it's your choice

The other day I was watching a 30 for 30 episode on ESPN about Todd Marinovich. As I didd I thought about all the highs and lows we go through in life. If you are familiar with the story there are any number of thoughts you can take from it:

• Was Todd's father the textbook case of an overbearing, controlling father?
• Did Todd squander his opportunities for greatness on drugs and alcohol?
• Was Todd the innocent victim of other's expectations?

Most of those questions are irrelevant and the meaningless speculation and hindsight of people who did not live through what Todd did. At some point in the story I experienced each of those feelings, but what I took away from the story is where Todd seems to be today. He seems to have found some level of peace with his own life, rebuilt his relationship with his father and is trying not to repeat these lessons with his own son.

The truth is Todd's life isn't much differen than yours or mine. No, I never used cocaine. I have only been in prison by choice (visiting a friend or attempting to do prison ministry). I did at times have a strained relationship with my own father, but I now understand he only wanted what was best for his boys. I was never a top athelete and didn't play professional sports. As a matter of fact I have never been the "star performer" in any avenue of my life. So how are Todd and I alike? Simple, life happens to us all.

There have been days in my life when I couldn't hardly get off my knees because I was so low, discouraged and defeated all I could do was pray. There were times I prayed the most fervent prayers imaginable, but those prayers were for God to take and take me now. I have known the struggle of not knowing how I was going to face another day.

Now I find that most days I am the optimist. Life is still hard. I struggle with politics, religion and the economic morass that is our country, but I CHOOSE happiness. I choose to look for the bright side of life. I choose to believe that better days are ahead. Could I be wrong? Absolutely, but I will not surrender today worrying about tomorrow.

How we live each day is choice. Sometimes you hear people blaming their lives on others. That's just too easy. You can change the circumstances of your life. You can be happier, live life more fully and be the kind of person who brings sunshine and promise into the lives of others.

Who determines your destiny?

I recieved a stark reminder this year that we still live in the greatest nation in the world. Yes, I have been perturbed about the election, the infringement of our constitutional rights and the growing debt burden that is facing America. Still, this is a land of opportunity and optimism. Let us not forget that almost half our nation (probably more) still holds to traditional, conservative, entreprenuerial values.

In April of this year I realized that I had become a slacker. I wasn't eating right and I had become old, fat and tired. I lost my motivation and it was even impacting my work (no energy). Now for the commercial. I changed my habits, started eating right and yes, for those of you tired of hearing it - I signed up with Advocare. I lost 43 lbs and feel great, energetic and best of all I am the old optimist I used to be.

In addition I needed to earn more income. I was behind on my retirement planning and with two girls in school I had to find a way to help fund their education. I always avoided direct sales, but this time I gave it a try and in a few short months finding another $1,000 a month made a huge difference in the bottom line.

So are you the person who cries in your coffee, or do you do something about the circumstances in your life while you still can. Get up, get active and get on the success train.

Giving Back

Sometimes it is difficult to do the work I do. It's not the challenges of fundraising, or the struggles of trying to oversee staff that are tens of thousands of miles away. The real problem is dealing with the economic disparity there is in the world. Now before I go too far, I am a card carrying, right-wing, gun-toting, bible-banging conservative. I don't believe in socialism or the government redistribution of wealth. That being said, I do believe in the personal redistribution of wealth, or as we typically refer to it as charity or benevolence.

The Holidays are particularly challenging because of the gross over-spending that takes place in our culture. We have allowed the advertising industry to convince us that the more we spend the more we are filled with the Christmas spirit. This year I am asking for your help in finding some meaningful ways to give back during the holidays. Here are a few ideas that I have, but I would love to get your feedback and hear of some creative ways to really lift up Christ over the next two months.

• I am considering making a micro-loan in a developing country in the name of each of my children.
• Serving for a day or two at the Nashville Rescue Mission.
• Finding a family in need and quietly and anonmymously helping them with groceries or Christmas presents.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this blog.

Doubling Down on Sin

You may stop and ask yourself why a minister would find himself sitting in a casino at 2:00 am on a Sunday morning or walking through the honky tonks and bars near Ft. Bragg, North Carolina but those are situations that I and other ministers have found themselves in from time to time. While there are plenty of people who are sitting in a pew on Sunday morning struggling with hardships, disappointments and sin - there is also a world of people outside the confines of that sancuary who are looking, seeking and longing for someone to rescue them from the storms of life.

My ministry (and that is probably a loose use of the word) changed dramatically in 2003 when I went through a painful divorce. For 25 years I ministered from the book. I read, studied and tried to apply what I knew about godly living from a more academic approach. This is not to say that I wasn't emphathetic to the needs of others, or that I was totally unrelatable to the many challenges in the world - but to be honest, most of what I taught and practiced came from my personal study.

There are two kinds of knowledge - what we learn from study and what we learn from life. In the Greek New Testament one of the translations of the word knowledge comes from the term "epignosis," literally a word that means learning that comes from experience. Why is it the older women are commanded to teach the younger women... (Titus 2:4)? Very simply - they have lived more life and are better suited to give advice based on personal experience.

I started writing a book recently entitled "Broken." It addresses the most fundamental truth concerning each and every one of  us - we are broken.  I struggled with the decision to begin this project because it was going to require me to open a vein and bleed all over the pages. My life (and the life of many of my friends) is broken. I never realized that more than the first time I tried to stand in a pulpit and talk to people about how to live a Christian life, when my own life was in shambles. Divorced, discouraged and struggling with sin there were those who wanted me to speak to them about a relationship with God - incomprehensible!

That was also the start of journey in which God placed a lot of other broken people into my life. People who were asking hard questions about how their lives got messed up and where they were going. They wanted to have a relationship to God but had no idea how to get there. Lots of questions I am pretty sure I didn't have the answers to.

So here I sit, nearly 10 years removed from my own divorce and I am doubling down. I may loose it all in the process; but if my journey, my hurt, my pain and my changing view of the "HOW" to do ministry alienates some people - so be it. They accused Jesus of eating with tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 9:1), so if trying to help old friends means tracking them down in a Casino at two in the morning, or searching the honky tonks and bars (as my childhood minister did), for an AWOL soldier then that is where we need to be.

Just Begin

This past Saturday I ran a 5K affectionately known as the "Warrior Dash." It is a 5K run with an obstacle course that includes climbing over walls and cargo nets, crawling under barbed wire, running through tires, over cars, through tunnels, jumping over fire and swimming through 50 yards of mud. It was a blast and I felt great at the end of it.

Six months ago I literally had trouble running a city block. I was more than 40 lbs overweight, tired and totally unmotivated. People who haven't seen me in a while respond by saying - "what are you doing? How did you manage to get such amazing results?"  Those comments alone make all the effort worthwhile.

Most of you who know me, know that I am a huge advocate of Advocare health and wellness supplements. The company has changed my life (both my health and financially), but this is not a commercial for Advocare - it is an appeal to JUST BEGIN!  Do something! Get off the couch and walk 1/2 a mile.

There is tremendous power in just beginning. If you can begin and stick with something for a few days there is more power and motivation in reaching some results. Run a block, then run a block and a driveway, then run a block and 2 driveways. I didn't get there overnight. I didn't transform from an old fat man to a fit 53 year old overnight, but I started. You can too!

Set some small goals for yourself this week. Walk 1/2 a mile. For just one day, eat healthy. Now continue for a second day and a third. You've Got This!

As I was running on Saturday I came to a large wall with a rope that I had to climb over. A few months ago I wouldn't even attempted it. I would have given up right there. How rewarding it was to climb with ease and comfort over that wall. As I was at the two mile mark I passed a man who looked at me and said, "I am too old for this kind of thing." I then asked his age and he responded - "40". As I ran past him I thought - "that would have been me a few months ago.

What are you waiting for - Begin, just begin!

You can't outrun a bad diet.

For years I cheated myself out of good health by thinking I could compensate for all the bad things I was putting in my body. I ate a Snickers bar so I would spend 25 more minutes in the gym. I had a large bowl of ice cream so all I needed to do was play an extra set of tennis.  I hear this kind of reasoning all the time. Typically, it is someone who says, "I am going to spend an extra 15 minutes on the treadmill."  The truth of the matter is, "You can't outrun a bad diet."

I have always been pretty active. Softball, tennis and just about any pick-up sport I could find. I love to compete, but regardless of all the exercise I was getting fatter and fatter. (Sorry to those who don't like that term, but I call a spade a spade). It wasn't till I started studying and researching health and fitness I realized I was short changing myself.

About a year ago I bought a Honda Shadow motorcycle. It was a 2004, but only had a couple of hundred miles on it. It is a beautiful bike, but the performance sucked!  A friend encouraged me to "feed it better." I started putting in 100% gasoline (no ethynol) and went to a mid-grade gas.  After a couple of tanks of gas my bike was running like new.

Your body does much the same thing. Your muscles need the right kind of fuel! Your metabolism runs better when you feed your body the right things. You feel more energized and healthy when you eat the right foods. While I believe that exercise and diet are complementary to one another and increases your bodies efficiency; if I had to choose only one it would be to eat the right foods at the right times, in the right quantities.

Remember when you were raising your little ones and you said, "Don't put that in your mouth, its not good for you." Well that little tidbit of knowledge works for adults too. Here are few things to know about what you put in your mouth:

• Not all calories are alike. Counting calories is deceptive. 100 calories of refined sugar will metabolize into fat, while 100 calories of healthy proteins can feed your muscles.
• Eating more often works! Eating smaller portions 5 or 6 times a day speeds your metabolism while starving yourself slows it and causes the body to store more energy in fat cells.
• Educate yourself on what you eat. There is a lot of mis-information out there (especially from the FDA). Forget what you learned as a child about food groups and balanced diets, that is all inaccurate and outdated information.
• Avoid boxed, canned and processed food. First, all the nutrients have been taken from the food and second, they have been replaced with poisons that are killing you slowly.

Disclaimer: Yes, I still will eat a Snickers now and then. I have been know to open a box or bag and eat the food inside, but I am careful about what I eat. A guilty pleasure is the exception - not the rule. If you have been running, walking, lifting or doing other forms of exercise without much success - don't quit what you are doing, just find a good trainer or nutrionist who can help you change your diet and the results will be amazing.

For more information: www.advocare.com/12044713

WHY?

I was sitting this morning thinking about all the excuses I used to make for not getting healthy and fit.  Then I began to think of all my friends who have complimented my success, but then made excuses for their own inability to commit to some form of diet and exercise. Here are a few:

• People should love me for who I am. (Yes, but if you love others don't you want to bless them with a long, healthy life).
• I enjoy good food - I prefer to enjoy life and die happy. (Do you really enjoy the side-effects of poor health - I didn't. Are you really happy with yourself when you look in the mirror)?
• You mean I have to give up ice cream at bedtime. (Yes, you have to make sacrifices if you want to succeed. Do you really want to wake up 1 or 2 pounds heavier every week)?
• __________________________ Fill in the blank. Don't think I am not compassionate, because I was that same person. I made all the excuses. I even reached the point more than once (in failed attempts), and just said, "whats the use!"

I feel very hypocritical writing this blog. I have not arrived. I still have cravings and cheat at times. Who am I to preach to others about health and fitness when I spent more than a decade allowing my body to atrophy on the couch. It is my hope and prayer that because I do understand that I can speak frankly about the need to change.

I am going to place a challenge before you. Answer these questions and then ask yourself if you can make a positive change for one day:

1. What is the single most damanging obstacle to your good health? Is it a certain food, your hatred of exercise, what? For me it was eating late (especially chips, sodas, cheese and crackers and snack foods. I probably consumed 1,000 calories after dinner each night).
2. Deep down, do you want to change? Do you want to feel better, look better and have more energy? Don't lie to yourself on this one - look in the mirror when you ask yourself this.
3. Can you devote one day to good health?

I had no idea when all this started I would or could lose 38 lbs. I wanted to lose 10 so I could go to the beach and not be totally ashamed of how I looked. It was amazing what taking life one-day-at-a-time can do. After a couple days I lost a pound, then two, then five. Here is what happens if you take things one day at time.

• Day One: I feel terrible. I don't want to walk, much less run. By 8:00 pm I am dying inside and want to raid the fridge for something / anything to eat.
• Day Five: I have been walking for a few days, lost a couple of pounds and feel a little encouraged. I still want to snack at night. I wish there where bigger portioins on my plate at mealtime and the cravings are awful.
• Day Ten: I have lost 8 lbs. I find that I can't eat as large a meal as I once did. I walked over 3 miles for the first time in a long time. The cravings are starting to subside and I am not as hungry all the time.
• Two Weeks: I have lost 10 lbs. and I feel differently about everything. I believe in myself and my ability to succeed. I still like good food, but don't crave the sweets, refined sugars and empty carbs as much anymore.
• Four Weeks: Lost over 20 lbs. and I am a different person. I can run for change. I feel energized. I work more effectively. I eat 5 times a day and rarely do I feel hungry.
• Two Months: Lost 37 lbs. and I am an advocate for change - ONE DAY AT A TIME!  Set small goals for each day. Then set small goals for each week. Before you know it - you won't recongize the person in the mirror.

Two final things that keep me motivated. I have a picture of my "fat" self on my phone. I look at it occasionally to remind me not to go back there. Second, and I hate to admit this - I love the response I get from people who haven't seen me in a while. About a week ago a friend walked past me about 10 feet then stopped and turned around - "what have you done to yourself," was the response. That feels so much better than the short-term high I get from hot fudge lava cake.

Why are you letting these things stand between you and success?

Everything is a Drug

I recently read an interesting and somewhat challenging book by Tim Ferris, "The Four-Hour Body." One of the revelations that I have come to agree with is that "everything is a drug." Ferris spends a lot of time talking about how atheletes and body-builders are typically way ahead of the medical community in understanding the things that transform the body. While I don't advocate putting harmful drugs in your system or violating federal laws and regulations - Ferris' fundemental principle is true - "everything you put in your mouth is a drug."

Very simply, when we begin to understand how different foods, vitamins, supplements and medications affect our body - we are much better suited to make intelligent decisions concerning what we eat and what supplements we take. It took me far too long to realize the negative affects that refined sugars and empty carbohydrates where having on my body. Too many cookies, or an extra piece of pie (I do eat them in moderation), and my stomach is messed up for the next 24 hours. Interestingly, these products don't have the same affect on my wife. Why, it's pretty simply - our bodies function differently.

Why do some people smoke their entire life with what appears to be minimal negative affects and others (like my brother) never smoked at all and get cancer in their mouth, or lungs? I am not advocating smoking, or drinking to excess or anything we know is bad for you - but our bodies react differently to the stimulus we expose them to.

I love Advocare - the company has great things to offer most anyone (if you haven't had Spark, you are missing the product of the century). I also realize the some people function best on Weight Watchers, Adkins Low-Carb Diet, etc. The key is learning as much as you can about how your body responds and also realize that - YES, one twinkee at bedtime will mess up a day of healthy eating an exercise. NO, its not fair - but it is the reality of what "junk food" does to our bodies.

So what things have I learned that are fairly universal:

• Eat your largest meals early and reduce the size as the day goes on - eating late has been a problem for every person I know who struggles on ANY diet program.
• Refined sugars and pre-packaged foods are killing us - all of us. Even if your body doesn't react poorly to sugary breakfast cereals, more and more studies are showing that the chemicals in our foods are killing us (and they are addictive).
• Even moderate exercise makes a difference. I started out just walking and I could quickly see a difference in my energy levels and reduced appetite.
• You have to commit for longer than a day, week, or fortnight. The real results for me started after about 3 weeks. My cravings stopped, my weight loss was steady and my body started to long for good food and exercise.
• Get an accountability partner - having someone push you and encourage you helps keep you on track when you are tempted to quit, or cheat.

I want to challenge you for just one day to do two things:

1. Keep a food journal of everything you eat. My friend Chris Davis turned me on to this. If you have trouble staying committed, you should look Chris up at Slim and Fit in Brentwood, TN.
2.  If you are only doing it for one day as an experiement, write down the following: a) Calories, b) type of food (protien, carb, refined sugar), c) Write down all the chemicals and compounds added to your food.

I didn't realize what things were killing me till I got home one day from being on the road in meetings and stuff. I went to Panera Bread for breakfast. My breakfast sandwich had 650 calories (few of them were good for me. A carb loaded bagel, fried egg, bacon and cheese). I had a good week so I thought I would have a scone to go with it (another 350 calories of empty carbs). Add my coffee, creamer, etc. and I had consumed 1,000 calories before breakfast was over. It was not a good day - I gained 2 lbs., my energy levels dropped, but worst of all, I had no idea what I had done to my body that day until about 10:30 pm when I started looking up the foods I ate.

Think of everything you put in your mouth as a drug and you might just think twice.

If I can help you in your effort to lose weight or get more fit. Drop me an email at trentwheeler@rocketmail.com, or visit my Advocare site at www.advocare.com/12044713

Counter-inuitive Fitness

For the past several years I have played around at getting in shape.  This year I not only got serious about my own health and fitness, I also got serious about learning all I can on the subject. After reading several books and dozens of blogs and articles I have reached a few conclusions:

• Most people fail because they quit too soon. They don't allow the body time to adjust to the changes that are taking place. A few early discouragements and they are toast.
• I believe many of us lack a sincere faith in our own ability to succeed. I know that was the case  with me after so many failed attemps. Early discouragement led to low self-confidence that led to giving up.
• Finally, I believe that too many of us accept what others have told us, conventional thinking, or our own misconceptions and that is deadly to an effective program. A perfect example is counting calories (all calories are not the same. 50 grams of refined sugar has a much different affect on the body that 50 grams of a high-fiber energy). We will look at lots of other misconceptions in future blogs.

I have learned that a lot of my own pre-concieved ideas of health and fitness where holding me back. Let me give you a few tips that might be helpful.

• Water: If you read the earlier blog on water you understand its importance to fitness, but the biggest misconception is the fear of gaining water-weight. Your body stores water when you fail to adequeately hydrate. We were at the beach last week and had problems with water retention in our hands and feet. Being in the sun we suffered mild dehydration and our body compensated by trying to protect our water stores - it shoved them into our hands and feet.
• Eat Often: I now eat 5 times a day. Sometimes it may only be an energy bar between lunch and dinner, or an apple in the mid-morning, but I feed my body regularly - just feed it less. The body does the same thing when you "starve it" as it does when you deprive it of water - it slows your metabolism and stores fat. It thinks you are being deprived of food, so it adjusts. It goes back to hunter-gatherer days when people ate what they could forage throughout hte day.
• Melting the Fat: I am working hard, walking, running, and exercising why is it taking so long to burn off the fat. I used to envision fat in a frying pan - how it just melts under the heat. The painful truth is that fat burns fewer calories than muscle. If you have let your self go, then the first part of the journey back is the hardest. The good news is that every pound of muscle you build will burn 300-500 additional calories a week (with no extra effort). Debbie & I were discouraged at first, but now that we have replaced much of the body fat with lean muscle, we are calorie burning machines. We can go out and splurge one evening, eat an extra 1,000 calories and burn them off the next day with moderate exercise - that wouldn't and didn't happen before we got rid of the fat.  BE PATIENT and PERSEVERE - the rewards are amazing.
• Metabolism: It isn't true that a young person's metabolism burns more calories than an older person. A recent study showed that when a 20 year old and a 50 year old (same basic body type) followed the same diet and exercise patterns, the 20 year old burned about 495 calories while the 50 year old burned 465. At 53, I am living proof you can get your metabolism running at a high rate again.

Don't wait to get started. The single best thing I did was find a program that gave me structure. Most of you know that I am a huge fan of Advocare. The 24 Day Challenge transformed me, and now I regularly use Advocare products to help me stay fit, burn the last little bit of fat, and build healthy muscle. If I can help you, email me at trentwheeler@rocketmail.com, or visit my advocare site to learn more www.advocare.com/12044713 or www.trentwheeler.com.

Next Post: Everything is a Drug

Why Can't that be Me?

Have you ever sat and watched the infomercials on television where the people lost 50 lbs and looked 20 years younger and asked - "Why Can't that be Me?" I have more than once! I have also read hundreds of motivational books, how to get rich articles and purchased everything from Carlton Sheets "No Money Down," Bill Phillips "Body for Life," and John Commutta's "Transforming Debt into Wealth."

I have ridden that roller coaster up and down through success and failure most of my life, but the recent transformation I made with my health and fitness taught me two very important lessons:

1. As I look at my life it has been a steady, gradual, upward climb. In other words despite the peaks and valleys, I have been moving in the right directions. Sometimes it serves us well to look back over the long-term and see the progress we have made.
2. Every weight loss system, success program or financial counseling book I have read all have a common theme - "commitment to a process." Every year as I neared my birthday I made resolutions (yes, I make mine in April, not January). I was going to get fit and healthy, earn more, pay off debt - yada, yada, yada! But I had trouble keeping my commitment to self-improvement.

Why can't that be me? It can! There are very few valid excuses for not reaching your personal goals. We have a world of information at our fingertips. When I decided to get healthy, I studied multiple programs and settled on Advocare for two reasons: 1) I had seen first hand the program work for others; 2) Almost all the research I did gave the company high marks. Most importantly, I did my homework. I studied health and fitness and became educated about how my body functions and was committed to breaking my bad habits.

Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to transform your income? Maybe you just want to learn to play the guitar, or have the most beautiful lawn on the block. All this and more is achievable and the information is at your fingertips. My son taught himself guitar at Mahalo.com, I learned about fitness by downloading a number of books to my Kindle Reader and by reading the blogs of fitness experts.

NO EXCUSES - you want to succeed: Commit, Learn and get up and DO something about it.

Water of Life

I just returned from Nigeria about two weeks ago and spent a good portion of my time in a region that didn't have any potable water. I was foturnate to be able to get some bottled water each day, but it made me starkly aware of the importance of water.

Most of my friends and many of my blog readers know that a couple of months ago I embarked on a journey from fatness to fitness. I was nearly 40 lbs overweight, had GERD (severe acid reflux), high blood pressure, sore joints, etc., etc. After signing up for the Advocare 24 Day Challenge I have lost 36 lbs. and started exercising again. The results have been so amazing that I decided to start sharing all I have learned about health and fitness on my blog. Today we take a look at water!

The discipline of dieting and exercise are hard, the principles are pretty simple and one very important factor is the importance of hydration. The average person should be drinking 1 ounce of water per day for every two pounds of body weight. In my case that is about 87 ounces (or a little more than 5 bottled waters a day). Since I started dieting on April 2nd the only real drawback from all the water I have been drinking are the number of trips I make to the rest room each day. Here are a few facts about water/hydration:

• Drinking one bottled water before and/or with your meal can increase your metabolism as much as 30%. Of that metabolic increase 40% is attributed to the energy your body expends trying to heat the water in your system.
• If it is the heating of the water that drives up your metabolic rate then it makes sense that the colder the water you drink the better.
• Water maximizes your exercise and workouts. When you don't drink enough and become even slightly dehydrated you lose significant benefits to your workouts and can even have a negative impact on your lean muscle mass.
• Water helps supress the appetite and helps the body metabolize stored fat. When your kidneys don't get enough water, they throw the excess load on to the liver. One function of the liver is to metabolize fat, but if it is has to carry the extra load thrown on it by the kidneys the task of metabolizing fat is lost.
• In what seems to be a contradiction, the body retains more water when it is poorly hydrated. When you deptirve the body of water, it responds by "storing water" for future needs causing swelling in the hands and feet.
• Water adds elasticity to our muscles improving the benefit from our workouts and helps keep skin from sagging.
• Water helps rid the body of waste. If your urine is clear - it is sign you are drinking plenty of water.

These are just a few of the benefits of water - if you want to get more healthy drink lots and lots of it. One caution, a small dose of coffee or coke is acceptable, but keep in mind that caffiene also causes dehydration in the body - thus requiring you to drink more water.

www.advocare.com/12044713

Aes Alienum

I was just reading “Walden,” by Henry David Thoreau and there was a paragraph that  struck home with me. Thoreau talked about how the world's possessions and our pursuit of materialism takes control of our lives so that we end up serving the pursuit of riches and lose sight of our purpose.  “For my sight has been whetted by experience; always on the limits, trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very ancient slough, called by the Latins, aes alienum, or another’s brass, for some of their coins were made of brass; still living and dying by another man’s brass, always promising to pay, tomorrow, and dying today, insolvent….”

I couldn’t help but think of the man who was tearing down his barns to build bigger barns. He lived “aes alienum” or in pursuit of another’s brass.  The mark of covetousness is when our possessions and desires take precedent over our love and service to God, the kingdom, and our fellow man.  It is a form of slavery, but a subtle form to a master who robs us of the riches of the kingdom in servitude to filthy lucre. Satan is shrewd in providing us justifications for our pursuit of success, wealth, fame or another’s brass, but the end is always the same, we serve the masters of this world and neglect our true calling. It was in this context that the famous phrase we have all heard was penned, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

When we trade the riches of Kingdom for the tares of the world we willingly surrender the freedom in Christ, to the bondage of a temporal and perishable world. Our life’s efforts are spent on pursuing the fool’s gold that moth and dust corrupts and that thieves break in and steal.

All of creation is a reminder to focus on those things that are “true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable and praiseworthy” (Phil. 4:8).  It is through our surrender and devotion to Christ that we understand that this corruptible body will put on incorruption and our mortal journey will transform us into the eternal, immortal presence of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Limitless Resources

I started mapping out my goals and objectives for 2012 and like most years they are pretty ambitious. My list probably looks like most people's with a few minor exceptions. I have financial goals, health and fitness goals and spiritual goals. There are specific things I want to accomplish and places I want to go, but all in all it probably mimics many of your lists.

Over the years I have had some great successes and miserable failures when it comes to this goal-setting thing. My current weight indicates that excercise did not top my list of successes last year, but my retirement account shows that at 52 I am finally taking my golden years seriously. This year I decided I want to take a very different approach to achievement - it is based on a blessings philosophy. When I do my goal setting each year, one thing I do is list resources available to help me meet my goals. As I was going through my list of resources (also known as blessings), it really sank in how truly blessed I am.

In the past, next to my list of resources I would make a list of additional resources that I would need to achieve my goals. That is where I plan to experiment this year. When it really registered just how blessed I am, I decided to "work from my abundance." In other words I am going to see how much I can accomplish with what is already in my hands. I am going to try to avoid buying that hot new app, or the electronic gizmo that has caught my fancy. I really want to learn how to differeniate wants and needs. For example in the area of exercise. I have been looking at purchasing some free-weights to work out in the garage. I already have a treadmill, dumbells and the local recreation center. I haven't used those resources very well to date, adding resources won't do anything until I demonstrate the ability to use what I have effectively.

In 2011 I took over a foundation that was struggling. We didn't have much in available funds or resources, but we did have a rich history and a worthy work going on in Africa. I had no choice but to begin to rebuild the organization with limited resources. God blessed African Christian Schools last year in ways I couldn't imagine. While our resources were limited, God's were not. So this year I plan to approach my own life that way. Be thankful I am blessed with so much - now to use what God has already put in my hand to achieve great things in 2012.