If you know me personally, or if you’ve visited these pages enough, you probably know that whenever questioned as to how I’m doing, my usual reply is “I’m awesome!” Not ‘good’, or ‘great’, or ‘fantastic’, but Awesome.
I was talking to my good friend Dan the other day about business and life in general, when he asked “Sam, are you really awesome every day?”
No one had posed that question to me before. I had to think about it for a moment before I could answer. Am I awesome every day? And then I thought “I wonder how many of the people I see on a regular basis are afraid to ask the same question?” I mean, how can someone be that good every day?
I’m going to tell you exactly what I told Dan:
I’m a husband, father, son, grandfather, mentor, and business owner. I have this burning desire to help others, whenever and where ever I can. I am a human being. There are mornings when I awake and know before the cobwebs of sleep have cleared that I am not awesome! In fact, some of those days the mere notion of being anywhere near awesome seems to be light-years away.
So am I lying when I answer the question? No, I’m not. Here’s what happens:
Every morning, the moment I awaken from sleep, I thank God for giving me another day. Next I express gratitude for certain things in my life (we’ll talk more about this some other time). The last thing I do, just before my feet touch the floor, is mentally proclaim “Today is going to be an awesome day.” And I say it with conviction, with the certainty that the day will be exactly that.
You know what? At some point in my day (usually when I’m talking to someone about my faith), awesome catches up with me! The first few times it happened I was taken by surprise! Now I just grin and mentally say “Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you!” I can’t honestly say that this happens every day; let’s just say that the days it doesn’t happen are few and far between.
I am awesome every day because I refuse to accept anything less in life, as I had done for so many years. In my mind there is no room for negative thoughts, as they only pave the way for taking a step backwards.
Look, I know that some of you are shaking your heads in disbelief right now. Believe me; I can understand your skepticism. You see, I haven’t always been the ‘eternal optimist’. There have been days when I was so low that I had to ‘look up to see the bottom’. Not anymore; things have changed. My outlook on life has changed. My life has changed!
One of the purposes of this site is to plant the seed in your mind that nothing is impossible; your life can change too, if you want it enough. Awesome can visit you everyday, but only if you expect it.
Tomorrow morning, just before you get out of bed, tell yourself that “Today is going to be an awesome day.” You may not really believe it, but that’s okay; you’re planting a seed in your mind, and that seed has to germinate before it can grow. At least entertain the notion that you could have an awesome day.
Make a vow to yourself to repeat this every day for the next few weeks. Come on; how much effort does it take to think “Today is going to be an awesome day!”? Every day. What have you got to lose?
What if you were ‘only’ good, or great, or fantastic? Any day. Every day. Would you ‘settle’ for that? Thought so!
sam@theseedofhope.com
As defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
epiphany
1: capitalized : January 6 observed as a church festival in commemoration of the coming of the Magi as the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles or in the Eastern Church in commemoration of the baptism of Christ
2: an appearance or manifestation especially of a divine being
3 a (1): a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2): an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3): an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b: a revealing scene or moment
I can remember as a child hearing the word epiphany; I always associated it with church, or religion, especially around Christmas. Catholic families were urged to leave their Christmas trees up until January 6th, which was the Feast of The Epiphany. The day marked the arrival of the Three Wise Men (I pondered over using capital letters) in Bethlehem to offer gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the newborn Christ. To this day Jackie and I still try to observe this tradition; funny how some traditions stick with you for years…..
I’ve had a lot of epiphanies during my childhood, adolescent, and adult years; in terms of the simplest definition, we all have. I remember my sons Brian and Christian 'discovering' their fingers and toes when they were infants and the look of complete surprise on their faces when they took their first step as toddlers. I remember my grandfather teaching me how to read a ruler, my Mom showing me how to be self-sustaining, my Dad giving life’s lessons in becoming a man. I recall how it felt being a father for the very first time. I remember realizing that it is possible to love someone unconditionally without fear of being hurt (thank you Jackie).
All of these are examples of epiphanies, or what I call 'aha' moments. We’ve all had them, haven’t we? I’m guessing that I’ve already triggered your recollection of several of your own 'aha' moments. I’m sure that some of them stand out more than others, which have been more important in their impact on your life.
It’s one of those 'aha' moments in my life that I want to tell you about today. This was not just an epiphany. In terms of who I am, what I am, and what I am becoming, this was THE epiphany, the one that truly changed the course of my life. Picture Redd Fox as Fred Sanford clutching his chest and exclaiming “This is the big one Elizabeth! Oh Lord. I’m comin’ Honey. Help me, please!” Get it? This was no ordinary aha. I remember that day as if it were yesterday……
November 5, 2006
Let me 'set the table' for that day by briefly telling you about a couple of things that happened leading up to it. I read a book (Get Glowing, by Ann Mincey), and watched a movie (The Secret). I’ll devote more time to each of these in the future, I promise.
After reading Ann’s book, and watching the movie, I knew that I needed to change some things in my life, or more specifically, the way I looked at life. Have you heard the saying “What you believe, you receive.”? I’m not asking if you believe in the statement; that’s a topic for another day.
Let’s just say that I realized that in order for me to have the things in life (tangible and intangible) that were important to me, I had to believe that I was worthy of them. So I had to change the way I looked at life and the way I looked at myself! And oh by the way, I was 53 years old at the time.
On the night of November 4th, 2006 I went to bed telling myself “Tomorrow I begin the process of changing who I am. Tomorrow I change the course of my life. Tomorrow the adventure begins.”
One final thought on that night: I fell asleep in prayer asking God to help me in my journey.
Have you ever experienced a day when you knew that you were on the verge of learning something, of discovering something, about yourself or something in life? I would liken it to reaching for a word that’s on the tip of your tongue, or recalling the title of a song, or the name of an old friend you haven’t seen in years. You know that you know something, you just don’t know, for the life of you, just what it is!
That’s the feeling that I woke up with on Sunday, November 5th, 2006. I believed that I was on the verge of finding out something about myself, something that would be an 'aha', something that was of great importance. I just didn’t know what it was! That feeling would stay with me all day long; so close to knowing, yet so far away….
When it happened…..
That evening I had to drive to the grocery store to pick up a few last minute items that we needed for 
dinner. While in route, I kept thinking about the old Allstate insurance commercial that pictured two cupped hands forming a 'bowl', with the announcer’s voice saying “You’re in good hands with Allstate.” Remember that one? “Strange”, I said to myself, wondering why my thoughts were on that commercial.
I stopped at a traffic light with the image of those cupped hands still occupying my thoughts, lost in my own little world. I was jolted back to reality by a guy in the car behind me laying in his horn; the light had turned green. I didn’t move; I was too busy looking at my own hands. They had taken the shape of the hands in that Allstate commercial. No, I didn’t hear the announcer's voice!
What I did see, at least in my minds eye, was my destiny. You see, at that moment I realized that all my life I had given control of my destiny to everyone else in and around my life. I had for years let other people, through their thoughts and opinions of me, dictate who I was and what I did. In one split second, in the blink of an eye, all the shortcomings, and doubts, and failures, and settling for less that had been a part of my life for so long seemed to melt away in the tears that were streaming down my face.
Time stands still. The earth moves. Wow. No more running from the past, no more hiding from the hurt. No looking back; the past doesn’t matter any more.
My destiny was mine to control, to shape, to fulfill; it had been all along. I wouldn’t give it to anyone else, ever again. Once more I offered a silent prayer, asking God to take my hand and lead me on my journey.
contact me: sam@theseedofhope.com
There is a phrase that I include in some of my prayers, but curiously enough, it’s always included when I say Grace before a meal: “…….help us to walk in Your way…..” I began using this petition a few years ago, but it has really been on my mind today. Why today? I can’t say that I’m sure. I can say that I have an awareness concerning every step I take in life, each and every day. I’ve never walked with these eyes, with this spirit before….perhaps that’s the reason……
I don’t have a problem walking in God’s way; that is, I don’t have a problem with trying to walk the way of Christ. I’m a human; I stumble, stray (never too far), and lose my focus from time to time. I don’t think that God is surprised by this at all. In fact, it is my humble opinion that God expects us to stumble, stray, and lose focus from time to time. It is during those times when we are getting back on track that we realize that God is all forgiving; He forgives us no matter what we do, regardless of the seriousness of the offense, regardless of how many times we commit the same offense, over and over again! How many of us can say that we would do the same? How many of us would do the same? I mean, would you turn the other cheek, time after time after time? As much as I hate to admit it, I probably wouldn’t. What a forgiving God He is indeed!
Walking in His way? Something I gladly strive to do each and every day that I’m given another day. Funny, I don’t feel like I’m obligated to do this; I try to walk in His way because I know that doing so makes me a better person; and it makes me feel good!
Then there’s the issue of trust, as in putting complete trust in Him…..giving control of my life to Him….letting Him have my problems…..living by His timetable instead of my own….letting Him decide what’s best for me…..offering my life up to Him.
It has been much easier to walk a different walk down a different path than it has been for me to put down mental ‘baggage’ that I’ve carried around for years. In this instance, mental baggage is actually distrust! You see, there are things in my life that I still cannot give totally to God. I don’t trust Him enough yet. How sad. How human. Do you have some of those ‘issues’ that you can’t seem to let go of? Perhaps, if you take this journey with me, we’ll both learn to let go of some things.
I welcome the challenge of growing in my walk of faith. And I look forward to the day when I have learned to ‘let go and let God’; to trust Him completely. When that day comes, and I pray that it will, I can only imagine the peace of mind that I’ll be blessed with. And I believe that “…help us to walk in Your way” will be more than a petition; walking in His way will be a reality.
contact me: sam@theseedofhope.com
