God is the great I am. It means, I am everything you need. Let that settle in your mind a bit. Regardless of the situation and circumstances, God is everything you need in that moment.

In Exodus chapter 3 is the story of Moses’s first burning bush experience. God told him to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the Israelites go free.  When Moses ask God, “who do I say sent me”? God said “tell them, I am who I am. I am has sent me to you.”

Since God and Jesus are one, In the book of John, these are the I AM statements Jesus made:

I am the bread of life.

I am the light of the world.

I am the door.

I am the good shepherd.

I am the resurrection and the life.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

I am the vine.

You may ask, what does all this I AM language mean? It means, God/Jesus is everything you need him to be. What do you need and what are you struggling with? Whatever it is, Jesus is all you need to get through it. KT

Please view this blog as the reason to be thankful for the all the noise, busyness, stress, decisions and complications a full life brings. Rejoice in all the things you do and have the privilege to be involved with.  

You want all the noise, busyness and complications to end in your life?  Well, just imagine a devastating report from your doctor, a serious health issue, loss of a family member, an accident where your family is hurt, and the list could go on and on, but you get the idea. We are all one event or one call from our life becoming incredibly simple.

Life gets really simple if that happens. All those things you felt you had to do, all the plans, all those places you felt you needed to go to, all the life goals you wanted to achieve etc. all come to a sudden stop. If that event or call happens, the only plan becomes really simple, managing through the crisis.

I had a dear friend and client, five years younger than me pass away suddenly. Him and his wife’s life were full of kids, business, relationships, commitments and the afternoon he had a heart attack and died, his wife’s and his children’s lives came to a sudden halt and became very simple. All the noise was replaced with a profound sadness and everything else faded into the background.

So, the next time you feel rushed and feel over worked and over committed in life, take a deep breath and rejoice in the fact that you can do those things. You do not want the alternative. KT

The D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy France took place on June 6, 1944. 10,000 allied forces died right there on that beach, many before they even got to shore. Germany lost 9,000 soldiers that day. Eisenhower literally risked everything on that one battle. If the US had lost that day, we would simply not live like we do today and many of us reading this blog would not have ever been born.

Tom Hanks starred in the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’ in 1998, and we watched the movie the other day. The opening scenes are of the landing at Normandy. Even though it is a movie, the fact remains, that that was exactly how it happened.

The troops were loaded from the ships into these little flat bottom troop carrier boats with a gate that dropped down in the front. Men were standing shoulder to shoulder in full combat gear waiting for the carriers to reach the beach. When the carriers hit the sand, the gate would drop. The Germans had machine guns posts along the beach and would start firing as soon as the gate dropped on the boats. Many many young men died right there before they even got out of the boat. The water near the beach was reported to be crimson red from all the blood.

Why am I telling you this? Some people today have forgotten what price their grandparents and great grandparents paid so we could live in a free America. Back then there wasn’t internet sites to grumble, scream, cry and basically tell everyone what is wrong with America. These men just gave the last ounce of themselves so 81 years later their children’s children could read a blog post about that day.

9,387 of the young men that died that day never got to come home and are still buried in France. All those US families were not even able to have a hometown funeral for their sons and daughters. They gave the ultimate gift to us. Maybe before we lash out in anger to our fellow Americans, we could take a step back and realize what a privilege it is to live in America. KT

Remember 2021 and 2022 when inflation was screaming and the leaders in Washington kept telling us, “awwwh,, it is just transitory and won’t last long”. Remember that horse pud?

Well, all the intelligent people realized the lie and here we are a few years later. Have you seen a restaurant go down on their prices? Seen any homes go down in price? That’s right, there is none and the elevated inflationary pricing is here to stay.

A couple weeks ago I went into one of the quick serve restaurants where you can order a burrito or bowl and pick what you wanted in it. So, I got the bowl and worked the way down the line and got ready to pay for an $11 bowl. Apparently, I had ask for two toppings that cost extra and my bowl was now almost $17. The little peckerhead behind the counter sort of smiled at me because he knew and didn’t tell me. Well, I am not going there anymore.

Then last Sunday I went to a national sandwich shop and (like a doofus) pointed to and ordered the sub in the picture. I get up to the register and the little guy tells me it is a $20 sub. Well, like the little peckeheard in the first store, he sort of smiled at me like “gotcha”. Yes, you did, you got me alright big boy, but I am not ever going back again.

Something is wrong if I can eat at Long Horns, Outback’s, Olive Garden etc. cheaper than buying a sandwich. My point, I am going to need to find some other places to eat where I can walk out without a limp because a fork is sticking in my backside. ha

Being the biggest should not be the goal in business. If being the biggest was a guarantee of success, we would all be using IBM computers, driving GM cars, shopping at Sears, using Motorola cell phones, buying music CDs at the store, renting videos at Blockbuster, drinking Maxwell House coffee, and eating at Shoney’s.

All of these companies had one thing in common. They lost their market share because they thought they were too big to fail. They all just assumed their market dominance would last. New competition is something to be reckoned with and every company will face it. If you go back 30 years ago and pulled a list of the top 20 most valuable companies in the world and compared the list to the top 20 most valuable companies today, shocker – not one of the companies from 30 years is on the list today. Not one.

Corporate magic (what really works) doesn’t always transfer from generation to generation and decade to decade. Just look at Sears. In 1970 they had been the largest retailer in the world for 70 years counting. Sears accounted for 1% of the total GDP of the United States. Two out of every three American adults shopped at Sears at least five time a year and 25 million American families had a Sears credit card. They were unstoppable,,,,until they weren’t.

There are some things that should never change like the way you love your children  and worship your God, but in business you must always be watching the curve and make sure what you are selling and the way you are selling it, is something the market still wants.

What is my point? The point is that there are areas of our lives that should never change but if you are in business, you should always be looking up, be read up, and be aware of what is going on around you because it is always changing. KT