Abundance Comes From Living On Purpose

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Thoughts Become Words Become Things

Yesteday, I had an interesting experience with our Epiphany Community at SC DJJ. This is a ministry in which we share the love of Jesus Christ with incarerated youth. A friend of ours presented a program on the power of our words. Before words are spoken, however, they are thoughts. So the question to ask is where do thoughts come from? We cannot experience them with any of our five senses. They are first recognized by our brain. As my 4 1/2 year-old grandson said the other day, "Nana, it's all about the brain." How true this is.

When we consider that God simply spoke and all of creation came to be, we can start to consider the power in thoughts and words. If we but look at recent history, we can see some amazing examples of how thoughts become words which set into motion the actions that produced powerful results. An example is President John F. Kennedy's speech describing his vision of a man on the moon before the end of the decade. As a result, others caught the vision, and we just celebrated the 40th anniversary of that feat.

Another example is Martin Luther King, Jr. The civil rights movement itself started as a thought which became words, which ignited the vision and determination of a nation to end segregation and foster equal rights for all people. This is powerful stuff resulting from thoughts. I mentioned some positive examples but there have been negative examples as well. One of the most horrible of course was the Holocaust. Angry, hate-filled thoughts resulted in the murder of millions of people.

Reflecting on how powerful our words can be should cause us to examine our thoughts before turning them into spoken words. Our thoughts come from the people we associate with, the books we read, and the movies we watch. With this in mind, we really need to take great care that we associate with people who we admire and who speak the truth. Also, we must fill our minds, from which our thougts emerge, with material that results in growth and abundance. Focusing on positive, loving ideas begets thoughts of speaking and acting in loving and positive ways.

There are plenty of negative words resulting in fear, anger, and isolation in the world today. Since I have freedom to control what I think and say, I choose to fill my mind with powerful, positive thougts. A powerful example of positive thoughts resulting in a powerful result occurred just this past week at a conference sponsored by our company, Liberty League International. Erik Wahl was a speaker there who paints as he speaks. As a result, he produced some lovely paintings. Three people were admiring the paintings and thinking how wonderful they would be to own. Then one had a thought about using them to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She shared the thought and a project took form. 2 days later, the paintings were auctioned with $179,034 being raised and donated to Make-a-Wish of Hawaii.

For a thought to become powerful, it must be shared and acted upon. Then miracles can happen. Let's all be grateful for thoughts, words, and the wisdom to share those that are beneficial. "A wise man's heart guides his mouth and makes his lips persuasive." Proverbs 16:23 Lets all celebrate our ability to impact the world in a powerfully abundant way by our thoughts and words.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Socialism Does Not Favor Abundance

I received an interesting email this morning about socialism. It seems an economics professor challenged a class on the viability of socialism. Young, idealistic minds like to think that sharing equally by taking from the rich and giving to the poor will fix everything. To prove this does not happen, he assigned grades along socialistic lines. All test grades were averaged and every student received the same grade. After the first test, everyone got a B. They all received a D after the second test and an F after the third. Working hard to achieve more was no longer beneficial so no one did it. As a result, all failed and no one was happy. The professor had an abundance of A's at his disposal but they had to be earned.

This reminds me of a verse in the Bible, Mark 14:7, to be precise. Jesus told his disciples "You will always have poor people with you, and any time you want to, you can help them. But you will not always have me." Good News Bible There are some key words in this verse: always, want, and can. There will always be poor people. There are various reasons for this. Sometimes poor people indeed need our help. Jesus gave us the free will to choose who to help and when. In my experience this works far better than forced aid by taxation, or stealing from the rich to give to the poor by the government.

Some people are actually poor by choice. Haven't you heard people say they can't get married or earn more money because they will lose their welfare or social security income? As long as people perceive they deserve to be paid regardless of their productivity, many will choose to be unproductive. And when the productive realize that no matter how hard they work, what they earn will be taken from them and given to those who do nothing, they will lose their ambition. And where is a society when people are no longer motivated to be creative and productive?

Please note that I believe in missions and giving to those with burdens that are too great for them to carry. A good example is Katrina Relief along the U.S. gulf coast. People were hard hit by a natural disaster and needed all the help they could get to rebuid their homes and lives. The last time I was there, however, I saw some examples of people who were not helping themselves but complaining about the government. It actually put a negative thought in the minds of many volunteers who were using their vacation time, money, and energy to be of assistance only to be met with ingratitude. Right now I have a choice about where to go on my next mission.

I have this choice because right now I have the time and resources to be self-directed and spirit-led. If the government strips me of these resources and loses them in a quagmire of bureaucratic red tape, does anyone really benefit? This has happened along the gulf coast. Are there still people there who really need our help? Of course there are. Many didn't qualify for government funds the first time around for whatever reason. In fact every volunteer agency has paid social workers who take applications, fill our forms, and continually follow up to see what help is available and when. And everyone has become despondent because the government proved frustrating to both the poor and those who would like to help them.

You see, the residents there and the volunteers from out of state no longer see themselves and their hard work as the solution. So, I ask you. Are we all better off in a system where everyone has the potential to achieve an A? Or are we as a society better served when no one is allowed an A becaue all must receive the same grade? Remember, socialism does not favor abundance for anyone.