If...

1f 99% is good enough, then...
12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes will be shipped per year.
18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled per hour.
2,000,000 documents will be lost by the IRS this year.
2.5 million books will be shipped with the wrong covers.
2 planes landed at Chicago's O'Har airport will be unsafe every day.
315 entries in Webster's dictionary will be misspelled.
20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written this year.
103,260 income tax returns will be processed incorrectly during the year.
5.5 million cases of soft drinks will be flat.
291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly.
3,056 copies of tomorrow's Wall Street Journal will be missing one of three sections.
Are you giving 100%?

New Sight

I was talking with a good friend of mine yesterday who said she had experienced a revelation in her life! Kari told of how she didn't realize how blind she was until she put on a friends glasses and she could suddenly see! This reminded me a lot of how I had been living my life in the past week. Its easy, friends, to let the world invade your life and pull you down. It's certainly been easy for the world to pull me down this past week. We are constantly on the run - the run from this meeting to that one, or this appointment to the next, or from school to this commitment. It's easy to begin feeling overwhelmed and run down. It's easy, brothers and sisters, to push away from life all together in hopes that it might go away. When Kari was telling me about how her sight had been renewed by putting on a pair of glasses, it reminded me of how with a change of my attitude, and help from God, I too could see the world anew.
Theres a woman who works in the SDSU Student Union - her name is Marilyn - and for the past year I have watched her as she scurries around the tables refilling the napkin dispensers, pushing in chairs, picking up trash, and not saying a word to anyone. Im ashamed to say that many days I said to myself "Would it hurt for her to say hello to anyone as she's doing her work?" Like Kari, I was blind and the only thing I needed was to regain my sight - and while Kari regained hers with a new pair of glasses, I regained mine with Christ. It's been a few months now that I've been praying for Marilyn - that someone, in some way, would open their heart to her. Today, that person was me. As I was eating with friends in the Union I walked up to Marilyn and said "Hello!" with a loud booming voice. I think I may have scared her at first but then came something I have not seen from this woman - a smile. A big smile from ear to ear. 5 minutes later, after listening to her talk non-stop, I walked away with a new smile on my face. My sight had been renewed, and for 5 minutes all of those cares in the world that had been pulling me down had vanished and were unimportant because I had made a new sister in Christ, and that my friends is what life is all about.
How is your sight today? Are you feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders? Are you feeling overwhelmed about your life and its direction? These past weeks I have been forgetting one of the rules that I need to live my life around - that every morning when you wake up, you have control over the day you are going to have, because you have control over your attitude. When you wake up tomorrow morning, blinded by the worries of the world, I'd like for you to remember what Paul says in Philippians 2:5 - "Have the same mindset as Christ." Can we make it a goal that tomorrow morning, from the minute our feet touch the floor, that we would take WWJD to a new level? That we would let him invade our lives to push out all the worries of the world? I pray, that most of all, you would find new sight - new attitude - in Christ.

Why Not Me?

As I am sitting by my window, gazing at the snow falling softly, I am reminded of one of Bing Crosby's famous songs from "White Christmas". I think you'll remember it when you hear the words: "When I'm worried and I can't sleep. I count my blessings instead of sheep. And I fall asleep counting my blessing". We, sadly, live in a world that is surrounded and engulfed by the negatives that the media is constantly throwing at us. It's gotten to the point where most don't want to even snap on the TV, open up a newspaper, or turn on the radio in fear of what will be heard or read. I've lived my life around the principal that blessings can be taken from every situation - even the darkest and most traumatic. There are days when I come back to my dorm room from classes, throw my backpack down, and crawl into my bed and shout - "WHY ME?" My girlfriend reminded me this week that when Im asking the question "why me", God is asking "Why not you, Aaron?" Why not me to take on the problems of my life head on? Why not me to change the world through his name? Its easy to lose sight of the blessings in our life because all we see are the negatives. The crooked politics, the natural disasters, and a shaken economy just to name a few.
Have you considered these things: Did you know that if you are reading this from your home, or a few steps away from a refrigerator with food in it, or if you're wearing clothes you bought than you are more rich that 75% of the world? Did you know that if you have money in a bank account you are among the worlds wealthiest 8%? Did you know that if you woke up this morning healthy that you are more lucky than the 1 million people who will die from disease this week? Did you know that if you are able to read this message right now you are more fortunate than the 3 BILLION people in the world who don't know how to read?
I'd encourage you, right now, to stop what you are doing and open your bible to Ephesians 1:4-14. Take special notice of some of the words used! Do you realize that God has chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed, forgiven, and sealed us? What does this mean to you, as a Christian? Our father in heaven wants to rain down his blessings on your life (Matthew 7:11). In fact, 1 John 3:1 tells us that he wants to lavish us with his love. However - today he is asking you, whoever you are reading this, a very important question. You can read it in John 1:12 - will you be his child so he can give you his wealth, his blessings? Today are you asking "Why me" or are you asking "Why not me?"

Living Today For Tomorrow

It's amazing how fast time flies! Im sure my parents will tell you it felt just like yesterday when they were taking me to kindergarden or teaching me how to ride a bike. The funny things is that time keeps passing us by and we still take every day for granted. This summer, as I worked along side an amazing man at a funeral home in small town South Dakota, I learned that every day is truly a gift. Terry, my boss and faithful friend, told me - "Aaron, God's time is not our time. And our time is no where near God's time." Today - I am 19 years old, quickly coming upon the end of my second year of college, preparing for a future in ministry, and meditating on the times in my life I took for granted and wishing I hadn't. I wish the days leading up to my grandfathers death could be relived differently. I wish I could go back to the days of high school and live them to the fullest instead of wishing them away. I wish, more than anything, I could go back to those times in my life when I hurt those I love with my words or actions. However, as Im sitting here engulfing myself in all those times in my life I want to go back and do over, my father in heaven is engulfing me in his presence and saying - "Look to the future, Aaron. The past does not matter anymore." We are called in Philippians 3:13 to forget what lies behind us and strain for what is before us. For, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, we are new creations! Too many people in this world, myself included, are striving to live in the past instead of focusing our eyes on what is yet to come! We forget, all to easily, the promise that was made to each and every one of us in Jeremiah - "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to give your future hope." I am here to tell you today that as Christians, soldiers on the front line for Christ, there is no battle we can fight until we have won those within ourselves. One of the rules I live my life by is the old quote "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift - thats why they call it the present." It's hard for some to realize that the past cannot be undone, but its even harder for them to realize that they have the power to change their tomorrow. We stand here, together, looking into the future with all of our hopes and fears, but we do not stand alone.