Dirty Diapers, Winning the Oscar and Other Indicators of Change
So you worked really hard for a long time; lots of time, energy, passion, blood, sweat and tears and you finally reach to top, make the discovery, buy your dream home, travel the world… you’ve made it!
Like Jeff Bridges, who was first nominated for the Oscar 30+ years ago and who this morning is basking in the glory of winning the Oscar of best actor. Bridges, I am sure, is having a big fat breakfast this morning and after smoking a big fat Cuban cigar!
But then what? I mean you can only bask in the glory for a while.
I use to think that if I just got another degree (I have two master degrees and a doctorate) that my life would be great! I’d be all set and never have a worry. But my rock, by great grounding person, my wife would say. You’ll never be satisfied.
Now I think she is right and she is wrong.
We are all about changing; changing and growing. We Jennifer and I were first married I thought that if I became a minister that the very least that would happen is that I could always find a job at a church, keep a roof over my head and food on the table for my family. If I just became a minister. NOT!
Life is not about reaching a plateau or status quo. Life is all about changing, going from one goal to another, helping and loving people in new and better ways. There is no end to the changing and growing. It’s like what Benjamin Franklin said, “When you’re finished changing, your finished.”
Change is a gift from God and is related to the idea of repentance, which literally means to change one’s mind, to turn around. Everybody needs to repent and change. Change, as it turns out, is a moral issue. It is immoral not to change!
• Everybody needs to repent, change, grow and get better; we are all “sinners” • If you know you need to change but you don’t… you are “lost”
• Changing is not just a private matter; when you change you help others to change
• Repeated attempts and failure to change are indications that help is needed; failure to get help is a sin.
So how do you change? Here are the Essentials of Change
• Change must be a passionate desire.
• Change has a specific goal.
• Change is a step wise process.
• Change happens with much resistance and requires dogged persistence
• Change requires tough love coaching
• Change requires more time than you plan for
• Change happens suddenly after a long time
Sometimes change is easy or it happens to you. But most of the time we have to work on it. Let me leave you with a few final thoughts about change.
“Status quo is an illusion because thing are always changing constantly. Embrace the change!” – Bryan Martin
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” Winston Churchill
I feel a change coming on, Praise the Lord!
I love you – Bryan Martin
p.s. Say a prayer for our brothers and sisters in Haiti and Chile. American
Red Cross (www.Redcross.org)
Samaritan’s Purse (www.SamaritansPurse.com)
Love your neighbor – Help One
This life, therefore, is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal but it is the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed.
- Martin Luther
Brad
March 8, 2010 at 11:27 am