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If you read my blog regularly or follow me on Face Book or Twitter you know that I ran the Atlanta Marathon on Thanksgiving Day. I remember thinking that it would be cool to run one way back when I was in high school. When I was in my twenties I set a goal to run a marathon eventually. I wrote it down and thought about it for years and even started marathon training programs three different times before. Well, that day finally came. I can now say that I am a marathon man!

I think the marathon is an appropriate metaphor for my life and ministry. I will try to avoid too many clichés but I really believe that leadership, marriage, and ministry are long haul events. It is not about how you start but about how you finish. (OK, allow me just one cliché) You can accomplish so much more over the period of your life if your see marriage and ministry as marathons rather than sprints.

One of the great temptations in ministry is to think in terms of the next Sunday rather than the next fifty years. You may not be able to accomplish as much as you think over the next twelve months but you probably can accomplish much more than you think over the next three or four decades. Stay the course. It is not a sprint. It is an endurance event.

There are several leadership lessons I learned from running a marathon. I will share them with you over the next few days.

Have a great day and keep on running. It is worth it!

Ritchie

Since this is Thanksgiving week I will post some things I am thankful for each day. Add ten things to the list each day and pray through the list each day. By Friday you will have fifty things I have posted and fifty things you have added. That means we have a lot to be thankful for! Go back and read the previous list to catch up.

41. Coffee. Nothing beats the smell and taste of a bold, French-pressed coffee early in the morning.
42. Going to see a movie with your family on a holiday.
43. Making fun of your daughter’s or wife’s chick-flick only to get busted enjoying it when you watch it with them.
44. The great outdoors. I love running and taking in nature.
45. My health. I can walk, see, hear, feel, smell, speak, taste, form rational thoughts, read, write, think, debate, express emotion, and enjoy life. Thank you, Lord.
46. Beauty. Only God can create beauty. Satan deforms what God made and makes it corrupt.
47. Pleasure. God created pleasure. Satan corrupts it with lies and distortions.
48. Opportunities. God has given me so many wonderful opportunities to go to interesting places, meet interesting people, and do things that I only dreamed of when I was younger.
49. Laughter. Life would be boring without it.
50. Dreams. I am so glad that God gives the motivation to dream for something more, to reach farther, to go higher. It makes getting up in the morning so exciting!

Ritchie

Since this is Thanksgiving week I will post some things I am thankful for each day. Add ten things to the list each day and pray through the list each day. By Friday you will have fifty things I have posted and fifty things you have added. That means we have a lot to be thankful for! Go back and read the previous list to catch up.

31. Thanksgiving with family.
32. Turkey.
33. The taste of amazing food.
34. The smell of amazing food.
35. The fact that I get to eat when many in the world are hungry, malnourished, and dying. God, help me never take for granted Your amazing provision.
36. Stuffing, potatoes, gravy (I love it so much I think it should be a beverage), macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, yeast rolls…
37. Stuff I should not eat like pumpkin pie, coconut cream pie, cheesecake, chocolate cake, carrot cake, apple pie, ice cream, and all the ridiculous stuff that my family fixes for Thanksgiving.
38. Chilling. I ran the Atlanta Marathon this morning (26.2 miles) and fully expect my wife, my mom, and my youngest daughter to bring all my food and drink to me on the couch because I can’t move.
39. Clean clothes.
40. Clean sheets.

Ritchie

Since this is Thanksgiving week I will post some things I am thankful for each day. Add ten things to the list each day and pray through the list each day. By Friday you will have fifty things I have posted and fifty things you have added. That means we have a lot to be thankful for! Go back and read the previous list to catch up.

21. South Africa. I love going there.
22. Avalon HOPE. Helping families in need, coaching pastors, helping our community, starting churches, and helping AIDS orphans. Awesome.
23. Snickers candy bars. I can’t really eat them anymore because I have diabetes but I still love them.
24. Comfortable shoes.
25. Basketball. It is the greatest sport ever and I love still trying to play even though I am terrible now.
26. My small group. They are awesome and they smell nice.
27. My wife’s dog, Maximus. He makes her happy and that makes me happy. It makes me even happier that I do not have to feed him or clean up after him.
28. Good friends. I have been blessed with several great friends. They make my life better.
29. My eyes. I have been blessed with sight and I have seen so many beautiful things that God created. Think about colors. God did not have to create colors, but He did. I have seen beautiful mountains, breath-taking beaches, and splendors of God’s handiwork. I have also seen old men at the beach in Speedos and that made me want to claw out my retinas. You have to take the bad with the good, I guess.
30. My ears. I am so thankful for the beauty of sounds; music, the breeze in the trees, waves lapping on the shore, a baby’s laugh, the sound of my children’s breathing when they were small, clapping hands when people get baptized, the roar of a stadium on a game-winning play, the roar of a lion in the wild, the sound of my wife’s voice when she says, “Supper’s ready.” Great sounds.

Ritchie

Since this is Thanksgiving week I will post some things I am thankful for each day. Add ten things to the list each day and pray through the list each day. By Friday you will have fifty things I have posted and fifty things you have added. That means we have a lot to be thankful for! Go back and read the previous list to catch up.

11. The vehicles God lets me drive. It is much better than walking, although, walking would make me live longer. The problem is that all that extra time would be spent walking.
12. Forgiveness. It is great to receive it and to give it.
13. Vacation. Take one. Two, if possible.
14. Fall. I love the colorful leaves and the cool weather.
15. Sundays. I get to go to my favorite church and see my favorite people.
16. My calling or my job. It still amazes me that God called me to pastor and lead. Because I get to do what I love it feels like I don’t really have to work. (Insert joke here about pastors not working anyway)
17. Art. I love creating it and looking at the creativity of others.
18. Solitude. I love it when I can get alone, think, and connect with God.
19. Chiropractors. They make my back and neck feel better.
20. Weird people. They give me something to make fun of and to laugh at. They are created by God so I love them. TV preachers are my favorite things to laugh at. Giraffes too. Come to think of it, both look kind of weird, don’t they?

Ritchie

Since this is Thanksgiving week I will post some things I am thankful for each day. Add ten things to the list each day and pray through the list each day. By Friday you will have fifty things I have posted and fifty things you have added. That means we have a lot to be thankful for!

1. Jesus Christ. Without Him nothing matters.
2. Salvation. It is all of Him and none of me.
3. Chocolate. It is futile to resist. Who would want to anyway?
4. My wife, Kim. She has been a wonderful spouse for 23 years.
5. My children, Brittney, Brandon, and Brooke. I will always love them no matter what.
6. My parents. They have been a great example over the years. The older I get the wiser they get!
7. Avalon Church. It is the best church in the world in my opinion.
8. Problems. I don’t like them at all but the Bible tells me that God uses them to make me better. I like being better.
9. Avalon Church staff. They are awesome and almost all of them smell nice.
10. The house God lets me live in. It is all His. I am thankful He gave me this to manage and not to idolize.

Ritchie

Be Honest

Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds, for riches don’t last forever… Proverbs 27:23-24

Until you really know what your financial status is you will never be able to improve it. Most people never really take the time to figure out what they spend. If they do, they are normally shocked.

I talked a young couple about their financial problems. They both worked full-time and they have three children. They were barely making ends meet. I asked them how much it would take to get them to where they did not have to use credit cards each week to survive. They said about $600 per month. When I looked at their spending imagine how shocked they were to learn that they were spending more than $600 per month in eating out and bounced check fees! Just getting to know their spending habits helped them get a $600 per month “raise!”

Write Your Plan

A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Proverbs 24:3

Wise spending is planned spending. Yes, there are always unexpected bills. Cars break down, children get sick, and washing machines have to be replaced. When we do not plan our spending we tend to get angry with God when life happens. The tires of tithers still wear out.

It is best when we plan our spending. Planning for the unexpected is a part of that. Living so that there is a little margin in your life lowers stress, improves your mood, and makes everyone happier to see you.

Be content with what you have. Save for the future. Pay off your credit cards. Live below your means. Don’t be a financial Monet. Have you ever seen a painting by Monet? From a distance it looks good but when you get close it looks like a mess. You can change with God’s help! There is hope when we follow God’s plan.

Live By A Budget

Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. Proverbs 21:5

Budgets are a necessary evil. Do not obsess over it but determine to use it as a tool to help you achieve your financial goals.

A budget helps you plan your spending and know where your money goes. It helps you plan for the future, get out of debt, and control your spending. People are often shocked at how much money “leaks” out of their pockets each month when they take a real look at what they spend and start keeping good records.

Prayer: God, help me to educate myself about money and execute my plan.

Ritchie

The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get. Proverbs 21:20

The Bible has more to say about money and possessions that any other subject. Essentially, everything the Bible says about money can be reduced to three principles: bring the first ten percent of all you earn to God, acknowledge that God owns everything, and manage your debt by managing your desires. The last principle is HUGE. It works in our favor no matter what the economy is like. One reason many people have financial problems has nothing to do with how much money they make but with how they spend their money. It is really not about how much you make but about how much you spend.

Do you ever run out of money before you run out of month? Have you wondered where all your money goes? Chances are that you do not know your weaknesses in spending.

Weaknesses can include impulse buying, spending creep, luxuries disguised ad needs, and thinking that buying something will fill a void in your life. Do you ever buy something that is outside your budget? Do you even have a budget? When you get a raise, a windfall, or a tax return do you go out and blow it or do you save or invest it?

Know your weaknesses to improve your financial bottom line! Even if you are in trouble financially it is never too late to begin following God’s principles for financial success.

Prayer: God, show me my weaknesses in managing money and help me to follow Your plan.

Ritchie

You cannot serve both God and Money. Luke 16:13b

The contrast that Jesus made here was a contrast of two kinds of hearts. The word translated “Money” is the word that is translated “Mammon” in some older translations. What it was referring to was the ancient god of wealth. People trusted Mammon for significance, security, purpose, provision, and happiness. Jesus was saying you cannot serve The LORD God Jehovah and the materialistic gods of this world at the same time.

Jesus is testing us to see if we have a heart that trusts God for significance, supply, happiness, security, and purpose or a heart that trusts in money for those things. Money and material things will always tempt us to trust in them for the things that are reserved only for God to give.

“You cannot serve both God and Money” is simply a test of the heart. It does not mean that money is wrong. It is just wrong for your heart to trust in wealth rather than God. Who do you trust today, God or Mammon?

Prayer: God, let me trust in YOU for significance, provision, happiness, and meaning in life.

Ritchie

Because of the economic uncertainty that we are facing right now there are lots of people who are afraid. Here is a bit of good news, however. God is in control.

Riches and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and it is at your discretion that people are made great and given strength. 1 Chronicles 29:12

One of the great things about trusting God with our giving is that we admit that He is in control. By doing this we trust Him for things that only He can do anyway. It all comes from Him. Have you ever thought about the real successes in your life and where they came from? Think about it. The sale that came from nowhere, the promotion that was unexpected, the person that you met by chance who became a business partner, the opportunity that you were not expecting. The fact is God will reward those who trust Him. It does not come from longer hours, neglecting family and church, or even from a winning financial plan. It all comes from God. And He can be trusted.

Prayer: God, help me surrender all to Your control.

Ritchie