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A National of Haters

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A Nation of Haters by AChuckALLEN

I read the following statistics in one of my favorite newsletters from Dr. Jim Denison. In the stats, one significant truth leaps off of the page. That stat? That we are nation that is not only radically divided, but we are a country that is rapidly growing in hate.

A recent survey found that 61 percent of Democrats view Republicans as “racist/bigoted/sexist”; 31 percent of Republicans feel the same way about Democrats. Fifty-four percent of Democrats consider Republicans to be “ignorant”; 49 percent of Republicans feel the same way about Democrats. And 44 percent of Democrats consider Republicans to be “spiteful”; 54 percent of Republicans feel this way about Democrats.

“Only 4 percent of each party consider the other party to be “fair.” Three percent of Democrats and 4 percent of Republicans consider the other party to be “thoughtful.” Two percent of Democrats and 3 percent of Republicans consider the other party to be “kind.”

In 1958, 33 percent of Democrats wanted their daughters to marry a Democrat; 25 percent of Republicans wanted their daughters to marry a Republican. In 2016, 60 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans felt that way.

Why is our political culture so vehemently divided? Is there anything we can do to change the vitriol of our day?“

If you are over 50 years of age, you might be tempted to think that this is generational and it must be those “millinneials.” If you are under 40 years of age, you might think that the problem must be the old guard. If you are under 30 years of age, you might think that it’s our time to fix this mess. And if you are under 20 years of age, you might actually have the guts to change this mess. All of that rant is simply my beliefs, but seriously…We are on the edge of implosion as a nation that is theoretically “Under God.”

Here are four ways that I think each of us can contribute to the solution of this nation of growing haters:

  • Stop taking any source of national news as truth. Please note that I said ANY SOURCE. If you lean right, Fox News is gospel. If you lean left, CNN is gospel. Instead of commentary, find the simple facts and ask the Lord of all Creation for wisdom to know the difference.
  • Engage the people in your spheres of influence and relationships with positive talk about what is good in this world, in your world and in the present moment. My grandmother was on point when she said, “if you don’t have anything good to say, it’s your fault.”
  • Go do good work! Help serve hungry people. Mentor marginalized kids and families. Give your time to worthy and honorable charities. Prop up and join organizations, churches, schools and businesses that are attempting to make the world a better and safer place, without postering for political camera time.
  • Start your day with gratitude. Nothing will change your attitude, conversations and actions more than sincere gratitude. I start every single day by writing down three things that I am grateful for right in that moment. They aren’t often lofty or benevolent, but they are sincere. And by the way, my gratitude is always pointed to the one that provides me life that day.
  • Go change the part of this world that you can influence for good.
  • Don’t grow weary in doing good.
  • Please don’t get sucked into the vortex of negative, hate-filled speech.
  • Determine to make your day awesome, regardless of the rest of the world’s fights.

PEACE, AChuck

4forFRIDAY with AChuckAllen

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This Week’s 4forFRIDAY February 21, 2020

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, simply for your enjoyment. Thanks Again! If you don’t already subscribe to my Weekday Meditation Podcast, I encourage you to check it out HERE.

Another Good Read or Listen: The Art of Logic: How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn’t by Eugenia Cheng

Learn how to simplify complex decisions without over-simplifying them. Discover the power of analogies and the dangers of false equivalences. Find out how people construct misleading arguments, and how we can argue back. Eugenia Cheng teaches us how to find clarity without losing nuance, taking a careful scalpel to the complexities of politics, privilege, sexism and dozens of other real-world situations. Her Art of Logic is a practical and inspiring guide to decoding the modern world

A Short, Simple Life-Altering Read from Inc. Magazine

To Be More Productive in the Morning, Do These 2 Things Every Night. Being the productivity junky that I am, I found this ridiculously elementary read interesting. I bet you will also.

Another Oscar Nominated Film We Enjoyed: Harriet

We were late to the party, but really enjoyed this film. The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman‘s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes, whose courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history. I was deeply moved by the grit and courage of this American hero!

A Reminder of How Good this Restaurant is: Foundation Social Eatery

Jenny and I enjoyed another awesome dinner at our favorite restaurant out around town, Foundation Social Eatery. Our dear friends gave us a gift card for Christmas and it had been awhile since eating at FSE. So, we enjoyed an early Valentine’s dinner and once again, the hangar steak was so good. We started with a charcuterie board and ended it with a lemon meringue tart with blueberry, early grey tea gelato. I promise you that you’ll be glad you are at Foundation Social Eatery.

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 Brand New Volume 5 will be out next week!

A Quote from  Edward Everett Hale

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.“

The Weekday Podcast and the Weekday Meditation

The Podcast is a 5 minute/day, 5 day/week Cup of Encouragement, straight from the Scriptures. The Meditation is about 7 minutes/day, 5/day/week and is designed to give you a combined and guided prayer/meditation experience.

Both of these resources are available on the Sugar Hill Church APP or WeekdayPodcast.com & WeekdayMeditation.com

Go in Peace, 

AChuck

Ash Wednesday and Protestants

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Ash Wednesday and Protestants by AChuckAllen

I grew up in some pretty strict, legalistic, Southern Baptist churches. As I remember them, they were really great for me. As a kid, I remember Bible drills, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and virtually nothing about the preaching. As a result, I had no idea about Ash Wednesday or Lent. I remember seeing people with ”dirt on their face,” but hadn’t a clue as to why. I never knew the story behind it and never had a clue about Lent. I’d never been to a Good Friday Service until I preached at my first in 2008. I can’t believe what all I had missed out on.

Before all my Baptist acquaintances get fired up and start emailing me regarding my orthodoxy, hang in there for a few minutes and lay that flame-thrower down. Why on earth would I wish to leave the testimony of repentance of sin solely in the hands of my Catholic and Episcopal friends? Why would I not want to engage with fellow Followers of Jesus in the worshipful reminder of my sinful humanity, the never ending love of God and reverent repetance?

Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent. The biblical witness of this ”ash” is found in the opening epic of the human story: “you are dust and to dust, you shall return.” In the tenth century, the use of ashes was employed in visibly reminding worshippers of their mortality as they began their Lenten “watch by the cross” concluding on Resurrection Sunday, the Day we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus the Lord. It is the way of the Cross. “Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death?” (Romans 6:3).

New life with Jesus involves a daily surrendering of the old life. The first step of this spiritual journey to the Cross of Jesus invites us to acknowledge our sinful humanity by the imposition of ashes.

Traditionally, the ashes for the service are placed on each participant in the form of the Cross and the formative Scripture is repeated each time: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The imposition of ashes is preceded by a call to confession and followed by a corporate prayer of confession, calling to mind the words of Job, “I repent in dust and ashes.”

Like every worshipful gathering, here at Sugar Hill Church, Ash Wednesday is about the heart. Everything that matters is a matter of the heart. So, as an act of repentance and remembrance, we will gather on this special evening of reverent worship as we remember and repent, both personally and corporately and begin our journey to the Cross over the next 40 days of Lent.

Rather than asking you to abstain from something through the 40-days of Lent, we are inviting you into four, ten-day periods of focused, guided prayer.

Sometimes it is healthy to call into question our orthodoxy, or even our lack of orthodoxy as we seek to follow the only way to peace, through Jesus the Lord.

Maybe, just maybe, in the midst of trying to be a hip, happening, relative, hipster church, it might be really healthy to step back into the deep wonder of God’s rich and enduring love for us and remember how unworthy we are…And how grateful we should be. I think I need a bit more ash on my forehead. How about you?

Go in Peace, AChuck

These Ten Minutes Will Change Your Life

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These Ten Minutes Will Change Your Life by AChuckAllen

I’ve read more leadership development and spiritual development books than I can count. I’ll continue to do so, as reading is one of the best ways to constantly sharpen your life, love and leadership.

After all of those books, I’ve determined that you can radically improve your life, if you will consistently do these three things, over just ten minutes, each day.

1. Gratitude! I’ve said it at least one thousand times, but gratitude will radically change your life. Don’t just think what you are grateful for, write it down. Use your phone, a notebook or my Power Routines Journal…but whatever you do, insert the intentional effort to be grateful for at least two things, every single day! The science and the Scriptures agree that gratitude, when intentionally added to your daily routine will put you in a far better place to succeed wildly. This takes three minutes, max!

2. Pray Outloud! That’s right, talk to the Divine, vocally. There is nothing that will jumpstart or get your prayer life started, like talking to God outloud. I struggled with keeping my eyes closed and trying to pray “correctly” to the degree that I was actually frustrated with prayer. When I started keeping my eyes open, my head up and speaking out loud, my prayer life took on an entire different trajectory. Stop worrying about if you are “praying correctly” and just talk out loud. God knows what’s going on and nothing you can do will wow Him anyway. So just talk. This can be as short as three minutes!

3. HUSH! That’s right. Just get quiet and get still for three minutes and listen or feel for what the Divine wants to speak into your life. Prayer has always been designed by your Creator to be a discussion, not a monologue. When we stop in a brief moment of quietude and solitude, we will all learn how God speaks truth, wisdom, peace, power and direction into our lives. I’ve never seen a bush burning, that wasn’t consumed, but I am given daily peace, power and direction when I stop and ask the Divine for each of those things. He pushes me, prods me, prompts me, speaks to me and gives me nudges within my soul. He will do the same for you when you ask Him to. I don’t know anybody that couldn’t benefit from a greater sense of peace, power and direction in their life! You can do this in three minutes!

I get it. You’re saying, “Chuck, you can’t promise that will happen. Yes, yes I can. God has promised to be with you, to comfort you, to give you wisdom and give you peace. I am living proof of what life can look like when you don’t activate these ten minutes in your life and I’m living proof of what happens when you do. If you need a fresh start and a new and better way, get serious with these ten minutes and watch what happens. Let me know by shooting me a note at chuck@achuckallen.com.

Go In Peace,
AChuck

If I Were Forty Again…u

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If I Were Forty Again by AChuckAllen

You know what? We get older every single day. That’s the end of this lesson. But! Every single day, you should get wiser. I have definitely gotten wiser over the past twenty years and here are four lessons that I would love to pass on to my forty year-old self. They might even help you.

  • Life really is hard, but it can be so much fun when you stop caring about what everybody else thinks about you and your alleged state of income. Take time to be very grateful for the billions of things that you could enjoy. Don’t spend another second chasing something for the nanosecond of pleasure keeping up with your neighbor and their “stuff.” You will always have folks that are smarter, wealthier, better looking, or seem happier than you are. Celebrate them and celebrate you! Life is so much fun when you live in the contentment of what you have! Before the Apostle Paul uttered the words, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” he said that he “had learned to be content with having much or having little.” I cannot even count the times that I have missed a full and rewarding moment by burning foolish energy on foolish thoughts regarding what someone else thought of me. If you live by people’s acceptance, you’ll die by their rejection.
  • Life is so much fun when you don’t make a big deal about everything that doesn’t go your way. I wasted a lot of happiness getting frustrated or angry over the smallest things. I have learned that there are very few things that are worth getting bent out of shape about. If you take the news too seriously, you’ll forget that it is their job to get you all twitter-pated (my dad’s term). I’d love to have a five dollar bill for every time that I got exasperated over someone that did something ridiculous while driving. I’ll never forget driving from Snellville, GA to Lilburn, GA in 1976. An older dude in a Subaru pulled a little further into the road than he might should have and I hit the horn and added my middle finger for emphasis. Not cool! That guy sat at the same table I did, twelve years later as I was newly entering the ministry and he was the chairman of the personnel team – OUCH! Calm down. You will really benefit from this. James was right, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”

  • Life is full of hope and full of possibility. I spent far too many days fighting on the edge of depression and too many times surrendering to it. I realize that many folks struggle with mental illness, but my challenge wasn’t about mental illness, it was fighting the endless expectations that I placed on myself. One might think that it is a good thing to set high expectations and goals for your life, and they would be correct. Where they might be incorrect is that life punches you in the gut sometimes, and you need that, sometimes. Every time that I couldn’t achieve some other level of expectation, I would crash and burn. Not from some external factor, but from the internal war between my ears. Who knew, that all along life’s journeys, I could actually choose to be at peace with the Divine and be at peace with my own self? Jeremiah reaffirms this as he penned these words, “God has plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
  • Life might change your plans, but roll with it. A friend of mine is fond of saying, “blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.” I have always welcomed change, but not so well when “change has been done to me.” I’ve learned this lesson well. Every thing, big or small, that happens in your life is there to sharpen and better you for your future. Stop learning that and your life will come off the rails. Learn that early and you’ll begin to enjoy a far better life! Let’s face it…”for everything there is a season.”

    • As I say at the end of every sermon, Go In Peace!

    –AChuck

    4forFRIDAY with AChuckAllen

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    This Week’s 4forFRIDAY February 14, 2020

    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, simply for your enjoyment. Thanks Again! If you don’t already subscribe to my Weekday Meditation Podcast, I encourage you to check it out HERE.

    Another Good Read or Listen: The Day the World Went Nuclear: Dropping the Atom Bomb and the End of World War II in the Pacific

    Autumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe, but in the Pacific, American soldiers face an enemy who will not surrender, despite a massive and mounting death toll. Meanwhile, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists are preparing to test the deadliest weapon known to mankind. Newly inaugurated president Harry Truman faces the most important political decision in history: whether to use that weapon.

    A New Favorite Worship Song: MISTAKES by Influences Music

    A good friend of mine shared this song with me the other day and I cannot stop playing it in the truck. Here’s a taste of the lyrics from “Mistakes.”
    You don’t make mistakes
    And You didn’t start with me
    Even though i’m far from where I know
    I’m supossed to be

    A Fun Read for BBQ Fans: Georgia Barbecue Trail Traces Path Of People, Too

    I love good Barbecue. The smaller the hole in the wall joint, the better. I agree with the late Lewis Grizzard, “if it says anything after Barbecue, it ain’t real barbecue.” If you are headed down 85, or headed up 75, here is where the barbecue places are within about 15 to 20 miles from those major interstates.

    A Great Read: The Difference between Legalism and Discipline

    Sometimes when people hear the word “godliness” it transmutes in their mind to legalism. And they say, I’ve been delivered from legalism, doing all these things to gain merit before God. And so they don’t want to discipline themselves because it sounds like legalism. But you have to understand there is a universe of difference between discipline and legalism…

    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 Brand New Volume 5 will be out next week!

    A Quote from Thomas Merton

    “If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.“

    The Weekday Podcast and the Weekday Meditation

    The Podcast is a 5 minute/day, 5 day/week Cup of Encouragement, straight from the Scriptures. The Meditation is about 7 minutes/day, 5/day/week and is designed to give you a combined and guided prayer/meditation experience.

    Both of these resources are available on the Sugar Hill Church APP or WeekdayPodcast.com & WeekdayMeditation.com

    Go in Peace, 

    AChuck

    4forFRIDAY with AChuckAllen

    by

    This week’s 4forFRIDAY February 7, 2019

    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, simply for your enjoyment. Thanks Again! If you don’t already subscribe to my Weekday Meditation Podcast, I encourage you to check it out HERE.

    A Best Picture Oscar Nominee: The Irishman

    Each year, Jenny and I try to see every movie nominated for “Best Picture.” This year, we have seen seven of the nine films nominated and this one stood out (more to come). Minus the fact that I think DeNiro is a boorish and rude human being, I enjoyed the film. Fast paced and plenty of blood and guts. It’s not for the faint of hearted and it’s a bit spicy, but we both enjoyed it. Think Godfather meets the Untouchables.

    Another Best Picture Oscar Nominee: Parasite

    Okay, not everyone will find this film interesting as it is as quirky as they get. There is really only one gross scene, but the plot is so ridiculous that it held my attention, even with subtitles. Worth seeing, wait for PPV.

    A Really Fun Email Subscription: The Discoverer.com

    I really love getting these emails for evening reading. They have reshaped a few of my bucket list destinations. It’s a true Modern Travel Guide. The Discoverer transports you to far off destinations directly from your inbox. Start your week happier, smarter with this wanderlust-inducing travel inspiration.

    My Favorite Charger for iPhone: PowerWave Stand 7.5W from Anker

    Qi-Certified 7.5W for iPhone Xs Max XR XS X 8/8 Plus, 10W Fast Charging Samsung Galaxy S10 S9 S8, Note 10 Note 9. This little gem is designed to help ease the use of your smartphone as a nightstand clock without fumbling through cables.

    My Spiritual Journals, Power Routines is 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.

    A Quote from Simon Sinek

    “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
    And what you do simply proves what you believe.”

    The Weekday Podcast and the Weekday Meditation

    The Podcast is a 5 minute/day, 5 day/week Cup of Encouragement, straight from the Scriptures. The Meditation is about 7 minutes/day, 5/day/week and is designed to give you a combined and guided prayer/meditation experience.

    Both of these resources are available on the Sugar Hill Church APP or WeekdayPodcast.com & WeekdayMeditation.com

    Go in Peace,

    AChuck

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