Why do you do what you do?

Purpose. Its such a simple concept, but the results of doing things with a purpose are life-changing. It takes just going through the motions and changes it to doing things with a clarity unknown to many. There are so many worthy endeavors out there to live and do things for, and so often it is easy to get caught up in letting the events of life happen to us instead of taking life to the events.

Can you imagine a life where people took a proactive stance to life? Where people started doing things because it brought joy not only to their own lives, but also to the lives of others? Where the "almighty dollar" was changed into a tool for doing greater things? Where God was the single most important priority in people's lives, and they lived first and foremost to serve Him, and then to help those He had created to become the best they could become for His Kingdom? Can you imagine the ways that would change the world you lived in?

I don't know how it is in your world, but in mine it often seems like the devil is winning. We could probably put a whole list of things down on paper of all the areas where the devil seems to be winning, but we are not helpless victims in this fight. As a friend once said, "If we are on God's side we have already won! All we have to do is fight!" May we see the need to walk daily in the ways of the Lord, and to find the purpose in our daily grind that will allow us to overcome the struggles and show the world a better way to live.

The man answered, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all you soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" ~Luke 10:27

Hidden Blessings of Adversity

I was in the locker room a couple weeks ago listening to Coach talking to the team after the game they had just lost. He could have come in and ripped the players apart. I sat through plenty post game speeches in my years of playing where the coaches would do that. (I don't remember many, they'd start yelling and I would tune out.) Instead he went into his office for a minute or two before coming into the room and asking the players what adversity meant. Throughout the season the program has hit many obstacles including both avoidable and unavoidable circumstances that has kept the team from playing with its full strength. His point was not to make excuses for those things that were not in anyone's control nor to add further blame to those things that could have been avoided. Instead he was able to get across in a very relevant way a valuable life lesson that if applied can help everyone of those girls not only in their basketball careers but in the different struggles they will face in life.

Adversity hits everyone, but what we choose to do with it is what allows us to either rise above and become more than we would have been otherwise or breaks us and makes us weaker. The thing is, that it is not up to chance whether we will sink or swim, but rather the decision we make. Adversity sometimes comes along because we make bad decisions, other times it occurs just because and is out of our control. Both allow great opportunities for us to overcome if we will seek the good in it. If we will pray that our focus will not be on the bad things that come up in life but on the opportunities that arise from them and the ways we can use them for God's glory, just imagine what we will be able to accomplish!

"This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’” ~Zechariah 13:9 (NIV)