Tag Archives: Faith

Message In A Minute: Take Him On

In the year 1985, a song and corresponding video were released and history was made.

The song was written by teenagers in Oslo, Norway a few years prior to it being a worldwide hit. The teenage boys had formed a band and knew they had a special keyboard riff. The words were added and the song completed very quickly.

After many attempts to release the song, producers and music executives were frustrated that the song never seemed to break through. The original video was simple and the band considered it boring.

The band switched their allegiance to a music producer from the United States. This producer had a great reputation for success. The band felt their work was finally in the right hands.

The new producer arranged for a creative new video to be made.

The video for The song “Take On Me” by the band “A-Ha” is considered groundbreaking and unforgettable. It is consistently near the top of every list of great videos. The song has been heard billions of times. The video is approaching one billion views on YouTube as of today.

The video took a couple days to shoot, but six more months to complete. Artists took the raw video and literally drew ten thousand pictures overtop of the scenes. Effectively creating a video that is part comic book and part real life.

When you believe in something, you keep trying, you keep pushing, you keep moving forward with it.

And when something is valuable to you, you should only trust it to the ultimate producer.

God can take your natural talents, your passions, and your experiences, arrange them His way, and create a life that will stand the test of time.

You have gifts and talents that can be used to bless the world around you.

Take God on, give Him every success and every failure.

Then watch Him produce something that impacts the world.

-Tom Wise

Message In A Minute: The Right Question

Your happiness in life has a lot to do with which one of these questions is more important to you.

What do people think of me?

Who has God made me to be?

If you are like me, you’ve spent too much time worrying about what people think of you. Sure it’s important to be a good person and earn respect. But there are some people who will go out of their way to misunderstand you. You can’t please everyone.

Within reason, we should work to have a good reputation. However, we can’t let small opinions from small minds derail us from big goals.

Recently, I’ve dedicated myself to being who I believe God made me to be. Finding out what talents I’ve neglected in the past, getting rid of negative attitudes, and concentrating on doing what I can do to bless others. It’s simple, but it’s not easy.

My natural inclination is to care too much what people think. Some of you lean the other way. You may be excessively proud of how little you care what people think. But be careful you aren’t just using that as an excuse for a having bad attitudes or behaviors.

I’m confessing here, I’m going to need God’s help. I want to focus on being all God wants me to be, for my family, for my church, with my friends, and at my job.

What about you?

I encourage you to make a decision today. Determine which means more to you.

What do people think of me?

Who has God made me to be?

-Tom Wise

Message In A Minute: The Perfect Note

When I first started playing guitar, I didn’t know what I was doing.

It would be a full year before I took a formal lesson. Prior to that time, I learned from mimicking what I saw on music videos, reading magazines with instructions on where your fingers needed to be, and simple trial and error. I wouldn’t say I was particularly gifted musically, but I was aware enough to know what sounded good and what didn’t.

Early on, I learned how to tune the guitar, because if just one of the six strings was out of tune, the whole instrument sounded bad. But there was a problem. I could get the guitar in tune with itself, but I didn’t know that I needed a pure tone from another source outside of the instrument for it to really be in tune.

For example, the first string on a guitar should be an “E” note. Instead of finding the “E” note, I assumed the first string was where it needed to be and I tuned the other five strings relative to the first string. My guitar would sound good by itself, but when I attempted to play along with music on the radio, it wasn’t even close.

In fact, one time I had all of my strings tensioned so tight (too high pitched) that one of them snapped and the end of the guitar string went through the surface of my fingernail and all the way into my finger.

Shortly after that, I realized I needed to start with the proper note, because if I didn’t, there was really no way to play the instrument like it was meant to be played. I needed the true note to start with, the note that every recording artist starts with, the note every singer would be familiar with, the note from outside the instrument itself. I found an electronic keyboard to use as the trustworthy source for the note I needed.

We may assume we have our lives tuned up pretty well. Physically, financially emotionally, relationally, vocationally, and even spiritually, we can feel like we have our priorities aligned, our time balanced, and our life strings in tune. And honestly, you may have all of that tuned very well.

But we need to make sure we check with a source greater than ourselves. Where the note we start with is always pure, always in perfect pitch, and always ringing with consistency.
I sincerely hope your life is making beautiful music, but I encourage you to check with your source.

Are your relationships in tune with the love of God?
Does the melody of forgiveness play in your heart?
Do your words and actions harmonize with integrity?

Today I picked up a guitar, I checked the tuning, and I used an application on my phone to find the starting tone.

It’s a good idea to recalibrate your life, as often as you can, to the source of the perfect note.

-Tom Wise

Message In A Minute: Love Is…

You’ve probably heard a certain piece of scripture quoted at every wedding you’ve ever attended. Or you might be very familiar with it from your upbringing or personal study.

I would imagine there are very few people who have never encountered this selection of scripture.

I Corinthians 13:4-8

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails…

If you are someone who was raised in a Christian home and/or went to church most of your life. You probably had someone challenge you to insert your name in the place of “love” in these verses. It’s a sobering exercise.

Let’s try it…

Tom is patient?

Tom is kind?

Tom doesn’t envy?

Tom doesn’t boast?

Tom is not proud?

Tom does not dishonor others?

Tom is not self-seeking?

Tom is not easily angered?

Tom keeps no record of wrongs?

Tom does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth?

Tom always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres?

Tom never fails?

Ok, I was laughing from the start.

I fall short in every single statement in one way or another. So do you. You can try your name there, you can try Mother Theresa’s name there, or anybody you know. We don’t measure up…that is what grace is for, but that is not my point.

I had a thought, what if I inserted the word “God” in these verses?

Would He stand up to His own standard?

After all according to scripture (1st John 4:7) “God is Love”.

And we are told “perfect love casts out fear” (1st John 4:18).

So let’s try it…

God is patient?

God is kind?

God doesn’t envy?

God doesn’t boast?

God is not proud?

God does not dishonor others?

God is not self-seeking?

God is not easily angered?

God keeps no record of wrongs?

God does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth?

God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres?

God never fails?

If any of that makes you uneasy, maybe it’s because you haven’t seen God for who He really is. God is better than what most of us have been told.

He’s not a tyrant who can’t wait to punish.

He isn’t a cosmic police officer who has a list of your offences.

He is not a far off weird old man who doesn’t care about you.

He is not a rich uncle who will send blessings only when you do the right thing.

He is a loving father, patiently waiting for you to acknowledge your need for Him.

Don’t allow misconceptions or experiences to keep you from finding out how much you are loved. Ask God to reveal Himself to you, and don’t be surprised when He lives up to those famous words from scripture.

-Tom Wise