Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 192). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I love that thought. Mark shares, “It is not too late to rewrite your epitaph. It’s a living document. An epitaph is not the period at the end of our life sentence. It’s the prologue to our eternal story. How you live out your days on this earth will determine how you will live out your days in eternity.” Margaret and I were saying this morning as I was taking her to work that we are living right now the best days of our life.  Now we have not lived tomorrow yet but we are really enjoying life as we know it today.  Oh there are some difficulties in our life, some challenges but in living out what we have experienced we have learned how to really enjoy what we have no matter what it...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetim e (p. 188). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Mark continues, “Epitaphs are a powerful thing. What is said about us when we die is a window into how we lived our lives. Epitaphs reveal the innate desire each of us has within us to leave an impact on the world. Even after we have left this earth, we want to leave something of ourselves behind. We want to be remembered for something.” So many people leave life and death to chance.  For one they have left the fact that there is a God who has made them and who has a purpose for their life to chance.  They have not acknowledge there need for Him.  They have just lived their life as if they didn’t need any help from their Creator.  No that is taking a chance.  And the...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime (p. 18). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Mark then says, “They are often right across the street, down the hall, or in the seat next to you. You don’t have to go looking for adventure. If you follow Jesus, adventure comes looking for you. Jesus didn’t carry a cross to Calvary so that we could live a halfway life. He died so that we could come alive in the truest and fullest sense of the word.” I love that.  I have lived two adventures this morning.  One was in a Starbucks in Burbank where I talked with a young lady who shared the adventure of her life with me.  She and her husband have just moved here from Baltimore, Maryland.  It was a great time of sharing from our thoughts and our lives. I then went to Arom...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 154). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)     Mark right before this thought says, “I thank God for memory. Without it, we’d have to relearn everything, every day. It’s our ability to remember the past that enables us to imagine the future. And that’s the point of remembering His faithfulness, isn’t it? It fuels our future tense faith.”  And then he says, “In my book, success is succession.” He then continues, “If your influence ends with you, it wasn’t worth your time and effort. Your life is a dead end. But if you influence the next generation, you won’t just enter eternity when you die. You will live on in the lives of those you leave behind. That’s what spiritual fathering and mothering is all about— leaving a l...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 147). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I’m not wanting to spend much time on the fact that I just celebrated my 68 th year going around the sun.  But I did and there are benefits to that fact.  As Dick says, perspective is one of them. He says, “I heard Dr. J. Edwin Orr, a renowned church historian with doctorates from both Northwestern University and Oxford, relate an intriguing anecdote some years ago. As a chaplain on the Pacific island of Moratai in World War II, he was cornered by a young soldier who, having witnessed carnage beyond belief, said, ‘I am an atheist. There is no God!’ Musing on that challenge, Orr said, ‘Son, how much of all there is to know do you think you know?’ Taken aback, the young man faltered....

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 140). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) One important thing in writing this blog is to find a thought that interests you but it also interests me.  Now if you got this far then I must have quickened your interest and I’m glad I did.  So many people think they are done knowing when they leave school but the reality is you will never be done until you die.  The problem is many people die between their ears before they die physically and that is a great waist. Now Marks says, “The human brain weighs three pounds. It is the size of a softball, and yet with it we have the capacity to learn something new every second of every minute of every hour of every day for the next three hundred million years. God has created us wit...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime (p. 126). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Mark continues this thought by saying, “As a pastor, I’ve seen this play out over and over again in the lives of the people around me. I’ve learned that if someone has a critical eye, they will always find something to be critical about. And if they have a grateful eye, they will find something to celebrate even in the worst of circumstances. The Bible calls this having a ‘good eye.’” Matthew 6: 22– 23 says, “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good , your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness” (NLT). He then says, “Having a ‘good eye’ in life changes how you see yourself and everything around ...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime (p. 124). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) How sensitive I am is a decision.  Do you realize that?  I have within me the ability to choose how I take something that you do or say.  I cannot control what you do but I do control my reaction to what you do.  As Dick says, “When Scripture says, ‘As a man thinks, so is he,’ it is raw truth. How we approach life and react to its vagaries determines the bulk of our character. How we love is locked into how we think about it. What angers us is triggered by how we think. It is between our ears that we decide how easily offended we will be. When it comes to harsh words from others, whether my skin absorbs like cotton or deflects like Teflon is a decision I make. All of that h...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 120). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I like the adventure of finding new coffee shops.  I stopped at one this morning that I had never been to.  I pulled down a street, saw that the sign said no parking 6 – 8 and went in got a cup of very good coffee spent some time reading and then came out and saw that I had gotten a ticket.  I thought it said 6 pm – 8 am but it said 6 am – 8 pm. So I just got done writing a check to the City of Burbank because I didn’t really read the details.  And that is kind of like how many people deal with their faith.  They don’t really see the details so they lose out on what God really wants/expects from us. Mark says, “Most people are bored with their faith because they are ...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 34). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) One thing that a Lawyer does is keep track of each of his billable minutes.  That's how they get paid.  But that is not how our life is to be measured. As Mark says, "Our lives are not just measured in minutes. They are measured in moments — moments when the minutes stand still. And it’s those defining moments that define our lives!" There are specific moments in my life that I go back to that can bring deep emotion in me.  Those moments define what I defined my life to be.  The moment I spent with my grandpa Williams as he shared memories of his life just a few minutes before he went to be with the Lord.  Living moments that he shared with me.  The moment when I wa...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime  (p. 101). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I think most of us come into marriage thinking that and then along the way we grow up.  But so many individuals keep thinking that way and life isn’t so good for them.  As Mark says, “Those of you who are married know that self-focused marriages don’t do that well.” But that’s not God plan.  He has something better for us. Mark says, “The goal of marriage is not happiness, it is holiness. That thought is not original to me, but I have experienced it firsthand. There is no mechanism whereby God can sanctify a person more than having them live in close proximity to another imperfect person. When I get into an emotional slump, nine times out of ten it’s because I zoom ...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime  (p. 98). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) It is so very easy as a minister to think that we have a direct line from God so we don’t need to listen to anyone else even our wife.  But that is sooooo wrong.  So wrong.  That is also true of many men who aren’t ministers and also many women who believe they know best and they don’t need to listen.  But that idea is a quick way to ruin a relationship and especially a marriage. Dick says, “Taking the time to hear a spouse brings honor and credence to the conversation. It acknowledges the value of the other person. If we stop talking or listening, we are dead in the water. Silence in a marriage is not golden. It is ambiguous. When silence falls, I don’t know what it ...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime  (p. 87). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) The whole thought here by Mark is, “One of our core values as a church is, love people when they least expect it and least deserve it. That is the kind of love Jesus shows to us. When we are at our worst, He is at His best.” Wow.  That is so true of me.  He loves me, He loves me and He loves me.  No matter what I have done He loves me.  That is more love that I give to myself.  I love the Psalms.  I read one every day.  I have done it for years.  Today’s Psalm was the 92 nd Psalm and starting with verse 1 it says, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the most high.”  That is a good way to start each day but then ...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime  (p. 76). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I turned 68 years of age today and I probably feel better than I thought I would at 68.  I mean 68.  Aren’t you suppose to feel old?  Oh there are some things but there are also some other things that feel better.  And they feel better because I have had some goals to shoot toward every day. Do you have any goals that you strive to do every day?  Dick said, “Goals have a way of refocusing your life. They give you purpose and a target to shoot for. They are the compass of our dreams, helping us set a steady course. Goals comprise direction and progress. When we lose sight of our goals, we tend to lose sight of ourselves and who we are trying to become, who Go...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime  (p. 72). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I have started every day for many years doing one thing.  I read from the Psalms and I read from the NT.  Right now I am in Paul’s second letter to the young man, Timothy.  I love what I read this morning in verse 7 of chapter 4.  Paul said, “ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.”  No matter what has happened to me, “I have remained faithful.”  That is what Mark is talking about here. He says, “I’m more and more impressed with people who simply keep on keeping on. I love the phrase ‘little by little’ in Exodus 23: 30. We want a lot by a lot, but that’s not the way it works in God’s kingdom ventures. Malco...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime  (p. 62). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Do you really take yourself so seriously that if you do something dumb you don’t share it because you don’t want people to laugh at you?  I understand.  I’ve had problems with that.  The key is to realize that “the healthiest, holiest, and happiest people on the planet are those who laugh at themselves the most.”  Pride is not our friend. Here is what Mark says, “One of the things that defines our culture at National Community Church is our theology of fun. We take God seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously. We have cultivated a culture of honor, but we’ve also cultivated a culture of humor. Those two things aren’t unrelated.”  Then he says, “The heal...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 52). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Dick said, “At a breakfast with some diplomats and former government officials, on the spur of the moment I was asked to offer a thought for the day. In my comments I lamented the truth that DC was not a town in which one wanted to toss his credentials on the table, because they would most certainly be trumped by someone. Someone who had more power, more money, more degrees, more years, more connections, more experience. More anything. When I finished talking, one of the conveners, a former cabinet member to the president of the United States, said, ‘That’s true, Dick, with one exception. If your credentials say “Friend,” everyone wins.’ ‘Friend’ is the greatest title and the highest rank you c...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime (p. 46). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I know.  We think that playing it safe is what we want.  But this weekend if we would have played it safe and stayed in our home in Studio City because we knew there was risk in getting in our car and heading up 5 hours to Yosemite we would have risked missing an extra ordinary experience that we will remember the rest of our lives.  But we didn’t play it safe. I mean, if we would have played it safe this morning, no way would Margaret have headed off to make a difference in the work that she does.  There is always a risk when you get on the freeways of LA but there is also a risk when you don't.  I like how Mark puts it, “One of our three core convictions at Nati...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure of a Lifetime (p. 29). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Dick shared, "Stuart Brown, a medical doctor, psychiatrist, and founder of the National Institute for Play, says that play, not necessity, is the mother of invention. And play is not just for kids. He reports: A study done in Okinawa, Japan, by the National Geographic Society revealed that engaging in activities, like playing with young children, was as important as diet and exercise in fostering the Okinawans’ legendary longevity. . . . When we stop playing, we stop developing, and when that happens, the laws of entropy take over— things fall apart. . . . When we stop playing, we start dying. " My son, Brett, his wife Marissa, his daughter's, Ashlyn, and Addison and Margaret and I...

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime (p. 29). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Dick continued this thought by saying, “Ruth and I decided early on in our marriage that if we had to choose between giving our kids experiences or things, we would give them experiences. They could always get things. One of the ways we did that was by traveling. We didn’t let modest salaries stop us. We packed food and games and stopped now and again just to play. After all, experiences connected to play are so often how we learn. I didn’t intellectually know that at the time, but I learned it later and I know it’s true. It’s at the heart of who we are as human beings.” Later he said, “Our experiences shape the way we think, the way we interact with each other, and the way we live. They add...