Tag: living life on God's term

Plan, Prepare, Produce…Then What?

I hear messages from motivational speakers, on YouTube and other social media platforms espousing the importance of having a plan and executing that plan to be successful. But isn’t there more to this story? I recently saw the tagline from a company, Plan, prepare, produce and I thought this is great! Then I thought about it some more and thought, “something is missing here”. In the past, I have planned, prepared and produced but not everything was a success. So, maybe there is more here to consider.

Then I remembered something I had heard about the idea of distribution. If you plan to prepare and produce what is the next step? The answer is distribution. This is what was missing from the nicely packaged tagline that claimed to be the recipe for success but which lacked that vital ingredient. I have written a book and so I think of this based on that experience. I planned for that book, I prepared it and then produced it but if I had kept it to myself, without allowing others to access what I had produced then wouldn’t my efforts have been in vain? Yes, it would have!

As I said before distribution is the critical missing factor in this tagline. The Bible speaks to not hiding your light under a bushel, and if we do not distribute what we have produced we are hiding our light. We have produced something that will never be seen or shared or experienced by most. So we have the light, it is shining but in the wrong place. A place that guarantees limited exposure because we still have it stored somewhere impacting no one.

So what then? Yes, plan, prepare and produce but, we still have work to do. I would say the most important part of the entire process comes at this stage. We still have to get out there. We still have to get out there with confidence in what we have produced and find the hill we can stand on, where all can see us and our products, our light. But guess what? Too many people allow fear of the unknown and rejection to scare them and so they either never distribute or distribute right where they are and never try to go beyond the horizon and their comfort zone.

So, while you plan to prepare and produce, also plan for the distribution phase and what comes after that.

No one is Good….

No one is Good

God is good
but you are not.
No one is good
but God.
Everything is within God
and He places it in you
to do.
He shares
what was always His to share
and your efforts cannot compare.
To be good
you need to do what is right
but right is greater than good.
You labour 
but labour in vain
until you see the possibilities
that looked imposible.
Though in the net-
a web of deceit-
With Him,
you shall be plucked from your obscurity
into the reality
of your conspicuity.
But know thyself
enough to know
your good desires
came from a greater Source
that called to you
then came to you
then sent you
so He can use you.

Nothing+God

Nothing+God

Nothing plus God
equals everything.
A difficult equation
to understand
for many of us
for His ways are not ours.

But take for a minute 
all those who started that way -
from David the Shepherd boy
dirty and unattractive
too puny
to grow into himself,
a mighty warrior King.
What about Moses?
was living in hell
because he doubted himself
yet God held him up
with a staff that could tell
of how great God is.
To Joseph the dreamer
who dreamed up great dreams
until they were real.

They all had their day
and are still remembered till today.

Let's go deeper still -
this world that we live in
was created from dust
brought into something.
From many a failures
God took us from our jaliors
and gave us a saviour.

They and we
grew into greatness.
God had to take them and us from nothing
Be in the equation-
and trust me with faith
the same destiny awaits us.

The Feast after the Fast

The Feast after the Fast

I crawled out of the belly of a whale
still in tact.
The green eyed monster 
tried to consume me,
but in this basin
I was lifted to safety.
Though my ribs are exposed
to the elements
The rain comes and washes
away the crispy foam left by my decay - 
fresh meat.
I first must die to be reborn
anew
afresh
restored.
In order to be filled
I must be empty.
To find true happiness
I must embrace mind numbing grief.
These supple limbs had to be broken in many places,
there was no other way.
To reach my destination
I had to take a leap off the cliff -
don't look down.
I had to lose it all
to gain.

Then when all is said and done
I still have to follow and not lead.