An excerpt from Gumnazo; lessons in fighting naked, written by: Steve Sisler; copy write 2011. Follow me on Twitter… it’s instinctive.

The smallest person inside the ark is safe, while the largest and strongest person outside the ark is drowned. The smallest ant inside the ark is safe, but the largest land animal outside the ark is lost at sea forever. If you understand the message of the ark, you will understand that it’s not about the animals or some fancy dinosaurs with unique skins. The difference is in the ability of the ark to float, not our ability to swim. God knew this long ago and so He set in motion a plan of rescue for all the swimmers of this great sea running out of gas and a reason to tread. When I talk about these things, I imagine floating out at sea, treading water. I imagine sharks and rain and cold and not being able to take a drink. And then I imagine the fear of dying or something unknown bumping my leg and leaving itself up to my morbid imagination.

I imagine looking down at my dangling legs in the murky green water and my heart shifts to my throat. Millions of us are floating around out there. Out at sea, aimlessly negotiating the dog paddle without landmarks for direction or a distinct smell for comfort and guidance. Then I imagine someone beginning a conversation about a boat that they might or might not have heard about. And because no one has ever seen a boat, they all laugh that person to scorn and make fun of them while secretly wishing they had thought of it. But then some people decide to believe them because it’s better to think about rescue and relaxation than continuing to tread forever. It’s better to think about boats or a bench to sit on than to think about sharks and gloomy unmentionables. Some people admit they aren’t very good swimmers or that they can only float on their back and they’re getting tired of it. After a while there’s a whole lot of people talking about a boat with all of its benefits and it creates hope and anticipation in some.

Then one day a boat comes and people clamor to get on it. And then bunches of people make fun of them and call them lazy, weak and stupid for getting on the boat. They call it a crutch. And then some of the people on the boat get cocky and claim they can swim better than anyone now, even though they can’t. They act like the boat sets them higher than everyone in the water, but their not thinking in terms of distance, they actually start to believe they are better than everyone now and start jockeying for better positions on the boat. As if resting made you strong or being rescued made you smart and they call the people still swimming stupid and ignorant. This is what I think sometimes about religion and people and it makes my heart ache.

If you’re going to live the Gumnazo life then you need to learn how to get up after falling. You need to believe you’re supposed to, even if it doesn’t feel fair or feel like you earned your position in the line. You need to believe in boats and a rescuer. You need to anticipate lying on the deck of the boat and enjoying the rest without apologizing for it. There is no first place in heaven, just those who finish. You may lead twenty laps, but if you don’t finish, you’re just swimming laps. You may have lagged twenty laps behind, but you finished the race – you didn’t quit. Getting on the boat isn’t lazy, it’s not even smart – it’s instinctive. So many times the only thing keeping us from allowing ourselves to be dragged aboard is what others may think. This is what it’s all about. You may have been drug across the finish line, or heaved aboard a rescue ship in a life preserver that you’ve barely been able to hold onto, but you made it. The only reason why God instituted the process of rescue was because we needed it. We can’t swim for endless amounts of time without help. Without a boat we are doomed to try and muster our own strength for the rest of our earthly lives. It’s up to you to take advantage of it. If I was floating out at sea and I saw a boat, I would want to get on it. I would think it was a good idea because I knew the boat would float longer than me. You have to humble yourself to get on it… it feels like getting naked and standing in the middle of a mall sometimes. Pride is your worst enemy here. Forgiveness is heaven’s eternally clean shower; it washes off the salt and cleanses your burned skin. Go ahead… wash up and enjoy the moment – it’s heaven’s gift to you. Who cares what the other swimmers think. Climb aboard and just lie on the deck in the sun and take a nap.

Written by: Steven Sisler. Follow me on Twitter if you get a hankering. This is an excerpt from Steve’s latest book “The Power Of Accidental Increase.”

In early 1997, while living in Florida, I received a call from a woman down the street. She and her husband rented a home within walking distance. I knew her because she had been at a few functions I attended, but to be honest I didn’t really like her. As I remember, she was extremely overweight and needed the use of a walker to get around. She came across as prideful and headstrong, in my opinion. I therefore avoided her whenever I saw her in town. During our conversation she informed me that she had given my name to her landlord and claimed he would be calling me so that I could put in a bid for painting.

I wasn’t very busy at the time and I was preparing for the move to Massachusetts so I welcomed the project although I did not like the idea of having to interact with her more than necessary. Unfortunately (so I thought) I received the call from her landlord and ended up scheduling the project. When I began the project, I remember standing on the ladder about a story high, painting the window sash over the front of this woman’s rented home. I could see directly into the family room and noticed her sitting in a chair looking blankly at the wall without any emotion or movement. That’s when it hit me. You know, that scary, freaky force from heaven… the mission. The reason I breathe.

My dirty, selfish, ignorant soul was flooded with a compassion I had never experienced before, or possibly since. My disdain and contempt for this poor woman flew from me like a bird released from its snare.
This is what I heard in my head: “You need to go down there and knock on the door and tell her that if she prays with you, I will heal her of her weight problem today.”
“I must be insane,” I thought. “What in the H-E-double hockey sticks is wrong with me? This is suicide.” The feeling was so strong however; I unenthusiastically put my tools away and went to the door. Despite being very weak in the knees, I managed to stand there for some time rehearsing the words in my mind. I found my hands trembling as I finally knocked on the door. Before I knew it, there she was asking me what I wanted. How on God’s green earth was I going to answer that question? I asked her if I could come in to speak with her for just a minute. She agreed and let me in the home. I sat across from her and without much more thought, launched myself off the precipice to whatever ends.

“I got the crazy feeling that I needed to pray for you. If you allow me to, I believe that God will help you with your weight problem. I hope this isn’t offending you, but I didn’t know what else to do.” She looked at me and started to weep uncontrollably.
“My father died 3 days ago and he went to the grave absolutely hating me because I am fat,” she said.
“It’s as if I’m a leper. I can’t even go to the store without people stopping to stare at me.”

It reminded me of how Jesus must have felt looking at the crowds with nothing to offer but a petition to the Father’s heart. How do we touch lepers? Love… true love. My eyes flooded over and I began to weep. I prayed for her through intermittent sobs along with a few words of encouragement. Her husband came home and joined us. What a moment that is frozen in the corners of my mind. God had helped a broken man like me to be used for his glory. He helped me to build my wings on the way down. Thinking back on that day I realize that it wasn’t a suicide mission after all… it was a rescue mission. -Excerpt from The Power of Accidental Increase

Written by: Steve Sisler. An excerpt from “Without Wax,” a subtitle taken from Gumnazo; lessons in fighting naked – to be released in 2011. Follow me on Twitter.

The history of the phrase “without wax” is an interesting one – it actually fascinates me. “Without wax” stems from the Latin words “sin” (without) and “ceras” (wax) and was often said to be the origin of the English word “sincerity.”

The story went something like this; the phrase first became widespread during the height of Roman and Greek artistry, when sculpture first became a popular artistic medium. When a sculpture had a defect, artists would fill in the whittle mark with colored wax to match the marble or stone so the deformity would go unnoticed.

Wax was said to serve as cover-up, masking these imperfections on what was most likely substandard pottery. An arguably perfect or superior piece of work was therefore “without wax” because it was void of the need to cover its imperfections – it was considered already perfect. Pottery and sculptures were even said to be stamped with the phrase “without wax” (sin ceras) as proof of authenticity much like signing a letter with the word sincerely today.

This is how I want to live… without wax. Without trying to make myself appear differently than I actually am. If I were a sculpture with wax on it, I would feel like a fraud – like a fake sculpture. When I went on the first date with Anita who has been my wife now for almost 27 years, I decided to be sincere forever. And so I have been… I’ve been sincere ever since… without wax. I still make terrible mistakes, but I admit them and embrace the fact that it’s very possible I could do it again. Coming across like I’m healed of imperfection has had disastrous effects anyway – it would be stupid to think doing that is healthy or helpful in any way.

Unfortunately, words like honor, honesty, integrity and truth no longer define our young people as they once did in the days of the maid (Jeanne d’Arc ca. 1412-1431) or in the 50’s. With the avalanche of corporate scandals rocking the business world and family breakdowns, we have come to expect and almost welcome their arrival on a weekly basis. I’m sure there have always been people living in alternate worlds, but I think most live alternate lives along with the real one these days.

Companies like Adelphia Communications, which was fiscally hijacked by its founding family to the tune of 3.1 billion dollars in off-balance sheet loans or WorldCom whom overstated cash flow by booking 3.8 billion dollars in operating expenses as capital expenses and gave its founder 400 million in off-the-book loans. The company stunned Wall Street when another 3.3 billion in improperly booked funds was discovered later on in the investigation.1 Money does real bad things to most people I’m afraid. No wonder that guy in Proverbs 30 (Agur) begged God to keep him from becoming too rich. He also claimed to be the stupidest man alive; I’m not sure which thought to dwell on.

The idea of trusting corporate leadership in today’s market place or trusting kids during test time in school makes the blood drain from our faces at an alarming rate. Insider-trading allegations, fraud and other transgressions are plaguing our nation with a vengeance as men and woman in leadership continue to bilk society for more while bragging about their conquest. Its like people are starving for weirdness with an insatiable desire for more; begging for it to be more precise. According to a 2002 confidential survey of 12,000 high school students, 74 percent admitted cheating on an examination at least once in the past year.2 The Old Testament prophet’s words have come true; judgment is turned away backward and truth has fallen in the streets.

What are people thinking? We are being overcome with wax! It’s running in our streets and ruining our society – have we become substandard? A more interesting question might be, “What do you think is making everyone feel like they have to cheat on tests?” answering that question may be the smartest thing we endeavor to do. Someone recently told me about a teacher who said, “Every problem evolves out of unmet needs.” And I agree. Rather than meet peoples needs, we try to fix the problems caused by the unmet needs and in this convoluted process we neglect to discover the needs altogether. The needs are never the focus; only the accompanying fallout receives the greater attention. This seems logical in hindsight, but it’s a formidable mystery in foresight. Imagine if your child, mate or your friend had a problem and all you did was tell them to stop it or that it wasn’t a good idea to have that kind of problem.

The “What’s your problem?” question is always the first responder. That’s genius right? No! But that’s what we do! What if we asked enough questions in order to uncover the need that was being neglected and hidden under the problem and then we made every effort to meet their need for them because we cared about them and loved them? I wonder if the problem would persist, or go away. This is the process of uncovering, discovering andrecovering the needs in the lives of others.

It’s time to turn the tide. It begins with you – in your home, your school, and your business and in your community. It’s time to lead without wax. It’s time to become a super hero. It’s time to make the most enormous difference you can.

Published by: Steve Sisler. Follow me on Twitteryou maniac. This little post is an excerpt fromGumnazo: lessons in fighting naked.

I heard the story of Corrie ten Boom when I was about ten years old. I saw a movie about it calledThe Hiding Place.1 She was in a German concentration camp during the Nazi regime after it was discovered that her family hid Jews within the walls of their watch shop during the 1940 Nazi invasion of Holland.

In the story, the German soldiers would come in the barracks’ and rape everyone at night. Then the women got lice and so the soldiers stopped doing it. Corrie thanked God with tears for having lice. She thanked God for sending them. When I saw that I cried.

I distinctly remember the scene when someone got their hand smashed with the butt of a rifle. I realized that I didn’t know much about anything and how sheltered I was. I realized how much I should be thankful for, but I wasn’t thankful for much of anything. At ten years old I was impacted by a couple of scenes within a television movie that has had a place in the making of my life. That image has stuck with me for 36 years.

I wanted to be like Corrie ten Boom and thank God for the simple things in life. I wanted to appreciate something as simple as a little bug. I wanted to believe that God was someone who would actually do something like that. But instead sometimes I criticize God for not killing the perpetrators and sending bugs instead. As if He was adding insult to injury.

I’m not saying that God actually sent lice to thwart the seedy desires of psychopathic menacing men; that isn’t what I find fascinating about the story. Although God could have done such a thing, I find it fascinating that this woman was looking for good in God’s intension even in her darkest hour. When most people would blame God for His absenteeism during their darkest time, Corrie is looking for Him, searching for the smallest clue of his presence. Looking to attribute to Him some small gesture of His love. Oh, that I might be so in love with Christ that I could see none other than His goodness in my darkest time.

It’s when I think about these things and actually ponder them that I feel stupid and judgmental. Like I think I should have been God instead of Him and He gently reminds me how misunderstood He is. It’s at that moment that I want to defend Him. Live for Him and make up for my lack of understanding by my steadfastness and loyalty if nothing else. - Taken from Gumnazo: lessons in fighting naked.

I just received a correspondence from a relative who is exploring the world of Internet dating. It’s so hilarious I just had to share it with you. This note is from a Russian girl looking for love… and freedom.

“Hello!

So that I can well write you this letter. I looked your questionnaire on a site . To me it is pleasant that you have left to me the e-mail address I hope that you have not forgotten me, my profile on your site. My name Tanya, I to consider there you and you have very strongly interested me. But certainly under your questionnaire I cannot understand who you and that from myself represent. But I would like that you knew that you very much have interested me and to me it would be very pleasant if you have told to me about yourself.

It was always interesting to me, what your culture??? That inhabitants of other party of the earth love. It always was the riddle for me. I have started to search for myself the partner in life absolutely recently. I hope that you understand that the person cannot there is constantly one. Certainly the person which near to me will be necessary to me. If you here also write to me. You mean as is lonely, means to us it is necessary that we were not lonely and were together once in the near future. Tell to me about itself. If you answer me I will try to tell to you all about yourself, to begin with I will give you a few information on my age of 28 years, and my growth of 170 centimeters and I from Russia.

I hope that to start it will suffice you. We are still absolutely not familiar, but I think that soon all will be corrected also we will know each other very well, I hope that this correspondence will lead us something big than dialogue is simple. I hope that you will write to me seriously because I search for the serious person for a joint life. I would like at once you to ask, if it was not pleasant to you that I have written to you then it is not necessary for me to answer or be rude in the letter. As it is not pleasant to me when at me simply photo of the frank maintenance so I ask do not ask from me naked photos. I the normal decent girl and I search only for serious relations, I do not like to play game, gravity is necessary to me only. If you want I will learn is glad to answer you more. All good greetings from Russia.”

The technology we experience today allows us to correspond with people from all over the world in just seconds… I hope she finds her love. Someone who will take care of her and give her a wonderful adventurous life!