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Archives For April 2011

Ten Things I’ve Learned Since Starting Chemo

April 29, 2011 — 3 Comments

 

iStockphoto © Denis Vorob

Last week I completed my 2nd cycle of chemotherapy, something I never thought I would have to experience, yet became a reality thanks to merkel cell cancer. For those who don’t know chemotherapy is drug which acts like a poison, genetically manufactured to kill cancer cells. Only problem is it also kills healthy cells as well, but I’m learning the side effects are real and are something to be respected.

 

“While I must respect the treatment itself for what it will do to my body, I will never respect the cancer.”

And I vow not to let any of what I’m experiencing diminish how I leverage my faith or how I plan to keep me laughing in the face of it. 

“This is the day OUR Lord has made

WE WILL CHOOSE to rejoice and be glad”

This is how my wife and I begin each day in our battle with my cancer, with our rewrite of Psalm 118:24

Top 10 Things I’ve Learned Since Starting Chemo

10. No Grey hair concern because I have no hair period.
9. The money you think you’ll save on hair gel gets spent on sunscreen.
8. Shorter showers = less water usage = better steward of the environment.
7. Howie Mandel’s germaphobia/mysophobia isn’t as silly as I once thought.
6. Just because you lose your hair and take steroids to fight the nausea doesn’t guaranty you’ll be mistaken for Vin Diesel.
5. You CAN convince woman that massaging your scalp brings them good luck.
4. You no longer have an excuse not to audition for the Blue Man Group.
3. The list of characters to dress up as for Halloween is mind-boggling.
2. Safe sex is a real concern during chemo and buying condoms is embarrassing (no matter how old you are).
1. If you dress like this & learn to dance like this you can get free rides at Six Flags.

I’m sure there are plenty more so feel free to add yours in the comment section below!

On a more serious note…I would like to thank everyone for their comments on the blog, emails via the website, and for sharing Leveraging Life with friends on Facebook and Twitter. A big thank you to everyone who prayed for me, and is now praying for Shari & I, your prayers are felt and appreciated beyond what we can express with words!!

~Tom                                                          

trusting God period!!

Next up: Cancer Confessional – Why Me? Why Now? 

Are you new to Leveraging Life? If so did you know you can receive Leveraging Life as an email every time I update?  If interested all you have to do is click here to subscribe to Leveraging Life. (It’s free.) That way when I update you’ll be notified via email. 

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Cancer Confessional – Behind the Mask

April 28, 2011 — 2 Comments
iStockphoto © PeskyMonkey

If you were to take the time to poll my family, my friends, and my co-workers asking them to describe my outlook on life, most if not all, would described me as an optimist…a glass half-full guy. Dig a little deeper into what makes me tick and spend a little time reading through my DISC profile (high D & I) you would learn that being an encourager is another characteristics which makes up who I am. Optimism and encouragement come naturally to me and throughout my career they have been utilized to build teams and help grow businesses.

However in the scope of writing blog such as Leveraging Life, I have a genuine concern, what comes naturally (optimism and encouragement) could be taken out of context or be misconstrued leaving readers with a false impression that I never have doubts, that I live my life without fear, or that I somehow trust blindly when facing trials or adversity. 

“saying trust God period and living trust God period are two totally different mindsets…one is contingent on circumstance and situation warranting that trust, and the other is influenced by a relationship which is nurtured through circumstance and situation creating an environment of trust.”   

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How Great Thou Art – Worship Wednesday

April 27, 2011 — Leave a comment

It didn’t take much thought or deliberation as to what I might feature for Worship Wednesday the week after Easter. The news of Carrie Underwood’s performance of How Great Thou Art going viral after it aired on Good Friday during CBS broadcast Girls Night Out – Superstars of Country Music made it the natural choice to cap off the celebration Easter truly is.

  

 When Christ shall come,

With shouts of acclamation,

And take me home,

What joy shall fill my heart!

Then I shall bow

In humble adoration

And there proclaim,

“My God, how great Thou art!”

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HE IS RISEN!

April 24, 2011 — Leave a comment

 Luke 24: 1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words.

 

Oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead

Oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead

Oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead

Oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead

Oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead

 Jesus paid it all

All to him I owe

Sin had left a crimson stain

He washed it white as snow

Thanks for taking this journey with me and I do hope today…Easter Sunday represents a celebration. One where you, me, and everyone who accepts the Gift that was given acknowledges their lives changed that moment. And by simply accepting that Gift into our hearts we can now have personal relationship with our Heavenly Father and the promise of an eternal life.

~Tom

trusting God period

Starting next week Peaks & Valleys series – my cancer confessional

I have included links at the bottom post & on the side to make it easy to share what is posted here with your friends on Facebook and Twitter…just a click or two on the Sharing is Caring links at the bottom is all it takes! 

Are you new to Leveraging Life? If so did you know you can receive Leveraging Life as an email every time I update?  If interested all you have to do is click here to subscribe to Leveraging Life. (It’s free.) That way when I update you’ll be notified via email. 

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Good Friday

April 22, 2011 — 4 Comments

 

iStockphoto © Ricardo Reitmeyer

My prayer has been as much for me as it has for everyone who has visited Leveraging Life these last few weeks is that we all would take some time to reflect on what Jesus was called to do, then chose to do, and actually did for us to be NEW AGAIN!

So with Easter weekend upon us and today being Good Friday, I’ll share another video to set the stage. Yes, another featuring scenes from Passion of the Christ, but not to worry this one may be easier to take as it steers clear of the brutality of those final hours. For me this one is more moving because both the song and the video are from the perspective of what Mary witnessed as Jesus’ mother. 

The song, New Again, is a duet by Brad Paisley and Sara Evans. Special thanks to my friend Jesse Whitfield, from OneThing, for recommending this video which for me captures the spirit of what Good Friday should represent to all of us.

 

My hope and my prayer through this series of posts is that Easter for you has gotten a little more personal and you’ve been impacted by what you’ve seen and listened to.

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Sweetly Broken – Worship Wednesday

April 20, 2011 — 2 Comments

  

Good Friday – the Ultimate Exchange

“Why is Good Friday called Good if it pertains to the day Jesus was crucified?”

This innocent question came my way recently and as I was about to give my answer, an answer that had more to do with fasting and sacrificial rituals, I paused and said it’s called “Good” because a great exchange that took place that Friday.

“Jesus exchanged His human life for my eternal life…and your eternal life as well.”

As I said in last week’s post Amazing Love, faith for me over the last five years has become very personal. By that I mean it has less to do about attendance because of an obligation and everything to do with God, His grace, His love, and a desire to know my Savior Jesus Christ. Subsequently the lens from which I view life and how my life is impacted by what is shared in the Bible results in new and different meanings for things I grew up taking for granted. And while I know I’m not alone in what I perceive to be my spiritual maturity, one of the biggest changes is how I view the cross. Specifically what took place that Good Friday which as the song title says leaves me Sweetly Broken.

To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of it’s suffering I do drink
Of it’s work I do sing

For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified

You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness

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Baby Driver – Subaru

April 8, 2011 — 3 Comments

From time to time what I do for a living makes its way into Leveraging Life, and if it does it’s on Friday as a favorite of mine.

I really don’t feel this is the place to promote the products or services we offer at Troncalli Subaru, because I believe that would be using the Leveraging Life platform to lure people in for one reason, while promoting something entirely different. Plus, plenty of objective third party sources like Consumer Reports, JD Power, and Motor Trend consistently brag on Subaru  being one of the safest and wisest choices for a new vehicle. 

On the rare occasion I do talk Subaru or Troncalli Subaru it has nothing to do with selling cars but everything to do with being a steward of the platform we have and using that platform to make a difference, beyond the normal scope of business. You’ve seen posts here, for example, about Subaru’s Share the Love Campaign which has donated over $15 million to 5 partner charities in the three years the program has been in place.  Another occasional post is an invitation to join our efforts to make sure the local community has an adequate blood supply as Troncalli Subaru hosts three blood drives each year in partnership with LifeSouth community blood centers.

Today’s Friday Favorite

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Amazing Love – Worship Wednesday

April 6, 2011 — 1 Comment

Holiday : hol-i-day (plural: hol-i-days)

Definition: legal day off: a day set aside by law or statute as exempt from regular labor or business activities, usually to celebrate or commemorate something that happened on or near that date.

With Easter fast approaching I couldn’t help but think about how we as a nation have come to see holidays for the freedom they provide and not the significance they represent. Strategy comes into play as we blend vacation days with hol-i-days to achieve the maximize time away from our daily grind. And you know what, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that and actually it’s something I highly encourage.

GUT CHECK TIME: Think back over the last few years, did you celebrate the day off or commemorate the holiday? Seriously, let’s exclude the religious holidays of Christmas and Easter for a minute, what about July 4th and Memorial Day…brats and beer or independence and sacrifice, what was your agenda? 

Easter 2011

Easter is fast approaching and there are only a few weeks left to truly prepare for Easter as a Holy Day, not the holiday. But if I’m realistic I know there are plenty of things which can get in the way of my preparation if I’m not intentional with my time. So this post maybe more for me than anyone else, but I do know I need to recognize, acknowledge, and show gratitude for what Jesus was called to do on my behalf, chose to do for my sins, and did for my salvation. 

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Paradigm Shift

April 5, 2011 — 1 Comment

iStockphoto credit © James Driscoll

If you think of your life as a story, there will always be a plot and sub-plots running concurrently at any given time.  I adopted this thought process in 2009 after reading Donald Miller‘s book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years -What I Learned While Editing My Life.   Miller offers a great lesson in how we all have the opportunity to edit our lives so they tell a better story.

Writing A Better Life Story

Since 2007, there has been no greater plot in my life than coming to understand that my purpose has very little to do with me and everything to do with Whom I serve. Up to that point, I pursued my own American dream: good income-check, nice house-check, company car-check, church-check, family-check, friends-check…my plan, my life, my destiny.

Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Martin 1:1 “For where Tom’s treasure is and where Tom’s time is spent, there his heart is.”

I had a head for God and was grateful for my life, but my heart was for me and for what I had determined my purpose to be.  All this worked amazingly well for many years, but when your world gets knocked off its axis, like it has for so many of of us these last few years, you can’t help but question a lot of things:

How did I get here?

Where am I going?

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