Every once in a while I have a chance to share some good stuff from a good book. A couple of days ago I was telling someone about Mark Batterson’s book, In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day, and I shared with them some of my favorite quotes from that book!

As I was reviewing them I thought… I’ve got to share them with you too! And now for you’re viewing pleasure…

• One of the greatest things that could happen to you is for your fear to become a reality. Then you would discover that it’s not the end of the world.”
•  “If you take a second to reflect on your life, you’ll discover that the greatest experiences are often the scariest, and the scariest experiences are often the greatest.”
• Mark asks a GREAT question, “Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling stories about?”
• “The more problems you have, the more potential you have to help people. One of the most paralyzing mistakes we make is thinking that our problems somehow disqualify us from being used by God. […] If you don’t have any problems, you don’t have any potential. Here’s why. Your ability to help others heal is limited to where you’ve been wounded.”
• “Lion chasers are more afraid of lifelong regrets than temporary uncertainty. They don’t want to get to the end of their lives and have a million what-if regrets. So they chase lions. In the short-term, it increases uncertainty. But in the long run, it reduces regret.”
•  “… you have to do something counterintuitive if you want to reach your God-given potential and fulfill your God-given destiny. Sometimes you have to run away from security and chase uncertainty.”
• “Everyone’s path is littered with the debris of dysfunction and disappointment. We’ve all been misjudged or misled. And we will be many more times before our lives are over. But God is in the business of using those experiences to prepare us for future opportunities.”
• “Lion chasers are humble enough to let God call the shots and brave enough to follow where He leads.”
• “The more you’re willing to risk, the more God can use you. And if you’re willing to risk everything, then there is nothing God can’t do in you and through you.”
• “Almost like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, we are part coward and part daredevil. The coward is constantly whispering, Better safe than sorry. The daredevil is whispering, Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Which voice are you going to listen to?”
• “Most God-ordained dreams die because we aren’t willing to do something that seems illogical.”
• A quote from Howard Schultz’s autobiography, “This is my moment, I thought. If I don’t seize the opportunity, if I don’t step out of my comfort zone and risk it all, if I let too much time tick on, my moment will pass. I knew that if I didn’t take advantage of this opportunity, I would replay it in my mind for my whole life, wondering, What if?” (Schultz is the chairman of Starbucks and shares this reflection as he recalls pondering if he should purchase the upstart, unknown coffee chain. History tells us that he made the right decision).
• “More often than not, the only thing between you and your dream is a rational excuse.”
• “I’d rather be disliked for who I am than liked for who I am not.” (Me too!)
• A quote from Gordon MacKenzie’s book Orbiting the Giant Hairball, “My guess is that there was a time – when you had at least a fleeting notion of your own genius and were just waiting for some authority figure to come along and validate it for you. But none ever came.” (How many people let their dreams die or their genius wither because no one ever validated it? How many people have been stifled because what they dreamed of was not “safe” or “normal”? I don’t want people to do this to me and I don’t want to do it to my children, or other people! I want to encourage people to “CHASE THE LION!”)
• “Part of spiritual maturity is caring less and less about what people think about you and more and more about what God thinks about you.
• An old proverb, “Those who hear not the music think the dancer is mad.” (I wonder though, what would happen if people heard what I, or you, hear? What would happen if they felt what I feel?)