Perspective

God Bless the Broken Road

by Andy Wood on July 31, 2013

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase

Broken RoadThis is a story about a father and son.

About a pathway to prosperity and strength.

About how that pathway separated them, then brought them back together again.

It’s a story of shattered dreams, unspeakable grief, profound loneliness, and the ultimate family reunion.

This is the story of the Broken Road, and how God used it in two people’s lives to rewrite history – theirs, and yours.

Psalm 105 contains an interesting description of the father, Jacob:

Israel also came into Egypt;
Thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
And [God] caused His people to be very fruitful,
And made them stronger than their adversaries.

Sounds simple enough.  But let me ask you a question. If you were going to write a plan to get somebody to a place of fruitfulness and strength, how would you script it?

Start with a dream, maybe?

Then a few targeted objectives?

Maybe a good strategic plan, with a collaborative partnership or two?

Throw in some hefty funding, maybe some high-dollar training, and a few little victories to establish momentum, and you’re on your way, right?

That’s not exactly how this story went down.  [click to continue…]

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Increase Your Options – Wisdom and Opportunities Will Follow

by Andy Wood on June 26, 2013

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, LV Stories, Principle of Abundance

Celebration DessertWant to increase your expectations?  Increase your options.

Robin and I celebrated our 30th anniversary yesterday. To be honest, it started with little-to-no expectations. She had been feeling really bad pain-wise, then got a cold on top of that. The day was a work day for both her and me, and we both had a lot to do.  So we said all the right things and assumed we’d plan some other celebration later.

The one thing we planned, sort of, was dinner.

But there was one option we didn’t consider – the option that she would actually feel very good at the end of the day.

The cold was much better, she had less pain and more energy, and we had a really nice evening together. Fortunately in this case, when the new realities presented themselves, we were able to act on them.

The evening was made all the more special by Ralph, our server at the Longhorn Steak House.  Ralph saw his job as being more than taking orders and serving food.  He increased his options by becoming a celebration facilitator.  I actually heard him ask the table next to us, “Are you guys celebrating anything special tonight?”

Ralph saw to it that since we were there to celebrate, we would have a celebration.  [click to continue…]

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What “Business” Are You REALLY In?

by Andy Wood on June 17, 2013

in Ability, Consumers, Conversations, Exploring the Possibilities, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase

(A Conversation)

InterviewDon’t confuse your business with your delivery system.

What do you mean?

Your “business” is the value you bring to people. Your delivery system is the way you deliver it.

Okay… I’m still not sure I get what you’re saying.

Okay, let illustrate it.  Let’s pretend it’s the year 1900, and you own one of the dominant businesses of the day – a railroad company. What’s your business?

Railroads?

AAAANNNNK!  You lose. Twenty years from now you’ll be out of business and replaced with trucks.  Anyway, who gets up in the morning wishing somebody would give them a bunch of steel and cross timbers?  Let’s try it again.  What business are you in?

Uh, transportation?

Good.  You may survive this after all.

Okay that makes sense, I suppose.  But I’m not a business owner.

Of course you are. [click to continue…]

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From Reality to Destiny

by Andy Wood on May 31, 2013

in Ability, Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase, Time

GatewayWhen I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes.  I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty.  I am trusting and suspicious.  I am honest and I still play games.  Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.

(Brennan Manning)

It’s time to face the facts.

Anybody ever say that to you?

Did they ever follow it with something that sounded like good news?

Where did reality get such a bum rap?  I don’t mean Debbie-Downer-such-a-frowner stuff where you look for reasons to be miserable.  I certainly don’t mean TV shows that pass for “reality.” I mean an honest assessment of the brutal facts that say, “Where you is is where you is.”

So… um… Where you is?

Do you realize that the only way you can ever experience meaningful change, positive results, breathtaking opportunities or fulfilled potential is first to enter the doorway of truth? [click to continue…]

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Come and See What My Father Will Do

by Andy Wood on April 12, 2013

in Ability, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Abundance, Waiting

Holding Hands With ChildThings looked bleak for the children in George Muller’s orphanage at Ashley Downs in England.  Muller had built his ministry as a model of how God would provide for him with no specific requests for support.

But on this day, it was time for breakfast, and the cupboards were bare.  There was no food in the kitchen, no money in the bank.  A small girl whose father was a close friend of Muller was visiting in the home.  Muller took her hand and said, “Come and see what our Father will do.”

In the dining room, long tables were set with empty plates and empty mugs.  Muller gathered the children together and prayed, “Dear Father, we thank You for what You are going to give us to eat.”

Immediately, they heard a knock at the door.  [click to continue…]

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The Gift of Perspective

by Andy Wood on January 28, 2013

in Insight, Leadership, Life Currency, Turning Points

Perspective 4The other night I ran into an old friend I hadn’t seen in years – namely because he had moved away.  Doyle had always been such an encouragement and support to me in whatever endeavor I was involved in at the time.  But as a friend, Doyle offered something else – something that every leader needs.  He offered me the gift of perspective.

The first time we got to know each other was over lunch.  We had served on a couple of planning committees together and I had admired his wisdom and kindness.  Lunch on that day was no different.  I heard his story, and shared mine with him.  I talked about the fact that I was living in a parentheses period – an in-between time in my work.  (I was serving as a men’s pastor at the time, but anxious to get back to being a senior pastor.)  Doyle’s primary word (and that of everybody whenever I’ve been anxious to make a quick move) was, “Stay where you are.”  Actually he said, “I can’t think of anything more important than working with men.”

After sharing more joys and frustrations, he (lovingly!) asked me a slap-in-the-face question:

[click to continue…]

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What I’m Learning From My Students, Part 1

by Andy Wood on December 19, 2012

in Half-baked Ideas, Insight, Leadership, Life Currency

Student ProfessorI’ve been wanting to do this for a while now, and this seems like a good time as another semester has drawn to a close.  Ever since I’ve been teaching on a college or graduate level, I’ve had the privilege of reading – and learning – from some pretty profound writers.

In this case, I’m not talking about the great books and journal articles I get to lead students through.  I’m referring to the papers and other written assignments that I have to grade.  At my peak earlier in the year, I was grading bout 25 papers a day.

As you may expect, most of the things I read are rather average, and some are, um, well, below average.  But every once in a while, somebody blows me away with their ability to creatively, powerfully express a truth.  Sometimes it’s just a sentence.  Sometimes it’s a paragraph.

Over the years I have collected my favorite student quotations.  So in the tradition of my “Half-Baked Ideas that I’m still thinking about,” I wanted to share seven with you.

Drink these in slowly.  Let them “bake in your oven” for a while.  You’ll be richer for it. Click here and brace for impact!

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How to Make Christmas a Celebration Again

by Andy Wood on December 10, 2012

in Consumers, Esteem, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, Photos, Principle of Freedom

Many years ago the cartoon character Cathy expressed the anxiety many people feel this time of year.  She says to her boss:  “My left brain is making lists of people I haven’t sent cards to yet.  My right brain is at the craft store, thinking up creative gifts I could make before Christmas.  My nerves are at the mall, worrying whether I should have gotten the other necktie for my Dad.  My stomach is still at last night’s party begging for more Christmas cookies.  My heart is stuck in traffic somewhere between my mother’s house, my boyfriend’s house, and the adorable man I saw at the post office.”

Her boss asks, “What is it you want, Cathy?”  Cathy replies:  “May what’s left of me sneak home early and take a nap?”

For many people, Christmas has become something other than a celebration.  It’s more like a mission. The holiday, instead of being a holy-day, has become a holocaust.  The celebration has become a sale, “Silent Night” has become replaced with “Walmart Fight.”

And have you noticed how guilty you always seem to feel at Christmas?

You spent too much money, or didn’t spend enough.

You didn’t get everything your kids asked for, or the present wasn’t the right size.

You didn’t give enough to the church or the Salvation Army.

You “put Christ back into Christmas” and were “too spiritual,” or you had too much Santa Claus and reindeer.

Do you ever wish you could just somehow go back and start over?  Football coaches have a good term for this:  they call it going back to the fundamentals.  Let’s give that a try this year.  Let’s make Christmas a celebration again… 100% guilt-free! Click to see a great idea for connecting with people

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Dealing with the Bombshells

by Andy Wood on November 27, 2012

in Allocating Your Resources, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Abundance, Since You Asked

Old friend called yesterday.  It had been a while.

“I’m calling to ask you to pray,” she began.  “I’ve just had a bombshell dropped in my lap.”

Like you would do, I’m sure, my mind started racing at the possibilities.  Family?  Finances?  Health?  It could be anything.

I won’t tell you what hers was, but it really doesn’t matter.  What matters is that she was handed some bad news she didn’t see coming.

Kabloom!

What matters more is that she was really making some progress in some areas of her life, and this jeopardizes all that.

Kabloom again!

And what matters to you is that next time it could be you.

Have you ever noticed that when you start moving in a positive direction, life has a way of testing you out of center field with alarming or disarming stuff?  And it comes dressed in any number of ugly outfits. [click to continue…]

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We Had Plans!

by Andy Wood on September 19, 2012

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Eternity

Sheriene Harris was looking forward to her dad coming to stay with her.  Then the two of them were going to take her son to football camp in the summer.

They had plans.

Instead, her father, age 70, had a urinary tract infection and needed to go to the hospital.  There he had a massive heart attack and died.

“I felt that he had so much more life to live,” Sheriene said.  “God, what happened?”

It didn’t make sense.

“All I kept saying to God was, “WE HAD PLANS!”

Apparently God had other plans.

What do you do when your plans collide with God’s?  Especially when your plans are noble, life-affirming, loving, or even kingdom-building? [click to continue…]

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