encouragement – Is This What You Are Looking For?

March 17, 2015

Work Day Encouragement | Living Beyond the Routine

You know it gets so easy to become settled into a routine. So many times in life, we have so much going on that it is nearly impossible to change even one small thing without the most energy and resources. For instance, have you ever gotten a call from a friend and found that your calendar is so crammed with all the stuff you always have going that you cannot find time to get together for weeks or even months?

You have conference calls, meetings, kids sports practices or extracurricular activities that have been scheduled for months or the immoveable dates such as birthdays, anniversaries, other peoples’ weddings, etc. And someone says, “hey you want to get coffee or dinner?” And you cannot work out a time for it.

How did we get so busy? How did we get so overwhelmed with the mundane? Isn’t it easier to just go with the flow and do what is on the schedule or what feels like life-cruise-control. However, at the same time, do you ever go to bed with the gnawing feeling that there should be more to life than just what you are doing over and over every day?

I think that is why so many people break at mid-life and do crazy things such as affairs and such. It’s like they have gotten so tired of the routine that they just snap one day and want adventure and the adrenaline rush again. They just want that life giving feeling they had in their younger years.

Here’s a thought. Why not deal with the routine here and now? Why not fight the mundane and have adventure now? Why not incorporate your family and spouse in the daily adventure?

I have a radical idea. Stop right now and determine to do something different. Don’t have that train wreck. Have adventure and life every day. It is possible to cultivate a conversation with GOD by taking just 7 minutes to start with every day and be still and meditate on a teaching or Scripture. Start with an online devotional like, Blackaby’s Daily Devotional Blog. Or even try Oswald Chambers’ daily devotional called, “My Utmost for His Highest.” Or for you ladies out there, maybe try Joyce Meyer’s daily devotional.

Take 7 minutes. Tell GOD, “this time is YOURS, LORD. Come meet with me. I have set it apart to you…” Take the devotional you are using and read it. Dig deeper into the passage in the Bible it mentions. Write down what spoke to you the most. Then turn that into a prayer and ask GOD to reveal to you that day what it means in life.

And then here is my favorite part. This is where the ADVENTURE begins. Before you leave that 7 minute moment, imagine in your head how GOD may invite you to join HIM. Every single day GOD is doing something around us. Are we looking to join HIM? Are we paying attention to what HE is doing? The Bible says, “…the Father is always at work…”

If HE is always at work and HE is everywhere, we can assume that there are places to join HIM in that work all day long, everywhere we go. So, look around and ask Holy Spirit all day long, “Where are you working?”

At some point, HE will show you. Expect it!!!!!

It may be someone saying, “I need you to pray for…” Stop right there and pray. That is where HE is working. It may be someone that needs the door held for them. Run and grab that door and when they say, “thank you,” respond with a word of encouragement. Maybe even a “GOD bless you…”

It could be a disheartened sales clerk. Walk up and pull a Lydia Grace Hedrick and say, “Do you know Jesus loves you?” I tell you what, that one line from a 4 year old takes grown adults to tears in two seconds, true story.

Why live mundane any longer? Expect interruptions. Expect adventure. You think I have stories??? Well, yes I do. But you will have better ones!!!!!

Cultivate relationship with GOD and have adventure today.

Blessings all!

just dustin

The post Work Day Encouragement | Living Beyond the Routine appeared first on DHM.

September 26, 2008

Thought of the Week 9-26-2008

Thought of the Week

“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.”

–G.K. Chesterton

Good News of the Day:
There’s an unusual park in Berkeley, California. Looking at it, “playground” probably wouldn’t be your first thought. “Junkyard” is more like it. And well, that would be accurate. Berkeley’s Adventure Playground is one of a handful of playgrounds in the United States based on a concept that grew in popularity after World War II. During the Nazi occupation of Denmark, the landscape architect C. Th. Sorensen created a new playground with whatever junk was available. It turned out, that’s exactly what kids like.There is no equipment, as such, in the park. Instead, kids are confronted with boards, spare tires, telephone poles, and lots and lots of mud. [ more ]

Be The Change:
The next time you encounter an inconvenience try approaching it in the spirit of adventure.

My Thoughts:
I wonder if what is largely wrong with our world right now amidst market woes and bailout fears is that we have gotten so focused on the here and now that we are missing out on the future and later. It’s amazing to me that many times I miss the bigger picture trying to focus on the minute points. Have you ever looked at a comic strip in a newspaper from very close to your face? Have you seen the small pixels of ink and dots in the print? If you look at it from too close, you will not be able to see the larger picture because your eyes are focusing simply on the dots. Maybe our present circumstance is due to the same issue.

Maybe if we pull back from the issue and allow space, time and perspective, we will SEE again!

I have a handful of ways that we can make ourselves change perspective and I plan to share them here. So, with that said, see what you think…

1 – Instead of watching and listening so much to the media and reading their reviews and go outside for a moment and notice the chill in the night air as we enter the Fall.

2 – Take a walk, holding the hand of the one you love.

3 – Think of ten things that you are thankful for this year.

4 – Realize that the only ones that have your BEST interests are those that love you deeply. And at this point of insanity, TRUST THEM.

5 – Turn of the TV tonight and take a moment looking face to face with those around you.

6 – Fight the desire to act rashly and out of sorts. The next time you feel pressed, take a deep breath.

7 – Take your trip home a little slower today and be sure to LOOK UP at the trees and leaves. Take memory pictures. Make snapshots that will last in your mind for the long-haul.

8 – Do something for someone else and keep your eyes open for opportunities like opening the door and smiling.

9 – LAUGH – Find something to laugh about. IT WILL LENGTHEN YOUR LIFE! And longeveity is of the essence since we all might have to live a little longer before we comfortably retire… LOL

10 – Invest in long-lasting commodities…

I think it’s time for us to start investing in peace, kindness, trust and love. These seem to me to be the ONLY commodities that are endless and readily available to all.

With that said, enjoy the weekend and enjoy the day. And I guess, my last encouragement of the day is for all of us to have a little imagination and hope. At the very least when the day is finished, you are still alive and sharing breath with the rest of humanity and really, no matter what anyone thinks, we are IN THIS TOGETHER for better or worse, we all are sharing this present era.

“You cannot depend on your eyes when
your imagination is out of focus.”
— Mark Twain

Adjust those imaginations. Tomorrow will come. And when it does, it comes knocking at our door with inconveniences that are adventures in disguise. Adjust your focus so that you can see it!

Have a great weekend and next week!

Dustin Hedrick

August 26, 2008

Thought of the Week 8-26-2008

“Strength does not come from physical capacity; it comes from an indomitable will.”

– Calendar on my wall

The Olympics really stirred something in me. It’s this concept of “Will.”

Will is an interesting thing to me. On the one hand, Anna (my baby) totally frustrates my when she has a strong will and will not listen. (She has learned so many things like how to discreetly place tomatoes and other slimy foods on my arm and watch them slide into my lap during meals). Of course, if you are a parent, you have heard of or read books about “the strong willed child,” which are often filled with ways to break this will.

However, there is another kind of will that is inside of a person that is very important to keep in tact. My wrestling coach in Middle School used to say, “Have heart boys… When you are down, and you have all but been pinned to the mat, it’s ‘heart’ that will drive you to roll over and get up.” He used to yell, “Come on, it’s time to show me some heart!” It was at those points I would really put up a fight. You know, there were many times that I didn’t win, but I didn’t give up either. As I have progressed through the years of school, sports, work and life, I can still hear coach yell at different times in my ear, “SHOW ME SOME HEART!”

Today is one of those days. When you see things that you have leaned on, people you have entrusted, situations you have planned for disappear, leave, or change; it’s at those moments that “WILL” really shows up.

I wonder if I would still be using a candle if Edison had given up after the 100^th try at the light bulb, or what might genetics would have been like if Mendel had given up experimenting on peas and honey bees because he couldn’t get the results he wanted from the first four plants and trials. I wonder what music would have looked like had the Beatles given up after the first label turned them down. I wonder what art would be like today if van Gogh had never acted out on his heart for the artistic, because his religion did not approve.

I wonder what would have happened to freedom had a few colonials not hung out at George Wythe’s house, framed an idea and signed a paper. I wonder what would have happened if Abraham Lincoln would have given up after he lost his first election, or if Annie Sullivan had not forced a little blind girl to behave and “feel.”

What do you think would have happened to Civil Rights had Rosa Parks not “brought it to the front of the bus” or if MLK had not “Had a Dream?”

In every one of these stories, I can hear some coach somewhere saying, “SHOW ME SOME HEART!”

Without this “heart,” this “will,” where would we be today? I guess the question today is, “Will we continue? Will we have the will? Will you show some heart?

I think today, I will dig in and show some heart!

I challenge all of us to do the same! No matter your challenge this week or in the future, if you haven’t had a coach yell it at you before, hear me yell it to you today. “COME ON _______, SHOW ME SOME HEART!”

Today, I leave you with a few quotes by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (A hero who showed us all “some heart”);

“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”

“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”

FROM THE “I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH”:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.”

Have a wonderful week!

Dustin Hedrick

Operations Manager

Burt Associates, Incorporated

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

April 18, 2008

Thought of the Week 4-18-2008

“I touch the future. I teach.”

-Christa McAuliffe

Inspiration of the Day:
Ron Clark used to be an elementary school teacher in North Carolina — but after watching a program about a New York City school that had a hard time attracting qualified teachers, he decided to head to New York with the goal of teaching in one of its toughest schools. Clark eventually landed a job doing just that — in Harlem. He asked if he could teach a class of fifth-graders who had been performing at a second-grade level. The school’s administrators wanted to give him the gifted class, but Clark insisted on the underperforming students. In one school year, Clark’s fifth-grade class outperformed the gifted class. Clark became Disney’s teacher of the year, a best-selling author, and an Oprah guest. This Business Week article shares Clark’s thoughts on how managers can use his techniques to motivate their own teams. [ more ]

Be The Change:
Make use of one of Clark’s tips in your own work with other people.

This week’s thought rings home with me for three reasons:

1. I remember Christa McAuliffe

2. I believe that life isn’t worth living if you aren’t able to both be a student and a teacher.

3. My mom’s a teacher. She taught me in Kindergarten. And I was a tough kid! HAHAHAHA! (Hey Mrs. Hedrick!)

I also want to challenge us this week to take a moment and…

1. Say thank you to a teacher – educator and let them know we appreciate their time and effort. You never can tell, maybe your encouragement will motivate even a bad teacher to do better.

2. Implement a couple of Clark’s points from the attached and aforementioned article.

3. Take a moment and be a student of your: life, culture, community, family, nature and religion. Just spend a few seconds and be silent, listen, observe and learn.

Remember, every living thing is GROWING, LEARNING & ADAPTING. The only things that don’t learn, grow and adapt are things that are inanimate, dead or dying.

Have a Great Weekend!

Dustin Hedrick

Operations Manager

June 12, 2007

LAUNCH Results!

misfit

Hi Everyone,

If you are like me, you want to keep up to date with all the cool stuff from our Tapestry Balloon Launch. Here’s what I have so far!

1. Frank G. said – “We found the card in our front yard on June 4 at about 10:30. The card number is 46. Have a blessed day.” (We think this is a local find).

2. Dustin H. (That’s me hahaha) – I found card number 142 locally here in Rockville! It was encouraging finding one of the balloons myself since I was having tough week. It also let me know that they were findable!

3. Nicole S. said – I’m relocating to the area and I’m looking for a new home church! (Found in Washington, DC)

4. Brian C. said – 87 (I think… close call between 87 and 81). – I found the tag alone (balloon popped of course) on the forest floor of Greenbrier State Park in Washington county, MD (near Frederick). It is a bit water damaged. I found it while hiking down into the park from the Appalachian Trail to do some Geocaching (see http://geocaching.com for more info… great group activity for a church if you guys don’t already know about it!). I live over in (Name of area removed for privacy), so I think it’s incredible to have found the tag from a balloon launched from Rockville, in Frederick!! What a trip that must have been. Happy 3rd Anniversary!

Thanks to all for your wonderful feedback already! This is so amazing and fun. We hope to meet you all in the future!

Also, I’m going to be putting up all the photos from our Anniversary and from our Beach refreshing in the next 48 hours on Flickr. So, you can go to our gallery and see them there.

And you can click here for Zuzana’s pictures.

Blessings!

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March 19, 2007

What a Great Transition!

fork in the road

Well, that went better than I would have EVER thought! I don’t know about you guys, but growing up in the church, we believed change was the synonym of “church-split!” Right?! Whether it was the carpet, the curtains, who mowed the yard or who led the hymns, change wasn’t a good thing.

Well, in our case, it seems that change is the very thing that’s stirring revival in our hearts!

I don’t know about you guys, but that was the best church has ever been! I truly felt GOD come in as usual and then at a point in the service, it just kicked up a notch! And the worship was so intimate! I am so excited about next week. I can’t wait to see you all again and I really can’t wait to plant the Sunday morning service in May.

Just in case you are reading this post and you have not heard about the change, just see our “Directions” page, (CLICK HERE).

Also, if you are on our mailing list, (Postal Mail, not Email), you should receive a letter with a little personal note from me. If you do not, we don’t have your mailing address. We will be sending periodic mail to your mailbox now that will be encouraging, will help you connect and updates on our events. So, if you don’t receive the email, please be sure to fill out another connect card the next Sunday you attend.

With that said, I hope to see you again this week or very soon. Tapestry, you are amazing! And you are only getting better every day!

Blessings!

pd

Also, don’t forget, the Mexico Mission team is due back today and we MUST pray for them! They need the cover.

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February 27, 2007

What I said was going to be up is up!

Hey Guys,

I told you I would post something on the website a couple of Sundays ago during our last talk and it is now posted. I know this is a little cryptic and what I have posted will be a little hard to find, but I think that when it comes to our services, in a lot of ways, it’s really cool to NOT broadcast them. I really like the whole heartbeat of, “Come and See.”

Anyways, it’s here and I know it is going to encourage you greatly and really back up what we talked about.

(CLICK HERE)

Blessings!

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February 5, 2007

the Thread 2.5.2007 Volume 3.3

thread
Good Morning! (Welcome Message)

Welcome again to the second official version of the Thread Online. I hope that you have enjoyed our new way of doing our newsletter. If you are not receiving the newsletter and you would like to, please email us at: dustinhedrick(at)tapestrychurch.org. Of course, please change the “(at)” to the @ sign. We do this to keep from being spammed.

Also, let us know if there are other types of content or columns that you would like to see here. I am contemplating adding a column for the creative. And before I do, we need you to send your poetry, song lyrics or whatever to be added here. The Thread has a few thousand readers now and this is your opportunity to have your creative works published and shared worldwide.

Tapestry, I would also like to say that I truly love you guys. This year has been an amazing year already with all the growth, the change, the new faces, the new worship, the new ministries and the maturing ministries that have been here a while. We are now nearing our third year as a church and we have made great advances. I simply want to say again thank you for calling me your pastor and for calling the Tapestry Home! And if you are a newer person, just entering the doors or contemplating visiting, come on in. This is my invitation! Dinner will be on me when you do!

Thanks for staying with us and we pray that the Lord continues to richly bless you and yours!

Love you guys!

inspire
Inspire! (Quote of the Week)

“Most people don’t recognize opportunity when it comes, because it’s usually dressed in overalls and looks a lot like work.”
-Thomas Edison

Is This What You Are Looking For?

Category: encouragement