Chris Vonada's Blog, page 18

The HA!! : Acceptance

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.

My dose of humility in the sport of basketball came at the tender age of 12. I loved to play this game and tried out for the Junior High School team in Vero Beach. I didn’t make the team, and was offered the equipment manager position.

If you’re wondering what the equipment manager does this person basically was in charge of rounding up the basketballs and sweaty towels for the team during practice and games. I traveled with the team for the away games and sat with the coaches and team… I sat with those players that were on the bench anyway. I got really good at “bench dribbling” and at spinning the basketball on my finger. So good, I can still pick the ball up and give it a whirl.

When I first decided to take the equipment manager job I was sort of embarrassed. I thought to myself… why? Why should I do this? The coaches encouraged me. I thought, this seems dumb! The coaches were persistent, they cornered me in the hallway at school and asked me in such a way that it seemed like an honor. It seemed silly because I was the only one doing it, and my other friends who didn’t make the team just went about their lives and did something else.

I found out much later that this was an important lesson in humility. Here’s why:

The equipment manager was a servant. This was a role of helping other people with little expectation of anything in return. I looked at this as an opportunity to help other people reach their goals. That made me feel good about myself.
I was able to overcome the one thing that seems to keep people from being humble… my sense of pride. Remember, my first thought was “this equipment manager thing is dumb!” It seemed lowly and embarrassing. I did it anyway, and found out quickly at an early age that having an ego is much more embarrassing than being humble. (Click To Tweet)

“Success in life comes not from holding a good hand, but in playing a poor hand well.” Warren G. Lester

So how did God turn this situation for my good? Well, in addition to learning the primary lesson of acceptance, and about my ego/pride plus how to be a good servant, I got a bonus!

Interestingly, the coaches saw my good attitude and gave me something in return that they really didn’t have to: they let me practice with the team. Think about it… now I was able to practice regularly with the best players my age. Through that experience my basketball skills grew and I was able to significantly improve my game. A paramount life lesson: If you want to learn and grow surround yourself with the best players in the game. (Click To Tweet)

My basketball career… as the equipment manager. And my valuable life lesson in humility… and acceptance.

Have you found acceptance to be an important part of humility in life?

The 10 +1 Building Blocks Of Relationships: Respect

The 10 building blocks are delivered in alphabetical order (with the exception of “+1″, it is last for a reason, more on that later…). Today’s post is #8 in the series… Respect.

Respect is sort of one of those backwards virtues… sometimes the more we want it and try to get it the farther it wanders away. Respect, like patience, often comes at times of adversity, and through humility. (Click To Tweet)

Good, healthy hearts build relationships through long-term commitment… and these relationships grow like the tulip whenever there’s mutual respect. Here’s the most relevant idea of why respect is a part of 10 + 1: Respect is accomplished directly in one-on-one relationships.

Love is so often expressed from the heart through these 10 + 1 building blocks, and respect is possibly the most important expression of love. It shines like the brilliance of a springtime bed of tulips, God’s brilliant declaration of perennial love.

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 seventh post in the series, The 10 + 1 Building Blocks Of Relationships – Respect

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.

A New Opportunity To Change The World

I’m writing today as a contributor to the Christian Writers Blog Chain. Our theme for this month is Forward. Christianwriters.com is an excellent place to network if you’re a Christian writer or author.

A new way to look at you’ll never walk alone.

So you want to change the world? What you do today will affect your future, and how you will be living tomorrow. When I think back to my past there are many things I would possibly change. But then I start to think… I’m blessed with an amazing family, having 4 generations of family that live within 3 miles of each other, and I see my grandchildren nearly every day; I’m in a solid, healthy relationship; my heath is excellent for a man my age (If you’re wondering I’ll be 5-0 this year!); and I’m living a dream in being able to fulfill a life-long ambition to be an author and write books. That’s not to say everything is perfect. While I do tend to focus on the positive, there are many challenges for me, like everyone, on my daily walk through life. I feel extraordinarily blessed with joy, peace and love in my life, and if I could and did change the past, would I be in the same place right now? I don’t know, but I can share this with you: my experiences from the past have helped to shape the person that I am today, and I’m thankful for that.

Every day I have an opportunity to change the world. It starts with two choices: I choose to focus on changing me. I choose to be kind. Some days it seems we’re so caught up with our very own agenda we forget the capacity to change the world through simple acts of loving kindness.

So you want to change the world? Here’s my advice on the starting point:

It only happens in the present. ”Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today. Let us begin.” Mother Teresa. Enough said.
I have to begin with me. If you’re spending your time trying to conform to the norm and be a part of the herd maybe consider focusing on that one relationship that means the most… a personal relationship with Jesus. Our witness… that testimony we give before God. It’s our true self – our character when the lights are out. Is that really me? Yep, while I may not always want to admit it, that’s really me… it’s the stuff we find in our heart. But that’s just where the journey begins… that’s where we have a choice to make. The most important choice in trying to changing the world is to make the one choice every day to take a step forward.

Real change begins within me and only ends when, for example, the bad habit, whatever that may be, is broken… that’s a good start. Then, and only then, can a transformation of the heart occur. That occurs one day at a time. Then I can receive the joy and hope found in the Holy Spirit, and be a disciple…

Jesus said, “I now send you, to open their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . .” Acts 26:17-18

Every day we have a new opportunity to change the world. I want to change the world. I want to change me. I’m ready to take a step forward. It feels good. I’m eager to share this experience with others, through kindness and the model that Jesus gave me. Will you join me?

Christian Writers Blog Chain

Book Release: “Believe… And You Say?”

Click the pic to head over to Amazon

My second book is available at Amazon today, it’s FREE for Kindle for the next 5 days so please follow this link to swing on over and grab your copy!

Here are the deets on this book…

Science says we can look to a theory development process to ensure our beliefs are sound, and based on a body of conclusive facts. John Dalton, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin and other scientists contributed to and validated the Scientific Theory.

Science, like religion, has unanswered questions. Where do we find hope, morality and joy? Where does our faith reside? What should we believe? Answering those questions can be life changing, and can put one on a course to greater achievements.

“Believe… And You Say?” is a short book about how I balance my faith in God with my education as a scientist.

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” Albert Einstein
Moses said, “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.” Exodus 33:13

Book Review: “APE” by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch

Please click the image to purchase on Amazon

Guy Kawasaki’s most recent book, “APE,” is a collaboration with Shawn Welch and a valuable reference tool on how to publish a book, from the traditional pathway to a exhaustive look at the three key components of self-publishing: Author, Publisher, and Entrepreneur. This is the standard guide for swimming with alligators.

“All writers think of what they do as an art. Smart writers understand that writing is also a business. Really smart writers see themselves also as entrepreneurs.” Barry Eisler

Reality sets in when you follow the book’s link to a funny video… “So You Want To Write A Book”

Guy and Shawn provide an invaluable resource for the capable artist who also strives to be a really smart writer. The APE book is a resource with more information than you may ever need; that’s what a good resource always provides. I expect to go back again and again to this book as I learn more about publishing and marketing.

The APE journey begins with an outline of the evolution of publishing, from traditional to eBooks. From there, we find out how to finance, edit, design, layout and put a book together. Distribution channels are discussed, and the value of author-services and print-on-demand companies addressed. The role of agents, editors, copyeditors, designers, and publicists are defined.

APE provides insight into working with major vendors, sellers and resources, including the world of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Adobe, Createspace, crowdsourcing, Google +, social media, Lulu, Lightning Source, Kobo, Kindle Direct Publishing, Calibre, EPUB, direct sales, Smashwords, and many, many more.

The authors give us a glimpse of what the future holds for publishing, and how to scale the Empire State Building as a big APE – Author, Publisher and Entrepreneur!

You may already know that I have a thing for monkeys. I believe you’ll find this APE to be the sort of gorilla that you’ll want to swing from the rafters with, just like me!

The HA!!: Anticipation

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.

Martina Hingis anticipating the next shot

I think if one word could sum up the spirit of the New Year, or the future in general, it would be anticipation. So I started to look into “anticipation” and found out that much of this forward thinking revolves around negative feelings. For example, I went to brainy quote to find something inspiring and got lost in an overload of negative mantra. I didn’t really get that, the pessimism of “Anticipation” … Then I ran across a quote by Martina Hingis, one of my all-time favorite tennis players:

“I have good anticipation, and good reaction to the ball because I’ve played so many matches in my life.”

It’s all about applying our experience in learning how to focus on our objective. In Martina’s case, hitting the ball accurately and being ready for a return. Thanks Martina for this positive feeling about anticipation. Call it eager anticipation.

If you watch a tennis match try this: fix your eyes on just one player, instead of watching the ball. Why? You’ll see that professional tennis players, the best of the best, actually don’t run around the court all that much. Like Martina, these other pros know, through anticipation, where to position themselves before their opponent strikes the ball. Depending on the situation, their ideal position on the court may be purely defensive, or they may take a risk and go on the offensive, attacking in an effort to finish the point.

This bit of strategy used by the pros is no secret to the seasoned player. I used to play tennis on a country club mens doubles league in Jacksonville. This was as much a social event as a competitive endeavor, and the team that I played on was a “C Team” (“A” being the best, there was no “D” team… you get the picture?). It was lots of fun, I played for several years before having problems with my knees and retiring the tennis racket, about 10 years ago. Here’s the really interesting (and relevant) part: We played matches every weekend, and some of the best players in our league were some really old guys. Why? Well, they didn’t hit the ball really hard, that’s for sure, but they did these two things really, really well:

They hit the ball where they wanted it to go, with precision and accuracy, and
they were experts at anticipation. They knew exactly where to be for the next return/volley.

Why did these older guys play so well and win so many matches? They, just like Martina, had good anticipation because they had played so many matches in their lifetime. At the time Martina made her quote, she was on top of the world. However, she recognized that it wasn’t her excellent physical condition that allowed her to have anticipation… it was her experience. The same would be true for the older guys in our country club league. They had our respect because they knew how to play their game. Tennis. I could have smoked them at a distance race, but this was a tennis court. They owned it, so to speak. And, for the most part, the older guys did it with grace and style. I have always admired that of people… those who were better than me at something, and were humble about it. Very cool. I think of Martina in that way too…

Moving forward into the new year… I have no clue what God has in store, but I do know that His purpose and plan are always way better than mine. And while being transformed into the likeness of Jesus will have its challenges, I want to “serve and volley” each and every day with eager anticipation… making a racket about the Good News… and ace every opportunity to show God’s love and kindness to everyone who crosses my path.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” Psalm 32:8

How can you utilize the idea of “eager anticipation” today and throughout the new year?

Photo courtesy of Bill Mitchell via Wikipedia

Carol’s Gems: Garnets For Jesus

Today’s post, “Carol’s Gems: Garnets For Jesus,” 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 January

is the garnet. And it reminds me of Jesus.

The term “garnet” refers to a family of minerals. The garnet family

contains gemstones that appear in every color except blue. The

difference is what they are called and what extra minerals they

contain. For example, within the mineral family of “garnet” are

tsavorites (green), hessonite (orange, brown and pink), and rhodolite

(purplish red). When we picture a garnet, however, most of us think of

the deep blood red stone.

Red Garnet

Blood red. The color of Jesus’ blood shed for us. A forever reminder

of His sacrifice for us.

In gemstone symbolism, the garnet signifies eternal friendship and

trust. Such as is found in Jesus, our eternal friend in whom we can

place our trust.

Just like there are star sapphires, there are also star garnets. The

“stars” are produced by a sphere of tiny rods composed of titanium

dioxide. These rods reflect light back out of the garnet and appear to

our eye as a 4 or 6-rayed star that moves across the face of the

gemstone. Star garnets are only found in India and Idaho.

Star? With our celebration of Christmas still fresh in our hearts, it

would be nice to have a star garnet to always light the way to Jesus.

Star Garnet from Americanlisted.com

The garnet is known for its luminosity and high refractive quality.

Because of those qualities, early travelers carried garnets, which

they believed lit up the night and protected a person from evil. Many

extra biblical sources suggest that Noah used a lantern made from

garnet to help him see through the storms while on the ark.

Evidently, the garnet reminded Noah of Jesus, too.

Happy birthday to everyone born in January—especially my super husband

Jim, whose birthday is TODAY!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for placing reminders in this world

of who you are. Please open our eyes to see you in everything today.

Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Do you own a garnet?

Two Things I Will Always Remember From This Christmas Season

Tis the season… to stop blogging.

I’m taking the next two weeks off from posting new material here at I’m Just Thinkin’, to enjoy the holidays and spend extra time with my family and friends. I would encourage you to do the same. Be back on January 3rd.

Sandy Hook Heroes

Until then, here are the two things that I’ll always remember from this Christmas season:

The little kids. Sad. How do we turn something good from this tragedy in Newtown? Please watch this very short video interview with Andy Stanley. Our national and personal conscience and the centering of right from wrong potentially benefits from tragic events like this… if that’s a rational choice we make. Andy says it’s in the power of the Christmas story that we find hope to move forward… through the innocence and vulnerability we strive to understand, relate to and see in the newborn King, Jesus.
The power of the Christmas story brings hope. Not a typo. Yep, I repeated some of the last sentence of the previous paragraph. Why? The beauty of the Gospel is everywhere we look. I see it in my life every single day. Stick around and I’ll be sharing more about what I’m learning on my journey…

In the mean time, please consider signing here up for email updates (Santa is on his way you know!).

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.” Luke 2:14

Don’t forget to put out lots of milk and cookies for the jolly old fellow

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

The 10 + 1 Building Blocks Of Relationships: Encouragement

The 10 building blocks are delivered in alphabetical order (with the exception of “+1″, it is last for a reason, more on that later…). Today’s post is #7 in the series… Encouragement.

Encouragement conveys a spirit of hope. Encouragement instills courage in those who receive our words of inspiration. It helps them feel capable, like they have something meaningful to contribute. This building block is another of the 10 + 1 that reaches far.

The Bible says we are to “Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” Ephesians 4:29

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 seventh post in the series, The 10 + 1 Building Blocks Of Relationships – Encouragement

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.

Life With The Tribes And The Rewiring Project

Sticking with the plan!

I was working on a project site recently and asked one of the guys working on the construction side of the project how the building was progressing. This major project consists of rebuilding an airport terminal. Part new construction, and part reworking an existing structure. He indicated it was going ok, new construction like a dream, but they were having issues with renovations to the old building. Something like a nightmare, the reconstruction part, that is.

If you’ve ever tried to remodel in the home you have probably had a similar experience… sometimes it goes as planned, and other times you find yourself facing unexpected delays, or hidden conditions. The old wallpaper doesn’t come off the wall you’re trying to repaint, or you can’t access to replace all of the old plumbing pipe as it’s now below the slab. Whatever the case, a small snowstorm has welled up and created a huge drift. That half-day home improvement project is now going to consume your entire weekend. Or you have to tell the airport authority their new facility will be delayed, opening after the snowdrift melts… next spring.

Nothing could be more true in the world today than the power of patience and perseverance, and the love of Jesus. (Click To Tweet)

Life is sort of like the rewiring project. Finding peace sometimes takes lots of patience. Consider the story of the Israelites wandering through the desert. They messed up in following God’s will and way, over and over and over again. It’s hard to imagine that God has that much patience with us, to be able to accept us even when we’re at our worst. I’m thankful that He does, that He’s rewired me through so many of these remodeling projects. He makes us whole and complete. That’s a huge part of this journey.

Truth and grace…

There’s an interesting story in Joshua, it’s Chapter 22, verses 11-34. A rather large and imposing altar was constructed by some of the tribes at the Jordan River. Why? Assumption said it was to worship a false god. Then, along came truth and grace… instead of assuming the worst about the altar, intentions were investigated and a way cool purpose discovered: the altar was constructed as a memorial. The conflict was averted and peace, harmony and unity restored.

The rewiring project is sort of like being a teenager again… pretty cool when our heart is filled with the innocence of being in love, not so attractive when it’s a chess match resembling high school drama.

Saying or doing a bunch of stupid stuff to other people does very little to draw anyone in closer to God. Quite the opposite, when we behave like a gaggle of wild animals and can’t treat each other with dignity and respect. How could we possibly reach out to have influence, touching the lives of people who are hopelessly lost? Or, maybe that’s just the point of planet earth… it’s just as important for those who “believe” to try to stay on the straight and narrow trail as it is for those who are a “lost cause.”

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” Isaiah 26:3

Being at peace with learn-as-you-go-mode…

Recognize that you’re going to run into obstacles. Consider these snowdrifts to be opportunities.
Don’t be afraid of taking a risk… ask questions… listen for the truth… and offer grace.
Savor wisdom… both the easy lessons and the difficult ones.

The rewiring project..

Learn-as-you-go mode.

In many ways, I’m still there.

Maybe you are too?

Can we be at peace with that thought?

I’m going to focus thought on the season of joy and to make Jesus love now… sticking with the plan!