“The biggest hindrance to the plan of God in your life, is your plan for your life.”

We all seem to have a pretty good idea of what our lives are supposed to look like. We always think we know how things are going to work out. We always think we know the right path to take.

However, I’ve found that often in my walk with God, that what I think God is going to do, is not what ends up happening. Where God takes me and what God does in my life is often not what I thought He would do.

I often find myself saying, “This is not what I thought my life would look like right now. This is not where I thought I’d be. This is not what I thought I’d be doing.” Have you been there?

At first it can be a bit disappointing. My plans didn’t work out. What I wanted to be doing, I’m not doing. Where I thought I was going to be, I’m not there. Bitterness can sink in. I start questioning God.

So often in life, God wants to move us from one place to another, but we fight with everything in us to stay on the path we have drawn out for our lives.

However, if we’re ever going to live the lives God intended us to live, we need to surrender our plans to Him and latch onto His plans with everything in us. That will often entail us saying, “This is not what I thought my life would be…”

To do that we will need to realize that God’s plan may not always be what we think it is going to be, but it always ends up better than what we thought it was going to be and better than anything we could have thought up on our own.

Surrender what you think for what God knows today. Be open. Trust Him.

This is one of those books that can almost seem too good to be true. I mean, come on, a 4 hour work week? Is that realistic? Well, if your goal is to work 4 hours and relax the rest of the week, absolutely not. This book is for driven people. People who are willing to work hard, but work hard on things that make a difference and maximize profits.

This is one of the most practical books I’ve ever read. My favorite parts are the challenges that are at the end of each chapter and the tools and tricks section which provides tons of resources to help make your life easier!

If you don’t want to work a 9-5 for the rest of your life in a cube and are only working to provide an income for a descent retirement, this is a must read book for you. Tim Ferriss is brilliant. This book will help you live the life you dream about while still being productive, making a difference, and making a great living.

Here are some highlights:

• At least three times per day at scheduled times, he had to ask himself the following question: Am I being productive or just active?
• Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion.
• Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.
• Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.
• Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible. Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe.
• What would you do, day to day, if you had $100 million in the bank?
• If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.
• What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear.
• Retirement planning is like life insurance. It should be viewed as nothing more than a hedge against the absolute worst-case scenario:
• I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time. —HERBERT BAYARD SWOPE, American editor and journalist; first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize
• Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life. —JOHN F. KENNEDY
• The goal is fun and profit.
• Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination. —OSCAR WILDE, Irish dramatist and novelist

You will know them by their fruits. -Matthew 7:16

I heard Keith Moore tell the story of A Little Pear Tree. It goes like this:

Once upon a time there was a little pear tree. The little pear tree was surrounded by large trees in a forest! The little pear trees looked up at all the trees and said, “I’m a pear tree!”

The other trees replied, “You’re not a pear tree, you’re a little shrub! You don’t have any pears! You’re just shrub!”

The little pear tree replied, “No, I’m telling you, I’m a pear tree!” They argued all fall and all winter. The little pear tree tried so hard to prove he was a pear tree.

When spring came, the little pear tree produced pears. The pine trees stopped arguing and the little pear tree no longer had to prove that he was a pear tree!

Does anyone other than me feel like the little pear tree? We’re trying so hard to prove to the world that we’re something. “I’m a pastor! I’m a leader! I’m successful! I’m an author! I’m a ____”

Then we have people and thoughts come our way and tell us that we’re none of those things and that we’ll never be successful.

The truth is that we are who God says we are. If God called us to pastor, we’re pastors. If God called us to lead, we’re leaders.

The Key: The outcome of our lives. If we’re pursuing God with all of our hearts and taking the right steps, our lives will show who and what we are.

We won’t have to prove anything to anyone. What critics say won’t matter any more. The outcome of our lives will do all the talking.

Hear from God. Follow Him. Do what He says. Step out in faith. Shut your mouth. Don’t listen to critics. Stop trying to prove to the world who you are. Watch God do an incredible work in your life.

Thoughts?