Jack’s Winning Words 1/13/17
“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to live with the ordinary.”  (Jim Rohn)  How did an Idaho potato farm boy become a famous motivational speaker?  For Rohn, it was taking a risk to leave the farm, to meet new people and to move to California.  Look at the twists and turns of your life, the people you’ve met, the opportunities that came your way, the risks you were willing to take.  Don’t fear change.  We are the choices we make!     ;-)  Jack

FROM LBP IN PLYMOUTH:  Thanks. Lots of change ahead for me and my immediate family in the next 6 mos. maybe I'll put this one on the fridge.  An interesting podcast to check out that's sorta related: Hidden Brain -- "getting unstuck" it's about using design thinking on life.====JACK:  Planned, or unplanned, change always happens.  Successful people are those you are able and willing to adapt.

FROM HONEST JOHN:  I would find a more meaningful life as a potato farmer than as a motivational speaker.====JACK:  Would you call a preacher, a motivational speaker?====JOHN:  No.  Of course, there is some of that involved but if that is all he is, I would say they are not what they should be.====JACK:  A bishop met with a congregation's call committee to hear what they wanted in a new pastor.  He told me that they wanted "St. Paul on roller skates."  We once turned our parking lot into a roller skating area for our youth group.  Recently someone gave me a picture, taken at that time, showing me on skates wearing skinny jeans.

FROM TARMART REV:  Much more comfortable now looking back at God's Helping Hand thanwalking through the changes before, pondering at times about it being really a God-thing or my own?!====JACK:  Bowling could have been your Godly-calling, too.   Have you heard of the Holy Bowlers?  Bowling was once a religious rite, almost like a sacrament.  Martin Luther is said to have determined the number of pins used in the game.  Variations of bowling go back at least 7000 years. Monks played the game in monasteries.  Churches often kept a pin on display, representing sin or the devil.  The bowler would aim at "evil" and try to knock it down.====REV:  If my memory serves me correctly, the game originated with 9 pins and the tenth was added when 9-pin bowling was outlawed because of widespread gambling becoming prevalent within the sport. 10 years enjoying the sport from out on the lanes to working behind the counter in Wichita, KS and Springfield, MO gave me a great about of experience working with the common and hard-working folk of our world. I'm still trying hard to keep my eyes "on the ball" and "out of the gutter"!!====JACK:  When you were "into" bowling, was there ever gambling, or beer-frames, or stuff like that?  Did you ever use body-English?   ===REV:  Beer frames where turned into "Coke frames" when on me . . . I did participate in the "gambling" as several of us would put $1.00 ino a pot and the high score for the evening won the pot . . . for me fortunately I won my share throughout the season that I didn't look at it so much as gambling as I did gaining experience when a little pressure was added. There were time I would bowl one on one with another bowler, say, 3 games total $10 or $20. It certainly was a "confident builder". 
In those days during the summer there were a number of what was called "Ragtime Doubles' Tournaments" with an entry of $10 per a team of two, paying back an entry fee 1 out of 8 entries and with the top three spots going with something like $300.00 for 1st, $200 for 2nd and $100 for 3rd. Along with this there were bigger single tournaments around the Midwest with higher entries and lager payoffs. A couple years during the summer months, while in the 11th and 12th grades, I pocketed between $1000.00 and $1500.00. Maybe you might like to read a little about my "good ol' days"?====JACK:  lager payoffs?  Did you mean to write lager?  Budweiser Lager Beer?====REV:  I always seem to get into a hurry and not check my spelling as thorough as I should. One of the reasons I didn't pursue the bowling, as far as in the professional sense, was due to having to explain that "Pastor Paul is away this Sunday at the Budweiser Open Bowling /tournament!" 0;-/