to pull 12,500 pounds. That’s five times as much as by themselves. I think the same holds true for people. Not by strapping them to a weight, but by strapping them together by accountability.

I know if I talk to someone about a problem I’m having, for some reason I’m able to think a little clearer. Especially when that problem rises again. It is easier to let go and not do the wrong thing if I know I’m going to have to tell someone about it.

What if you knew a person was going to specifically ask you about a character defect or ask how you were doing on being kind, loving, and generous? Don’t you think that has the possibility to change the way you act? Proverbs 27:17 says that as iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another. This is true. Although it might seem scary to share some or all of your innermost thoughts with someone, it will help you to become the man or woman that God wants you to be and it happens a lot faster than trying to do it on your own. A problem shared is a problem cut in half.

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

Perpetual Forgiveness Machines

Why are Christians so judgmental? I know I fall into it. Not really on purpose, I just have a slant towards measuring others critically. Not all the time and I’m far better than I used to be about this. The Bible says “Judge not, lest you be judged.” [Matthew 7:1] Jesus himself said, “Forgive us our trespasses AS we forgive those who trespass against us.” [Matthew 6:12] That AS implies that with the same measure that we use, it will be given back to us. Still it seems for me that I forget where I was, or rather how I was, when I found Jesus. I was at the bottom and capable of anything. I think that I sometimes forget what I’m capable of and that plus a little insecurity of my own is why I judge others.

So what’s the tool I can use to stop being so judgmental? How about what Jesus said: forgiveness. Forgiveness towards others stops me in my tracks for judging. I cannot be critical and forgiving at the same time. Also, if I forgive myself I won’t have insecurity in the first place. God-esteem is far better than self-esteem. Do you have trouble with this or am I the only one? We need to become perpetual forgiveness machines.

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