Category Archives: Life

Time versus Timing

Career, Life

Time to God is not as important as Timing. There is secular quote that says, “Timing is everything,” and it is pretty close to being correct.

God’s view of our life covers a broad range of time and in many cases, years. Our view of life is yesterday, last week or last year. We view our successes and mistakes in the short range. God knows where he wants you to be five years from now but in most cases all we can think about or see is last week. I will give you a perfect example of what I am talking about

29 years ago I decided I needed to be in the fast food restaurant business and what a mistake that was. I was head strong and thought I knew best for my life but if I am perfectly honest with myself, that decision was mine and mine alone. That decision almost destroyed our financial lives, but as with all decisions, good and bad, God can pick up the pieces and get us through it.

It took me some years later to understand the pieces God was working with. One of the pieces was that the guy I bought the restaurants from also was a hotel broker. When he saw me about to lose everything in the restaurant business, I think he felt sorry for me and gave me a chance to sell hotels, which turned out to be my profession in life. I had no education or experience in selling hotels yet God saw the road I needed to be on 10 years before I did. All I could see was the existing circumstances.

I have no doubt I would have ended up exactly where I am at and I am also sure God had an easier path than to go the route of the failed restaurant business. That said, God picked up the pieces of my life and used the course I was on to get me to where I needed to be going.  I understand it perfectly clear now, but back then I was so in debt with the restaurants, all I could see was where I was, not where I was going.

The Time it took to get me in the place he wanted me to be was just Time to God but what is important was his Timing. It doesn’t matter how great the change in your life may be, if you are not ready, it won’t mean anything. God knows the proper timing for every aspect of lives. Our prayer shouldn’t be, God change this or do that, rather our prayer should be, God get us ready for your Timing. KT

Do what is right, do your best and love others

Life

I was at the 90th birthday party over the weekend for Harmon Born. Harmon has been a mentor to me all of my adult life and I will be forever grateful for his influence into my life. When I was young man with a young family, Harmon became the example I wanted to follow. At that time in my life, I needed to change the examples I was using to direct my life. I have certainly told Harmon on many occasions what he has meant to me over my adult life but it would be impossible for him to fully understand what the time he has spent with me has meant in my life. Simply put, he is my hero

Harmon has never missed an opportunity to pour himself into another person. I have heard it said that small people talk about other people, average people talk about things and leaders talk about ideas. Harmon has always talked about ideas and thought processes that can impact your life.

At his birthday party, I was standing in the group watching this 90 year old man take the microphone and began to speak. Before he finished speaking he left the crowd with three simple life goals. Do what is right, do your best at everything you do and show love to others. It is amazingly simple right? So easy and clear to understand but so very hard to actually do.

Do what is right. We know what the right thing is to do. There is very little gray area in most decisions we make. We know what the right thing is to do but the problem is many times we choose not to do it.

Do your best. If we really tried to do our best at everything we did, it would change our life. The problem is too many times we don’t go all the way and do our best, instead we give less than our best and live with the consequences.

Love others. I don’t know about you but I know a bunch of people that are hard to love. Ha. I find it is easy to love the ones that are lovable but I think what is important is to try and show kindness to the ones that are difficult. Me/you will never fully arrive at the place where we love everyone but we can start today to do a better job at showing kindness and forgiveness to others.

We all probably learned these three life principles on the first day of school. While they don’t give us all the answers to a fulfilling life, these three goals are a good place to start. KT

A bend in the road

Career, Life

The term, a bend in the road, means that the road that was straight and predictable now has a curve/bend in it. Sometimes the road is straight and we can see where we are going and life seems to be on autopilot and then there are times when the road bends and we cannot see where it is going. It is in those times we have to trust that we are on the right road.

Everyone I know has had to face a bend in the road at some time or another. A bend can come as a health issue, a financial issue, a job change, marital change, death of a loved one, a deep loss, a change in our confidence, starting over financially, strife with another, a sale that you missed, a promotion you were passed up for etc etc. This list could go on for pages but you get the idea. A bend in the road is seen as something you were not expecting but nevertheless something that has changed in your world. The good news is a bend in the road is not always a bad thing. It is just a change from where you thought you were going.

If I had five blank pages I could tell you about some of the bends in the road I have personally experienced. At the time, the bend was unwelcomed but in many cases I look back on the various bends and realize that God was in control and that the bend/change was him leading me in a different direction. Truth be told, as I look back over my life I can see the hand of God in many of the bends on my road of life. I am sure you can also attest to bends in your life. The question becomes, when you are faced with a bend in your life, what do you do?

Recently, I had been working for two months on a surprise for a family member and I had the date and time all planned out for the surprise. That morning as I got ready for the unveiling of the surprise there was one setback after another. After two hours of trying to get things worked out for the surprise, I paused and stepped back and realized that God didn’t want it to be done on that day according to my plan. He wanted it to be on his plan. I didn’t understand it but I had the peace in my spirit that God had a better idea. The result was that we surprised the family member a few days later than expected and I realized that God’s timing was in fact perfect and far better that what I had planned.

Many times when you are faced with a bend in the road of life, you need to have some place and someone to put your trust in. That place and that person for me is God. When faced with a bend, you have to know in your heart that you are in the right vehicle, on the right road and going in the right direction.

Again, the bend in the road is not always bad. Something it is just God’s way of changing our direction. KT

The Colonel

Career, Family, Life

I want to tell you a story about Colonel Sanders. The meaning of the story is, it is never too late to be who you are supposed to be. I did not write this and took it from a Facebook post I saw yesterday and thought I would share it with you. The following is his story:

At age 5 his father died

At age 16 he quit school

At age 17 he had already lost 4 jobs

At age 18 he got married

Between ages 18 and 22 he was railroad conductor

At age 19 he became a father

At age 20 his wife left him and took their baby daughter

He joined the Army and was washed out

He applied for Law School and was rejected

He became and insurance salesman and failed again

He then became a cook and dishwasher in small café

At age 65 he retired

On the 1st day of retirement he received a check from the Government for $105

He felt the Government was saying he wasn’t capable to provide form himself

He decide to commit suicide because he was such a failure

He sat under a tree writing a will but ended up writing what he could have accomplished with his life

He realized there was much more that he hadn’t done

There was one thing he could do better than anyone he knew

And that was how to cook

He borrowed $87 and bought and fried up some chicken using his own recipe

He went door to door to sell to his neighbors in Kentucky

Remember at age 65 was ready to commit suicide

At age 88 he had built an empire and became a billionaire

KFC is now the second largest restaurant chain with 20,000 locations in 123 countries

The message is, it is never too late. KT

Rudy

Life

I don’t often refer to a movie in a scriptural context. That said, one could make the exception with the movie Rudy. It is one of the top 5 guy movies of all time.

I have seen the movie probably 25 times and it has a great message. The message is that, heart (the will to overcome) is greater than just having talent. The movie is about a kid from Chicago who dreamed of playing football for Notre Dame. He was 5 foot nothing, 100 and nothing without a spec of real football talent but ended up being the only football player since 1975 to be carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates. He only played in one game and then only for a couple of plays, yet he stirred the hearts of his teammates and Notre Dame because he would not give up on his dream. What a great story and also a true story.

He is probably like many of us in that he didn’t come from the right family, didn’t live in the right area, didn’t go to the right school, didn’t have the right look, didn’t know the right people and was stereotyped as too little, too slow and too dumb with no athletic ability. His real name is Rudy Ruettiger and he is 67 years now and still lives in Joliet Illinois. There are many YouTube videos of him speaking to groups about life, dreams and determination. He is the real deal. KT