The Competitive Edge

Here we are in Broken Bow, OK at Beaver’s Bend – some of this group are avid, die-hard fisher people. There really isn’t competition between those who are – but, deep inside, I know that each one wants to catch the “big one”! I, on the other hand, enjoy the action for a while, some fishing, some photos-taking, but then I'm off for a run to town for something we need or preparing the next meal. No competition for my job! LOL! Then there’s the family competition around the game table – we’re talking serious game play!

But, speaking of “competitive", I remember last week when I was driving down Dallas Tollway toward home, my wandering eyes took a western-gaze at the Dallas Cowboys Headquarters near my home in Frisco. There was a billboard advertising the Sleep Number mattress that included this catchy slogan. “This isn’t your bed – it’s your competitive edge.” The billboard did what it set out to do – it caught my eye and sent my mind racing. “What do they mean by ‘competitive edge’?”

At home, I googled the Sleep Number bed and found that catchy phrase was right by the Dallas Cowboys Headquarters ON PURPOSE. Apparently, the NFL and Sleep Number Corp. have a multi-year sponsorship deal which puts the Minnesota-based mattress maker on one of the highest marketing platforms in sports business. Through their partnership, every NFL player was offered a Sleep Number 360 smart bed, plus received insights for improving their sleeping habits that could impact their performance on the field. Whew! I sure hope it helps our Cowboys! By now, during this pandemic, they will have had plenty of sleep in their Sleep Number bed.

That slogan, “It’s your competitive edge” made perfect sense. In a world of competition in sports (including fishing), speech and debate events, beauty pageants, award and game shows, and simply family game fun nights, it seems our world is all about having a competitive edge. Well, it once was before COVID-19.
Really for those of us in the family of God, there should never be competition among us – at least in the way of sibling rivalry. Oh, yes, I know that many families, including mine, take competition seriously – especially in board or card games. Like in fishing, some of us are more laid-back with the que-se-ra, se-ra mindset while others are in-it to win-it every time.

But when I think about “competitive edge, I think of one thing and that is the competitive edge that we should always have toward the enemy of our souls -- especially if we will use our God-given skills, talents and abilities. John 10:10 says “The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy, but Jesus came to give us life and more abundant life.” I’m thinking, of course our competitive edge is far superior to the enemy – we just need to always be ready with our game face on and our spirit muscled up with the truth of God’s Word that will defeat the enemy every time. It’s time to realize who our real competition is with – certainly not each other. When we show up as a united offensive front, then we’ll win every time. There’s really just no competition because if we’ve read the end of the book, we win!

Time to get the winning, competitive-edge mentality and realize “If God be for us, who in the world can be against us?” Romans 8:31

Welcome, Spring! I’m Getting Spring Into My Step!

I've been thoroughly enjoying the photos displayed on social media of the beautiful array of bluebonnets that are seemingly opening the doors and welcoming Spring to us Texans! Thank you, God, for your handiwork! Before leaving home for this Spring Break trip to Mexico, I sent a little text message to my Frisco family that I wanted to turn in my birthday gift coupons that they gave me in August. It was an amazing gift that included power washing my screened-in porch, trimming hedges and trees, raking and bagging leaves, and laying mulch. I told them I was dealing with peer pressure because my neighbors were way ahead of me in getting their properties all spruced up to welcome Spring! So, we talked about dates to get it all done. Teamwork will certainly make my dream work!

Of course, here in Mexico, it looks like springtime year round, so that’s inspired me, even more, to get spring into my steps. We’ve been going to the fitness center each morning here and getting ourselves spruced up for celebrating this most wonderful season of new life, new hope, new dreams, and new great expectations for this spectacular soon-to-be Resurrection Sunday! Talk about NEW LIFE!

At home, the trees were already budding, my hot pink phlox was unveiling a carpet of color, and the yellow daffodils were sprouting. All of it was shouting “Springtime ahead!” Old things were passing away and the new was being birthed. I had been hearing the doves cooing in my back yard announcing they were making preparations for the new life of their little ones soon.

In Steve DeWitt’s outstanding book, “Eyes Wide Open: Enjoying God in Everything”, he explains enjoying God's presence this way:
“Creation speaks to us — every day, all the time, constantly shouting truths about spiritual reality. Did you hear it this morning as you got up? Did you feel any truth about God this morning as you took a hot shower? Did you taste any truth as you delighted in your morning coffee? Did you hear any divine reality as you heard a bird singing? Did you see any truth as you saw the blue of the sky? What have you actually felt, tasted, touched, seen, and heard today? The whole earth is filled with His glory. Every day creation shouts to us, God is glorious! God is creator! God is provider! God is love! God is there! Everywhere I look, everything I feel, hear, smell, and taste transmits the beauty of God through the beauty of creation. He is the beauty behind all beauty.”

As for me, I’m gearing up for stepping it up -- getting Spring in my step -- to be filled with vigor and vitality. God saw that His creation of man and woman was VERY GOOD. Shouldn’t we be the evidence of God that awakens Spring in the steps of others, too? The cold, dark days of winter are over. Resurrection Day is upon us. It’s time to take off our grave clothes because He lives -- inside of you and me! Of course, we need to have Spring in our steps because Romans 8:11 reminds us “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.” So, step, Stepper, step!

Straighten Your Crown, Your Royal Highness!

Yesterday my post featured the blessings of God's inheritance for His children. But not only do we have an inheritance, we are royalty in the family of God! 1 Peter 2:9 says “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”

The apostle, Peter, is reminding us of our status as sons and daughters of God; that we are heirs and heiresses to Jesus’ rewards. I've latched onto the word “royalty” and I own it. To me, it means “You’re powerful because of God in you!” What if we actually saw ourselves as the royal daughters and sons of God?

I've always associated royalty and heirs as an entitlement, privileged, born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Not so in God's royal family. We are invited to freely receive the blessings and fruit of royalty because Christ is our BIG brother. Romans 8:31: "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all -- how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" How can that be? It's because of God’s amazing grace.

So, we really are royalty and royalty comes with responsibilities. As royal daughters and sons of the Most High God, we should be distinctly aware of our unique position to influence others by our behavior and words. Royalty knows that everything they say will be scrutinized so we must be conscious of our words and actions to make sure others feel loved, cherished, and valued. When we know we are royalty, other people seem to know it too. Even if they can’t explain what it is, people will want our time, attention, words of affirmation and just to be around us.

If we truly believed we are heirs to heaven, would we spend so much time worrying about little things or what someone thinks about us? Knowing how securely placed we are, how loved we are, and how provided for we are, we would start to take on a royal mindset. No longer would we be striving for more money, more power, more followers, or to be “the best.” We’d be pursuing excellence in our work and ministries, by putting people first by loving well, forgiving well, taking criticism with grace and setting examples with how we love and raise our families.

Everyone is craving intimacy with God whether they know it or not, and an encounter with you could be a taste of that for them. All it requires is our agreement with who God says we are. Believe Him when He says, “YOU ARE ROYALTY.” Now, go straighten your crown and go about Kingdom business, Your Royal Highness!

Tell Your Heart to Beat Again

Being in Austin brought an extra blessing on Saturday night, because I was able to attend Danny Gokey and Mandisa’s “Rise Out of the Dark” Tour. You’ll remember them as finalists on “The American Idol” Show (seasons 8 and 5 respectively).

Especially endearing, was one of Mandisa’s dancers, Sydni Chambers, who is my kids’, Ryan and Shawntel’s god-daughter who has been professionally dancing for years and now is a lead dancer and back-up singer for Mandisa's concert tours. Of course I was proud of our sweet girl as we watched her high energy, over-the-top hip hop dancing to Mandisa’s songs -- all to the glory of God. She was incredible and I was exhausted just watching her. ;-)

Christian contemporary artists, Danny Gokey and Mandisa celebrate their life transformations since they both arose out of seasons of darkness. Their comeback stories inspire and encourage all of us with "Nothing is impossible with God!". On their latest albums, both singers share how faith helped them through some very difficult times. It was a packed out concert of great music, incredible lighting and sound, but most importantly, I sensed it was a night of healing for those who attended – including me.

In Mandisa’s case, she struggled after the death of a friend which brought on tremendous depression that came from it. Danny, as American Idol fans know, lost his wife suddenly before he auditioned for the show, and weathered career challenges after the competition was over. We were able to hang for a while with Danny and his beautiful wife that he met after the American Idol season and now they have three children, with the youngest being only 7 weeks old -- which certainly is a comeback story. We knew Danny before when he was a headliner at one of our business’ big launch event.

I must tell you how I was personally touched Saturday night. One of my favorite songs of Danny’s is “Tell Your Heart to Beat Again” and when I heard it live for the first time, I couldn't hold back the tears. It reminded me of the times when I felt like my heart had stopped beating and I was living in a place of day-to-day existence and routine – just endeavoring to make it through each day. I knew pain, heartbreak, worry, concern, fear, disappointment, sadness and wondered if I could ever face another day. Because I also knew the power of trusting in God and His great ability to heal and restore me, I reckoned with the lies of the enemy and I opened my heart to the truth of God’s promises to me like “I will never leave you or forsake you,” Hebrews 13:5; “I have loved you with an everlasting love”, Jeremiah 31:3; “If God be for you, who can be against you,” Romans 8:31, and I TOLD MY HEART TO BEAT AGAIN.

Danny Gokey told the story of a friend -- a pastor who had a Heart Surgeon that attended his church and the pastor asked if he could watch him perform a heart surgery. The day came when the heart surgery took place, and he watched the surgeon cut open the chest cavity, take the heart out and stop it from beating and repair it. Then they had to restart the heart again. But as they proceeded with the necessary procedures to start the heart back up again, the heart wouldn’t start. The doctor did something that was not typical, and started speaking to the patient, “Mrs. Johnson, we’ve repaired your heart. It’s all fixed. We’ve done all we can do. Now, I need you to tell your heart to beat again.” Shortly thereafter, her heart began to beat.

Danny went on to share how there are voices in our lives that lie to us and they tell us we’ll never be healed, we’ll never get over the loss, we’ll never forget the past, we’ll never be restored, we’ll never love again. But, like the woman who came into agreement with the doctor and his report that her heart was healed, we, too, must come into agreement with God who makes us new again, restored and healed. We just have to tell our heart to beat again, and be willing to live again because God is the healer of the broken-HEARTED and makes all things NEW (Psalm 147:3)!

Here is Danny sharing that story along with this song that means so much to me. BTW, I bought this necklace at the concert as a daily reminder – my heart is beating strong!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUHRDCYnFfg