Think like Toys R US

Martin Luther wrote, “Christ is the kind of person who is not ashamed of sinners—in fact, he even puts them in his family tree! Now if the Lord does that here, so ought we to despise no one … but put ourselves right in the middle of the fight for sinners and help them.”


I think we all agree with Martin Luther’s quote. Jesus came to this earth to save sinners, and He did it by aggressively inserting himself into our world. Jesus knew that the best way to reach sinners was to bring God’s love to them, to reach out to the hopeless and give them hope. The business world understands that if you want to reach people with your products, you can’t wait till they come to you, you must go to them if you want to be successful. Please read the following article from Mae Anderson:

“Toys "R" Us will be reaching out to you soon. Due to the economic downturn and tough competition, the toy chain has started to change their strategy. Specifically, in 2010 Toys "R" Us plans to "invade" shopping malls around the country by opening 600 express stores and hiring 10,000 part-time seasonal employees. Rather than waiting for customers to come to their traditional stores, they are finding ways to reach out. It's all part of their big vision to share their products with the world. According to CEO Gerald Storch, "We've been very aggressive [about reaching people] during the economic downturn, and this is another aggressive action." Spurred on by last year's success, they're not asking, "How can we survive this year?" Instead, they're trying to make an impact by asking, "How big can we make this?" It's an impressive display of creative, visionary thinking about how to reach people where they're at.”

In life, business, and in church we are never successful when we sit and wait for people to come to us. That is why the great commission doesn’t say “Sit and wait for the world to come to you”, instead it says “Go into all the world”. As a new year begins, let us commit to follow the example of Jesus by reaching out to sinners and sharing with them the truth, love, and grace of God. Merry Christmas & Get - R Done!

I Passed a Runner!

Back in June of 2009 I began to run about 3 to 4 times a week. I started because as a minister I visit a lot of people in hospitals who are in poor health and live with regret over how they have neglected their health over the years. Anyway I have really enjoyed running, I’m not a crazy runner, in fact I only run about two to three miles each time. I’m not looking to run any marathons, but if you need a running partner in a 5-K I’m all for it. You are going to laugh at me now, because I am going to brag, Stacy and were running yesterday and we did something we have never done before, we passed another runner who was going the same direction we were. That never happens; we pass walkers all the time, but never runners. In fact we are often passed by “real” runners; you know the ones who run in triathlons and marathons. Anyway we were proud of ourselves, we finally passed another runner!

Achievements no matter how small they are can be quite satisfying! The truth is, if it wasn’t for my wife I wouldn’t be running, she got me into it, and now I love it. She started about four months ahead me; her new found excitement and continued example was too powerful for me to ignore. Before I knew it, I wanted to be part of what she was doing, and now I love running too. There are things in life we do, that we are passionate about, and that happened because we were influenced by someone else’s passion and example. See where I’m going with this?

As God’s children our passion and example or lack thereof is witnessed by the world. When we live connected to the Father we display a wonderful life that others notice. Right now someone is watching you (hopefully not in a stalker way), what do they see? People that know me know that I love Texas football, that I enjoy running, but do they know that I am a follower of Jesus? I hope so, I hope that I have not hidden that passion so deep that my love for God is a mystery. People know I run because I share (blurt out) small victories like when I passed another runner yesterday. My goal is to start sharing; blurting out the victories that God gives me each day. If I keep doing that, eventually someone will get the idea that this guy not only loves running, and Texas football, but he really loves God.

Stay tuned for my next running article called “I Love Cushlon!!!”

I have no pictures of me running, but here is one of me throwing a football. 
It is the most athletic picture of me that I have.