"Do you think someone else has it made?

A mechanic was busy removing a cylinder head from the motor of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle when a well-known heart surgeon entered his shop. The surgeon was waiting for the service manager to take a look at his bike when the mechanic shouted across the garage, "Hey, Doc, can I ask you a question?"

The surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked, "Doc, look at this engine. I open its heart, take valves out, fix 'em, put 'em back in, and when I finish, it works just like new. So why do I get such a small salary and you get the really big bucks, when you and I are doing basically the same work?"

The surgeon smiled, leaned over and whispered to the mechanic, "Try doing it with the engine running."

It’s easy to think someone else has it made, isn’t it? That we do what they do, maybe even better, and don’t get the recognition or rewards we’re due. It takes all of us, doing what God created us to do, to make the world go round. Celebrate with others as you make a life and not just a living.

You haven't given up, have you?

Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment, said in 1977, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” A Western Union Telegraph Company internal memo in 1876 read, “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.” When Gary Cooper turned down the lead role in Gone with the Wind, he said, “I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” When in 1962 Decca Recording Co. rejected the Beatles, it was because “We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”

“Given-up thinking” is everywhere, isn’t it? But don’t you give up. Conventional thinking isn’t always on target. God’s thinking is. The dreams you have in your heart are God’s gift to you. Follow those dreams. Never give up pursuing no matter how old you are.

Hang in there as listen to life and make a life, not just a living today.

Are you hooked up?

A guy had just started his own firm. He’d rented a beautiful office and furnished it with antiques. Sitting at his huge oak desk, he saw a man come into the outer office. So the businessman picked up the phone and pretended he was working on a big deal.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “that’s just too small an account for a firm like ours. We only deal with accounts worth $1 million and higher. Now if you want to bundle some accounts together in your company and let us handle all of your business, we can do that.”

He waved the man in from the outer office and motioned him to a chair.

“Sure, we can take care of $250 million for you. No problem! Okay, let’s talk again soon,” he said. He hung up the phone and turned to the man in the chair. “And what can I do for you today, sir?”

And the man said, “I’m here to hook up your phone.”

Are you hooked up? I mean, with someone other than yourself?

Hook up with God today as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.