Coming Home

Homecomings are celebration times.  When soldiers return home we bring out the flags and the brass band.  When our children return home we cook up a whole mess of food and clear our schedules for some reunion times. 

When we “come home” we know we are coming to a place where we belong.  It is a place of love, trust and acceptance.  We receive hugs and kisses.  We will feel a profound sense of belonging. 

When I return to my roots I walk the streets of my home town and visit the houses I lived in as a small boy.  I reminisce.  Fond memories are found when we come home. 

There will be a bit of homecoming during the Christmas holidays.  Travel plans will be made, egg nog bought and chilled, and pies baked.

Remember the prodigal son in the parable from the Bible?  He came back home.  There was fear, trepidation, and anxiety in his returning home. 

Would he be accepted? 

Would he have to sleep with the pigs? 

When would he ever earn enough to buy a decent suit of clothes?

But homeward he went. 

Every step was a step of faith that he would be accepted. 

Every step was a step of anticipation of resting his eyes on his father and brother, just one more time. 

And what a homecoming he received.  While he was a long way off, his Father saw him, and began giving orders.

“Kill the calf.  Bring the best robe.  Invite all of our neighbors.  My son has come home.  It is reunion time.  It will be the homecoming of homecomings.” 

What a picture. 

-Welcomed back as if he had never left.

-Received with the same status as when he left.

-Robed and fed as if he belonged, once again, in the immediate family – not a step-child, not even as a second cousin. 

-He was a first-born again with all the rights and privileges that go with that. 

Amazing!

That was quite a homecoming.

And it is ours as well.  When we turn to our Father God, he throws open the cupboards, turns back the covers on the most comfortable bed, and he prepares a feast – all for us, for we have returned home.

Home to the God who loves us with such intensity – such devotion – such unconditional love.

No conditions.

   No restraints.

      No sermon.

Just love.

I love homecomings.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

P.S. Christmas themed blogs begin on Monday, Dec. 3.  I'll be posting on Monday and Friday and each one for each of my blog sites will be different.  Thanks for tuning in - read as many as you wish - share them - be  blessed this Christmas season.

The Set of the Sails

Sail boats fascinate me.  Carolyn and I have been invited to go sailing a couple of times.  That’s a kick, but what gets me is that we can sail away from the shoreline and sail back, and I never notice a shift in the wind patterns. 

It’s like this poem:

"One ship drives east 
and another drives west.

With the selfsame 
winds that blow.

'Tis the set of the sails 
and not the gales

that tells the way to go.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1916

So the analogy is pretty self-evident, but let me say it anyway.

We have to manage the winds, or they will manage us.

Here is a great story to illustrate my point:

There once was a man who had two sons.  The father lived a life of drunkenness and reckless living.  His life was in shambles and he died a broken man.

As the years went by, his two sons grew into manhood and followed their own paths.  One son became an upstanding citizen, and a teetotaler, while the other son lived a life of drunkenness and debauchery as his father had done. 

Later in life each son was asked this question:  

“Why did your life turn out the way it did?”

Amazingly, both sons gave the exact same answer: 

“Are you kidding?  Knowing what kind

of father I had what did you expect?”

You see, one son set his sails for a life different from his father’s.  He managed the winds of his life and made choices along the way that led him down a different path from the one modeled for him.

And that is the secret.  He managed the winds.  He made good choices. 

The power of choice is yours and yours alone. 

Choose wisely.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

How Far

In the September issue of Success Magazine John C Maxwell asks this wonderful question:

“What’s the farthest 

you can imagine going?”

What are your dreams and passions?

What is your focus?

What makes your heart beat faster?

Where do you want to go?

And then we ask – 

“How far can I imagine going?”

That helps bring my vision into better focus.  It drives me to my computer even more so that I might write all those books that are inside of me.

It drives me to read more so that I can generate more ideas for more blogs.

It drives me to do more with my speaking life.

What else can you and I imagine doing?

Worth thinking about.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

A Thanksgiving Thanks

I love Thanksgiving.  I love it for the opportunity it affords to be an on-purpose thanks-giver, and I love it for the moments when we gather with family.  The food is pretty amazing too.

So in the spirit of gratitude, may we all remember to pause occasionally and remember those who serve us, and give them a word of thanks and appreciation.

-To the postal workers and special delivery men and women

-To our medical professionals

-To retail sales clerks

-To grocery clerks who are harried, hassled and hurried

-To ministers and staff who serve faithfully each week

-To our children who keep us young at heart

-To spouses, mothers, grandmothers and daughters who work endless hours preparing all the delicious food we enjoy

And to God on high, who sees us, loves us, likes us, and watches out for us. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving causes me to lift up my eyes and reflect on the life I've been given.  I have much joy, much love, and much abundance.  Sometimes, my points of gratitude get lost in the drama of life, and I lose sight of the important things and people who matter the most. 

Join me in reflecting on those who deserve words of gratitude and thankfulness. 

-I chose to honor God for amazing grace, abundant mercy and furious love.  I am thankful.

-I chose to romance my wife, and remember the fun and funny experiences we've shared this year.  What an abundant measure of love we share.  I am thankful.

-I chose to remember my step-children, their spouses and eight grand-kids and the joy they each add to my life.  I am thankful.

-I chose to reflect on my siblings-each one unique, yet the connection we share is a staple in my life.  I am thankful.

-I chose to remember friends with whom I connect on a regular basis, and others I see less frequently.  I take a small piece of you with me-your voice, your personality, and the memories we've created during our together days.  I am thankful.

When I offer the blessing on Thanksgiving Day you will be on my mind, in my heart and included in all that I honor on that great day.

Happy Thanksgiving 2012!

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

A Mega Dose of 'B'

A Mega Dose of 'B' (Belief)

Earl Nightingale popularized a principle that for many individuals has become the catalyst that helped launch some worthy enterprises. 

The principle - “You become what you think about.”

Thoughts are things.  They can take on a life of their own and they can become reality.  Just look at some of man’s accomplishments that started out as a gleam in someone’s eye.

Man on the moon            Golden Gate Bridge

Seattle Space Needle       Computers

Medical advances            Apple Computers

Microsoft                         Amazon

 

When one thinks …

“I can do that.”

“I can be that!”

… we witness the beginning moments of a great possibility.

Grab onto one of these ideas and see what happens.

“We become what we think about:”

Earl Nightingale

“I dream my painting, and then I paint my dreams.”  

Vincent Van Gogh

“Only those who can see the invisible can accomplish the impossible.

Dr. B. Lown

“Vision is what we see when we close our eyes.”

Kevin Hall

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

Napoleon Hill

The mind is everything.  A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.”

Marcus Aurelius

“A man is what he thinks about all day long.” 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 “We have to see it before we can be it.  Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream so shall you become.” 

James Allen

“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action.  I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”

Michelangelo

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” 

Oprah Winfrey

Reading these quotes is like a mega-dose of vitamins.  It is energizing.

Allow me to close with this well-known quote from The Bible. 

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

Hebrews 11:1

Keep the faith.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Regardless

The election is history. 

The decisions are made.

Some are ecstatic – others gravely disappointed.

Let me encourage you in the middle of all of this.

Regardless of the outcome, remember:

-God is still watching out for the whole world.

-He has already written the final chapter and the outcome is good.

-Prayer works in private and in public when allowed.  Regardless, exercise your privilege.

-Prayer changes diplomats and down-n-outers, politicians and problem people, the media and mechanics, and world leaders and worrisome problems.

-God is still intimately involved in the epic saga of mankind.

-He never promises a rose garden, but he stays by our side in the middle of the thorns.

-Down through the ages God has used all kinds of leaders and all kinds of circumstances to perpetuate his agenda.

-Trust and faith in God is the way.

Be encouraged, my friend. 

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time