Today is Super Sunday as the most watched sporting event of the year takes place.  To be honest with you, I enjoy watching the game but even more enjoyable for me is reading the real life stories written about the athletes during the week prior to the big day.

One of my favorite sports columnists from The Dayton Daily News, Tom Archdecon wrote a great story about Greenville native and future hall of famer, Matt Light and the charitable work he does off the field.  I’ve always felt a connection to Matt as Greenville is but 12 miles from my home.  From the article it was easy for me to conclude Matt Light is an amazing human being; someone wise beyond his years.

Another article that caught my eye during “Super Week” was an article about Chad Ochocinco (aka, Chad Johnson).  Chad is the former Cincinnati Bengal turned New England Patriot.

I am a die hard Cincinnati Bengals fan…I know; the beginning of wisdom is coming to grips with one’s own stupidity.   But hey, we made it to the playoffs this year!

In Archdecon’s article about Chad I could see where the once flamboyant, self-promoter, self-focused, often disruptive to the team individual, had become quiet, soft spoken and focused on supporting his team, the New England Patriots, in hopes of becoming the world champions of professional football.

Although Chad was a disruptive force to the Bengals, I was a huge fan of his.  He was so talented and a master at self-marketing.  What Chad didn’t realize during his tenure with the Bengals is self-promotion is not in the formula for winning a Super Bowl Championship or any type of championship for that matter.

From Archdecon’s article it was easy to glean Chad had a peace about him I had never observed before.  He had a focus as well as a purpose.  It seemed as though Chad had grown, he seemed wiser from a football standpoint.  My take is he came to grips with his own stupidity and is now in line to win a Super Bowl Championship…during what has become his personal (from a statistics standpoint) worst season of his career!

How many “Super Life Experiences” have you missed out on because of your own stupidity?  How many times has your need for your own self importance gotten in the way of experiencing “Super Life Experiences?”  Do you have great personal statistics, but no “Life Championships” to be proud of?

If you want to begin experiencing a “Super Life” you will need to get over “stupid,” by covering yourself with “wise.”

It starts with prayer.  Ask God, the maker of the universe as well as the maker of your brain (where stupidity lives) to help you do what you need to do in order to become wise.  It continues with reading (the book of Proverbs is a great place to start) and it grows by hanging around others who are living “Super Lives.”  (By the way, Chad’s team, the New England Patriots are going after their 4th Super Bowl Championship in the last 10 years.  Champions breed Champions.)

It is pretty easy to detect “Super Livers.”  They are at peace with themselves and others and have nothing to prove.  Their wisdom shines most when they are able to admit their own stupidity.  They are always trying to learn and become wiser.  Their “we” mentality clearly outshines their “me” mentality (we all have selfish tendencies and at the root of selfishness is fear…see last Sunday’s blog).  They build and don’t destroy, they lift and try not to lean.

Most importantly they win championships whether it be in life or in a stupid game like football regardless of their personal statistics.

Choose to be a “Super Liver.”  Choose wisdom over stupidity!

.Go get ‘em Chad!

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@EagleLaunch

Proverbs 4:5, “Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them.”

We all have fear, it is an emotion/feeling all human beings have.

How we handle our fear is the difference maker.

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@Eaglelaunch

Proverbs 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” (NLT)

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (other people, places and things), the courage to change the things I can (me, my attitude and my effort) and the wisdom to know the difference…wisdom “happens” once we effectively learn to accept what we can’t change and change what we can.

…the difference between having serenity or anxiety in your life is a choice only you can make.

Which handle are you clinging to today?

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@EagleLaunch

Deuteronomy 31:6; “So be strong and courageous!  Do not be afraid and do not panic before them.  For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you.  He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” (NLT)

There is no bigger waste of time than worry.  Worry, a by-product of fear, is the devil’s playground.

If the devil, through worry, stands between us and our ability to chase our dreams; who is standing closer to our dreams?

Ask God to always help you learn from yesterday, focus on today and keep an eye on the future and you will have no time to worry.

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@Eaglelaunch

Proverbs 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”  (NLT)

Let’s say you believe in God and you believe God is good, God is peace, and God is all about love and God means it when He says through Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.  “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Now let’s say you believe in God and you believe God is good and God is all about love and God is all about peace and you are certain he means what he says in Jeremiah 29:11, but no matter how you “appear” to be on the outside, you are often miserable on the inside, quarreling with yourself and others, defensive and easily offended, and often worrying about things that don’t exist; simply a disaster (see Jeremiah above) waiting to happen?

If you can relate you are most likely being driven by fear, or should I say being driven by False Evidence Appearing Real, or better yet, the devil.  For years I have battled a “board of directors in my head.”  And the devil is always trying to be the chairman of this board by making false evidence appearing real.

The fear I am talking about is what I refer to as the Devil’s playground.  Fear that serves as a roadblock in our goal of achieving excellence with our lives.  Fear that gets in the way of our relationship with God, and with others.  Fear that prevents us from loving or being loved.  Fear that prevents us from experiencing peace in our lives.  Fear that makes us believe we have no “future and hope.”

A couple of keys to keeping the devil out of the chairman’s position on your mental board of directors is first to surround yourself with people, places and things that will generate good in your life.  People, places and things that facilitate your efforts in having a great future and hope as God promises in Jeremiah.  The devil works through other people to try to bring you down.  The devil works through the news and other forms of media to take you off course.  Try your best to nourish yourself with Godly people, places and things (e.g. church, the Bible etc…).

Secondly, too many people only read verse 11 from the 29th chapter of Jeremiah.  It important to read and meditate upon verses 12, 13 and 14 also.  “In those days when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  I will be found by you,” says the Lord.  “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes.”  Jeremiah 29:12-14 (NLT) 

God trumps the devil every day of the week, if we ask him (i.e. prayer).  People governed by fear which turns into anxiety, worry, sub-par performance, procrastination and unstable relationships are simply allowing the devil to serve as their chairman of the board of directors in their heads.

When you replace fear with prayer you begin experiencing peace no matter the person, place or thing you are struggling with or worrying about.  Sometimes its an hourly or minute by minute process but if you begin praying (i.e. “by the blood of Jesus, devil be gone”) every time fear rears its ugly head you will slowly “fire” the devil as the chairman of your board and replace him with the chairman of mankind; your Father in heaven, who has good plans for you.

Once you begin surrounding yourself with Godly people, places and things and once God becomes your permanent chairman you will begin understanding more than you need to be understood, giving more than you need to receive, loving more than you need to be loved, anticipating great things more than you worry about little things, having peace no matter the circumstance.  I write from experience.

Make a decision to name God as your chairman of your board today and you will be driven by a future and a hope instead of being paralyzed in today by fear, worry and anxiety.

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@EagleLaunch

Winners are forward thinkers and losers are backward thinkers.

In what direction are your thoughts focused?

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@EagleLaunch

Proverbs 24:16; “The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.”  (NLT)

Hopefully you all know what my P.E.A.C.E. acrostic stands for.  Many years ago I simplified (for myself) what I thought were the most important activities involved in leading a successful life.  The EagleLaunch definition of a successful life is; “a continuous journey of setting and attaining worthwhile goals that will positively impact your life as well as the world around you.”

I believe in having a Plan, putting forth productive Effort, with an effective Attitude, with a willingness to be helped and to be of help to the Community of people we surround ourselves with; all while taking care of our spiritual, emotional and physical aspects of our being in order to have the Energy required to effectively carry out our plans.

Since I started this blog four years ago, you may recall how I often refer to my morning devotion time.  My morning devotion time involves my quiet time with God where I talk to God (pray) and he talks to me (through his scripture) and then I reflect on my day ahead as well as my roles and responsibilities.  It is during my morning time where I take a look at my goals and reflect on how I am doing.  Then I place everything in God’s hands and go off and hopefully do his business through me.

It is during my morning devotion time where P.E.A.C.E. comes alive for me.  It is where I ask God to live in all aspects of my P.E.A.C.E. acrostic.

We are starting our fourth week of 2012.  Maybe you are losing your edge in staying on top of your goals you set for the new year.  Try gaining the edge back by taking time to talk with God about your goals (sounds corny but it works).

God wants us to seek his help, he wants us to gain an edge so we can share with others where we get our edge from.

Thus, one of the primary purposes of my blog.

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@EagleLaunch

Psalms 121:2, “My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”

Excellence is simply doing the next right thing, one step at a time.  It is a process, not an event.

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@EagleLaunch

Proverbs 13:4, “Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.”

When you set your new goals for the year, did you expect to achieve them or were you “hoping” that just maybe this was the year you were finally going to successfully achieve your New Year’s resolution?

Most of the time the feeling of hope is simply a form of postponed disappointment.  Please don’t confuse this with the hope we have in God because that is the one hope we all know will not be disappointing.  My comparison of expectation to hope in this blog is more about an attitude.

When you set your resolution(s) or your BHAG’S or your “house cleaning” goals for 2012 (see 1/1/12 blog), were you expecting to accomplish them or just hoping?

Expecting can be dangerous if our expectations come in the form of other people, places and things but there is absolutely nothing wrong with having expectations for ourselves and the teams we lead.

I was blessed to be a part of some very special teams in my life and on each of those teams we expected to win every “game” which is probably why we won a lot of games in high school, college and business against opponents who were much bigger and stronger than us.  We beat some opponents where the odds were stacked heavily against us.

When you expect to win, and expect greatness in all you do, you are beginning with the end in mind.  And the end is great.  When you start expecting greatness you will suddenly find your path to greatness becomes filled with meaningful actions all focused on the end. When losses, setbacks and failures occur, the attitude of expecting greatness causes us to evaluate the loss, learn from it and continue on our path to greatness.

When you hope to win, although you may have an end in mind, the word hope, in an of itself takes away the edge you feel when compared to expect.  Hope gives you an out when the path of activity becomes challenging.  It is a lot easier to walk away from a “hope” I have of myself than an expectation.

Can you imagine how your spouse would feel if you told him or her, “I hope to be a good spouse.”  How would your kids feel if you told them, “I hope to be a good parent.”  How would your boss feel if you told them, “I hope I can become a good worker.”  How do you think God would feel if you say, “I hope there is a heaven.”

C’mon people quit hoping and start expecting and it all starts with you.  What are the expectations you have of yourself?  Are you expecting to achieve your goals or are you expecting failure?

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@EagleLaunch

Proverbs 13:4, “Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.” (NLT)

Over the years this particular scripture verse has always intrigued me.  Jesus downplays the rich who gave their tithes because they had it to give; they simply gave an offering.  He lifted up and exalted the poor widow who gave all she had because her gift was a sacrifice.  She gave all she had to give.

Saturday evening at our Next Step Recovery worship celebration, we had two world class speakers in our midst.  Michael Slaughter, our pastor, author and a personal mentor of mine and Frank Thomas, pastor of the largest church in Memphis, TN.  Mike and Frank have been friends for twenty years and Mike asked Frank to preach at Ginghamsburg this weekend as we honored the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

Needless to say Dr. Thomas hit the ball out of the park as he spoke of God’s grace and mercy represented in the story of Cain and Abel.  Although Cain killed his brother, God gave Cain a second chance and Cain made the most of it.  All of us in the recovery community could totally relate to the story, for without God’s grace and mercy we would have all been destined for hell.

We also had a very powerful personal testimony given by a recovering alcoholic.  The music, as always, was beautiful.  The the Holy Spirit was alive and well.

What is so crazy is the fact that even though we had all of these powerful people, witnesses and experiences, they all took a back seat compared to something else I witnessed on this particular evening.

Each week at our recovery service we hand out “Next Step” tokens.  It is a tradition in the recovery community to give metal tokens to people commemorating various lengths of clean time.  Our Next Step tokens have our logo on one side and Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” on the other side.

During our “token moment” I noticed a small, feeble looking man making his way to the front of the church.  He approached the lady handing out the tokens and he started to put something in the plate where the tokens were.  I went over to see what he was doing and he looked at me, mumbled something I could not understand and slowly opened his arthritic fingers to show me he had a small handful of change.  I’m not talking quarters, he had mostly pennies and a few dimes and nickles.

I told him the offering plates would be passed in a minute and he could give his offering then.  Once again he mumbled something and waddled back to his seat in the rear of the church.  After the token moment, I went to the rear of the church to make sure my friend would see the offering plates being passed.  He didn’t need my help because as soon as he saw someone passing the plate he rose from his seat and waddled as fast as he could to the plate and as I heard the change hitting the bottom of the plate, tears formed in my eyes.

I had just witnessed the scripture from Luke Chapter 21 as noted above.

My friend’s offering, I mean sacrifice, trumped all the great happenings at my church on this night and he really made me wonder how much of my life is simply an offering instead of a sacrifice.

…just sayin’

God never ceases to amaze me.

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@EagleLaunch