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Day 1542– The Smart Sisters – Humor Unplugged

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Welcome to Day 1542 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

The Smart Sisters – Humor Unplugged

Wisdom – the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend; I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your Captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1542 of our Trek, and time for a 3-minute mini-trek called Humor Unplugged. Our Thursday podcast will provide a short and clean funny story to help you lighten up and live a rich and satisfying life. Something to cheer you and give a bit a levity in your life. We are told in Proverbs 15:30 A cheerful look brings joy to the heart; good news makes for good health. We are also encouraged in Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. Consider this your vitamin supplement of cheer for today. So let’s jump right in with today’s funny which is titled:

The Smart Sisters

John and his wife Susan purchased the old family home in Northern New York State from John’s two elderly sisters who had lived there for the past 40 years. John and Susan moved in during July and enjoyed a wonderful summer and fall in the house. The leaves during the fall were beautiful, but the nights were starting to turn cold. With winter approaching, Susan expressed her concern about the house’s lack of insulation.

John thought about that for a moment, then confidently said, “If my two older sisters, who are 10 and 12 years older than us could live here all those years, so can we!”

During an early November night, the temperature plunged to below zero, and John and Susan woke up to find the interior walls covered with frost. They couldn’t believe that the older sisters could stand living there for so many years with it being so cold.

To solve this mystery, John decided to call his sisters to ask how they had kept warm in the winter.

After a relatively brief conversation, John hung up. “For the past 35 years,” John muttered, “they’ve spent the winter in Florida.”

I hope that brought a smile to your face today. If it did pass your smile onto some else, we all could use a kind smile each day. Our Thursday thought is, “To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold.”

Here is our verse for today:

James 2:15-17

Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing,  and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

Just as you enjoy these nuggets of humor, please encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’

If you would like to listen to any of our past 1541 treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are all available at Wisdom-Trek.com.  I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day will be downloaded to you automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most importantly, I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.

As we take this Trek of life together, let us always:

  1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
  2. Love Unconditionally
  3. Listen Intentionally
  4. Learn Continuously
  5. Lend to others Generously
  6. Lead with Integrity
  7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to ’Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday’! See you tomorrow for Futuristic Friday!

Day 1541 – The Word, the Name, and the Angel – Worldview Wednesday

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Welcome to Day 1541 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

The Word, The Name, and The Angel – Worldview Wednesday

Wisdom – the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend; I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. Today is Day 1541 of our Trek, and it is Worldview Wednesday. Creating a Biblical Worldview is essential to have a proper perspective on today’s current events. To establish a Biblical Worldview, you must have a proper understanding of God and His Word. This week, we will expand on the past course work as we continue reviewing the book from Dr. Michael S Heiser titled “Supernatural.” The book is an abbreviated version of his more comprehensive book, “The Unseen Realm.” I highly recommend both of these books. Creating a Biblical Worldview based on how the Old and New Testaments connect with God’s overall plan for humanity is essential. This book review will help us understand what the Bible teaches about the unseen world, and why it matters.

The Word, the Name, and the Angel

In the last chapter, we learned about the cosmic geography of the Bible. In response to human rebellion at the Tower of Babel, God forsook the nations. He assigned them to members of his heavenly council, the sons of God (Deuteronomy 32:8–9). To replace the now-forsaken nations, he would create a new people, a nation of his own. They would be his agents to renew his kingdom on earth. That task would prove to be an awful struggle, as the other gods and the people of their domains would become fierce enemies of Israel and God. God’s new people would begin with a man named Abram, whose name he would later change to Abraham. Soon after the judgment at Babel, God visited him.

Abraham Meets the Word

Most Christians are familiar with God’s visit to Abraham in Genesis 12. God tells Abraham to leave his home and go to a place he’s never seen. God promises to guide him. He tells Abraham he will be his God and gives him special covenant promises. He’ll enable Abraham and Sarah to have a son, though they are both elderly. From that son will come multitudes of people—people who will form the new earthly family of God. Through them, the nations will be blessed.

We tend to think Abraham’s encounters with God were a voice from heaven or in Abraham’s head. Or perhaps God came in a dream. The Bible is clear that God did that sort of thing with the prophets and other people. That isn’t what happened with Abraham. God did something more dramatic. He came as a man and talked with Abraham face-to-face.

We get a hint of this in Genesis 12:6–7. The Bible says God appeared to Abraham. Three chapters later, God appears again (Genesis 15:1–6). This time God comes to Abraham as “the word of the Lord” in a vision. This vision wasn’t a voice in the head, since the “word” brought Abraham outside and showed him the stars to make the point that his offspring would be uncountable (Genesis 15:5).

God appeared to Abraham as a man on other occasions (Genesis 18). He did the same to Isaac (Genesis 26:1–5), the son God had promised, and Jacob, the son of Isaac (Genesis 28:10–22; 31:11–12; 32:24–30).

The “word” or voice of God as a way of expressing God in human form shows up in unexpected places. One of my favorite instances is found in 1 Samuel 3. The boy Samuel kept hearing a voice calling him at night while he was trying to sleep. Eventually, Eli, the priest with whom Samuel lived and for whom he worked, figured out it was God. In 1 Samuel 3:10, God came back to Samuel: Then Yahweh came and stood there and called out as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, because your servant is listening.” (LEB). We know this was God in human form because the description has him standing, and because the end of the chapter (1 Samuel 3:19) says “the word of the Lord” made a habit of appearing to Samuel.

Another prophet to whom the “word of the Lord” came in physical human form was Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 1, where he is called to be a prophet, Jeremiah says the “word” came to him. Jeremiah identified the “word” as God himself. The Lord touched him with his hand (Jeremiah 1:1–9).

God in Human Form

God, appearing as a man, is a pattern in the Old Testament, long before his arrival as Jesus of Nazareth. When you think about it, it makes sense. God is utterly unlike us. The Bible hints that no human can see God’s true essence, the true glory-presence, and live. When Bible characters physically encountered God, they expected to die (Genesis 32:30; Deuteronomy 5:24; Judges 6:22–24). They didn’t, because God filtered his presence through something the human mind could process—a fire, a cloud, and more often than many Christians realize, a man.

In many instances, God’s appearance in human form is described as an encounter with “the Angel of the Lord.” This Angel is a familiar character. For example, he appears to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:1–3). The God in the bush promised to use Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. God had appeared to Jacob visibly in a dream at Bethel (Genesis 28:10–22), where he was identified as the Lord (Yahweh). Later the Angel of God came to Jacob in another dream and told him point-blank that he was the same God who met him at Bethel earlier (Genesis 31:11–12).

Many Bible teachers hesitate to identify this Angel as God himself. But there are several specific indications that he is. Perhaps the most important happens shortly after God gives the Law to Moses. As the Israelites prepare to journey on to the Promised Land, God tells Moses:

Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. (Exodus 23:20–22)

This appearance is no ordinary angel. This Angel can forgive sins (or not). This Angel has the name of God in him. That expression is odd but significant. The “name” was an Old Testament way of referring to God himself, God’s very presence or essence. For example, Isaiah 30:27–28 casts the name of the Lord as a person—as God himself:

Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,

burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;

his lips are full of fury,

and his tongue is like a devouring fire;

his breath is like an overflowing stream.

Even today, observant Jews refer to God by saying ha-shem (“the name”). Another way of knowing this Angel was God in human form is to compare Exodus 23:20–22 with other passages. The Angel who had met Moses in the burning bush, the Angel with God’s name inside him, did indeed bring the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land (Judges 2:1–3). But so did the Lord (Joshua 24:17–18) and God’s own presence (Deuteronomy 4:37–38). The Lord, the presence, and the Angel of the Lord are different ways of pointing to the same figure: God. But the Angel is human in form.

One of the passages in the Bible that makes this point most compellingly is also very obscure. Few people ever notice it. It’s a deathbed scene. Before he dies, Jacob wants to bless Joseph’s children. In his blessing, he recollects episodes in his life—some of his encounters with God. He begins his blessing this way (Genesis 48:15–16):

Then he blessed Joseph and said,

“May the God before whom my grandfather Abraham

and my father, Isaac, walked—

the God who has been my shepherd

all my life, to this very day,

the Angel who has redeemed me from all harm—

may he bless these boys.

May they preserve my name

and the names of Abraham and Isaac.

And may their descendants multiply greatly

throughout the earth.”

Notice, incredibly, in verse 16, he prays, “May he bless these boys” He doesn’t say, “May they bless these boys,” as though speaking of two different persons, God, and the Angel. He fuses them together in the prayer: may he bless these boys.

Even more mind-bending is Judges 6, the call of Gideon. There both the Lord and the Angel of the Lord are found in the same scene (Judges 6:22–23). Even in the Old Testament, God was more than one person, and one of those persons came as a man.

Jesus: the Word, the Name, and the Angel

The descriptions of God we’ve covered up to this point should sound familiar—they’re all Old Testament versions of how the New Testament talks about Jesus.

Abraham met the Word, God in human form. In John 1:1, the apostle writes:

In the beginning the Word already existed.

The Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

In John 1:14, John says this “So the Word became human and made his home among us.” When a first-century Jew read the gospel of John, his or her mind would be taken back to God himself, coming as the Word. Jesus even claimed that Abraham had “seen his day,” and that he had been around before Abraham (John 8:56–58).

Moses met the Angel of the Lord, God in human form, in the burning bush, and afterward. The Angel brought Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land. Jude wrote in his short letter, “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 1:5). The Angel was God in human form. The Angel was the second person of the Trinity—who would later be born to the Virgin Mary.

The presence of God, the name, made this Angel distinct from all others. At times, in the New Testament, Jesus talks about God the Father as the name. In his prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, just before being captured for the trial that would lead to his crucifixion, Jesus prayed: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your Word…I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:5–6, 26). What did he mean in that last statement? Jesus wasn’t saying he let people know what God’s name was. They were Jews. They knew what God’s name was—it was Yahweh. They had the Old Testament. They could look up God’s name in thousands of verses. When Jesus said he had manifested God’s name to the people, he meant he had manifested God himself to the people. He was God before their very eyes. He was the name made flesh.

Why This Matters

We’ve come far enough in our study to get the biblical lay of the land. All the Bible stories you know take place within the context of the overarching spiritual conflict in the unseen world. It’s a winner-take-all clash of the gods.

In the biblical view of the unseen world, God has serious enemies, other gods he created who were once loyal to him but who went their own way. These rebel gods are the ones Paul describes as dark powers, the rulers, authorities, and thrones of the unseen world (Ephesians 6:11; Colossians 1:16). They’re still here. Nothing in the New Testament tells us they went away. They live to oppose God’s rule—and to deprive him of everlasting reunion with his beloved human family through the gospel.

One of these dark powers is the Lord of the dead. He has rightful claim to humanity, since his deception of Adam and Eve resulted in the loss of immortality. And that was his goal—the extermination of Yahweh’s people. It’s what the spawn of the rival sons of God had in mind when the Israelites entered Canaan: kill or be killed to prevent God’s people from possessing the land. Once Israel entered the land, the dark powers’ goal remained the same, but their strategy changed: seduce God’s people into worshipping other gods, and then Yahweh will get rid of them for us. That’s what happened. God sent his people into exile.

The powers of darkness knew something else: Yahweh wouldn’t give up on his plan. The curse on the original rebel foretold that, one day, a descendant of Eve, who would undo the effects of human failure in Eden, would come. They knew that at some point, the Promised One would appear—although, as Paul told us, they didn’t know precisely what God was planning (1 Corinthians 2:6–8; Ephesians 3:10; 6:12). That’s because it was a mystery, intentionally hidden from all by the Most High.[1]

That will finish our study for this week’s worldview Wednesday. Join us again next week as we continue building our Biblical Worldview. Tomorrow we will enjoy our 3-minute Humor nugget that will provide you with a bit of cheer, which will help you to lighten up and live a rich and satisfying life. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along with us tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’

If you would like to listen to any of our past 1540 treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most of all, your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this Trek together, let us always:

  1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
  2. Love Unconditionally
  3. Listen Intentionally
  4. Learn Continuously
  5. Lend to others Generously
  6. Lead with Integrity
  7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to ’Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday’! See you Tomorrow!

[1] Heiser, M. S. (2015). Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World—And Why It Matters. (D. Lambert, Ed.) (pp. 57–65). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Day 1540 – Pouring Out Joy – Wisdom Unplugged

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Welcome to Day 1540 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Pouring Out Joy – Wisdom Unplugged

Wisdom – the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before.

Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase wisdom and create a living legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1540 of our trek, and it is time for our 3-minute mini trek called Wisdom Unplugged. This short nugget of wisdom includes an inspirational quote with a little bit of additional content for today’s trek. Consider this your vitamin supplement of wisdom for today. So let’s jump right in with today’s nugget.

Today’s quote is from Henry Ward Beecher, and it is, “Live to shed joys on others.”

Pouring Out Joy

In the quote today we understand the word shed here is living in a deliberate and chosen manner in which you are pouring joy out of yourselves so that it will cascade from you and envelope others, bathing them in joy. As we have noted in the past, your joy is not dependent on how pleasant and unencumbered your life is, but on that internal intrinsic knowledge that God is in control of your life. And you can peacefully rest in that fact.

When you have real joy, then you can pour that joy on others any time you have the opportunity to do so. We need to live in such a way that our lives continually are bubbling over with joy. When that joy is splashing from our lives continuously, it will naturally pour out to others. We should never become weary sharing our joy because our lives are full of joy at all times, regardless of what we may be experiencing on any given day.

As an example of this, the Apostle Paul had this to say about the church in Macedonia in 2 Corinthians 8:2.

They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.

He later wrote these encouraging words to the church in Galatia in Galatians 6:9.

So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

That’s a wrap for today’s Wisdom Unplugged quote. If you would like free access to my database of over 11,000 inspirational quotes, the link is available on the main page of Wisdom-Trek.com. As you enjoy these nuggets of wisdom, encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of our past 1539 treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most importantly, your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

  1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
  2. Love Unconditionally
  3. Listen Intentionally
  4. Learn Continuously
  5. Lend to others Generously
  6. Lead with Integrity
  7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Everyday! See you tomorrow for Worldview Wednesday!

Day 1539 – Bible Study – Words, Correlation, and Causation – Meditation Monday

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Welcome to Day 1539 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Bible Study – Words, Correlation, and Causation – Meditation Monday

Wisdom – the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend; I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1539 of our Trek, and it is time for Meditation Monday. Taking time to relax, refocus, and reprioritize our lives is crucial in order to create a living legacy. For you, it may just be time alone for quiet reflection. You may utilize structured meditation practices. In my life, Meditation includes reading and reflecting on God’s Word and in prayer. It is a time to renew my mind, refocus on what is most important, and making sure that I am nurturing my soul, mind, and body. As you come along with me on our trek each Meditation Monday, it is my hope and prayer that you, too, will experience a time for reflection and renewing of your mind. 

We are continuing our series this week on Meditation Monday as we focus on Mastering Bible Study through a series of brief insights from Hebrew Scholar, Dr. Michael S. Heiser. Our current insights are focusing on accurately interpreting the Bible. Today let us meditate on:

Bible Study – Words, Correlation, and Causation

·      Insight Forty-Five: Words Don’t Mean Anything By Themselves

We all know from experience that the words we use can be understood and intended in different ways. No word means the exact same thing every time it’s used. I love my wife, and I love pizza. The pizza really isn’t giving my wife competition for my attention. My emotional attachment to my wife is of a different nature and intensity than my desire for pizza. I can use the word “love” for both.

What helps us so easily parse a difference here? Real-life. Our experiences provide context. Words don’t mean anything in isolation. They can’t mean anything until they are put in context. Context determines word meaning: nothing else does.

For some reason, this obvious truth gets lost for some Bible students who are doing word studies. The process goes something like this: Research tools help us identify the original language word behind an English word that draws our interest in a particular verse. Then we look up that word in a word study dictionary. So far, so good. Here’s where many Bible students go off the tracks. Students often use these dictionaries to discover what a Greek or Hebrew word can mean, latch on to an interesting option, and mine for verses where the word has the meaning we’re looking for. The fact that the word can have a given meaning, and does in other verses, justifies (in their minds) assigning that meaning to the word in the verse under scrutiny.

That isn’t word study. That’s cherry-picking a meaning from a list of possibilities and considering other contexts (other verses) in place of the word’s context in your passage. Seeing that clearly should remind us that a word’s meaning in one instance may be different in another.

Real word studies take time. There is no substitute for discerning the contexts that come to bear on the word you want to study and then, one by one, testing whether other meanings are possible in that same setting. Context makes that determination, not a list of possible meanings in a dictionary.

·      Insight Forty-Six: Don’t Confuse Correlation with Causation

Have you ever seen those commercials that string a series of disastrous events together, leading to how buying their product will save you from all the disasters? They’re funny because they exploit connections between seemingly random, unrelated events just to steer you toward a conclusion. As if not liking my haircut will lead to a typhoon. These commercials use nonsequiturs (conclusions that do not logically follow) to make us laugh and remember a product. In that sense, they’re effective.

One of the most common logical fallacies is the confusion of correlation with causation. The misconception is presuming that two things that are related somehow—perhaps by timing, or similarity of appearance or theme—must mean that one causes or leads to the other. Whether you’ve had a formal course in logic or not, you’ve encountered this one. You can find examples of it every day in newspapers, blogs, and of course, commercials. I ran across one recently: in a report about the interesting fact’ that as the shoe sizes of elementary kids increase, so do scores on standardized reading exams. Sure, both studies run simultaneously and even on the same kids correlate, but did one cause the other? Should I despair if my child has small feet? ‘Sally will never be able to read well unless her feet grow.’ I hope you see the error in this thinking.

Confusing correlation and causation can be comical, but it isn’t funny when it shows up in sermons, Sunday school lessons, and Bible study resources. Even doctrinal beliefs can derive from this logical fallacy. One example that I’ve seen repeatedly is the belief that there was a rebellion of one-third of the angels in heaven before the fall, which explains the temptation in Eden. The Bible nowhere teaches such a cause-and-effect. A rebellion of one-third of the angels occurs in Revelation 12:1-9,” ‘here it is connected to the first coming of Jesus and his resurrection (Revelation 12:5), not Eden’. Since Revelation 12:9 mentions the serpent, there is some correlation intended. Very obviously, this rebellion did not precipitate Genesis 3 and the fall.

The point should be clear: we must pause and think carefully about any claim we run across, or pops into our minds, to avoid this fallacy.

Joshua 1:8

Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

That is a wrap for today’s Meditation. Next week we will continue our trek on Meditation Monday as we take time to reflect on what is most important in creating our living legacy. On tomorrow’s trek, we will explore another wisdom quote. This 3-minute wisdom supplement will assist you in becoming healthy, wealthy, and wise each day. Thank you for joining me on this trek called life. Encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’

If you would like to listen to any of the past 1538 daily treks or read the daily Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day will be downloaded to you automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most importantly, I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and Journal.

As we take this Trek of life together, let us always:

  1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
  2. Love Unconditionally
  3. Listen Intentionally
  4. Learn Continuously
  5. Lend to others Generously
  6. Lead with Integrity
  7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to ’Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday’! See you tomorrow!

Day 1538 – Creating A Moonshot Mindset – Ask Gramps

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Welcome to Day 1538 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. 

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Creating A Moonshot Mindset – Ask Gramps

Wisdom – the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend; I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. Today is Day 1538 of our Trek, and our focus on Fridays is the future technological and societal advances, so we call it Futuristic Fridays. My personality is one that has always been very future-oriented. Since my childhood, I have yearned for the exploration and discovery of new technologies and advancements for the future. I grew up with the original Star Trek series, and even today, as I am now on my 65th revolution around the sun, I still dream of traveling in space. Each week we will explore rapidly converging technologies and advancements, which will radically change our lives. At times, the topics may sound like something out of a science fiction novel, but each area that we explore is already well on its way of becoming a reality over the next couple of decades.

To keep with our theme of “Ask Gramps,” I will put our weekly topics in the form of a question to get us on track. This week’s question is, Hey Gramps, we have explored having a futuristic, exponential, gratitude, and purpose-driven mindset, but next, you mentioned a Moonshot mindset. I am not sure what you mean by a moonshot mindset. What is a Moonshot Mindset, and why do I need one? 

Creating A Moonshot Mindset

As an entrepreneur, or even in your personal life, what if you could achieve 10X growth while your competitors or associates achieve 10% growth? With a Moonshot Mindset, your growth is 10X bigger or better when everyone else pursues incremental change.

I am using some of the information in today’s episode mentioned in Peter Diamandis’s blogs and book “The Future is Faster Than You Think.”

If we use a business setting as an example, we see that most companies ask questions such as, “How do we reduce costs by 10%?” or “How can we increase profits by 10%?” Having a Moonshot Mindset means applying 10X thinking (or 1,000%) to all of your efforts and challenges. So, why should you aim for 10X growth instead of 10%?

I’ll give you three reasons:

  1. Astro Teller, Google-Alphabet’s, referred to as “Captain of Moonshots” says that when you try to do 10% better, you’re putting yourself in direct competition with everyone else in your industry. It’s a competition that you’re likely to lose.
  2. When you shoot for 10X improvement and try to do something radically hard, you approach the problem you’re solving in a completely different
  3. When you attack a problem (any problem) as though it were solvable, you’ll be shocked at what you come up with even if you don’t know how to solve it.

In our world, change is the only constant, and the rate of change is increasing.

You either disrupt yourself, or someone else will.

Today, I’m going to discuss what a Moonshot Mindset is and how to develop one.

Let’s dive in…

With a Moonshot Mindset… 

(1) You understand that “the day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.” Your Moonshot Mindset permits you to tackle crazy ideas.

(2) You are willing to take the risks necessary to transform industries and society for the better. You recognize that those with a Moonshot Mindset are the innovators making the world a better place, moving humanity forward, and charting the future.

(3) You understand that a Moonshot within the realm of your Massively Transformative Purpose (MTP) can be the adventure of a lifetime, giving you joy and purpose-driven life.

(4) You are willing to aim at billion-person challenges. You recognize that the world’s biggest problems are the world’s most prominent business opportunities.

(5) You understand that Moonshots striving for a 10X improvement (or 1,000%) offer one-hundred-fold the benefit compared to 10% incremental improvement, but are rarely one-hundred-fold more challenging to achieve. A 10X improvement is 100 times more worth it, but it’s not 100 times harder.

(6) As a leader, you know that Moonshots focus and motivate your team, help you attract the best talent in the world, and allow you to solve interim problems while creating temporary products and services along the way.

How would your business or life be different if you had a Moonshot Mindset?

If you have a Moonshot (10X goal), what is an action that you can take in the next hour to make progress toward it? Our world is shaped by a few people with crazy ideas, fueled by their Massively Transformative Purpose.

Will you be one of them?

As a Christ-follower, we, of all people, should expect God to perform mighty works through us. The Kingdom of God began the size of a mustard seed.  The dark rulers of this world never expected what God would perform through His Church as we are told in 1 Corinthians 2:8-10

1 Corinthians 2:8-10

But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,

and no mind has imagined

what God has prepared

for those who love him.”

But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.

That is a wrap for today’s question. Join us again next Futuristic Friday as we look at another exciting exponential technology area on our ‘Ask Gramps’ episode. Our next trek is Meditation Monday, where we will help you reflect on what is most important in life. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along on Monday for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’

If you would like to listen to any of the past 1537 daily treks or read the associated journals, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day will be downloaded to you automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, but most importantly, I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this Trek of life together, let us always:

  1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
  2. Love Unconditionally
  3. Listen Intentionally
  4. Learn Continuously
  5. Lend to others Generously
  6. Lead with Integrity
  7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to ’Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday’! See you on Monday!