Can I do it? Yes.

What a great concept. NOW! What an under-utilized dynamic. As Christians, men, fathers, sons, brothers, co-workers, neighbors, and in any role where we touch someone else’s life, how do I maximize NOW!? It made me stop and think.

Greg called me to a deeper focus on this recently. In his October sermon on laity Sunday, he made two points that I have adopted. I will paraphrase but by no means can repeat his exact powerful delivery.

1. We are ordinary people living in God’s great creation. Have we asked him to help us achieve extraordinary results for his Kingdom? It could be for your church, to lead someone to Christ or helping an average Joe on the street.

• What a great prayer in itself. Rising above ordinary is tough. Good is the enemy of Great. We have to ask, we have to believe, we have to put a shoulder to the stone and we have to do it unceasingly.
• Personally, the elite ultra-successful people I have been around or studied have two common traits: relentless pursuit and systematic routine. As an ordinary person, if I could harness a little of those two and prayerfully ask to be an ordinary person wanting to achieve extraordinary results: What could I then do for God?

2. Instead of asking to be blessed, ask our Father to allow us to be a blessing for others.

• Being capitalistic beings, this is one we need to condition ourselves on. This will take a while. Practice. Practice. Practice.
• A great way to start a prayer. A great way to keep you grounded.
• Unselfishness will only lead to goodness. What if we could develop a great prayer chain for each other? Luke 11:9-10 gives us direction. 9. So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

NOW! is a big deal. Here’s why. The next decision or action we make is always the most important. How many of us would like to take back prior decisions? The answer is always the next one – which is today’s. This permeates in all we do. We can’t reverse yesterday and scripture says we can’t add an extra hour worrying about tomorrow. Today is enough we’re told.

This has made me think about how can I maximize my relationship with my wife and enjoy every once of time with my daughter. It heightens my resolve to provide them leadership along with spiritual and financial well-being; and as a family provide service to others as we are called. Preparation and mental imaging of success have to be moved to the front. Starting with the end in mind takes a whole new meaning.

The modern day NOW! guy is Tiger. He does his one singular trade better than anybody else on Earth does their one thing. His caddie, Steve Williams, made an interesting point the first week of December when he made international headlines for bashing Phil Mickelson. Stevie also caddied for Greg Norman before Tiger came calling in 1997 after winning the Master’s with Fluff Cowan. He said that Greg Norman and Tiger’s shot making ability are on equal par. The key is that Tiger completely forgets every bad shot he makes and moves on to the next one. Greg Norman, he said, couldn’t forget a bad shot for the whole year. Let’s each pray to minimize the bad shots and forget the one’s we would like to have back.

As a guy with some form of untested A.D.D., NOW! hits home with me. I hope it does for you too.

- DOUGLAS
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