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Day 1512 – Payback Is Rough – Humor Unplugged

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Welcome to Day 1512 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Payback is Rough – 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 1512 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:

Payback is Rough

Early one evening, Joe scuttled out to his garage and pulled the lawn furniture out onto the driveway. Shortly after followed the lawnmower, a few gardening tools, and a bicycle.

Jim, his curious neighbor, wandered over and asked as he approached the garage entrance, Hey Joe, what are you dragging all of this stuff into your driveway? Are you going to have a garage sale tomorrow?  Joe stopped and stretched his back and replied, “No, Jim, you know my son John just bought his first car, and right now he is inside right now getting ready for a big date. You know how he is always running late, and He’ll be taking the car out soon to pick up the girl.”

Jim cocked his head slightly, scratched his head, and stared at all the stuff in the driveway, then asked, So what’s with all the stuff?”

“Well, Jim, after years of moving tricycles, toys, lawn chairs, and sports equipment out of the way every time I came home from work, I wanted to make sure the driveway was ready for John.”

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, “When someone does you wrong, and you do wrong to them as a revenge. It does not make you right, but it makes both of you wrong. Doing wrong is wrong, no matter how you can justify it.”

Here is our verse for today:

Romans 12:19

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord

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 1511 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 1511 – A Family of Imagers – Part 3 – Worldview Wednesday

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Welcome to Day 1511 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

A Family of Imagers Part 3 – 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 1511 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 finish our study based on a course I completed taught by Dr. Michael Heiser on our Worldview Wednesday episode. Our study is titled “Sons and Daughters of God: The Believer’s Identity, Calling, and Destiny” Throughout this multi-week course, we have demonstrated that, in the Old Testament, “sons of God” and “holy ones” refers to supernatural beings whose Father is God and who work with God to carry out His will and that this divine family was present before humanity. By fully engaging with biblical texts such as Psalm 82; Psalm 89, and Deuteronomy 32:8–9, our study showed that this divine family functions as a template for God’s human family. God desires of humans, as His imagers, to participate in His council. This study addressed issues such as polytheism, the nature of the (little ‘g’) “gods,” and Yahweh’s uniqueness. This study applies insights to the New Testament texts and shows how the metaphor of being in God’s family informs our sense of identity and mission as believers.

A Family of Imagers

·      Segment 30: Believers as Family, Participants – 3

Introduction

Hebrews 2 is a bit more of an obtuse example of the kinds of things we’re talking about because Hebrews’ language tends to be kind of complicated, but it’s a pretty powerful one. So I wanted to include it because this section of Hebrews is, I think, especially telling when it comes to these family relationships and bringing things full circle, being presented to God as the fulfillment of the original plan.

Family Members in the Divine Council

We read in Hebrews 2:10-12, God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. So now, Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. For he said to God,

“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.

I will praise you among your assembled people.”

Family Members Sharing the Same Status

Now, look at the language here. We have a scene where the writer is talking about Jesus. God is in the picture, and we have this “son” language; we have sibling language here (“brothers and sisters”). The scene is amazing because here we have Jesus introducing God, as it were: “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.” What’re the assembled people? Among your assembled people?; It is in the throne room of God; it is in the presence of all who have gone before. The whole cloud of witnesses’ idea is something that Dr. Heiser mentioned in the Unseen Realm. The notion of a “cloud of witnesses” goes back to divine council language by ratifying treaties and agreements and covenants and guarantees.

So we have believers who have gone before members of the council now; they have become grafted in. As normal human beings, fallen but redeemed, and being brought back into the family. The inclusion language here is a reference to someday all of us, each one of us is going to be presented to God, and God is going to be presented to us by our brother who is Jesus. He is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters because we share the same status; we are family members; we are fellow imagers.

God Remains Faithful

When we get to the end of the road of life, with the task well done, things coming full circle, the writer of Hebrews wants us to know that we’re going to have this moment. It is a full-circle kind of thing. Our purpose will be fulfilled in the way it should have originally been. What should have awaited all of us without all the struggle, the sin, the estrangement from God, the travails of human history will be completed. Of course, it wasn’t. God never gave up on the plan. He never annihilated Adam and Eve after they fell; He never just wiped the slate clean. He was committed to this idea of creating humans—these intelligent, embodied beings with who He would share His attributes so that they could be like Him; they could work with Him and, eventually, be brought back into a complete relationship into the family all because of the lead example: the incarnation, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ who is our brother.

Authority over the Nations

In Revelation 2, we get a little bit of a feel for our status and the activity that we’ll experience in a new Eden in a new situation. Jesus is the speaker here in Revelation 2:25-28: “except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come. To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, To them, I will give authority over all the nations. They will rule the nations with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots. They will have the same authority I received from my Father, and I will also give them the morning star!”

“Morning Star” Linked to Ruling over Nations

The “morning star” language is essential. This is a messianic language. You think about the passage, To them, I will give authority over all the nations. This is the reclamation of the nations. Those peoples who rebelled at Babel and were put under the authority of lesser sons of God. Those who became corrupted and seduced their peoples to idolatry instead of being caretakers of them according to the acceptable rules of Yahweh’s justice.

This is what Psalm 82 is about: this adversarial relationship that develops from this act, this rebellion, and this judgment at Babel. The Messiah is the solution to that, but so are we. At some point in the future, we will be put over the nations: To them, I will give authority over all the nations. Who is over the nations now? It’s the fallen sons of God. Who is going to be over the nations? The redeemed sons of God. We essentially become a reconstituted divine council. That is the destiny of the believer. The “morning star” idea is linked explicitly to ruling over the nations because it’s messianic; it refers to a divine being who had come from Judah. Numbers 24:17 is the reference for that; we read the prophecy that A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel.

 Star Language Associated with Divine Beings

Star language in the ancient world was a language that you would associate with divine beings. The king is also going to be divine. You have hints of this back in the book of Numbers. Later in the book of Revelation, Jesus Himself refers to His messianic standing with the “morning star” language. Revelation 22:16—this is the end of the Bible, this is the global Eden scene—He says, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.”

 Christ Fulfills God’s Mission

Jesus Christ is the monogenēs. He is the unique Son of God. He is both God and human, uniting all things into one. Christ is the linchpin figure that fulfills God’s original plan to have human beings grafted into the divine family. From the beginning, God’s plan was for us to be living on this wonderful, terrestrial place where heaven meets earth. Where God has chosen to be all together as one: one mission, one goal obtained. This is how everything ends in the book of Revelation. In these chapters, in Revelation 21–22, we have very overt, Edenic language, and it’s all deliberate. It’s all to make us think back to the beginning, and here we are in Revelation 21–22 with the mission fulfilled.

We now conclude this course, which links back to Dr. Heiser’s book The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. If you desire to take a deep dive into the subject matter covered, I highly recommend this book. If you would like an abbreviated form of the book, which is easier to read, I recommend purchasing Supernatural.

These past few weeks, we just focused on a few items, such as the “sons of God” language. Sons and daughters of God, the idea of a divine family with deep Old Testament roots, and how that forms a foundation for understanding the terminology in the New Testament.  Not just the terminology, but the concepts that go with it. Of course, those concepts refer to our status as believers; we are members of the divine family. Linking that idea between Old Testament and New Testament affects our understanding of our calling: What are we supposed to do? Why are we even here?

We reviewed the concept of divine imaging and participation in our destiny and glorification in a restored Eden. When that restoration is complete, we have an eternal status, an eternal belonging to God’s family. That restoration provides us the responsibility of eternal rule, eternal maintenance of all the beautiful things that the global Eden is—what God has made, where God has led things throughout human history.

Thank you for joining me on this trek. I hope the journey has been beneficial. I think that this will provide a foundation for learning about other concepts as well in the Bible.[1]

That will finish our study for this week’s Worldview Wednesday. Join us again next week to consider why it is essential to foster and maintain a 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 1510 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. (2019). Sons and Daughters of God: The Believer’s Identity, Calling, and Destiny. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Day 1510 – Life Becomes Rich – Wisdom Unplugged

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Welcome to Day 1510 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Life Becomes Rich – 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, 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 1510 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  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and it is:   In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others.   

Life Becomes Rich

Personal satisfaction with your life is primarily based on your perspective of life. When we realize that we receive so much more than we ever give to others during the regular course of our ordinary life, we start to realize the blessing we have in life. Based on those blessings, we should have gratitude, and we will recognize that we do have a rich and satisfying life. Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so are the bountiful riches we have in life. It is so easy to have the mindset that what we do and how we live is so important, and with this, we overestimate our importance compared to others. The blessings and riches we have each day may seem miniscule and unimportant. Still, when they are viewed over the course of our lives, we can genuinely understand that life is wonderful, and we should have hearts filled with gratitude to God and other people that God has allowed to enrich our lives. We can live a rich and satisfying life each day if we choose to view life from the lens of gratitude.2 Peter 1:3-7

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

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. Just as you enjoy these nuggets of wisdom, 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 1509 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, 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 Worldview Wednesday!

Day 1509 – Bible Study – Translations and Study Bibles – Meditation Monday

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Welcome to Day 1509 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Bible Study – Translation and Study Bibles – 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 1509 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 what the Bible is. Today let us meditate on:

Bible Study – Translations and Study Bibles

·      Insight Thirty-Three: Learn Something About Philosophies of Bible Translation

Bible translation is both an art and a science. It’s not just a matter of knowing English equivalents to words in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. If you are bilingual or have a friend who speaks another language, you know there’s more to understanding what is communicated in any language than using a dictionary.

The difficulty is easy to illustrate in English. Understanding what is meant by phrases liked ‘She copped a plea” or ‘He’s piling up yards” requires cultural knowledge—in these cases, the slang of crime dramas and the nuances of football. We could translate those phrases word-for-word into another language, but without the appropriate cultural intuition, they’d be meaningless.

Bible translators struggle with these sorts of problems frequently. There are also issues unique to the Bible that present difficulties. The doctrine of inspiration is one such complication. Since inspiration can be defined as “verbal,” where each word of the original compositions is ultimately the result of a process guided by Providence, should translation of those compositions take the form of a “word-for-word” rendering? If not, are words of God being lost?

This “word-for-word” approach to translation is called formal equivalence by translators. This translation philosophy aims to account for each word in the original language with an English word wherever that is possible. The result is typically a rigidly literal rendering that may sound awkward. Each word must be accounted for. Some Bible translations lean in this direction. Another approach is called “dynamic equivalence” or “functional equivalence.” This approach looks at the material to be translated and assesses what the original material meant to its original audience. Once that is discerned, the “meaning” is put into English using whatever words are best suited toward that end. There is no emphasis on accounting for each word of the original since meaning is the focus. Again, specific translations favor this approach.

Some translations fall in between. Still, others are paraphrased. Paraphrases start with an English translation and then reword the English. No actual translation work occurs.

I like to say the best Bible translation is the one you’ll read. It’s good to know the philosophy behind your translation. Using several translations that take different approaches is useful for Bible study.

·      Insight Thirty-Four: Get to Know the Features of Your Study Bible

A lot of people have study Bibles. They are annually one of the bestselling items in Christian bookstores. It’s a shame that most people who have one use only a fraction of what it offers. The problem isn’t illiteracy. It’s negligence.

The scholars and publishers who produce study Bibles put a great deal of thought into them. They are designed to facilitate Bible study and not just to be read like a novel or a newspaper. Study Bibles have a wide range of features to help people move beyond Bible reading.

All study Bibles include introductions to each book that discuss who wrote it and why. Knowing the circumstances that prompted the writing of the book is a crucial context for framing its contents.

Many study Bibles also include essays on essential topics in a book, challenging or controversial passages, or the book’s role in the bigger theological picture of the Bible. These sorts of essays orient readers to a book’s contribution to doctrine and biblical history.

Some study Bibles employ their own system of symbols to draw the reader’s attention to further information about words. Suppose you’re familiar with Strong’s numbers. In that case, you’ll know that some study Bibles feature numbering systems with a concordance and brief Hebrew and Greek dictionaries to help readers get into word study.

A good study Bible will also come with “extras” like explanations of biblical chronology, timelines, a glossary for weights and measures, a history of how we got the Bible, reading plans, extended maps, charts. These features are essential for Bible study, which should also include a well-conceived, detailed index. All these aids will be for naught unless you find them and use them. Don’t treat your study Bible like it’s a pew Bible, with nothing but the running English translation. It’s so much more. My point is this: don’t be afraid to seriously entertain an alternative textual reading in your Bible’s footnotes. You might be returning to the original reading.

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 1508 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 1508 – A Futuristic Abundance Mindset – Ask Gramps

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Welcome to Day 1508 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. 

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

A Futuristic Abundance 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, 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. Today is Day 1508 of our trek. Our focus on Fridays is 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 to 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, you explained how to craft a futuristic mindset last week. One of the mindsets that you mentioned was abundance. Can you go into more detail on how to craft a futuristic abundance mindset?”

A Futuristic Abundance Mindset

Last week we learned how to craft a futuristic mindset. This week we will drill down on one aspect, which is a futuristic abundance mindset. I am using some of the information mentioned in Peter Diamandis’s blogs and book The Future Is Faster Than You Think.

Do you have an abundance mindset? What is an abundance mindset? What’s the advantage of having an abundance mindset? That’s our conversation today.

In the middle of a pandemic, it’s hard to think about abundance. You can understand this, especially when people are losing their jobs or wondering if and when they will get access to a vaccine.

Nonetheless, the world is heading rapidly towards abundance, and understanding this could transform your life and your business. Exponential technology like computation, Artificial Intelligence, 3-D printing, robotics, and Virtual Reality are rapidly dematerializing, demonetizing, and democratizing products and services. What used only to be available to the wealthiest and most elite, is now available to almost anyone on the planet. A child in the middle of Zimbabwe can Google any information or video conference for free with someone on the other side of the world. Many things we paid millions of dollars for just two decades ago are now available for free on your smartphone.

The challenge is that our minds were probably shaped with a mindset of scarcity, and most people are trapped in an unhealthy “scarcity mindset.” In a world of scarcity, there is a limited pie. If your neighbor gets a slice, that means you get a smaller slice. It’s a world of limited resources and fierce competition.

With an abundance mindset, rather than slicing the pie into thinner and thinner pieces, we bake more pies…millions more pies. Abundance is the future that exponential technology enables. Abundance is growing across almost every sector of society and economy, whether people see it or recognize it yet.

Think about this statement and allow it to permeate your mind. Creating a world of abundance isn’t about creating a world of luxury; it’s about creating a world of possibility.

Next week, I’ll focus on what I call “Proof of Abundance” and show you the data of how we are driving abundance in almost every sector relevant to humans. It can be hard to believe, given the innate scarcity-focused neural wiring of our minds, but the data doesn’t lie.

In last week’s futuristic Friday episode, I mentioned that an abundance mindset is one of the six critical mindsets for a leader and an entrepreneur to develop and firmly command actively.

You must ask yourself WHY you should desire and develop an abundance mindset:

With an Abundance Mindset…

  1. You understand that the world is becoming more abundant, allowing you to maintain a hopeful and compelling vision for the future. I will provide supporting data and evidence in next week’s episode. This positive mindset sets you apart from others and attracts the best team to your life and mission.
  2. You don’t resent missed opportunities because you understand that you live in a world of ever-increasing opportunities. The future holds many more exciting, fulfilling, and profitable opportunities for you to pursue.
  3. You don’t fear the future. Instead, you embrace it and are excited to learn all you can to create the future you and your business desire.
  4. You view competitors as potential collaborators in a world of ever-increasing business opportunities. Why worry unnecessarily about your competitors when you can create another, larger pie? You focus your time, attention, and resources on pursuing moonshots that are 10x (1000%), versus fighting in the trenches for 10% improvements.
  5. You are reinventing your business through a digital lens. You must continuously be dematerializing, demonetizing, and democratizing your products and services, making them available to a larger and larger customer base at a lower and lower cost.
  6. As a leader, you convey a hopeful and compelling future that inspires and guides your associates and clients. People inherently want good news, data-driven optimism rather than a continuous dribble of negative, crisis-oriented, amygdala-energizing banter.

So as we finish up for today, let me ask you additional questions. Would your life change if you had an abundance mindset? What would crafting and mastering an abundance mindset mean for your business?

More next week, when I review some shocking proof of abundance, or what I call a refreshing breath of “data-driven optimism.”

As Christ-followers, we are encouraged to live abundantly. We should live abundantly because God’s resources are our own. Here are a couple of verses that will help us to have that mindset.

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

2 Peter 1:3-4

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

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 our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of the past 1507 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 so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most of all, your friend as I serve you through the 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 on Monday!