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Overboard Blog

Living the extraordinary life of faith!

Filtering by Tag: intentionality

3 thoughts about living in the moment

joeacast

Can you relate to this video? Do you know someone in your life that reminds you of the people in this 2-minute mini-movie?  

In our efforts to live our big dreams, it can be easy to forget to enjoy the process of reaching our God-sized goals. There are so many precious moments along the journey of an Overboard Life, moments that capture God’s love, encourage broken hearts, lift fallen spirits, bring smiles, create laughter, instill hope and strengthen faith, and it’s so easy to miss these moments because we quit looking. Our vision can become so narrow and so focused, that we miss what God is doing all around us.

 

I hope you are chasing big dreams and goals in 2014, trying to write an even better story than you wrote in 2013. But as you do, don’t forget to enjoy the journey, and to live in the ‘now moments’ that God has graciously given you to enjoy. Here are three thoughts for you about enjoying the journey today, while you work toward something bigger tomorrow!

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  1. Take time each day, maybe once at lunch and once before bed, to write down the great moments from the day. Every day has great moments. Yes, every day. It could come in the form of a free lunch, an encouraging text or note at just the right time, a verse God gave you to get you through a tough time or through some act of service you performed or was performed for you. Every day has moments where the love and goodness of God is evident on the journey we’re on. Take time each day to record those moments and you will find yourself happier along the way.
  2. Intentionally choose to serve others, every day. Sometimes when life is throwing us curveball after curveball, it’s easy to turn our focus entirely inward. We begin to think only about ourselves, our circumstances and the lousy day/week/month we’re having. Take time every day to serve someone else. Take time to intentionally make someone else’s day. It could be a spouse, a child, a co-worker, parent, boss, neighbor, pastor or stranger. By shifting the focus from your circumstances and pursuits, to the circumstances and pursuits of others, you’ll find your own journey is more enjoyable. The first few verses of Philippians 2 tell us that Jesus chose to keep others [you and me!] in his vision while He lived on earth. So He served us, while obeying the Father, when He went to the cross to pay for our sin and brokenness. What was the result? According to Hebrews 12:3, it was joy! Focused service on others helps us enjoy the journey and it’s amazing how often you’ll serve others and find you reach your own destination more quickly!
  3. Put down the technology and look around you. I’m not trying to oversimplify this, but our technology driven culture often misses great moments, ironically, in an attempt to capture them digitally. Traci and I were in Hawaii a few years ago and I was obsessed with getting pics of this beautiful sunset we were watching. I wanted to create that perfect Instagram that people would love. After 20 or 30 pics, I nailed it. Only problem? My poor wife wanted to enjoy this romantic moment with her husband sitting beside her. She was hoping to just lean against him as they both relished the beauty of God’s paintbrush while the sun dipped below the horizon. I “captured the moment” on my phone, but totally missed it in life. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to -- I knew I blew it. I made sure the next night was a photo free romantic sunset night -- and I just enjoyed the moment for what it was, not for the comments I’d get on my picture. I’m a techno-geek and love how my life iLife is connected and interconnected. But just like the video above, it can be so easy to “connect” with a facebook audience while totally missing the people right next to you; I mean, literally, the people who are physically right next to you. People in the same house, same room or even sitting at the same table. Put down the tech, and look up -- you’ll see some great moments happening all around you, and you’ll still have plenty of time to take that pic or capture that video.

 

What are some ways you’ve enjoyed the journey? Got some other thoughts about this? Please share them in the comments and let others know how you enjoy the moments you are living in!

 

Go ahead and take the plunge, your journey is always better on the water!

5 Key Phrases for Remarkable Living (1 of 5)

joeacast

Mediocrity is unacceptable” I’m reading, Platform, by Michael Hyatt, and came across this great quote:

“The truth is, mediocrity is natural. You don’t have to do anything to drift there. It just happens.”

That statement is true whether you’re talking about writing books, building houses, teaching children, preaching on Sundays, cleaning bathrooms or changing diapers. Mediocrity is easy and requires zero effort on our part.

Living the Overboard life means you and I must believe (and therefore act) that mediocre living is unacceptable.

That’s really the heart of the my latest book, Project Nehemiah: Making your life truly remarkable. Overboard living doesn’t happen by accident. It doesn’t happen because you’ve read a lot of books on how to make your life meaningful. Overboard living -- living the life of faith out on the water where Jesus is building His Kingdom, instead of in the comfort of the boat -- demands intentional excellence.

But I’m convinced that intentional excellence begins when we determine that mediocrity is unacceptable. We may not always know each step of the journey when we start out, and we may not always grasp the magnitude of the climb we embark on, but each of us knows, feels, the failure of mediocrity when we encounter it.

When I was in college, I worked on a project with two friends that involved the explanation and demonstration of how a fire extinguisher works. We did a lot of research, interviewed some experts and then developed a plan for our presentation. It was my job to actually pick up a working fire extinguisher and I had decided it would be cool to light something on fire, and then put it out using the device after our thorough presentation.

I checked out some options for my big fire, and realized there were some obstacles to making this happen. I didn’t even try to find a solution and in the end, after the wonderful presentation by my two classmates, I held up a fire extinguisher, demonstrated it’s fine features, and set it back down unused. Despite the humor I used to offset my mediocrity, I knew I didn’t earn my part of the “A” the professor gave our team.

To this day, I wish I had worked out a way to do a live demonstration of that fire extinguisher. Doing my mediocre part, however, was easy. I settled because I wasn’t committed to something better. I hadn’t determined that mediocrity was unacceptable, and so drifting there was simple.

Overboard living begins when, in faith, we step out in action and choose to reject mediocrity. No matter what other options you and I face, we must start be declaring that mediocrity is unacceptable. Once the mediocre choices are taken off the board, whatever else is left, regardless of the obstacles that may come with those choices, are the options we must pursue.

Think about your journey right now. Are you in the midst of some tough choices? Start here: take the mediocre decisions off the table. As you look at your options, determine that mediocrity is unacceptable, and as you do, the choices that demand intentional excellence will come into clarity. You may not know what the next move is, but you will know what it isn’t.

This five part series will give you five phrases that are key concepts in remarkable living. Are you ready to live Overboard? If so, mediocrity is unacceptable.

Go ahead and take the plunge, life is always better on the water!