"Jesus ain't got nothing to do with it"

As my name was called, I walked up from the back of the room, stepped forward and accepted my Sales Manager of The Year Award, the presenter asked me to say a few words, as everyone sat down, I quickly cleared my throat and said " As I look back to the tremendous year that we had in 1999, I can't help but thank the 40 sales reps that made this year happen, their hard work and dedication was truly a difference maker! I also want to thank my supervisor team that put up with all of the long hours and stressful days ensuring that we hit our sales goals, but most of all I would like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has poured out his favor and blessing and without him none of this would be possible"

Before I could utter another word, a clearly intoxicated man sitting in the front row, looked at me, laughed, stood up and said: "Man, Jesus ain't got nothing to do with you winning this award, you just got lucky and had a good year!" and proceeded to laugh hysterically at his own comment.

Being pretty quick on my feet and being called out in front of several hundred  people I calmly and confidently said..."I guess you all now know, who this year's runner-up is, glad he's not taking it personally." The 500 people in attendance roared and the guy was totally destroyed. Thank you Lord for a great come back, LOL.

Can I tell you that the day you become a Christian and invite Jesus into your life as your lord and savior everything has to do with him! The non-christian world cannot understand that, without the Holy Spirit present in their lives they are literally incapable of understanding why everything should be about Jesus.

As a Christian, I have a biblical worldview which means that I view everything through the lens of what scripture has to say... How I treat people, How I live, How I give, How I raise my Children, My life's purpose and destiny, everything.

As a Christian, God has a unique and special call on each one of our lives. He has a plan, purpose and destiny that he created uniquely for each one of us before we even existed. God does not make mistakes, he did not make a mistake in creating you and he did not make a mistake in placing you in the environment where you currently find yourself!

Your environment is your ministry, God has placed you where he needs you, your family, coworkers, friends, relatives and acquaintances are members of your church and God has called you to minister to them on a regular basis. 

When your ministry with those individuals is finished God will move you or them on to different pastures. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1 "For everything there is a season and time for every matter under Heaven". This includes People coming in and out of our lives.

Our goal as Christans should be to leave people better than when we found them, to shower them with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ and to be a living, breathing example of that love in this world. 

How do we do that? 

Here are 3 tips to help get you started...

1. You have to be living a victorious life in Christ, if you are not, all of your focus will be on yourself and you will be incapable of ministering to your flock.All of your time will be spent on your problems and issues, you will have nothing left for anyone else. How do you live a victorious life? Its actually easy, You make God #1 in your life and build a daily relationship with him through spending time in the Bible,  Prayer, Thanksgiving(Having an attitude of gratitude is vital-be thankful for what you have) and Worship. God should be the first and last person you speak with every day. When you spend quality time daily with God your whole life will change for the better. When you live a victorious life, people will take notice and will gravitate toward you.
2. You have to be bold. It's not easy to speak with non-Christians about Jesus. It was not easy to Get up in front of those 500 people and proclaim the goodness of Jesus Christ. Let your life be your witness and testimonial, if your doing it right, people will come to you and want to emulate what you have. That will open the door for you to share the reason for your hope, the reason why your faith doesn't waiver, why you are generous. God will see to that. Here is a tip... even the most hardcore non christian people out there will allow you to pray for them during a difficult time, the next time one of your flock says... my daughter is sick, I am struggling in sales, I need to find a new job, the radiator in my car went out and I don't have the money for it, offer to pray with them for a solution and if you feel led by Lord-help them meet their need!
3. Be generous with your time, energy and money. God's people aren't penny pinchers when it comes to helping those in need. God gives us abundance for the sole purpose of being able to bless others. If someone in your flock has a need, nothing says the "Love of Jesus" more than a check or your time to help meet the needs of others. Generosity opens doors and gets the attention of God. Let me share with you a story that perfectly illustrates my point...

For as long as I could remember, I have always wanted a luxury car, I actually used to prayer that one day God would bless me enough to be able to buy a really nice car. At the same time for the last 20 years I had a company car with fuel, insurance and maintenance paid for. I thanked God daily for that company car and over time I stopped praying for a luxury car because I thought desiring a luxury car when God provided a free car was ungodly. 

Last year, I happen to be talking with a guy I work with and he was telling me about his 17 year old son who just received his driver's license and his birthday was coming up and he really believed his dad was going to buy him a car. Problem was his mother had been in and out of the hospital ran up numerous medical bills, plus they have 5 children and they could not afford to buy him a car and they were struggling so-there would be no car for the boy. His dad was broken up about it and was feeling like a failure that he could not buy his own son a car. I offered to pray for him and we asked God for a solution to this situation. 

 A week later I was at my desk reviewing our fleet inventory and we had this vehicle (a Dodge Charger) that was going up for disposal. It was a General Manager vehicle that had reached its corporate of 120,000 mile life span, still ran good but policy was clear, it had to be disposed of. This usally involves putting it out to bid for local dealers. The dad also saw this list and called me and asked if he could bid on the car and buy it for his son. A perk that we offer to our associates. I said "sure, can you afford it and he laughed and said "no". Later that night, I couldn't sleep and kept thinking about this dad and his son, being the father of 3 children I totally understood where he was coming from-he wanted in the worst way to be a hero to his son and buy that car for his birthday. I couldn't let it go so I prayed and asked the lord if we should buy that car for this dad, 10 minutes later my wife woke up, and told me to buy that car, so the next day I bought them the car, the dad hid it until the birthday party and his son "wigged out"he was so excited. He couldn't thank us enough- I was very clear that it was God who blessed him not us.

In true God fashion, this not the end of the story, about 3 months later I received a promotion at work and as part of that promotion, I was able to buy a BMW 7 Series luxury car that is paid for from my monthly car allowance. 

We cannot out give God, when we blessed that dad and bought him that car God responded to our faith and blessed us. Much more important than me being able to drive a luxury car was the witness and testimony to that dad about the love of Jesus Christ. 

One day, we will all stand before God and will have to give account of what we did while we lived on earth. We are called the be the "Salt and light" of this world.

 Friends, there are people littered throughout your life today, that need your witness, they need your generosity, they need your encouragement, they need to see the Jesus that you love and serve. Please make it a priority to share that love with someone today, that is what our lord asks of us!

"Hey dummy, why did you take your helmet off?"

Freshman year of college, day four of two-a-day practices second day of full pads and contact. I was getting the best of our All-Conference nose tackle, who was one of the Quad Captains on our football team. The thing was that he knew it and so did the coaches, his job was to get triple teamed to allow the Sam and Will linebackers to roam freely and attack the ball. I was dominating him alone so our two guards were able to peel off and get to the second level and interrupt the linebackers. A big No- No if you are a defensive player.

I should have seen it coming but I head no idea. After a particularly successful 10 yard run right up the middle and after picking himself up off the ground yet again, our beloved nose tackle and captain took it upon himself to shove me in the back while I was walking back to the offensive huddle.

This was college football, it might as well have been prison, the rules are the same- you are new and fighting for your life and respect. So I walked back to the huddle and the coach looks at me and says, "What are you doing?", "Why didn't you hit him?". Shortly after practice he pulled me into the office   and explained to me that standing up for yourself and going right back at the older players was the only way to get respect. He told me next time it happens, I needed to respond.

The next time didn't take too long, it was the next day. First play of practice- 52 Center Trap; I destroyed him, he shoved me in the back again and walked back to his huddle. This time without thinking I took off running full speed, I literally left my feet and hit that man harder than anything I had ever hit in my life! His head snapped back and he dropped, as a matter of fact, he really dropped! He had to be helped off of the field and he was out for the next several plays.

I knew what was coming next, the coaches knew what was coming next, he knew what was coming next. IT WAS ON!!! As Captain and one of the leaders of our team, this insubordination from a freshman could not go unanswered. The fight was coming...

He trotted back onto the field, we didn't even call a play in the huddle coach walks over and says to me  "hey man, with your wrestling background, you need to get this to the ground, his reach is twice yours" He was 6' 4', I was 5'9". Okay, I got it. Ground = winning the fight, I could do that!

 As soon as we broke the huddle I could see him tightening his gloves and buckling the 4th snap on his helmet. As soon as I got into my stance he jumped off-sides and shoved me to the ground and followed it up with a few four letter adjectives he used to describe me. He then motions for me to get it.

Never one to back down from a fight, I willingly got up, I was ready to nail this dude, so I threw my helmet off to get ready, then it happened...

A minute or two later I was awakened by our trainer giving me that horrible smelling stuff to wake me up. I had a horrible headache and blood was gushing out of my nose and mouth. For a minute, while laying there I had no idea what happened, so I asked the trainer and he said you got headbutted!

What? headbutted? Really? After a few more minutes I was helped up, my nose was stuffed with cotton, and I saw the coach walking over to me. I remember feeling angry that this guy "wussed out of fighting me like a man"  now this guy, team captain or not he was going to get his, no coach on any team would put up with something like that. Or so I thought.

Coach walks up and he says... "Hey dummy, why did you take off your helmet?" looks at me, looks at trainer and asks "is it broken?" trainer says "nope" and says "get back to practice, no more fighting".

WOW. That was it! As soon as he saw me throw off my helmet he "leaped" into action from what I had been told. To this day, I have no recollection off the headbutt itself. Although, to date I have had two nose surgeries, LOL.

Twenty plus years later as reflect back on that incident, I realize that I lost my chance of winning that fight the moment I threw off my helmet and gave my opponent a sizable advantage over me, which he took full advantage of. That wasn't on him, it was on me.

We as Christians give our enemy a sizable advantage over us when we focus on our problems and not on God's faithfulness. I cannot begin to tell you how much of my coaching time is taken up by business leaders talking about their problems and how they are struggling. Lets face it when we hit tough times it is a natural tendency to focus on the problem and the desire to want to share it with others.

The problem with that is that it only compounds our problems, the problem with problems is not the problem itself but the length of time we suffer through that problem- that is what weakens us. Most of us are strong enough to endure for a short time but any longer than that we become stretched and despair begins to set in and we take to blaming God or others for our current situation.

The question becomes, as Christians how do we handle problems and situations that arise? How do we keep our faith in the midst of the marital problems, financial stress, low cash flow, and heath scares?

The answer lies within this scripture...

"We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony" (Rev 12:11). We must realize that the battle was won that day on Calvary through the innocent shed blood of our Savior. If we have the victory through the blood, how do we get it to manifest in our situations? First we need to realize that these problems and situations are allowed by God into our lives. We know that God will never give us more than we can handle otherwise he would be a liar..."There is no temptation, test or trial taken you but such is common to man, but God is faithful, he will not suffer you to be tested, tempted or tried beyond what you can endure but will with every temptation, test or trail make a way of escape " (1 Cor 10:13) These events are allowed to come into to our lives because they will draw us closer to God, in order to see victory we have to come to the end of our own strength so we find the beginning of Gods. We must take our focus off of our problems and place that focus or attention on the solution which is Jesus Christ. Easier said then done, right?

Our enemy would love nothing more than to have Christians holed up having a 24/7 pity party and sharing with the entire world all of their problems, why? Its very simple, if you lose your testimony, you lose your witness!


What I mean, is the single biggest reason you are still alive is because your ministry (the call of God on your life-whatever he has called you to do and be) is not finished, you still have work to do. If you spend your time focusing on your problems you have nothing left in the tank for other people.

That is important because as a Christian our lives are designed to be used as living and breathing testimonials of living victoriously through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If all we are doing is confessing our "issues" and living from one problem to another how does God get the glory from that?

Simply put, he doesn't. What God gets glory in is our faith and how we respond and draw closer to him in the middle of those storms of life. How I personally do that is to thank God for his goodness and to focus on the past answers to prayer that I have received.

How I do that is I go back and read my Answer Book. The Answer Book is something that my family and I have been doing for years. Every time we receive and answer to prayer we write the whole situation down in our Answer Book and date it. We do this to celebrate the goodness and faithfulness of God, to instruct our children in prayer and keep a record of our answers to prayer in order to use the next time those pesky storms of life flare up again.

I cannot tell you how freeing and life giving it is to go back and read our struggles from 2010 and see how God showed up and answered our prayer, it is literally a shot of faith in the arm that brings instant encouragement! Once I read the Answer Book, I just begin to thank God for his faithfulness and I always walk away lifted up because I realize that whatever problem or situation is the flavor of this month, God has brought me through worse than this. I just need to stay in Faith, confess the victory and wait patiently for the lord and  go about encouraging and blessing others in his name.

Your answer to prayer will come, I promise. Focus on God and his faithfulness, thank him in advance for your answer, if you do not already have your own Answer Book, start your own, you will not be sorry.

Once you begin to focus on God instead of your problems, your eyes will be opened and you will begin to be sensitive to the needs of others around you and you can get back to the reason you are still here... To bless and minister to those people around you who need to have the love of Jesus and the Joy of the lord that you experience daily.

This is truly where the Maturation process in our relationship with Jesus is formed, can we in the midst of our own struggles, issues and problems still allow the Holy Spirit to use us to bless other people? The young or immature Christian cannot get beyond their own issues to see the needs of others around them. They shut down, lose their fruit, stop tithing, going to church, reading their Bible and before you know it, they are living in sin and fall further away from the lord. This is one of the biggest reasons why Christianity has fallen on hard times in the world today. Too many Christians focused on themselves and caught up in the cares and worries of the world(otherwise known as the Laodicean Church spoken of in the book of Revelation 3:14).

God always shows up for his people! Creating your own Answer Book will ensure you never forget that in the future, It will help you increase your faith and witness in tough times, something all of us can use.

This guy again, really???

I have learned over the years that God has a pretty funny sense of humor. Here is how the story goes...

Back in 2012 when I was a General Manager, I hired a new sales manager based on a recommendation from someone that I really trusted at the time. It started out well enough but then after a few weeks this new sales manager began to rub me the wrong way, he was arrogant, obnoxious and a know-it-all. You know the type.

Well, it wasn't too long before Mr. Congeniality got himself in trouble with HR for putting his foot in his mouth. Before I know it we had a series of HR investigations ongoing and it was causing a major disruption to the rest of my workforce.

So I pulled the sales manager in and basically tell him to stop the insanity or else he was going the way of the DODO bird. In the midst of that conversation we began discussing his personal life and the fact that he was a born again Christian.

I begin praying for this guy and soon decide to take him under my wing to help him, so I schedule a series of one on one meetings for us to just talk about anything and everything, I really wanted to help him get some stability in his life. He had a bright future, was pretty good in sales and enjoyed teaching people.

During our first session together I begin to speak with him about God and personal relationships and the next thing I know I was being cut off and told..."You know I used to preach, my father was a preacher I know the bible from beginning to end, you don't have to tell me about Jesus".

"ummm, okay", so I tried another 3-4 times to get him to speak with me, trying to build rapport and coach him up, every single time I was met with being cut off, some rambling of "I know how to manage people, I can sell with the best of them" and misrepresentation of scripture to justify his lifestyle.

So, I stop trying and write the guy off as not coachable and eventually I initiated a transfer to another location-to let someone else deal with him. LOL. Or so I thought...

Five months later we made a strategic decision to close the location I was working in so I transferred to another location. My first day in my new location, in my office walks this same guy! Yep, he's back! Lucky me!

So, I sit him down, somehow hoping the last several months have seen a change in his personality. No such luck, the only thing that happened was he finally got a divorce and now he was "back in the game-watch out single ladies" was his direct quote. I again try to help him by talking with him about Jesus and how He expects us to live and how we treat other people. This goes the same way as last time only this time something else happens...

He begins to try and start coaching me-giving me advice on leadership, Christian principles and winning and just about everything else he can think of. LOL. He had found a small measure of success in his new location and it went right to his head and now wanted to give me (his boss) business advice. LOL.

I quit trying and begin to avoid him as much as possible as this guy is now driving me crazy!I even saw him out once on a weekend and hid behind a rack of shoes to avoid him. I know- not very mature or Christ like-my wife gave me the business over that one. Six months later, I get promoted to Region Manager and transfer to a new location. The first thing I did after thanking the Lord for the promotion was to utter a sigh of relief that I was getting away from this guy, finally!

Two months later, I am sitting in my office and in walks this same guy with a giant box. He walks right up to me, slams his box on my desk, knocks off my Ohio State Buckeyes football helmet pen holder and says..." Guess who?" I just got promoted to sales manager here and I'm in the office right across the hall!

Are you serious??? I couldn't believe it-I was angry-no way this guy again!!! I couldn't get way from him.

After I calmed myself and began to pray, The answer came... As a christian and business leader, God calls me to be the Salt and Light of this world. I don't get to choose who I minister to- God does! The people who God puts in your life are those he would have you minister to- regardless if you like them or not. This guy keeps popping up and 4 years later I still share the office next to him, because God wants me to minister to him. When that ministry is finished, God will send us in different directions.

As Christian business leaders we can get preoccupied and distracted with so many things, that we fail to slow down and realize that People mean more to God than anything. After all He sent his son to die on the cross for people. The people in your life right now, family, friends, business associates, customers, vendors, etc. are placed in your life at this moment for a specific reason. Whether you want to punch them in the face or not. Whether they are rude or not, it doesn't matter. The people we want to most avoid are the people that God wants us to minister to the most-you see God knows just how to stretch us.

God uses the foolish in this life to confound the wise. This is so like God- he loves and has a special place in his heart for the people the rest of the world throw away, the people we deem obnoxious, the uncool people or the ones who don't measure up to our level of success or sophistication.You know who these people are-God personally sees to it that you have a few of them in your life right now! Trust Me.

God wants to use you to draw them closer to him. Once I received this revelation and repented, and I figured out why this guy was still hanging around it freed me up, I began to see him in a different light, I no longer see him as obnoxious but I see him as a guy who needs to see the love of Jesus through me. It vastly improved our relationship. He hasn't changed a bit-last week he gave a motivational book and told me to read it. I am a National Sales Director and he is a Sales Manager, LOL, but I have changed in the way that I now see him and view our relationship.

Who has God placed in your life to minister to? How can you better display the love Jesus to that person? For all of the Christians who live and thrive in the business world, our ministry is to these people who surround us everyday while we are conducting business to show them how to live a victorious life in Christ and model for them daily how a Christian should live. Once they see that what you have is genuine, they will want it too! Guaranteed!

People will come and go into our lives but our goal as Followers of our Lord Jesus Christ should be to leave each and every one of them better than when we found them, while we have them. It is our opportunity to impact this world for Jesus, the whole reason that we as Christians still live and breathe.

Whose life this next week, will you commit to bringing closer to our lord through your ministry? And who will you leave better than when you found them?

The Letterman's Jacket

It was a chilly afternoon in February, 1990. I was busy cleaning out my locker, just the day before I had finished off my freshman year of wrestling. I had a solid season I went 38-6 with 29 pins, I was very excited as the next day we had our Annual Wrestling banquet where I was going to officially be awarded a Varsity Letter in Wrestling.

Now you have to understand back then being a varsity Letterman and wearing that Letterman's jacket meant that you had arrived, other guys would be jealous, girls would fall over themselves to hang out with you, it literally meant that you were "in". Any Sophomore, Junior and Senior would have given just about anything to win a letter and sport that jacket.

However; I was a Freshman and not yet attending the high school, our high schools back in those days ran grades 10-12, I was still in Junior high one year away from attending. So you see where I am going with this, right?

I was literally about to become an icon, a man among boys, a legend. No Freshman prior to this had ever lettered in a varsity sport in my school. I had been picturing it in my mind all season long, had dreamed about and talked about, I visited the sporting goods store numerous times to make sure they had my size, "oh boy was this going to be great".

Then, it happened! As as I placing my headgear into my bag, Coach Mortan walked by and asked if he could see me in his office, I followed him to his office and sat down. What happened next was pretty much a blur and all of these many years later most of the conversation still escapes me except the following words..." You had a great freshman year and bright future in front of you however; I will not be giving you a letter at Tomorrow night's award banquet, we don't award Varsity letters to Freshman",

At that point, I went numb, I reminded the coach that I had 50 letter points based on wins, pins, tournament placing etc. and to qualify all I needed was 40 points. He said it didn't matter, awarding a varsity letter to me would demean the program and all of the upperclassman who had been with the program for several years who still had not earned their varsity letters.  He apologize and told me to keep my head up and there was always next season.

I was devastated, I ran all the way home, slammed my door and just started crying. I laid there for the next several hours on my waterbed (they were very popular back then) and finally fell asleep. I woke up about 3 AM still devastated and quite bitter. All I could think about was everyone was expecting me to walk into school Monday with that Letterman's jacket- what a loser I was!

Then literally no more than a few seconds later I had this flashback to when I was in the church the previous week. I had this remembrance of a saying that I had heard my mom say thousands of times about how Jesus loves us and wants a personal relationship with us. But this past Sunday she said that God is a gentleman and will never force himself upon someone or into any situation but that he stands at the door and waits for us to invite him in.

I was 15 years old, I had grown up going to church but at this point in my life, we went because we had to, plus my Mother was the Senior Pastor and we lived in the church Parsonage which was right next door to the church so was it wasn't open for debate. LOL.

I grew up in Sunday School and knew all of the Bible stories but didn't really care, I was too busy having fun and screwing around with my friends.

At this point, it was about 4am and I was desperate, so I decided that I was going to pray and here was my exact prayer..."Lord, I always hear my mother talk about how wonderful you are and how you desire to have a relationship with us and that care even about the smallest details of our lives, so I am asking that if you do exist, I am want to make you a deal tonight... "If you give me my Varsity Wrestling Letter tomorrow night I will spend the rest of my life serving you and telling everybody about how great you are".


Immediately after uttering that prayer, I called myself an "idiot" and cried myself back to sleep. The next day was the worst day of my life up to that point. I dreaded the banquet that night and just felt sad and like such a loser.

When the banquet time arrived I was filled with butterflies, and just knew I wasn't getting my letter, I sat there for the next two hours while stories and special moments from the season were shared, video clips were being played and I just sat there literally biting my lip so I would not cry, I was devastated.

After all the awards and letters were handed out the coach took to the microphone and said..." I have only more thing to give out and I would like to award freshman _____ _________ with his Varsity letter! Wait-What??? I looked up and couldn't believe it! Did he just say it? He motioned for me to come up there and get it- I slowly walked up there in somewhat of a daze- did this really just happen? Coach looked at me shrugged his should and said..."I woke up at 4 in the morning and couldn't sleep, wrestling with this decision, congratulations!".

As I sat in the car on the way home still numb, I kept replaying these events in my head... No way I got that letter- this coach never goes back on anything he says, ever! Then it hit me, It wasn't coach-It was Jesus! He woke up at 4am , the exact time I made my deal with the lord, I immediately told my mom the whole story and what exactly happened. She told me that God had a specific plan and purpose for my life that one day he would reveal it to me but in the meantime, I needed to thank him.

Upon arriving home I sat my letter on my desk and began to thank the lord for answering my prayer and giving me my letter. As I was doing that I had a very strong impression/feeling that God was going to hold me to our deal, as a matter of fact, that is exactly what I heard in a strange sort of way-not an audible voice per say but a strange inner knowing from deep within side of me.

Less than a few months later at Summer camp, I invited Jesus into my heart and became a Christian and its crazy but literally during my confession and praying the sinner's prayer, I had a vision of exactly what happened that night that I made the deal with the lord about my varsity letter and I was reminded that I promised God that I would spend the rest of my life serving him and telling others about him.

That was over 25 years years ago and every so often that same night and deal that I made with God comes up when I am praying. After all this time, I am still amazed, that the same God who created the Heavens and the Earth, The same God who parted the Red Sea, The same God who delivered Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the the Fiery Furnace is the same God who hears and answers our small, insignificant prayers. WOW.

But don't you see? To a God who loves us and desires a personal relationship with us, our prayers are not insignificant. The Bible says in Job 22.27 "Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and he shall hear thee". God promises us in his word that he will hear our prayers.

I am amazed as I travel throughout this country and speak with sales and business leaders who look at me crazy when I ask them if they pray over their sales, businesses and employees. "Why would I do that?" is the question that I am often asked. My reply is always..."Why wouldn't you?".

This is where we miss it- God wants to be invited into every area of our lives...our marriages, homes, finances, businesses, sales transactions, etc.

When we invite God in, we invite his blessing, favor, wisdom and protection. Why would we not want those things in every area of our lives?

I want to challenge all of you this week to personally invite God into a new area of your life where you have not invited him before-finances, marriage, other relationships, business, sales, any area. Or maybe you have an area that you have not invited God in for some time that has been on your heart.

In my 20 years in the business world I have seen God move mightily in my business, I have seen God change hearts, increase sales, reduce cancels, drive EBIDTA margins into 200% flow through on additional Revenue, calm storms from arrogant CEO's, and so much more. God has been free to move because everyday I invite him into my business and everyday just like that night over 25 years ago with my varsity letter He doesn't know how to be anything but faithful. I love Jesus!

I am attaching a photo of the Varsity Letter that I received that night for your enjoyment.

"For the Eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole Earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward him".

The best tasting Pretzels ever!

It was April, 1996 and I was standing in an airplane bathroom on a NWA flight from Minneapolis, MN to New
York City on my way to Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, when we hit some crazy turbulence that literally created a mini panic on board and forced me to rush back to my seat.

While rushing back to my seat and trying to squeeze myself in I caught the back of the armbar of the seat in front of me and it caused a deep, lacerating gash about 2 inches long in my side, ripping right through my shirt.

I love to fly but I also hate to fly. Here is why... I very much enjoy people watching and traveling to different places and being on the go, but the thing I dread most is the tiny little coach seat. The good lord did not seem fit to give me the fastest metabolism in the world- a slight understatement.

I have a 22 inch neck and wear a 56R Suit Jacket! I like to think of myself as big boned or husky- but never fat. Actually I am just  big guy- I played Football and wrestled in College- so there!

Needless to say, in a coach seat, I get very uncomfortable, break out into a sweat and it is just a miserable experience for me and not to mention the poor soul unlucky enough to the seat next door. Now I fit in the seat and can put the arm rest down and buckle up- but that leaves me zero room to breathe and if the person in the row in front of my puts down their seat I'm really screwed. This particular trip I was with a group of folks from our church in North Dakota going on a mission trip. Keep in mind this was the DR before the DR became a world class tourist destination.

When you live in North Dakota, you have one flight option, fly out of Fargo to Minneapolis and to your destination, this trip was about 5 hours each way- a complete nightmare when your crammed in your seat, bleeding with a gash in the your side trying to find a happy place in your mind to prevent yourself from flipping out. I mean after all, this was a mission trip, I was here for the Gory of God to be a support and blessing to impoverished people in a remote jungle village, how christian would it be to flip out on a plane? LOL. That flight was brutal!

Well, we finally made it to the DR and I feel sick with a 102 fever the second I got off the plane, The flight and two hour bus ride through jungle literally made me sick for the first two days I was there. On day three I was feeling much better and we got to the business at hand which was scouting the area to find people hungry to show the "Jesus Movie". We were very blessed and led by the lord to find a small tiny village in the middle of the jungle that had a place where we could show the film.

Shortly after we watched the film, we met a very very young man, his wife and infant child. The man's name was Pastor Mao and he came from a nearby village when word traveled the "Gringos" were showing a movie. After spending some time with Mao he invited us to his home a short 3 mile walk in the jungle away :).

Upon arriving at Mao's home, I soon discovered it was an old, vacant building with only half of a roof and a door that did not close all of the way. We asked how he got here and he told us the story on how he believed that God sent him to this remote village and wanted him to start a church in this jungle community, We asked if he had any money and what were his plans, his response was that God was going to send "gringos" to him from a far away place to help build his church. Interesting, huh?

We were the first and only "Gringos" that were coming. After a time of prayer and deliberation, our pastor decided that we would help Mao build his church, so we made plans to return on a future date.

Shortly before we left, Mao asked if he could pray for us, while we were praying I felt an incredibly strong urge to give him some money out of my own pocket, I decided to give him $50 which in DR pesos was big coin, but I kept having this sense that I should give more "everything you have in your pocket" was what I was sensing. That would be crazy all the money I had left for the trip??? We still had two days left, plus $250 was a lot of money. What would I do with no money? It would be in poor taste to borrow, right? The sense that I should give him everything I had came again and I recognized it as a leading from God-so i did it, I gave him every last cent I had all $250.

At this time in my life I was fairly new in my walk in the lord and was just learning how to hear his still, small voice, so it took him getting my attention a few times.

Fast forward 24 hours later and we had one day left on the island before we flew home and all I could think about was the dreaded flight home and how miserable I was going to be. Literally I was up all night worrying about it. So I prayed and asked the lord to intervene for me.

The day of fight home arrived and I was walking up the steps to the plane, as I was headed back to the coach section, I handed my ticket to the flight attendant (back them you gave them your ticket on the plane) she grabbed me by the arm and asked me where I was going? I told her to my seat and she said your ticket has been upgraded you are in row 10-D. This is a first class ticket, sir! I couldn't believe it, all of the uneasiness that I was sure that I was destined for over the next 5 hours had me so rattled I never even bothered to look at the ticket until that exact moment!!! I looked down at my ticket and it said 10-D, I was the only person in our group to be upgraded to first class, I had no status, no frequent flyer miles, nothing.

As I sat down in my seat, I suddenly had that same feeling and urge that came over me only a few days before when praying with Mao that asked me to give him all of the money I had left and this time, A simple sentence come up from the inside of my inner being and here is what I heard...

"You can't out-give the lord, I know how to take care of my own!". WOW! God set me up, he wanted to bless Mao and used me to do it, this first class upgrade was his way of saying that he loved me, he heard the cry of my heart and despair that I felt about flying in the coach seat on the way home and like any good father, he wanted to bless me. He heard and answered my prayer.

One of my favorite versus in all of the Bible says..."The eyes of the lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those who hearts are perfect towards him".

God desires to show himself strong on your behalf, he wants to be invited into your marriage, your business deals, your sales meetings he stands at the door and wants patiently, looking for that invitation that can only come from you. What are you waiting for? Invite God into every area of your life-I promise you will never regret it! I don't!

Five minutes after I sat down in my first class seat, the stewardess came by and handed me a bag of pretzels, they were the best tasting Pretzels that I ever had. As a matter of fact, I kept that pretzel bag and that day placed it in my Bible where it has been sitting for the last 20 years, as a reminder of the faithfulness of  God. I have pulled that bag out often over the years as a fresh reminder that Jesus Rocks! You can see the picture of it on this blog.

Jesus is the man!

He totally answered my prayer!

I am month two into a new promotion. I am a National Sales Director in my company. We are currently in the middle of a large merger with a competitor, so things in the company are crazy and there is an incredible amount of pressure to hit our 2016 EBIDTA target (nothing new in business right?, LOL). However; this year we are really struggling in our sales efforts, so much in fact we are several million dollars down in how we track sales.

My new sales team has averaged a sales rep turnover rate of over 300% a year for the last 3 years. Out of the 75 Sales Managers on our team over 30 have been in their current position less than 18 months and only 12 have been sales managers for 3 years or longer.

Needless to say we have missed our weekly sales numbers every week since I have been in the role. Now, most people in sales and business understand that you cannot use a new, inexperienced sales team as a reason or excuse for missing your numbers, not if you want to be taken serious or keep your job very long. It doesn't matter if it is true or not. This is the corporate world with a highly demanding Private Equity Firm ownership that wants a return on their investment and will not accept anything that interferes with that.

 The pressure that I have felt in missing these sales numbers over the last two months has been immense to say the least. I get the regular emails and comments like" When are we going to hit a sales number" and things like "your whole division is sinking the company". Last week I was dressed down on a conference call by an executive in front of my peers for giving our sales team the Fourth of July Saturday off to spend with their families. This gentleman is actually a pretty solid guy and I like him, he is just under a high amount of pressure to deliver a big number so I don't take it personally.You cant in sales or business-if you take it personally the "Jungle" out there will destroy you.

 Our sales team has worked 6 days a week and almost every Saturday in 2016 and has averaged at 40 working Saturdays a year over the last 3 years. They deserved the time off and we gave it to them.

The calls and emails had been coming with more and more regularity (almost daily now) and the pressure continues to heat up. It reached a boiling point this past week when I was asked to submit yet another email asking why we aren't making up any sales ground and helping to sink the company's sales number. I truly feel like I went from the penthouse where I was performing very well, over budget in every category and trending for a potential six figure bonus at the end of the year to the outhouse where I couldn't hit a sales number to save my life.

How could this have happened? Where did I go wrong? How could I have been foolish enough to accept this position? I had it so good, working 15 miles from home, a solid team, well respected in my field, etc.  As a Christian, I believe promotion comes from the lord, why would God allow me to walk away from a position of comfort and success to one of constant stress and pressure? The answer is simple..."To drive me closer to him". God knows the stress and pressure (circumstances) would drive me to my knees in prayer to seek his guidance and support. 

None of us like going through trial by fire, but it is in the midst of those refining flames that God molds and chips away our selfishness, arrogance, worldliness and it forces us to our knees where we find the end of our own strength so we can come to the beginning of his!

Yes, friends this refining takes place as much in the business world and marketplace as it does in personal financial matters, health and relationships. Our God knows exactly how to grad our attention!

It worked, this past week as I sat in the Airport awaiting my flight home, all I could think about after a long week was the Friday conference call that would have me report out my weekly sales results that were horrible. This was the same call just a week earlier I was called out on the carpet for giving my sales team Saturday off. I asked the lord for grace and strength to get through the rest of this week and his favor and blessing over my company, my boss, my sales reps and our sales performance. Shortly after I boarded my two hour flight for home.

The next day around 10AM, I received an email notifying me that our weekly sales call had been cancelled due to a conflict with another call. Bam!!!! God heard my prayer from the day before and answered it! I literally jumped out of desk and did the fist pump in the air and was very excited and immediately thanked him for his favor and goodness.

Now some people would say, this is pure coincidence or happen stance-That would have happened if you prayed or not. ABSOLUTELY WRONG! This was God answering my prayer out of his goodness and confirming his word that says..."All things are possible to him who believes" and "Victory rests with the lord"! When you are a Christian and I have been for 26 years-nothing just happens-everything in our lives as Christians is father filtered and happens for a reason both good and bad.

I am so glad I serve a loving God who longs for and stands ready to have a personal relationship with me daily. A God who cares about the minute details of my life(even if it is as insignificant as a sales conference call), the God who loved us so much he sent his only son to die on a cross for ours sins. Amazing! Over the last 26 years of serving God I have seen many miracles and answers to prayer in both my personal life as well as my business life.

That is exactly what this blog is about- sharing the good news of a God who desires to show himself strong on behalf of his people and to encourage those who need to hear a story like this while they remain steadfast and wait for their miracle or answer to prayer!

I hope you have been encouraged by this post. My goal is to post every week. Thanks.