The Sender Companion Journal: Be a Blessing and Other Lessons from the Sender

Elko, Dr Kevin; Beausay, Bill

ISBN 10: 1617958557 ISBN 13: 9781617958557

Publisher: Worthy Inspired, 2017

Synopsis

The Sender was inspired by real letters sent to a real person. Here are thirty-one of those letters, including many that were not included in The Sender. The powerful life-changing words of hope, encouragement, and empowerment are now available in daily readings with guided journaling so you can learn and live the message that is changing lives.

About this title

About the Author

Kevin Elko consults with and speaks to Fortune 500 companies and NFL and BCS sports teams. His powerful combination of inspiration and insight has proven vital to the success of his top clients including ING, The Hartford, the New York Giants, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Alabama Crimson Tide. He is the author of Nerves of Steel, The Pep Talk, True Greatness, and Touchdown. Kevin lives in Presto, Pennsylvania.

Bill Beausay is an accomplished author and speaker on personal growth and professional success. He is the author of over ten books including three national best sellers. Dr. Beausay served as the Director of Research and Development at the Academy of Sports Psychology before becoming a full time speaker and writer. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Sender

Companion Journal

By Kevin Elko, Bill Beausay

Worthy Publishing Group

Copyright © 2017 Kevin Elko and Bill Beausay
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-61795-855-7

Contents

Introduction, 
1 This Is Only a Test, 
2 Expect Life to Be Tough/Align Yourself with Reality, 
3 Have a Game Plan, 
4 Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing, 
5 Put the Marshmallow Down, 
6 Do You Know Your 25 Percent?, 
7 What Have You Learned?, 
8 Full-Crisis Living—Make Every Day Count, 
9 Me and the Pope: Cut Out What's Not Necessary, 
10 Constant Prayer, 
11 Attitude, 
12 One-Way Missionaries: Go Be Necessary, 
13 You Can't Share Preparation, 
14 Believe Well, 
15 When It Rains, I'm Gonna Let It, 
16 To Where Will You Shift?, 
17 Finding God in Walmart, 
18 Misery into Ministry, 
19 What's the Chemo Killing, Charlie?, 
20 Get Simple, 
21 I'm Working, 
22 Have the Mind of a Beginner, 
23 Happy Is a Byproduct, 
24 "I'm Not Where I Want to Be, But ...", 
25 There Is a Plan for You, 
26 Leadership, 
27 The Saucer Principle, 
28 What's Your One Sentence?, 
29 Wait with Expectation, 
30 Wandering Generalities, 
31 Failure of Imagination, 
About the Authors, 

CHAPTER 1

This Is Only a Test

Hey, Charlie. Remember those old emergency broadcast system commercial interruptions on TV? The buzzing noise, then the "This has been a test of the emergency broadcast system. Had this been an actual emergency ..." You remember. Your first instinct was to change the channel to stop the awful noise.

Well, sometimes God conducts those tests on us. He wants to see if you have faith. He wants to see if you'll remain through the test or if you'll change the channel.

Here's a good one: Two men prayed for rain. One just prayed. The other prayed and prepared the fields. Guess which one God was pleased with? He wants to see faith in action. It has to be an intentional, daily commitment to taking action, not changing the channel.

This chemo, your cancer, is a test. He wants to see that you believe in your tools. He wants to see whether you have faith in your treatment. And some people get a test, and they have a testimony. Some people get a test, and they just have a bad case of the moanies. Faith is believing in things you have not seen and the reward you get. With as little moaning as possible.

For the next sixty days, you will be experiencing a test. Don't change channels because this is just a test. A test of your faith in your tools, in your doctors, and in your family. And in Jeremiah 29:11. Remember, God has a plan for you. Don't change the channel.

— The Sender

If The Sender is built on a bedrock Scripture, it is Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

The problem is that it's easy to either forget this promise or to live in ways that ignore its power. Can you constantly and willfully focus on this promise? Do you organize your life and your hope around this certainty? Or do you, like many of us, get bogged down and clogged up in our thinking that focuses on the pain and the troubles and not the lesson? Then do you get tired and just flip the channel?

Most of us forget to stay focused on the promise, and it's the cause of a lot of pain. Rather than complain about your pains and troubles, try this: Take a closer look at the pains in your life. Write them down in this journal. Pick the top three. The really bad ones. Then consider the idea that your pain is a pointer. It has a purpose, a message, a power to bring you back to a very real, very big promise: Jeremiah 29:11. Maybe that's what Paul meant when he spoke about being happy for his trials (Romans 5:3–5).

Think on that. See the pointers. Then come back to your life. Live big. No more moanies. Very few people can demonstrate staying on the promise quite like John the Baptist (see Mark 1:6–8). Jesus said there was nobody ever born who was greater than John the Baptist was. Use him as your guide on how to meet your challenges.

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John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: "After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Mark 1:6–8

CHAPTER 2

Expect Life to Be Tough/Align Yourself with Reality

Hey, Charlie. The lesson today is simple: Align your expectations with reality. Someone once said, "Life's really hard." Once you really understand that, the pain of life doesn't matter anymore. You expect it. Because that's what it is. See, I've come to understand that people don't get freaked out because something happens to them; they get freaked out because they thought it would be easier and that bad stuff wouldn't happen to them and they take it personally.

Align yourself with reality; it's not about you.

A team I was once working with was playing for the national championship. The leader of the team stood up and spoke. He didn't yell about how great or tough he was. He didn't thump his chest and brag about how he was going to crush the opponent. No, he was smarter than that. He said simply this: "I expect this game to be the hardest game of my life tomorrow. I expect the guy across from me to be the toughest guy I know. I am going to bring the best me."

Charlie, keep bringing the best you.

What was the difference between those people whom Katrina blew away, including their lives and homes and possessions, and those whom Katrina blew toward a better life? Some are still walking around going, Why? Why did this happen to me? That's the wrong question. The bigger question is always, What am I going to do with it? That's always the bigger question. Align with reality: The storm hit, and it's not about me, so now what am I going to do with it? Align yourself with reality.

Expect life to be tough. And then it doesn't matter anymore. It is what it is. And the question is never, Why? It's always, What am I going to do with it? I love you and I expect it to be tough. But it's not tougher than you.

— The Sender

Life is a wonderful gift — a years-long sequence of scenes filled with happiness, hope, disappointment, fulfillment, peace, wrenching pain, and surprises, both good and bad. It's typically the bad surprises, though, by which we measure the worth of the gift of life we've been given.

That's a really silly measuring stick. As this letter points out, we are all most often crushed by the life surprises that we don't deserve or by times when we feel personally cheated.

But that's not realistic, and that's the point of this letter. Here's the truth: Bad things happen to all of us, all the time. Problems are an integral part of God's plan for you and for me and for everyone, and that is not a bad thing. Stop fighting it or taking it all so personally. When your life is not going so great, it pays to remember that it's part of the plan, and rather than fight it, take a moment to realize it's not personal. It is part of our reality that we need to pursue and understand.

In Psalm 32:8 God says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." That's a great comfort if you stop and think about it.

Write down three or four of the pain spots in your life today. Leave room to write between them. Then, go back, and in those blank spaces, write your thoughts and ideas that answer the bigger question: What am I going to do with this? If this problem or pain is my Katrina, what is it blowing me toward? Don't be surprised to discover that the more you write and the more you think this way, the more answers will arise. Focusing on this higher vision rewards you with more and better options but only when you change the way you think and align yourself with reality.

For a biblical version of this idea, read Matthew 13:1–23.

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As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.

Matthew 13:23 ESV

CHAPTER 3

Have a Game Plan

Charlie. Hope you are well, my man. Here's what your game plan is today: Break free of "me." Your game plan for today is Galatians 6:10. It says to be mindful to do good to others, especially those who are in the family of believers. I want you to purposely live this game plan: to be kind to a number of people today. How? Through encouraging words. A thank-you. A helpful attitude. That's your game plan.

I heard this fella telling a remembrance of his father: "One day my father took the whole family to the circus. And standing there in front of us in line was a family of five. And when this family got up to the window for their tickets and was told the price, the dad's head just dropped. You could tell they didn't have a lot of money, much less the money to get into the circus. His kids were gonna be crushed.

"So my father took a twenty-dollar bill out of his wallet and tossed it on the ground. Then he yelled up to the man and said, 'I think you dropped this.' The man turned around and looked at the money being handed to him. He was confused for a second, then he knew. He took the money and bought circus tickets for his whole family.

"Then my dad looked at me and said, 'We are not going to the circus today. I don't have the money for it.'"

That's what he remembered about his dad.

What people will remember about you at the end of this day is your kindness. That's your game plan. And you know me — I've always given you your game plan for the day. That's the one for today.

— The Sender

Galatians 6:1–10 is the apostle Paul at his game-planning best: "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (vs. 2). Now, of course, Paul directs us to focus this burden carrying on the family of believers, but how about others?

Honestly, we do not like this message much. We are bathed in commercials and subtle media-driven messaging, telling us that the only happy and successful way to live is for "me." We have all been raised to put ourselves in front of everyone else, and we do it very well. We are unconsciously competent and driving ourselves to the front of all lines and ignoring those in our path.

You've heard this before, though, right? None of this talk about self-centeredness is new to us. We've been reminded and warned about our own epic brand of twenty-first-century selfishness. But let's note that the apostle Paul was talking about it too. The reason Paul was even writing about this is because his culture (and the Greek culture of Galatia) was pushing the same "me" thing at the time. And the antidote hasn't changed. It all boils down to making a conscious decision to put others first.

Read Paul's letter carefully. Breaking free of "me" is central to creating a working game plan of your own. It implies that the key to fulfilling the law of Christ is being kind to others and literally forgetting about "me." It's about taking simple action on behalf of others, no matter who they are, what their station in life is, or what they can or cannot do in return for you.

So, stop thinking and start working the game plan. Let go of "me" and serve others. In the end, you get the benefit and the win anyway.

Paul spent a great deal of time in prison. He had lots of time to think and prepare. Take a page out of his game plan. In Acts 16:22–40 we see how Paul planned and prepared. It is a good guideline for us.

Write specific ways you can incorporate Paul's game plan in your life.

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About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose.

Acts 16:25–26

CHAPTER 4

Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

Hey, Charlie.

Keep the main thing the main thing. Keep your eye on the prize.

In chapter 7 of the book of Judges, Gideon had to go into battle. God told him to take ten thousand men down to the water and ask them to drink. And the ones who put their head all the way down into the water to drink, get rid of them. But the ones who lap the water with their hands but hold their heads up, eyes sharp, keep them. Three hundred soldiers lapped the water with their heads up. And Gideon kept them, and they went on and defeated the Midianites in battle.

There's a place called Shoals Creek. And they have an annual outing for blind golfers. There's this attorney from New Orleans who won eleven years of the seventeen that they did it. And they brought Arnold Palmer in to speak at the evening banquet.

When they met, Palmer said, "That's amazing you golf blind so well."

The guy says, "I'm good. They stand above this hole and they ring this bell and my hearing is so keen from being blind, I shoot the ball to the bell." He went on, "I can beat you."

Palmer chuckled and said, "Wait a minute. I'm Arnold Palmer."

The blind golfer said, "Let's make it interesting. I'll bet you five thousand dollars we go out for eighteen holes, I'll beat you."

Palmer agreed. "When do you want to go out?"

"Tonight at ten o'clock," he replied.

Keep your eyes (and ears) on the prize. Or, as I like to say, "Keep the main thing the main thing."

I want you to just meditate and whisper this to yourself: "I trust my body, I trust my doctors, and I trust God. He has a plan for me that will bring about peace." I want you to just meditate and say this to yourself all the time: Keep the main thing the main thing. Like those men lapping the water, keep your head up and your eyes on the prize. The prize is peace, and with peace, your body heals.

— The Sender

God is a ringing bell tinkling in the distance. Have you taught yourself to hear Him?

The third habit in Steven Covey's classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is simply this: Put first things first. The Sender took it a step further: "Keep the main thing the main thing."

Covey suggested a way to keep the main thing the main thing. He suggested that we order what is important versus what is urgent. He suggested we prioritize our thinking this way:

1. Important and urgent matters

2. Important and not urgent matters

3. Not important and urgent matters

4. Not important and not urgent matters

Philippians 3:7–9 is important and urgent. It's the main thing: "But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ."

If you desire to hear the distant and tinkling bell that is God, you must make faith your main thing. Reading over The Sender reminds us that giving up on "me" and all of my accomplishments, and focusing on faith-driven service is the heart of a powerful and transformed life.

Do yourself a favor and write out three things you will do today to stay focused on a life of faith, throwing off your own greatness and listening for the bell. It will tell you where to aim your next shot. And keep repeating the meditation at the end of the Sender's letter: "I trust my body, I trust my doctors, and I trust God. He has a plan for me that will bring about peace."

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But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

Philippians 3:7–9

CHAPTER 5

Put the Marshmallow Down

I'm convinced that cancer is the kind of disease that asks one huge question: How bad do you want it?

A study was done years ago, and I'm probably gonna mess up the details, but they took a group of four-year-olds and accurately predicted their future based on one thing: marshmallows. They put a marshmallow in front of each child with these instructions: "If you eat this one, that's all you get. We'll be back in fifteen minutes. But if you don't eat this one, when we come back in fifteen minutes, you'll get two."

They video-recorded the kids and assigned them to groups: under thirty seconds (before they ate the marshmallow), over thirty seconds, and after fifteen minutes. Then they followed these children for over twenty-five years. The under-thirty-seconds group, well, they didn't do so well. As a group, they ended up generally not going to college, not having that many friends, and having poorer health. The kids who waited over thirty seconds were average on almost all measures. But the "after-fifteen-minutes group" excelled — they had 215 points over average on their college SATs, had better overall health, greater educational attainment, and made more money than the rest of the children did upon reaching adulthood.

How bad do you want it, Charlie? Before you have a testimony, you have to have a test. Don't quit. Gideon went to another general once and said, "My men are fighting weary." And Paul said that if you do not grow weary, you will reap in due season, if you faint not. Fight weary; don't faint, Charlie. And put the marshmallow down.

— The Sender

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Sender by Kevin Elko, Bill Beausay. Copyright © 2017 Kevin Elko and Bill Beausay. Excerpted by permission of Worthy Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Worthy Inspired
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1617958557
• ISBN 13: 9781617958557
• Binding: Diary
• Number of pages: 192