I have been reading a book entitled The Little Big Things by Tom Peters. His focus in the book is, that if you focus on the little things, it becomes big in your quest for excellence! Today I read about what he learned at his Grandfathers funeral. Long-story-short, his Grandfather always took an interest in others and went out of his way to be-there for people. At his funeral, over a 1000 people showed up in a town of 400-500. As Tom was driving there, he noticed a cloud of dust as people from all over come to pay their respects.

To quote his take-away.

“The ‘lesson’ that funeral taught me was the power of decency and thoughtfulness. It wasn’t that my mom and dad hadn’t done a lot of that, but this was the Ultimate Technicolor Illustration. In the most unassuming way, Grandpa Owen had ‘been there’ for an entire community and beyond—and a great dust storm of people, some, who’d moved, from 100 miles away, had come to say one last thanks. If there isn’t a crystal clear message, and, de facto, advice in that, I don’t know where you’d find it.”

So – how do you measure up? After reading this, I know I have a long way to go. Will there be a great dust storm of people at your funeral? How will you be remembered?

I’m going to start making changes in my life. To be genuinely interested in strangers. To “be there” for others. Like Tom asks in the book,”To make the obvious more obvious: How do you stack up on The Great “Being There” Exam? It’s the ultimate “life question”—and the ultimate “business-career-success question.”

Every once in a while, you come across a cool story that you wish everyone could learn about.  This is one such story.  It is so cool, I’m going to cross-post this on both of my blogs.

What would you do if you were caught in an earthquake, injured and sure you were going to die?  View this video below to hear what one man did.  If you can’t see the video, or want to read the story, you can read it here.

Here’s a thought.  What would you write to your wife/kids/loved-ones if you found yourself in a similar situation?  Leave a comment – let’s see how interesting this becomes!

I sit and ponder many topics to write about, but, for various reasons (mostly just laziness) I haven’t been taking the time to write about what I am thinking. I do read and sometimes I come across an article that makes me say – “I wish I would have written that!” Today I read such an article.

J. Lee Grady writes a blog entitled, Fire In My Bones in which he writes about what fires him up. He’s much more regular than I am and I think he hit the nail on the head this time. Please enjoy his article and then let me know your thoughts!

http://charismamag.com/index.php/fire-in-my-bones/22383-reality-check-the-case-for-relational-christianity

We’ve been through this before. I can’t believe everyone is getting so freaked out about this. If you were around in 1976 – you might remember these!

Last week, I spoke to Stephanie Ludwig, a reporter from Enterprise Publishing (our local paper in Blair) about “older” people who use Facebook and why. The main point I wanted to make in my conversation with Stephanie was that Facebook made it easy to maintain relationships. (I hope it came accross in the article.) It doesn’t replace the personal, intentional relationship building that has to go on between people, but it enables people to maintain those relationships over distance and time. There are some people I know only through the internet (people I’ve collaborated with on certain projects, experts in the field I work in, etc.). I like to think that if the opportunity ever came up, we could meet in person, but in the mean time – I like the idea of having a wide, diverse network of people I can bounce questions and ideas off of.

If you want to read the article, go to http://www.enterprisepub.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=15155.

Let me know what you think!

In my previous Poop Sandwich post I wrote about a guy in Montana who was so disgusted with Obama’s plan prior to the 2008 elections that he parked a truckload of poop in front of the Democratic campaign’s office. Well the election has come and gone and we have a new President, which brings me to today.

I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard the announcer read an email that our Democrat Senator Ben Nelson received regarding his stance on the Congressional spending bill they are calling a stimulus package. The email said, “You can scrape a few flys off a poop sandwich but you tell me how it is NOT still a poop sandwich”.

I don’t think it needs an explaination.

Well said.

My Mom always tries to think of some catchy phrase when she wants to remember something. Sometimes it is a musical phrase. Most times it is a rhyme. A new tradition has been started at my parents house where they host all of the granddaughters (9) at their house on New Years Eve. When I talked to her this morning (New Years day), she said that she was trying to think of a devotion theme to have with the girls. She decided to talk to them about letting the light of Christ in their lives shine bright in their life. Her theme this year is “Let Jesus Shine in 2009″. Hokey, catchy, whatever… you’ll remember it, right?

That got me thinking about what it means to allow our light to shine. Much has been written in about Jesus bringing a light to a dark world. That light shines in us if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. But what does it really mean to allow that light to shine in our life? How do we reflect that concept in our daily life?

Obviously there are some high-profile examples like Mother Teresa, but what does it look like in our normal everyday life? It could be something as always being a positive influence in your immediate circle of friends. It means doing the right thing when nobody is looking. It means loving those who treat you badly. It means helping those who can’t help themselves. It means being humble and caring. It means forgiving those who offend you. Basically – it’s acting differently than the rest of the world.

It reminds me of a story I read recently. Lee Strobel was an atheist. He married a fun loving girl the everything was fine until his wife became a Christian. He started noticing a change in her. He had to admit that something was different about her. As a journalist, he set out to disprove Jesus. During his two year investigation of the evidence of Jesus, he became a Christian. He is now one of the leading apologists for Christ, writing books entitled, God’s Outrageous Claims, The Case for Christmas, The Case for Easter, What Jesus Would Say, among others. But it was the difference he noticed in his wife’s life that prompted him to seek further. He saw her light.

So – Happy New Year and make it a point to Let Jesus Shine in 2009!

I just read this great city guide on Omaha. It’s a great guide for things to do and places to go in Omaha. Some of those places I didn’t even know about. I can’t wait to visit. Checkout the whole guide at Design*Sponge

Another benefit of writing about it here? I don’t lose the link!

Have a great day!

Flatland Church is doing a great new series on Christmas. Recently they linked to this video and a short devotional and story to go along with it.

The Christmas classic that almost wasn’t by Bill Nichols (USA Today)

A Charlie Brown Christmas Devotional

Everyone needs to watch this video. It’s important that we defend our country.

Can’t see the video? Go here to watch it.