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4forFRIDAY with Chuck Allen

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SELECTED READS, LISTENS, LEARNINGS, AND REVIEWS for March 5, 2021

I love to share good reads, learnings, listens, and reviews with friends and followers. So, thanks for joining me on my 4forFRIDAY BLOG. Each week, the 4forFRIDAYoffers recommended Reads, Listens, Learnings, and Reviews, for your enjoyment. Thanks Again!

A Really Good and Brief Read: Five More Minutes

One of my go-to authors, Terry Hershey, offers a fresh and insightful mindset to our daily grind and need to find peace, perspective, and patience in the journey.

A Really Good Movie on Netflix: Operation Finale

In 1960, the search for the Designer of the Master Plan” that would murder millions of innocent Jewish people, Adolf Eichman kicks into full speed. This is a really good film.

A Great Snack from Amazon or Costco: Sonoma Creamery Cheese Crisps – Pepper Jack Savory Cheese Cracker

If you like a little kick to your snacks, this is for you. Sonoma Creamery Pepper Jack Cheese Crisps are lightly baked Crunchy Real Cheese™ Snacks. Based on their famous Sonoma Hot Pepper Jack recipe, they bake in 10-month Aged Parmesan and a sprinkling of certified Gluten-Free organic ancient grains for a crunchy, craveable bite.

A Must-Read for Zoom Effectiveness: Why Leading a Remote Team Requires Radical Candor

In our now normal Zoom world, it’s important to equip yourself with the best tools to maximize your zoom experience. Whether you run a company, lead a team, or just by yourself navigating the challenges of working with others at a moment of uncertainty and social distance, it’s obvious why it’s important to care personally about your colleagues now more than ever.

A Quote from Rabbi Abraham Heschel

“I would say an individual dies when he (she) ceases to be surprised. What keeps me alive–spiritually, emotionally, intellectually–is my ability to be surprised. I say, I take nothing for granted. I am surprised every morning that I see the sun shine again.”

The Weekday Podcast is a 5 minutes/day, 5 days/week Cup of Encouragement, straight from the Scriptures.
New episodes are available Monday – Friday on the
Sugar Hill Church APP or at WeekdayPodcast.com

Go in Peace, Chuck

4forFRIDAY with Chuck Allen

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Week 22 of 2023 is almost in the books. It’s been an awesome week. I trust you are ready for a great weekend. I read this the other day and trust that it will encourage you.


Don’t let “opportunity” steal your focus. When your attention goes to many things, no real progress is ever made. Not all opportunities are worth pursuing — especially if it means being pulled away from something that is currently working. -Shawn Blanc

This Week’s 4forFRIDAY

A Sports Illustrated Article that’s Interesting: College Football

A New Doughnut Shop in Atlanta that You’ll be So Glad you Tried.

An Interesting Article from Crosswalk: Why We Should Be Honest

Further Proof that this Tapas Restaurant is Sooooo Good: PAELLA

A Quote from Nikki Haley
“I wear heels. It’s not for a fashion statement. It’s because if I see something wrong, we’re going to kick ’em every single time.”

Go in Peace, Chuck

4forFRIDAY with Chuck Allen

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Week 21 of 2023 is almost in the books. I’ve spent most of the week in Uvalde, Eagle Pass, and Del Rio, Texas. I am amazed at the resiliency of these Texas Border Towns. I read this the other day and trust that it will encourage you.
Quantity Leads to Quality
If we sit around and wait for quality, it won’t come. Quality must be pursued.

With your notes and research. With your YouTube videos. With your notebook or your journal. With your photography… Whatever it is that you are creating, you have to start with “not yet amazing”.

But if you continue to show up every day and keep creating, then the more you create, the more valuable your overall body of work is. Not to mention that, as you create things (writing, photography, etc.) your ongoing practice is the single greatest way to up-level your skills (which, of course, ultimately leads you toward a higher quality of work).” —Shawn Blanc

This Week’s 4forFRIDAY

A Podcast Worth Listening to: ETERNAL PURPOSE

A Fun Novel from Clive Cussler: FAST ICE

An Interesting Article from Visualized Capitalism: Mapped: How Much Should You Tip In Each Country?

A powerful tool for Daily Devotionals from CrossWalk” Your First 15

A Quote from Brené Brown
“Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” “It’s worse to spend your life on the outside looking in, wondering what if than it is to try and dare greatly and risk the chance of failure. Dare greatly; get in the arena and try.”

Go in Peace, Chuck

4forFRIDAY with Chuck Allen

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Week twenty of 2023 is almost in the books. Wowzer, it’s been crazy this week. I read this the other day and trust that you will be encouraged by it.
“Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability —
and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually — let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.“
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

This Week’s 4forFRIDAY

A Cannot Miss Recipe for Summer: Slow-Cooker Corn on the Cob

A Short but AWESOME Article – Sabbath Moment

A Fast-Paced Thriller Show on Paramount+ with Kiefer Sutherland: RABBIT HOLE

A Powerful Article from INC. Magazine:
How Effective Leaders Have Courageous Conversations; Be a good communicator, even with conflict.

A Quote from Thomas Merton:

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly
themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image.”

Go in Peace, Chuck

4forFRIDAY with Chuck Allen

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Week eighteen of 2023 is almost in the books, and it has been a crazy week. I trust that yours has been awesome and that YOUR WEEKEND AHEAD WILL BE AWESOME! I read these words earlier this week, and I trust they are an encouragement to you.
What do very happy people have in common? The Wall Street Journal followed up with the 12% of respondents in a WSJ-NORC survey who called themselves “very happy”  and asked them what they were all about. Here are the traits they share.

  • Companionship: 67% of the happiest people said marriage was very important to them, compared to 43% of respondents.
  • Religion: Two-thirds of very happy people characterized themselves as moderately or very religious. The overall share: less than half.
  • Closer to death: People 60 and over accounted for 44% of the happiest group but represented 30% of total survey respondents.
  • Gym rats: Fitness was a common interest among very happy people.

What doesn’t seem to matter to become very happy? Political party affiliation or avoiding following politics. —Neal Freyman

Four Lessons That I Learned This Week.

1. Nothing can improve your Day More than Margin. Whether it is financial, relational, or time management, margin is your friend. Fight for it!

2. Stop Trying to Impress People. If you are still playing the comparison game, you are losing.

3. Think About Your Circles of Influence Through this Quote: “Those who follow Jesus should attract the same people Jesus attracted and frustrate the same people Jesus frustrated.” —Shane Claiborne

4. Never Stop Learning. This isn’t just a strong way to stay sharp but a way to grow to become more like Jesus. Win-Win!

This Week’s 4forFRIDAY

A Movie We Loved: “GHOSTED” (on Apple TV)

A Book that I Loved: Drop the Stones

Another Movie We Loved: The Covenant (movie theatre)

My Favorite Bakery/Deli: Henri’s (now open in Peachtree Corners)

A Quote from Hugh L. Hollowell:

“Every time we use religion to draw a line that keeps people out, Jesus is with the people on the other side of that line.”

Go in Peace, Chuck

4forFRIDAY with Chuck Allen

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Week seventeen of 2023 is almost in the books, and it has been a busy but productive week. I trust that yours has been awesome and that YOUR WEEKEND AHEAD WILL BE AWESOME! I’d like to share a prayer for peace that might benefit you – God, it seems that every time I turn on the news, the world gets a little worse each day. I know sin has ravaged this planet, and the world will lack complete peace until you return. Nevertheless, I ask that you intervene in the world and grant us peace. Help us to find more ways to love our neighbors and show the world your goodness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Four Lessons That I Learned This Week.

1. Choose peace each morning. It is a choice, not just an aspiration. Look in the mirror and chase after peace.

2. Live a life of service. Every person on earth was created to serve others. The person that serves is more often equally blessed than the recipient.

3. You are not your job. Recent research says that we Americans put far too much emphasis on our careers as a way of creating our identity. Big mistake. You are far more than what you do!

4. It’s okay to stop and think. Our desire to keep moving leaves little room for God to move as we wait on eagle wings. Progress and productivity are not the same as following the desire of God for your life. It is always a great idea to stop and hear from the Lord. His plans are worthy of waiting on!

This Week’s 4forFRIDAY – Four Great Articles

11 Ways to Protect Your Marriage from Adultery

Small Acts of Kindness Matter More Than You Think

Can I Trust Jesus?

Firefighters Mow Elderly Man’s Yard: When Identity Empowers Influence

A Quote from Henri Nouwen:

“Although it is important and even indispensable for the spiritual life to set apart time for God and God alone, prayer can eventually become unceasing prayer when all our thoughts, beautiful and ugly, high and low, prideful and shameful, sorrowful and joyful, can be thought in the presence of God.”

Go in Peace, Chuck

4forFRIDAY with Chuck Allen

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Week sixteen of 2023 is almost in the books, and it has been a great week here in Uvalde, Texas. I trust that yours has been tremendous and that YOUR WEEKEND AHEAD WILL BE AWESOME! I’d like to share a prayer from Peanut’s Carlie Brown – Be yourself. “No one can say you’re doing it wrong.”

Four Lessons That I Learned This Week.

1. Never live with your assumptions. It’s like believing everything you think. It’s rarely true, accurate, or timely.

2. If you want peace in your life, give yourself away. Every study on the planet proves that when you serve others, in any way, but with the right motive, you are the one that is blessed.

3. Bible reading is for far more than greater knowledge. The proof of this is how I flounder when not having time, or taking time to read scripture, daily.

4. When counseling people or trying to help, you might not be appreciated or liked. But speaking truth in love is how to place your head on the pillow with the certainty that you did what God asked of you…and that is more than enough.

This Week’s 4forFRIDAY

10 Things You Shouldn’t Miss at Buc-ees’s from Atlanta Magazine

Taco Bell’s innovation team could probably solve all the world’s woes if we asked them to:

Make a list of Earth’s most pressing challenges and the precise consistency of the cheese on a fast-food burrito probably doesn’t rank too high.

But if this detailed New Yorker profile on Taco Bell’s Innovation Kitchen teaches us anything, it’s to never underestimate the 12 chef scientists and 60 food-innovation developers behind the chain’s menu magic.

They take their work seriously — you have to if your output is a primary growth engine for a ~8.2k-location, $14.65B-in-annual-sales restaurant serving 42m people every week — and they regularly solve complex problems.

Why we’d elect them as our (Crunchwrap) Supreme Leaders

Whether you love or hate the food, the stream of additions to Taco Bell’s menu makes it one of food’s most compelling spaces. At its root is a legendary creative culture they’ve nurtured — one well worth learning from.

Some key components:

• Iteration: Taco Bell annually releases ~10 new products; to do so, their innovation team generates thousands of ideas and tests ~70 of them.

• Patience: The idea for the Crunchwrap Supreme was tweaked in the lab for 13 years until it made the cut.

• Practical constraints: A creative process without limitations is often too blue-sky; the scale of Taco Bell’s business requires careful consideration of the cost, quantity, and preparation of each component, as well as speed — can it be prepared in ~1 minute?

• Attention to detail: Scientific precision is lent to ingredients’ material properties — from bounce to juiciness, springback to spreadability. And every ratio is carefully considered, like how the balance of fats and acids impacts mouthfeel and brain chemistry.

• Breaking convention: The team pushes past technical limits — famously trying a paint-spray gun to try applying the correct amount of Doritos powder to their taco shells.

• Consumer focus: Every successful creative product is evocative for its audience, even an oddball limited-edition Grilled Stuft Nacho. Per The New Yorker, “nostalgia” and “emotion” are frequently raised in their Innovation Kitchen.

A Very Interest Series from Apple TV- The Last Thing He Told Me

Why You Should Be Seeking Fun, Not “Happiness”

A Quote from Pete Scazerro:

“Ignoring our emotions is turning our back on reality. Listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God. . . . Emotions are the language of the soul. They are the cry that gives the heart a voice. . .”

Go in Peace, Chuck