Where will you find inspiration?

June 21, 2025

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words – Originally posted 1/15/21- Reprints of posts to his blog by the late Pastor Jack Freed

“You can look anywhere and find inspiration.”  (Frank Gehry)  Vanity Fair named Gehry the most important architect of our time.  His quote today became a challenge for me to look around…  What can give me inspiration?.  My hand?  Max Lucado’s book, Wonderful?  How about the waste basket?  I decided on the keyboard’s delete key.  What if there were a delete key for life mistakes?  When it comes to our “sins” God has a delete key on His laptop, too.  😉  Jack

As you have probably noticed if you have read this blog for any time, I used to find much of my inspiration for posts to this blog by reading the daily blog posts that I got from the late Pastor Jack Freed. I would usually expand on the topic from the 2-3 sentences that Jack used in his posts. When Jack passed, I was at a loss for inspiration for a while and my posts to my own blog waned. Then his son started reposting some of his best posts and I again found inspiration in those reposts. I also remembered that I had saved most of the emails that Jack sent with his daily posts in them, like the post above. Where will you find inspiration?

I like Jack’s analogy about the keyboard’s Delete key. Many apps also have an “Undo” feature that backs things up in the workflow to a point before the present and lets you try again. That would certainly be helpful in life, wouldn’t it? However, life doesn’t give us “do overs”. Instead, the best that we can do is to let go of the past and move on.  Sometimes what we need is a little inspiration to get us started again. Where will you find inspiration?

Inspiration doesn’t have to be writing blog posts. You may be inspired to do some work around the house or maybe to do some volunteer work. It could be that you are inspired to go visit somebody or maybe call them. It doesn’t matter what it is; inspiration is that little push that you need to get you started towards some goal. Where will you find inspiration?

Ideas, dreams or desires often turn into inspiration once you get past the inertia of doing nothing about them. Guilt about something that you did or remorse about something that you didn’t do can also inspirate some action to correct things. Many laws have been passed and charity foundations created out of work that was inspired by a loss or tragedy. Some find inspiration in prayer. I like the little prayer I saw recently – “Lord help me to be a better person today than I was yesterday.” Everyone should be inspired by that. Where will you find inspiration?

Look for it and you will find it. Where will you find inspiration?

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Posted by Norm Werner

So, get off your duff already…

March 26, 2025


The Best of Jack’s Winning Words – Originally sent March 27, 2012.
“Those who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of a field and hope the cow comes to them.” (Elbert Hubbard) I smiled when I read this quote. Can’t you just “see” the person on the stool? The one who makes the sale is the one who gets off of the stool. It works in the business world, at home and even in the church. By my computer is a sign: “Get tough–get off your duff.” Today is a good day to follow that advice. 😉 Jack


Every now and then you may experience a fortuitous stroke of luck and some good fortune may befall you. But, for the rest of life, and indeed for most of life, one must get off the stool and make one’s own luck through hard work and persistence. Get off your duff!


I have posted here a few times about the importance of getting started and about breaking dauntingly big jobs down into smaller tasks (steps) that can be more easily accomplished. It is easy to let what should be planning time turn into daydreaming time. Things don’t get dome just because you dream about them being done. Focus on the planning and on getting started. Get off your duff!


Sometimes you may have to go off in a completely different direction than where you are headed to accomplish some intermediary step or some prerequisite. Just be sure to keep your goal at least in the corner of your eye, so that you don’t lose track of it or get discouraged by your apparently lack of progress towards the goal. Get off your duff!


More times than we’d like to admit, we may actually start off in the wrong direction and go very far down what proves to be a blind alley. Don’t get discouraged. Learn from your mistake. Backtrack to the starting point and choose a different direction. Thomas Edison famously said about his numerous failures – “I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” So, now, like Edison, you have successfully found one way that will not get you to your goal. Don’t go that way again. ” Get off your duff!


Jack posted a reminder for himself next to his computer. For him, that helped him to remember that ha was committed to writing a daily post to his Blog – Jack’s Winning Words – five days a week. There was no winning to be had if he just sat there and waited for the words of a new post to come to him. He had to get off his duff and write the post for that day. Get off your duff!


I have found it helpful to post notices to myself on the bathroom mirror where I have to look at them when I’m shaving in the morning. It may be a reminder for something that I need to get done that day or just a restating of the goal, so that I get renewed energy to work towards it that day. Whichever, it serves as a reminder to me to…Get off your duff!

I took the time to go back and look at a number of the posts that I have done over the years about tackling large or difficult tasks or pursuing lofty goals. One recurring theme that all of those posts in some way contained was the advice to take time to ask for God’s help. There is nothing more calming and reassuring in the face of daunting tasks or goals than touching base with your faith in God. Take God’s hand and he will help you …Get off your duff.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Keep Christmas in your heart…

December 23, 2024

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words 12/23/24 – Originally sent December 24, 2013.
“I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all year.” (Charles Dickens) What does it mean, to keep Christmas? The classic story “A Christmas Carol” seems to indicate that “Christmas” is having sympathy for the destitute. Early critics saw the story, first published in 1843, as an indictment of the rich taking advantage of the poor. One way to honor Christmas is by being an advocate for the poor. Pope Francis appears to like the idea. 😉 Jack


It is easy in our secular and very commercialized world to lose track of the real meaning of Christmas. We celebrate Christmas and Easter close together and early in the year. The two are inextricably linked as a show of God’s love for mankind. We need to put them in our hearts and use them as a guide and inspiration for our lives.


There will always be those who are disadvantaged, disabled or poor at Christmas time and all year long. To the extent that we not only advocate for them, but by actually doing something to help, we will be demonstrating the spirit of Christmas in our hearts all year.


Donating to a red kettle or to a worthy cause at Christmas time is good, but giving your time to volunteer in your community and help is even better. Local groups like Meals on Wheels or Community Sharing are always looking for volunteers. Most require no particular skills and will train you for the job that is needed. Honor Christmas and keep the spirit of it alive all year by finding a cause that you can volunteer to support.

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Posted by Norm Werner

No other option…

September 26, 2024

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words 9/3/24 – Originally sent August 30, 2021.

“Everything is going to work out; there’s no other option.” Kari Miller) Kari is amazing! She lost her legs in a car accident caused by a drunk driver and took a bad situation and made it better by joining the American Paralympics Sitting Volleyball Team. Try playing volleyball while sitting! I have a hard time while standing. But when you have no other option, you do what you can do. All of the Paralympians give us encouragement that things will work out for those who don’t give up…like Kari. 😉 Jack

It is amazing how many of us (and I include myself in this group) spend (read that as waste) time mentally exploring or wishing for some option to the situation that we find ourselves in at the moment. In my last post I implored people to never stop dreaming; however, dreaming is different from the denial that leads to regrets or wishing that things were different.  Dreaming is about things in the future, while most time spent looking for options to the present are about the past – past decisions, past relationships, past mistakes that cannot be undone.

In truth there are no other options. The catch phrase, “It is what it is” best explains the situation. Mulling what might have been traps us in the past. As Jack wrote, “But when you have no other option, you do what you can do.”  Accepting what is allows us to move on to what yet may be.

Most of us will never face a situation like Kari Miller or anywhere near as drastic a change in our lives as she faced. Kari could have spent the rest of her life wallowing in self-pity or anger; however, she chose to do what she could. How do you handle the curve balls that life sometimes throws at you?

Do you spend your days thinking about what might have been different had you only made a different decision or chosen a different path? Do regret and remorse rule your life? Are you stuck in Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda land? How’s that working out for you?  Isn’t it time for a change?  

Here’s a way to start “A new way forward”, to steal a campaign phrase from Vice President Kamala Harris.  A key is to put things in perspective and put the past where it belongs – in the past. One way to help do that is to write down the bad thing or things that you have been hung up on. Then, fold up that paper and put it in an envelop and label the envelope “The Past”. Put that envelop in a drawer and walk away from it.

Now that you have put the past behind you, you can focus on your future and doing what you can do. You may be surprised how much that is and how much happier you will feel once you start doing it. You may not realize it at the time, but an important thing that just happened is that you stopped blaming yourself and beating yourself up for what happened in the past.

To help you with the future it is important that you let go of the thought that you can control it. You will be able to react to it (hopefully in a better way than in the past), but you cannot control it. I have found that, for me, the little prayer “Not my will, but thy will be done” allows me t let go of the pressure of the false belief that I can somehow control the future.

There really is no other option. So, let go and accept what has happened, acknowledge that it is in the past, and focus upon doing your best in the future.

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Posted by Norm Werner