Mike Henderson

Don't Just Be Busy, Be Productive

I'm sure you have heard of people running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.  I have no picture of that, but I have killed chickens, and it is hilarious to watch them run around after their head is cut off. Eventually, they flop over. That's how many of us live our lives on a daily basis.  We run around all day, and then flop over exhausted in the evening.  

Think about it. Out of the eighty three things I did yesterday only five are absolutely necessary. Yes, it is true too often. We are busy, but often busy doing things that don't matter.  And it leaves us exhausted at day's end.

Jesus was never busy, never in a hurrry.  Right.  You and I are not Jesus.  But I bet each of know and can identify the things that really matter.

Here are my big five.  Number 21 or 37 on my list of things probably doesn't matter.  These five do.

1. Prayer.  I cannot expect to survive and thrive apart from prayer.  We kid ourselves if we think we can do life apart from God and His divine help.  Also under prayer I would include any of the spiritual disciplines like fasting, giving, Bible reading, solitude, etc.

2. Preparation. For me this is the time I spend preparing messages.  This includes reading, listening to other speakers, and searching the Bible for timeless principles to share.

3. Preaching.  The actual delivery of the message is huge.  I learned a long time ago that a great delivery void of good content is well received, and a bad delivery with good content is not well received. I try to have good content, but I know I cannot overlook the delivery.

4. People.  Ministry is about people, so I carve time out for people.  I may meet two days one week and six days the following week with people.  The point is people are important.

5. Personal.  This is somewhat of a catch all.  This category includes things like time with Carol.  If my marriage is suffering then my life and ministry are going to suffer as well.  There is no way I can afford to overlook this. Also, I connect with my kids regularly.  I may text Heather, talk with Rachel, text and talk with Savannah, have a long discussion with Adam, and play golf with Gabe.  And I must get regular exercise. For me this includes playing full court basketball with younger guys, push mowing part of the lawn, hiking with Carol, and lifting weights.

Go ahead, identify and list your five or six things.  Get those done and when you lay your head down tonight you will be more satisfied and feel more productive.

 

Don't Miss God's Power and Presence

 

Things Go Better 'Without' God

Actually that's not true, but we act like it is true.  When I was a kid I used to always take the onions off of a McDonald's cheeseburger.  In my mind, it was better without the onions.  

Even today, when Carol makes an incredible fresh salad, she loves to put lots of fresh onion slices on top. Lots. I have nothing against onions today, but I do have a problem with lots at one time.  Actually I prefer to reduce the amount so that I can avoid the strong taste of onions.

Sometimes that's the way we treat God.  We either take Him totally out of the picture or reduce Him so much that He can't make a difference.

Let me list two ways we do this.

1. We fail to search the Scriptures and see what God has to say.  Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV) says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

2. We seek the wisdom of others and neglect going to the Lord in prayer when our life spins out of control.  King Asa did this very thing.  2 Chronicles 16:12 (NASV), "In the thirty-nineth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet.  His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians."  Amazing.  There is nothing wrong with going to the doctor, but why ignore God during a time of incredible pain, any kind of personal, physical, or emotional pain?

In both instances, reducing or ignoring God clearly does not lead to a better outcome. As for lots of fresh onions on a salad, Carol thinks the onions make it.  On the spiritual side, the Bible is clear, things go better when God is not reduced or completely left out.     

Go through life with God.  You'll be glad you did.  

Encouragement: Antidote to a Quitter Culture

One of the inevitabilities of life and the ministry is that people will abandon you.  Not everyone will go the distance with you.

The fact is, we live in a quitter culture.  People walk away from their jobs, their spouses, their new year's resolutions, and their churches.

Near the end of the apostle Paul's ministry some of his coworkers abandoned him.  That absolutely amazes me.  Just the thought of being able to serve alongside Paul fires me up.  But people left him.  My guess is, based on typical human reasoning, they had "good reasons" for leaving Paul high and dry.  After all, they had "justifiable concerns" of Paul. 

Over the years I have followed some pastors with incredible ministries.  Men like Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Andy Stanley, and Perry Noble.  Their stories are similar.  They have all had good friends and coworkers abandon them, and of course, all left for "good reasons."  In every case it was the pastor's fault.

So I'm sure it was the same for the apostle Paul.  

Perhaps those who abandoned Paul were concerned that his prison sentence showed that God was not in his minstry.

Whatever their reasoning they left.  But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Paul in 2 Timothy 1:16 is asking God to greatly reward Onesiphorus who stood with him and encouraged him while he was lanquishing in prison.  "May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains..."

My guess is you will cross paths with someone this week who has been abandoned by someone.  They are feeling incredible loneliness.

Stay alert and take the time to step in and encourage.  You will be glad you did.  And God may just happen to shine on you, and even your family. 

 

The Cost of Financial Illiteracy

Let's be honest.  Who among us has not made a boneheaded financial mistake?  Too often it was because we were stung by the power of now.  We simply could not wait, and our impatience led to a financially dumb decision.

While I have made my share, let me take you back in time, about thirty years ago.  While working for my dad we had a guy working for us named Larry.  He had been with the company for a while and was very dependable.  As a result he eventually got a company truck, which meant he no longer had to buy gas, tires, insurance, brakes, and whatever other expenses a typical truck owner incurrred.

As I recall he was making $9 an hour.  Thirty years ago that was not too bad, plus throw in the truck.

My guess is that Larry wanted to make a little more money so he went shopping.  A competitor offered him $9.50 an hour.  That translates into $20 for a forty hour work week.  Or $1,000 more a year in take home pay, or should I say before the taxes come out.  Add up federal, state, and FICA taxes and he probably added $750 to what he took home in a year.

He took the $9.50 and left to work for the other company.  That day I realized many people are really bad at third grade math.  By third grade they typically teach you how to add and subtract.

So let's do a little addition and subtraction.

Let's start by taking away the company truck.  That one subtraction item alone will now add the following expenses to his personal account.

Because I can't recall the price of gas, let's just say it was $1 a gallon.  Yes, those days actually existed.  I forgot to mention, he lived in Winchester, VA.  That means he is driving at least fifty miles one way to work as most of the work was around the Beltway which circles Washington, DC.  That comes out to one hundred miles a day, five hundred miles a week, and at twenty miles to a gallon we arrive at using twenty-five gallons a week.  We are now up to an additional $25 in expenses a week just in gas alone.  Hello $.50 raise, good-bye $.50 raise and I'll raise my personal expenses $5 a week ($20-$25= -$5).

Whoa!  So Larry just took a pay cut of $5 a week and we have not yet added in the cost of brakes, oil changes, insurance, and tires.  Even if all of our estimates are conservative Larry will be spending an additional $1,000 out of his pocket.  Also consider that those expenses come after he pays his personal income taxes.  In other words, to pay the additional $1,000 in expenses, he must make an additional $1,200, because $200 (probably more) will be eaten up in taxes.

Add, subtract, and think through this.  Larry was looking to make more money, but wound up going in the hole at least $1,500 in a year's time.  And that is a very conservative calculation.

Now making $20 more a week seems like a small decision.  For Larry he thought it was going to put him on the road to prosperity.  However, a bad case of financial illiteracy put him in the hole, big time.

At the end of the day financial illiteracy will cost you. 

 

 

 

Why Worry?

Recently I received a phone call from a friend out of town regarding a job opportunity.  He had gone through an interview and really wanted this particular job.

Following the interview, guess what?  He had to wait.  Waiting turned into anxiety and worrying.

Now his question:

All I'm doing is sitting around worrying.  What do I do about that?

No doubt we all have our questions, our unanswerable questions.

What if I don't get the job?

Will my kids ever get on track?

Can my marriage survive?

Now let me be candid.  I would love to have the answers at my fingertips.  But if I did, I would most likely simply be blowing smoke.

I'm not sure why Moses had to herd sheep for forty years.

Why did God allow Daniel to be thrown into the lion's den because he faithfully prayed three times a day?

Life is filled with uncertainty and we don't always get the phone call we wanted.  Wouldn't we all like to have everything work out all the time?

Here is what we can do. This comes from one of Jesus' talks on worry.  Actually it seems like He is having a case of ADD.  In Matthew 6 verse 25 Jesus essentially tells us that we must trust in the providence of God.

And in the middle of His talk, He says, "Look at the birds..."  Sounds like something we would say when we get distracted.  But Jesus was not distracted.  He simply wants us to realize that if God is concerned about these small creatures how much more does He love and care for us.

The birds don't just fly around and expect food to magically appear in their nests.  They do their part.  But they are not worrying about their sustenance.

So how do we overcome our anxiety?  Simple, but not easy.

Accept that you have done all you can do.  You have gone through the interview.  You have prayed about the situation.  You took the necessary steps.

Believe that God has your best interests in mind.  Our desires are not always the best.

Commit it all to the Lord. 

With that said, does that mean the anxiety will leave?  Sometimes no, because we allow uncertainty to make us anxious.

Perhaps the best way to sum it up is like Jesus did.  "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)  Devotion to God is a prerequisite for the peace that we long for in the midst of uncertainty.

Put God first and you will have no reason to worry. 

Why worry when you can trust God?

 

 

 

 

Negatives are Hard, But Not Impossible to Overcome

As the new year is now well under way many have discovered that the bad habits and negatives of 2011 will take a while to overcome in 2012.

Think about how hard it is to turn things around.  Here are a few examples:

1. I love donuts and even had one the other day.  But I know that I must limit my intake.  Just one donut probably costs me one hour of intense exercise.  Wow.  20 seconds to eat and sixty minutes to work it off.

2. Credit card debt is a national phenomenon.  One of the easiest things to do is spend money, whip out the plastic, and enjoy what we can purchase on credit.  Moments or even days of fun can take years to pay off.

3. In a marital relationship, the highly respected John Gottman suggests that for every negative it takes several positves to overcome.  He says "men tend to have shorter fuses and longer-lasting explosions than women."  As I read that I realize men may have the harder job, because they may have more negatives to overcome.  Some even estimate that it takes as many as twenty positives to overcome just one negative.

4. In church world it is not uncommon for people to begin reading their Bible, only to get stuck by mid-summer.  Then around December they try to catch up, all in vain.

5. If you have a garden you understand how much work weeds demand from you.

6. How about your lawn?  I enjoy push mowing.  However, if I allow the grass to get too tall, I must mow at a much slower rate.  And that raises my frustration level.  That leads me to talk to myself while mowing and asking, "Why did I wait this long?"

In fact, we ask why a lot.

Why did I wait so long before I weeded my garden?

Why did I make that big purchase on an impulse?

Why did I get so upset with my spouse?

All of those whys remind us that negatives are hard to overcome.  However, it is possible.  On the other hand, it sure would be nice to avoid all those regrets by focusing on the positive on the front end.  Life would be so much different.

What is a Win?

What is a win?  Everyone at some point must identify what success is for him or her personally.  

 

 

 

The Ultimate Test of Friendship

While books have been written on friendship, one quality stands head and shoulders above all others.

Here it is:  Friends walk in when others walk out.  Simple, but powerful.

One simple word: Loyalty.

Proverbs 17:17 (NIV)   A friend loves at all times,
   and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

When life gets tough and throws you a curve, look around.  Who is still standing with you?  Those are your real friends. 

On the other hand, who in your life is swimming in some rough waters?  Don't bail.  Jump in and swim with them. 

Loyalty.  Simple.  The ultimate friendship factor.

 

Do You Make Those Around You Better?

As a kid growing up my best friend, Neal, was loyal, an encourager, and he helped me improve my hitting in baseball.  Perhaps that experience led me to believe that everyone wants to make those around them better.

Now as an adult I realize that is not always the case, but I like to think about the positive people I have known or read about.

When my dad went to work with a guy named Bill Butts, my dad made him better.  A business that was bankrupt turned into a profitable company.  

Recently my dad and I were talking about old times a little, and he said it was amazing he ever made it in business.  Hiring good help was always a challenge, but my dad had several men who made him better.  He even had a phenomenal secretary who made him better.

The same thing holds true in sports.  A few years ago a wide receiver, Ronnie White, was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons.  After two years he was considered a bust.  That is until Matt Ryan became the quarterback.  Now Ronnie White is a Pro Bowl football player.  Matt Ryan made him better.

Michael Jordan will go down as the greatest basketball player of all time.  But it is hard to think of Jordan without also thinking of Scottie Pipen.  They both made each other better.  Iron truely does sharpen iron.

Without a doubt Carol has made me better, by a long shot. 

Everywhere we look we see examples of people who made others better. 

Look around.  Who are you making better?