You Can Be Mighty!

What will be in your dash? you have surely heard the story about the dash between your birthdate and the day you die on your headstone. It is up to each of us what will fill that dash. Let's look at a great lesson for each of us.

Every October all of the world’s media turns its attention to Stockholm, Sweden as they wait to hear the recipients of the Nobel prizes. When you hear the word “Nobel” what do you think of….. Peace.

What you might not know is how it started. Several years before his death, at the death of his brother, Alfred Nobel opened the paper to read his brother’s obituary. He wanted to make sure that the paper had done it correctly. What he saw to his horror wasn’t his brother’s obituary at all, but his own! The obituary of Alfred Nobel, the paper had the wrong brother dying. As he read it, he was further shocked to realize how they were summing up his life. They described him, accurately, as one of the inventors of Dynamite. However, they outlined all of the death and destruction that had come from the misuse of Dynamite. It dawned on him that if he died right then, he would be forever remembered as a man of destruction. So, he decided that he had a rare opportunity, a chance to rewrite his own obituary. He made a decision, if it was the last thing he did, he was going to change how he would be remembered.

He did it, who thinks of Dynamite when they hear Nobel? We think peace don’t we?
He arranged that at his death in 1900, his fortune, most of which came from Dynamite would start a foundation for the sole purpose of rewarding and recognizing people from all over the world who had worked diligently promoting world peace.

Most of us will never have the opportunity to rewrite our own obituaries, so the question is, “how do you want to be remembered?” Think about it, if you don’t think it is important, you must realize that we don’t think one way about people when they are living and a totally different way after they are gone. It does matter how we are thought of by our family, how do you want your family to remember you? Your friends? Your business associates? I want to live the kind of life that people will miss me.

My grandmother, Lacy, will always be remembered by me with a smile and laugh. She was so funny. She would call me whenever she had heard a new joke just to tell me. I did the same for her, she would then put my grandfather on so I could tell him, and often it was all we talked about on that call. Every time I hear the word diarrhea it makes me laugh, her favorite joke, one that she told often, was a very long routine and one of the lines was “the princess is in bed with diarrhea, and the King said is that Greek B----- still hanging around?” We told each other jokes so often, it was such a part of our relationship, when I was preaching at my grandfather’s funeral, I told a couple jokes that I would have told him that week had he been alive. One was about what you call a blonde with two brain cells… pregnant.

What a wonderful way to be remembered… with laughter.. How are you going to be remembered?

In the Bible there were stories about a group of men, there were 37 men and they were known as David’s Mighty Men. They were not known as David’s Men, because David had thousands of men serving him. These are known as David’s Mighty Men. Always by those three words.

They will be forever remembered as Mighty; wouldn’t it be wonderful to be thought of as Mighty? I said it before, but it bears repeating, you will be remembered as people think of you now.

Let me tell you how mighty they were. I won’t bore you with their names; I really can’t pronounce them anyway. One of them killed 800 men by himself, sounds pretty mighty to me.
Another in a battle once with the Philistines fought so long, and so hard that even though his army got scared and ran away, he stayed and defeated the enemy army by himself. The Bible says that the muscles of his hand froze to his sword and had to be pried off. His own army did come back and help him pick through the pockets of the dead enemy though.
Another one fought off an entire army to defend his field of beans. I love this guy, he stood on principle, “they’re my beans and you aren’t getting any of them.”
Another went into a pit and killed a lion. It says he went into the pit, not that he fell in. So that would mean that he decided today is a good day to fight a lion, and did.

One story about these men, David was sitting feeling homesick, and was talking to himself about how much he missed the taste of the water from the well in Bethlehem, and how he wished he could only taste it again. Three of his Mighty Men decided to get him that water and went through the enemy lines to get him some and brought it back again through the enemy lines. When they returned David was stunned, “You risked your lives to get me this water… you could have all been killed… this isn’t water it is your blood because you could have died getting it for me, I can never drink what you could have died for.” But, how cool, these men were mighty indeed.

I can hear some people now saying (whiney) “Yeah, but you don’t know what my background is, you don’t know what I came from… how things went for me…you don’t know man, I didn’t have a head start… you gotta give me a break man.”

Listen to what I am about to say to you. These men didn’t start out mighty. When you read the obituaries you see that a salesman died, a congresswoman died, a doctor died, a construction worker died. However, when you look at the birth announcements you never read that a saleswoman was born, or a dentist, or anything else but a baby girl or boy.

No one is born mighty. You’re born a bundle of potential; it is up to you how you end up. When I was around 21 a mentor of mine once taught me a lesson on potential I will never forget. He told me that he saw more potential in me than most anyone he knew... I could feel my chest expanding with this "compliment." He then told me that I should know what potential is before getting too proud, he went on to say "potential is unused ability." Talk about a wake up call.

You are a product of two things; I defy anyone to prove otherwise.
1. The circumstances you encounter.
2. The choices you make.
There are people who can’t wait to tell you all about all the circumstances that have befallen them. They want to regale you with tales of every reason for why they aren’t as successful as they think they should be.

The only reason people tell you their circumstances is because they don’t want to admit their choices. You never hear people talking about their circumstances when they are being interviewed about winning a gold medal. When they talk about winning, they talk about “I made a decision to do this, to do whatever it took.”

The only people who need excuses are people who didn’t do what they were supposed to do, people who failed. The only people who need to talk about their circumstances are those who need to justify their choices with their circumstances. And there are those who say “I didn’t have a choice.” You always, always, always have a choice. You always have options. If you say, “I didn’t have a choice” what you are truly saying is that you allowed your circumstances to choose for you, but you chose to allow that.

You always have a choice!

1st Samuel 22:
1: David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.
2: And every one who was in distress, and every one who was in debt, and every one who was discontented, gathered to him; and he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

Read that again!

Everyone who was bankrupt upset, frustrated, mad at the world found David while he was in hiding, running for his life from King Saul. Here is David running for his life, feeling like he has nothing to live for, when these guys all start showing up. As they told him their stories he becomes more encouraged about his own situation.
I guess misery loves company.

All of these 37 men, who eventually became mighty men, started out in debt, angry, humiliated, along with the rest of the 400, to the only place they felt comfortable in the company of outcast man being hunted for his life.

The point is, it doesn’t matter where you start out, it is where you end up that counts!
Even though they started out distressed, and discontented they are remembered as David’s Mighty Men. Thank God we are remembered for how we end up, not how we started.
The whole idea is to become Mighty!

There was a time, when I was about 16, where I had raised a crop of calves. I was one of the first people in Indiana to have cattle with Simmental blood in Central Indiana. There was a man who was trying to buy one of my young bulls, and he and I were having a fussing match. He kept telling me that I was nuts for what I was asking for him. We were not getting anywhere. Then my dad came home and caught up with the conversation. He and this guy only were talking about 5 minutes when this ol’ boy started acting like he and dad were old army buddies or something. He bought that bull, for my price, and was full of smiles and pats on the back for me. After we loaded the bull and he pulled away, I asked dad, “What in the world just happened? He wouldn’t listen to me; he kept fighting about what I was asking.” I have no idea why he wouldn’t listen to a 16 year old. What dad said changed my life. He said, “ When I found out that he wanted that bull to help his son do better at the 4-H fair with next years calf crop from his farm. He wanted to breed this Simmental bull, that at 5 months old was already taller than his Herefords, to help his son win for the first time. Dad said,” when I found out what was important to him, and made a big deal out of what was a big deal to him, that was all he needed.”

I knew right then, if Dad could do it, I could learn to do it. I decided right then and there that I would learn to become skilled with words. I was going to learn to become convincing with words, I didn’t learn by accident, I decided to.

It is all about a choice. It all starts right here; it is a decision to be mighty! It all starts with the decision.

A couple years ago when my daughter started selling Girl Scout Cookies. By the way, I won’t sell for my kids it is up to them. Anyway, she was nervous about calling people on the phone to try to sell cookies, so I told her to change.. Take five minutes.. She looked at me horrified, her little 8 year old sweet face like “are you kidding?” What I told her is Honey you won’t change and not be nervous anymore in five minutes, but you can decide to do what scares you until it doesn’t scare you anymore. (Wouldn’t you love to be one of my kids?) She is fearless today! Last month this little 12 year old, while working on her Silver Award for Girl Scouts (similar to Eagle Scout for Boy Scout,) she taught a class of 35 adult girl scout leaders on something that they were to go back and teach their troops.

Everything starts with a decision, a choice!

What is M.I.G.H.T.Y.

Mentored: “It is wise man who knows that he is not that wise.” You will never be mentored if you think you know it all. Everyone should have a mentor or mentors to help them to keep growing.

I have mentors for different parts of my life, some help in many areas, others for just one that they really know. I have people inside and outside the industry that I go to learn, to bounce off ideas, to get council. You might say that I have learned the value of gray hair. You can learn from anyone if you just ask and listen.

“There is safety in the multitude of councilors.”

I have been able to mentor others both in and out of this business. Recently, a gentleman who asked me to mentor him called me and greeted me as his mentor. In the beginning of our conversation I asked him which of the books that I had recommended to him he had started reading.. He replied he hadn’t started any yet, my response was obviously I wasn’t his mentor. He kind of recoiled, but then made the commitment to get on with it, and has. So now are mentor relationship is back. I learned from working with my mentors that it is the student that seeks the teacher, not the other way around. And if the lessons are not followed the relationship ends. It may sound tough, but that is really the only way it can work.

If you’re going to be Mighty you will need council.

The Bible says, ““There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”( Book of Proverbs)”

When you cease to be teachable you will stop growing.

Integrity: Be a person of Integrity, be a person of your word. If you say you will do something or will be somewhere, do it!

Be someone who when people here your name that know it will be okay to be a part of it, because of your integrity.

Generosity:

Whatever, you plant you will harvest. The law of sowing and reaping will always work.

You always get more back at the harvest than the seed you planted.

Be generous with you time. Be a giver.

2nd Corinthians Chapter 9:
“You will be made rich in every way, so you can be generous in every occasion.”

Be sure to put how much you want to give away on your dream and goal list as well.

Humility: You have to be humble.

Most people think that to be humble means to put themselves down. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Humility is just being honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses. You can’t be mighty unless you are honest with yourself.

When Jesus knew that all power had been given into His hands, he put a towel about him and started washing his disciple’s feet. Some people can figuratively wash others feet, but don’t feel worthy of having someone wash theirs. Others, have no problem having someone wash theirs, but wouldn’t be caught dead washing someone else’s.

It is all about the self image that they have. If you have a healthy self image you can serve, or be served. When you know who you are, it doesn’t matter what your title is. When we were in the marketing company, we were able to host some very cool people, because we didn‘t have a problem serving. Hosting required taking care of any need that speaker might have so that they could focus on giving their best when their time on stage came. It might mean ironing their shirt, polishing their shoes, being their full time concierge more or less. I loved doing this; it put us in some very good situations. I was able to host Zig Ziglar, Dennis Waitley, Mike Murdock, and many other entertainers and speakers over the years.

We taught this to our kids, our son Mike has used this same process to get in on the inside of the political world. Too many people can’t humble themselves to serve anyone else, because they don’t know who they are. If they are shining someone’s shoes they feel that they are shoeshine boys. They can’t realize that they are who they are no matter what they are doing at the time.

I remember a couple times we went into restaurants late after big meetings and overwhelmed their staff. They were going to turn us away, when I and a couple of my buddies offered to be their wait staff. The manager let us do it, we had a ball, and so did the customers in Denny’s and Steak and Shake. We were making coffee, taking orders and filling them. It was a blast. Everyone in the place got caught up in the spirit. For years after that, when I would walk into either of these places the managers and staff treated us like royalty.

Tenacity: Don’t know the meaning of the word quit! Don’t know what it means to stop!
Quitting is not an option. Don’t give up, go get it! You will have to plow through so much negative to reach your goals. It’s not over until you win!

Yielded:

Prepare to Change.
You will probably have to change to get to new levels; you never solve problems with the same level of thinking that got you into them.

You will all come to a place where you want to say, I have changed enough, I don’t want to anymore. If you ever feel like you have finally arrived, then you should just lie down and be buried. Anything that lives changes.

Find a passion for Excellence; if excellence is one of the options why settle for less?

My son, Matt, was mowing the grass and when I went out I saw strips here and there that he missed. I talked to him about it and he said “what difference does it make, it is in the backyard?” That is a death sentence, not from me, but from life. He mowed the yard three more times that day. Today, in his photography business, his work is very popular because good isn't good enough for him now.

You will never be mighty without excellence.


Excellence

Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise.
Risking more than others think is safe.
Dreaming more than others think is practical.
Expecting more than others think is possible.


You will probably only have one obituary, how will you be remembered?

Do like Alfred Nobel that you will decide how it is that you will be remembered.

I believe that each one of you can be Mighty!