This is your Friday Refresh brought to you by…

How does one measure influence?

There are standards for weight, height, and volume.

There are even ways that people attempt to measure success.

But influence is pretty hard to determine.

Because influence is an open ended concept.

Influence cannot be turned off.

Influence cannot be contained.

Influence cannot be measured simply because it’s still growing even as you attempt to put it on the scales.

In fact Stephen King once said, “We never know which lives we influence, or when or why!”

You cannot measure that for which you don’t have the full product.

Only heaven knows.

Links mentioned in this episode:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This is your Friday Refresh brought to you by…

Have you ever ‘Rastled a Bear?

I’ve read a few stories of men who did and most of them were on the losing end of that fight.

Of course there was that one fella named Paul who at 13 years old stood 6’1’’ and weighed 180 pounds. He was challenged to wrestle a bear at a carnival for the whopping payout of $1.

Links mentioned in this episode:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This is Your Friday Refresh brought to you by the UNA Christian Student Center. If you have a college age student in north west Alabama look up the Christian Student Center and get them connected.

You will be glad you did. You can find them at Facebook.com/unacsc (http://Facebook.com/unacsc).

I asked the 4 year olds at school this week what their favorite part about Christmas was. The answers were just as you might expect from little kiddos:

Santa Claus

We live in Alabama…I can probably count on one hand the times it has snowed on Christmas…but still it’s associated with Christmas so whatever…we will go with it.

Links mentioned in this episode:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This is Your Friday Refresh brought to you by the UNA Christian Student Center. If you have a college age student in north west Alabama look up the Christian Student Center and get them connected.

You will be glad you did. You can find them at Facebook.com/unacsc.

Well you know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixon. Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen…but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?

Of course you do….you’ve sung the song…you’ve watched the claymation…and you have probably read the book  — or some variation of the story, hundreds of times. You have seen the decorations in every town across the globe…

But do you know the story behind the story? Fiction often mimics real life in strange ways and the story behind the story certainly has some of the same elements.

Links mentioned in this episode:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This is Your Friday Refresh brought to you by the UNA Christian Student Center. If you have a college age student in north west Alabama look up the Christian Student Center and get them connected. You will be glad you did. You can find them at Facebook.com/unacsc.

Links mentioned in this episode:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This episode is brought to you by Three Cord Counseling in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Check them out here: https://www.threecordshoals.com/

This weekend is one of the most anticipated weekends of the year for me.

Nine years ago kenya and I attended the very first Ministering to Youth Conference (M2YConference.com) in Orlando, Florida.

My friend, Brian Staron, had invited me to join the board for this new event to encourage anyone who worked with young people in the church.

I gladly accepted and it’s been rolling along ever since.

We did Orlando one year, Chattanooga one year, Pigeon Forge for 5 years, Knoxville last year and then Heritage Christian in Florence AL for this year’s conference.

This year’s theme is “to this day.”

Links mentioned in this episode:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This episode is brought to you by Three Cord Counseling in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Check them out here: https://www.threecordshoals.com/

Where would you go if you could drop everything and go anywhere you wanted to right now?

But don’t limit yourself to where you can go with roads…where I’m talking about you don’t need roads.

Let’s say you could travel back in time.

Perhaps you had built a Time Machine…974 of a Delorian and equipped it with a flux capacitor that would go exactly 88 miles per hour.

Or perhaps you could step into a Quantum Leap mechanism. Or any number machine that would allow you to go anywhere you wanted to.

Where would you go? And why?

Links mentioned in this episode:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

Who Not What

Welcome in to the Friday Refresh brought to you by the Good Old Fashioned Dislike podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-old-fashioned-dislike/id1643163790)

If you love football and rivalries intrigue you, then the Good Ole Fashioned Dislike Podcast is for you.

Each week Travis picks a match up to highlight and the panel decides what they love and hate about each team—mostly based on non-football aspects of the school or town or history.

So check it out every Monday morning wherever you find your podcasts.

The only time I actually played organized football was at Freed-Hardeman and it was an intramural flag football team.

But I remember watching Monday Night football with my dad and pretending to run into the couches in the living room like they were the defensive line.

I’m not sure which wore out faster — the couches or my dads nerves.

Links mentioned in this episode:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This episode is brought to you by Three Cord Counseling in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Check them out here: https://www.threecordshoals.com/

Links mentioned in this episode:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

There has been a trend in social media and modern culture to exclaim the statement: “Best Day Ever.” It is often used on days of celebration or after an amazing event or experience.

Maybe it was a day on the lake.

Maybe it was time at a ballgame with kids.

Perhaps it was a day laying out on the beach, or driving through the snow-capped mountains of Alaska.

I’m fairly certain I’ve seen “best day ever” used to describe the birth of babies. Certainly birth is a time of celebration.

Smiles and giggles.

Goo goo and gah gahs.

Smooth skin and perfect little humans being brought into a happy family.

Best Day Ever.

But there is actually a day that is better than the day of one’s birth and it might surprise you.

Links mentioned in this episode:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm