Archive - July 2007

A lot of us wish that there were more hours in each day so that we could get everything done that we need to do.

My guess is that if we had more hours we’d clutter them up just as much as our current 24 hours. We don’t need more time, we need better ways to maintain balance between the various areas of our lives that cry out for our attention.

Finding balance is about far more than clever time management. We need to set priorities in life and then ensure that our energies are focussed in the right direction.

Andrew Griffiths is acknowledged as one of Australia’s leading experts on Small Business. He advises business and government and is a self confessed serial entrepreneur. He has authored five books focused on the art of building successful Small Businesses which are being sold in over 40 countries.

Andrew’s latest book aims to show that there’s more to life than work.

101 Ways to Have a Business and a Life helps business people create balance in their lives while maintaining a successful career.

I spoke to Andrew Griffiths during my morning radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM today.

Just flipping through the new book it’s fairly obvious that it’s been written for people who don’t have a lot of free time available. Each of the points is to the point and can be read on its own. Even better, each of the points gives you a practical way to create change with a ‘What can I do today?’ paragraph at the end of each point.

Tips in the book range from giving your kids great memories through to resolving relationship issues and even keeping our bodies operating well.

I haven’t read the entire book yet but I reckon that it’s not just a book for business owners. Many of the tips are relevant for all of us.

If you want to hear what Andrew has to say about finding balance and about his new book you can click play on the media player below this post.

Do you have any practical tips for maintaining balance? How do you ensure that your family doesn’t miss out when work gets busy? Have you ever found work taking over your life and have you been able to put some order back into your schedule? Are the priorities you’ve set in life getting the attention they deserve?

Dozens of books have been written warning us of the evils of Harry Potter and how reading J.K. Rowling’s books will secure us a ticket to eternal damnation but many people are now claiming Harry as some kind of Christ figure.

Potter fans around the world have been devouring the seventh and final installment of the book series and some leading Christians are now talking about the themes of redemption and sacrifice between the pages. The latest book even contains quotes from the Christian Scriptures.

I’m sure that there’ll be hot debate on the issue in the coming days but it opens up a wider conversation. How far should we go in drawing spiritual parallels from contemporary culture?

The Apostle Paul drew lessons from the Greek poets to point people to Christ. He talked about their ‘unknown god’ and suggested that this god, who they claimed not to know, was actually the one true God who created the world and everything in it. (Acts 17)

Are we in danger of losing our focus or should we be looking for those reminders of God in everything around us?

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Last week we took a look at a book titled Mixing it up with The Simpsons by Owen Smith. The book encourages churches to use episodes of The Simpsons to teach lessons on faith to young people.

There was so much to say on the subject that we continued discussions on The Simpsons today. We then went on to discuss Harry Potter and the legitimacy of drawing spiritual lessons from our secular culture. We even touched on the writings of C.S. Lewis and Tolkein.

I’d love to hear your point of view but can I ask you to listen to today’s discussion with Ross first so that we’e all on the same page? Just click here to hear what Ross had to say.

If you’d like to hear last week’s discussion just click here.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: The Simpsons – Harry Potter – Spirituality