Tag Archive - Love

Lessons From Fruit Ninja

Keeping with my life lessons from ____ posts (read those here & here), I thought I’d give Fruit Ninja a try.

If you’ve never played Fruit Ninja, the concept is quite simple. Fruit flies up from the bottom of the screen and you have to use your finger to slice the fruit before it goes back down off the screen. Occasionally, you get other stuff flying that isn’t fruit… it’s important that you don’t slice this stuff. If you do, the game is over. The object is to slice as much fruit as possible. That being said, here are 3 lessons we can learn from this addictive mobile phone game…

1. Know Your Target.

In Fruit Ninja, your target is the fruit. In life, we have to learn what our target (or calling) is. If we spend our time chasing everything that comes across as an opportunity, chances are, we don’t achieve anything. We have to know what we were meant to do. Where our passions lie and where our gifts are help determine what our target is. Of course, ultimately, we have to hear God speak and tell us our target.

2. Know Your Method.

When playing Fruit Ninja, the method is slicing. Touching the screen with your finger does not good, you have to make a slicing motion. In life or ministry, we have to pursue our target with the right method. It’s not just enough to know where we’re going, we have to have a plan and a strategy for getting there.

3. Know Your Limits.

Playing Fruit Ninja means you don’t slice anything but the fruit. If you try to do too much, the game is over. In life, leadership, and ministry, it’s much the same way. We all have limits. It doesn’t matter how talented or gifted we are, we’ll eventually run out if we don’t limit ourselves on what we do and how much time we spend doing it. It’s important that we take regular times to get away, recharge, and retreat.

If you’ve played Fruit Ninja, what can you learn?

LEGALISM: My Recovery From This Addiction

I don’t know when it started, I just remember when God spoke directly to me and told me it was wrong.

You see, I’m a recovering legalist.

There was a time in my life when I used to think it was up to me to do all the right things. To have more check marks than x marks on my list of do’s.

I’d even see people who were doing things and think about how much better I was because I wasn’t doing them.

It wasn’t like I didn’t have issues. It was just that mine weren’t as easy to see, weren’t as easy to point out. I’d see someone doing something in public that I thought was wrong and think about how much better I was because no one saw my junk.

What I came to realize is that many of these things weren’t undeniably wrong, they were just my way of judging and getting a leg up on others.

It took me some time, but I finally came to realize that God isn’t keeping score to see if He loves me or not, that’s already a given.

What He does care about is that I’m surrendered to Him, that I seek hard after Him.

Ultimately, I had to realize that God just wants me. Not my deeds, not my perfection, just me.

It’s freed me beyond explanation. What I do now, instead of trying to see another’s sins, I seek to be like Jesus.

The actions will come with it.

I’m Jonathan and im a recovering legalist.

Are you?

4 Questions

1. What’s your favorite kind of pie?

2. What’s the name of 1 person that you look up to?

3. What’s one exciting thing happening or that has happened in your life?

4. How often do you wash your car?

Forfeiting for “Just Once” – The Power of 1

Many of us are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of texting while driving.
Not only does it put us in danger when we do it, but it puts others in danger as well… innocent others.

  • 20 percent of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving.
  • Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.
  • Using a cell phone use while driving, whether it’s hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.
  • Of those killed in distracted-driving-related crashed, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (18% of fatalities in distraction-related crashes).

Distraction.gov

Those are some pretty alarming numbers.
That should scare us enough to never use our phone while we’re driving ever, EVER, EVER again.

But you know what….

I still do it.

Not as often as I once did,
but I still send the occasional text message while driving.

You may be thinkin, “Dude! That’s stupid.”

That’s exactly my point.
It makes no sense for me to risk my life for one text message.

But many people risk their lives & future everyday on one…..

  • Habit.
  • Inappropriate relationship.
  • Avoided doctor visit.
  • Unethical business deal.

It’s easy for us to think, “Just one ____.”

But often one turns into many.

Don’t risk your future on one moment….

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.) Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

Genesis 25:29-34

8 on 8′s – YOU

How to Not Be Average

What separates the successful people from the average people is the gap between dreaming and doing.

The successful person closes the gap.
The average person ignores the gap.

The successful person takes the chance.
The average person plays it safe.

Average people…

  • Talk about what needs to be changed.
  • Have self proclaimed solutions to problems.
  • Can tell others how to fix what’s wrong.
  • Figure out solutions to issues that they see.
  • Dream about what could be if they ever had enough _____.

Successful people…

  • Dream up solutions and do everything they can to see it happen.
  • See a problem and fix it themselves.
  • Sit in a meeting, leave, and do something with what they’ve envisioned.
  • Don’t criticize how others are doing something because they’re busy doing what they do.
  • Use their passion to make a difference.

Which are you?

Looks Like Forgiveness

We talk a lot about forgiveness this time of the year…
for good reason.

For those of us that have received the forgiveness of Christ,
we really have no excuse not to forgive others.

But I have to admit,
I struggle with forgiveness.

I struggle to let go of things when people hurt those that are closest to me and dearest to my heart.

It’s always more of a struggle for me to forgive when it’s someone close to me that’s hurting than when someone has hurt me directly.

I tend to want to protect those that are closest to me…even more than myself.

And so I battle to forgive.
To forgive others and to not let bitterness harbor in my heart.

I’ve come to realize that forgiveness usually requires an action.

Sure, we have to deal with forgiving others on a personal level with God, but it usually requires we take action to move past the hurt with the person that caused it in the first place.

  • We reach out to them even though they may not deserve it.
  • We pray for them to be blessed and see growth.
  • We take the first step to repair the relationship.

Forgiveness usually requires action…it usually looks like something.

For Jesus it looked like a cross, 3 nails, and an empty tomb.

Where does forgiveness start for you?

What does forgiveness look like from a practical standpoint for your life situation?

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