Show Notes – Episode 19 – “The Power of Momentum”
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Welcome to The Greg Amundson Show. This is a podcast where Greg will educate and inspire you to live with purpose, passion and a burning desire to develop strength in your mind, body and spirit. Through a disciplined use of our words, thoughts, awareness and attention, we can achieve a mindset of positive expectancy, personal belief and an unshakable faith in God.
Hello, friends, and welcome to Episode 19 of The Greg Amundson Show. This is a very special show because we are recording this live at my gym in beautiful sunny Santa Cruz, California. My friends, I want to begin today by sharing with you one of the most important laws in the universe. This is the law of momentum.
Here’s the thing about law that’s always fascinated me. When I was a young deputy sheriff serving here in the mean streets of Santa Cruz, in the rare event I would do traffic enforcement because usually as a deputy sheriff we’re more interested in crimes against persons. Yet, nevertheless, on occasion, if I witnessed a very, very negligent violation of the vehicle code, I would feel so compelled to pull the driver over. I would walk up on the car, of course observing good officer safety, then I would do my very best to explain to the driver the reason that I had pulled them over, essentially explaining to them that they had violated the law. Nine times out of ten, the driver would explain to me that they did not know they had violated the law. Well, sadly, the vehicle code does not have a provision in it for, “Oops, sorry, I didn’t know that was a law.” So whether or not you knew that making a U-turn at the last intersection was a violation of the vehicle code, you still violated the law and there will be a repercussion to pay.
My friends, that example help set the stage because we all are governed by laws. When we are in agreement, when we abide by the law, our life is much more enjoyable. We experience more prosperity, more success, more joy. My friends, that law enacted, created, governed by you and I is nothing compared to the law of God.
Now, here’s the thing about the law of God. The law enacted by God does not have a provision in it that says, “Oops, you didn’t know that was the law.” For example, one of the laws created by God governs you and I every single day, gravity. So, for example, we go on to a very, very tall building, we walk off the edge of the building, gravity will do what God designed it to do. Regardless of how good you or I are, we’re going to experience the law of gravity. I guarantee it.
Now, gravity is in place to allow you and I to enjoy life. It’s here for our good. All law, my friends, is enacted for our good. However, it is for our good when we are agreeable to the law. Therefore, the more awareness we have, the more education we have about the law, the greater effect we will have in our life.
Now, that sets the stage for where we go next, my friends, because I want to share with you today one of the most important laws created by God that we can utilize to our great advantage. My friends, I am talking about the law of momentum.
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Let me share with you a great story to help inspire you about just how powerful this law can be to use in our life and just how easy it can be to kick-start this into high gear. I heard a story about a Starbucks on the East Coast. One morning, an elder gentleman pulls up in the drive-thru of the Starbucks, and as he’s making the transaction and paying for his coffee, he says to the person who was taking his order, “I would like to pay for my coffee and the coffee of the person in line behind me.” Well the recipient of the transaction takes the money, says, “Very well, thank you, have a great day,” hands off his coffee, that gentleman drives away.
The next person pulls up. As they’re preparing to make the transaction to pay for their coffee, the Starbucks recipient said, “Oh no, no, it’s okay. You don’t need to pay for your coffee today because that gentleman that just drove away, he paid for your coffee for you.” Well, this person is overjoyed, they’re so thankful. They don’t have to pay for their coffee. However, they’ve got money in hand and so they say, “Well, in that case, let me pay for the coffee for the person behind me.” That continues for the next eight days.
Wow, that’s the law of momentum working in our favor. That elder gentleman, when he paid for his coffee and the coffee of the person behind him, he had no way of foreseeing the amazing momentum that that one small act of kindness, that one small act of generosity would have in the lives of thousands of people over the course of eight days. You see, my friends, what that man may have unknowingly stepped into was the power of momentum. When we’re in alignment with God’s law, our effort, our power, our capacity is multiplied at a miraculous level. Just so exciting.
Now, here’s the key. Whenever we see these types of events, these types of opportunities, these types of miracles occurring in our life, in the world of man and woman, in the natural, we need to look to the supernatural to understand why did this happen. What’s the spiritual key in place when we see momentum affecting our life in the positive way? We look to the life of none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Check this out, my friends. Jesus said as an analogy, as a metaphor, “If someone asks you to go a mile, go with them two miles.”
I pondered the implications of that for a long time. And as I dug into the Bible and into the period of history surrounding the ministry and life of Jesus Christ, I found something profound. It turns out that a Roman soldier, by law, could request, not just ask but request man, woman, child, old, young to carry their armor for them for up to one mile. That could potentially be a law of weight. Consider the Roman army, an advanced army for their time, they were layered head to toe with armor; a breast plate, a helmet, sheen protection, a shield, a belt. Their armor could weigh upwards of 70 pounds. That means that if that Roman soldier asked a woman or a child to carry their armor for them, that armor may very well weigh the weight of the person carrying it. And anyone doing CrossFit knows just how miserable a farmer’s carry can be, aka, armor carry for a mile. That is a potentially very, very challenging favor or request to ask of someone.
Now, here’s the brilliant lesson, my friends, taught to us by Jesus Christ. What Jesus says is “In the event you’re asked to carry that armor for a mile, go an additional mile.” Here are the implications, here’s the real gift that Jesus teaches us. Imagine I’m that person that was asked by a soldier to carry 70 pounds of armor. I’m trudging down the road carrying this 70 pounds and I’m approaching a group of people. If I stop, I just know that soldier is going to ask one of the innocent from this group to then continue to carry the weight. However, if I keep walking, if I go an additional mile, I now allow those people, those potentially innocent people to remain at rest, unaffected. I carry the load for them.
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What Jesus was teaching us is one of the laws, one of the great oaths that all warriors agree to take. We will, as warriors, fight the battle for you. We will go the additional mile. I just love that story. So in effect, what Jesus was teaching us that day is how to affect in our life the law of momentum.
Now, here’s the great news about the law of momentum. We can use the law of momentum to create momentum of encouragement in our life. We can essentially propel, push, energize, and compel ourselves forward. I’m sure many of you tuning in today and listening have experienced pushing a motor vehicle, pushing a car. What’s the hardest part of pushing that car? Well, of course, the hardest part of pushing a car at rest is the initial few feet that are required to get the momentum needed to allow the law to work to our advantage. Once I’ve got momentum on the car, I can actually now run around, jump into the driver’s seat, and then I was trying to jumpstart or jumped the clutch on the car. So I’ve created enough momentum where I’ve got time to our momentum to continue to move the car forward. We can use that principle, that law to our advantage at any time. Anything that we are desiring of achieving in our life, any new habit of mind we want to form, we have to do it immediately, because what we’re trusting is that the sooner that new habit is formed in our mind, the sooner we can begin to reap the benefits of the law of momentum.
Now, I want to be an advocate, and I’m sure you do as well, for creating positive momentum in our life. I’m sure you’ve experienced the great feeling of joy you have in your life when someone pays you a compliment, when someone says to you, “Wow, you look amazing today,” when a loved one says, “Oh, baby, you take my breath, you look gorgeous,” when a friend from the gym says, “Man, you crushed that workout.” When we receive from another person praise, compliment, encouragement, have you ever noticed how easy it is to then pay a compliment either back to that person or to another person? Essentially, now we have momentum going, we’re experiencing the momentum of positivity, the momentum of encouragement.
Well, here is something we have to be very, very aware of. We go back to our opening example of understanding the nature of law. Keep in mind that regardless of the fact that someone operating the motor vehicle does not know that making a U-turn, or turning without a turn signal, or moving through a stop sign, granted very slowly, they still drove through the stop sign, they may not realize that’s a violation of the law; yet nevertheless, they have violated the law. And if they are observed violating the law by a law enforcement officer, they will experience the repercussion of the violation. There’s no caveat to, oh, I didn’t know that was a law. The law has been broken, cause and effect, reap what we sow. These are all laws again enacted. They are in place by God to create order in the universe. Therefore, we have to understand that in the event, we are moving through the course of our day and we experience from someone else negativity, hostility, unkindness, there’s a very, very high likelihood that that person is in the moment of experiencing that momentum of negativity that may have sadly been passed down to them from a long, long time ago.
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Let me give you a really good, yet tragic example of this to help inspire you to realize how important your word of encouragement can be to create momentum in someone’s life in a positive direction. Years ago when I was serving as a special agent for the DEA, one of the extra duties I absolutely love was speaking to young kids between third and fourth grade. I would speak to these kids in the El Centro Imperial Valley, very low income part of our state of California. I would speak to these young kids about the dangers of drugs, the dangers of the cartels looming on the other side of the border, the danger of violence because in that environment, the temptation of that culture is so prevalent. I felt compelled to do my very best, to do everything I could to inspire these kids to stay in school, to pursue higher education, to pursue athletics, to pursue the word of God, anything to help them steer the direction of their life towards the positive and away from the temptations of that drug culture.
One particular day, as I finished speaking, a young boy came up to me. He pointed at my shirt. On this particular day when I was speaking, I was wearing a long black sleeve shirt. Across the chest in bright yellow, it said “Police.” This young boy came up to me, he pointed at my shirt and he said, “When I grow up, I want to be a police just like you.”
Short little boy, so I bent down, put my hands on my knees to be at his height, then I raised my hand for the high five while saying, “You can do it.” And I waited for the high five which never came. Instead, with very, very rolled shoulders, head down, the boy said, “No I can’t.” And I said, “Why not?” And he said, “Because my dad told me I’m going to grow up and be just like him.”
Well, if you know me personally, if you’ve tuned in to The Greg Amundson Show or read any of my books, you probably know I’m a bit of an optimist. That’s just the way I’m wired. So in that moment, I think to myself, “Well, maybe his dad is a rocket scientist. Maybe his dad, please, is an astronaut. So perhaps his dad wants him to grow up and be just like him.” That’s my mindset, I’m hoping, “Please, let this be an end to a story that can be a positive outcome.”
Well either way, it certainly begs the question of the young boy, “What does your dad do?” He looked at me, matter-of-factly, he says, “My dad is in prison and he told me I’m going to grow up and be just like him.” Whoa, that’s heavy. It dawned on me in that moment, this young boy had never heard a word of encouragement from his father.
Growing up, every single night before I went to bed, my dad would come into my bedroom, we would say The Lord’s Prayer together and then my dad would say, “Greg, I believe in you. God made you for great things. You can accomplish all your dreams and goals.” My dad would prophesize over me. My dad would fill me full of encouragement every single day. That young boy, he didn’t have that experience. In fact, he had the complete opposite.
So it made me realized, as you and I, my friends, as we go through the course of our day, we never know if the little word of encouragement, that little high five, “You can do it, I believe in you,” we never know if that one word of encouragement will be the first word of encouragement that a loved one, a friend or even a complete stranger has heard that day, that week, that month, that year or maybe in some cases, when God directs the course of our life, that entire life.
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You see, I believe, by meeting that young boy that day, that’s what we refer to in the Bible as a divine appointment. God orchestrated that time space event to speak through me. So often, short of God arriving unseen, He speaks for you and I, my friends. Consider that. You and I, we are the hands and feet. That’s what the Bible says. We are the hands and feet of the gospel.
I spoke a word of encouragement that day to that young boy. Now here’s what so amazing, so inspiring to consider about the power of your word. Your word my friends, when we speak with the power of God in us, we are enacting the law of momentum. At the same time, we can also become more compassionate. Because that young boy, he simply did not have within his mind at that stage in his life the ability to be a word of encouragement to anyone in his life. He lacked the ability to be an encourager onto himself. He was essentially withered.
Speaking of withered, I want to share with you a remarkable story from the Bible about how important our spoken word can be as we do our best to step into the law of momentum. As we go through the course of our day, think of ourselves as we are ambassadors for God. Every time you say something encouraging, loving, kind, motivating to another person, you in that moment, you’re an ambassador for the Holy Spirit for God.
Let me share with you just an amazing story, and what I like to do is rather than paraphrase this story, let’s go right to the Bible for the story then we’ll break it down because there’s so many amazing parts to this profound story.
Here we go, my friends. This is story is known as the fig story or the story of the fig. Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. We’re speaking about Jesus Christ. Jesus hungered. And Jesus saw a fig tree in the way. He came to it and found nothing thereon, only leaves were on this fig tree. Jesus said onto the fig tree, “Let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward forever.” And presently, the fig tree withered away.
And when the disciples saw it, they marveled saying, “How soon is the fig tree withered away.” Jesus answered and said onto them, “Verily, I say unto you, if you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do this which was done unto the fig tree, but you will also say unto this mountain, ‘Be thou removed and thou be cast into the sea and it will be done.'” Now, my friends, here’s the key. Jesus then said, “And all things, whatsoever you ask for in prayer believing, you shall receive.” The implications of that scripture are profound, profound.
My friends, let’s break this down because if you can understand what I’ve just read you, your life will never be the same. Are you ready for this? This is huge. I’m saying, if you can understand this scripture and abide by it, your life will never be the same. It will be profoundly better.
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We go back to the law created by man and woman, the law that is orchestrating our experience in the world right now. When we are in agreement, when we’re abiding by, for example, the vehicle code law, we don’t get pulled over. Life is good. When we’re abiding by the vehicle code law, we don’t get in motor vehicle accidents. Life is good when we are abiding by the law. We take that one step further. When we abide by both the law that has been enacted, created, governed, enforced by men and women, and on top of that, we also come into agreement and abide by God’s law, we experience a state of blessedness, prosperity, joy, love, life is good. However, consider this, when we violate the law, regardless of the fact that we were unaware a law had been violated, by law, we still experience the implication, the repercussion, the cause and effect of that violation.
What Jesus is teaching us is that one of the laws that you and I are using every single day is the law of our word. What he said was, “Whatever you ask for, you shall receive.” Notice he didn’t just say, “Whenever you ask for something good, you’ll get it.” He said, “Whatever you ask for and believe, you will receive.” In another ministry of Jesus Christ, he made it even more easy for the disciples to understand. He said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.” Understand, there’s no way to not knock and have a door open. Understand, there’s no way to look and not see. Understand that there’s no way to ask and not receive. He said, “Whatever you ask for, you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.” You and I, by the grace of God, have been given the ability, the autonomy, the independence, the free will, to choose what door we knock on. You and I have been given the amazing gift. You and I have the ability to ask and receive. You and I have the autonomy, the independence, the free will to decide where to look, where to seek. That’s a huge power. That’s a huge responsibility.
The word “withered” is an interesting word. The word withered in this context when Jesus was ministering, the word wither was used to describe the effect on nature. A fig tree had been withered by the word of Jesus. In all of the Bible, the word withered is used only once in relation to the human being. In all other instances, the word withered is used in the same manner to describe the context, the reality of nature. Jesus used the word withered once in relation to a human being. This is really important to understand. One day, as Jesus was ministering and making His way from temple to temple, He came across a man, who the Bible describes as having a withered hand. Isn’t that interesting? The Bible describes it withered hand. Jesus sees this man with the withered hand. Here’s what Jesus says, “Stretch forth your hand.” The Bible then goes on to explain that the man did as Jesus requested. The man with the withered hand, he stretched forth his hand and as his hand stretched forth, his hand was healed. He was healed by his faith. He stretched forth his hand.
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Here’s the key, my friends. We have to abide by the word of God to experience the blessedness that God is desirous of you and I having. One of the ways we can do that is by listening to the words of Jesus Christ. We’re being called to stretch forth not just our hand. We’re being called to stretch forth our mind. We need to stretch our mind into new realms of possibility because everything that we experience in our life begins, my friends, right here.
To this day, I still feel so grateful for the founder of CrossFit, Coach Glassman. In 2004, I’ll always remember these words he said to me, he said, “You know what Greg, the greatest adaptation to CrossFit takes place in the mind, between the ears.” Consider the implications of that.
In our world right now, there are millions of people doing CrossFit. There are over 14,000 CrossFit affiliate gyms. That’s phenomenal considering that in 2001, there was no crossfit.com website and there was one CrossFit gym occupying 800 square feet of real estate in a small gym, more like a garage on the east side of Sta. Cruz county. Today, over 2 million people doing CrossFit, 14,000 gyms. Remarkable. Most of those people are very, very excited on a daily basis about the physical adaptations they are experiencing. And they should be. I’ve been doing CrossFit nearly 17 years. I still get excited about the continuing physical adaptations I experience. Yet, consider this, my friends, as good, as great, as amazing, as awesome as those physical adaptations will always be, consider if the greatest adaptation we were not able to see. Why? Well, because it takes place here in our mind. That’s remarkable. What a remarkable insight that coach Glassman gave me that day.
My friends, the greatest adaptation will always be in our mind. That was the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to share with the world that the Old Testament which dealt mainly with the law of man and God in relation to our actions, would be superseded by the law of the heart and the law of the mind. For example, Jesus in His ministry said to the people, “You have heard, commit not adultery.” Emphasis on commit, the overt act of adultery. Then Jesus said, “I’m here to give you a new law. I’m here to tell you that if you lust in your heart for a woman, you have committed adultery.” For out of the heart, become the actions of men and women. In other words, we look to the words of Gandhi. Your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your character, your character determines your destiny. Where does it all begin? Our thoughts.
Now, we need, my friends, to use our thoughts in, you know what I’m going to say, an encouraging way. We come full circle now as we come to the end of our show. We come full circle and we focus our mind on positivity. How do we do that? How do we focus our mind on positivity? Well, let’s go again to the greatest source we have, the greatest self-help book ever written, the holy Bible. I want to share with you from Joshua a really remarkable scripture that gives us the key to developing and maintaining a positive mental attitude. Here we go.
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It says in Joshua 1:8, “Meditate on the word of God day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then, you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success.” Let’s break this down. There are three parts, three remarkable parts that are so easy to overlook in this one scripture.
Meditate on it, word of God, meditate on it. That’s where the scripture begins, meditate on the word of God. Why? For out of the mind, we perform action. Then what happens? The action performed out of the mind that was based on the word of God leads us to prosperity, leads us to success.
That’s the order of events. Meditate on the word of God, then out of that meditation because our mind is pure, because our mind is resting on the word of God, we are more rightly in those instances to speak a word of positivity. What happens as we speak positivity? Our actions, based on our spoken word, create positivity in our life. In other words, everything that begins in our mind, we experience in our reality.
Therefore, the question that often arises when people come to me for mentorship or for questions or for coaching, their question often is, “What word of God should I meditation on?” Well that’s a great question. Any word of God. It simply says in Joshua 1:8, “Meditate on the word.” So find a scripture, find a Bible verse that really speaks to your heart. You want to resonate with that word.
Here are some of my personal favorites. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. For greater is my God who is in me than he that is in the world.” Also, a really powerful meditation based on the Bible is what is known as the prayer of the heart. This is also known as the Jesus prayer. The simplest way this prayer can be distilled is simply the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. That is literally the word of God, Jesus Christ.
Let’s use Jesus Christ as an example of how this meditation can work. Imagine we close our eyes, we become still. We take a few deep breaths to aid our physical body, our physiology and our mind to become still. After all, we look to the Bible for direction on meditation, the Bible says, “Be still. In that stillness, know I am God.” Be still and know, two sides of the same coin. In stillness, we experience the fullness of the presence of God. We physically become still. Our physiology begins to settle. We take a few deep breaths. Then in the temple of our minds, we start to say over and over and over, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ. Over and over, we repeat the word of God, the word of the Lord, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, what happens despite our best intention and our best effort even though we’re saying the holy name of God, what happens at a certain point in the repetition of the word Jesus Christ, our mind jumps to another thought. When the mind does what the mind does, which is referred to in the warrior tradition as monkey mind, the mind will jump. In the jump, we become aware that, “Oh, I’m no longer saying in mind Jesus Christ, now I’m thinking about lunch. Now I’m thinking about the argument I had earlier in the day. Now I’m thinking about what I’m going to do when I’m done meditating.” The mind will think of a million things but what we were meditating on which was the word of God.
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In that awareness, rejoice. Why I do say rejoice? Because in the awareness, you are not the thought, you’re the pure awareness of the thinking. In that awareness, you use your will power to come back to the word of God. That process may happen in meditation 10, 20, 30, 100 times. That’s okay. No judgment, no self-critique. Simply return every single time to the word of God to the meditation.
Now the good news is that we are utilizing momentum. The more often we practice this meditation on the word of God, the easier it becomes. Soon, during the course of our day, the word of God, whatever word we had been meditating on becomes the background music in our mind. I’m sure we’ve all experienced this to some degree. We hear our favorite song while driving, we get out of our car, that song is still playing like background music in our mind.
Well the word of God, with practice, with repetition, can play like background music in our mind. When that happens, my friends, we experience a state of joy, a state of blessedness, a state of love that is very, very hard to describe in words.
Well, my friends, in closing, if you’ve tuned in to the show before, you know I love to pray in closing. I want to share a prayer with you that was taught to me by one of my very, very good friends, a dear mentor in my life, a renowned warrior yogi, author of a bestselling book called Meditations from the Mat. I’m talking of course about my good friend Rolf Gates. Rolf taught me this prayer and I want to share it and bless you with it.
Here we go, my friends. I pray that you would be safe. I pray that you would be happy. I pray that you would be healthy. I pray that you would discover your freedom. I pray that you would find enduring peace and I pray that you would walk through the world with ease. Isn’t that a beautiful prayer?
Well, my friends, here’s the call to action. Warriors are always looking for a challenge. I believe that you’re a warrior. Wherever you are, whoever you are tuning in right now, there’s a neat warrior within you. I challenge that warrior within you to be a source of encouragement today. In the Book of Timothy in the Bible, it says, “Let us build one another up and encourage each other.” That’s Timothy 5:11, 5:11.
Seven. Here’s the challenge my friends. If you choose to accept, go out there today and encourage seven people. Seven different people right now are in need of your word of encouragement, and I believe that your word, baking on the power of momentum, coupled with God’s grace and mercy can change someone’s life.
My friends, until next time, may God bless you and keep you safe. I’ll talk to you again here very, very soon on our next episode together of The Greg Amundson Show. Take care.
Thank you for listening to the show. Please subscribe, rate and share this podcast. You can find more info at gregoryamundson.com. Take care and God bless.
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