Turn Back Time

I’m sure that most of us have thought about being able to travel in time. I must admit I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about it but it certainly crosses my mind now and then.

Today I’d like to ask a simple question.

Imagine that you’re able to travel back in time and re-live just one day of your life.

Would you return to a happy day you’d like to enjoy all over again or would you go back to a day you regret to right a wrong?

If you’re game enough you might even like to say which day you’d re-live.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section of this post.



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A Resilient Life

If I had the money, I’d put this book into the hands of just about everyone I know. A Resilient Life: You Can Move Ahead No Matter What by Gordon MacDonald is a book that speaks gently yet firmly into so many areas of life. It gives caring rebuke when needed but overall provides incredible hope. While it spoke to me throughout my reading, I kept thinking how this book would be helpful for so many others.

I read A Resilient Life over a period of about two weeks but I figure I’ll spend the rest of my life tapping into its wisdom as I seek to live my own resilient life. MacDonald talks about inheriting a ‘quitter’s gene’, a natural inclination to give up when the going gets tough. I reckon we all have some of that gene and so a book that helps us to overcome it to live a life of honour is a welcome addition to any bookshelf.

Gordon MacDonald has been a pastor and author for more than forty years. A former chairman of World Relief, he presently serves as editor-at-large for Leadership Journal. His most recent books include Who Stole My Church, A Resilient Life, and Ordering Your Private World. MacDonald can often be found hiking the mountains of New England or Switzerland with his wife, Gail, or their five grandchildren.

Our Best Years are Still Ahead

In a society that values the new, young and latest, MacDonald is keen to remind us that the second half of life can be the time that our lives make the most impact. That’s not to say that this book is only for those of middle age and beyond. While I appreciate everything in the book for the stage of life I’m now at, I so wish I could have thought through a lot of the ideas he presents when I was younger. The book gives hope for those of us in our forties and older but provides valuable insights for younger people as they begin to carve out the shape of their lives.

Finishing Well

A major theme of the book is ‘finishing well’. History is littered with stories of people who started life well but who fell along the way and came to the end of their lives full of regret. There is much we can do right now to set ourselves up to finish the race of life well. If you think you’ve already messed up your chances of living out a resilient life, MacDonald will be quick to remind you that there is healing and a way forward. He has experienced moral failure but has found his way back to make his life count for something far bigger than himself. His message is that you can too.

Self-mastery

The book recommends healthy self-assesment, not the kind that becomes morbid introspection, as well as talking about self-mastery. Self-mastery or self-control is absolutely necessary if we are to live a resilient life. It’s no wonder that the apostle Paul talks about training as an athlete for the Christian life. We need to work on creating a resilient life. It doesn’t just come from wishing or from reading a few good books. It’s a practical, daily exercise.

A Happy Few

As you get deeper into the book you find that MacDonald has a lot to say about cultivating a ‘happy few’. The concept is that of developing deep friendships with a small group of people; the kind of friendship that means that someone is there for you no matter what. He talks of a closeness that allows those people to not only celebrate the good times with you but to call you to a higher standard when required.

If you want to build some depth into your life and want to finish well, let me recommend taking some time to read A Resilient Life: You Can Move Ahead No Matter What and then begin the long journey of putting Gordon MacDonald’s wisdom into action.



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Termites Chew Through Millions

I was interested to read today that police in India are investigating a rather strange bank robbery.

According to several news sources, termites have apparently broken into a bank’s strong room and eaten their way through an estimated 10 million rupees in bank notes. That’s over $200 000 in Australian dollars.

Staff at the State Bank of India in Arthur, near the northern India city of Luck, opened the steel vault to discover that termites had been lunching on a steady diet of Indian currency.

It seems that the building which houses the strong room was riddled with termites. Termites had previous damaged bank furniture and documents before turning their attention to the strong room, where cash was stored.

For such a small creature they seem to have incredibly expensive tastes.

Matthew 6:20-21 (New Living Translation)

20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

Maybe we need to add termites to moths, rust and thieves.



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A Simply Brilliant Prank

This is one of the best hidden camera pranks I’ve ever seen.



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I’m Not Lovin’ It

I know that Ronald McDonald is already making money hand over fist and that he won’t care that I’m not happy, but surely a company as big as McDonald’s should be able to perfect the simple art of listening to a customer.

I’m sure that one unhappy customer doesn’t mean much to them but is it asking too much to simply be treated with a little respect?

I decided to buy myself a coffee in the city this morning.

I walked past McDonald’s and noticed that the store was rather quiet so I popped in for a long black. I fumbled in my pocket for some change and then counted out enough for the BIG coffee into my hand. I was ready for a monumental caffeine hit and so I then stepped up to the counter, money in hand.

The young lady behind the counter smiled and asked how she could help me. I got out words to the effect of, “I’d like a ….”. That’s as far as I got before the McDonald’s worker turned and started a conversation with a fellow worker.

Really? Am I that boring? Is my order that uninteresting that you’d rather talk amongst yourselves? You didn’t even get to hear what my order was.

I’ve had bad service before but to my knowledge I’ve never disappeared half way through an order before. Well, when I say half way, I guess it was closer to a quarter of the way through the order. Could she no longer see me there? I’m a big guy. She should have been able to spot me there waiting to finish my order.

After waiting a short while for her to remember that without customers her business would cease to exist, I turned around and walked out. I’m sorry, but I refuse to be ignored. If you really need to talk to a co-worker, do it either before or after taking my order, not half way through my opening sentence.

On my way to where I was going I found another shop that sells coffee. They took my order, made my order, gave me my order. It didn’t seem to cause them much trouble. I guess in future I’ll be visiting them a whole lot more and McDonald’s a whole lot less.

Have you ever had a similar experience with bad customer service? Did you hang around or just walk off?



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