Category: Thought for the Day

Who Knows You Best?

God. There. Short and simple. Whoever you think knows you best, including you, the answer is God. He knows you best. The Father Creator made you and gave you a very unique, special purpose in life. He simply knows you best.

God knows your past, your present, and your future. Whether you know it or not, He wove into you a very unique, special purpose in life. Each one of us has that unique purpose, as unique as our fingerprints.

You can’t fool God. He knows you and He knows it all. Understand that and you can really open up to God. LISTEN for and to Him. He is always less than a heart beat away. LISTEN to God and you will find your unique, special purpose in life. You just need to open up to God and LISTEN to Him.

I know this all sounds so very simple but God intends life to be simple. We are the ones who complicate it!

Have a GREAT upcoming weekend!

Positive Thoughts, Positive Life

This message is pretty simple: Think positively if you want a positive life. If your thoughts are always negative, your life will be negative. It’s really as simple as that. Positivity breeds positivity.

We all have negative thoughts, at least from time to time. I’m right there. But when I have a negative thought, whether it be about a person or a situation, I try to let it go. Think holding on to something and simply opening your hand to let it go. I try to do the same thing with my mind. I let go of the negative thought.

There is really nothing more to add. Think positively. I know that is often difficult. Understand. Been there, done that. But this needs to be simple. Think positive. Be positive.

God is the essence of positive. He wants you to be positive and to enjoy a positive life!

Hope you have a great, positive weekend!

Are You the Good Samaritan?

My guess is that most people know the basic story of the Good Samaritan in the Bible. Essentially, several people pass by a beaten, robbed, and wounded man before a Samaritan stops to help the person. What some (most?) don’t really get is that the hurt man was a Jew and the person who finally stopped was a Samaritan. This is pretty striking because Jews and Samaritans didn’t really get along. Jews looked down on Samaritans as religiously impure. And to an extent, Jews despised Samaritans.

So, the real striking point of the story is that a Jewish priest and a Levite (Jew; tribe of Levi) passed by the man paying him no heed. It was someone who basically was not only a stranger but also someone not typically seeing eye-to-eye with Jews who did stop and helped.

In this age of animosity, political differences, deportations, etc., etc. where are the Good Samaritans? Are you one? Would you stop if anyone was lying hurt in the middle of the road? Would you reach out to help any stranger, especially if they didn’t look like you, dress like you, etc., etc.?

This is something to contemplate. Jesus gave us one simple commandment. To love. Anyone. Not just who we really love. He wants us all to be Good Samaritans. It’s that simple. Are you?

Enjoy the week and look out for someone in need to help!

Cherish Ever Day!

I recently passed out during a jog with my dog (long story; I’ll spare you). Short story, I ended up in the hospital through the ER to get checked out. Found I have a little bit of a cardiac issue that most likely is a combination of age and genetics. Anyway, it just brought home that we need to cherish ever day like it’s our last. I’m not talking about being fatalistic. I’m just talking about cherishing life.

Think about dropping your eight year old off at camp and never seeing her again because she was swept away by a flooding river (think Texas). Or your spouse going to the store to pick something up but never returning because he was killed in an accident (true story; colleague of mine).

Life has its ups and downs. And its twists and turns. And its lives and deaths.

You never know when God is going to call you to Him (or elsewhere). When it’s time, it’s time. Don’t be fatalistic. But cherish every day as if it is your last!

Have a great rest of the week cherishing every day!

Turn Bad Into Good

I screw up all the time. Like the apostle Paul I know what I should do but sometimes I just don’t do it (“What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” Romans 7:15). Then, I beat myself up over and over again. However, I have learned that is not productive. That I can actually turn the bad I do into good. Huh?

Rather than beating myself up when I screw up, I try to reverse what I have done into good. I not only try to do something good but learn from my mistakes—what I have done wrong. Let’s face it—I’m human. That’s not an excuse to do wrong but it’s simply a fact of life. We are human. We are not perfect. We make mistakes and screw up. But we don’t have to be dragged down by those mistakes but can learn from them and turn them into good.

So, turn the bad into good. Think bad about someone? Reach out to them and do something good for them. Selfish, thinking only about yourself? Help someone in need. Donate money or your talents. Learn from your mistakes. Turn them into positive action. Do good when you do bad. This is all not difficult.

Have a great rest of the week doing something good!

Three!!!

Even the pros hit an errant shot and yell FORE! Watching a bunch of those on TV at the U.S. Open at Oakmont. And heard a lot of those last year at the Open at Pinehurst, where I was a marshal. All this reminds me to yell THREE when I am in trouble, not on the course, but in life. Hit an errant shot in life and I yell THREE for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I know this sounds a little tricked up but it’s true. And absolutely helpful. When you do something wrong, or simply need some help, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are always there to help. Unlike FORE, which is meant to tell people to duck, THREE is asking for help. And the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are always there for help. You just need to yell for help.

Remember: the Father has made you with a special, unique purpose in life that is all yours—just like your fingerprints. Jesus has saved you from sins past, present, and future if you simply repent. He’s our model of how to live life, in love. And the Holy Spirit is your guide and empowerer to help you realize your purpose. It’s the Spirit that Jesus gave each one of us. The Spirit that motivated a scared bunch of apostles locked in a room to go out under threat of death to preach the Good News. And died they did for that Good News.

Yell THREE the next time you need help, especially getting out of trouble!

He Is Always!

I just took a God “vacation.” Didn’t go to church for two weeks—can’t remember the last time I did that and was not sick—and didn’t pray every day in the morning. I just kinda wasn’t there. I’m now looking back on the past few weeks and realized that although I wasn’t there, God was there. He is always there no matter when we aren’t.

God Creator, Son, and Spirit never go anywhere, no matter where we go. We may be the prodigal sons and daughters going off and squandering what we have been given but God is the Father always waiting for us to return. And rejoicing when we do return.

I’m not kicking myself as I usually do for how I squandered the past few weeks away from God. I’m actually looking it as a good thing for realizing how empty my life is without God. A true vacation from life is when I turn to God, not away from Him.

Have a FANTASTIC week ahead vacationing with God!

Where Is God?

With all the strife and outright wars going on in the world I find myself asking where God is. How can a God defined by love allow so much bad stuff to happen? However, as I start thinking about this the answer pops right out at me. God is there. He is always there. He is less than a heart beat away. He’s waiting for us to turn to Him. He’s waiting for us to treat one another the way we would want to be treated. We’re the ones screwing up. Not God.

If God were calling all the shots day in and day out we would be mere puppets on strings. But God gave us free will to exercise that free will. He may be shaking His head watching us hate and even kill but it’s our decisions. We are a free people—at least while we are on this earth. Then, when time is up, we will be looking back what we did. That accounting determines where we spend eternity.

The decision of what to do and how to act is ours and ours alone. God may be watching but He is not pulling the strings. You can turn your life over to Him but it’s still your free will in control. I just try to make sure that my free will is in concert with what God wants me to do and how to act.

God is never missing in our lives. We are missing in God’s life by choice.

Think about this. Are your actions day in, day out in concert with God? And, remember, His commandment is to LOVE so if you are walking in LOVE you are walking with God.

Think about this and enjoy the day (with an ever-present God!).

Are You Risen?

Easter is now a memory. We celebrated Jesus rising from the dead. He died for us—our sins past, present, and future. Truly repent what you have done and your sins vanish. The operative word is “truly.” You can’t just slough your sins away. You need to anguish in repenting. Jesus is risen. The question now is if you have risen.

My idea of Easter on a personal level is rising up with Jesus. Leaving the “death” of sin aside and rising up to a new life. Sure, I will once again sin along the way. I’m an imperfect child of God and a pretty good sinner on occasion. But I strive for perfection and try to rise up with Jesus.

This isn’t some religious mumbo-jumbo. Rising up involves following Jesus by starting with the one commandment He left us—to LOVE. You can’t rise up with Jesus unless you rise up in LOVE. Not selective LOVE but LOVE of everyone. It starts with a smile, a helping hand, going out of your way, turning the other cheek, and simply treating others the way we want to be treated. LOVE. It’s a Real Secret to Life and it’s the one simple commandment that Jesus gave us.

Enjoy the week and walk in LOVE.

No Better Human Being

I don’t care what your views or “religion” are but you’ll be hard pressed to find a better human being than the late Pope Francis. He wasn’t perfect. None of us are. But for someone on the world stage he both preached and lived a very humble existence. He walked the talk, something very rare in this day and age.

He obviously had to go by the pomp and circumstance of the Vatican. I’m Catholic and I don’t like it. It’s not Jesus—what He preached and how He lived His life. But The Pope did his best to keep everything in his life as down to earth as possible. To emulate Jesus. He will be missed!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the world leaders attending the Pope’s funeral took a lesson from his life. The world would be a dramatically better place. Heaven on earth. Unfortunately, that won’t happen.

I hope Pope Francis stays in the hearts of the faithful to inspire us. This world needs inspiration—and a lot more light.

God bless the Pope, the new Pope, and all of us!