Halloween

October 31, 2012

As thy pride destroyed the man
May his broken corpse haunt your days
Too good, too good to give a chance
Too good to recognise his face

As thy selfish greed stripped the boy
May his skin and bones perform
For you, just one last service
To save from your coming storm

As thy power didn't serve to save
But withheld to fill your hole
May the broken promises around you
Remind you of your soul

Though thy justification is proven
You have failed to extend grace
May your reasons stand firm
Before He who judges ways

This night is dark without a star
The light keepers have dimmed
Their heart's torches no longer burn
To hide the proof of the delimbed

-

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to do it.
- Proverbs 3:27

Despite the Darkness

Despite the darkness
Despite the night
Despite the precarious
Despite my fright
There is a peace in my heart
An inner light
That illuminates my way
Though I have no sight
In my weakness
I've found Your might
In my defeat
You won my fight

I Cani - Wes Anderson

Love Has Lost

But love is a weasel word… Love may mean anything – or nothing. It has lost its moorings and stands for “what I want” – a most deceptive concept and despotic tyrant.
- Mildred Wynkoop

David Goes Gangnam Style Vid (Beware!)

Got ya!

There's A Promise

Why do I doubt You?
When it's not Your promises that failed
When it's not You who ran away
When it's me who said, So long
I'll try things
My way

Why am I angry?
When Your grace has rescued me
When Your love embraces me
When it's me who chose to chase
Another saviour
Who can't

My only hope is a promise
A promise that You gave
A promise You won't break
A promise that I find
In seeking
Your face

So I seek Your face


Why do I complain?
When my sins brought the shame
When it's me who caused the pain
When it's You who took the blame
To trade me
For love

Why do I condemn?
Me, and everyone around me
When the debt has been fully paid
When no falling away can separate
From the love
Of Jesus Christ

Tell me Your promise, once more
That promise You once gave
That promise You will never, ever, break
A promise that I find
In seeking Your face

So I seek Your face

Building On Faith: Love That Acts

(These were my notes for yesterday's short talk for Habitat for Humanity's Building On Faith event. For those of you who don't know, I serve on the national board of trustees. Building decent, safe, and affordable places to live is and will always be an advocacy of mine. I have seen the importance of environment on a person's life, and I've seen the importance of the church in shaping that environment. Building On Faith is an important partnership Habitat has with faith-based groups to bring a spiritual dimension to our community building.)


Love That Acts
Good morning everyone.

Thank you for joining us here at Bistekville, Quezon City, for day 2 of Habitat for Humanity's Building on Faith.

Habitat for Humanity is a Christian organisation, and that simply means this:

Our inspiration to help others, especially those who need homes, is God's love for all people. 

Habitat for Humanity's actions of building homes, building communities, building even school structures and community centers, are all part of the single motivation of showing God's love.

A very famous verse that encapsulates this love is John 3:16.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I want to draw your attention to the word "THAT". For God so loved the world THAT...

The word THAT in the verse connects God's motivation with His response, His action. What was His motivation? He loved, and not just loved but so loved. What was His response? He gave, and He not only gave, He gave what was most precious to Him.

John 15:13, another famous verse about love, reads:

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Again we see the word THAT connecting this idea, this motivation of great love, and the response, the action this great love compels.

The Bible over and over reminds us that the question of faith is not so much "What church do I attend?" or "What tradition do I follow?" but more "Who do I love?" and "How do I live out that love?" 

Today, as we celebrate Building on Faith, I have two questions and an encouragement:

First the two questions to ask ourselves:

1. Who do I love?

Sino ang aking minamahal?

2. What do I do for those I claim to love? 

Ano ang mga aksyon na ginagawa ko para sa aking minamahal?

Let us, like the Bible reminds us, connect our motivation with our actions. Let's not limit "God's love" to our comfort zones, to simple quotes and tweets, to empty promises and cheap words. Let us take this amazing, beautiful, compelling idea called love and unleash its power in our lives and the lives of the people we claim to love through our actions.

Now for the encouragement, the reason why we can live out this love and give love to others, is because someone loves us. Someone loves you more than you can ever love anyone else.

That someone is God Himself, Creator of Heaven and Earth. We love because He first loved us, or as 1 John 4:19 says:

We love each other because he loved us first.

This is going to be a little embarrassing to tell, but it will help drive the point home.

I remember, I loved this girl once, and I'm sure you all have your own similar stories, and it didn't make any sense. I wasn't ready for a relationship. Neither was she. I couldn't afford it. I couldn't afford myself. I had no 5-year plan, no 3-year plan. I had no plan. I just knew that inside me, there was this feeling, a feeling I couldn't really describe, that made me wish I could see her, or talk to her, to do things for her, to be beside her, to give her everything of the little I had. 

If I, in my human selfishness, can feel so much affection for a girl, how much more can God love you? He wishes to be with you and to walk with you in relationship. He wishes to see you, to talk to you, to do things for you, to be beside you. He wishes to give you everything, yet unlike me, He doesn't have little. He actually owns everything.

Today, remember God's love, remind yourself of who you love, and let love compel you to action.

Thank you very much.

How to Lose A Guy: More On Evaluation

This is part of the series How to Lose a Guy.

This series, while using the name "How to Lose a Guy", should really be entitled "How to Lose Anyone". When I use the word "lose" I don't always mean that we'll totally never interact with a person, rather, it means that we begin to lose the depth of the relationship, getting shallower and shallower, until it is no longer meaningful. Like I say over and over in my other posts, "Relationships are not static. They are like two boats in the ocean, either sailing towards the same destination or drifting apart."

More On Evaluation
I was surprised to see a spike in my site visits yesterday, and I have my last post to thank. I hope it was more than the title that got people to click.

I  also received a few questions on the concept of evaluating relationships, and the common comment contains this:

"You can't evaluate relationships. You can't treat them like businesses. You shouldn't judge people. You can't change people."

Let me give my short reply to this: Disagree. Agree. Agree. Agree.

So if you look at things, I actually agree more with my critics than disagree. Now let me answer in more detail.

First on the points that we agree on. People aren't businesses, I completely agree for obvious reasons. You can't judge people, I agree, BUT evaluating doesn't mean condemning people like a judge pronounces "guilty" or "not guilty" but simply looking for the value that one can give and find. I also believe that we can't change people forcibly, but we can influence people through how we live our lives. If we treat the people we claim to love with indifference and take them for granted, the effect on them will change them as they realize what the value really is. We can either live lives that bless or poison the people around us. We can all think of friends who are blessings and we can think of friends who are poisonous. The blessings have impacted us for the better. The poisonous have made us worse. So to say that we can't change people is not completely true.

You can't evaluate relationships.
Yes, we can. And we should. Evaluating a relationship means looking for the value of a relationship, and like with everything else in life, we find what we seek for. So people who evaluate their relationships properly actually will find things of worth in the relationship - unless the relationship is so selfishly one-sided, and in cases like that, I suggest reading the book Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud.

The other point here is, we're all, consciously or unconsciously evaluating things. The problem with many people is that while they're too cowardly to evaluate the present, they're stuck evaluating the past and paralyzed evaluating the future.

What do I mean by this?

Evaluating the past is always looking back at your history and wondering where things went wrong, asking what if, and spending time on the people and events that no longer should have any bearing on the present. Let me give you an example, so you had a girlfriend who cheated on you, and you've moved on, you tell all your friends she was a b!tch and a liar to look all secure, but the fact that you're still bringing her up so often, checking her tweets, her FB, googling her, wondering if her new boyfriend is handsomer than you, smarter than you, more impressive than you, shows that you're still evaluating the past. If she was so bad, then why be so interested? Move on. Or, if after evaluating the present, you realize you love her, then spend your time and energy on her.

Instead of the past, evaluate the present, the here and now. Stop asking yourself "Where did I go wrong in the past?" and start asking yourself "What can I do today to be a person of value to the people I claim I love." I always put the phrase "people I claim to love" because I want to be clear that while it is difficult to truly love everyone, we need to at least put in the the necessary effort to the people we profess love to. If you don't act, you don't love. (Actually giving a talk on that tomorrow.)

Why? Again, you'll find what you're seeking. Seek the past? You'll get the past. Over and over again, you'll relive it. If you seek the value of the present, you'll cultivate today.

While I'm all for having a dream and a vision, being stuck evaluating the future means being stuck in dream and wish mode. We collect pegs for everything we want. Home pegs, body pegs, boyfriend pegs, girlfriend pegs, pegs for our clothes and for our future kids' clothes, car pegs, pegs, pegs, pegs. We spend too much time evaluating the lives of others we admire and dreaming up our future without realizing we've spent more time our dream future than the responsibilities of today.

I remember one instance for me, I was on Pinterest putting together some ideas for "Home" board since I hope to renovate next year, then I realised to myself, "Go work first. That's enough fantasizing. Go do the necessary actions to actually be able to make the renovation a reality". So I closed the window and went to work. An architects job doesn't stop with the blueprint.

A simple test is this: how much time do you spend looking at other people's lives through twitter, instagram, facebook, google, pinterest, or whatever paparazzi tool is your favourite? And how much time do you spend on building your life and the lives of people you claim to love?

Again, I said "the people you claim to love", and I also said "building" not dreaming or wishing or conceptualising, but BUILDING, doing, making, digging, cementing, strengthening, adding, fixing, cleaning, laying, beautifying. BUILDING. "I have to do all of that?" No, you don't. But that just shows for that specific person or thing, you don't really love.

Again, we will find what we seek for. So there's no wondering when the past keeps creeping up and the future keeps looking so impossible. It's because we didn't seek the value of today. We loved the past and the future, yet forgot today.

I was talking to my friend last week. He was being accused by his former employers of all sorts of things - with no proof. I told him to move on and forget it. He said, "That's it?" I said, "Yes, go put your time and energy on the things that really matter. If you focus on them, you'll miss the gifts of today. The past can't be changed. Instead ask yourself how to make today more beautiful."

Love the miracles of God today. Today redeems the past and lays the foundation for tomorrow.

How to Lose A Guy: Don't Evaluate

This is a new series that many of you have requested. I'll be writing an intro for this series, but let's kick it off with part 1 of How to Lose A Guy (or anyone else for that matter): Don't Evaluate.

Don't Evaluate

One of the trickiest things to evaluate is a relationship. But we have to. Anything we take seriously, we need to cultivate towards betterment. Want a sure-fire way to lose? Don't evaluate. Don't look for how to move forward or improve.

But if you actually want to work on it, there has to be some form of way to tell that it's growing. How do I measure if this relationship is a good relationship? How do I know if this person is good for me? How do I know I’m good for this person? How do I know if this is right?

Most of the time, we don’t like to evaluate our relationships and ourselves because we're afraid of what we'll find. This is the “I didn’t prepare for the exam syndrome”. Just like people who don’t study and review, we’re afraid to take the test, even a self-test, because we already know we’re going to fail. But evaluation is a very very important part of growth. Evaluation is the process of asking and answering two of my favorite questions:

What’s this worth? What value does this bring? Or for our personal reflection, what am I worth? What value do I bring?

For relationships, I like what Matthew Kelly suggests, “Is this person helping me become the best version of myself?” “Am I helping this person become the best version of himself?”

When we ask ourselves these questions, we are faced with a range of responses:

1.     Denial – Many people choose to deny the necessity of evaluating themselves and their relationships. They simply convince themselves, there’s nothing to improve. There’s nothing to grow. There’s nothing to stop. There’s nothing to start. There’s nothing to do. I don’t care about me bringing value.

2.     Using Easy-Metrics – We like to evaluate our relationships and ourselves using cutesy tests such as compatibility tests, horoscopes, personality tests or other simple metrics. To say that our relationship is good because our signs match, or our colors are complementary, or because our personalities fit isn’t enough. The problem with this is, when we pass the easy tests, we won’t be ready for the real tests of life, and when these come, we will have our expectations shattered. For example, just because a kid can add 1+1 or multiply 33x74, doesn’t mean he’s fit for integral calculus. I’m sure these tests are fun and do help a bit. But just like a cherry on sundae, it’s cute, but it’s not the dessert.

3.     Using Selfish-Metrics – We like to evaluate our relationships based on me, myself, and I. How does this affect me? What am I receiving? How do I feel? What have I given up? What is taken from me? Selfish-metrics are using our own needs and desires as the standard for whether there’s value in a relationship. This is a very dangerous product of our consumer society. We treat relationships as a means to fill us. Even our kindness sometimes is means to prove our importance to others. We need to watch out for this.

4.    Hopelessness – Usually, when we deny the need for evaluation and growth, when we use easy-metrics, and when we’re selfish with our relationships, our relationships will fail – and when that happens, many times we end up with feelings of despair and hopelessness. We are are condemned that “we’re bad people” or “bad friends” or making excuses. Instead, just go do better next time! It's that simple.

This is one of the most counter-productive attitudes to take for three reasons:

A) It’s not a spirit of humility that condemns us but pride that can’t accept we simply failed and have to grow. Pride says, “I failed. I’m no good. Because I didn’t earn your love, I don’t want it.” Humility on the other hand says, “I failed. I’m no good. But because I need your love, help me grow to become who you want me to be.” I’m sure some of you don’t like that already. We all hate the idea of changing for someone. We’ll talk about humility later.

B) This does not lead to proactive change. When something is not going or feeling right, we have to correct it through the right actions. Confessing your rottenness doesn’t fix the issue. Admitting it is a start, but swimming in it doesn’t do anyone good.

C) It is irritating and discouraging. Sometimes, when I listen to the things people grumble and whine about, I catch myself having to repent from impatience and irritation, but many times, after hearing grumbling and complaining over and over and over again, the effect is discouragement. When people choose to highlight their lack, their bad feelings, their selfish introspection, their problems, and their challenges in a way that is without hope or faith, at best it will irritate and at worst it will drain the faith and energy of those around you.

Sometimes I wonder what our employees, drivers, maids, and friends think when they hear us complaining and whining. The truth is, if you’re reading this, most people would trade their life for yours. The fact that you’re in a place with internet is not a common thing. The fact that you have access to information is not common. The fact that you’re alive is a miracle.

I know some people think grumbling and whining is fashionable but I’m telling you now it’s not. It’s selfish. It’s ungrateful. There is nothing admirable by announcing to people how hard life is. It doesn’t involve faith. A selfish, ungrateful, hopeless person makes for a very unattractive relationship.

I must admit, that description describes me at times. How do we address this in ourselves? Well, it starts by actually diagnosing where we are and what should be done.

That's my next post.

Sunday Notes: The Coming King

Here are my notes from the Fort Livestream.

Do I Truly Love?

I met with my sales team last tuesday and told them a story. It's a story I've told many times to people, particularly young people who feel entitled to the comforts of life. Here's how the story goes:

Once upon a time, there was a teenage boy named, Michael. Michael was a talented boy but he was lazy and complacent, always procrastinating and taking things for granted. One day, after receiving his grades, his parents very angrily told him that he needed to stop with the excuses and learn to be responsible. He needed to start taking his education seriously and fixing his grades. Michael angrily reacted:

"You don't love me! You only love me when I do well! You only love me when I do the things you tell me to do! When I make mistakes this is how you treat me! Can't you see I'm trying my best?! I'm tired of this. I'm going to live how I want to live! I want to be loved for me not what I do."

And with that, he ran up to his room and slammed the door.

His parents didn't knock on his door that night like they used to. They didn't try to discuss or explain. To Michael's surprise they let him be, and in his pride he stayed inside.

The next morning, Michael, already forgetting the discussion the night before, walked into the dining room to see his mom reading the newspaper.

"I'm hungry" he said. "What's for breakfast?"

"Oh, I wasn't able to prepare anything. You can go make yourself something in the kitchen."his mother said.

"What? You didn't make breakfast? But you always make breakfast?" Michael asked a little irritated.

"I'm sorry. I was so busy doing so many things." his mom apologized.

Michael walked into the kitchen, opened the cupboards and the fridge, and found them nearly empty. He shouted out, "Mom, there's nothing here. What am I supposed to eat?"

"Oh I must have forgotten to do the grocery. I'm sorry Mike. Maybe when I have time." she apologised again.

"Never mind." he said angrily, "I'll get something in school. May I have my allowance?"

"Sure, please get it from my wallet on the table." she said.

"Mom, there's only P50 here. That's not enough."

"I need to withdraw from the bank. I'll just give you the rest when I have time." she explained.

"Nothing works around here!" Michael exclaimed. "How hard is it to feed your son?"

"Im really really sorry" his mother said, "I'm trying my best."

"Well your best means I'm going to go hungry." Michael interjected.

"I'm really sorry, son. Can't you see I'm trying my best?" his mom humbly explained.

Then it hit Michael, and embarrassingly, he understood, he was reminded of his own words "Can't you see I'm trying my best?" The very words he used to excuse his failing grades.

-

When I tell this story, the point is very clear midway: to be a person of value, someone who makes contributions to the lives of others, especially the people we claim to love and to the causes we claim to be important to us, there needs to be tangible fruit. The problem is, many times, we are so inwardly focused that we're so stuck on the question "Do others really love me?" when we should be spending more time on the question "Do I truly love?"

Like the teenage Michael, who wanted understanding from his parents, who wanted his parents to be ok with his failing grades because he was trying his best, but was so angry and did not respond lovingly when his mom failed to prepare breakfast, do the grocery, and have cash, we are so angry when others fail us and are equally angry when others don't understand our failings.

This is another indicator of our human selfishness. We completely understand that intentions are not enough when it comes to our expectations of others but want our intentions to be enough when it comes to our own deliverables.

But maturity means we must move from great expectations of others, to great intentions for them, and even more, to great acts of service and sacrifice. This is what separates great love from cheap love: one is made of transformative action the other is a mood swing.

So let me propose a change in our approach. Starting today, instead of asking, "Do others really love me?", instead of always questioning others, let us ask ourselves, "Do I truly love?"

Other helpful reflection questions are:
- How do I handle things when my expectations are failed?
- How well do I meet the expectations of others?
- Do I truly have good intentions for the people I claim to love?
- Do my intentions translate to great acts of service and sacrifice?

Our answers to these questions will help us diagnose ourselves on whether we are people who truly love beyond the cheap and common feelings of most of the world.

Feelings are reactions. I do not want to take the most amazing thing in the world, love, and cheapen it into a mere reaction.

As the late President John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." Let's bring it down to our level, "Ask not what others can do for you - ask what you can do for others."

-

I ended my sales meeting with this question:

"You won't ever accept it if I gave you one Peso less than the salary I have committed to you. Then why do you expect me to accept anything less than what you have committed to me?"

When I Am Afraid

When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.
Psalm 56:3

It's no secret that I read quite a bit. It wasn't always this way. I remember my mother letting me colour on my Bible just to get me to read it. She told me it was a Bible colouring book, and that I could colour the chapter I read. That Bible would be a mix of childish colouring and drool from when even the novelty of drawing would ware off and I would use the Good Book as a pillow. It would not be until many years later that I would enjoy reading the Bible. For most of my childhood and adulthood, other than the action stories, particularly those of King David, having to read it was a pretty boring idea that I knew shouldn't be boring because I was told it was important.

Fast-forward many years later to today, and it's a source of sustenance. It's not proof of my being good. If anything, seeing the standard of the Bible reminds me how far I am from the ideal. It's not an insurance against hardship, or pain, or inconvenience, or disappointment, or mistakes. None of those have diminished. And while it has many great principles, I can't say it's truly been a guide I have followed completely, mostly because of my inability and, admittedly, my immature selfish lack of desire to obey.

But now, after year after year of humbling, I know that I need help. I need a lot of help. Despite my responsibility and relative achievement, in me lies the same emptiness that lies in all of us that needs filling. Like everyone else, I also seek significance and recognition, and feel bad when it is denied. Like  everyone else, I also seek the intimacy of true friendships, not just the expectations of a part to play. Like everyone else, I'm trying to find a way from who I am and who I know I should be, a distance that seems to grow as I assess myself more honestly. More and more I realize how true and vast and deep my needs are, and how incapable I am of meeting them.

This realization of needing to be filled and not having the ability to satisfy these needs lead to a feeling we're all familiar with: fear. We become afraid when we have sense of possible danger, possible pain, of possible loss. We all have some form of fear. To think that we do not fear or to forget that others fear just like us is to be so ignorant of human nature.

I myself have been afraid of many things throughout my life. My eternal salvation, the safety and growth of my loved ones, the funding my businesses, affording my bills, growing as a person, paying debt, returning shareholder investment, not hurting my parents' ministry or the whole church for that matter with my mistakes and character flaws, various health issues, relationship issues (yes, I've had relationships), and personal insecurities are just some of the things I have lost peace over and I'm sure there's more. Your list probably includes some of mine and some uniquely yours. The point is, we all face fear. And like anything we face, how we respond will dictate our path.


I've found that my responses usually are one of these three:

1. Pride - "I am greater than what I am facing" - I draw up from my reserves of energy, of inspiration (from books, experiences, and even Twitter), I block out the negativity - including negative people, and I convince myself that I am strong, that I can handle this, that I cannot fail, that I will not fail. I motivate myself with the pressure of everyone leaning on my success, with the consequences of failure, and with the promise of accomplishment. Admittedly, this is my default response. It is something I need to correct. But it sounds effective right? Well, it is. It's effective for overcoming on my own strength, until I run into something so much greater than me and beyond my control and out comes my second response:

2. Cowardice - "What I am facing is greater than me" - When the challenge is really frustrating, I want to back off. I want a safe place. I retreat to my comfort zone. This is when I say, "If this is going to be this crazy, I don't want it. I give up." People who know me, who have worked with me, know that giving up isn't something I'm known for, and that it has been determination and relentlessness that have identified my career, but in other areas, particularly relational areas, I tend to respond in cowardice. Instead of facing things, I tell myself, "You want to be that way? Be that way. It's a free world. I am also free not to inconvenience myself with you." The fear of being hurt or disappointed overcame me, and my response is to step back.

With Pride "I" win. With Cowardice "I" lose. Whether the "I" wins or the "I" loses, the road of "I" of self-centred living of seeing the world from how "I" am affected is a lonely way.

There's a better way, a way that is quite new to me. It's a path I must be deliberate about walking or I'll fall back to pride and cowardice. It's the way of humility.

3. Humility - "Jesus, You are greater than what I am facing. I need You."

"I NEED YOU." Three very simple yet life-changing words. Words that humbly admit "I can't do this without You. I've tried and I've failed. I need You to rescue me. I need You to teach me. I need You to show me. I need You to fill me. I need You to love me." These are difficult statements to say, especially for someone like me that enjoys the idea of not needing anyone because my experience is, like pretty much everyone else I know, needing someone means getting disappointed and hurt.

So we take the other 2 roads, either pride or cowardice, and realise the proud and the cowards are walking on the same path towards the same end: loneliness and isolation. The very thing we tried to avoid we hastened towards because we let our fear win.

Instead, I need to remind myself daily and confess, "I need You." Just like King David, a warrior, a poet, a ruler, yet in his high position humbly admitted, "I do get afraid."

"But when I am afraid, I put my trust in You."

Waiting for the Morning

I'm up ahead of the sun
Its rays have yet to turn
Yet I wait by the window
My heart grows in a burn
"Come day's golden light"
I call out to the sky
"Hasten the night's flight"
My constant cry
Ah, but it's too early
Too early for my hope
I light my mind with wisdom
With inner brightness to cope

Sunday Notes: The End

Here are my notes from today's preaching by my dad, Joey Bonifacio. Preached at Victory Fort.

Sunday Notes: Orlando World Outreach Center

My dad preached at the Orlando World Outreach Center in Florida. This is the church led by former NFL player Tim Johnson.

He Wastes Nothing

I finally have a window to write a post. I've been so busy the past few days traveling with my dad to help him with the launch of his new book The LEGO Principle here in the US, as well as the Philippines next week, very difficultly coordinating the joining of Issho Genki and Natural Health+ (my two health companies), wrapping up a very expensive business venture, and preparing my transition into the Coffee Bean group with the purchase of our business training company Business Dashboard.

Despite this busy schedule, I like to make time for something I truly enjoy, helping others, particularly my friends and family. I believe that everyone has been given gifts, which are, in my opinion, means to (1) glorify God, (2) enjoy life to the fullest, and to (3) help others become the best versions of themselves that they too may glorify God and find fulfilment.

I believe that EVERYONE has the potential to be good for others, to be a blessing, to be an answered prayer. I also believe that EVERYONE, at some point in their life, will need someone to rise to this potential. I know I  have needed someone like this in the past and will need someone in the future as well.

But sometimes a situation arises that is much bigger than us, much bigger than even the people who have stood with us, and it is during these times that we are most prone to doubting, to accusing others and God, to giving up, and to settling. Sometimes, it may not even be a terrible period, but a protracted season of nothing going right, of ambiguity and insecurity.

It is during times like these that we need to remember "God wastes nothing."

This was a reminder Pastor Jim Laffoon told me at a dinner recently.

God wastes nothing.

I like that thought.

No matter what we're going through, even if our life feels like it is wasting away, when we keep our hope on God, we find peace in the thought that He doesn't waste anything. The decisions we regret, the mistakes made, the doors closed, the dreams killed, these are as good as blessings in God's hands, because He doesn't waste anything.

Bless the Lord

Bless the Lord, O my soul

O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before

O my soul

I'll worship Your holy name

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning

It's time to sing Your song again

Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes

Bless the Lord, O my soul

O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before

O my soul

I'll worship Your holy name

You're rich in love, and You're slow to anger

Your name is great, and Your heart is kind

For all Your goodness I will keep on singing

Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

Bless the Lord, O my soul

O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before

O my soul

I'll worship Your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing

The end draws near and my time has come

Still my soul will sing Your praise unending

Ten thousand years and then forevermore

Bless the Lord, O my soul

O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before

O my soul

I'll worship Your holy name

Jesus, I'll worship Your holy name

Lord, I'll worship Your holy name

Sing like never before

O my soul

I'll worship Your holy name

Jesus, I'll worship Your holy name

I'll worship Your holy name

Who Should I Vote?

"A key question to ask ourselves when evaluating candidates in a political race is, Who best mirrors what I believe Scripture is saying, and whose platform and lifestyle comes closest to a biblical one on the greatest number of issues."
- Dr. Joel Hunter

Oh Praise Him