Author: David Willis

If you don’t know where you are going…

~ David Willis ~ 3 Comments

I saw the title of a book recently that made me laugh. It is called “If You Don’t Know Where You Are Going You Might End Up Somewhere Else.” I haven’t read it, but it made me think. You have to have an idea of where you want to be before you can get there. You can say you want to be successful, but that is way too vague. What does successful look like? How do you see yourself fitting into the picture? How do you start from where you are now and get to the picture you see? This process of discovery is true with most any endeavor.

Let’s take physical fitness for instance. Say you have gone to the gym and you see someone who looks like you want to look. You have that end picture of what successful looks like. Now you can do your homework and figure out how much you are going to have to work out and diet to reach that goal. All the time knowing, they didn’t get there overnight and neither will you. You are now a work in progress.

This may sound like a strange statement, but I am glad that I am a work in progress. In most every area. Sure, it would be nice to be perfect, but there was only one man I know of that was…and I ain’t him. I look in the mirror and I see potential and setback, promise and frustration, the desire to be better and the fear of getting worse. Many times it is two steps forward and that many back, but over time I am progressing. It has been slow at times, but I keep moving forward. Get knocked down, get back up. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

I am almost embarrassed to admit that I am only now figuring out who I really am and what I call successful. I thought I had it figured out at 18. Yeah, right. (Regarding what I knew as a teenager, I think of the Mark Twain quote, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”) I had flashes of it during my 20s, but that wasn’t much better. Now in my 30s I am beginning to see things more clearly. I know now though that I don’t have to have everything figured out. I have to do the best with what God has given me and keep moving towards the goals I have set.

Do you know where you are headed? What does success look like in your life? How are you going to get there?

What is in a name?

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This past week at Lifechurch.TV, pastor Craig Groeshel started a new series called Getting Past your Past. I will be totally honest here. When we sat down at church I just wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t in the mood to sing. I wasn’t in the mood to listen. I have no good reason for this. I was just in a funk. That usually is the case when a good message is about to be given. Fortunately the fog lifted and what followed was awesome.

Pastor Craig asked this question near the beginning of the message: What negative label follows your name? This could be anything. Do you know what yours are? Mine started to pop up in a hurry. Granted, I know them well so it didn’t take much thinking. I have two that have bugged me for years: fat boy and quitter.

When I was a teenager I had a fat boy complex. I used self depreciating humor quite often to get a laugh. Looking back I see a huge problem though…I wasn’t fat. I was a husky kid, but when I hit my growth spurt I spent several years skinnier than I ever knew I was. See below. What did this view of myself get me? I promptly gained 40 pounds after high school. I graduated at 190 and weighed 230 the next year. (The freshman 15 is one thing, but 40 pounds..good grief.) I have lived with this false label for a long time. I wasn’t a fat boy. I am bigger than I want to be right now, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. This label doesn’t own me. God created me for more than that.

Summer 1995

I have also lived with the label Quitter. There isn’t a sport that I have played that I haven’t quit. I played basketball in high school and when it was time to pass out the jersey’s I was one of two guys that didn’t get one. I saw no future with it and I quit. I signed up for the football team my sophomore year and made it through 3 a days and quit. I played a season and a half of baseball and wasn’t happy with it so I quit. From the paragraph I just wrote it seems that label would be true…but it isn’t either. I am not a quitter. Looking back I realize I chose other things over the sports. I chose to sing in the choir and had some success at it. (Went to college with all tuition paid for two years singing.) That label doesn’t own me either. There are several more important things that I have not quit at all. I have been married to the same beautiful woman for 12 years. There is no quit in my game. I am, however, more selective about what I start these days. Had I chosen choir in the beginning back in those days there would have been no need to play the sports. Singing was what I enjoyed doing.

Through the message I have been encourage to go back and look at many of those negative labels that have attached themselves to me over the years. As I look at each one and examine them closely I am finding that they are inconsistent with what I know to be true. As a follower of Christ I am a new creation. I have been made new. Labels that may have defined me at one time no longer have to. God has purpose for my life. Holding on to the past and being crippled by it is not it.

Are there any labels that have defined you in the past? What are you doing to overcome them? Were they valid in the first place? The service was eye opening. I am so glad I shook the funk and really heard what was being said.

She’s Everything…Including An Awesome Mom!

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This evening while I was getting the little on down for bed I happened upon a song I hadn’t heard in a while. While surfing through my Vevo App on the iPhone, I found She’s Everything by Brad Paisley. I have his Time Well Wasted album and have listened to it a few times, but I don’t think this song ever reached out and grabbed me the way it did tonight. I feel the same way about my wife as he does about his: she is everything to me.

With that said, I celebrate her in a special way today. She is an awesome mom. I look at my son and I see the amazing job she has done and continues to do. I am proud to be her husband and proud that she is the mother of my son. We are so very blessed.

Happy Mother’s Day my love. You are the best. You are everything to us.

Thoughts from 25000 feet.

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I am 25000 feet above the ground right now, on a flight headed for Houston. It has been 9 years since I have flown and there are several things I have forgotten since or am just experiencing.

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One. Going to the airport to get on the plane isn’t as bad as many people make it out to be. Sure, you have to show up a couple of hours early and go through a rigorous bag and belongings check, but the airport personnel do an admirable job. Especially considering it was 4 am when I got there.

Two. I am headed down here for a conference, so this trip is for business. Most of the other passengers on the plane appear to be on the flight headed for vacation. There was a general sense of excitement and relaxation at the terminal this morning. I am thankful for this. Long travel days aren’t fun, but the smiles around me are helping. It is amazing what a smile can do.

Three. It is easy to forget how beautiful the world looks from up here. The clouds are spread out like a floor under the plane. The sun is shining bright. You can see for miles and miles. God is the original creative. I am in awe of his work.

Four. Though, I will be back home late this evening I miss my darling wife and my boy already. This is the furthest I have been from home without them. It is going to be a great day and when it is done I look forward to getting home and curling up next to them.

Sometimes uncomfortable is right where you need to be.

~ David Willis ~ 1 Comment

I will admit it. I like things to be comfortable. On Sunday it was raining in Oklahoma. My wife had the shades in the house drawn and lots of candles lit. The house smelled good. The lighting was nice. The temperature was just right. We made a good pot of chicken chili. It was a comfortable evening and I really enjoyed it. I want to be comfortable in my home. I like being comfortable in general.

I have come to the realization that I don’t want to be comfortable in everything. Ever had a job you hate? Every been in a relationship with someone that had grown stagnant? We grow comfortable and it doesn’t matter if we are miserable as well, we must maintain the comfort. I stayed in a job like that for nearly 4 years because it was something that didn’t push me too hard. I was miserable, but it was comfortable in its own way.

You know one thing that will make you uncomfortable in a good way? Goals. I recently sat down and typed out my Life Goal list. I currently have 72 items down, with hopes of making it to 100. It is extremely exciting to get all of these things down on paper. I like seeing them in front of me and thinking about what things I will be able to do, but it is an uncomfortable process. I know that to accomplish many of these things I will have to push myself harder than I have ever have before. I will have to go farther that I have been. I may have to give up some things that I enjoy to accomplish them. I will have to do things in a different way to attain different results. This is exciting and a bit scary all at the same time.

Dreaming is uncomfortable in this way. It takes us out of the place we are in and for a moment puts us in the place we want to be. Then, we have to connect the dots. Make out a plan. Act. To accomplish noble goals, I imagine that there is a great loss of comfort. I am ready for this. I am certain that the purpose that you gain because of it is worth the sacrifice.

How about you? Have you given up on any of your dreams because you have grown comfortable? Is it time to choose to be uncomfortable and take those dreams back?