{"id":366,"date":"2012-02-03T22:47:33","date_gmt":"2012-02-04T03:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/?p=366"},"modified":"2012-02-03T22:48:52","modified_gmt":"2012-02-04T03:48:52","slug":"what-i-wouldnt-give","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/what-i-wouldnt-give\/","title":{"rendered":"What I wouldn&#8217;t give&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I remember my friend Paul&#8217;s words making their initial impact and they have stuck with me daily for the past 7 years. I had accepted the opportunity to visit a remote village in Borneo in the summer of 2004 and had observed poverty, squalor \u2013 and yet, happiness \u2013 like I&#8217;ve never seen before. His words that struck me were simple and honest: &#8220;Yeah, this is how <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">most<\/span> of the world lives.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I was reminded of this again after reading Paul&#8217;s post entitled, <strong><a title=\"Read Paul's post now\" href=\"http:\/\/www.faithactivators.com\/i-can-make-you-happy-right-now\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;I Can Make You Happy&#8230; Right Now.&#8221;<\/a><\/strong> Of course, I jumped at even the thought of him actually coming through with his offer \u2013 and now, having read the surprisingly brief \u00a0article, I am positive that he does. Read it by clicking the title and let me know if you agree.<\/p>\n<p>It also reminded me of a phrase I have heard in various places, by various people in various situations and income levels, or lack thereof.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What I wouldn&#8217;t give for&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and then fill in the blank with whatever it is we <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">think<\/span> will make us happy. I know from experience that going down that road in my head and my reality hardly ever leads to where I thought it would, and usually in the other direction.<\/p>\n<p>Lord, make me a grateful person for your presence in my life and for the people, places and provision you have placed in my life. Let us all be able to say wholeheartedly, &#8220;I am truly blessed!&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I remember my friend Paul&#8217;s words making their initial impact and they have stuck with me daily for the past 7 years. I had accepted the opportunity to visit a remote village in Borneo in the summer of 2004 and had observed poverty, squalor \u2013 and yet, happiness \u2013 like I&#8217;ve never seen before. His [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":485,"href":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions\/485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnlocklair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}