J. Loren Norris

www.holygroundsshop.com

2010-11-08T13:10:00.001-08:00

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The Valley of the shadow of death

2010-11-03T14:44:00.001-07:00

"When you traverse the valley of the shadow of death, it is best to do
so with The Almighty firmly in your grasp." J. L. Norris

I know that pain. That darkness that grips you like a strangle hold on
hope. There is a creeping coldness that chills you to the bone when
fear of the unknown and uncontrolable future arrives. When the stealy
stare of anxiety makes eye contact and you cannot escape it's gaze.

Then the rush of a mighty wind rolls around you. The roar and hiss of
a white the flame consume your soul and fill you with a burning
passion to see the victory take over.

The Angelic warrior settles in next to you and you know you do not war alone!

Fight on dear one! Fight on!

The battle belongs to Him. Victory will be His gift to you!

--
"THAT GUY" the DJ
www.thatguyrocks.com

J. Loren
214-783-9854

See up to date details and event pics! <http://thatguyblogs.blogspot.com/>

Real Boat Rocker

2010-11-01T14:19:00.000-07:00

My family and I went to Pinecove Family Camp several summers ago.

At one point all the teenagers went for a canoe trip. We adults stood on the dock roaring with laughter as one after another, a cantankerous passenger in each canoe would rise to their feet, straddle the seat and rock their weight from side to side. Instantly everyone else would scream with anxiety and anticipation that they would soon be in the lake.

One particular group in a red canoe seemed to be the classic collection of misfits. They fortunately did not have a class clown aboard with the intent to tip them all. But unfortunately their very nature made them somewhat awkward and clumsy. As a result, their every move, their attempt to change paddles, to swap life jackets, even to get more comfortable in their seat put them in grave danger of submersion.

Another canoe was chock full of teenage boys. You know the type-young, athletic, obnoxious, but so cute about it that even the victims of their mischief generally laughed along. These boys had their eyes set on a canoe full of cute girls as they set out. The boys paddled swiftly through the water to catch them. Try as they might the girls were no match for these studs and were quickly overcome.

First, the boys tried using their oars to upset the girls' canoe. When that failed, they tried ramming them and running them aground. As the campaign went on, the boys might have realized the futility of their endeavor or even the risk of their own demise, but that did not deter them. In a bold and courageous move, with all abandon- as if the very survival of their pride counted on it. One boy stood, tightened his life jacket, beating his chest with a thunderous roar that would have impressed Tarzan himself, he lept from his canoe with the determination of a soldier falling on a grenade. Reaching with both hands, he cannon-balled into the lake reaching for the side of the girls canoe on his way under.

There were screams! There were cheers! There was laughter! We laughed at the escapade, We cheered his determination and his efforts. The girls screamed. Well, because they are girls and that is what girls do.

All of these are examples to us – Lessons even – Eventually everyone's boat gets rocked.!

Will it be on purpose that you rock your own boat?
Will it be a clumsy incident that happens by sheer accident?
Will it be with intentionality and dogged determination?

Throughout time, both in society and natural history the boat gets rocked.

An example in society would be major wars that shift power, population and politics.
In the case of natural history, you might see the ice age, tsunamis and even major earthquakes as boat rocking events.

So what happens when your Boat gets Rocked? Usually one of four things.

You sink and drown. Your family is struck by a drunk driver. You are the sole survivor so you give up on life, abandon all your friends, blame yourself and live out your tortured days until the bitter end.
You swim or at least tread water. Admitting that life can never be the same again, you keep plugging away and manage to keep going in the face of all the pain – You Survive.
You surf. You get on top of the calamity. You make lemonade from lemons. You take the opportunity to try something new, like a fresh start at relationships, careers, and education.
You walk on water. You wake up to find that the unimaginable, the very worst, most despicable, unexpected, hurtful, painful thing you could ever fathom just blind sided you like a rogue freight train crashing through your living room. But, you also realize that even here there is reason for hope. All the world has not conspired to destroy you. You can start over. “Like the 6 million dollar man. We have the technology, we can rebuild him.”

Jack Canfield, co-author of Chicken Soup for The Soul books, says “E+R=O. For every event you have an opportunity to respond. How you respond is your choice, but it determines the final outcome.”

When the brave, determined “mayhem” of a teenage boy lept into the water, he had no idea the wit and quick response of the girls in the canoe. While one used her oar to wisely reposition the canoe out of his reach, the others leaned quickly the opposite way to counter his weight and momentum. They all got splashed, but only the boy went in the drink.

You can prepare now! You can decide for yourself how you will respond when your boat gets rocked. You can also take pre-emptive action.

You can Rock The Boat yourself.

Will you rock the boat on purpose just to delight in the process?
Will you Rock The Boat unintentionally out of carelessness?
Or will you have a mission in mind, a goal, a destination when you Rock The Boat?

If you do have a mission, and you have the dogged determination to see it through, You can almost predict the outcome.

When you can influence the event and choose your response, the outcome will not likely come as a surprise to you.

J. Loren Norris

Up is a choice!

2010-10-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

You can get up
give up
or shut up
You can be fed up
beat up
promoted up
broken up
torn up
or looked up
You can get smartened up
wised up
or washed up
UP IS A CHOICE!

You can also be cheered up
filled up
lifted up
built up
loved up
or revved up
But in the end it is UP TO YOU

UP IS A CHOICE!

What do you think?

2010-10-10T21:34:00.001-07:00

Phillipians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me--practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

See Proverbs 23:7

Quotes From As a Man Thinketh

Men do not attract what they want, but what they are.

A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these, if you but remain true to them your world will at last be built.

The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires - and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves, they therefore remain bound.

Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought.

Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves.

Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.

You cannot travel within and stand still without.

As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts, can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.

Complete source of all James and Lily L. Allen
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Why we gather...

2010-10-10T08:05:00.001-07:00

We gather for edification... We scatter for evangelism. Matt 28:19
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Elephant Seeds

2010-09-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

Did you know that the gestation period of a baby elephant is 22 months? WOW! That is a long time to be with child. My wife has been with child for 36 months. Not all at one of course, but close. We have four children and three of them were born between June 95 and December 98.

I am glad it was not me carrying those little things growing in my belly. I am a wimp. I could not do that.

It is amazing, the whole baby process. It's a really cool guessing game too. What will that little human be like? Will it be a girl? Will she be a princess? a model? an actress or a surgeon? What if it's a boy? Will he be a football player? a dad? an astronaut? Will they have blue eyes or brown? Blond hair or black? Or vanishing hair like dad's? Will they be big and strong and smart? Will they change the world like Billy Graham or Martin Luther King? Will they possess remarkable strength like Arnold, or hair like the Donald? Will they bring peace to thousands like Mother Theresa or exhibit peace in unexplainable turmoil like Stephen Hawking or Joni Eareckson Tada? Will they be born with physical or emotional challenges that will reshape the way our family lives?

All of these are questions we might ask before that baby even arrives. Many of these questions we are still asking of ourselves. What will I be when I grow up? What will become of me? What will I do for a living? What will I do now that I have been laid off?

You know there is one question that we will never ask of that baby? Will it be human? Will it be an elephant? Will it be a rabbit?

Why do we not ask those question?

Because they seem silly right? Of course the do. We do not ask those questions because we innately know that planting corn does not make watermelons. Planting jalapenos will not produce cherries. Planting a porcupine will not grow a puppy. We know that what ever seed you plant, will grow of its own kind.

Did you know that the depth of that reality is not unlike the reality of gravity? It is a universal law. It predates humans, it supersedes your knowledge of it and it is predicated only on one thing...action.

Now it is true that the cycle of life dictates the timeline, the condition of fermentation impacts the survivability and the exact outcome still maintains a certain element of mystery that is beyond the planters control.

But as true as truth is, whatever you sew, you will harvest. Plant an elephant seed and 22 months later BAM! elephants. Plant a rabbit seed and in 31 days PRESTO! rabbits. Plant a seed of giving and you will be given. Plant a seed of anger and hostility... what do you think?

When I was a boy, we moved to a home with no trees in the yard. I wanted so bad to have a tree to build a tree house. A tree large enough and strong enough to climb and swing from. When I found out a tree like that takes 20 years or more to grow that big, I changed my mind about planting it. There are some gestational periods that are longer than our memory. We plant them and forget we did. But they still grow. Some of them we wish had not.

There are some seeds we plant that we believe to be inactive or sterile, that when they bloom and blossom we react in total surprise. There are some seeds we plant then wish and hope and plead that they will grow and flourish. Those are the ones that seem to take forever.

But in the end. Whether you desire a life of grace and peace, or the disciplined life of a superstar athlete. Know that whatever seeds you plant, that is what you can expect to grow.

Yes, the words in your word bank are seeds. Just like the behavior and attitude with which you treat yourself and others.

Next time we will talk more about how your day timer or your phone's calendar will help you to plant good seeds and track their growth.

My Heart Skipped a Beat

2010-09-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'll never forget the first time I saw her. She had those deep blue eyes and bright red hair and this really bubbly personality. As she was running to embrace me I realize she is dripping wet wearing nothing but a birthday suit and a big smile. My heart skipped a beat. It was September of 1993.

September 1994 was the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding in the Rose Gardens in Tyler, Texas. Such a hot September. In fact, it was so hot the unity candle melted right there on the stand. The roses everywhere were in bloom. We had friends. We had family. We had a beautiful ceremony and then we had the honeymoon baby nine months later.

In the first seven years we were together, I had nine different jobs and 13 moves. We were a growing family, but we still spent time in the park riding bicycles. We read books to each other at night. We spent time just hanging out. Now don't get me wrong, we had our fights we had our moments that were really really hard but for the most part we got along fine. We moved back to East Texas in 1998.

That fall, I was doing a consulting event for Texas Trophy Hunters at the Hunters Extravaganza in San Antonio, Texas. As we were walking around on the sales floor my cell phone rang. I pick up my phone and I'm told she's not coming back. She's just gone. My heart skipped a beat.

The next several years were hard at times. I tried to get used to not having her in the house and not being around. I thought I would get over something like that and just move on, but every waking minute and sometimes the sleeping minutes don't come so easy.

In the summer of 2007. My heart skipped a beat again as my phone rang at three o'clock in the morning. I hear “she's collapsed. Her heart stopped and they had to do CPR twice. They put her in an ambulance and had to shock her twice! She's in the hospital. We will let you know when we know more.” That's when the panic and fear set in. It was only minutes but they passed like slow decades.

Then the callback. “She's being flown to Little Rock, Arkansas.” I didn't know you could drive from Dallas to Little Rock in four hours, but I did. We got there about daybreak. They had her in ICU. She's wrapped in hoses and basically tied to a bed on life support. She stayed there for a week and so did we. Sleeping in the hallway, sleeping in the waiting rooms. We spent a couple of nights at the Ronald McDonald house. It was a long week. She left with a pacemaker, but she's okay

It's almost Christmas 2009. He sits on my couch and looks me in the eye and says “I want to marry her and I want your permission.” Again, my heart skipped a beat.

June 19, 2010 was their wedding day. It was another beautiful hot day in east Texas. Fortunately, it was cool inside. There were tons of friends and family in attendance at the wedding and I was the DJ for the wedding reception.

She's someone else's wife now. Every time I see her big blue eyes, I remember her bright red hair. I hear her infectious laugh and her bubbly personality, even though we fight sometimes when we talk. I sometimes get rude text messages or Facebook messages from her. I realize this is just who she is and she's a grown woman. When I talk to her, when I think about her life, I think about the day that we almost lost her. My heart skips a beat. Her mother and I are proud of her. No matter what the bottle or box label says, she's still MY redheaded stepchild and she always will be. One day when a little one comes along to change her life, maybe her heart will skip a beat as well... but I pray it will never stop again.

Gigmaster Profile

2010-09-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

"Nothing has the power to change your life like a word that rings forever in your heart. Choose each word carefully" J. L. Norris

"Vision. Goals. Actions. Habits. Like the circle of life, they all drive us in a direction, sometimes random, sometimes deliberate but always a direction of choices. Whether we choose to ACT or wait, change comes. Sometimes we guide, direct, cause, influence or even instigate that change... sometimes we wait idly by and become the road-kill of change."

Born in a small town in Central Texas, Loren has lived a fascinating life of odd and seemingly unrelated experiences. Loren masterfully uses these real life stories filled with wit and wisdom to demonstrate and bring to life the powerful influence we have have at our command. The power of choices. Stories like "Growing up Redneck", "Real Fire Science" "Customer Service PLEASE" will keep you on the edge of your seats, or ROFL, all the while being challenged to the core to ACT on change before it ACTS on you.

Loren has been involved in public perfomances since middle school, from drama and Improvisational Speech Competitions to perfomance choir. With more than 25 years experience in front of a crowd, Loren has dazzeled crowds with sales and market training for Fortune 50 companies, Fire Safety Training for elementary schools, and Emcee'd live auctions raising tens of thousands of dollars. In 2005 Loren began his own Mobile DJ services and has served as MC for more than 125 weddings since then. Loren has lead small groups on various topics and coached and counseled couples as well as individuals all over the world.

I want to be WOWerful!

2010-09-14T17:02:00.000-07:00

As I walked to the front of the room, I kept thinking "Defining Moment? Really? what moment can define you?"

Really. It must be a BIG HUGE deal - if one moment, one incident, one thought, word or deed can intersect your life at such a place as to define you. If one comment from a friend or relative can shape your future. If one heart felt compliment or insult can change the course of your ambitions it must be WOWerful.

Then I remembered when I used to make up songs as a young boy, nine or ten I think. I used to sing a "song" for 20 minutes or more. Non stop, not chorus, not a bridge or verse to be found just long strings of words, sentences, thoughts and phrases. It must have been like the worlds longest run on sentence only with a melody...

One late summer night I was performing one of these "songs" to the stars and cricket audience I had performed for many times. My mother had heard quite enough and said, "Will you please shut up and go to bed? No one wants to hear that."

Ok, perhaps that was a defining moment. As I look back now, that was one of a few times in my life that altered the course of my ambitions. Like a baby elephant trained as to stay in place with a strong rope and a peg in the ground. When that elephant is 5 tons, you can still keep him in place with just a restraint around the leg.

I have never since tried to publish or make a living at singing, especially my own songs. I have no idea if I am even any good at writing them although I still love to sing and I do.

How about you? Do you peg your dreams to the ground? Did you leave your ambitions aside because of something you heard or experienced?

Better question? Have you pegged someone's dreams other than your own?

What if we were all champions of dreams? What if we did everything in our power to inspire and influence others to chase their dreams and live out their ambitions with purpose?

"Nothing has the power to change your life like a word that rings forever in your heart." Measure those words carefully, they could become a Defining Moment for someone else.

J. L. Norris

Copyright Tell It Like It Is, Inc. 2010

Whose your Daddy?

2010-09-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

When I saw my mother drop the phone and fall to her knees screaming out loud, I knew things were about to change in my world. I had no idea how much.

That fateful day in October 1979 at the ripe old age of eleven, I became "the man of the house."
Over the next few days friends and relatives surrounded us and our little family was set adrift on a sea of pain and struggles that could break the hardest of hearts. My mother became a widow and a single mother of three in an instant.

We moved to another state, started new schools, bought new cars and a new house and "started over." I remember repeatedly hearing phrases like: "pull yourself up by the bootstraps", "buckle down and hang-on" and "batten the hatches". I could barely repeat them much less understand them. What I did notice was the pattern that when I heard those things from my mother, they always seemed to be followed by another storm. A storm of change, of emotion, of finances or something else would ravage our little boat.

I took on some bad habits, some bad friends and some bad ways of coping with the pain and anger I felt. See for me, this was the second time I was abandoned by my "father".

The first time was almost seven years before. There had been a divorce and my father had come to visit. He took my older sister away for a visit and was meant to bring her back at the end of two weeks and it would be my turn. When she returned one week early, I don't think I understood she did not stay the whole time, but I do remember him driving away as I stood watching wandering why I wasn't in the car. That was the last time I would see him until I was 15 years old. Not much has changed.

I have four children of my own now. And short of death, you cannot separate me from them. I would rush head long into a speeding train if I thought it would spare anyone of them an ounce of pain.

In the years since those two life changing moments I have learned what it means to be a man and to be a father from another Father. I have learned that He also was willing to do ANYTHING for me and not only to face death for me, but to die for me.

While I may show the likeness of my earthly father in my fair complexion and diabetes, I pray that what I leave behind for my children is the likeness of love, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness and self control. That is what my Father left me.

J. L. Norris
9/7/10

Copyright Tell It Like It Is, Inc. 2010

Boredom or patience

2010-09-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

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What's in your "Word Bank"

2010-09-02T16:34:00.000-07:00

As parents we become very familiar with G.I.G.O. For those of you who are not parents or techies. It means garbage in gabage out. It normally applies to computer input, or diet, but sometimes it can be a reference to "dirty power" or even cheap fuel in the tank that causes your car to sputter and die when you accelerate. G.I.G.O. also refers to the words that we hear and say. Too many hours listening to off color jokes, questionable lyrics or bad TV programs and we find ourselves saying and thinking the same way. Normally we would write that off to humor or habit and think little more of it. Who hasn't quoted Sienfeld or Cheers or Miley Cyrus?

A recent personal revelation has led to an entirely different reference point for me. Perhaps it is not new to you. When I think about the words I hear and say it is obvious that certain vocabulary choices have no mental or emotional nutrients. That seems more crucial when we look at the words that we want to hear, the words we need to hear from the people who mean the most to us.

If your boss walks by your desk each day with a flippant "Hey thanks for showing up today...."
If your spouse responds to everything you say with little more than a neanderthal grunt...
If your kids replied to your 'suggestion' to clean their room with the same words they might use in the locker room... you would soon form a complex: a feeling that what you say and do has limited value.

I challenge you to look at the words that you use when speaking to others. Are they encouraging? Do they demean and destroy or do they build up?

Next blog we will look at some ways that a positive word bank will afford you the opportunity to influence others in a positive way. We will also talk about how the use of genuine praise can take you, your team or your family to a whole new level through creating new habits.

Nothing has the power to change your life like a word that rings forever in your heart!

J L Norris

Oh SNAP!

2010-09-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

There is a law called plastic deformation. It is best explained by an engineer. But let me summarize.
When any material whether steel, plastic, rubber or otherwise is stretched it has a certain amount of stress and strain that it can bear and return to its original size and shape. Pull a small rubber band to twice its original length and SNAP! Right back to shape... Stretch it too far and it breaks. The same is true of steel, copper, plastic and most materials. I find the same rule to be true for human will. Human spirit and human relationships.
Somewhere between snap back to norm and breaking however... There is a point of deformation or permanent change.
When you think of the things you want in life... Are you ready to stretch to get them?
More in this matter later.
Have a blessed day.
J. L. Norris

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Prayer list

2010-09-01T05:57:00.001-07:00

I am building a prayer list of 25 people for whom I will pray daily. I currently have 14 spots available. If you would like to be on that list you must to 3 things.
1. Send an email with your name to prayerlist@thatguyspeaks.com
2. Update your specific requests atleast once each week.
3. Email me when specific prayers are answered.
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a poem by JL Norris

2010-08-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

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Ten things I thought I would never say as a Dad.

2010-08-19T04:56:00.001-07:00

1. I don't care if there is a cow in the potty... Go Pee!
2. Get the lawn mower out of the swimming pool!
3. No the squirrel cannot have your "yucky."
4. Who put the dog in the hole in the trampoline?
5. Skateboards and Siberian huskies are a bad mix.
6. If a boy wants to eat... Let him work.
7. You do not need a football helmet to mow the yard.
8. Why did you put the penny in the wall plug to start with?
9. If you insist on jumping from the top bunk to the ceiling fan atleast were a helmet.
10. So let me get this right... A 45 mile drive and a $200 ER bill because my 2 year old caught a mouse with his bare hands... But the Dr. says "No biggie, mice are too small to carry rabies. It just kills them." Ok I just wanted to make sure I heard you right... So what's for dinner?
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Fathers seal of approval

2010-08-19T04:33:00.001-07:00

What does a father give to his son that is greater than the permission to be a man? His right to carry a pocket knife. The first time he holds the gun all by himself. The first time behind the wheel alone. The first time he can speak his own opinion and it counts. The first time Dad says "This is my son, whom I love and in whom I am well pleased." Son I am proud of the man you have become!

Growing up without my father in the home I never heard those words. I never received the endorsement or the right to be a man.

All my life I have sought that stamp of approval. The degree, the nod, the word of affirmation to say that I am ready. I have been told by many men and women that I am a talented speaker, a great writer, and since I was in my teens "You are wise beyond your years." but I have also been told "Now you need the credentials to back it up... What you say is great. But what right do you have to say it? Under whose authority do you speak? No one will believe that came from you until you have the paperwork to back it up."

For 20 years I let that statement be the reason that I did not pursue my calling to speak out for my God. Today I met with my pastor for breakfast. Again many words of encouragement, many inspiring and thought provoking action points to pursue. But no resounding affirmation. No endorsement to my calling. No seal of approval will be embossed on my heart today.

Still looming in my mind the questions remain. The cry from my heart screams out:" Am I ready? Am I capable? Am I worthy? Am I competent? Whose seal of approval will I get? Lord whose seal do I need?"

I resign to the "library" and pick up a book I just started reading and suddenly a phrase leaps off the page and a rush of emotion comes over me. Really? God is it that simple? The answer has been that close for 20 years and yet escaped me. I knew it but did not know what I knew?

Peter said, "Lord to whom shall I turn?" and I say the same... And He says to me: "who called you in the first place?" I think back to the first Bible verse I memorized as an adult. "Let not any man teach you but the annointing of the Holy Spirit for He is the truth and in Him there is no lie."

Can it be that all the while I have waited for some man or woman to stamp me as worthy I have missed hearing my heavenly Father's resounding approval? If so, how will I make up for so much lost time?

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2010-08-19T03:08:00.001-07:00

Dads play... First name jungle last name gym...

J. Loren Norris

www.holygroundsshop.com

The Valley of the shadow of death

Real Boat Rocker

Up is a choice!

What do you think?

Why we gather...

Elephant Seeds

My Heart Skipped a Beat

Gigmaster Profile

I want to be WOWerful!

Whose your Daddy?

Boredom or patience

What's in your "Word Bank"

Oh SNAP!

Prayer list

a poem by JL Norris

Recommended Reading

Ten things I thought I would never say as a Dad.

Fathers seal of approval