Reality

This morning, Dave is off to San Francisco to network, something he would not have thought to do a month ago.  The morning began with him checking his voicemail at 6:10 to hear that his flight to O’Hare was delayed enough that he wouldn’t make his connection to CA.  But….if he could make the 6:39 flight to Dallas, he had a chance to catch a flight that would get him to San Francisco in time for his appointment this afternoon.  I said, “There’s no way we can make it….call AA and see what they can do.”  He said, “Let’s go and see if that flight is delayed.”   Usually, I am the realistic optimist….he is the more realistic realist. 

At the airport, sure enough, the Dallas flight was loaded and closed and the check-in line was long with all the frustrated Chicago travelers needing to reschedule and re-route.  However……as we stood there, the Dallas flight was pulled back to the gate to wait for better conditions.  With only carry-on luggage, Dave got on the re-opened flight and is on his way by 7:26…through Dallas, not Chicago where he surely would have spent his day waiting for a flight. 

So, we continue to know that God is leading us to a good place.  There are so many evidences of God’s love and provision and blessing all around us.  That is the reality we live in.  This morning, Dave could have given up and resigned himself to a day at O’Hare, but instead, he has a deep sense of God leading and providing for us.  So he is off to CA with scheduled meetings with men (and woman) who have agreed to talk with him to help him go onward and a late-last-night new amazing lead that connects other dots in the picture.

Reality is that we can focus on the reality that God loves us and has a plan and just heaps blessings on us…..or we can choose to be distracted by the normal bumps in relationships and/or circumstances that can also become our reality.  Today…I choose blessing!!

Life mission statement and the big why

   One of the workshops I created and have presented is on writing your own personal mission statement.  Of course, I wrote my own in the process of developing the training.  It has stuck….no questioning in the ten years or so since.  My mission is “to live a life so full of grace and truth that others will be compelled to follow Christ.”  That’s it.  Grace and truth.  I will blog later on the balance of grace and truth. 

 Now, I am challenged to also have a big why.  It’s different than a life mission.  Gary Keller challenges the internal work of coming up with a “big why” in his book on simplifying real estate into four models (that work, by the way).  The big why here is WHY? do you go to work every day and do the same thing over and over?  I’ve thought about this alot in the past year.  Similar to GK, it’s about doing the best I can and being the best I can…..the best, of course, at being so full of grace and truth that my life compells people to Jesus.

What’s my big why with being a of Team Leader with Keller Williams?  It is that it makes my heart beat fast to help other people succeed…..let me help you find what is strong about yourself and make it work, understand what gives you energy and get going, use the information that works and personalize it into your own success.  That’s it. 

So, my “big why” as a Keller Williams Team Leader is “to be in a position that helps me learn to be the best I was created to be, using my strengths to add value to others.”  The challenge of stretching and growing myself, then passing that to others is a good fit for me.  It’s the “big why” of my work.

Here we go!

We have had quite a journey.  Greg Mengden, Texas Tech budding herpatologist at the time, asked thirty-five years ago if it would last.  Wondering if he was asking about following Jesus or staying together.  Both are still true.  here we are …..  still together and wondering what’s next?  five kids, deep memories, lots and lots of experiences, addictions and abuses, and now loving one another more than ever in the past. 

What does that say about following Jesus, about sticking together, about loving an adventure? 

 I’m still figuring that out….but I am glad we have stuck it out…and glad to be finding grace in an easier way as I learn to fight less.