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Leave A Legacy.

For years I’ve tried to help others and their teams avoid one of the top productivity busters and stress points. It’s summed up by the adage, “A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”

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Everyone immediately knows what this means and indignantly exclaims, “YES!” So much of our frustration and stress comes from others’ failure to plan ahead which trickles down into our world. It’s maddening. Yet we have probably also been guilty of creating unnecessary emergencies for others.

A strong component of my personality profile is strategy. I just naturally plan ahead. In fact, I can easily slip into overplanning—but that’s another post.

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Yet I have a firm conviction that God uses prepared men and women. A bit of forethought and advance preparation gives you the edge over the majority. It won’t guarantee success but your chances are far greater. It helps to avoid unnecessary stress. And it helps you to consistently achieve the results you desire.

One of the benefits of a great relationship with your adult sons and daughters is the helpful insight they provide from their perspective based on the principles you’ve instilled in them.

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I recently posted some suggestions for keeping the noise of email, texts, and social media at bay. One of my sons shared his recent practice in line with that. It involves a social media fast.

I recently attended an event at a major arena in our city. While standing in line, I remembered coordinating a city-wide event there 30 years ago for our church. It was a huge operation. Then I remembered that I did it all without a cell phone, email, or social media.

Man, have times changed. It’s hard to imagine doing anything without my iPhone or laptop. Communication has improved beyond anything I could envision back then. And I love it all. Yet there is also a huge downside to it.

We continue to hear daily about the harmful effects of stress. Most of us deal with more than we want—some have gotten dangerously used to the level of stress that’s become their norm.

Stress occurs because of pressure. Our tendency is to blame others or circumstances for that pressure. And that may certainly be the case. But—and this may not be immediately comforting—so much of what stresses us out is often within our control and could have been avoided.

In all the years I’ve taught the how-to’s and benefits of fasting, I don’t remember a time when so many were as interested as today. So many churches—to their credit—are now starting the year with a concentrated 7 to 21 days of fasting and prayer.

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As a general rule, most people today don’t know much about fasting unless you would call dieting fasting (which is not our context today.)

But it was common in Bible times. And even though the Bible refers to fasting numerous times, you won’t find a lot of practical instruction there because basically the audience then understood it already.