REALfitness by Scott

So, imagine our limited energy divided between all the things for which we are responsible. For me, I see as the center of the pie my relationship with the Lord. All the other slices of the pie connect to the hub. The energy supply is limited though so I need to be careful how I divide it. Gayle gets a pretty nice slice, so does my job, my ministry and my adult kids. My inner circle of friends get a slice of the energy pie too! The supply is limited. I really see how working a full and part-time job, the part time role gets a smaller sliver of energy. Even for someone who is responsible and cares deeply, there is only so much energy to go around.

There are times in life when the energy we have to invest in one of the segments of the pie gets depleted or drained by competing interests. Think for example of a guy who is investing much energy into pornography, he thinks because it is secret it doesn’t really matter. But, he is robbing his wife of energy that should be invested in a healthy relationship with her. Or sometimes within a segment our energy gets sidetracked on things of lesser importance. Within my work portion of energy I can focus on numerous areas but what if I am giving energy to an area that isn’t going to produce though I look busy? What if I’m spending too much time in an area that drains me of vital energy I could use to better purposes somewhere else?

This concept of only having a finite amount of energy to invest has caused me to look more carefully at each segment of the pie so as to maximize my use of the limited energy supply I have.

It takes much energy to nurse anger and resentments and that also will keep me from leveraging my energy to the max. This makes me want to travel light! It makes me want to fine tune and avoid or minimize energy depleters. It makes me want to invest more heavily in areas that generate energy.

I’m really just thinking out loud. Feel free to join the conversation with your ideas.

Blessings,
Scott

We all have a limited amount of energy to invest in our lives and relationships. I’ve been pondering this deeply lately. What I’m coming to see is as a Christ Follower, Jesus becomes the coach/mentor. It is helpful to have a human coach as well who can help me see the blindspots.

Together you determine a course of action that will produce the life you dream about living. A life of meaning, goodness and impact. A life of productivity and blessing. I must ask myself then, how willing am I to invest my limited energy source into the plan? There will be several pieces of the pie that require my energy, like family, work, health, friendships and my health. How willing am I to work the plan?

0    1    2    3    4     5     6    7    8     9     10

0 = not willing          5 = moderately willing     10= I will do whatever it takes

I need to be willing to honestly consider what I am investing some of my limited reserve of energy into that is actually detouring me away from accomplishing the vision I have for my life.

I will write more specifics on this next time! I recently bought a web address for my blog. You can find it at www.scottranck.com.

blessings,

Scott

I had the privilege of attending the Global Leadership Summit the last two days. Day 1 was one of the most inspiring days I’ve ever experienced. Bill Hybels shared some great leadership insights. Len Schlesinger was next up and his talk was very powerful as well. The Honorable Cory Booker was next and he rocked the house! What an inspiring guy he is. Next up was Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil and she was a ball of fire, so inspiring and challenging. Seth Godin, marketing genius shared his magic and it was awesome. The grand finale of day one was a 31 year old pastor named Steven Furtick and he just smacked it out of the park! Day two started with three people talking about “tough calls.” Wes Stafford of Compassion International, Mama Maggie Gobran, the most humble person I’ve ever seen who left teaching college and all her affluence to work among the “trash children” in Egypt. What an amazing woman! Bill Hybels did a talk and challenge on Jeremiah and it was very good too. Michelle Rhee, an educational reformer who took on the Washington DC Public School System is one awesome leader! She told her story and it was so good. Dr. Henry Cloud, gave some stuff I wish I would have learned about twenty years ago. John Dickson spoke about humility and Patrick Lencioni about vulnerability. I had to leave before the last session but Erwin McManus was scheduled to speak and he is awesome. The worst leadership example I experienced was Harold Schultz CEO of Starbucks was to be interviewed by Bill Hybels about leadership at Starbucks. A special interest group sent him a petition signed by 700+ people who said they would boycott Starbucks if he was part of the Leadership Summit. So, Schultz disregarded the 160,000 leaders he was to share some wisdom with, was released from his contract and bailed. We were all told to buy his book and buy a cup of Starbucks and send him an encouraging email but the more I’ve thought about it, I thought he gave us a negative leadership lesson on what is wrong with this country! A few squeeky wheels, special interest groups intimidate people and we don’t have the courage to stand up and do the right thing. In my opinion, Harold Schultz’s decision disqualified him from being part of a summit that is based on having the courage to lead boldly. I learned I don’t ever want to be a leader that has to let outside forces dictate my decisions. I learned when worrying about losing a dollar or being labled can never be what I base my decisions on. They have to be made on substance. I believe he wimped out and missed a great opportunity to influences 160,000 leaders who represent probably a million people including their followers. He may want to run for the senate next, he’d fit in pretty well.

All in all it was a can’t miss event!

blessings,
Scott

Well, the group claiming the end of the world May 21st, the rapture of a couple hundred thousand and our final judgment were wrong just as anyone who has even a remote clue to the Bible’s message knew. Scripture is clear, no man knows the day nor hour of Christ’s return. For whatever reason, this May 21st prediction took on a life of its own in the media, blogosphere, facebook, etc. There were a bunch of jokes made, today’s Tampa Tribune had a cartoon, “Well it is May 22nd, I guess you should mow the lawn now!” I had some fun with it myself on my Facebook page.

The danger as I see it in all this is twofold. First, too many people are still too ignorant of Scripture and swayed by powerful personalities. Not just misguided predictions like this one but look at the number of religious hucksters who make a huge living off fleecing their TV and even live flocks. I am a healthy skeptic. I don’t trust anyone 100% nor should you. We all have the capacity to do really dumb stuff, to be dishonest to hurt people close to us. It is good to be skeptical in the time we live in.

Secondly, the big problem I see is cases like this make it easy to blow off the clear truth that one day Christ will return and reign in righteousness. It makes it easy to believe that I’m good, I will live a long life and there is no judgment to be concerned about. These kind of false teachers make it easier to reject the clear truth that Jesus taught himself, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me.” One day, though no one knows what day, it will all come to an end. I for one want to be ready when that day comes. The Scripture warns, “Be ready for in a hour you don’t think it will happen, the Son of Man will return.”

Blessings,

Scott

Years ago an elderly man said to me, when I was a very young pastor, “Young man, just remember to keep the main thing the main thing.” I never forgot that. As we approach the Easter Season I’m kind of amazed that in America and even in our churches there are so many who really don’t understand the good news we call the gospel. I’d like to share the gospel as I understand it strait from the pages of Scripture. It all starts and ends with our understanding of who God is. The Bible starts with a God so full of love He can’t help but create. He creates objects to love and shower with grace and goodness. The simple story shares only one small test of the creation to show we also love our creator and are grateful. As we choose our own way it is a metaphor for what we have all done down through history.

The Bible portrays God as absolutely balanced in his nature and character. His attributes are who He is; they flow from his very nature. God is love, He is also just, He is also merciful and grace-filled. Imagine if you and I sinned only one time a day in thought, word or deed. Let’s start counting at age 12 though the Bible never says anything special about this age. I’m 57 at the time of this writing so 57-12 means 45 years X 365 days = 16,425 violations of divine law. Any one who knows me would agree, one a day is very conservative but still the debt is huge. Imagine 16,425 traffic violations. Imagine a judge who could not wink at them but required you pay your fines.

We could easily double or triple or more that talley in our offenses against God. The debt is really massive and God being just means He cannot just look the other way. By His very nature He must require payment. In His love and kindness, the Father had a way that both His justice and mercy could not be in conflict. He allowed Jesus Christ, His unique Son, the innocent one, to take upon Himself the full punishment for the sin of the world, when He died on that cruel cross. Because someone else paid, we can be pardoned. The gospel is two fold. One is Christ’s death for my sin, the other is the resurrection, whereby God is able to give us new life. The simple truth is Jesus has deposited in the escrow account of heaven payment for every violation you and I have ever committed against Him. When we believe Jesus did that for us enough to hang our entire eternal destiny on that truth, God declares us “not guilty” before Him. Romans 3:21 and following sums it up like this, “But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law. . . We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are or what we’ve done. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.” He continues in 3:26, “God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when the believe in Jesus.” I’m not sure the main thing could be any clearer than that. Don’t lose this key thought. Religion can lose you in all the do’s and don’ts so much we forget the main thing. Just a reminder this Easter Season!

Blessings,

Scott

Two years ago, I had the great privilege of leading a team of twelve other men on a mission trip to Northern Uganda to help build the Village of Hope. The Village of Hope is a place where displaced children are now being housed, educated and cared for in a loving environment. Last night, as we’ve done once a month for the last year a group of us served at I Am Hope Cafe where we fed the homeless and underprivileged supper. Having been involved in numerous events in the states to help the poor and remembering back to the Uganda trip leaves me scratching my head, wondering why we treat the situations so differently??
In Uganda, we were strictly prohibited from giving people things for nothing. We were told to be careful not to give the workers we hired too much for their work because it would upset the local economy. Everything at the Village is driven by allowing the people to become self sustaining. They are taught to farm their land, taught skills, given dignity and the ability to sustain themselves.
In the USA, almost every endeavor I’ve seen does just the opposite. It gives handouts with no expectation of people becoming self sufficient. I’ve heard on many, many occasions people come to eat at the I Am Hope Cafe and complain about what we were serving that night.
I watch many hours of planning, many hours of manpower and much human and financial resources go into Feed The Bay, an effort to give food to local food pantries. I would love to see the same resources invested in a “Uganda type” approach. How do we attack the real problems that are becoming epidemic in this country that lead to perpetual poverty. I’m not talking about the hard working people who find themselves effected by the economic downturn, I’m talking about people who have learned to live off the system, who have chosen or inherited a nonproductive lifestyle that expects someone else to take care of them.
If I ever saw people live in perpetual poverty who could use a handout it was the villages in northern Uganda, but we didn’t want to create dependency there? So, what may I ask is the difference here?

Since writing this blog I saw John Stossel’s piece on freeloading in America and I believe it is very pertinent to my thoughts. There are numerous parts but here is the link to part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZAKpBcKxak&feature=related
I’m scratching my head!!