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A-Chuck’s 4forFRIDAY | January 22, 2021

January 22, 2021 by AChuckAllen

Five years from now, you’ll be the same person you are today, other than the books you read, the places you go, and the people you meet.

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, only for your enjoyment. Thanks Again!

A Great Movie: The News of the World

This film, starring Tom Hanks, is a touch of old school western and modern videography. Jenny and I rented it on Prime Video and paid movie theatre pricing to rent it. The News of the World is a great story that is a nail-biter and a remarkable story of redemption. I think you’ll love it.

A Reminder of How Good Chicken Salad Chick is:

Friends recently dropped off some Chicken Salad Chick, and it was so good! It’s been a long time since I’ve had CSC, and I was reminded of how good the grape salad is. We also enjoyed; Classic Carol, which is the classic Southern lady. To know her is to feel comforted and loved. This original chicken salad has a familiar taste that resonates with anyone who grew up in the South. We also had Fancy Nancy, which is a bit more modern with grapes and pecans.

Online Learning Made Easy with Hillsdale College

My first course was quite educational and inspiring. I was learning more about the complicated life and writings of C.S. Lewis. Lewis was the greatest Christian apologist of the twentieth century. He was also the author of fiction works, including The Chronicles of Narnia, and philosophy, including The Abolition of Man. This course will consider Lewis’s apologetics and his fiction and his philosophical and literary writings, and their continuing significance today.

My New Favorite Mexican Restaurant: Don Pedro

It’s old school, and it’s delicious! I enjoyed the chips and salsa – duh. But the enchiladas suizas were great! If you walk into a joint at lunch, and the restaurant is filled with Hispanic laborers, let’s just say that you are in for a treat.

A Quote from Ronald Reagan

“Sometimes when I’m faced with an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve, and when we have finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him if he believes there’s a cook.”

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

Four Lessons I Learned from COVID-19

January 20, 2021 by AChuckAllen

First, let me freely admit that I greatly underestimated Covid-19! I thought I would be a little sickly and get over it in a few days. Boy, was I wrong? I was one of those folks that had almost every symptom you can have. I was down and out of commission for the better part of two weeks. Over the course of those two weeks, I learned four critical lessons that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Hopefully, they will benefit you, and prayerfully you won’t have to have Covid-19 to learn them.

Here are the FOUR LESSONS from COVID-19

1 You are not in charge! You may think that you are, but you are not in charge. Here are three points that make this point.
– I did everything one should do to avoid Covid, but it found me.
– Every medication and every treatment might have been helpful, but God Himself chose to determine my timetable with this wicked enemy. – The only way to health is to stop trying to power through it.

Friends, this virus is the real deal. My encouragement to you is to recognize that we shouldn’t live in fear of Covid-19, but we should honor the fact that any of us can contract this thing, and we are all potential victims. I’m not too fond of wearing a mask. I hate the politicization of wearing a mask even more. I despise the need to cancel live worship and groups, but I would never want anybody to struggle as I did with this stuff! I’ve read and listened to so many varying opinions on masks and distancing that I really am not certain of “the science we are to follow.” I am however, keenly aware that if there is any way to keep people we love as safe as possible, why not give in and ride this thing out? In other words, just wear the mask.

You are not in control. As the Stoics were fond of saying, “The single most important practice in Stoic philosophy is differentiating between what we can change and what we can’t. What we have influence over and what we do not. If we can focus on making clear what parts of our day are within our control and what parts are not, we will not only be happier; we will have a distinct advantage over other people who fail to realize they are fighting an unwinnable battle.”

2 There is a Purpose Within this Virus. For the last nine days of my fight with Covid-19, I started my day with a Gratitude Journal. Inside the journal and number one on my list each day was this statement, “Thank You for Covid-19.” No, I’m not as dumb as I look. I read more, learned more, prayed more, and grew more during Covid than I had in the previous six months. The Divine allowed my time with Covid to redeem my plans for 2021. He allowed me time to rethink almost every part of my life. I was determined to accomplish several things in 2021, but a few of those things have changed significantly! While I do not believe this virus was Heaven created, the Divine is certainly using it to accomplish much. What, I wonder, has He been teaching you? If you aren’t sure, then learn this lesson and slow the pace of your day down and listen for His still, powerful voice.

3 Solitude is Healthy! I speak for the many people that are introverts by nature, but also for people that are around people all the time. Solitude is necessary to think clearly. It is needed to meditate and pray consistently. Solitude can allow for serious planning, and most importantly, solitude will drive you to get off life’s hamster wheel and speak with your Creator and listen for Him to speak into your life. Covid-19 forced me to enjoy and now crave solitude.

4 Everybody Really is dispensable! While I continued working from home, I had people that continued the good work and the good word of Sugar Hill Church. I had friends that prayed for me, covered my bases, and did all manner of caring for me and feeding me. Thank You! I watched as my team functioned wonderfully. I saw them lead and lead well. I was blessed by how they were both concerned for me, but also how they were even more concerned about the health and ministry of our faith community. I felt missed but never required. I felt blessed and never completely essential. Jenny was amazing, as usual. She put up with my whining and griping and moody ways. The girls all checked on me, daily and my dearest friends were more concerned for me than they were for themselves when they had Covid. I discovered, and I’ll bet that you would as well; that you are not indispensable, but you are deeply loved and cared for.

There are dozens of additional lessons learned during my battle, but I’ll stop for today. Thanks to all of you that prayed for me and shared your kindness with my family!

Peace, Chuck

The Complexity of Reason

January 18, 2021 by AChuckAllen

I doubt if it is safe to jump in the
water yet, but here goes.

Looking Back at the Election, I would Like to Offer Two Big Thoughts:

1. President Trump actually has no one to blame for his lost bid for a second term but himself. You cannot continually exhaust people with tirades for four years and expect a country in desperate need of logic and grace-filled leadership to continue to support you. I know that will ruffle my fellow Republicans, but I believe it to be an honest assessment of the last ninety-days of the 2020 election.

2. The Democratic teams of leadership, like Stacy Abrams out-survived the republicans. They put together a strategic plan that provided for legal means to register, gather, and count votes. While I am sure there was voter-fraud in many places, I do not believe the election was “stolen.” If like me, you were on the losing side, you want to believe that was the case, but wishing it to be so is not the same as proving that it is so. I agree with Lindsey Graham when he stated, ” I was told of 10,000 cases of illegal votes and asked for proof of ten. I received none.” I think that has been a truthful statement across the country. The bottom line lesson for republicans? Learn from Stacy Abrams. She is a brilliant human.

Here are Two Thoughts on the Attack on the Capital.

1. For those of you that wish to absolve yourself of the riotous lunatics that busted out windows, swung from the gallery of the Congress and stormed the Capital of the United States of America, I totally understand. I heard people trying to justify this insidious action by comparing it to BLM and Antifa’s actions last summer. Is that really a reason to raid your own capital? Those who participated in that action or attempting to deny its stupidity truly express their own lack of knowledge, wisdom, decency, or patriotism. I believe that 99.99% of the people in Washington were there to protest peacefully. I do not believe that the President intended to insight any violence, but we must speak loudly regarding evil, or we will continue to wallow in it. It may be an ancient saying, but it is appropriate for this year, “Two Wrongs Never Make a Right.”

2. While I do not believe that President Trump instigated violence or intended to do so, he does bear some responsibility for this mess. To continue the barrage of insults to his own party leaders that have been so faithful to him over the past years, simply for encouraging him to act like an adult encourages other people to join the fray. Vice President Pence has been far more loyal to the President than any human on the planet. To call and browbeat state elected officials isn’t cool. To continually argue against your own people allowed those that were “on the bubble” with the President to jump off the wagon. Again, see my statement regarding Stacy Abrams. I think the Republicans got outsmarted, out strategized, and outmanned. As a result, they lost. End of story. Rather than “sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” maybe the Republicans should see it this way, “sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.” Mr. Trump, you were the President. Your words carry far greater weight than us regular folks. To claim theft and enrage millions of supporters with claims that carried no legal proof was to play a significant role in what occurred at the Capital. Every side has nut jobs. Ours were public and needed to have been reprimanded by the President within seconds of the first act of violence.

I know I’ve made simple claims and elementary statements in this post. Still, now more than ever, the United States of America needs voices of logic, reason, and civility from our leaders. When our voices are shut down simply because we disagree on who we voted for, we have lost our opportunity to express decency and civility. Vocabulary.com states that REASON is defined as, “Reason usually has to do with thought and logic instead of emotion. If people think you show good reason or are reasonable, it means you think things through. If people think you have a good reason for doing something, it means you have a motive that makes sense.” Boy, oh boy, we could use some reason right now. This constant hatred and childish bickering MUST STOP! The right and the left and the middle must put the American people’s welfare – ALL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE – ahead of party lines, party platforms, personal preferences, and petty divisions.

REASON. This great land will return to a voice of reason when we all lay down our pitchforks and words of mass destruction. When we speak to folks with which we disagree with civility tones and seek to understand more than seeking to be understood.

Reason. It’s pretty simple. Then why do we seem to work so hard to make it complex?

Peace, Chuck

4forFRIDAY January 15, 2021

January 15, 2021 by AChuckAllen

***January 15, 2021 | READS, LISTENS, LEARNINGS, AND REVIEWS***

Five years from now, you’ll be the same person you are today, other than the books you read, the places you go, and the people you meet.

31 DAYS IN PROVERBS
Read One Chapter of Proverbs that corresponds with the day of the month. Join me in the New Living Translation each day in January. Start now and stay with it each day. Come on! Join in!

This is a GREAT MOVIE on Netflix:
The Professor and the Madman

This movie had me in tears, shocked, enlightened and thouroughly entertained. This is the story of the creation of the very first Oxford, English Dictionary. Starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, t
his true story is so good!

A Great Book that my Good Friend, Jim Hollingsworth Shared with Me: Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World

A surprising take on how you can help tackle the really big problems in society–from one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs.
People are looking for a better way. Towering barriers are holding millions of people back, and the institutions that should help everyone rise are not doing the job. Crumbling communities. One-size fits all education. Businesses that rig the economy. Public policy that stifles opportunity and emboldens the extremes. As a result, this country is quickly heading toward a two-tiered society.

An Incredible Tech Gadget that I’m Loving! CARPLAY

My truck is equipped with Apple Airplay and (if needed) Google Airplay. I love the fact that it will play everything from my iPhone, including read my textx and allow the simple use of handsfree Siri directives. This new device allows Apple Carplay to be used wirelessly via bluetooth!~ Total gamechanger!

A Gadget Addition that I LOVE! The Jabra Evolve 75

With no relief in sight from the ongoing Zoom Calls and meetings, including counseling and strategic planning, I needed an upgrade on the headset front. After a fair amount of research, I found the Jabra Evolve and absolutely love this simple, user-friendly headset that I use in the truck, the office and home. It’s not cheap, but it is the best addition to my workflow since the iPad Pro.

A Quote from John Adams

“I fear that in every elected office, members will obtain an influence by noise not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls . . . There must be decency and respect.”

Go in Peace, Chuck

4forFRIDAY January 8, 2021

January 8, 2021 by AChuckAllen

**Five years from now, you’ll be the same person you are today, other than the books you read, the places you go, and the people you meet.**

I Love this NETFLIX Show: The Chef’s Table

I love this unique and entertaining show. Don’t miss the show about “The Grey” in Savannah, GA. It’s a fascinating perspective and storytelling. The story of a former segregated bus station in Savannah, Georgia, and how Mashama Bailey pays homage to history as she puts a new spin on Southern food traditions.

A Really Good Novel from Randy Wayne White: Sanibel Flats

After ten years of living life on the edge, it was hard for former CIA agent Doc Ford to get that addiction to danger out of his system. But spending each day in Florida, watching the sun melt into Dinkins Bay and the moon rise over the mangrove trees, cooking dinner for his neighbor, and dispensing advice to the locals. Then Rafe Hollins appeared. How could Doc refuse his old friend’s request―even if it would put him back on the firing line…and change forever the life he’d built here on Sanibel Island? I think you’ll love this series. There are more than 26 books in this fun-filled series built around “Doc Ford.”

An Older but Awesome Documentary from Netflix:
“The Minimalists; Less is More”

They’ve built a movement out of minimalism. Longtime friends Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus share how our lives can be better with less. Can we learn to discover greater peace, while striving for less materialism?

A Really Good Article from Scott Sauls: Towards A Better Us In 2021

Desiring change for the person in the mirror, dreaming of a better version of ourselves, is a good thing. But how can we get there? In pursuit of an answer to this question, Scott has been contemplating Galatians 5:16-25. Here are his thoughts and reflections. This is a must read!

A Quote from Billy Sunday

“The Bible will always be full of things you cannot understand, as long as you will not live according to those you can understand.”

Go in Peace, Chuck

4forFRIDAY New Year Edition

December 31, 2020 by AChuckAllen

4forFRIDAY January 1, 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 4forFRIDAY offers recommended Reads, Listens, Learnings, and Reviews, only for your enjoyment. Thanks Again!

ALSO, PLEASE JOIN ME NEXT WEEK. MONDAY-FRIDAY FOR THE 5 ESSENTIAL. ELEMENTS OF A FAR BETTER YEAR ONLY ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE AND ACHUCKALLEN.COM

Start Your New Year in Scripture: Join me for a 31 day daily reading through the Proverbs. Just head to my Facebook page for your reminder. Each Friday, I’ll give us all an overview of the wee’s readings.

I invite you to join me for a 31 Day Bible Reading Plan starting Friday, Jan 1, 2021. It’s so simple and can be done on your phone, tablet, computer, or in a real-life Bible! Just read one chapter of Proverbs each day (there are 31 chapters) Each Friday I’ll present a review of that week’s chapters via FB. Download the You VersionAPP for your device for free and select the New Living Translation.

A Great Read to Assist in Your New Year Goal to Read More Scripture in 2021. “Pray the Bible” by Donald Whitney

Donald Whitney outlines a simple, time-tested method that can help transform our prayer lives: praying the words of the Bible. Praying the Bible shows readers how to pray through portions of Scripture one line at a time, helping us stay focused by allowing God’s Word itself to direct our thoughts and words.

A Reminder – DWELL – The single easiest way to Memorize Scriptures

This is so great. For a few dollars each month, this subscription service provides temporary tattoos, watch and phone wallpapers, cards and helps to memorize one power scripture every month.

A Really Solid Read: 3 Habits That Can Give Your Brain a Break to Restore High-Level Thinking

This is a good read, especially for folks that are working remotely or are assisting student learning remotely. Here’s a snippet:

The human brain is not meant to stay in “focused” mode for hours at a time. Prolonged attention to a single task can hinder its performance.

When your brain is active for a very long time, you’re actually blocking your access to the diffuse mode — a more relaxed state.

A Quote from David Whyte

“Inside everyone is a great shout of joy waiting to be born.”

My Spiritual Journals, Power Routines are now available at the Sugar Hill Church Store and Amazon. Instigating the habits of Gratitude, Scripture Reading, Journaling, and Guided Prayer is a powerful way to CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY OF YOUR LIFE! Pick up your copies of POWER ROUTINES at Sugar Hill Church or Amazon.

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