Practical Encouragement

I was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I’m raising my family in Owasso, Oklahoma.

I am a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University. My father works for the state of Oklahoma. My uncle recently retired from the University of Oklahoma and I married a woman who bleeds crimson and creme!

Oklahoma is in our blood.  When it comes to the University of Oklahoma, academics, athletics, or the arts, if it has an OU on it our family finds it hard to resist.  I have a few, misguided, friends. Antagonizers who, for some incomprehensible reason, think orange is an acceptable fashion choice for people outside of public corrections.

Every Bedlam it’s the same story. My Cowboy friends love to remind me how Sooners are called Sooners because just before the land run some people made their way into the state unnoticed. They were able to stake their claim a little sooner than everyone else. I guess they think talking smack is more hysterical when you get historical. With all the maturity of a school yard feud they jab, “See! Sooners are cheaters!”

I love that argument. Sure we’re cheaters. “Win if you can, lose if you must, always cheat!” That’s what I like to say! I exaggerate and then remind them…If you’re going to call us cheaters just remember…

Georgia is the known as the Peach State.
Florida is known as the Sunshine state.
Missouri is known as the Show Me state.

And Oklahoma is known as the Sooner State.

That’s right in Oklahoma we’re the Sooner State. So whether you’re a Cowboy or a Hurricane, or even a Bison like me, in Oklahoma, every win is a Sooner win!

The character trait of the month is resourcefulness.

Resourcefulness is making wise use of what others might overlook or discard.
Resourcefulness is finding a creative solution to a common problem.

It’s what happens when imagination and intuition meet insight and intelligence.

It’s MacGyver with a stick of chewing gum.
It’s the A-Team with some time, some tools and someone to pity the fool that gets in the way.
It’s Sooner Magic at its finest, finding the strength to win even when all the odds are stacked against them.

Some people are blinded by limitations. They won’t make a decision until conditions are perfect. They won’t move forward until they have enough, know enough, or hurt enough.

But for a resourceful person limitations aren’t the fence that restricts their progress. Limitations are simply the horizon of what’s possible today. A resourceful person will look at these limitations and say, “I’ve done so much with so little for so long I can do almost anything with absolutely nothing.”

With an attitude and outlook like that, resourceful people energize others. They remove obstacles. They listen. They redeem what’s been discarded or overlooked. It’s not that they think outside the box. It’s that they believe the people, projects and purpose of what’s taking place inside this box are far too important to let anything go to waste.

I’m proud of the work of organizations like Mission Owasso and Owasso Community Resources. The resourceful people at Mission Owasso say their purpose is to partner people who have things with people who need things.

While fulfilling this purpose is hard work it’s surprisingly easy to find people who have needs and, at the same time, to find other people who are able to meet those needs. It doesn’t happen because either OCR or Mission Owasso are well funded or fully staffed. It happens because the people who serve there are actively looking for ways to remove obstacles, reuse resources, listen to people and connect them with one another.

I once heard a teacher say, “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.’

Our world needs resourceful people. They live in this city. Imagine what will happen as those people are discovered, developed and deployed.