Categories
motivation

Why it Never Makes Sense to Give Up

Soccer stadium

American football tackleWe turned off the TV at the half. We would have loved to watch it until the end, but we had church tomorrow and the boss needs to be in the children’s area bright and early.

Ohio State hadn’t scored until the the final minutes of the first half. Then Wisconsin scored again. It was 7-21 in favor of the Wisconsin Badgers when we shut off the TV. It looked like the Buckeye’s fate was sealed.

But when we woke up this morning, we discovered that wasn’t the case. The Buckeyes came back and won 34-21. They didn’t let the Badgers score in the second half and the offense made a major push.

Ohio State could have given up at halftime.

  • They could have said this was a bad day and accept fate
  • They could have convinced themselves Wisconsin was the better team last night
  • They could have let the score determine their outcome. After all, Ohio State was shutout. They couldn’t score in the first half until the final minutes.

But the coaches and team must have had other ideas. They regrouped and played a totally different game in the second half. That is the mark of true winners.

It may appear to make sense to give up.

  • Things are stacked against us
  • We can’t seem to score, let alone win
  • That business seems destined to fail
  • It may appear your health will never improve so why bother?
  • It may seem you can never make enough to pay your bills.

But it never makes sense to give up! As long as you are in the game, you can readjust, you can plan for the future. You can thank God for what you have, where you are and where you are going.

  • Always strive
  • Always persevere
  • Always keep in the game
  • Never give up!
Categories
Christmas

Designer Christmas and Complementary Colors

cartoon of a man and a green monster in a Santa costume. The Monster says, "The great thing about being a monster around Christmas is it's the on day I can wear a red outfit with my green skin."

cartoon of a man and a green monster in a Santa costume. The Monster says, "The great thing about being a monster around Christmas is it's the on day I can wear a red outfit with my green skin."Christmas is one holiday where we see red and green everywhere. It grabs our attention. Any other time of the year, we would be chided for wearing such clashing colors. My wife has spent the better part of thirty years reminding me why that is a no-no… except at Christmas!

Red and green are color complements. If we look at a color wheel, red and green are opposite of each other on the wheel.

Basic Color wheel with primary and secondary colors
A basic color wheel with primary and secondary colors.

Complementary colors fight for attention. They bring energy and strength to any object or artwork that uses the colors together. Isn’t it a bit ironic that a holiday associated with peace, comfort, and joy has such a color theme?

Then again, Christmas isn’t quite as it seems. A king is born in a barn. Shepherds are the first to visit the newborn. Magi must keep the good news a secret from another, insecure, power-hungry king.

There is much more to Christmas than peaceful nativity scenes and carols about sleepy towns and babies that don’t cry.

Categories
motivation Proverbs

Broken Beyond Repair

Cartoon of one woman saying to another, "Sure we're all broken people, but Frank is just cracked!"
Cartoon of one woman saying to another, "Sure we're all broken people, but Frank is just cracked!"

Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept criticism will suddenly be destroyed beyond recovery.

Proverbs 29:1 NLT

Criticism can sometimes hurt. It’s especially painful when our pride gets in the way and we feel we don’t deserve the rebuke.

Criticism can also be wrong. The talent manager of the Grand Ole Opry fired Elvis Presley after he bombed on stage and said Elvis should go back to driving a truck!

Cartoon of one woman saying to another, "Sure we're all broken people, but Frank is just cracked!"

Yet, there is truth in today’s proverb. While criticism can hurt, it can also be an opportunity for growth. The challenge is to glean truth from a barbed comment and learn what you can from it. Elvis learned from that experience the audience of the 1954 Grand Old Opry wasn’t his audience, but he soon found his base. If he was determined to go back to the Opry and focus on it, we may have never heard of Mr. Presley.

If we do anything of value, we will face critics. Decide today how you can learn from it without allowing it to get you down.

Categories
motivation

Stockpiling Coffee and Other Things

Illustration of a man with his coffee. His cat is sitting atop his head.

Swiss Government Gets Roasted Over Coffee Stockpile Changes 

I nearly spit out my coffee when I heard the dreadful news the other day. It seems the Swiss Government was considering taking coffee off of the Essential-to-Life list.

Illustration of a man with his coffee. His cat is sitting atop his head.

It’s rather humorous, even to this coffee drinker. If the world was coming to an end, would coffee really matter? It would be a comfort, but essential to life?

We get fixated on things we consider valuable and begin stockpiling them. We become stingy before we know it. All those coffee beans could be useful now. Do we really need to stockpile 16,000 tons of coffee for a population of 8 million people?

It reminds me of this Proverb:

Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything.

Proverbs 11:24 NLT

We end up losing the very thing we are stingy about. Before you stockpile money, wealth or coffee, consider if what you are holding back may make you poorer in the end.

Categories
motivation

Imagination is More Important Than Knowledge

Sketch of a blob monster

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

Albert Einstein

Yes, I wondered if Einstein really said this too, According to the link, Einstein said it in a 1929 interview with my old employer, The Saturday Evening Post. I wish I would have known that when I was an intern there. Alas, it was before the Internet and would have required some clue where to look in the archives.

I agree with this quote because knowledge is based on what we do know. It is based on facts and research. We rely on scholars and historians to reveal what is known and has been known.

Imagination makes things possible. True, there probably won’t be a green and purple polka dot blob at your door today, but no building, no goal, nothing made in the future can happen without someone imagining it can be done.

Imagination is a powerful tool. Imagination with fear can make awful things a reality. Imagination with a positive attitude, love and desire to create can change the world in mighty ways.