Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Guardrails

This is my second post that has been inspired by Andy Stanley.  I want to keep things fresh in this blog, but I have to say, I could easily use his ideas every week.  He has an amazing ability to simplify complex ideas and then convict me to change my life.  Today, I watched the first lesson from his “Guardrails” series.  Everyone knows what guardrails are.  They keep us from getting hurt really bad, and we hope we never need them.  Andy is encouraging us to set up some guardrails for our lives, and he defines them this way:  “a personal standard of behavior that becomes a matter of conscience”.  In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he talks about living in dangerous times.  Apparently, in the time that he lived, it was just as dangerous, if not more dangerous than the world we live in now.  Paul warned the Ephesians to establish guardrails to keep them out of danger.  Times have changed, but not that much.  You may run into the guardrail and get scratched up a little, but you will be protected from falling off the cliff on the other side.  That is what we are trying to get protected from – a marriage ending affair, a drunk driving accident, financial ruin, failed health, etc.  But we can’t save ourselves after the car is over the edge of the cliff.  It’s too late.  The guardrail that got put up earlier is what is going to save us.  This message is for everyone, but for Believers is sounds like this.  “Face up to what you know in your heart God wants for you and what He wants you to be”.  I know that I have some work to do, and for anyone that wants to build some guardrails with me, I would love to hear from you personally.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Lemonade from lemons

This week I attended the annual meeting for Northwestern Mutual which is where my wife works.  On Sunday, about 2000 people participated in a 5k/10k run to raise money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand.  $85,000 had been raised at last count.  In case you don’t know about Alex, Alex was born in 1996 and suffered from childhood cancer.  She opened a lemonade stand to raise money to find a cure, and after raising $12,000 at her stand, you might say the idea “caught on”.    Her stand turned into over 20,0000 stands, with all of the money going to finding a cure.  At the time of her death in 2004, she had raised over $1,000,000 and her legacy still continues today.  To meet Alex by video, click here, and become inspired.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Courage

I have to admit that I have an addiction to Good Moring America.  If I am working from home, it is usually on.  It doesn’t always get my complete attention, but it is usually there.  I have grown to admire Robin Roberts who hosts the show.  Robin has been through some tough personal struggles including recovery from Cancer and a bone marrow transplant.  She has shared her stories generously with the viewing audience.   Last night, she was honored with the Arthur Ashe ESPY Award for Courage, but after seeing her acceptance speech, I think she deserves some additional awards for grace, humility and faith.  What a tremendous role model for all of us.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Rough Week

This has been a tough week for me.  My daughter and son-in-law have been under contract to buy a short sale in Atlanta for 10 months.  Bank of America holds the Seller’s mortgage.  We were supposed to close on August 10th, and seller's agent informed us on Monday that due to a bank error, BofA  would not be proceeding with the transaction.  They are either inept or unethical, and either is unacceptable.  My heart is broken for my daughter who was excited to finally be purchasing her first home after much patience.  We are still doing everything possible to save the transaction. If they are not willing to meet their earlier commitment, I will be recommending that none of my clients, prospects or friends ever use them for any service that they provide.  This type of treatment is unacceptable, and our only real recourse is to stop using them.  If you are a praying kind of person, please pray that Lizzy and Trey will get this house if it is God’s will, and if not, they will find something better quickly.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Travel Time

I mentioned last week that Caroline and I celebrated our 30th Anniversary in June.   Leading up to the date, we did a lot of talking about how to celebrate the occasion.  We mostly talked about trips to different places, but we had already had a nice 4 day trip to the Georgia coast in May, and we have a trip to Milwaukee in July.  Both of these were already scheduled, so we couldn’t really get away with calling those Anniversary trips.  The trip to Tallulah Gorge that I mentioned at SpotOnTheLake is what we came up with.  While it ain’t too sexy, we had a blast just driving north without a schedule.    To take a day just to be with each other and explore places that we hadn’t been before was fantastic.  My commitment to Caroline is that we don’t need to wait another 30 years to do this again.  Click here to see more photos of Tallulah Gorge