This blog post is a "transcript" of podcast #10. Listen to podcast or/and read blog post.
A while back I pick up a little book called, An Emeny Called Average, By John L. Mason. As you can surmise, it's a book about being something more than ordinary, common, usual, or average. Mason has 77 nuggets that can teach us something about being more than many of us thinks. In podcast 1, Confidence and Courage, I talked about how I didn't value myself or my time and how I lived in fear of failure and success. My typical day was get home from work, get my favorite snack, get in my favorite spot on the couch, click that remote and start my journey into TV Nothingville. And whenever I got in my car I would get lost in music Never Never Land. None of it helped me get beyond being average. I was just like everybody else I knew -- doing nothing substantial with the life God had given us. Dave Ramsey says if we're willing to live like nobody else today, we will live like nobody else tomorrow. Yet many of us don't want to bust a move, because it requires too much work and sacrifice.
For a long time that was my problem until I woke up and realized, unless I started taking calculated and wise risks and chances, I wasn't going to go as far as God had for me. I was going to limit myself. I had to start trusting God more and trusting myself less. And that's what I did. That's the major reason you're hearing my voice right now on this podcast. Is it hard work to do it? Yes, it's a big sacrifice -- for my podcast producer, Jason Felisbret, as well as, myself. Yet we rise, because we want everything the Lord has for us. That's the way it works. James 2:17 says, faith without works is dead. In other words, nothing is going to happen if nothing happens. Being average and putting in little work will get us nowhere.
A while back I pick up a little book called, An Emeny Called Average, By John L. Mason. As you can surmise, it's a book about being something more than ordinary, common, usual, or average. Mason has 77 nuggets that can teach us something about being more than many of us thinks. In podcast 1, Confidence and Courage, I talked about how I didn't value myself or my time and how I lived in fear of failure and success. My typical day was get home from work, get my favorite snack, get in my favorite spot on the couch, click that remote and start my journey into TV Nothingville. And whenever I got in my car I would get lost in music Never Never Land. None of it helped me get beyond being average. I was just like everybody else I knew -- doing nothing substantial with the life God had given us. Dave Ramsey says if we're willing to live like nobody else today, we will live like nobody else tomorrow. Yet many of us don't want to bust a move, because it requires too much work and sacrifice.
For a long time that was my problem until I woke up and realized, unless I started taking calculated and wise risks and chances, I wasn't going to go as far as God had for me. I was going to limit myself. I had to start trusting God more and trusting myself less. And that's what I did. That's the major reason you're hearing my voice right now on this podcast. Is it hard work to do it? Yes, it's a big sacrifice -- for my podcast producer, Jason Felisbret, as well as, myself. Yet we rise, because we want everything the Lord has for us. That's the way it works. James 2:17 says, faith without works is dead. In other words, nothing is going to happen if nothing happens. Being average and putting in little work will get us nowhere.
Am I connecting with anybody? The bottom line is that I had to force myself to do the things that lived in my heart and now I am making some moves that I am proud of. And I am doing great things that surprise myself. Yet, this is the thing though: It's going to take weeding certain things out of our lives. I can tell you that I had to give up TV and music radio. And I did that several months ago. The surpising thing is that I don't miss either of them. I have work to do. I have goals to accomplish and I have an awesome life to live that God promised me. It's amazing the strength and energy you will have when you get yourself going. People will call your driven, but what you really are doing, is living life on purpose and going towards the vision God has for you. "Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31).
So, I've come to tell you today to start where you are. In Nugget #2, Mason (p. 19) says, "opportunity is always where you are, never where you were. To get anywhere you must launch out for somewhere, or you will get nowhere" So, listen, pray to God and communicate with Him about launching out to above-average. I can promise you this: He will answer your prayers if you believe it and are willing to work hard to be better than you were. Be better than average, because as Mason so clearly illustrates all throughout his book, average is the enemy.
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