{"id":708,"date":"2009-01-18T20:27:45","date_gmt":"2009-01-19T01:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/?p=708"},"modified":"2009-10-16T20:29:38","modified_gmt":"2009-10-17T01:29:38","slug":"today-the-gathering-january-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/today-the-gathering-january-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Today @ The Gathering – January 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"4DumbestThingsIcon_Large\"Today at The Gathering<\/a> we continued in our current series, \u201c4 Dumbest Things We Do In Down Times,\u201d<\/em> with installment number three, \u201cWe Sell Short And Get Short-Changed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

You know what selling short is; it\u2019s buy at one price, sell at a loss.\u00a0 And you do it, not because you want to, but because you\u2019re afraid. You\u2019re afraid of what the future might hold.\u00a0 That is what is so devious about the hold that bad news people have on us.\u00a0 There are three characteristics of bad news people:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They feed off of fear.
\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They fuel on uncertainty.
\n3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They foster doubt; not just doubt in the world out there \u2013 government, the economy, and global transition \u2013 but doubt in myself.\u00a0 And self-doubt always leads to passivity, that is, doing nothing; that stuck feeling.\u00a0 Oftentimes we\u2019re stuck on stupid.<\/p>\n

To illustrate the counterpoint to this we talked about what Solomon teaches us in the Old Testament; that there is nothing new under the sun; that what most people do is to chase the wind.\u00a0 We talked about the difference between chasing the wind, and chasing the win. <\/span> Everyone wants to have a winning life.\u00a0 Who wants to be a loser? But oftentimes we are because we ignore one of the three following things that are never, never, never true<\/span> during good times or bad times.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is never true that those who opt for the quick fix<\/span> win.
\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is never true that those who take short cuts<\/span> win.
\n3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is never true that those who think with their stomachs <\/span>win.<\/p>\n

We looked at the story in the Old Testament between two brothers, Jacob and Esau.\u00a0 Esau, because he couldn\u2019t see any value in his birthright, his long-term investment in the world, sold it for a meal.\u00a0 How short-sighted!\u00a0 And how short-sighted are we when we sell short just because we\u2019re afraid in a volatile world.<\/p>\n

We talked about three things that are mostly true, but not always true<\/span>.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is mostly true, but not always true that you can begin again<\/span>.\u00a0 Sometimes, indeed, you cannot.
\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is mostly true, but not always true that life is a do-over<\/span>.
\n3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is mostly true, but not always true that there is always next year<\/span>.\u00a0 Sometimes you just simply don\u2019t have enough time, energy, and resources to waste on repeating the same old bad habits.<\/p>\n

We talked about the three unbreakable laws<\/span>.\u00a0 These are laws that were true a thousand years ago, they are true today, and they\u2019ll be true if the world lasts another five, six, seven thousand years.\u00a0 They will always be true and they are things on which you can build into the future.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The law of cause and effect<\/span>.\u00a0 The Scriptures are right when they tell us that if you don\u2019t want to be judged, don\u2019t judge.\u00a0 If you want to be forgiven, forgive.\u00a0 If you want to get, give.\u00a0 Cause and effect always is true and cannot be broken.
\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The law of sowing and reaping<\/span>.\u00a0 If you\u2019re stingy, you\u2019ll reap a stingy life.\u00a0 If you\u2019re generous, you\u2019ll reap a life of generosity.\u00a0 If you\u2019re loving, you\u2019ll get love.\u00a0 If you sow apples, you get apples.\u00a0 If you sow wheat, you get wheat.
\n3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The law of delayed gratification<\/span>.\u00a0 And that is that we reap the benefit of these two laws over time, and not overnight.<\/p>\n

And this is why we live in a culture that is so wrapped up in the quick fix, the shortcut, and make me feel good now.<\/em> Cause and effect, sowing and reaping always take time.\u00a0 But once the harvest comes in, oh what a harvest it is!<\/p>\n

Next weekend we\u2019ll deal with the fourth dumbest thing: \u201cWaiting It Out And Letting The World Pass Us By.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today at The Gathering we continued in our current series, \u201c4 Dumbest Things We Do In Down Times,\u201d with installment number three, \u201cWe Sell Short And Get Short-Changed.\u201d You know what selling short is; it\u2019s buy at one price, sell at a loss.\u00a0 And you do it, not because you want to, but because you\u2019re … Continue reading “Today @ The Gathering – January 18”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}