Bull riding, sky diving, and other godly pursuits

“I went sky diving.
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.”
-- from Tim McGraw, "Live Life to the Fullest."

What is the one thing in life you still want to do? What's keeping you from doing it? What are you thoughts on Christians experiencing 'life'?

Comment here.

Our time will tell

Back in 1748, Benjamin Franklin wrote to a young tradesman about the nature of money and how his friend could assuredly earn more. From this letter came one of his famous quotes, “Remember that time is money.”

His admonition to the young man was to be frugal with his time, urging him to be a diligent steward of his time in order to optimize his earnings – wasted time meant the loss of potential income.

In our modern times, the advice Benjamin Franklin provided to the young entrepreneur is often times quoted but not with the fatherly wisdom as originally delivered, but rather with a cynical sneer similar to Gordon Gecko’s “Greed is good” line from the movie Wall Street.

People hold up their personal time as a sacrosanct commodity which should not be trivialized or wasted. Time has become a modern day currency that holds as much sway over people as the almighty dollar. And the value of one’s time seems to be proportionate to the holder’s ego and inflated sense of importance. The follow up line to “Time is money” are the unspoken words, “and you’re wasting mine…”

Time is our modern day mammon. It is the new idol we serve, perhaps even more than money. And no place is it more evident than in our work.

There are two primary schools of thought when it comes to time and work and they can be summed up as:

Live to work – which is exemplified by type A, overachieving workaholics
Work to live – doing just enough to get by so as to maximize your leisure time

But of course, neither of these philosophies seeks to glorify God. The only philosophy that we should hold in our hearts is to “live to work for God.” Jesus was clear in the Sermon on the Mount – we cannot serve two masters. Our time must be God’s time.

Do you work to live or live to work? Comment here.

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. "
Matt 6:24 (NIV)

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Scratching the itch of ambition

"Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices, so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping." -- Jonathan Swift, Miscellanies, 1711

We all have an itch. It’s an itch for something different. This longing is what creates new inventions and drives us to discovery.

It also leads us to a deeper walk with God, chasing the divine mysteries.But the ugly, dark side of that desire for something else finds its satisfaction in sin.

The itch is never really satisfied, scratching away at our very being. Ambition is the fulfillment of an itch.

Is there any such thing as 'healthy ambition'?Is it possible to live out the words of Christ and still be ambitious? Or is ambition in and of itself a vain, selfish pursuit with no inherent value for believers? Is it a fatal flaw that finds its roots in our sin nature?

In it’s purest form, it’s healthy. Ambition builds companies and drives capitalism. In the kingdom of God, its what can cause us to make a difference, to change a world gone crazy. It seems the sinful elements of ambition come from the deadly pursuit of ‘our will,’ a close cousin to ‘our want.’ When our ambition takes over, it pushes aside our desire to fulfill and live out God's will for us, then we're left headed down the wide path of our own making.

But get this – healthy ambition means aligning your ways with God’s ways. He’s full of ambition. “He is willing that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God doesn’t want fulfill our wants but rather our wants should be to fulfill God's will.

Jesus could have shown selfish ambition. Certainly, all he had to do was say the word and he could have had the entire Roman command of Judea. He could have gained a country, but lost our eternities.Which ambition will you choose?

Four fired for gossip

"But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12:36-37).

ABC news reported on a group of four women who were fired for gossiping in the workplace.

The Bible says this: "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters” (1 Peter 4:15). "

That's some heavy duty company. When I act as a busybody, I'm in the same category as a murderer and a thief.

And that's not an accident. Idle words hurt. They steal dignity. There is always pain in them.

“Slander” is a word that has an interesting origin. It comes from the word “Devil.” According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, slander means “malicious talk; to spread damaging information; to defame; to speak ill of.” And "Gossip" is derived from the idea of “whispering.”

The damage - the pain that comes letting 'little things slip' is painful.

What's your experience?

Leave a comment here.

Keep swinging for the fences

By the time he retired, Henry Aaron had broken baseball’s home run record. After 23 seasons, he had smashed 755 round trippers. Despite this success, he was keenly aware that failure was a more constant companion.

After all, his lifetime batting average of .305 was good compared to others, but it still translated into a 70 percent failure rate. But his motto was to never quit.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

“Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging,” he said.

Things don’t always go our way. But there is still something to be said about pushing forward. We cannot retreat. We cannot give up.
We cannot let our disappointments in life or in our business consume us.

The best fix is to zero in and go on the offensive again.

We are best when we sit down on the bench, study what just happened, and then come out swinging for the fences again.

Do you agree? Send us a comment here.

Pulling weeds

One of the sure signs of spring is the presence of dandelions. Despite their yellow floral bursts, they are really noxious weeds.

And doesn’t it seem that there’s always one lawn in your neighborhood that’s worse than others?

That neighbor’s problem just might become yours, because weeds eventually germinate and the airborne seeds will drop onto any available fertile soil. Without attention, it won’t take long for your green lawn to be full of weeds, too.

When one part of the body suffers, we all do.

Those of us who live by faith need to focus on ridding the weeds in our backyards before they infect our neighbors. We cannot run independently. Our sin isn't just our own -- it hurts the entire community. One bad apple at work pulls the whole unit down. One grumpy family member affects everyone. One bad egg at church can disrupt a whole congregation.

We all affect each other.

We are coming out of the long winter and we look forward to greener days ahead. But those days will be spoiled if we don’t get rid of the weeds now. They will spread and will overtake all the good for you and those around you.

What kind of weeds need to be pulled from your life? Comment here.

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Pain – the gift nobody wants

"Ouch!" Flinch. Pull back your hand. Duck.

These are all natural reactions to the threat of pain.

No one wants to be hurt.
So we avoid pain.. We deflect it. We ignore it. We mask it.

Pain is nothing new – it got its start in the Garden of Eden.

The serpent was cursed to crawl along ground, dragging its belly on the shards of stone.

The woman was cursed, “multiplying your pain in childbearing.”

And the man had to till a cursed ground, “in pain you shall eat of it all your days.” Creation was cursed with thorns and thistles.

According to Paul, “Affliction is our destiny” because we have chosen to stand apart – to be separated from the world. “Indeed,” he says “All who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted.”

Pain is just part of the deal.

But we mask pain with drugs – a $100 billion a year industry.
We run from confrontation.
We hide from difficult conversations.
We refuse to deal with difficult subjects.

But isn’t there something we can learn in the pain? The Red Letter Believer seeks to live out their faith in their workplace, their home and their community -- and that includes the painful times.

What lessons have you discovered – through the pain? Won't you leave your comment here?

And we would be most honored if you would subscribe to this blog. Please Click here.

"He gives me strength"

"I stepped onto the court and it was a feeling like I’ve never felt before."


This wasn’t Nene’s first venture onto the hardwood. He had played thousands of games. But none greater than this one for big Denver Nugget center.


Just 73 days earlier he had undergone testicular cancer surgery. And 30 days prior, he had undergone chemotherapy. And here he was, running the court to the cheers of 19,000 fans. This was no mind over matter. This wasn’t a superhuman. This was the story of a man who is fully immersed in the power of the Almighty.

He used his time during his cancer treatments to feed his soul.

"I disconnected myself from the world outside and got even spiritually stronger with the word of the Lord."

Eventually, he gained enough endurance to step onto the basketball court again.

"God gave me this opportunity. He gave me strength. He made me a victor."

Here is a man who isn't afraid to demonstrate his faith in his workplace.

The Nuggets are in the playoffs this year,doing well, thanks in part to the strong career year of the big Brazilian. He is scoring big points on the court....but there is a lingering scent of of eternal victory in the air.

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Workplace myths

Our friend and mentor, Randy Kilgore who heads the "Made to Matter" workplace faith ministry, recently published a list of three myths that persist among Christians who work.

We'll summarize, but you should read the whole post here.

Myth 1: True workplace faith is about ethics. The working Christian doesnt just follow a list of rules. Jesus' call was about "doing the right thing in the right way with the right motives."

Myth 2: Faith at work is about evangelism. We don't go to work just to share the Gospel.
"Christianity is not a smoke and mirrors game where we pretend to care about our jobs simply to have the opportunity to sneak the Gospel in somewhere."

Myth 3: We work to earn money so we can support God's real work.

"The real work of the work of the church is to equip its members o serve God outside the walls of the church."

Read the whole post here, drop Randy a note of encouragement, and then leave a comment here about these myths...and perhaps others you've experienced in the workplace.

Subscribe to Made to Matter's weekly devotional here.

Does it matter?

Deep inside we all want our work to matter. This is why most of us take our work and careers so seriously. Where we stray is when we focus on what our jobs can do for us instead of what our jobs can do for God.

Let’s start with the brutal truth: work is hard and God made it that way -- by design. The stark reality is that God created work and He created play and the two are very different.

When God spoke to Adam after the fall He made it clear that earning a living by working the soil would require a lot of effort. God said, “All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. All your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day.” Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV)

For all of us who are familiar with what it means to put in a hard day’s work, we understand that this passage speaks a universal truth.

We will sweat and toil to earn our daily bread. But it isn’t meant to be a joyless venture. He gave us the ability to do it with a smile. Even Grumpy of the Seven Dwarves knew he was supposed to whistle while he worked.

What is your attitude while you are doing your daily work? Comment here.