Steve May, Author at Steve May

Attention to Detail

What does a Hall-of-Fame basketball coach teach his players about attention to detail?

John Wooden, legendary leader of the UCLA Bruins, won more championships than any other coach in history — 10 titles in 12 years. Which steps did he take to ensure his players’ top-level performance?

For one thing, he taught them how to put on their socks.

No kidding.

Each season Coach Wooden showed his players how to prevent sock-wrinkles around the little toe and the heel, and how to lace up their shoes with a double-knot. The idea was to prevent blisters, because in the closing minutes of a close game, the player without blisters performs better. This seemingly insignificant adjustment contributed, in a small way, to an impressive string of National Championships.

Attention to detail, Wooden would say, creates success in basketball, in business and in life. His focus on the fundamentals — running drills and executing plays — gave his team confidence on the court, and made them all but impossible to beat.

For this reason, Wooden never had to resort to pep talks or tirades. He just helped each player excel at the basics, because excelling at the basics wins ball games.

THE BASICS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Paul said to the Corinthians, “Hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.” (1Corinthians 11:2) He prefaced this statement with “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”

The basics of spiritual growth are the same for all Christians: For new believers as well as old saints, for high profile ministers as well as those who serve in obscurity. Maintaining a dynamic spiritual life requires the same effort from all, regardless of nationality, or income, or influence, or education.

There are no tricks and no short-cuts to this process. The only way to excel in the Christian life is to do the basics: daily prayer, daily Bible study, daily worship, daily service, and daily fellowship.

These are the fundamentals of the faith, and we never outgrow our need for them.

Spending time alone in prayer, or memorizing a verse, or visiting a lonely person may sometimes seem as exciting as putting on your socks, but when you do it right it opens the door to greatness.

Jesus said, “You have been faithful in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:23)

The Lord is in the details. This week, remember the basics; God will reward you for your faithfulness.

Today’s memo was updated from a previous post.

The Image of Service

Is the image of success much different than the image of service?

The world has differing ideas of what makes an individual great. Most often we associate it with power, wealth and celebrity. We typically measure a person’s influence by their number of followers.

The Bible suggests a different way to greatness: the way of a servant. Greatness is found in living for others.

For most of his career Albert Einstein kept the portraits of two scientists on the wall: Newton and Maxwell. Toward the end of his life he replaced those portraits with Ghandi and Albert Schweitzer.

He said, “It is time to replace the image of success with the image of service.”

Maybe he had been inspired by Schweitzer’s words: “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know, the only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

We are all on something of a self-directed journey to greatness. Let’s remember that the path is paved with service to others.

If you want to be great, learn to be the servant of all. Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. (Mark 10:43-44)

Clay in the Potter’s Hand

Several years ago at Silver Dollar City, our group saw a demonstration of clay in the potter’s hand, as we watched an artist craft, with great skill, a small vase out of a mere lump.

When he asked if anyone would like to give it a try, one man stepped up. He then sat at the wheel, and as the clay began to spin round and round, he grabbed hold with both hands … and made a big mess.

Being a potter is not nearly as easy as it looks. For a lump of clay to become a lovely decoration, someone who knows what they’re doing needs to be sitting at the wheel.

The Bible compares our lives to this same kind of clay, needing to be shaped.

The question is: Who, if anyone, will do the shaping?

I’m guessing no one really wants their outcomes to be determined by the random spinning of an unattended wheel. Nor do we want to be left in the hands of an unskilled volunteer.

Neither scenario is likely to end well.

However, if you will allow God his rightful place at the potter’s table, the words of Jeremiah will be yours…

“O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” (Jeremiah 18:6)

This day, as in every day, you get to choose who sits at the potter’s wheel, and whose clay you will be.

Today’s memo was taken from Steve’s series: Shaping Things to Come.

One Fully Focused Day

George Orwell said this about living with focus: “To see what is front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”

It’s so easy — much too easy — to find ourselves perpetually distracted, constantly diverting our gaze from what is necessary now, staring instead at that which barely matters at all.

By nature, we all have a short attention span, and our peripheral vision often works more like a telescope. Maintaining eyes-in-front is a never-ending battle.

King Solomon gave us this guideline to follow:

Let your eyes look straight ahead, and fix your gaze directly before you. (Proverbs 4:25)

How might we put this into practice?

Make this day about one thing, and one thing alone.

That goes for this day, and each new day to come.

Every morning, bright and early, we can declare out loud: “If nothing else gets done today, this one thing gets done. And if this one thing gets done, today counts as a win.”

This “one thing” could be almost anything:

– A conversation to make.
– A task to complete.
– It could be the first step of a project you’ve been putting off.
– Or the final step of a project that’s been dragging on.
– It could be to avoid a very old bad habit.
– Or to pursue a brand new good habit.
– It could be to put in a full day’s work.
– It could be to get a good night’s sleep.
– This “one thing” could even be to cross off all the items on a list.

The objective is that we live this day — and every day — with intention. With a sense of direction. With a steadfast focus on what matters most.

Not tending to everything all at once may seem, at first, almost lazy. There’s something about feeling frazzled that lets us think we’re at least moving in the right direction.

But frazzled rarely gets the job done.

No doubt, for all of us, we have much to keep us busy, and there’s still so much do.

Surely we’ll get there … one fully focused day at a time.

When It Feels Like God is Frowning

A while back I came across a quote from William Carey, taken from his journal, April 1794, during his first year in India.

“This day was tumultuous in its beginning, but was afterwards more calm. Yet a burden of guilt is not easily removed: nothing short of infinite power, and infinite goodness, can remove such a load as mine.

“O that I had but a smiling God, or an earthly friend to whom I could unbosom my soul! But my friend is at a great distance, and God frowns upon my soul. O may his countenance be lifted upon me again.”

Carey was expressing his feelings here, not writing a theological treatise. His words reflect a servant’s struggle with sin and the struggle with loneliness.

It’s a struggle everyone in ministry knows. And you need not travel to another continent to meet these enemies face-to-face. They’ll come to you, where you are.

Carey won the battle, ultimately. He stayed in India, translated the New Testament into several languages, planted churches and missionary training centers, and became known as the Father of Modern Missions.

The battle he won, we can win, too. When burdens seem too great to bear, when friends are nowhere to be found, when it feels like God is frowning, remember William Carey — not just what he accomplished, but what he overcame in April 1794.

And the redeemed of the LORD will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee. (Isaiah 51:11)

Today’s memo was updated from a previous post.

Waiting for Perfect Conditions

Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. (Ecclesiastes 11:4)

When a farmer anticipates a windy day, he may need to put off planting seeds; otherwise the gusts could scatter them away before they work their way into the earth.

And when a farmer anticipates rain during the harvest, he puts off cutting wheat or oats; if the grain gets wet it could be ruined.

In everything, farmers need to exercise a little caution.

Exercise too much caution, however, and your seeds will never get planted and your harvest will never come in.

The Living Bible says it this way: “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.” (Ecclesiastes 11:4 TLB)

If you need to begin a new project or start a new diet or launch a new ministry or make some big change in your life, don’t wait for the perfect conditions to come along. You’ll end up waiting forever.

Instead, seize the perfect moment — this moment — and take the first step in moving forward.

God Is All You Need

In a worship conference several years back I heard Rita Springer say…

“You’ll never know that God is all you need until you reach a point where God is all you have.”

Actually, you don’t have to lose everything to learn this. It just takes one sudden storm.

You can have a multitude of friends and piles of money and a great big stack of success … and then one unexpected event brings you face to face with the realization that none of it matters.

In these times you learn that in spite of all your accumulated accoutrements, God is really all you have.

The good news, however, is that God is all you need. He comes to us in our weakest moments. He comforts us and reminds us of his never-ending love. Where we have failed him, he is quick to forgive.

And he remains near to us through it all.

This is why the psalmist could say…

“I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” (Psalm 57:1)

As you begin your week, keep this in mind: All you truly need you already have.

Today’s memo was updated from a previous post.

This Changes Everything Monday

Another Easter is in the books.

Many of us observed the specially named days last week, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. And no doubt we all celebrated Easter yesterday, which is now often called Resurrection Sunday.

But what about today? The Monday after Easter? What do we call it?

Back-to-Business-as-Usual Monday?

I don’t think so. Not if we believe the message we heard yesterday.

Jesus’ closest followers spent Resurrection Sunday trying to fully absorb what they had just seen and heard. As in: Could it really be true? And if it is, what then?

By Monday, they were making plans and moving forward. Cautiously, perhaps, because some uncertainties had yet to be resolved. But they were moving forward nonetheless, making decisions based on the breaking news: Jesus is alive, and this changes everything.

Maybe that’s what we could call today: This Changes Everything Monday. The truth of the resurrection means that we factor the reality of the Risen Christ into every plan, every detail, every activity.

The Eastern tradition, by the way, calls this day Bright Monday. The entire week is called Bright Week, or Renewal Week. It’s a seven day celebration of the Resurrection of Christ.

What a great idea.

Instead of putting Easter behind us and turning our attention to the next activity, maybe we could spend these days focused on making each and every decision based on this powerful truth:

Jesus is alive… and the same Spirit that raised him from the dead is now living in us… and through his power we are made to be more than conquerors. (Romans 8)

How does this reality affect our plans?

It changes everything.

Easter 2023 may be in the books, but it’s not behind us, and it never will be. The impact of this powerful day has just begun.

The Other Thing Patrick Henry Said

Patrick Henry, whose primary contribution to the history books is the phrase “Give me liberty or give me death,” made another statement that appears in a number of quotation collections.

He said, “I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.”

Repeat this before an audience and you’ll see heads nod in agreement. It has the ring of good common sense.

Be careful, though. This axiom might be true when applied to politics or history or investing, but it provides a lousy foundation in other areas of life.

And it certainly doesn’t reflect the way God relates to us.

God gives a chance to let go of the past and start over — each and every day. Jeremiah wrote…

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

God doesn’t judge our future by our past. He didn’t do it with David or Moses or Peter or Paul or countless other Bible characters. And he doesn’t do it with you.

He does not treat us as our sins deserve. (Psalm 103:10)

Every day meets us brand new. A good way to start the day with God is to remember that you’ve just been given new mercies — the opportunity to begin this day with a clean slate.

This is also a good way to begin the day with others. God doesn’t allow the past to stand in the way of your future; let’s give the same gift to one another.

Change Your Course

This story, which has certainly made the rounds, reminds of a truth taught in Deuteronomy 30.

As a ship approached the coast of New England, a heavy fog set in. The ship’s radar detected what appeared to be another vessel in its path, so the captain sent the following message: “Change your course 10 degrees port.” (Landlubbers, that’s to the left.)

Shortly they received a reply: “Change your course 10 degree starboard.” (To the right.)

The captain became annoyed and said: “I am a Lt. Commander of the U.S. Navy. Change your course.”

This was the response: “I am a seaman 3rd class. Change your course.”

By now the captain was furious. His next message read: “This is a battleship! Change your course.”

Moments later a message came across the wire that said: “This is a Lighthouse! Change Your Course!”

There are certain laws at work in the universe, and no amount of power, or money, or influence can change them. These laws are God’s laws. He designed them to work for us, not against us.

In order for this to happen, we sometimes have to change our course. His laws don’t change; we must change.

When we try to find happiness, fulfillment, and meaning in life through any method other than a personal relationship with God, we are setting ourselves up for failure.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

We can change our course at anytime. We can choose life over death; we can choose spiritual blessings over self-destruction.

God doesn’t change his course to accommodate us, but if we are willing to change our course, to chart the path of our lives in his direction, he will to open his arms wide to receive us, and will shower us with blessings from heaven.

These are his words…

“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live, and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life…” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

Dreams That Never Age

On October 13, 2007 — a perfect day for football — 59-year-old Mike Flynt took the field for the Sul Ross State Lobos … not as a coach or trainer, but as a player. He was their starting linebacker.

Flynt had played for this Division III team back in 1970, but was forced to quit before his senior year. He never quite got over the regret of not getting to play, so 37 years later, when he discovered he still had one more semester of eligibility, he sold his house, moved back to Texas, enrolled in school, and tried out for the team.

Sports Illustrated called him “the ultimate college senior.” A grandfather, an AARP member, eight years older than his head coach … and capable of playing against guys one-third his age. Mike Flynt earned his spot on the roster like all the other players.

He said, “This opportunity is just a testament to what you can do at any stage of your life if you’ll just take a few minutes every day to prioritize your health and take better care of yourself.”

Maybe the most amazing detail of Mike’s story is that, as a 59 year collegiate linebacker, he didn’t set the record. There have been a couple of others even older than him.

We need to remember that many of our limitations in life are self-imposed. God never says you’re too young, too old, too weak, too broken, or too anything to be used by him. One qualification eclipses them all: a willingness to jump in and try.

God promised through the prophet Joel that the old would continue to dream dreams. I encourage you to claim that promise. Decide today that you’ll never let the number of candles on your cake prevent you from dreaming new dreams … and pursuing them.

Fear and Faith

George Muller said, “The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.”

We have a choice between worry and belief, between fear and faith.

That’s why Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” (Luke 8:50)

Fear and faith are incompatible. One always works to crowd out the other.

We don’t always call it fear. Sometimes it’s just a little worry, a little anxiety. But these are only fear diluted.

So, what are you worried about today? Which anxious thoughts are chipping away at your confidence in God’s ability to provide?

You have a choice between fear and faith. The direction you take eventually eliminates the other, so choose your path carefully.