Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We all have to deal with negative thoughts and potentially dangerous little lusts that pop up in our head.  If you are waiting on those to go away in order to build a better life... well, it just will never work out like you plan.  It's not about eliminating negative internal injury or temptations.  It's about HOW y...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! 50 Episodes ago we talked about "Eat That Frog." Well, let's catch up on that 25 weeks later.  Are you still knocking out annoying things, one per day, as early in the day as possible?  I've been at it since February.  I want to share how that has gone, some of the specific things accomplished, and it&apos...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Guess how many holes it takes to sink a boat?  Yep.  Just one.  More importantly, one hole left unfixed will do the damage.  It would be nice in life if there were never any holes in our boat. If we could just float along excelling still more and have no issues.  Such is just not to be.  The question is - are you willing to g...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! In C.S. Lewis's famous book, The Screwtape Letters, demons discuss how to win a Christian back to sin.  A major point of emphasis is the need to get him dwelling on the unchangeable past and the uncontrollable future!  These will keep his attention from the two things that are real, certain, guaranteed:  Eternity and Tod...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! In 1992, Gary Chapman wrote the book, "The Five Love Languages." Do you remember what they are?  What would you say are your top two love languages?  What about your spouse?  This episode explores what is possible when we identify what pleases the other person, how they comprehend and acknowledge love, and then shar...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Let's talk about a story from the 1800's, where a tragic crisis arose.  A man tried to fix it:  he changed everything and everyone around him, to no avail.  Finally, one day, he asked the fateful question: "Is it me?"  It was.  And with just a small personal adjustment, many lives were saved!  How many of...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Seven billion dollars is a whole lot of money!  For most of us, it is next level inconceivable really.  Could you imagine what it would be like to have that much money ... in debt? What if you owed it to someone.  Would you just give up on life?  Would you beg for mercy?  Let's talk about how that connects to Jesus.  And...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! It is great to set your course and stay on it.  Deciding on goals and pursuing them, no matter what, can really bring great results!  There are lots of cool Olympian stories of athletes who were big winners, because they wouldn't give up.  Some were losers, but they never took their eye off the finish line.  However, som...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We all love to be appreciated.  Most of us enjoy accolades and cheers for what we do.  But really life isn't fueled by that, or is it?  If we feed off of support as a means to carry on, what will we do when the crowds stop cheering?  Are you equipped to have a deeper purpose than recognition by others?  And if this is so...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! This year I have become convinced of two things, beyond a doubt.  Firstly, Christians are to be Givers.  We ought to be the most generous, helpful, service-filled people on this earth!  Secondly, habits take wisdom to put into place.  You can't just get good at something.  You have to lay out a course of action in order...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We all have issues in our lives.  You know, things we don't like, troubles, problems, stress producers.  However, we do not have to let bad situations rob us of our peace as children of God.  Prayers are helpful. But they won't be enough.  Life will push itself back in between you and God.  If you want to see things...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! In June of 1924, George Mallory ascended to the top of Mount Everest.  He and his friend Andrew Irving were the very first to do so! At least, that's what I believe.  It was a true mountain top experience.  Unfortunately the story does not end well, teaching us that the climb down is always the hardest, and that the moun...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I sometimes get annoyed at things other people do... even though I do them myself.  This is part of life.  The real revelation is when I discover that it was my influence that led to their behavior!  Yes, we all cast a shadow.  It is inevitable and powerful.  You have an impact, an influence, on every person you are around. ...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Most of us struggle with overuse of electronic devices.  They are so convenient and address so many issues all in one place.  But most of us also know that such things can become addictive and keep us locked in to them and away from the walk God has planned for us.  But we can't just put the cell phone in the drawer for...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We all make mistakes.  We do things we wish we did not do.  We say things we wish we had not said.  But do we understand where those issues begin?  It is not about the moment the thing is said or done, it goes back to the very first concession.  Sometime earlier a mental allowance gave the tiniest of inner green lights, leadi...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Did you know that the word "priorities" was rarely known or used before 1940?  It doesn't really makes sense when you think about it.  How can you have most important things?  How can there be multiple things that come first.  By definition, they wouldn't be most important. Instead, people used the word &q...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! No matter who you are, there will be stretches when things don't come together.  Streaks get broken.  Outside influences distract.  We don't get the frog eaten.  We don't fulfill our daily highlight.  There is no one great hour.  For some, this means the end.  Great progress is abandoned by "setbacks.&quot...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Everybody is trying to persuade someone.  In fact, most of us are trying to shape other people's thinking every single day, and in many relationships! And each of us has some skill or two that God gave us to bring other's around to our way of thinking.  However, most of us don't have all three!  I'm talkin...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We all know the importance of daily prayer.  But what are you praying for daily?  Most of us do a great job of praying about our daily bread. That is, daily provisions like health and safety.  But we may be missing some things from "The Lord's Prayer" in Matthew 6.  If we model our prayer after what He taught u...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.  There is power in your relationship with God, and you are hopefully experiencing that every day.  However, God's plans and Christ's power may demand that you ask for help.  There are some things so difficult, so challenging, so transformative, that you simpl...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I'm excited to share this!  It really captivates what the Excel Still More journey is all about for me. Firstly, this is about optimism, redemption and hope EVERY single morning!  Every day we are new, God's mercies are new, opportunities refresh and we can make that day great.  You guys know what a great week is, r...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We should always make the most out of any situation.  If this is where you are now, then make the most out of this.  This applies directly to location.  Wherever you work, work well. Wherever you worship, worship well.  Wherever you life, live well.  With whomever you spend your time, use it well.  And so on.  However, someti...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Well, we all have to grow up sometime, right?  I turned 40 last December and made the decision to make some fairly dramatic life changes.  Maybe dramatic isn't the right word, but there were some internal struggles I'd been very hit or miss about.  It was time to say, "Hey, I'm 40. I'm done with that...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Every parents wants obedient kids.  This is a challenge, since all kids are different and they change quite frequently as they grow.  Parents who try the same approach, no matter the child, or the age, or the outcome desired... well, they don't get great results.  But if parents learn to work backwards: to analyze the ef...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Self centered living is lonely.  Some may be successful.  Some may make a mess of things.  But all wonder, "Is this what it is all about?" I just focus on me.  Everybody else just focuses on themselves?  And somehow our life has value, meaning?  When we learn to be second to Christ, we instantly learn the purpose of...