want to

March 11 – No Excuses

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There are four small creatures wisest of the wise they are—ants—frail as they are, get plenty of food in for the winter; marmots—vulnerable as they are, manage to arrange for rock-solid homes; locusts—leaderless insects, yet they strip the field like an army regiment; lizards—easy enough to catch, but they sneak past vigilant palace guards. Proverbs 30:21-23 NKJV

Want to know the difference between an excuse and a reason? I will come back to that in a minute.

It’s not the case every time, but it happens a lot of the time. I meet someone whom I admire their achievements and successful Ideas. And they are short! It’s become comical to me anymore.

Growing up, tall was what we all wanted to be. And if you were one of the unlucky ones who had “vertically challenged” DNA molecules flowing around your growth plates, you tended to get picked on.

Truth of the matter, it has never really mattered in the grand scheme of things how big a person was on the outside. It was the heart and will residing on the inside that counted.

Nature is full of examples and mini-marvels that warrant wonder. But any “achiever” I know, small, medium, or large has a particular common code of conduct: to them, there is no such thing as an excuse and thus, there is no reason to discuss their inabilities.

So what there’s plenty of food at the supermarket…fill the cellar anyway!

So what you don’t make a lot of money…save up and build a home anyway!

So what there is no one to tell you what to do…make a decision anyway!

So what if somebody more popular is singing your song…you sing it anyway!

Don’t wait for the sun to come out or the “fair police” to come to your aid. You are here, you are able. And that’s reason enough!

Lorenzo

November 13 – Bread and Circuses

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Appetite is an incentive to work;
 hunger makes you work all the harder. Proverbs 16:25 MSG

Work is necessary and the desire to create something out of nothing is all about God’s divine design. Genesis 2 records God gave His man work before He gave him a woman. That doesn’t suggest girls don’t work. For me, I see a basic principle…work is good!

But in our day and time, it seems as if there is an aversion to honest labor. Many of us have seen the hungry holding up their cardboard sign at our cities major intersections. And I have felt compelled to contribute to the cause more times than not. But I must mention here that when we moved to my wife’s hometown, out in the country, those signs are not here! On the contrary, there are many farmers who would love to have a hard-working hand or somebody that’s not afraid to cut some trees or build some fence for a few dollars.

The bottom line when it comes to work is there has to be a “want to.” And one of the worst things you can do to a culture of people is to encourage them to seek an easy way to get their needs met.

The wildly popular book called the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a take off of this kind of situation.  After the Roman downfall, it was said that their demise was due to a people forgetting their historical birthright for the promise of cheap food and entertainment, or a superficial means of appeasement. This was coined “bread and circuses” (Latin: panem et circuses).

It always turns out that there is nothing new under the sun. Still, God gave us all hearts to work at something. And my work will look different than yours, but if we will “work” at it intently, the world will indeed revolve in balance and in abundance.