If complaining was a second language, everyone in America would be bilingual

It’s amazing how much we can complain. We complain about ourselves, society, presidential candidates and often we wrap ourselves around people that have the same complaints. We can be friends with someone as long as we have the same dislikes as them. There can be so many negative statements online that sometimes I wonder why I even have social media?

It’s amazing how much being liked/disliked plays a role in popularity. I am a fan of sports talk radio and I have started to enjoy The Dan Lebatard Show. For the longest time I struggled to listen but the more I do, the more I enjoy the unique aspects that I used to dislike. He mentioned on his show he is more hated right now then ever before. One would lead to believe, they might look at ending his show. Yet, while being so hated his numbers are through the roof. He has the highest numbers on his show then ever before by a lot. It’s often on social media he retweets what his haters say about him too. People are even famous for being horrible. Jimmy Kimmel has a bit on this, “Celebrities read mean tweets.” When did it become cool to complain?

Paul share a short verse that is hard to follow Philippians 2:14…

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing.”

Some of the shortest verses are the hardest to follow. Grumbling in the verse focuses on expressing one’s discontent.  The word “Do” is used as a present tense, Paul meant for this to be done continually. Paul might have even looked far back to the negative attitude of the Israelites who often complained about Moses and turned to God instead. Can we truly become people that do not complain?

It can be easy to complain. It is way easier to complain about life then it is to say what we enjoy about life. It’s easier to tear someone down then it is to lift them up. It’s easier to be sarcastic in life then to be real in a positive way. This can be such a struggle in life. Do everything without complaining. I fall short of this so many times, but following Jesus calls us to live beyond a worldly way. Nobody said following Jesus’s commands would be easy. Yet if we tried to live a life without grumbling or arguing, the world would be a better place. Try to encourage more then living in discontent. My goal today is to try and focus on not complaining. How about you?

Have a great day.

Social media sadness

I grow weary of social media. Scrolling through my Facebook feed in the morning to see people sad about the election results, disappointed with the candidates and a lot of hatred. I see people share their close minded general life opinions they don’t have the ability to listen to others or gain knowledge from other people. I see parenting tips from close minded people who only have their thoughts on the way kids need to be raised and anything else is wrong. Sometimes the bad can overtake the good.

Even with this I am a fan of social media. Social media is the only way I can connect with friends and family I don’t get to see that often. I get to see the good news of people getting married, advancing in life, awesome family pictures and the occasional throwback where I get to see what life looks like at a younger age. There is so much hate and love on social media. What if we focused on the good?

Philippians 1:9-10…

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”

Life is full of disappointments, but it doesn’t have to be. I was a stringer writing for the Lansing State Journal when one of our editors had a great idea of covering a full day of sports on the first day of Fall practice with a timeline and stories based on the timeline. I was assigned to go cover the Holt Ram girls swim team as they opened practice and write about what happens during that time of the day.

Holt at the time had won something amazing like 10 conference championships in a row (I don’t remember the exact number but it was impressive). Rather then getting in the pool and to work, coach Brent Pohlonski spent time addressing their attitudes. He explained how swimming is tough and sometimes we have a bad day as we head to practice. He told the team no matter what, to have fun and be happy. He said even if you have the worst day in the world, fake being happy. Soon enough you won’t have to fake being happy and truly enjoy being happy. This was amazing and you could see the team buy into this philosophy and it led to a great experience for the team. It was nice to be able to witness this communication between a coach, a winning team and most important a happy team.

Why does Paul talk so much about love, because we miss the point. What if we focused on love instead of hate and being judgmental? What if we showed this love through life and social media? How would life be different? We have a chance to lift people up or tear people down with what we say and how we act. We are supposed to lift people up. How can life change if you chose to be happy with your outlook on life rather then sad? We are called to be blameless for the day of Christ. Today, I am going to try focusing on love.

Have a great day.

GPS only works when traveling, where do you end up in life?

GPS is great, but once every while it’s wrong.

There have been terms when the GPS didn’t even know the road we were traveling on (In the middle of Indianapolis).

It makes me think of GPS and how things have changed.

Hailee and I have transitioned to using the GPS on long trips.

It wasn’t long ago we would use MapQuest or Google maps to find out where to go.

Before that we would grab a map and plan accordingly.

Yes we actually had to plan where we were going to go.

This is just with driving to some place, but what about with life.

How much planning is involved in your life?

With your…

·         Career/Job
·         School/Job Training
·         Church
·         Family/Marriage and the list could go on

Life takes planning.

Nobody decided to be a surgeon and walk into the ER the next day and tell them I am a surgeon and get a job.

Being a Dr. you have to have the right grades, college degree and extracurricular activities, get accepted to a school that will take another several years of your life in order to get a chance to become a doctor.

It takes planning.

How do you plan?

What if things change?

Life happens and things change.

There are sacrifices that were made to get you where you are at today.

Paul was going through his mission and there was times when God would tell him not to go into the city/area.

Acts 16:6-7…

“Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.  When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.”

If God and Jesus were for saving everyone, why would he keep them out of certain areas?

It could be to people and possibly riots or threats on their lives, but it could also be for many other reasons it was not the right time.

What is the right time for you?

When Hailee and I were first talking about getting married, we were planning on waiting til after we graduated college.

That didn’t happen.

We were going to wait till we graduated and were settled before having kids.

Then comes Connor and Nevaeh.

Life has a way of not going the way we plan it.

How has your life changed throughout the years.

Does the end result or where you are at make you happy?

In my job profession, I get to talk to people about life.

With my focus being mostly on students, I look at where they are going in life and are they doing what it takes to get there.

This is the beautiful things about life, if you’re not happy you can do whatever you want to do.

I was 1.5 years away from being a full time sports writer.

I was 38 credits from having a journalism degree and I had plenty of experience in order to end up at a newspaper.

God had different ideas.

Part of those ideas meant going to school for a lot longer.

I ended up losing 54 credits in order to go into ministry.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Paul was told to skip by those cities, obviously it wasn’t part of God’s plans.

What are your plans for life?

What do you think God has planned for your life?

Maybe he is blocking one area like Paul in order to put you in a better area.

GPS might be able to get you to a location, but it can’t lead you in life.

Where are you going?

Maybe today is the day you realize the direction you need to be headed.

Have a great day.