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Daily Attitude Email 01 18 18

Tomorrow is Meaghan’s birthday, so I am resending this daily attitude email from her birthday last year.

Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you! – Dr. Seuss

Since today is Meaghan’s birthday it seemed appropriate to share one of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes from “The Birthday Book.”

Birthdays are a great chance to celebrate all of the great things that make someone special.

For those of you who don’t know, Meaghan is the MOST special.

Being married to Meaghan is one of the best things to ever happen to me and her birthday is a great reminder of just how lucky I am.

In the hope of not turning this into an email about the many reasons that Meaghan is the coolest I’ll share a lesson I’ve learned from hanging around her for all these years.

Loving her makes me want to do and be better.

Part of the reason love is so powerful is that we are motivated to move beyond ourselves.

Seek this out in your life.

Make it a point to look for love. To look for more opportunities to love others.

It’s out there. I’m convinced of it.

Looking for it is the first step.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 01 17 18

Get excited that you can make yourself do the little things that will change your life. – Jim Rohn

I was listening to a talk from a former Navy SEAL talking about how motivation comes and goes. Feelings come and go. But discipline can be built and can always be there.

Jim Rohn shares the same message.

Discipline can be built.

One small step at a time.

Get excited about the opportunity to do the little things that will change your life.

Start little.

Build confidence.

Get a streak going.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 01 16 18

God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

And thank God that he does, otherwise he might not have much to work with.

I’m thankful for and often surprised that someone (or multiple someones) would read these daily emails from me.

I’m far from perfect.

In fact, I have quite a lot to work on.

Each day is a reminder that without God’s help, I would not be able to get very far.

Each day is also a reminder that with God’s help I can’t lose.

I don’t have to be perfect or brilliant or handsome or whatever.

My job is to be the best version of me, doing whatever God asks of me.

My job is to lean in to the small whispers that say “try this” or “say that” or “go here”.

My hope is that when I do, I lighten the load of another – even the tiniest bit counts.

My hope is that you can do the same.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 01 15 18

Resending this previous post in honor of Martin Luther King Day tomorrow.

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well. – Martin Luther King Jr.

This is one of my favorite quotes.

Not only because of the truth and inspiration we can gain from it, but also because of the example set by the person who said it.

Imagine living in that time, amidst all of that tension and strife, and having the strength of character to tell people to sweep streets as if they were sweeping the streets of heaven.

His audience was quite literally living through hell on earth and he inspired them to be and do their best in every scenario.

This message seems particularly appropriate this election and political season.

Take this message to heart today (and every day).

Do your best with what is in front of you.

Love and serve those around you with all you’ve got.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 1 11 18

Nobody escapes being wounded. We are all wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not ‘How can we hide our wounds?’ so we don’t have to be embarrassed, but ‘How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?’ When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers. – Henri Nouwen

This quote reminded me of why our “attitude” is so important.

The difference between the two attitudes described is night and day.

One leads to a life of shame and regret, the other to fulfillment and meaning.

We are all imperfect.

We are all wounded.

We all have a choice about how to respond.

My hope for you today is that you choose to use your imperfections and wounds to serve others. Not in a general sense, but in a real and specific way. Today. Not some time in the future after you get it all sorted out.

Reach out.

Be a friend.

Be of service to someone.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 01 09 18

Below is the prayer of Oscar Romero.

I particularly liked these few lines towards the end:

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an

opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

So much of our fretting and worrying come from trying to control our fate and to do more than our “step along the way”.

I hope that each of you find peace today as you go about your day. The peace of knowing that the Lord will take care of the rest.

Make it a great day.

Jake

The Prayer of Oscar Romero –

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent

enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of

saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an

opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master

builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Daily Attitude Email 01 08 18

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." [The Minotaur]” ― Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

Introspection is another one of those tricky double edged swords in life.

I think of it like looking in a mirror.

If you don’t take a few moments to look in the mirror before leaving for work in the morning, you might just show up disheveled.

But if you spend an hour in the morning staring into the mirror getting every piece of clothing on just right, you just missed an hour of your day.

We all need to take time to look honestly at the mirrors in our lives (our relationships, our bank accounts, the mirror, the scale) and make the necessary course corrections to get where we want to go. We need to deeply understand ourselves in order to make the most of our strengths in service to others.

But we need to spend more of our time focused outwardly. Looking for others in need of service, in need of the love and warmth that only we can bring.

We weren’t created for ourselves. We were created for service to others. We need to look inward to find out what kind of service, but we need to look out to serve.

Make it a great day.

Jake