Seasons

A Time for Everything

For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

 

On the morning of October 9, 2019 I was walking with my dog (as I often do), and took the picture below. It’s Fall and the much cooler temperatures speak of the inevitable; winter is coming. The image below seemed to tap me on the shoulder and remind me that seasons are a part of life. As written in Ecclesiastes above, there is a season, a time, for everything under the sun. My family has been through many seasons. Seasons of lack. Seasons of struggle. Seasons of joy, of victory, and of loss and sadness.

There are many types of seasons as well. Obviously we have Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. But how about Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior. Or sport seasons. There are seasons with no kids, with kids, being single, being married. How about those moments, times, and even seasons of stupidity (some last longer than others). A time with a certain job. Some may call them chapters in our lives. But as the saying goes, “It may be the end of a chapter, but the story is not over.”

What seemed to speak to me in this morning’s moment was that we always have a choice as to how we will respond to each season. We truly do have the opportunity to keep writing our story…for the better even. For regardless of what season it is, there is always opportunity for great gain or great loss. Even in the toughest, darkest times, do we become better or bitter? Do we learn from our mistakes? How do we respond to both adversity and victory? And truthfully, we can move further ahead in our lives in times of struggle than in times of plenty. Resistance is meant to make us stronger. We simply need to allow it to.

I suppose I’m rambling, but personally, I’m excited for the upcoming season in my life. I believe it will be one of the most challenging but also one of the most rewarding. And it will be important that I keep my mind focused on “things above” and be in constant communion with my Lord. Great gain awaits me as I maintain the proper attitude in every season, especially this new one.

Thankful?

I was out cold. Then a nudge on my nose. Charlie. Our year and a half old boxer apparently wanted to go outside. It was 6:25 am. Sunday morning. I had hoped I’d get to sleep in a bit this morning. A normal person would have started to get a clue about two months ago that if you are the one that walks the dog so that she can relieve herself, you won’t be sleeping in. Old habits are hard to break; even ones that have you thinking Sundays are for getting a little more sleep.

On the other hand, some of my friends and family know that since living in our new community where we don’t own our yard (covenant protected community where the yards are actually common areas) and have to walk our dogs on leashes and pick up after them has been a blessing and led to some great walks. In fact, these walks have become great times of prayer and reflection. I’ve posted many of them on Facebook and Instagram. Today I thought I’d write a blog about it (side note: I put Charlie on a leash for about 80 feet until I get to the county road and then walk her without one).

So as I am walking Charlie this morning I see this great scene. It’s classic in my mind. It depicts traditional American values and ideals. I think of hard work, responsibility, and self-discipline when I see this. Yet as I walked passed this scene I also was keenly aware of another one. And this next scene, or view, was simply one of amazement. I love the beauty that is offered to those with eyes, ears, and minds to discover it. It simply caused me to be thankful to live where I live. People are dying all over the world and right in our own communities. Tragedies occur all the time. Our political climate is a mess. Really, in many ways our nation and world is in a mess. Signs of the end of times are more prevalent than ever before, yet we still have so much to be thankful for (the end of this world is actually one of them).

We live in an extremely negative world. Perhaps it’s the same as it has always been, since it’s always been filled with people, but now that there are more of them than ever before with more ability to express their negative views than ever before and less Christian influence (at least here in the USA) than ever before, the negativity is epidemic. Yet I say again, we have so much to be thankful for. So let me encourage you, in the words of the Apostle Paul:

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8-9

 

 

My own declaration of thanksgiving:

“Thank you, Lord, for New Creation Church and Life Leadership. You have been using these wonderful communities to help me be better, rather than bitter, as the years pass. May I continue to operate according to Your grace, be transformed by Your Word, and be led by Your Spirit.”

 

Answered Prayers?

A big storm approaches, provoking the local weatherman to urge everyone to evacuate town. A townsperson hears the warning but within himself says, “I’m not worried, God will save me.”

The next morning the storm approaches and the police are going throughout the neighborhood with a sound truck telling everyone to evacuate. The man says yet again, “I’m not worried, God will save me”.

The rains are pouring down and the town’s storm drains back up and there is an inch of water standing in the street. A fire truck comes by to pick up the man. He tells them “Don’t worry, God will save me.”

The water rises another foot. A National Guard truck comes by to rescue the man. He tells them emphatically, “Don’t worry, God will save me.”

The water continues to rise. The man is forced up to his roof. Not long afterward, a boat comes by to rescue the wet, shivering man. He tells them, “Don’t worry, God will save me.”

Still, the water rises higher. And the man is now forced up to the very top of his roof. A helicopter comes to rescue him, yet he sticks to his resolve and shouts up at them, “Don’t worry, God will save me.”

Finally, the water rises above his house, and the man drowns.

When he arrives in heaven he asks God, “I’ve been your faithful servant ever since I was a child! Why didn’t you save me?”

God replies, “First, I warned you of what was coming. Then, I sent you a fire truck. After that, the the National Guard, then a boat, and then a helicopter. What more do you want from me!!??”

Many have heard some form of this story. I personally like the version from the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, as it demonstrates that even a child can recognize the absurdity of what happened.  And yet, I feel this scenario is all too common.

When I think of it, and yes, I know it’s just a made up story, I wonder what God “saving him” would have looked like. What was in his mind that he was so focused on that he couldn’t even recognize that God sent him the various people to save him?

Sadly, I believe there are many all over the globe today doing the same thing. People are praying for answers, doing their research, searching for something, yet when the answer comes, they don’t even recognize it. Sometimes I think people forget that God almost always answers our prayers through sending people into our lives; people in the form of opportunities, events, organizations, and new relationships. But when God sends the firefighters, National Guard, boats, and helicopters, we are so locked into Him answering our prayers according to our own desires and expectations we miss out.

And sometimes, we are just flat distracted by other things. This parable by Jesus from Luke 14 provides great insight.

Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ Anoth

er said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

“The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ After the servant had done thi

s, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”

Have you asked yourself lately if you’ve been blinded to the things God is trying to provide for you? Can you honestly say you are open and willing to do whatever He brings across your path? Have you been praying and praying expecting God to save you, yet you’re on the brink of drowning?

Or maybe you are so distracted by work, business, recreation, hobbies, or relationships that you are declining His invitation to the King’s banquet of provision and purpose. God does want to save you. And more than that, He wants to lift you up to a life of vision and destiny.

Open up your mind and heart.

Answer His call, for it is the answer to your prayers.

Have you heard of the App that is changing everything?

We are excited to announce expanded functionality of the Life App!

Coming next weekend at the New Year’s Summit convention, we will be launching Phase 1 of Life’s C4 Project!

Phase 1: Save, Secure, Stack

• Immediate Savings
• • Gain access to immediate savings at thousands of locations of national and regional brands including movie theaters, restaurants, retailers, and online stores. The C4 app will help you pay and save at places you already know and love!
• Secure Mobile Payments
• • Shop with several layers of protection against fraud and credit card information theft. Your card information will not be stored on your mobile device, nor will it be stored on our app. Further, with each purchase, the merchant receives a tokenized payment to that specific transaction, so even if their systems get hacked, your information is unknown and safe.
• Stackable with other coupons and programs
• • Use the C4 app with other coupons, discounts, and credit card reward programs in order to maximize savings.

The app that changes everything!
https://player.vimeo.com/video/309630311

C4 Project Launch Event Details

When: 

• New Year’s Summit Convention
• Friday, January 18th, 2019 – Sunday, January 20th, 2019

Locations:

• Kellogg Arena, 36 W Hamblin Avenue, Battle Creek, MI 49017
• MassMutual Center, 1277 Main Street, Springfield, MA 01103
• Utah Valley Convention Center, 220 W Center Street, Provo, UT 84601

To attend the launch event or to download the C4 app, contact a local Liferepresentative or leave a comment below and we will follow up and assign someone to you. 

Live the LIFE You’ve Always Wanted!

Answering Questions About Cryptocurrency

Fellow collegue and very successful businessman, Dan Hawkins, wrote the following simple blog about cryptocurrency. I recommend you read it and then register for Saturday’s rebroadcast of what was a truly impactful, insightful, and inspiring webinar on cryptocurrency and how Life is bringing it to the mass market. If you have any hope for a brighter more free future, I couldn’t encourage you more to participate in this webinar.

What is a ‘Cryptocurrency’

A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. A cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit because of this security

Is Cryptocurrency the future of money?

feature. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized systems based on blockchain technology, a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. A defining feature of a cryptocurrency, and arguably its biggest allure, is its organic nature; it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.

The first blockchain-based cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which still remains the most popular and most valuable. Today, there are thousands of alternate cryptocurrencies with various functions or specifications. Some of these are clones of Bitcoin while others are forks, or new cryptocurrencies that split off from an already existing one.

Clear as mud right! You may or may not believe cryptocurrency is the future of money but it will play a part in the future of money no matter what. I would encourage you to do your homework because technology that is this disruptive is something you will not want to look back on and say, “I remember when that was new, to bad I missed it.”

Here is what some are saying about Cryptocurrency:

“Virtual Currencies may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.”– Ben Bernanke (14th Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Central Bank System of the United States)

“There are three eras of currency: Commodity based, politically based, and now, math based.” – Chris Dixon

“It’s bigger than the Iron Age, the Renaissance. It’s bigger than the Industrial Revolution.” – Tim Draper

I am not suggesting you get involved or not get involved, just that you get educated. 

Two of Inc. Magazines Top 50 Leadership experts and New York Times best selling authors will be discussing Cryptocurrency on an upcoming webinar. If you are curious at all about this topic, log in to the webinar and begin your journey into the world of Cryptocurrency. 

Register early, limited spots available!

God bless, 

Dan Hawkins

Here is a simple preview of the rebroadcast webinar coming up this Saturday, November 24 (available all day):

The history of money

Answering the tough questions to bring cryptocurrency to the mass market

How Life are the Matchmakers

Join us Saturday, November 24th, 2018 for the Cryptocurrency Webinar

Click Picture to register for webinar

Featuring Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward!

Cost: only $10!

Event Details:
When: Saturday, November 24th, 2018

Time: all day, you choose 🙂 

 

Cryptocurrency as a True Currency? MatchMakers: The Key to Solving the Chicken or the Egg Challenge

I’ve been involved with the Life Company since its creation November 1, 2011. And since that time, I’ve not been this excited, this enthusiastic, this hopeful. What is being launched in early 2019 is massive. Very few opportunities, if any, of this magnitude come along in one’s life. I highly recommend you take the time to get more information by reading Orrin Woodward’s blog below and decide if you want to be part of making history.

There’s a saying, “Some people make things happen. Others watch what happened. And still others wonder what happened.” You have the opportunity to make something amazing happen in and for your life. This is it. Orrin’s blog gives great detail on what I am writing about. Read it and then  fill out the form for more information. You won’t regret it.

How do MatchMakers Solve the Chicken or the Egg Challenge?

Every payment system platform seeks to serve at least two separate customers, namely, merchants and consumers. The goal is to achieve critical masses where the merchants join for access to the large community of buyers and more people join the community to access the growing number of merchants within the platform. Entrepreneurs must build a proper ecosystem to support both groups and then sell the benefits to all sides. However, the key to the whole deal is to satisfy both groups of customers concurrently or the platform will not reach critical mass.

For instance, when the entrepreneurs talk to the merchants, they proclaim, “I have this revolutionary payments App that makes accepting crypto just as easy as accepting a credit card.” Their reaction is, “Wow, that’s awesome. How many people are using the app?” When the answer back is, “well, not many right now, but we just started beta testing.”  The merchants basically tell the innovators to come back when they have consumers. Unfortunately, the typical consumer conversation isn’t going that well either without the proper ecosystem in place.

After all, the customers seek popular stores in the payment system platform to visit regularly, but in order for the platform to accomplish this, they must talk to the merchants about the tens of thousands of customers they already have in their community. Imagine going to customers and saying, “Hi, I have revolutionary App and and this transformative payments method accepts crypto as easily as credit cards” Their reaction is, “Wow, cool, where can I use it?” When the answer is, “well, not many places, yet, but we hope to get all the big names eventually.” Of course, the customers tell them to check back when they get the bigger merchants on board.

Do you see the dilemma? To satisfy one of the platform’s customers (merchants) requires an abundance of the end customers, but they don’t want to join unless stores and discounts are already present. This is the struggle for all matchmaker models, a struggle to both customers groups simultaneously. For why would the merchants go through the complicated crypto acceptance process at each store, if they are not assured the customers will come? Similarly, why would real product buyers generate or purchase crypto unless they are assured they can buy the things they want from the stores they love? If this paradox is not resolved, the chicken or the egg challenge will flatten another cool idea.

Perhaps the simplest method to cut through the proverbial Gordian’s Knot is for an existing community to partner with an innovative platform to birth the C-4 Project, a project that solves the Chicken or the Egg Challenge. Thankfully, our joint venture partners knew the community they wanted to team up with, a community that has filled stadiums for nearly 20 years now. The founders of this App spent the last year courting us to join their platform and offered us the exclusive right to promote their platform in the Direct Sales/MLM space to help them solve the chicken or the egg challenge to achieve critical mass. This is the specific chicken or the egg scenario, one of the main roadblocks to crypto going mainstream, that is solved through the C-4 Project, marrying content, commerce and community together to benefit all three groups.

In fact, the C-4 Project addresses every known challenge withholding crypto from going mainstream. Imagine a patented payment App that through an innovative algorithm minimizes price volatility, reduces transaction times, and charges no transaction fees.  Further, imagine a network of 70,000 locations growing to over 100,000 by launch date (this is just the tip of the iceberg). Now add in the LIFE community, a community designed to solve the chicken or the egg challenge by bringing tens of thousands of users to the platform overnight, and one has imagined the future. Remember, this platform patented designed can use crypto just as easily and efficiently as dollars so the possibilities around the globe are practically unlimited. The LIFE community will market everywhere!

Who Are Some of the Merchants?

Merchants are being added weekly, but if we go back to our Winston-Salem example, the one where BitCoin had only one merchant in the whole city,, and within six miles of our packed out major function, Life members will soon be able to visit 38 stores to save money and generate crypto:

Dominoes Pizza, Bonefish Grill, IHOP, Krispy Kreme, Carrabas Italian Grill, Pappa John’s, Kmart, Tijuana Flats, Lands End, Cold Stone Cremery, Chipotle, Sears, TGI Friday, Express, Old Navy, Game Stop, Sephora, Gap, Bannana Republic, Aerie, JC Penny, American Eagle, Jo-Ann Fabrics, Outback Steakhouse, Chilis, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Applebees, The Home Depot, Lowes, Buffalo Wild Wings, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ulta, AMC Theaters, Steak & Shake, Staples, O’Charleys.

After six months of asking tough questions, seeking to poke a hole in this, I realized that this is a million people plan in the next couple of years. The C-4 Project solves the blockchain roadblocks to turn the crypto dream into reality. Interestingly, it’s been nearly two decades (1999) since Chris Brady and I heard Michael Dell explain how community was the key to the 3C’s – this is truer now than ever with the Mobile revolution! Content participates because they have guaranteed customers before investing a dime in marketing (they only pay a fee if the customer purchases something). The commerce piece is the joint-venture where LIFE leverages it’s compensation plan along with our partner’s patented payment technologies to reward customers and members. Finally, LIFE builds communities in which products and services flow to enjoy 3-10% off store prices and then generate crypto for participating in the platform.

Notice how the Community leads the entire project, not Content or Commerce, who must serve the community in a FREE MARKET environment! Community members, starting with customers, will generate millions of dollars of real savings and crypto as they visit stores within the platform. Moreover, since we are not beholden to any particular product, any supplier that cannot meet the quality and price will simply be ignored and lose business. Hence, unlike nearly all the rest of network marketing field, who spend millions of dollars to produce generic no-name products, recruit captured-market distributors, and then expect them all to buy the overpriced products, products that allegedly cure cancer, make you look 20 again, or help you lose 50 pounds overnight, all of this from a scientific formula enhanced by rare catapillar fungi recently discovered in the Amazonian jungle :); LIFE is providing real stores, with real savings, and real crypto, all at the best prices. The Free Market is the best teacher to ensure merchant’s truly serve end consumers.

The is a real world use of real world crypto with an immediate demand throughout the payment app ecosystem. There is no Initial Coin Offering (ICO), for unlike so my crypto scams out there, this is NOT an investment in some pie-in-the-sky currency with no real world use. Rather, we are building communities in which the produces and services flow and receive compensation for being the marketing arm to solve the Chicken or the Egg Challenge. This is a game, set, match victory for the LIFE champions who stayed the course and proved that communities could live without being “owned” by a specific content provider. As I have said for years, those who stay will be champions. Community is the key and our model will prove it.

What Part Will You Play?

No one loses in the ecosystem because the profits for all sides are created by streamlining frictions and inefficiencies within the 3C’s and rewarding all groups for fixing them. Now that the reader understands the big picture of the model, one can see why I haven’t slept eight hours straight in over 60 days!  I am so thankful and excited to finally complete our  first mission, reaching one million people, and moving onto bigger and better missions.

What we do in the LIFE community is promote and build the ecosystem for the content, commerce, and community to thrive together in a win-win fashion as we take Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and our Community mainstream. In one App, we teach people the Three Keys to Wealth so they have the opportunity to live Financially Free.

Customers, of course, get the save money and generate crypto part of Literacy for free and those who choose to join the movement, and receive ongoing income for every customer served, can upgrade into the  full Literacy, Leadership and Leverage to chase down their dreams.

Everyone is getting in that understands, whether it be as a customer in January, or a PowerPlayer Ready for the sold out today. The LIFE community is stoked, knowing it’s job is to build depth and numbers (and are they ever doing their job!) in anticipation for the official launch in January. If we have this much growth in the Pre-Launch, imagine the growth when we actually launch C-4 in January?  LIFE is good. 🙂

What part will you play in the financial revolution?

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Who are you helping…really?

“I just love helping people.”

Ever heard someone say that?

I’m sure you have. Or, maybe it’s something you say as I do. It’s actually my passion. But as I’ve met hundreds and hundreds of people over the years, I have had a bit of an epiphany related to that wonderful little sentence. I think that phrase is all too often a cover up for one’s true motivation- to help oneself.

What do I mean? Let me explain by first quoting D.L. Moody when he said, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t matter.” If you had to take a simple guess at how many people are doing something that truly matters, or better explained as doing something that is truly their passion and purpose, how many would it be? Let’s just say it’s 50% of the population are actually living out their highest potential, passion, purpose, priority, and any other “P” word you can think of. That would leave 50% that aren’t.

So how do these other 50% justify living how they live, when deep down they know they aren’t doing something that matters? They say things like, “I love helping people by…” You can fill in the blank. I was a teacher many years ago. And I felt as though I was truly helping my students and parents, but it wasn’t my highest calling (for many teachers it absolutely IS their highest calling. I’m merely using this as an example in my life). God had more for me (still does). Had I settled for that position, deep down I would know I wasn’t doing what God built me to do, and very likely my justification for not getting out of my comfort zone would be, “I just love helping people. I love making a difference in my student’s lives, etc.” The harsh reality, though, would have been I was actually trying to help myself by easing the pain of guilt I had deep on the inside. Tough? Yes. But I want to help set people free to do what they were created to do. 

Is there anything wrong with being a teacher? Of course not, unless it’s not what I was created for. Is there anything wrong with being a doctor, nurse, police officer, parent, business owner, preacher, stay at home parent, blue collar worker, cashier, office manager, realtor, manager, ditch digger, retiree, trashman, attorney, graphic artist, accountant, financial advisor, networker…

NO!

Unless you were meant for something else.

And in my example, 50% of the population is meant for something else. And your true job is to figure out what it is.

I guess that’s what we do in the Life business. We help set people free by helping them discover and develop their gifts, talents, passions, and ultimately their purpose. And when you are doing what you were meant to do, it hurts to see others settling for less than they were meant for. Thus my reason for writing this.

Maybe it’s you.

Yes, you, reading this.

Maybe you are meant for more. Most likely you are. I’d like to help you discover what that is. Reach out.