Achuckallen

Instigating Better

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The Art of Gratitude

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I’m not sure when or how it happened. But I am most confident that it did indeed happen. Americans lost the art of being a gracious and grateful people. In our white hat hero culture, we started believing that life was better if we spent our days proving that we were number 1.

Don’t get me wrong. I too have spent years with that desire. In business I wanted to be wealthy and was passionately attempting to be the model of a “self-made-man.” When I entered the ministry world, I did the same thing. I wasn’t seeking wealth at that point. I was seeking something far more heady and allusive. I was seeking to be wild successful as a speaker, writer and be recognized as a guy that could “make it happen.” I lead churches and organizations with a ruthless, dogmatic, CEO leadership style and in some narcissistic way, I justified my self-serving actions.

After the death of my wife, my mom, my dad, marrying Jenny and blending six daughters, then losing everything we owned trying to hang on in the global financial crisis, God had finally gotten my attention. I’m really sorry that you lost 50% of your retirement portfolio just so I would hear the voice of God – my bad!

After shallow dreams were shattered and a significant dose of humility forced upon me, I began what would become the most joy-filled days of my life. I promised myself and felt compelled to promise God that I would never be a pastor…never!

Well, through all of the hurt, loss and heartache something life-altering started developing within me.I was allowed the privilege to be the Lead Pastor at Sugar Hill Church. The one thing that I promised I would never do, I did. AND I WAS SO GRATEFUL!

In that gratitude, I discovered something that changed the trajectory of my life. I discovered the secret sauce to life! Being grateful for what I had and grateful for health and freedom, family and ministry started changing the outcomes of my days. Gratitude instigated kindness in my life. Who knew that being gracious and grateful would lead to the greatest commodities of my life…PEACE and FREEDOM? Well Paul knew when he penned these words; “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”

Please do not hear me assume that I have arrived. I have simply become contented with the peace and freedom that accompanies a life filled with gratitude. It would appear that America could use a healthy dose of the church acting in gracious gratitude. I know how it has radically changed my life and I’m confident it will “make America great again.”

Ponder on this quote from Melody Beattie; “Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” 

 

Just STOP IT!

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Like many of you, I’ve been watching the circus we know as the 2016 Presidential race. My Dad was a politician prior to answering God’s Call to serve the local church.But that was a different day…Or was it?

We  often hear about returning to the good old days. But were they really the good old days? Dad was a Republican State Senator and the Chair of the Republican Party in the small state of Rhode Island. In 1968 I watched my Dad cast the Rhode Island delegates to Richard Nixon. Well, the rest is history. Nixon was a pretty good president when it came to foreign policy, but then there was that little Watergate scandal that cost him the highest office in the land.  I can recall America in the late 60’s and early 70’s filled with racism, chaos and hatred.

Sound familiar? Just look at the 2016 version of the same division of race, chaos and hatred. My point is that screaming insults and protesting with great bigotry, violence and hatred hasn’t served us very well in the 4 decades of American politics. Just Stop It!

If we want the same America 40 years from today, keep at it. Shout, scream, hurl personal attacks of race, color, religion and hatred and we can remain the land of the free with hearts full of rage.

The old adage is true, “nothing changes, until something changes”. To remain entrenched with the likes of slanderous accusations, personal attacks and bigoted retorts is simply inviting the same results that we have had in the past 40 years.

The media, either leaning to the right or the left isn’t to blame. We are! If we allow the emotions of preference, attitude and ignorance to saturate our social media posts or control our fears and insecurities as we interact with the real world, we are simply gas being thrown on the raging fire. What if we were to stop the insanity and start committing our lives to a little self reflection? And in that reflection, start with making ourselves a better American. Jesus had a cure for that. He was clear. “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?

Speck Meet Log. If you want a better America, we have to start with a better Me and a better You! Before we find whats wrong with everybody else, let’s recognize and repair ourselves.

Bob Newhart had a special way of dealing with this problem.
Just watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arPCE3zDRg4 

Have the Best Monday!
–Chuck