Chris Vonada's Blog, page 15

Is Pinterest For Authors? Sharing The Experience…

I started doing Pinterest recently. Well, you know what I mean, right? Why? I tried it out to see how useful it is as a marketing tool. Is Pinterest for authors? So I’ve been doing it for a while now, about 3 months… let’s say I’ve got my feet wet… now what?

Now, how can I use Pinterest as a tool to help me publicize my writing? I’m still learning, but here’s what I found out so far:

- As a new author, I have to make myself known. I need to be real and let (some of) it hang out. That way, when people see me and are curious who I am, then can take a look. Pinterest does this for me as I am creating exposure that my blog, Twitter and Google + feeds do not. I’m creating places of interest, like for My Books and for Favorite Quotes.

- I use Pinterest for inspiration. 15 minutes a day. Max! I don’t hang out. I go there in the evening, not during the workday. I have some neat-o boards… “The Far Side”, “I

- The P is a place where I can develop connections. I found Radical Mentoring there (or Reggie found me, that is!). Here’s another P-erson that I’ve noticed has good vibes going on… Linda Freeman. There are plenty more!

Would I advise you to use Pinterest? Depends…

Stick your head in the toilet and flush? That would be inadvisable. As would hanging out with a bunch of rodeo clowns on Friday night. That is, of course, unless you’re a rodeo clown. Then, by all means, you’ve found God’s will for you and you should, as the Nike commercial states, “Just Do It!” Of course, everyone should do the rodeo at least once. I did. It was fun!

“Use your time wisely… and don’t hang out with a bunch of clowns.” CV Proverb. (i.e., Pinterest could be a good place, but it could also end up being a total waste of time!)

The Q: Pinterest… why or why not?

On The Verge Of Publication…

I’m so excited to be able to share with you today a glimpse of my next book, All Sorts And Conditions Of People: The 7 Essentials Of Extraordinary Relationships.

While some relationships, like marriage, are more formal than others, they all share a few key components:

Relationships are deliberate bonds between two people.
Relationships are reciprocal.
Some form of love exists in all relationships.

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Relationships are one of the purest blessings in our world today. We have them at work, home and every point in between. And we have to work at them to have good ones! I’ve come up with and will share with you in this book The 7 Essentials Of Extraordinary Relationships. These come into play at some point in every relationship. I’ll also share with you some of my personal experiences in relationships and some of the life lessons that I’ve learned along the way. I hope the pages of this book shine with God’s glory and will help you in dealing with All Sorts And Conditions Of People. I also hope this book will open the gate to the most incredible relationships you have ever imagined!

This title is on the verge of publication, I expect that I’ll have it released in early May. Please send me a shout if you’re interested in helping by serving on the launch team, your assistance and support would be appreciated!

The HA!! : Couples Golf And The Funk Of Having Mild-Mannered Spunk

Time for “The HA!!” – This is my mini-series on life lessons I’ve gained through my humbling sports endeavors… I LOVE sports but genuinely suck at most of them, and, therefore, I’m a “HA = Humbled Athlete.” Please check out the other posts in this series at THE HA!! page.

Moving on to golf now…

The Players Championship is a PGA Tour event that takes place right here in The First Coast area. A few years ago the PGA moved the date of this event from March to May. Usually, in Florida, that is the difference between spring and summer. One of my favorite times of year here is the spring as the world is in full bloom, with azaleas and dogwoods leading the pack. And my passion for the game of golf grew, in part, through a love for nature and the splendor of golf courses. lol… I guess maybe the golf course is such a beautiful and peaceful place to offset the frustration that so many people find in trying to play this game. Personally, I would rather just play and not keep score, enjoying the wonder of how God created such amazing beauty for us to enjoy here on earth…

“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” Psalm 27:4

On to the players of this wacky game of attempting to hit a tiny ball with a funny stick into a wee-little hole that’s a really long way away…

That’s Phil

Phil. Not Dr. Phil, if you’re a golf fan you already know who Phil is, right? He’s a crowd favorite. Why? What’s not to like about him? The critics say he never reached his potential. I guess that’s why they’re called critics. I

Couples… Fred that is!

I remember going to the TPC one year with a non-golfing client. At the time, Fred Couples was a crowd favorite and we were looking for him. Around mid-morning, the client guy spoke up and asked about the rules of “couples golf”, i.e., thinking it was something like playing doubles in tennis. We never did find “a couple of Fred’s” playing together that day. Smooth, Freddie, smooth…

Fred Funk

Funk. Yep, there is a golfer named Funk. Fred is his first name, and he lives right here in Ponte Vedra Beach. FF has been widely popular, he even has fans who wear T-shirts proclaiming to be “Funk’s Punks”. I like FF. And I LOVE his last name. Funk. Maybe if he had been pared up with Couples more often things would be less funky around this time of year!

Chi Chi

Chi Chi. If you remember this flamboyant golfer there wasn’t much mild-mannered about him. He was comfortable being himself on the green, and, win or loose, he was a true gem to watch. He added mild-mannered spunk to golf. A true champion, this Rodriguez still is!

Tiger Woods

And then there was Tiger. I wrote about Tiger a while ago and about trying to bring him to know Jesus. Embattling life’s temptations, Tiger continues to be in somewhat of a funk. A funk? We say he’s not at the top of his game, but he remains among the PGA’s top golfers. Interesting point about Tiger: The media has been pretty user friendly when it comes to his temper tantrums… here’s the thing about golf: Because of the brilliant camera coverage of this sport, it’s very difficult to hide your emotions. For a while, it seems the media stalked Tiger through the jungle like a wild animal in an attempt to expose a darker side. Tiger showed his true colors, and the media has done a good job of covering the sport and focusing on the positive. Kudos! Oh for the love of Phil…

And me? I play(ed) this sport. My only claim to fame was being able to change clothes while driving and running late for my tee time. Still playing the game? No more. Now I just write about God and my many stories of being a HA!! (That’s a Humbled Athlete).

Who is your favorite golfer, or one that you enjoy watching and that has character?

Why We Should Avoid Becoming Just Like Our Parents

The Holy huddle is good when it breaks to bring glory to God.

How many generations have said it…

I don’t want to grow up to be just like my parents.

What was it about our parents that we didn’t like? They were old-fashioned. They didn’t understand us. They couldn’t relate. We don’t want to be that way, but, unfortunately, many of us end up just that way in our children’s eyes. We’re old-fashioned. We don’t understand them. We can’t relate. We end up being just like our parents.

This dichotomy in life extends into our churches today. Indeed, whole congregations and, dare I say it, denominations, end up segregated from an important portion of our society. Ok, so maybe I’m stretching it a bit here… but seriously, maybe we could be more focused on our youth than we have come to be.

What happens to churches when they start focusing too much on the insiders? They quickly lose touch… and footing on solid ground in the mission to spread the Gospel. Young, vibrant churches are filled with young people and are leading people of every age group to Jesus Christ.

That’s the one mission of our existence here, more than any other. I’m good with the “we all need a place” concept. Maybe think of this as inspiration focused on those who strive to have influence, and lead others within our communities…

Why are the young people today so important?

Nearly 1/2 of the world’s population is 25 and younger. On top of that, our youth are said to be maturing more slowly now than in the past. I keep reading that 26 is the new 18. Compile this trend with the fact that 45% of the workforce is composed of the baby boomers, a group who are heading toward retirement, and we’ve identified what could possibly be the most important opportunity that we have today: Mentoring the next group of leaders in our society.

Influence through connecting with them. Building trust by developing authentic relationships with them. Making disciples out of them, so that they can then move forward in the process of leading others to Jesus.

Maybe it’s time to break up the holy huddle and focus outwardly on a different group that needs us.

Just solid food for thought today…

Shedding A Flood Of Light On The World

In Isaiah 45:7 the Lord says, “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.”

I guess the symbolism of the light of Jesus and the light on the world is pretty obvious then. We need it. I mean both.

Today I’m excited to be writing at Terrie Thorpe’s blog, Light for the Journey. My post is about the light of the world, Jesus, and how He shines through the brilliance of light on our world. Since Terrie’s blog is about laughter, joy, hope and peace, I’m also trying to add flair over there with 3 components for seeing the light of the rainbow. I hope you’ll check my post today by following this link!

A treetop shout of thank you to Terrie for hosting me there today! I LOVE Terrie’s story and her passion for the Lord and writing, you can read more about her at this link to her author page.

This is my first post for “Catching Souls”, a small and casual group that enjoys writing about our faith and daily walk with Jesus. Watch for a page compiling information about the participants - Coming Soon!

 

Catching Souls

 

Rainbow image courtesy of rakratchada torsap @ freedigitalphotos.net

 

The 10 + 1 Building Blocks Of Relationships: Support

The 10 building blocks are delivered in alphabetical order. Today’s post is #10 in the series… Support.

God didn’t put us all here to walk through life alone. As a body of believers we work together to help support each other’s needs.  Support functions to take us to a place far beyond where we could go individually. In this post I share an analogy to a business concept shared by Guy Kawasaki in “The Macintosh Way” – Doing things right, and doing the right thing. A good user group or circle of friends will help to keep you moving forward in the right direction. (Click To Tweet)

Today I’m honored to be continuing this series as a guest at Carol Peterson’s blog, I hope you’ll follow the link here to Carol’s blog and to the tenth post in the series, The 10 + 1 Building Blocks Of Relationships – Support.

I’ve created a page compiling the links to the previous months’ building blocks too, you can catch up over here.

Carol Peterson is a writer with a heart for encouragement, sharing parables of faith on her blog From Carol’s Quill and making learning fun in Fun with Finance and other teacher resource books.

Carol’s Gems: March Aquamarine

Today’s post, “Carol’s Gems: March Aquamarine”, is a monthly series on birthstones from one of my favorite blogger friends, Carol Peterson. Carol is a writer with a heart for encouragement, sharing parables of faith on her blog From Carol’s Quill and making learning exciting in Fun with Finance and other teacher resource books.

Every month has a birthstone. The birthstone for the month of March is aquamarine. And it reminds me of Jesus.

Aquamarine

The word aquamarine means “water of the sea.” Genesis tells us that in the beginning, the Spirit of God hovered over the water. Later, Jesus became the living water. Water itself—in the Christian practice of symbolically proclaiming our faith through baptism by water—points us toward Jesus. All of us need water to live. We need living water for eternal life.

The aquamarine gemstone is believed to enhance divine communication and help us connect with heaven. Spiritual metaphysics notwithstanding, gazing at the cool, clear blue of aquamarine gives a person a sense of well-being. Spending time with God does so even better.

Bloodstone

A secondary birthstone for March is the bloodstone. It is a dark green jasper with bright red spots, caused by iron oxide. Legend tells that this stone was created when Christ’s blood dropped onto green jasper at the foot of the cross.

Happy birthday to everyone born in March.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for the beauty of this world and the reminders of you and your glory that are all around us. Please remind us that you have gifted us with prayer for divine communication and that through your blood—our living water, we are washed clean. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Know anyone who needs an aquamarine gemstone?

Living On The Edge Of Tomorrow

“The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.” Theodore Levitt

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“When you’re living in the positive, your destination is the brightest star”
Stevie Wonder

 

The apostle Paul said in Ephesians 3, “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus.”

Forward thinking. It’s all about God’s love.

But what about the rest?

Living for tomorrow never allows you to enjoy today – that’s something that many people regret later on.

Living in the past is a waste of time and counter-productive.

When God made man, He obviously created us for forward motion. Our foot points forward, right? Sure, we have the ability to move side to side, and even backward. Sideways motion is valuable in dodgeball, and I sure can glean a lot of wisdom from the past. However, the most natural and efficient motion is in a forward direction.

To me, Paul says in verses 16 through 21 above that God created man to live on the edge of tomorrow, and in God’s glorious love.

I believe with God the possibilities are endless.

Image courtesy of wandee007 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The HA!! : Appreciation

Time for “The HA!!” – This is my mini-series on life lessons I’ve gained through my humbling sports endeavors… I LOVE sports but genuinely suck at most of them, and, therefore, I’m a “HA = Humbled Athlete.” Please check out the other posts in this series at THE HA!! page.

Bill Rodgers at the tape, 1979 Boston Marathon

Every time we compete there are people who win and those who do not. I searched the “greatest athletes of all time” and found a voting website with a top 10 list. Several of my “heroes” are on there, including Michael Jordan (#1), Roger Federer (#4) and Michael Phelps (#8). While we know all of these and many others to be winners, even they didn’t win every time they competed. Growing up, my favorite runner was Bill Rodgers. There were plenty more, including Craig Virgin, Greg Meyer, and Zola Budd. Bill and many others are still running. In fact, the last Gate River Run that I competed in Bill was there, and way ahead of me in the race.

I think that running gave me, more than anything, an appreciation for how we support each other in our endeavors. Most folks don’t think of running as a team sport. Cross-country, in particular, emphasized how we strive to do our best individually and how our individual efforts contribute to the goals of a team. The common goals of our team instilled in us a mindset of helping our teammates achieve their individual goals, too.

The greatest challenge in any competition is to be a humble winner; second, to be a gracious loser. (Click to Tweet)

Here’s my take on how that works:

Humble winners?

Our high school cross-country coach taught us that everyone who competes is a winner. He emphasized competing not against each other or the other teams, but to strive to be the best we could be individually. THAT made us all nothing short of winners.

We were like the island of misfit toys in our school… until we made it all the way to the State meet my junior year in high school, winning our conference and regionals. We finished 4th in the State of Florida. At that point we were noticed. And we got new uniforms the following year, a request that our coach was denied by the Athletic Director for the two years prior. I did win one race during my junior year, a 1/2 mile junior varsity event. I don’t remember if I was particularly humble about that. Probably not. Personally, I was way back in the pack most of the time. Did we win? Always. Every one of us. The last guy across the finish line did to! Our coach’s philosophy to be the best we could be and to only look within was our measure of success.

Gracious losers?

You know the saying that “winning isn’t everything”, right? I have no clue who originated it, but I did run across a recent story that may illustrate the meaning of being a gracious loser like no other…

Abel Mutai, a Kenyan competing recently in an international cross-country event, mistakenly stopped running about 10 meters short of the finish line. Running a close second to Mutai was Ivan Fernandez, a Spanish athlete. Fernandez realized what was happening and motioned to Mutai to keep running, allowing the Kenyan to win the race.

Fernandez’ comments:

“I didn’t deserve to win it. I did what I had to do. He was the rightful winner. He created a gap that I couldn’t have closed if he hadn’t made a mistake. As soon as I saw he was stopping, I knew I wasn’t going to pass him.”

Here’s the video of that event…

Can't see the video in your RSS reader or email? Click Here!

The story says you first. And appreciation. It restores our faith in humility, and humanity.

Love it

Extending grace when we lose? Yep, that’s a humbled athlete. Everyone who competes is a winner!

The Deep And Wide Of That One Lost Sheep

Every sheep matters to Jesus

God works in some really mysterious ways. I am continually astonished at His wisdom and the ways of His influence in the world. Sometimes He asks us to do things that seem illogical. Should we just do it anyway? Yep, although I admit I’ve often questioned, second guessed and headed off in my own direction, many times.

I was meeting with another believer recently, trying to explain to my friend the 5 faith catalysts. This is an Andy Stanley concept that seems pretty solid (btw, I think most of Andy’s ideas are super tight!). Andy outlines in his book, Deep & Wide, the 5 essential ingredients or components that seem to comprise everybody’s faith story. One of these catalysts is providential relationships, or how people seem to show up in our lives and leave a lasting impression that draws us in. I’ve written already about a few of mine, The Journey Home is my favorite story to tell about a special friend, John Hall, and how his influence brought me closer to God. So as we were talking about providential relationships, my friend drifted off into somewhat of a trance. It was long and very noticeable.  When he came back to our conversation he started talking about the Bible story of the lost sheep, and that got me thinking…

The story of the lost sheep is a short one so I’m just going to toss it in here:

Jesus said, “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.” Matthew 18:12-14

Ever since I read the book Deep & Wide I’ve been thinking about just that, what it means to be both deep and wide as a Christian. Andy’s deep & wide are the church’s founding fathers desire to make North Point deeply rooted in Biblical truth and culturally relevant. They strive to make it a place where everyone who shows up will grow personally from the church experience and the delivery will appeal to a broad audience. I think there’s a deep AND wide message for all of us in this passage about the lost sheep…

I’ve heard pastors utilize the lost sheep story in a variety of ways to help teach about Jesus and God’s goodness. Generally, we learn from these verses of how important each of us is to Jesus, and how God’s economy differs from that of the world. Oh the importance of that one lost sheep to the shepherd! If you’re a lost sheep or haven’t had a relationship with Jesus just yet you can be sure that He wants one with you. Jesus wants a relationship with you just as much as anyone else. And, we can’t play hide-and-seek with Him. The lost sheep in Jesus’ story “wandered off” … indicating that this fellow once was a follower but for some reason has gone astray. Not to worry though as He knows where you’re at… what you’re doing… who you’re with… how it’s going… yep, everything. Going deep with Jesus is His desire to connect with each and every one of us. That one lost sheep, in many ways, refers to each of us. We were all lost without hope until Jesus came along, right? Like being adrift at sea without a paddle. Yep, you can be sure that all of us at one time or another were lost sheep. Where are you now? Or, maybe God is calling you right now to help bring back a lost sheep… like, as Elwood Blues said, “we’re on a mission from God!”

My take on the wide part and what happened with the flock of sheep is centered on having a broad influence. Maybe think of the 99 as a group that was observant. They individually opened their eyes to see what He inspired down deep within each of them, and they experienced some things in this life that brought them together in harmony. Maybe even making the earth shake along the way! And so it was in terms of the mixer blending together the many people, personalities, priorities, and passions that we all introduce into our environment every day. Another face in the crowd? Maybe just the oneness of the body of believers.

The discussion with my friend about the providential relationships didn’t lead to my understanding of his thoughts about that one lost sheep. Perhaps it was about his sheep experience. Maybe the Holy Spirit took him to some other place that day, a place in his past that finally connected the dots, for him, or to know a special meaning of these verses about the sheep. Whatever it was, I witnessed one of the “Oh My God!!” moments in someone’s life. For me personally, this verse has a new significance of how Jesus is continuing after that one lost sheep, how broad our influence can be, where my friend went to on that day of our conversation, and how we’ll never know for sure how we might influence someone else through the opportunity of a providential relationship.

Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

What interesting story or lesson have you found in the one lost sheep?

Image courtesy of Evgeni Dinev at FreeDigitalPhotos.net