I’m headed to Managua, Nicaragua for a few days. For those who are interested, what follows is the “why” and the “what’s been going on” that takes me to a place that’s livable, but certainly less so than the Ozarks in Springtime.

My trip to Managua is a confluence of three streams.

Those who know me very well know that I am a follower of Jesus—the one from Nazareth, not the Hispanic guy from Houston. For all of my adult life I’ve been captivated by one thing Jesus said, “The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy, but I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Abundant life! That’s compelling. I don’t fully understand what it entails, but it sounds appealing. Abundant—–all I could want. Life——speaks for itself. Abundant life is what Jesus said he came to give us. Yet in all my years of following Jesus—-which numbers nearly 40—-I’ve rarely lived abundantly, and never consistently. And, I’ve watched many Jesus followers who don’t seem to live abundantly either. That’s incongruous. We follow a man we accept as God. He explicitly says He came to give us abundant life. We don’t have it. Something’s wrong with that picture!

So off and on for years, and more recently with greater intensity, I’ve been pursuing this thing called Abundant Living. That’s the first stream.

The second stream is wisdom. For a couple of years now I have been explicitly praying that God would make me wise. The scripture says “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask of God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to Him.” So I’ve been praying for wisdom and have most days read a chapter of Proverbs, the book of Wisdom authored by the man who the Bible calls the wisest to ever live. I’ve torn through the Proverbs, Bible in one hand and notecards in another categorizing the principles of Wisdom in  way that helps me to better understand what it means to be wise and how to apply Wisdom principles to my life.

Then there is the third stream: right thinking. Normal conversations around our company often sort thoughts and ideas into “right thinking” and “wrong thinking.” We focus intently on managing our thoughts and directing our thinking in right ways. We know that you produce what you think about—thoughts become things—so we want to be sure we are thinking the right thoughts.

All of these three streams operate in the context of making a difference. At the beginning of 2010 I challenged our team with the notion that our success wasn’t just so we could enjoy and ever expanding life, but so we could make a difference in the lives of others. We even renamed our holding company Difference Makers in effort to keep ourselves focused on impacting the lives of others: clients, residents, team-members, investors, our larger community, and the world in which we live.

A little over a year ago I was driving between Tulsa, OK and Springfield, MO. Somewhere around Joplin, MO as I drove and talked with my business partner Jay a structure for teaching right thinking just flooded my mind. It was a gift from God. Not quite stone tablets or a burning bush, but it was definitely over my head, and it just came pouring out as I talked with Jay. I kicked on the memo recorder on my phone and captured what we were talking about. The concept involves a wheel with God at the hub, and spokes of self, purpose, bigger future, relationships & team work as the spokes. It’s a wheel that rolls forward to an experience of Abundant Living. (We’re on a roll……..bada bing!) I called it WORTh (Wheel Of Right THinking). And a book/teaching/seminar/tape series is conceived.

Fast forward to February, 2011 when I am sitting in Panera and Kim Bradley, Executive Director of Project Hope walks by my table. I quickly sketched him a copy of the wheel and he said “We need that taught to our mission staff in Nicaragua.” I immediately agreed to do it, and thus……I’m on a plane headed there now to unveil the  Abundant Living Through Right Thinking to its first public audience. I wouldn’t have picked a Spanish audience as the first place to teach this material, but it belongs to God and if that’s what He chooses to do, so be it. I’m just excited to get to share.

In the few days that are ahead, I won’t really get to unveil the wheel, because as I’ve written the material I’ve discovered that getting yourself in position to where you can think right and can live abundantly is necessary before you can implement the principles imbedded in the wheel. So this week I’ll be teaching An Introduction to Abundant Living. Our sessions will include Getting Rid of Religion, God’s Plan for your Future, While You Wait on Your Future, Preparing Yourself to Live Abundantly, The Equal Opportunity Brain, and Thoughts Become Things.

I’m excited! This is going to be much fun! I think in Spanish they’d say “Mucho Fiesta!” And when you think about it, that’s appropriate. Abundant Living would indeed have components of a Big Party!

That’s what I’m doing in Nicaragua this week. Pray for me. Pray for the mission staff and the national pastors who’ll hear what I’ve come to teach.

I’ll keep you posted as the week unfolds.