Mary Forsythe’s Glimpse of Grace

April 11, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
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black police cuffs

Mary Forsythe was a successful pharmacist who thought she had everything until she was jailed for tax fraud. The last thing she expected was to discover a more fulfilling life while in prison.

Mary Forsythe grew up in rural Kentucky where family was celebrated and life was simple. But despite her “good life,” Mary felt she was some how “different.”

“I always felt like I was odd in a bad sense. I felt like something was wrong with me,” she says. “Something was defective. Even though I went through the motions, inside I was in really pain and torment even from a young child.”

Mary says she always felt rejected even though she never understood why. So to compensate she became an overacheiver — a performer. For most of her adolescence it worked until…

“Something I never told anyone for many, many years… I was raped my second year in college.

“The rejection and the shame just began to grow in my life ‘till that’s all I knew. It affected my personality. It affected my choices. It affected my perception of almost every area of my life.”

Earlier this week I recorded a radio interview with Mary about her amazing story. You can hear our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

If you want to find out more about Mary you can visit her website, Kingdom Living Ministries, or grab a copy of Her book, A Glimpse of Grace.

A Glimpse of Grace is the gripping tale of Mary Forsythe’s spiral to life’s rock bottom and the amazing account of her journey to triumph. It is a story of dreams and disappointments, of heartache and hope, of tragedy and tenderness, of loss and love.

Walk with her through an innocent childhood in small-town America to a glamorous life in the capital of ritz, through successful business and investment endeavors to a grueling government investigation and a federal indictment that landed her in prison.

Join her as she learned to live in the last place she thought she would ever be, as her life was completely re-directed. Discover with her the strength to survive and the grace to overcome. Find, as she did, secrets of victory and treasures in darkness. – cbn.com



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Life’s Too Short …

April 11, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
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coffee

I’ll admit it. I used to drink lots of instant coffee. These days I just can’t bring myself to throw some powder into a mug of hot water and call it coffee.

I’ve also decided that from now on, when the smiley lady on the airplane asks if I’d like coffee, I’ll be saying no. I’ll be polite but I’ll say no because what she’s offering doesn’t really taste a lot like coffee. It may have tasted like coffee some hours beforehand when it was made but it certainly doesn’t by the time they serve it up. I almost suspect that real coffee has a fear of flying and so they’ve found some kind of weird substitute.

Life is too short to drink bad coffee.

Life’s too short.

I’ve seen a number of statements in recent years about life being too short. Life’s too short to worry about what other people think. Life’s too short to drink cheap wine. Life’s too short to be anything but happy. Life’s too short to wait. Life’s too short to wake up with regrets.

I would agree with some of those statements more than others but the interesting thing is that many of them are about life being too short to bother with stuff that doesn’t maximise our own life experience. In light of eternity, this life is incredibly short but surely this short life is about more than squeezing the most out of the years we’re given purely for our own benefit.

Life’s too short to withhold kindness from others.

Whether it’s just giving away a smile or giving a large part of our lives to help others, focusing on those other than ourselves should be a priority during our short time on this planet. Put kindness on your bucket list.

We can find a million reasons to withhold kindness from other people but life is richer when we share something of ourselves with no expectation of return.

It doesn’t matter who we are, we all face struggles throughout life that remain unseen by most people. When we withhold kindness due to the way a person acts or the attitudes they display we may very well be withholding kindness from the person who needs it far more than those who are ‘nice’ to us.

Life’s too short to hold grudges.

When I encounter people who have cut others out of their lives over petty issues it makes my head spin. I know that we sometimes need to retreat from certain people, sometimes for a season, sometimes forever, but the stubborn refusal to forgive damages everyone concerned.

Forgiveness isn’t just a quick case of ‘forgive and forget’, it’s a process, sometimes a very long process, but if we refuse to undertake that process we remain slaves to the hurt.

If you want to read about some ‘big forgiveness’, head to the Forgiveness Project. The founder of the Forgiveness Project, Marina Cantacuzino, has a great take on forgiveness.

Forgiveness is an inspiring, complex, exasperating subject, which provokes strong feeling in just about everyone. Having spent all of 2003 collecting stories of reconciliation and forgiveness for an exhibition of words and images which I created with the photographer, Brian Moody, I began to see that for many people forgiveness is no soft option, but rather the ultimate revenge. For many it is a liberating route out of victimhood; a choice, a process, the final victory over those who have done you harm. – Marina Cantacuzino

Life’s too short not to consider the bigger questions.

The older you get, the more you realise that life is short. Very short. These days I look back at the decades and it feels as if I’ve only just got started on this journey of life, yet I know that it’s extremely likely that I’m more than half way through my time here.

While I hope that I’ve still got a good number of years ahead of me I really can’t be certain of when this fabulous journey will come to an end.

So what happens then? What happens after this life? If this life is so short and eternity is so long I need to discover whether this is all there is. Life’s too short not to consider the bigger questions.

I’m unashamedly a follower of Jesus so it’s my belief that this life is just a short, shabby lead in to a glorious future. You may think I’m wrong but have you actually taken the time to fully explore the possibilities?

If this eternity thing is real, and I fully believe it is, you owe it to yourself to check out the evidence yourself. Don’t rely on what others are saying or what you think faith is about. Investigate the evidence and be open to discover something that could change your thinking and your life.

Life, at least on this earth, is short. Eternity is forever.



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We’ve Been Sold a Lie

April 9, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
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hookup

The idea that we should save physical intimacy for marriage, or even a committed, long-term, loving relationship, has long since given way to the promise of as much guilt free, casual sex as we desire.

The quaint, old notion that we should ‘save ourselves’ for one person comes from an era that encouraged sexual repression; a remnant of a time where we were expected to adopt someone else’s strict moral code. Welcome to the new order. Welcome to the ‘hook-up’ culture.

But is the ‘hook-up’ culture delivering on its promise?

Columnist Miranda Devine suggests that rather than providing the freedom it promised, the hook-up culture encourages “behaviours and attitudes that damage women, and threaten the health of society.”

And it’s not just Devine trying to impose her moralistic ideas on the rest of society. She backs up her thoughts with recently published research.

Sex and human connection, let alone love and compassion, have effectively been decoupled in the hook-up culture, in which dating has given way to no-strings-attached physical encounters.

The term “hook-up” is exactly as dehumanising it sounds, and a fascinating study by the American Psychological Association last month shows how disconnected are the sexual behaviours and private internal desires of young men, and especially young women. – Miranda Devine

We’ve been sold a lie.

We forgot that actions always have consequences and that some of those consequences won’t become apparent immediately. Intimacy isn’t just about sex, so when we disconnect physical intimacy from a deeper knowing of someone else, the intimacy that comes from long term commitment and the desire to always seek the best for the person we love, we don’t just break someone else’s moral code, we break something deeply embedded in the human soul.

Sex without commitment doesn’t provide the safe environment that fosters the security and acceptance that we so desperately seek. Not only does it not satisfy in the short term, it can rob us of contentment in the future.

In a new book, The End of Sex – How Hook-up Culture Is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled and Confused About Intimacy, Donna Freitas has compiled eight years of research into a revealing exposition of Gen Y life.

“Amid the seemingly endless partying … lies a thick layer of melancholy, insecurity and isolation that no one can seem to shake. College students have perfected an air of bravado about hook-up culture though a great many of them wish for a world of romance and dating.”

Among her most striking findings from American college campuses is that 41 per cent of students “expressed sadness or even despair” about hooking up. These students suspected it robbed them of healthy, fulfilling sex lives, positive dating experiences and loving relationships. At its very worst, hooking up made them feel ‘’miserable’’ and ‘’abused’’. – Miranda Devine

So the very thing that was supposed to provide freedom seems to be leaving young people feeling unfulfilled and empty.

People have been looking for physical closeness as ‘entertainment’, without the commitment and constraints, and it’s just not working. While many might claim that they want one-night-stands and ‘relationships’ without the strings, the evidence clearly shows that at the heart of it all, we still yearn for deeper relationship.

Saddest of all is that while most men and women did not expect a romantic relationship as the outcome of a hook-up, fully one third of men and almost half of women “ideally wanted” such an outcome.

Anyone who has much to do with young people will have observed a sadness beneath the polished, perfected surface of Gen Y’s smiling girls.

As the mother of boys I have had only glimpses of the existential pain of young women but it is enough to make my female heart ache. – Miranda Devine

Let me encourage you to read the full article by Miranda Devine.



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What do you really own?

April 8, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
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work tools

My old soldering iron died a few days ago so on Saturday I dropped into a major hardware chain to grab a new one. I got a great lesson in how not to do retail.

Once I had chosen a soldering iron I headed to the tool counter where there were three staff members chatting. The assistant on the customer side of the counter moved slightly, just enough to allow me to put my item on the counter, but continued chatting with the other two.

They kept their conversation going while the female assistant scanned my item without even acknowledging me. The only time she spoke to me was when I handed over my plastic card and she asked which account I wanted to use.

I can’t speak for everyone at the company concerned, and I’m sure they have plenty of dedicated staff members who provide excellent assistance, but for those three staff members it seemed more about going through the motions while waiting for pay day.

When a friend heard about my experience she told me about a similar experience at the same store which caused her to go across the road to a smaller retailer where prices where slightly higher. The other retailer couldn’t compete on price but they cared enough to give good advice and great customer service. It’s not hard to understand why they made the sale that day.

What’s going on?

These incidents got me thinking. I reckon the small retailer in my friend’s story did the right thing because they owned the business. They weren’t just waiting for pay day. In fact, if they didn’t do the right thing, there would be no pay day. Owning a business means that you rise and fall with the successes and failures of the business. If the customers stop walking through the door you can’t just go get another job.

Also, if you own a business you usually work in an area of interest or even passion. Someone with a love for food is unlikely to buy a gardening business. They’re more likely to start a restaurant or buy a cafe. It follows that the business is less likely to feel like a drudgery to the owner because they’re doing something that creates a real spark for them.

Ownership changes everything.

Obviously it’s not practical to have every business only staffed by business owners but it is possible to build a sense of ownership amongst employees. It might be a different kind of ownership but ownership does change everything.

I don’t own the radio station where I work but I have a strong sense of ownership. I own the vision and the values of my workplace. I truly believe in what we’re doing and I believe that I’m playing a vital part in furthering our purposes as a radio station.

That ownership extends to a wide range of areas. It means that I’m constantly aware of the fact that I represent the station at all times, not just when I’m at work. I don’t want the radio station’s reputation to suffer, therefore, if it’s under my control, I won’t do anything that would see that happen.

If the time ever comes to move on to a new job you can be sure that it’ll be to something that I can feel passionate about; something that gives me that sense of ownership.

What do you own?

Ownership isn’t just restricted to work. I have a sense of ownership for a range of things in which I’m involved.

How about you? Do you own your job or is it just a way to fund your life? Do you have other interests and involvements that create a sense of ownership for you?

Post Script: I was asked to forward details of the hardware store incident to the chain which I did yesterday. The manager of the hardware store concerned has phoned me to say that she is investigating what went on over the weekend. She has reviewed CCTV footage which backs up my explanation of events and she is not happy. She has promised to get back in touch with me once her investigation is complete and she has spoken to all involved.



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Sheep Dash

April 6, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
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sheep-dash

The weekend has arrived and it’s time to relax …. but first you’ve got to make sure that your sheep are safe. You don’t want them to escape do you?

I was very pleased to find that this fun Sheep Dash game, which tests your reaction time, is still up and running after many years. I haven’t played it for quite some time but I gave it a couple of goes this morning.

Let me know how you go with it.

My best result ever is Rocketing Rabbit but most of the time I’m a Bobbing Bobcat. Let me know what level you reach.



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