Have you ever been over-involved?  ever been so passionate about something it consumes you? passionate about several things? Have you ever had a moment in life where you didn’t get much sleep? every been Too busy? I would be shocked if anyone didn’t say yes to one of these questions, and if you said no to all of them, you may want to fast-forward through these blogs because they will have NO impact on you! just kidding.

So the real question is when you are in those busy moments in life how would you react if you got a phone call and it was your boss saying that they are dissolving your job and they don’t have anywhere else to move you, or if you got word that you have been diagnosed with cancer, or worst of all, you find out that among all the stress and busyness in life you are caught up in, one of your family members (mom, dad, sister, brother, grandfather, ect.) has died and you need to come immediately.  

When you are so wrapped up in all the busyness of life you sometimes don’t have room for phone calls or messages like these. Thus, we need to fix the margins of our lives so when things like this happen we don’t ruin everyone else life that are within our sphere of influence.  Lets find the document setup toolbar in our lives.  

How do we do this you ask?  not just a file>setup easy process… you have to know where to look for it and how many margins you have to create you then have to make sure it has enough room and finally save it!  but not all these in one day.

look for it like this…. next time you know you are going to be busy make yourself a note, or ask yourself this question, how important am I to this process… I’m not saying don’t make a difference and be absolutely amazing and the thing you are talented at, but I’m saying there is a simple principle called “replace yourself” in a book Andy Stanley has written about this principle, he mentions this:

 “One day you will be replaced.  Whether you have an exit strategy or not, you will ultimately exit.  And on that day, everything you’ve done, everything you’ve dream of, everything you’ve built will be placed in someone else’s hands.” 

In other words, you will get in times like these, its just important that you have control on how things like this happen.  How you exit?  one way to locate that setup bar is to look at how often you are put in position where you don’t have an exit strategy?

The bible mentions the word peace 429 times. Peace is the antonym of stress.  Therefore another way to look for the document setup menu bar would be to minimize the amount of stress you put yourself through and maximize the amount of peace you put in your life! 

so make it an effort to find the places in life where you may be able to get a hold of the menu bar…. and change some settings.  Make it an effort to find the menu bar, its there and not an easy task but you need to provide space, you need to make margins in life. the text is and will run over, lets fix it.

Coming Up: “Modifying the Settings”

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I must start by saying this… yesterday morning I worked on the previous blog entry (”19.”) and I failed to upload it! haha… so for you who keep up to date pretty well, you will get two in one posting session! 

I want to try something new… and for some of you these next few blog entry’s will be familiar because it will come directly from a thought I have had for a while. When I was involved in Fellowship Of Christian Athletes in high school, I was put in a position to try and creatively come up with different ways to impact the club and get the students excited about their faith and the impact they can have on a school.

However, at the same time in trying to reach the lost students we wanted to throw a few innovative series in the mix to help grow the group of students who came on a regular basis.  This is one of those series. 

Document Setup, to give you the background, was an idea I have not only come up with but struggled with while in high school.  The series revolves around the concept that we cram our lives so tight that the text of our schedules are running over the margins and so we push the margins to the max.  Hopefully this series will help change that and help figure out how you and I can find our document setup menu for ourselves and change the margins so we have room for errors, or things to pop-up unexpectedly. 

So for the next 4 blog entry’s we will look at what it means to create margins and how that happens.  Hopefully this is somewhat interesting and you will grab something that resonates with you.  (maybe this is the new thing in blog entrying … thats probably not really a word, but I’m going with it!)

Coming Up - “Finding the Menu Bar”

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What makes yesterday such a great day?  I mean with over 100 posts on my Facebook wall and handful of cards from loved ones and several phone calls, and a poem written by an amazing friend… what made yesterday so special?  

Did you know that yesterday was actually a tragic day in the world… the “shot heard round the world” known as the start of the revolutionary war in 1775, and April 19, 1999 was the day before the worldwide-known event called Columbine where two students pulled a gun on 12 high school students before killing themselves. Yesterday was also the day that in 1861 the american civil war was in full-force and there was an group of soldiers (non US Army) who attacked the US Army troops killing hundreds. In 1943 on April 19, troops enter the Warsaw-Ghetto for the start of another battle in WWII. It was also April 19, in the year of 1961 where the “Bay of Pigs” failed with an attempt to invade Cuban waters. Among those big national events, the Oklahoma City bombing was on April 19, Air-Philippines Boeing 737 crashes killing over 130 passengers, and the Great Uprising in Palestine started where in the end over 120 Arabs were sentenced to death and over 40 palestinians were hung.

So what makes yesterday such a bright and glorious day?  Was it because it was some random no-body in nashville, TN who turned 19 on the 19th of April? NO!  Was it because there was a group of people who celebrated 19 years of happiness, blessings, laughs, tears, and memories? NO! Was it because 11 people shouted louder than any other group the song “Happy Birthday” in a chili’s restaurant celebrating another year in my life? NO!

Yesterday was glorious because it symbolized one more year that God has loved me! One more year that I have been able to complete His mission in my life and Yesterday was great because I was given a rare opportunity to GLORIFY HIS NAME!  Thats the point in life…. thats why you celebrate birthdays… thats why you celebrate old age (I’m not saying 19 is old!) But that is why each and everyday you should thank God not that He gave you a good grade on your test or he got you the job you always wanted or even answered your prayer for a loved one.  You should thank God each and everyday that He has allowed you to spend one more day on the earth for one purpose… to Glorify HIM!

I hope this is a twist in a line of thoughts and I hope this resonates with someone.  I urge you to make your faith authentic and live it out… thats my prayer for me! thats my prayer for you!  -L.

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This weekend Sam, John, Kelsey and I all traveled down to Atlanta to spend a little quality time at my parents lake house over Easter break.  While there my brother, who is currently at FSU, decided to spend a little time hanging out with us. While there the inside joke of “you want to know how i know your gay” came back up, and this had to make the blog! 

That line came from the movie The 40-Year Old Virgin and ever since has been a continual joke between my brother and I.  Sam, who was jumping on the trampoline when the above picture was taken.  So for a good joke, the above picture is the exact follow-up response from the initial joke “You want to know how I know your gay?”  haha.  (Sam’s computer is broken, because of using a PC so he won’t see this for a while.)

more to come… maybe a little more meaningful stuf will come soon.

L.

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It dawned on me today that out of any holiday in the entire year, Easter is the one that should allow us to PARTY the most.  I know that if it weren’t for christmas our savior wouldn’t be born, but you realize that Jesus didn’t know when he was born that he would die on a cross.  He found that out towards the end of His ministry, or at least brought it up.  

Easter however is when Christians all across this nation and the entire world should party at the fact that Christ died on a cross.  This one sunday of the year is the only day that Christians can say that the entire purpose of us still on this earth is to reveal the story of the cross to anyone and everyone.  THATS THE POINT OF EASTER!  

This year may be the year for you to invite your entire family to worship, or may for some of you be the year to invite your neighbors, college roommate, co-worker, or friend that may not get the opportunity to experience the joys of Christ every day like you. Let easter be an opportunity to PARTY but let it me a time to PARTY with lost friends.

The scriptures say, when one or more persons come to the saving knowledge of the Lord the angels rejoice and have a PARTY in heaven.  Is there someone you know of that you would like the angels to PARTY with?  

As Nike says, “Just Do It!” and then throw the biggest P-A-R-T-Y EVER!!!!!!!

-L.

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