Gods Best Kept Secret.

So recently my adventures in insurance sales have taken me out to New Smyrna Beach Florida. Its not to small a town with a small town atmosphere. Its located of course right on the beach. It is beautiful. While condos are making an aggressive push to overtake and dominate the water front several sections of small beach homes are still holding their ground. This gives the majority of the town that old Florida small beach town feel. The breeze is always flowing and while its humid the breeze makes it comfortable. Every time I am outside I can hear the ocean and on windy days feel the sea mist. The people are all friendly and smiling. There are people walking down the streets with surf boards, their jogging, biking and strolling. People are relaxing on their porch and in the front yard at all times of day. It feels like a vacation just being there even though I am at work. I see mom and pop shops as you drive down the street and even a McDonalds is hard to find. It screams small town even though its population wouldn't categorize it that way. Its quite serene and peaceful. Its the only place where after I am done making my calls I find myself staying behind to just dwell on the beach.

Its Florida's best kept secret one man calls it. This was a man I visited to talk about a dental plan. I asked that man how he came to be there. "Serendipitously" he replied. He then went on to tell me about he had fallen ill on the road one day and had stopped off for the night. Well when he got there the rooms where all full it was the busy season. So the receptionist at one of the hotels helped him find an available room at a hotel no one knew about because it had just opened. When he got there the lady who ran the hotel, hearing his plight, decided to give him a discount. The next day he awoke only to find his car broken down. He took his car to a shell station only to have the man their fix his car for free. Not only did he fix it he gave him a free tank of gas. The man continued with his story to tell me he struck up a conversation with the man at the gas station and the topic of moving came up. The man at the gas station said "remember New Smyrna Its Florida's best kept secret" the man turned to me and smiled and said reassuringly "and it is". The man said he enjoyed his stay so much he decided to move there and has loved it ever since. Can you imagine that. Two days in New Smyrna changed that mans life. While New Smyrna is a nice town, its not that great. Yeah it has a beach but like I said you can't hardly find a Mcdonalds. The man didn't move there because of the town, he moved there because of the people. He came into contact with four people that ultimately changed his life. These four peoples total time with him probably didn't equal more than five hours that includes the stay at the mechanics. What an impact we as people can have on each other, you have no idea how everything you do can impact the life of someone else. Just one random act of kindness. Take this mans story. Just a few people, with a few random acts of kindness inspired this man to move. Do we love people, do we love the spirit of God, do we want to change lives, do we want to see the kingdom of God come in power. Are we helping people discover God's "best kept secret". You don't have to be John the Baptist or Billy Graham to lead people to God. These people in this small beach to town where not travel agents, nor where they huge marketing reps, marketing New Smyrna Beach they were regular people practicing random acts of kindness. Our actions are powerful, they can change lives. As we live our lives lets do so taking time to practice random acts of kindness. You never know which one will lead people to God's best kept secret.

Stepping Out On Faith

I met an elderly woman today who used to be confined to a wheel chair. She now is mobile with help of a cane. Most people in the elder years degrees, they get worse and not better. Once the get into the wheelchair they rarely get out. She shared with me her story. She said she "stepped out on faith". One day she was sitting on her porch and decided she would walk to the her car in the drive way. In sharing her story she said something to me that stuck in my mind. She said "I didn't know if I could make it I just figured I would start and see how far I get." Well she made it to the car , she continues to make it." The fact is she has never returned to the chair, it remains in her garage to this day. In her words " Oh I get tired sometimes but I just stop, rest for a while and then I keep on going, just seeing how far I can get." The woman is still seeing how far she can get. Her definition of faith is starting and then seeing how far you can get. What an amazing testimony.
Let me take you the story of peter walking on water. For those of us not familiar with it, it can be found in the book of Matthew, the fourteenth chapter, verses twenty two thru thirty four. Jesus decides to walk out to the disciples walking on the water, and for those unfamiliar it wasn't winter and the water wasn't frozen. Jesus walked on liquid water. When Peter saw Jesus on the water he asked that Jesus command him to walk on the water to him. Peter believed if God told him to do it he could. Jesus commanded. Peter immediately got out on the water and began to walk.
Let me Digrees for a moment. How many of us do this. We hear the call of God, its loud clear and definitive. You know you heard from the Lord. Excited you jump out of your boat and start walking.
That is what peter did. It wasn't until he saw the wind and the waves that he got scared and began to sank. Now all of the pictures I have seen of this story show peter doing the same thing...standing still. I believe this is true. Do we really think that peter was walking and then all the sudden did a face plant in water when he saw the waves and got scared. Or do we think that he saw the wind and waves and stopped, got scared and then began to sank. The latter is true. You see peter stopped moving forward, he stopped seeing how far he could get.
This is true in so many or our lives. We hear the call of the Lord loud and definitive we get out and start walking. we see the waves around us then we stop, we see the problems and stop. We never stop with the thought of quiting or failing, but our hesitation is just long enough for us to begin to sink. Our failure comes from the ceasing of seeing how far we can get. My encouragement to you is see how far you get. In your life right now you might have waves as big as mountains and winds with force of a hurricane but drive on, see how far you can get.
Through out history those who are most successful are those who fail the most, they fail the most because they try the most. They are in constant pursuit of how far they can get. They are testing the limits or what they can and can not do. In the words of that women "Oh They may get tired sometimes, but they just rest and then keep on going, just seeing how far they can get". I challenge us all to start and see how far we can get.