I wanna be rich!!!

I Wanna be Rich?
Sound familiar? It should, it is the underlying ideology in our culture. Now I am not saying that all of us want to be Bill Gates or Donald Trump or that we want to have private planes to fly off to Hawaii whenever we desire. What I am saying is that everything that drives our economy and American way of life is the need, or you can say greed, for the dollar. We are conditioned to make more then our parents. We are marketed to in a way that drives us to get better cars, bigger televisions and smarter phones then our neighbor. The American dream has changed from simply being free to live and direct my life as I choose to having it all!  Now there is nothing wrong with that, however, it has changed the perspective on what it means to be rich. Let's look at the perspective of just how rich we are in the US.

 If you are making the median income in the US, $32,000, you are part of the 1 percent richest in the world! How is that for a perspective? Scary to think that I am included in the richest in the world. Consider the fact that just being born in the US ranks you in the 20% richest in the world. You live in a country that contains 80% of the wealth in the world. The problem isn’t with the riches of the United States, it is with our perspective of money and riches.

Look at a Bible passages with me, 1 Timothy 6:6-14;

6:6 Now godliness combined with contentment brings great profit. 6:7 For we have brought nothing into this world and so we cannot take a single thing out either. 6:8 But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that. 6:9 Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evils. Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains.

6:11 But you, as a person dedicated to God, keep away from all that. Instead pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness. 6:12 Compete well for the faith and lay hold of that eternal life you were called for and made your good confession for in the presence of many witnesses. 6:13 I charge you before God who gives life to all things and Christ Jesus who made his good confession before Pontius Pilate, 6:14 to obey this command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a lot in this bible passage that speaks to us about our lives and dealing with money! My intention though is just to point out a couple of things. Look with me at verse 6. Paul is writing this to Timothy who is following in Paul's footsteps as a preacher and pastor. Notice what he tells him brings profit, Godliness and contentment. Does that sound like the current American philosophy? Not even close! Yes the desire to gain wealth has always been around and it will never go away. But what is missing in society is contentment. The overwhelming desire for more is increasing in society. Why are we not content with what we have? Paul answered this for us in the beginning of the verse, Godliness. We are further away from God as a culture then ever before. We could look to the old testament and see many examples of the children of Israel drift away from God. Each time they would drift we can see them becoming more discontent in their lives and country. This drift is caused by a heart condition.

That brings me to the second point in this bible passage and probably the most recognizable verse in this passage. Verse 10, speaks not some much about money as it does about the condition of our heart. If money is what we love, then our hearts and minds will be consumed with its courtship. That is what bible hear is warning us about! Remember what Jesus said, "Where you treasure is, there will be your heart also." In the United States our heart is in money. Every political decision is wrapped about in money. The bottom line has become more important the people. This is true in government and in the private sector. You see our hearts, eyes, minds have the wrong perspective.

We find our perspective laid out for us in verse 11. We are to pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness. Think about that for a second. If each one of us this month just worked on doing these things what our country would look like! All theological and spiritual implication aside, if we just pursued these things what a transformation we would go through in every sector.

  

So has does this apply to America today? We really have no idea how wealthy we are in the US. Our perspective of what is poor is so skewed we are confused as to what is poor.  I don’t intend to say we should not be helping those in our country who are needy. My point is we have to have an understanding of how much we do have so that we may reach out to those who do not!  We must continue to help others in our own country and around the world. Doing this with a proper perspective may require taking inventory of the blessings we already have and not focus on what we don’t have. Because when we see how truly blessed we are and what we have, our perspective will be much different.

In the next coming weeks I will be in an area of Ecuador that is financially poor. The people on the other hand are unbelievably loving and caring. They are rich in many ways that many of us couldn’t understand. I will be sharing with you my experiences and thoughts while I am away!

Solid Ground

So I have had a great internal debate as to how much of the spiritual aspect I should go into on my blog. I like for all to be able to read what I have learned and take something from it and use it into their own lives. But when it comes to spiritual and religious things people tend to get their ire up quickly. So in my mind the debate raged! I know what your saying "there is alot of room for that fight up there!" Well yes that is true! But, I came to the conclusion that I believe what I believe because I studied hard and searched intently to understand. The same way I did with everything else in my life! So if I share my relentless desire to better myself physically and mentally I also should share what I have learned spiritually! So here it goes......

C.S. Lewis wrote, "There are lots of things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on it." This is a wonderful statement if you understand the how foundations work. Sand is not a stable source to build upon. It will not pack and washes away very easy. Jesus used this illustration in the bible with the foolish man who built his house and the sand. And the wise man who built his house on the rock. The meaning behind the parable is that we should be build our lives on things that are solid! My intent here is not to debate or start an argument for Christianity. My intent is to simply ask what have you built your life upon? Through my adolescent and teenage years I did many things that I am not proud of, I was self centered and very very egotistical. I lived for me, for what made Richie happy and never gave a second thought about anyone else. I begin to study the bible. Now, not out of a want of spiritual gain but out of the idea that I was tired of my family using it to try to "help" me. As I studied I began to see that the facts and stories and the history found in the bible could be verified! I was stunned by this! I had gone through college and was taught that these were just fairy tales and stories made up to illustrate certain religious points. Yet here I find scholar after scholar who can attest to the times and places. The major hang up comes with the miracles we find happening throughout the bible.....are they true? What I found....Yes they are! Now I don't want you to take my word for it.  Don't believe cause I believe you go and look and study for yourself. Physical I cannot lift weights to make you stronger or do cardio to make you healthier. Mentally I cannot read for you to make you smarter! You need to do these things on your own and by yourself. Don't look around or look at someone else and what they have done, just do it yourself! Stand in front of the mirror and look at yourself and ask, "what have I built my house on?" Consider that maybe the reason you are struggling and not happy is because you have been building in the wrong spot!

Failure is good for you! Really....

I don't know if you have noticed in recent years that our culture avoids failure. My oldest son played youth baseball this summer. They didn't keep track of the score in their baseball games. So me being the person I am asked why? The answer....... they didn't want to discourage the kids if the lost. Really? So we want them to grow up to think that they can always win? We want  them to think they should be successful at everything? That is crazy! This wont build character! Failure builds endurance, perseverance and persistence. We have all heard the examples of people like Thomas Edison. Someone once asked Edison about the 1,000 patents he had on failed light bulbs and if it discouraged him? His reply, was that he had learned a thousand ways not to build a light bulb! Now that is a totally different way of looking at failure! 
How about Micheal Jordan? Now I wont lie I am a huge Jordan fan! No pun intended! Jordan was cut his freshman year from the basketball team. Instead of letting that failure get him down and discourage him, he let it fuel him and drive him to become one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Even after being in the NBA failure drove him to be better and never let losing or failing bother him. Here is a great Nike commercial that shows it....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45mMioJ5szc. He always let those faults and failure drive him to better his game and himself.

The point for us? Do not let failure hold you back! We have to change our mental prospect or view on failure. We need understand that we cannot win every baseball game. So times our business' will fail, our friendships will fail. Even our diets will fail! But that is not an excuse to just give up. It should be what drives us to become better. We can, like many in society, let failure destroy our lives or we can let it fuel us to the top. If you grew up in the 90's you will understand this, " I wanna be like Mike"! Light a fire inside and go after it! Don't let a fear of failure control you, hold you back anymore. Be relentless!



 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4 : 13

Ok so on my last post someone asked if it was just for guys..... No this isn't something I am doing just for guys, pastors or parents. Just some things I have learned along the way that I want to share with the world. LOL Because I am sure the world is looking at my blog ;)
So how do we develop this drive to be the best we can? How do we overcome our circumstances? Or even overcome ourselves?
Well, first lets look at who we are as humans. I believe our lives can be split up into three separate but equal parts. The first would be mental. Meaning my knowledge, common sense, experiences create how I think and react towards things in life. The second would be Physical. What kind of shape my body is in! Oh and yes round is a shape. But specifically the general health you have in you life. Third is Spiritual. Many people would scoff at the idea of our spiritual life having a major impact in life, until  you consider that the majority of the world believes in the spiritual. There is something in each one of us that draws us to considering faith.

So in our pursuit to better ourselves to pursue our dreams we need to realize that we have to have a balance in our lives. With out this balance is where problems in our lives are created. So on our walk through life lets remember to be balanced! Attain that balance well......that is what I hope to share with you all...... not that i am perfect.

 
   Know that wisdom is such to your soul;
   if you find it, there will be a future,
   and your hope will not be cut off.
                               Psalms 24:14

Being Relentless

As we start let me define for you what the meaning of relentless is;

 

1. Unyielding in severity or strictness; unrelenting:

2. Steady and persistent; unremitting

 

The goal of this blog is to help us, me included, become relentless in our pursuits in life. Not just to acheive goals or a specific level, but pursue them with intense strictness! To be relentless in being a father. To be relentless as husband. To be relentless as a speaker.

This doesnt happen the easy way. There is no simple formula to help you become relentless. It is something that has to take over you entire life and be part of your entire life. Physically, Mentally and Spiritually. Wanting to become a relentless person will require you to not only face the future but face somethings in your past that have held you back. So, as Jeffery Gitomer says, "Its time to Kick your own butt"!

 

Remember the only one holding you back is you!

 

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13