I spoke for a little girl and her family today.
At what most of us would call a funeral.
But what must be, if we believe what we say we believe,
a celebration of her new life.

As much as we all seem to feel the need to be sad-
today there is a joy that a little girl is free from the cancer
that kept her a prisoner for the past several months.
She's free from pain and hospitals and surgeries...
and she's left her mark on this life and those of us
who have been touched by her courage and her smile.

Tonight there must be quite the celebration in Heaven for Miranda.
Her message to us: This is Life. Live it NOW!
Thanks Miranda.

Dear Diary...
I've written in blank books, journals, for over 16 years now.
And I've never written those words.
It's not a DIARY, you don't have to write in it every day. But as one of my greatest teachers once taught me... "Something's happened in your life in the past year that's worth writing down!

Having lunch today with my daughter reminds me again why writing in a journal is such a powerful thing. She breaks out her journals and reads me things she wrote over a year ago. "They've almost all come true," she tells me with excitment. My daughter is 22 and continues to take notes and set goals for her life. She is becoming a good student.

How "noteworthy" is your family or your work or your life?
Then why not take some notes in YOUR journal?
You'll be glad you did, and one day you'll wish you'd started sooner.

Michael

How Do We Measure Success?
As a man, it's most often discussed in terms of work or business or results or money.
This past weekend I spoke at a men's conference at Southbrook (my church in Charlotte)
on Success That Really Matters!

I'm reminded of the measuring stick God uses from the song
"Measure of a Man" by 4 Him.
The unit of measure?

"I say the measure of a man, is not how tall you stand,
how wealthy or intelligent you are...
But what's in the heart defines the measure of a man."

How true.
What a great time with 50 or so men who have a desire to make a difference.

After watching her path for days, even weeks, Katrina blasted the gulf coast last month.
New Orleans, Gulfport, Biloxi, and many other areas devastated. It's an almost unthinkable amount of damage. But maybe the most damaging thing is how the news media...and I use that term loosely, covers news in this day and time.

I was a part of the media for many years so I have some equity in that medium.
Yesterday, largely because of the sensationalism and scare tactics broadcast almost non-stop there was a gas panic in my city and many others around the country. Lines grow long, prices soar, and supplies are wiped out in a day. It is a crisis caused largely by consumer panic and the behavior it produces. Supply and demand re-define what is "normal." A gallon of gas tops $4 here for maybe the first time ever.

I refuse to buy gas, even though I'm almost empty, but I know it's a temporary condition.
So sad to see how the average person lines up like sheep in fear and panic causing the very condition they fear the most.

p.s. within a couple of days the supplies are back to normal, prices soon follow, and a week later a gallon of gas is actually less than it was before the panic.
Meanwhile "the media" continues to rage out of control over-hyping and crying wolf at every turn.