Growth

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a 5 ton pile of dirt that I had dumped on my driveway. the reason I did this was to re-landscape an area in my front yard. The area above is the almost finished project. The only thing left is for the grass to fill-in completely.

When I planted the grass, I did everything I was told to do with it. I spread the seed. I fertilized. I raked it in lightly. I watered it several times per day (and it has rained like crazy this month!). Yet, after ten days, I saw nothing, not even a little sprout of green anywhere.

So, I called the place where I purchased the seed. I was told to give it a couple more days as the ground has been cooler than normal (I guess because of global warming--lol). So when I got home that evening, I looked again, and grass was coming up--yea!

Each day I look out there to check its progress. Most days it just seems like there is no change. But over the course of a week, the change is pretty drastic.

Much like the spiritual growth path we all are on. There are some days when it just seems like nothing is happening, or it seems like we are moving backward! But, if we continue to seek after God, over the course of time He is fertilizing and watering and before we know it, we are much further than we ever thought possible.

Bumpers

Last Wednesday through Friday my wife and I attended the Call2All Congress in Dayton, Ohio. It was amazing!

One of the speakers in the business track talked about the importance of having "bumpers" in our life. He said that a bumper is like a bumper used in a bowling alley for kids to keep their ball out of the gutter.

In life, a "bumper" is someone you have given permission to to speak Truth into your life and to hold you accountable. It could be that you need to be bumped because of your eating habits, your lack of exercise, your looking lustfully at members of the opposite sex or spending quiet time with God.

This was a great analogy and I also believe we all should have bumpers in our life. This is tough, though, because having bumpers in your life will force you to change and to grow. Change and growth many times is painful. We might have to give up something that we really like. But, this is the path to true growth and fulfillment in life.

I feel so blessed to have a number of bumpers in my life. These are other men who pray for me, encourage me and speak the brutal truth to me. I had breakfast with one this morning and I have breakfast with another tomorrow.

Do you have bumpers? If not, I challenge you to seek them out and ask them to breakfast or lunch.

Learning

A good friend of mine and I were talking the other day about how weird we are. We love to read and attend leadership conferences...we both love to learn and grow. In my case, I think it is because I know so little, that I need to catch up to everyone else!

We could not understand why others don't share this same passion. I believe that we are either moving forward (growing) or we are going backwards. Reading is one way that helps you to move forward or to learn and grow.

I read some startling statistics recently at Dan Poynter's site:

In 2002 57% of the US population read a book. See report.

One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. Many people in the U.S. do not even graduate from high school.

58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.

42% of college graduates never read another book.

80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.

70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

57% of new books are not read to completion.

Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.

Pretty scary isn't it. So where are you in these statistics? Why don't you set your sites on making 2009 a year of learning!

Garbage In, Garbage Out

I am a huge fan of leadership development. I'm not sure why this is but I am continually looking for ways to improve--maybe it's because I need so much improvement in so many areas.

Regardless, I believe that you are either growing or you are dying. I don't think there is a middle ground or a place of stagnation. If you are stagnant you are moving backward.

All of this is an individual choice. A choice of what we are going to put in our minds. Earl Nightingale wrote of this in this following excerpt from his book The Strangest Secret:

George Bernard Shaw said, "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them."

Well, it's pretty apparent, isn't it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.

Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry - his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing.
How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I'll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.

Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the farmer to make the decision.

We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant.
Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand- one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land...and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.

As it's written in the Bible, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."

Remember the land doesn't care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants - one corn, one poison.

The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn't care what we plant...success...or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal...or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant it must return to us.You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.