Sundays

Like clock work, our ancient dog woke us up again this morning at 5am hacking and gaging like he was 100 years old. Well lets see, 7 years for every dog year, he's 12 or 13, ok so I guess it's more like he's 80 some years old.....but just the same it would have been nice to sleep a little longer. Course everyone knows that sleeping in for us is usually 6am so we really only lost an hour....but it was a VITAL hour!

Because we got to get up so early we got to the gym earlier than usual for a Sunday morning. After an exhilerating workout we made our way to Panera to meet our friend Dixie for breakfast.

Dix is usually waiting for us at Panera but when we got there she wasn't there yet. We ordered our bagels and coffee and still no Dixie. I decided to text her to see if she was still coming to meet us. She responded that her alarm didn't go off and she was on her way.

We meet Dixie nearly every weekend for breakfast on Saturday or Sunday. Our conversations are always great and we laugh so much. It's great sharing life with her and is definitely one of the highlights of our weekends. We've been truely blessed by her friendship.

I should have mowed the lawn when it needed it on Tuesday but didn't and had to mow it today because it was getting pretty long. I thought about bagging it to pick up some of the leaves but talked myself out of it and mulched them right back into the ground. Aren't they suppose to be good for the soil?....that's what I told myself anyway.

Our afternoon was pretty laid back. Lori took a nap and I surfed the net. I was kind of nice to just not have anything to do for a change. Well, there was probably plenty to do but it was nice just not doing any of it.

About 4 o'clock our friends Richard and Reta called and wanted to know if we wanted to meet them for dinner. We ended up meeting them at the East Race and walking for an hour our so. The afternoon, though a little windy, was perfect for a walk. It was unbelievably warm again (yeah global warming!) for October.

After our stroll along the river we made our way to Applebees in Mishawaka for dinner. Our dinner and conversation was great. We love spending time with Richard and Reta.

It was a great Sunday. Good workout. Great weather. And outstanding friends. What more could you ask for!

My new Honda

Yesterday I took delivery on my new Honda Civic ES Coupe. I've never had a car with so many fun options. The color is metallic galaxy gray. It's a really unique color. It looks gray but at times has a brown tint to it. It's an unusual color and I like it!

It's also has a power sun roof. I've never had a sun roof before and today we lucked out with another sunny 75 degree October day so I proudly drove around with my sun roof open.

Another fun thing this car has is that the radio controls are on the steering wheel. One more feature I've never had in a car before. Sad thing is I forget that they're there and I've found myself reaching for the radio knobs evertime I want to adjust the volume or change the station.

I was estatic to find out that this car was MP3 compatable. I can and did plug my IPOD into the adaptor today and was able to listen to my favorite songs. This is so cool! I have wanted to be able to listen to my IPOD in my car forever. I bought one of those adaptors and Wal Mart for my previous car. You know the kind where you dial in a fuzzy FM station and your IPOD is suppose to play through it. DONT BELIEVE IT! They dont' work. It is so awesome that this car is factory compatible. Sad thing is when I got back from lunch I forgot to turn my IPOD off. The battery in it was already low and by the time I left work to go to the gym my IPOD was dead. I was not a happy camper as I having it for working out really helps the time pass. Not so much today.

The dash is very cool. The speedometer is digital which has taken some getting use to, but way cool just the same!

I can't wait to drive it again tomorrow!

REVERB

Last week I was in Atlanta, Georgia with my wife and 26 other staff people from Granger Community Church at the Catalyst REVERB leadership conference. I gleaned a ton of relevant and inciteful information. I was going to write a post about each session that impacted me but I've decided, instead, to just share some of the impactful statements that I noted.


Session 1 "The Most Powerful Person in the Room" Andy Stanley


If God has put you in a place of leadership, you yield power. Power yields influence. Follow 'me' isn't any better than follow 'we' if you don't understand your power from God. What happens when you realize you're the most powerful person in the room....it either makes or breaks a leader. What ever you do says volumes about you and your trust in God.


Your fear of power, or how you've seen power abused may make you the very person God wants to entrust with much power and influence.


Refuse to leverage your power for your own sake but leverage it for other peoples benefit. Leveraging power to only benefit ourselves is declaring that we are greater than our Creator and demonstrates our weakness and now our power. Break the power of self-centeredness of leveraging power to only benefit yourself


Session 2 "The Ministry of Management" Patrick Lencioni

3 signs of a miserable job

Annonymity - when we feel 'unknown' at our jobs is the first sign of job misery. Some of the reasons cited for not needing to invest in the people we work with are:

• we think we're too busy
• we've forgotten what it feels like to be in their stage of career
• we don't want to be disingenuous - I didn't talk to them before,why should I start now?

Irrevelance - Feeling irrevelant occurs when people feel like they don't make a difference in someones life is the second sign of job misery.

Immeasurement - Not having a sense of measuring how they are doing and not being able to fulfill this causes job misery. Measurement is not strictly monitary. People need verbal feedback on how they are doing in their jobs. It gives them an understanding as to whether they are succeeding in their work or not.



Session 3 "Un Christian" Chris Seay, David Kinnaman, Gabe Lyons, Tri Robinson

Today's Christians are being critisized for the similar things the pharisees were saying in respect to their time in history.

'Christians are not righteous but self-righteous' is a growing perception

If you focus on morality, you won't get morality. You can't preach to the people 'go feed the hungry....etc. if without giving people a means to follow through

Session 4 Shane Claiborne


I cannot fully recover until I help the world that made me sick, recover.


Session 5 Francis Chan


Are we willing to help the needy at the risk of our own inconvenience? Is it not better to plant grass and have church on the lawn rather than build a massive sanctuary. Where did Jesus do the bulk of his preaching? Is it not better to do without so that those without can have a roof over their heads?


Session 6 Sunday Adelaja


I didn't take any notes during Sunday's presentation but you have to admire a guy from Nigeria who is called to ministry in the Ukraine and has grown an amazing church there.


Session 7 Rick Warren

If you want God's annointing on your life then you have to get with God's agenda and not your own. Ask God to bless what he wants you to do and not just to bless you.

God's agenda is the church.

God wants us to love the real church, not the ideal church. And then he wants us to serve in it. God is love. We were made to be loved by God. Our hearts are beating today because God loves us. We are Gods' family and God's family is the only thing that will last. Everything else will be eliminated.

Stop trying to create culture. Change culture.

Session 8 John Maxwell

Intentionally add value to people everyday.

The greatest way you can add value is to find your strength gift.

The greatest sin of a leader is putting themselves first.

Sew and don't worry about reaping, it will come automatically.

4 ways to add value to people:

1. You have to value people


2. Make yourself value-able


3. Know and relate to what other people value


4. Do the things that God values

Session 9 "Practical Atheist" Craig Groeschel


We need to be disturbed. God Disturb me. What aren't you doing that you could be doing? What does God want you to do that You walk away from? What sin are you not confessing?


Practical Atheist - someone who believes in God but lives life like he doesn't or doing ministry as if he doesn't


Isaiah 29:13-14 honoring God with your lips but your heart is far from him


Is the way your doing the work of God destroying the work of God within yourself? Have I become a full time minister and a part time believer.


Are my efforts better than God's power? If I just do a good enough job, God will bless it.

When I blame myself for the decline in something, someday I might take credit for the increase.


We believe that our private life doesn't affect our public ministry. God, disturb me.

We believe that we must please people more than we please God. Why do we get nervous, because we afraid what people around us will think, not what God will think.

Session 10 "Making Money Make Kingdom Waves" Dave Ramsey


We are called to manage dangerous things for the kingdom of God.


Stewardship is the management of God's stuff, all of it - time, money....etc.


God will 'reverb' your future when you let him manage it


"Too much month left at the end of the money"


Prosperity is having the money to do God's will in your life.


Session 11 Erwin McManus


I saw Erwin speak at Willow Creek's Leadership Summit 2 years ago and was really looking forward to hearing him speak again. However, I didn't take one note. The one thing that I did take away from his session was his honesty. He made a comment about worship that was bold but real. The words of one worship song say "You're all I need" but Erwin said for him thats not always the case and he often has trouble singing those words. He said more often than not he finds himself needing other things. Aren't we all like that.


Session 12 "Liberating Your Organization" Andy Stanley


Some systems impede ministry. Some systems obstruct leaders. Systems create behaviors


The systems you inherit, adopt, or create impact what your staff and volunteers do.


A family has systems. Andy gave an example of his childrens chore to take out the trash. He had to ask at least 3 times per week for them to take it out. He had created a system that required 3 'asks' which frustrated him. One day he came home and he decided he was taking the trash down to the road. He took one trash can down and was coming back for the second when he son came out and asked what he was doing. Andy said he was taking the trash out. His son replied, "thanks." Andy said, no problem. You don't have to take it out anymore. He son said "really!" Andy said, thats right, but I get your allowance.


Components of a system:

• Expectations/Rules


• Rewards/or lack of


• Consequences/or lack of


• Communication


• Behavior

Whats rewarded is repeated

When something goes wrong the first impulse is to blame the person when in actual reality its a system failure.

An system exercise you can do:

1. list 3 behaviors that you wish characterized your group
2. list one thing that was being done systematically to encourage those behaviors
3. list the things that are being done to encourage wrong behavior
   
   
   

Did we miss our turn?

This past week about 28 of us from GCC went to the Catalyst Leadership conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Since I easily get car sick I volunteered several weeks ago to be one of the designated rental car drivers while we were there.

After a few minor roadblocks at the National counter, we all managed to get our car keys and our designated groups followed us to our car of choice. We had reserved SUV's but our group walked past a Saturn minivan and decided it would work well for us so we hopped in.

What should have been an eventless trip to our hotel became anything but that. Somewhere along the way we took the wrong fork in the road and ended up taking the entire 285 beltway around Atlanta before we got the exit that we actually needed to get to our hotel. What shouls have been a 45 minute drive became about 2 hours. As we pulled in to the Hyatt many of the other in our group were on their way out to dinner.

The next day, Thursday was our first day at the conference. It was suppose to end at 5:30 but went long and it was after 7 pm before we were actually let out. There were 11,000 people at this conference and 11,000 people trying to leave one parking lot all a the same time. We sat in the parking lot for a good 50 minutes before we finally made it out to the road. As if this wasn't bad enough, we misread our directions back to the hotel and again missed a turn. As we tooled down the highway in the dark, we started noting that nothing looked familiar. Before going too much further I pulled into a Walgreens parking lot and ran in to confirm our directions. Now that we were pointed in the right direction, things began to look familiar and we finally made it back to the hotel. We had a group dinner at the hotel that night to debrief on the days events. As you may have imagined, we were late to the the group dinner but fortunately there was some food left for us. We scarfed our food down and started in on the group debrief.

When we arrived at the convention center Friday morning for some reason the traffic directors sent us down to a lower lot. I'm not sure why because there were plenty of parking spaces left where we had parked the previous day but you go where they send you. The parking was actually closer to the center and an exit as well so we thought we had done good! The conference got out on time Friday and we made our way to the minivan. Just as we thought, because we were close to the exit we got right out of the parking lot. Problem was we didn't exit onto the road we entered the convention center on. The street we needed to be on was Sugar Loaf parkway. Lori saw a sign that said Sugar Loaf Circle so we figured it must either run into or be close to Sugar Loaf Parkway and it actually deadended into it. Problem is we turned the wrong way and ended up venturing into more unknown territory. After realizing, once again that things didn't look familiar, we turned around. Land marks became more and more familiar and we were once again going the right way.

This morining we were bound and determined that we were not going to get lost going back to the airport. I went to the front desk and got fresh directions from them and we asked one of the other groups if we could follow them as well. How could anything possibly go wrong! We were on their tail all the way back to the airport. I was so relieved when we entered the airport and thougth to myself we've got it made now. We got to the National lot and I wasn't really sure where we had to turn into so I kept following the car in front of us. But he went past the National lot. Next thing I know we're leaving the rental car area. How can this be happening!! Not long after that Jeff called from the car ahead. They forgot they had to fill up their SUV before returning it. Fortunately all we had to do was follow the signs back to the rental car area as they turned off and went to get gas. Even our best laid plan ended up with a glitch.

The good thing about all of our mishaps was that no one ever got upset about it. We laughed about it and reminded ourselves that we were "making memories!"

Starbucks

My favorite lattes at Starbucks

Iced

• Light ice, nonfat, sugarfree vanilla
• Light ice, nonfat, 4 pumps sugarfree vanilla, 2 pumps peppermint
• Light ice, nonfat, 4 pumps sugarfree vanilla, 2 pumps pumpkin
• Light ice, nonfat, sugarfree carmel

Hot

• Extra hot, non fat, sugarfree vanilla
• Extra hot, non fat, carmel macchiato
• Extra hot, non fat, pumkin

But my ultimate favorite Starbucks favorite season is closing in.....
which means the reintroduction of the Gingerbread latte!!

My least favorite Starbucks

• A mocha in any form - chocolate and coffee should not be mixed!

Forbidden Starbucks...(even though they are delicious)

• Any Frappuccino

what's yours?

Information overload

Information. How do you gage what you feel is important verses what others deem as essential? What is overkill verses pertinent? How do you separate the applicable from worthless? What is helpful and what is a waste of time?

When you're communicating to the masses it's not always so easy to determine. It's easy to take the things that you believe are essential, pertinent, applicable and helpful and impress them upon co-workers, friends, or family. But in reality, they find them to be unimportant, overkill, worthless and a waste of their time.

Information discernment has become a huge challenge for me. All to often, my goal is to pass on information that I'm certain will divert people a potential problem and save them time in the long run. More often than not, however, it's received as overkill and non-essential.

I don't understand why someone would not want preventative information, but I guess everyone is not me. What I perceive to be helpful isn't always useful to the masses. Despite my best intentions to save them from potential grief, I think I just add to it.

As I continue to strive to understand what is applicable across the board I hope to become less reactive and more proactive. But wait, I already thought I was being proactive......apparently not so much!

Rushing things

Today is the first offical day of the Fall season. I'm not too excited about the prospect of cold weather coming. Its been in the upper 70's and low 80's for the past few days and I'm holding on tight to that for sure. No need to rush having to getting the coats out of the closet.

Speaking of rushing things, however. We were at Target today and the west side of the store is where they display seasonal and holiday fare. It's only September 23rd and they had 3 aisles full of halloween costumes and decorations. And right next to those three aisles were three aisles with Christmas cards, decorations and lights!

How much preseason marketing must we endure!

Labor Day Weekend

It's so unlike me to something that is, for the most part, totally unplanned but I did just that this Labor Day weekend. Saturday morning Lori and took off with our friends Richard and Reta to destinations unknown. Well, they were sorta known but we just didn't know which destinations for sure!

Richard and Reta move here a few years ago from Kentucky and have not seen much of Michigan so we decided that we were going to Michigan and drive north and see where we landed. We decided to pack an over night bag as when we left we didn't know how far we'd go nor whether we'd come back or spend the night somewhere. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was perfect. We couldn't have picked a better weekend weather-wise if we'd tried.

Our first stop was South Haven, Michigan. We dined on our picnic lunch at a park near a channel that led into Lake Michigan. We munched away as boats of all sizes traversed the channel. Following lunch we wandered into town and browsed the shops and enjoyed a South Bend Chocolates coffee. It was a great kick off to our adventure.

We piled back into the car and decided that Sleeping Bear Dunes near Traverse City would be our next destination. About 3 hours later we arrived in Glen Arbor, a wonderful little town just outside Traverse City and right on the lake. We had dinner at this great restaurant that had a blue grass band playing on its patio. After dinner we walked down to the beach and skipped stones, well Richard skipped stones cuz none of the rest of us could, into Lake Michigan. We walked down the beach and back through town taking in the all the attributes of this quaint lakeside town.

Once back in the car we made our way to Sleeping Bear Dunes. And quite the dune it was. Tower Hill take a step back. We took one look at how high and how veritcal the dune was and decided the scenic drive was more to our liking. And it was a much faster way to get to the top, although it didn't do much to work off the ice cream we'd had after dinner. The views of the dunes and the lake were spectacular from the look out point at the top of the dune. Reta and Lori snapped some pictures with their digital cameras and back to the car we went.

By now it was getting dark so we decided to find a hotel and spend the night in Traverse City. Little did we know that every hotel in town seemed to be full. I remembered that my Choic Privileges Visa has a reservations number on it so I pulled it out and checked to see if there were any rooms available in Cadillac, the next closest town. Bingo! They found a hotel and I took the rooms. We got to the hotel and went our separate ways to CRASH!

Saturday morning we woke up to sunshine and a bright blue cloudless sky. We packed up the car and headed off to Ludington. We headed straight to the beach when we arrived. Reta and Lori were feverishly snapping pictures with their cameras as Richard and I made our way to the long pier leading out to a light house. We kept watching what appeard to be a huge kite in the sky. It was fairly windy and this "kite" was flying all over the place. As we made our way up on to the pier we found out that it wasn't a kite but a guy wind sailing on the other side. We stood their mesmorized by his abilites for several minutes. It was amazing how he could control the kite part and ski along the water flawlessly. There were times when the wind would blow hard enough that he'd be lifted several feet into the air and then come crashing back down into the water but never loosing his balance or falling down into the water. He would sail into the shore and then manuever the kite somehow so that he would go back out into the lake. Back and forth, back and forth. My arms and legs ached just watching him.

We found our way back to the car and had to make a crucial stop at the Starbucks that we passed on the way into Ludington. Latte's in hand we were on our way to Grand Haven for lunch.

As we entered Grand Haven we started seeing several chain restaurants that we could have lunch at but Reta thought it would be nice to have lunch at local place so we ventured down to the waterfront. At the waterfront we found a few places to eat along the channel so we parked and decided to check things out. We decided on a pizza and grinders place. While Richard and I waited for the food the girls went out to the boardwalk area to snag a table for us. During our weight for the sandwiches a huge freighter went down the channel on its way out into Lake Michigan. I believe that was the biggest boat I've ever seen in my life. We snarfed down lunch and made our way to the ice cream shoppe next door. Our addiction to ice cream took over and before you knew it we were all enjoying the specialty of the house, a cone filled with chocolate and peanut butter swirl. After strollling down the board walk and admiring the boats that were docked we decided it was time to hit the road once again.

The drive from Grand Haven to home seemed the longest leg of our entire journey. We were all getting pretty tired and the drone of the drive and the hot sun beating down into the car didn't help. We arrived back at our house around 4:15 pm and were wiped out. While Lori and I went to pick up our dog from the kennel, Richard and Reta stretched out in our living room to rest from the long drive.

We ended our weekend with dinner at the Mishawaka Brewing Company and ice cream at Ritters. Have you ever seen 4 people consume so much ice cream in your life. The longer we sat at Ritters the more tired each one of us began to look. We decided it was time to call it a weekend and piled into our separate cars and made our way to our homes.

What an awesome weekend. Great friends. Neverending laughter. God's outrageous landscape. What more could we have asked for!

Leadership Summit - DAY ONE - Session II

Willow Creek's Leadership Summit (http://www.willowcreek.com/) kicked off today and I, once again had the privilege of being the producer for our satellite location at Granger Community Church (http://www.gccwired.com/).

In session II of the Summit, Bill Hybels interviewed Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard (HP). Fortune named her “The Most Powerful Woman in Business” and she was recruited to be chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard—the first female CEO of a Fortune 20 company—with a mandate to shake things up. And then her story really gets interesting. Carly Fiorina led HP through major internal changes, the worst technology slump in decades, and the most controversial merger in high-tech history. Yet just as things were about to turn around, she was abruptly fired, making front page news around the world.

This was a very compelling session and I was glued to the screen. Although there was a abundance of great leadership information that unfolded from this interview, Carly's differentiation between management and leadership stuck out the most for me. She said that management is about getting the job done within predefined constraints. This is what it takes, these are the steps....this is the predicted outcome. Leadership is facing the fear of failure and creating a vision of where you can go.

Where is the influence, the leadership potential I could have. short changed because I've opted for the prescribed management style? I going to take some time over the next few days to reflect and identify the fears that confine the potential opportunities and how they can be redirected into a vision blossoming with potential.

How incredible that tonite at our mid week service we had a guest speaker from National Community Church(http://theaterchurch.com/) in Washington, DC., Mark Batterson. He spoke on his book "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day," a book on overcoming adversity and fear in your life. What a tie in with Carly Fiorina.

God is listening. God is speaking.

Rub a dub dub, Lori in the tub

Our last night in Minnesota found us staying at a Quality Inn's and Suites on our adventure to the Mall of America. The room was "Ginormous!" and the best part was it was free because of points we'd earned.

I showered and went down to the lobby to get some coffee while Lori got into the tub to get cleaned up for the day. When I got back I parked in a chair and was flipping through channels on the tv and drinking my coffee when it happened. The fire alarm in our room went off!

I scared the crap out of me. My hand holding the cup of coffee jerked and coffee spilled all over the chair I was sitting in (but none on me...yeah!!!). It was so loud. I got up and went to the bathroom to see what Lori was doing and she was still in the tub, shaving her legs! I asked her if she was going to get out ...."what if someone comes down here from the front desk?" So instead of getting out she shaved faster!

I told Lori I didn't see any smoke or fire but was going down to the front desk to see what to do. She continued to shave her legs at mach 1 speed.

When I got to the front desk there was no one there. I started yelling..."hello...hello" and finally an older gentleman who accent made his english barely understandable came from across the hall. I explained what was happening but he seemed to care less. I told him I didn't see any smoke or a fire. He shrugged his shoulders and asked if I'd just take an shower and maybe it was the steam. By now I cannot believe this guy doesn't care. I can hear the alarm going off from all the way down the hall and he is doing nothing. Finally he said he would call a technician (whatever a technician is) and he would send them down to the room. I left and went back to the room.

By now "shaving girl" was out of the tub and dressed but he extremely loud alarm was still going off. I sat down and finished what coffee was left in my cup and waited for Lori to finish getting ready to leave. It stopped. What a relief. We packed up our stuff and headed out.

The same guy to whom I reported the alarm to checked us out. But not until we started to walk away did he say anything about the alarm. Also behind the counter at this time was a woman, apparently the manager. She spoke up and said she was going to come down but it stopped so she didn't.

Fortunately we found an Einstein's Bagle shop with some delicious vanilla hazelnut coffee. All was right with the world once again.

Customer Service......or the lack there of (pt4)

After my last post about the service I was getting from Verizon Wireless I didn't think I'd have a part 4 to this nightmare, but I do.

Thursday morning of this past week Verizon topped themselves once again. As we were getting ready to leave on our get-away weekend to Minnesota, I picked up my phone to make a call. After pressing send I got a recording from Verizon saying to stay on the line and that I would be transferred to Financial Services.

When Verizon Financial Services came on the line they wanted to know if I wanted to make a payment right then. I asked why because my bill wasn't due until the end of the month. The financial services rep advised that my service had been suspended for lack of payment. I was livid! Not more than 3 days ago did they finally credit my checking account for money they had no business taking, now they were saying I was late and cut off my service.....and, and...they were going to charge me a reconnection fee. ARRRRRGGGHHH!

I explained, AGAIN, all of what transpired over the past 2 1/2 months (which I remined the person ont the phone that all of it should be noted on my account) and that none of it was my fault. She then took the time to read the notes on my account and said she would remove the reconnect fee and I would have service restored in30 minutes. I demanded to speak to a supervisor about what had happened. Of course this meant 10 minutes of Verizon commercials while I waited on hold. I'm convinced the supervisors must be on another planet and they have to beam up and get them and come back. When the supervisor came on the line I said I wanted it noted on my account that none of this was any error of mine and asked for an email confirmation of that. She told me that she doesnt' email but she would give me her employee number. Unbelievable!

I am so tempted to pay the $174 to have this account closed and move to another provider. On a credibility scale of 1 to 10 (1 being low), Verizon has about a .5 with me right now.

Pump up the volume

This is the second really dumb thing I've done this week. It's a good thing I'm taking a pseudo-vacation long weekend this weekend.

We have this really cool thing at work with voice mail. Instead of it going to our phones its set up to go to our email. For the past couple of days when I've received an voice email there hasn't been any sound. The first time I just wrote it off to a wrong number and they didn't hang up but then it happened a couple more times and I thought this just can't be coincidence.

Today I receive another "soundless" voice mail so I decided to put in a support ticket to our IT people to get some resolution. I prefaced my email with the known fact that I am hardware challenged so if it was something I could check and they told me where to check it I'd be happy to and save them a trip down to my office.

After putting the support ticket in, I decided to crawl around under my desk to see if anything had been disconnected. I was able to find all the right cords and cables and it was all hooked up. I thought it probably was as there is a green light on the speakers and its been on all along.

I don't know what made me think of this but my eyes focused in on the volume button on the lower right of my screen. Sure enough there was a red circle with a line through it over the top on it. Sudden and unbelievable embarassment rushed through my body. How stupid can I be!

Instantaneously I started an email to support that said "Disregard my previous email on sound from voice mails.......You don't want to know."

Customer Service......or the lack there of (pt 3)

I have some, ok it's miniscule, faith restored in Verizon. After countless calls made to customer service to rectify the auto bill payment they erroneoulsy took out of my checking account.....and after numerous promises to re-credit my checking account.....and after waiting 15+ days to receive the credit.....it was actually posted to my account this morning.

Rest assured, my days of auto bill pay will Verizon has come to an end. From here forward they'll get their money when I send it to them and not when the want to take it.

Thank's Verizon. Although it took much longer than it should, you finally came through.

Strike while the iron's hot....

Always trying to utilize my time to the utmost, after getting home from working out Friday I decided that I would catch up on some of my ironing until Lori got home from Manowe. She actually called while I was ironing so I was trying to cock my head so that I could be hands free to iron and then, duh, I forgot I had speaker phone. Lori arrived home not long after our call and I wrapped up the shirt I was ironing and we took off to go out for dinner.

Fast forward to Sunday evening. Over the weekend we did several more loads of laundry which meant there were several more things to be ironed. We'd been gone much of the day and when we got home around 5pm I decided I'd go up and do my ironing before having some dinner. When I got up stairs I stood in disbelief. The iron had never been unplugged since Friday night. And furthermore, its doesn't have an automatic shut off. Talk about God being on the look out for our well being!

Lori happened to be upstairs when I finished what I had to iron. I passed her on the way to our closet to hang up what I'd ironed and said, "I opted to unplug the iron this time!"

The $20,000 watch

When I arrived at the gym yesterday afternoon and made my way to the locker room there was a guy in there on the phone. I've seen this guy a zillion times at the gym and we always say "Hi" to each other and maybe join in some surfacy conversation about the weather. As I'm getting dressed I can telll by the tone of his voice he is very angry. I bent over to tie my shoes and apparently he had been put on hold at that point. He looked at me and said "you'd think when you buy a $20,000 watch you could get it serviced without so much hassle!" I responded "you'd think" and returned to my shoes. I mean, really, how do you respond to something like that? He rolled his eyes and about that time was taken off hold. His much aggitated and aggrivated conversation continued.

We started a tithing series at church last weekend called "Deal or No Deal." First of all, either you believe that God owns everything or you don't. I do. And if he owns everthing then I am just a steward of the resources He provides to me. If He says that its my duty to take a portion of what He provides and reinvest that in His church then I believe that is what I should do. However, not everyone believes this, perhaps because they're afraid, they don't understand or they just don't want to.....I dunno.


Last weekend our senior pastor made a huge ask of our attendees. He asked them in two weeks to make a committment to tithe 10% on that weekend. To some people 10% is a huge amount for them to give up to others its a drop in the bucket. Either way it means giving up something.


I was reading the book of Haggai and I came across these verses:



2A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies: "The people procrastinate. They say this isn't the right time to rebuild my Temple, the Temple of God." 3-4Shortly after that, God said more and Haggai spoke it: "How is it that it's the 'right time' for you to live in your fine new homes while the Home, God's Temple, is in ruins?" 9-11"And why?" (This is a Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, remember.) "Because while you've run around, caught up with taking care of your own houses, my Home is in ruins. That's why. Because of your stinginess. And so I've given you a dry summer and a skimpy crop. I've matched your tight-fisted stinginess by decreeing a season of drought, drying up fields and hills, withering gardens and orchards, stunting vegetables and fruit. Nothing—not man or woman, not animal or crop—is going to thrive."

The people the prophet Haggai is addressing seem to be so consumed by "keeping up with the Jones'" that they've totally neglected returning any part of what they have to build God temple. How different is the world today? Not much.

I remember when we first committed to tithing. It was scary. It was a risk. But in the second chapter of Malachi God says go ahead test me and just see if I don't take care of you.

"The tithe and the offering—that's how! And now you're under a curse —the whole lot of you—because you're robbing me. Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams. For my part, I will defend you against marauders, protect your wheat fields and vegetable gardens against plunderers." The Message of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

I don't necessarily think this means that God is going to pour buckets of money on you if you tithe, but He might. Who am I to say? But I do know that you will get blessed because we have been blessed abundantly over and over and not just with money. We've never went without food nor shelter. I've always been able to pay my bills. And I have more savings that I ever dreamed I would. God will take care of you if you tithe. It's a promise.

I can't say that Mr $20,000 watch doesn't tithe. I have no idea. But I do know how easy it is to get consumed by what the world tells you is important and what really is important to God. Been there, done that. So don't let your $20,000 watch stand in the way of giving back to God what is due Him. You'll get some much more than an expensive watch back in return.

contact in the shower

Finished a milestone workout Sunday morning. I made it a record 6.5 miles. I headed for the locker room to shower and go to Panera for a bagel and coffe with Lori and our friend Dixie. When I finished showering I grabbed my towel on the hook just outside the stall and started to dry my face. As I rubbed the towel across my eye lids I realized that I'd used too much force and I could feel my contact come out and it was on my eyelashes. I quickly wrapped the towel around my waist and headed for the mirror above the sink across the room.

As I was on my way I was trying to dislodge the contact from my lid and lashes but wasn't having much luck. When I made to the sink I put my face as close to the mirror as I could to see where the contact was lodge in my eye. During my attempts to get it off my eye it fell to the counter top. Of course I couldn't see it. I'm searching around the counter top and finally find it. With no solution to clean it the only option I had was to run it under some cold water and put it back on my eye. As I'm putting it back on my eye, my towel comes loose and falls to the floor. The contact is still not in my eye and my towel is on the floor. Choices...choices!

I pryed my eye open and stuck the contact on as quick as I could and immediately dove to the floor to get the towel. Quickly, I wrapped it around my waist and walked back over to my locker as if nothing ever happened.

Note to self, only pat dry face when contacts are in or pay the price!

Smokin' fireworks

After we'd had breakfast at Panera Sunday morning we headed over to Super Target to browse around. Just inside at the end of the never-ending row of checkouts (that I've never seen all open at one time) was a fire works display. Lori stopped and was pointing at and cracking up.

Posted in front of the display was a no-smoking sign. Yah think!

Isn't Target non-smoking anyway!

Can I take your order?

Lori and I went to a local restaurant the we frequent quite often for lunch. The place was virtually deserted when we went entered. Shortly after we seated ourselves the waitress took our order and brought our beverages.

Not long after that another family came in and asked if they could get served if they sat outside. The response of the waitress peaked my interest. She replied that she would prefer they not sit outside because she was the only one working. I was dumbfounded by her response. Lori and I were the only other people in the place.

I just completed a book entitled "You don't need a title to be a leader" by Mark Sanborn. In the book he speaks of a situation in which a customer went into a diner to have breakfast but had previously purchased a cup of coffee at a STARBUCKS, or something like that, and had brought it in with them. The waitress in the restaurant told the customer that they were not allowed to bring coffee in from another establishment. The customer took his STARBUCKS and left. Mark suggested that the better response from the waitress would have been since we don't allow customers to bring in coffee from other places, let me pour that coffee into one of our cups so that you can enjoy it while you have breakfast.

I think the waitress in the restaurant Lori and I were at today could have taken a more proactive, positve response to the request of the customers wanting to be served outside. She could have said that they certainly could enjoy their food outside, however since she was the only one working, if the dining room got very busy it may take a few extra moments for her to get outside and tend to their needs. It was a beautiful day outside. I don't think the customer would have had a bit of problem with that response.

I'm just stunned at the decline of service that is given today. Every day it seems that it becomes an its more about "me" world than what can I do to make your life better.

Customer Service...or the lack there of (pt 2)

So Friday came and still no credit to my checking account for the erroneous withdrawl that Verizon made as a payment. So once again I called customer service. As I was waiting for someone to pick up the call Verizon's recorded customer service pledge was playing over and over. It said that Verizon's objective was to solve your problem the first time you report it. Ha! Finally a customer service rep answered the phone. After a brief discription from me as to what had transpired, again, she apoloigised, again.

Then she put me on hold so that she could read all of the notes that had been put on my account. She came back to the line and said it would take about 30 minutes for her to research the problem and wanted to know if she could call me back. I was going to the gym and wasn't going to be available for about 90 minutes so she agreed to call then.

The 90 minutes turned into about 100 minutes but she called. She advised that the paper work to generate the credit back to my checking account had never been filled out nor processed since I originally reported the problem on Tuesday. What was that customer service objective I heard on the recording...."fix it the first time!" apparently not so much! She apologised again and said that her supervisor was right there with her and that they would submit the paper work and some action should be taken on Monday. I asked for a call back on Monday so that a status of the situation could be determined.

So we'll see what Monday brings!

Home Improvment

As I was driving to work this morning I passed a truck for a local home improvement company. The side of the truck was adverstising the name of the company- ConCreation. I chuckled to myself as it turned off on a side road.....if they really want business to multiply....shouldn't they rename it ProCreation! ..........Ba dah bup bup!

Customer Service or the lack there of....

About a month an 1/2 ago I ordered a new phone from Verizon for my wife. A day or so after I ordered the phone I decided to look at my account online and found a new phone number had been added. Apparently when I ordered the phone something got screwed up and Verizion added a new line along with the phone. Her new phone came a few days after that and a day after her phone arrived, yet a second phone came. I had called Verizon when I saw that the bogus line had been added to our account and now had to call them back about the extra phone. I was instructed on how to return the phone and was assured that my account would be credited for the line and the phone.

I had signed up for automatic payments for my Verizon bill back in February. It actually was working out quite nice. They debited my checking every month on the same day and it was one less bill I had to remember to pay. I decided because of all of the screw ups with my account that I didn't want my June bill to be auto debited because I was afraid they would take the incorrect amount.

The June bill came and it was less than $20. I paid it this past weekend. Today, I logged on to get my Comcast emails and saw an email from Verizon. When I opened it it said that my June bill of $98 would be debited from my account on Tuesday. Sure enough when I checked my bank account it had been deducted. So had the payment I'd made over the weekend.

You betcha I was on the phone to Verizon pronto! The customer service rep advised that if an account was set up on the autopay that sometimes it takes two months to stop it. I said that isn't what I was told and now there wasn't going to be enough for my mortgage payment when it was deducted. Again the Verizon rep apologise but restated that there wasn't anything she could do. I could feel my blood pressure begin to rise. The rep kept telling me that my credit would carry over to my July bill. I said that was find and dandy but I didn't have an extra $98 to make up for the difference until next month. Nonetheless, the rep maintained she could do nothing about it.

I was maxed out on patience. I asked if I could speak to a supervisor. She asked me to hold. I waited for about 5 minutes and she came back to the phone. Her supervisor wasn't available but she said she was going to issue a credit back to my checking account and said it should be effective before noon. So I'm thinkin' to myself, "thought you couldn't do anything!" She then asked for a phone number that I could be reached at to confirm that the credit had been issued.

By 3:45 this afternoon I still hadn't received a call back so I called Verizon back. Of course I had to explain the entire story including what transpired today to the new customer service rep that answered the phone. She too put me on hold and then came back to the phone after 5 minutes. This customer service rep apologised (the sure know how to do that!) and said that it takes 48 to 72 hours for the credit to get applied to my checking account. She assured me that it would show up on my account by Friday at the latest. I thanked her and ended the call.

I wonder how many people just take the word of the first customer service rep that I spoke with who insisted that there was nothing she could do until I pushed a little harder. What is up with customer service! Why should I have had to ask to speak to a supervisor to finally get some action that could have been taken care of in the first place. I'm locked into a contract but I will definitely consider a different provider once it comes to an end.

Won't you be....my neighbor

Lori and I are sitting at Panera this morning having a bagel and reading the Sunday paper. A woman walks in the door smiling and mouths "hello." I assume she is looking past me to someone sitting behind me. Lori looks at me and says "do you know her?" I said I have no idea and thought she must have been saying hi to someone behind me. Lori said she was looking right at us. I shrugged and went back to the paper. A few moments later I looked up and there was a man standing with the woman who'd just come in. It was then that the light bulb came on. They were our neighbors who live directly across the street from us. How sad is that. We've lived across the street from this couple for 9 years and I didn't even recognize them.

Of course, after I recognized him I said hello to both of them and said how sad it was when you don't even recognize someone who lives right across the street from you. We all laughed and then went back to what we were doing.

I think it was about a year, maybe 2 years ago, we'd gotten a floral delivery at our house. It was for a neighbor and the delivery person asked if they could leave at our house because the people the flowers were for weren't home. I waited a while and called the phone number on the card of the people who should have received the flowers to see if they could come pick them up. They answered the phone and I gave them my address and they said they would be there in a few minutes to pick up the flowers. A few minutes passed and there was a knock at the door. It was this same guy from Panera this morning. He'd drove up and down our street trying to find our house not even realizing that I was right across the street. Again...isn't amazing how you can live 500 feet from someone and not even realize that you do.

As we walked out of Panera this morning, our neighbors were sitting at one of the outside tables. We stopped and had one of those surface-y 'how's life' kinda conversations. We talked about the weather, our dog, their dog....etc. We bid our farewells and went to our car.

As we were driving home I said to Lori, "we should invite them over for coffee sometime, we know they drink it now!"

Relationships. It means being intentional.

Two by two

Lori and I had the opportunity to attend a special private viewing of "Evan Almighty" last week while were at the Willow Creek Art's Conference. We're typically not big movie fans. Once in a while we'll rent something but rarely go to the theater. But, hey, we were out of town and it was a great opportunity to spend time with some friends.

The theater wasn't far from Willow but we opted to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory at Woodfield Mall first. We had to watch our time as we had a further distance to get to the theater and we're talkin' Chicago traffic. All was good until we decided to order dessert. But c'mon....who can go the Cheesecake Factory and not have cheesecake. It was delicious but it also made us get to the theater about 15 minutes later than we wanted but everything worked out fine. We got great seats and saw a awesome movie.

Morgan Freeman plays God again in this movie and does a phenominal job. Steve Carrells (The Office) does an awesome job in his Noah-like role. The movie is well written and very funny. I don't recall any language or nor any other objectional content.

One of the very thought provoking nuggets was was when Morgan Freeman, posing as a waiter in a diner, was talking to Evan’s wife about life’s struggles and how God will put us in the midst of something we struggle with to see how we will react and grow from the situation. Do we take the high road, the path that God desires us to take, or do we take the low road and try to deal with a situation like we assume it needs to be dealt with only to find more struggle and disappointment.

Hollywood did good on this one! I recommend you see it whe it opens this Friday and come back and tell me what you thought.

weekend recap

Reflective, insightful, contemplative and maybe even a little pensive are just a few of the words that describe the weekend service at GCC (Granger Community Church) this weekend. Last week ended a 5 week series on the enemy that lurks within us. Topics included temptation, revenge, selfishness, insecurity and gossip. All of those topics were somewhat culminated giving us all an opportunity to ponder how all of those things are affecting our lives.


I think most of us, I know its true for me, hear that little voice inside our heads telling me what the right choice in all things that we do and say. Yet it can be so easily cast aside and ignored.

A common scripture weaved into the message was Romans 7: 14 -16.....

I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise......

There is no doubt how quickly I can get caught up in "me" and when I allow that to happen I'm only opening the door and giving the "enemy within" a prime, tactical position. When life becomes all about me, temptations, bitterness, selfishness and insecurity begin to fester and the road out of the land of "me" seems unsurpassable.


This weekend reminded me how I have to guard myself from the "enemy within." But it seems that I often live in the land of "me" and only vacation outside of it. Kind of reminds me of the lyrics to Hotel California..."you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave"

But I have a way out.

Romans 7:24-25 24 I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? 25The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different


....because people matter. Because I matter.

Renaissance Man

So, I've been in Chicago with my wife for the last 3 days attending a conference on using Arts in the church. We were staying in this really nice hotel. The guest rooms were much plusher than the hotels where I usually stay. The king size bed had a "comfy" pillow top mattress. There was a large flat screen tv on the bureau. Next to the complimentary coffee and coffee maker was bottle water in glass bottles imported from Norway (course it was clearly marked $4.00 on each bottle). The bathroom had a tv in the mirror. Nothing like shaving and catching the morning news all at the same time. And there was even a STARBUCKS in the lobby.

Last night, after a long day at the conference Lori and I returned to our room around 9:30pm. When the light flooded into the room when I opened the door it was obvious the bed had never been made. I flipped on the light and it was quite evident the room had not been cleaned. I opened the door to the bathroom and the towels we used in morning were still in the basket that was provided for used towels. The entire day had gone by and our room was never cleaned! I just stood there in disbelief.

I walked over to the phone and called the front desk to let them know what had happened. Of course they were very sorry and wanted to know if we wanted the room cleaned right then. We were very tired and I wasn't in the mood to wait for someone to come tidy up what should have been tidied up hours before we returned so I declined. The person at the front desk offered to send up some clean towels and I said that would be nice and hung up.

We waited and waited .............and waited and still there was no knock at the door. Finally after 30 minutes had passed I called the front desk again. Once again the clerk was very sorry and advised that she would bring the towels herself and shortly thereafter the knock at the door came.

Fast forward to this morning. I got up around 6am and found the room bill had been shoved under the door and was laying on the floor in an envelope. After showering and going down to the STARBUCKS to get my much needed coffee, I told Lori I was going to go check out while she finished getting ready. She asked if I was going to say anything about the room not being cleaned and I said that was my plan.

I get down to the front desk and am greeted by a friendly young man who asked if I was checking out. I said I was, set my STARBUCKS cup on the ledge separating us, but also said I had something that I would like him to address. When I had finished telling him about the status of the room when we returned last night he offered to take the $15 charge off of the bill for the one day of internet access and he'd give me coupons for a free STARBUCKS. I looked at him and said I appreciated the fact that he wanted to accomodate my, but we paid over $150 per night for this room in, what I considered a more upscale hotel, wouldn't you think our room would be clean when we returned? And then I said that I already had STARBUCKS, and pointed to my cup. He looked at the bill again and said he would be right back and disappeared into the back room.

A few moments later he returned and said that they were not only going to refund my one day internet access but they were also going to take 25% off my charge for last nights stay. I thanked him for the efforts that he made to rectify my issues and took the new bill back up to the room as he also advised that if checked out I wouldnt be able to get back into the room.

I didn't want to make a bigger deal out of this than it was but I did want to get my point across. Addtionally, I was quite impressed that the front desk clerk took the time to make it right with me. He had several options. He could have just apologised and done nothing. He could have said that his original offer of removing the internet access charge and the free STARBUCKS was the best he could do, or a variety of other things. But he didn't do any of those things. He chose to go above and beyond to ensure my satisfaction and that isn't something you often get in todays world. Thank you Marriott Renaissance.

Other duties as assigned....

I am not, and I emphasize the NOT, a guy who is mechanically inclined and most definitely 'carpenter-ly challenged. I only bought my first hammer about 8 years ago. My wife would confirm that if anything needs to be done from a repair or construction standpoint at home, we'll be paying someone to do it.

My church, Granger Community Church(GCC) (www.gccwired.com) has recently taken on an endeavor to renovate some buildings in the near downtown area of South Bend and its called the Monroe Circle Community Center (MC3). It will house a food pantry, alternative school....etc. Much renovation is going on at MC3 and there is an outstanding request for anyone who wants to volunteer to help to "come on down."

Although I've thought of helping, my obvious lack of construction skills has prevented me from taking that next step......that is until this morning.

I arrived at work this morning around 7:15 am (which happens to be at GCC) and was organizing my day. One of our facility care workers , Phil, appeared in my doorway and said there was someone here wanting to deliver windows. "Windows," I said. "Wouldn't a window delivery be for MC3?" I walked out to the reception area with Phil to talk with the delivery man.

The delivery man thought as well that the windows probably went downtown, but said this was the address he was given. He said he was going back out to his truck to make some calls. I said I'd go back to my office and see who I could contact to get more information.

I was able to reach Theresa, the GCC onsite project leader, for the MC3 project. She was able to give me the phone number of Mark, the MC3 onsite project leader. I phoned Mark who advised he'd been waiting for the delivery of windows for 45 minutes and was going to have to leave because he had another meeting he couldn't miss. I said if it would help, I could drive downtown and let this delivery person in to the building. Mark was elated as they wanted to get these windows installed this coming weekend and if he left the installaiton would obviously be delayed.

Mark advised he'd hide a key for me and I could unlock the door and let the window delivery man in when I got arrived. I went out to the parking lot to tell the delivery man what was going on and he was driving out of the parking lot. I quickly called Mark back and advised him of what had happened. He said he'd call the window company and get the guy re-routed downtown if I'd still come down. I said I'd be happy to come down.

As I was driving downtown it occurred to me that I've never been down to MC3 and I really wasn't exactly sure where I was going. I hoped I was going to what I thougth was the right place. Mark told me on the phone where he would hide the key for me to unlock the building. Ok, I'd be lying if I didn't say I was freaking out just a little. As I said, I really wasn't certain where I was going and what I was in for once I arrived. Is the back of the building in an alley, can people see me? Chicken, yes. I decided I was staying in the car until the delivery truck arrived.

When I arrived at MC3 the window delivery guy was already there waiting for me to let him in.

As I mentioned, Mark told me where he would hide the key he was leaving but when I got there outside of the building all looked the same. After some minmal effort I finally found the key and unlocked the door. I walked in and was astounded at the work that had been going on inside. For a building that appeared somewhat rundown on the outside, I could tell that the inside was on it's way to being a spectacular place with an incredible future.

When I went back outside the delivery guy had his truck backed up and the back opened, displaying a truckload of windows to unload. He started bringing them down the ramp and I asked if it was ok if I could help. He said certainly. I was a little apprehensive at first as I thought it he drops one of the windows he's liable...if I drop one of them....yikes! But I picked a window up under each arm and marched down the ramp. Here goes nothin!

The further back in the truck, the bigger the windows got. As the last set of the medium sized windows were brought in I realized that there was a door to the outside in the room in which we were storing the windows. I said "guess we could have been bringing them in through here, would have been a lot easier!" And I opened the door for the remaining windows that had to be brought in. It was a good thing as they were double hung (I think thats the right terminology for 2 windows side by side.....see I told you lack of construction skills!). As we were carrying the double hung windows down the ramp it occurred to me that flip flops were not the preferred choice of footware when moving windows and I hoped they wouldn't cause me to fall. Yeah, I didnt!

As we carried the last few windows in we were talking about this and that. I learned his name was Trent and he grew up in Canada. He asked how long I'd worked at GCC and what I did. I said I'd been there about 3 months and I was the office administrator and HR person.......and as we wrapped up....I looked at him and said....and other duties as assigned!

Temptations that Click

We're currently in a series of messages at church entitled "The Enemy Within." Two weeks ago the message was about temptation. There is no one who doesn't face some kind of temptation in their life. We have the choice to cave in to the temptation or walk away.

"Run away, run away, run away and save your life. Run away, run away, run away if you want to survive. Run away, run away, run away and save your life. Run away, run away, run away if you want to survive.....Money, sex, in full control, a generation without soul, Perfect people in a perfect world, behind closed doors all in control, Life, in a world of luxury, cold cash money mentality, You gotta keep the faith, you gotta keep the faith, You better keep the faith and run away" Real McCoy


This past weekend I rented the movie called "CLICK" with Adam Sandler. I like comedies and thought this would be a fun and light hearted flick to watch. How wrong was I! The premise of the movie (my apologies to those who haven't see it) is that Sandler's character gets a TV remote control that allows him to pause, rewind and fast forward his life or things surrounding his life. As you can imagine, it gets out of control. He begins to fast forward past the things in life that he doesn't want to deal with. The temptation to continue to fast forward gets so intense as the movie goes on that he eventually ends up losing his wife and his life. However, there is a surprise ending I won't let you in on

The movie really made me think a lot about my life and who I am and some of the similarities between me and Sandler's character in the movie. Avoidance, especially when conflict may be the outcome, is one of the classic temptations that plagues me. How many things have I left unadressed in my life because of my temptation to avoid whatever it might be if there was the potential for disagreement. What does that mean when it comes to sticking up for what I believe? The more I pondered it, the more depressing it became.

What must God think of me when the temptation to avoid situations in my life consume me. How do I make him feel when I cave into other temptations that I should have walked away from


"Run away, run away, run away and save your life. Run away, run away, run away if you want to survive. Run away, run away, run away and save your life. Run away, run away, run away if you want to survive...." Real McCoy

This week I was reading Jonah 1 and once again God hit me where it hurts and spoke great truth into me. God told Jonah to go one way and Jonah ran in the opposite direction. More often than I want to admit, I choose my own desires over God's desires for me which always leads to regret. Just as Jonah did, I run in the opposite direction, not wanting to face the challenge that You has been placed before me.

"If you point your feet in this direction, you'll never end up over here..." Mark Beeson

God knows that temptation is going to overwhelm and overcome me and that I'll end up succumbing to it more than I want. That's why he sent Jesus. And just like a sponge, Jesus absorbs that which I am too weak to resist. Sin. And I'm forgiven.

God's response is summed up nicely in the lyrics from this Christina Aguilera song entitled "Hurt"

....I would hold you in my arms, I would take the pain away, thank you for all you've done
forgive all your mistakes, There's nothing I wouldn't do, To hear your voice again, Sometimes I want to call you but I know you won't be there


The last line is the killer though. "Sometimes I want to call you but I know you won't be there." It's then that I need Him the most. When I get entrapped by temptation, I only fulfill more temptation when I turn away from the One who can save me from it.

Run away, run away, run away if you want to survive.... Real McCoy

I do want to survive. I believe that, yes, there are indeed things that I need to run away from. But I also don't believe that God wants me to run into and face head on no matter the degree of difficulty. I need to find reassurance that He will guide me through.

Ain't no other man, can stand up next to you, Ain't no other man on the planet does what you do....Christina Aguilera

There's no "I" in team

I think that Lori and I do a good job of pitching in together at home to get things done. When laundry needs to be done, we both do it. When dusting and vacuuming needs to be done, we both do it. When cleaning the kitchen needs to be done, we both do it. For the most part I don't think that either of think any particular chore has a hard and fast assignment to either of us. Of course there are things that each of us just normally do but I know that if it needed to be done and the one of us that didn't usually do that chore would do it.

Last night it was confirmed to me how much we are committed to each other and how we step up to helping each other. Mowing the lawn is definitely not one of my favorite things to do. I love a highly manicured and landscaped lawn, I just don't want to be the one who makes it that look that way. Problem is that I'm so particular about the way the lawn looks I don't like to just cut the grass and walk away from it. At a minimum of extra effort, there is the trimming and blowing the clippings off the side walks and patio that needs to be done each time the lawn is mowed.

One of the things that causes me to resent mowing the lawn is that it takes away from the time I can spend with Lori in the evening. It takes a good 90 minutes to cut the grass and complete the peripherals associated with it. By the time you get home from work and start on the project it's near 7pm before you're finished.

Last night not only was I faced with cutting the grass but we had to go to Niles immediately after work to pick up Lori's car as it had had some warranty work done on it at the dealers. So instead of getting home at around 5pm I didn't get home until closer to 6. However, I quickly changed clothes and cranked up the mower.

I was about 3/4 of the way completed when I happpened to go past the side of the garage. Lori was in the front of the garage untangling the extension cord for for the blower as she was going to blow off the walks and drive way out in the front of the house for me. I was so caught of guard by this. I stopped dead in my tracks and waited for her to look up. When she did I mouthed "I love you" over the roar of the mower and she smiled back. I was overcome by the time I got to the back yard. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I was blown away once again by what an awesome gift God had given me as a wife. She knew how much I didn't like to do what I was doing and she came to help bail me out. No natter what it is, we work together to get it done.

The tears never came. Now that would be a sign of weakness! But the potential was there. I finished mowing the lawn with a smile on my face knowing how much she loves me and knowing how much I love her. And remembering, for us there is no "I" in team.

Sprinkle Sprinkle little Star

For the past several years I've had Wissco come and blow out our sprinkler system in the fall and turn it back on in the spring. It's actually an expensive process but knowing my abilities, or more like lack there of when it comes to stuff like that I thought it best.

Two years ago there was an independant sprinkler guy blowing out our neighbors system and he asked if I'd like to get ours done. I'd already had Wissco complete the task for the year but said I'd take his card and call him the following year. His price was considerably lower than what I was paying and our neighbors seemed pleased with his work. So this past fall I had Randy come blow out the sprinklers in the fall and saved myself several dollars.

I'd called Randy in March to see if he could come and turn on the sprinklers at the end of April but got his voice mail. I waited for a week or so and hadn't heard back from him so I decided to go ahead and make an appointment with Wissco (there goes that 'patience' flaw again!) A couple days after I'd made the appointment Randy left me a voice mail and said it was probably too cold yet to turn the sprinklers on and to call him back in April.

About a week or so ago I called Randy back to see what he'd charge to come turn the sprinklers on. He said that I could do it and he'd walk me through the process on the phone and that way I wouldn't have to pay for anything. So believe it or not I was able to 'git r done' and the sprinklers were functioning just fine. I was still a little cold and suppose to rain so after the initial test of each zone I opted to leave them turned off for the meanwhile.

It had rained a few times and we'd had some fertilizer put down and the grass was growing as it does in the early spring, very unevenly. The lawn really needed to be mowed so I decided to for go my trip to the gym after work and come home and cut the grass.

I fired up the lawn mower and started on the tree lawn. I always start mowing on the tree lawn. I don't know why....its a habit. I'm cruisin along and the mower bumps into something. I pulled back on the mower and then pushed forward with more force just thinking that perhaps it was a mole tunnel or something that I need to go over. As soon as I did I heard this zzzzzzzzzzzzzzziiiiippppppppppp. I knew immediately what it was and was sick to my stomach. When I tested the zones for the sprinklers one of the heads didn't retract back into the ground and I buzzed the thing right off. I couldn't believe it. How could I have been so stupid.

So I'm thinkin' so much for saving money on having the sprinklers turned on. Had Wissco come out they check everything thouroughly and the sprinkler head would have probably never been left in the up position. How much was this gonna cost now to have a service call! Probably twice as much as I would have paid to have them come out and turn them on. I could see the $$ signs rolling in my head.

I found out from my son that our landscaper also can service sprinkler systems so I called him and confessed what I'd done. Dan said he'd be happy to come out and make the repair. I haven't gotten the bill from yet but I'm hopeful that it will be less painful than what I anticipated.

See why, when it comes to me, I should let trained people do their job! If were up to me I'd have a yard full of fountains!

Florida boy

This is Josh just before he left for Orlando this past Friday. He called in the early evening to tell us that he was still in Ohio. Apparently it took him longer to get out of town than his original plan of before noon.

Later Friday night, I think around 9:30 he phoned again and said they were just entering West Virginia. I didn't speak to him this time but from what I could gather from his conversation with Lori that things were going well on the road trip.

I think the phone rang again around 12:30 am and it was Josh again. He was at a friends in North Carolina. We were relieved that he'd decided that his plan was to spend the night there at his friend Tim's and then finish his trip on Saturday. It was a little easier to sleep knowing he'd made it to his day 1 destination.

Saturday morning Lori and I were doing our usual Panera thing with our most excellent friend Dixie. We had arrived at Panera around 9 am. I can't remember what time Josh called but it was fairly early (Josh time). He said that he and John (the friend that was making the trip down with him to give him company) were just getting into Jacksonville. I said ''Jacksonville, what time did you get up and get started?" He said that the sleeping accomodations at Tim's house in North Carolina didn't work out so he and John, after resting for a while, decided to keep going. He said he was really tired. I guess I was glad I didn't know that then night before as I probably wouldn't have slept well at all.

Around or near noon my cell rang again and it was Josh again. He didn't even say hello. He just blurted out in a very excited but tired voice...."I'm standing in my new living room!" I thanked God over and over that they had arrived safe. I chatted with him for a few minutes as he described his empty apartment with great enthusiasm. He was so excited! I passed the phone to Lori so she could share in his joy. When she got off the phone Lori said that Josh and John were heading to the pool at the apartment complex to crash in the sun.

Later Saturday night we'd gone to Saugatuk with our friends Richard and Reta for dinner. We were on our way home around 9pm when my cell rang again. It was Josh again. He said hi and then asked what kind of laundry soap we used at home. I said "what?" And he repeated himself. I asked where he was and he was at Wal Mart grocery shopping. Who'd a thought that Josh would have cared what kind of laundry soap we used at home. What a funny boy! Of course the "mom" in Lori kicked in when she heard he was doing something with laundry and she started relaying helpful hints for me to tell him about how to do his wash. Such a mom she is!

It's Sunday evening now and we haven't heard from him all day today. Earlier this morning we were both upstairs and the house creaked as houses do. Lori said for a moment she thought it was just Josh coming in the front door. Yep, it's gonna take some getting used to. Seems like as parents you kind of look forward to those "empty nester" days....but when then finally arrive its not always as easy as you thought.

Packin' his trunk

Josh is packin' his trunk and getting ready to make his move to Florida. It's countdown week with only 4 days to go. He has wanted to attend school at Full Sail since his senior year in high school (which was only year ago) and its finally come to fruition.

This month has been insane trying to get all of the details of this transition completed. From filling out student loan forms to finding adequate housing, we've been on the phone or on the computer non stop.

Lori and I were fortunate enough to be able to meet some of his advisers and see the college when we were on vacation two weeks ago. We were also able to take some pictures of the potential apartment complexes he would have to choose from for 'sight unseen' housing.

I'm so excited for this adventure for him. But intermingled in the excitement is worry and sadness. Worry because he's going to have to jump in head first into life and all that it deals you and sometimes what you're dealt isn't all that great. Sad because, even though we don't always see eye to eye on most things, it will be very strange not seeing him around the house, just coming and going.

Josh has wanted this to happen so much for such a long time and I pray that he will have unbelievable success in his classes and all that a career in SHOW PRODUCTION will bring.

Good Days Bad Days

We have a monthly meeting at work and often our supervisor will challenge us with a question or two to help us grow in our walk in life and work. This week we were asked to give an example of a good day and a bad day at work.

I pondered this good day / bad day and I wasn’t sure if it meant the whole day had to be a good day or a bad day and after contemplating it for awhile I’m not sure that I could pinpoint an entire day that was totally good or totally bad. I know how ill-equipped I am at making the best of a day and nearly every morning in my quiet/journaling time I ask God to equip and empower me to do what is set before me that day in ways that will please him and allow me to accomplish what has been set before me. This has been especially true since I’ve started my new job as what I’m doing is so different from what I’ve been doing (from a career standpoint) for the past several years. I know that if I try to take the reigns by myself that inevitable disaster probably lies around the corner and so I look to God for guidance.

Good as that may sound I do have issues. Imagine that! Perfectionism and the need to please and or be accepted often gets in the way. These get particularly ugly when I find my (selfish – self) trying to perfect or do well the things that God has not so necessarily gifted me in doing. If I were to track it, I would probably find that some of my time is spent on trying to do well things that I don’t necessarily like nor do well because I don’t want to disappoint or let anyone down.

Fixing things is not my forte. Just ask my wife. I didn't even own a hammer until about 9 years ago. I dance around having to fix anything be it at work or at home. But because I don’t want to disappoint, I often will find myself, there’s no better way to say this but backing down, and trying to do whatever it is that needs to be done. I am however working on this downfall and trying to find more proactive ways in which to address it.

All this being said, I do have good days at work. When I can help someone accomplish a task they’re trying to complete, or make someone’s day easier by a service I’ve provided them, or I’ve “conquered” a major project, it’s a good day. However weaved within those good days can be bad days, especially when I’ve tried to take control over what God has planned for me or if I’m forcing myself like a square peg into a round hole to do something that I’m not especially good at doing. Ironically, just this morning I happened to look at the new watch I just bought while I was on vacation last week. I'm always on the look out for unique watches. This particular watch is a black square with a slightly offset round face. It occurred to me that, hmmm, a daily reminder right on my wrist, that I need to focus on fitting into the places where God has created me to excel and not be consumed by the things that someone else may be better suited to do. Not that those situations don’t provide for a great learning experience, but they can also lead to bad spots in a good day.

Bad spots in a good day also are elevated, like cream to the top, when I perceive that I’ve let someone down because of a situation that could have been handled better. There are times when things are out of my realm of knowledge that may cause the outcome be less than desired. Ignorance is no excuse, but I have to learn to make those growing experiences instead of failures. I think someone said if you don’t fail you can’t learn.

Good days and bad days at work are inevitable. What I choose to do with them can make all the difference.

Maxwell Smart's Shoe Phone

Every night before going upstairs to bed I put everything I'm going to take with me the next day on the kitchen counter by near the back door....you know things like my IPOD, my keys, my cell phone.

Thursday morning I had been a work for awhile and realized my cell phone wasn't sitting on my desk. I got up and checked my coat pocket and it wasn't there. I thought perhaps I'd left it in the car so I went out to see if it was there. It wasn't in the car either. I started to get a little panicky. Could I have left it at Panera? I looked up the phone number to Panera but no one had turned in a cell phone. The panic was starting to get a little more severe.

I called my son who I knew was geting off work at 1pm to see if he was going home after work. When I found out he was I asked him to see if my cell was on the counter and to let me know either way. If it wasn't there I was going to have to call and report it lost.

Later that afternoon my son called me. I didn't even say hello. "Was it on the counter?" was the first thing that came out of my mouth when he said "hello." He said it wasn't but had more to add. He decided to call my phone to see if it was in the house somewhere. He could hear it ringing but couldn't find it. He kept calling and following the ring and finally found it....in one of my shoes in my closet

When I go to the gym I never take my wallet or phone in with me. Wednesday when I got into the locker room I realized that my phone was still on my belt. I took it off and tossed it in my shoe that I'd put in the locker while I was working out. When I left the gym I wore the NIKES home that I had on. I completley forgot I'd put the phone in my shoes and it had slid down into the shoe I'd put it in. When I got home an unpacked my gym bag I just tossed my shoes into the closet and walked away.

Mystery solved. Now you know why I dont take stuff into the gym with me unless I need it. Who knows what I'll do with it.

Tan Lines

Our annual pilgrimage to sunny Florida is a little over a week away and I am psyched. Nothing like basking in the sun for a week and then coming back home to find the remnants of winter have passed and spring has sprung. We have been making this trip for years and it's just become part of who we are. When April rolls around you'll find us in Orlando.

As part of the routine for getting ready to make our trek to the land of sunshine I always get some 'fake bakes' in so I don't burn in the tropical sun. For the past few years I've gone to an ultrabronze tanning bed. The max tanning time in an ultrabronze bed is 30 minutes and you start at that time with your first appointment. These beds give you a awesome tan in about 3 appointments and you never burn. They've been great. I'd start my tanning appointments 3-4 days before we'd leave and I'd have a good base tan that was only enhanced by the Florida sun once we arrived. The downside to ultrabronze tanning is the price, $17 a pop.

I decided to be a little more frugal this year and opt for just a regular tanning bed. The place I chose had a BOGO on tans so I bought 5 and got 10. I started tanning last Sunday as I figured the regular bed would take longer. The ole tan was coming on pretty good until yesterday. I arrived at my 5:30 appointment and was ushered right to my reserved bed. I got all lotioned up and layed down on the ever so comfortable hard plastic bed (That was one other thing I liked about ultrabronze tanning is that the bed were regular mattresses). There is always a hand towel folded up laying on the bed that I usually put under my head. After I turned the bed on and layed back down I couldn't feel the towel under my head. I didn't want to risk losing any potential tanning time and sit up to find it so I just shrugged it off and settled into my 13 minutes of heat.

When the bed shut off and I got up I found that the towel was under my back. I didn't think anything about that until I got out of the shower this morning and happened to notice my back in the mirror. Yep, you guessed it. A gi-normous big white square inbetween my shoulder blades. Oh sure, I like to brag about having a tan line, who doesn't! But I don't think I'd want to show off a big white square in the middle of my back as a prize tan line.

Next time I'll risk loosing a few precious minutes of tanning to find the towel.....yah think!

Lessons from the past

In chapter 4 of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar, became arrogant and took credit for all that he was accomplishing. God banned him to the wilderness for 7 years and when he returned all of his authority was returned and the King praised and honored God, whom was the source of everything in his life.

Fast forward to chapter 5 of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar son, King Belshazzar throws a party, gets drunk and uses sacred chalices to drink wine from. During the party God sent a disembodied hand to write a message on the wall and it terrified the King. He called in mystics to interpret the message but they couldn’t. So the queen reminded the king about Daniel and so he called him in to decipher the message.

Daniel laid into King Belshazzar about his conduct. Belshazzar well knew how his father Nebuchadnezzar had behaved and the outcome of that situation. Yet Belshazzar decided to openly discredit God for everything. It seems pretty obvious to me that Belshazzar would have known the consequences his father faced and would have conducted himself better, but he didn’t.

Daniel interpreted the message for Belshazzar and it confirmed from God that the time of his rule was limited and Belshazzar was murdered that night.

Selfishness destroys. I’ve seen it over and over in scripture and in my life. Whenever I put myself above God, thinking I know better, the outcome is never what it could been. I’m enticed by selfishness to be built up, but in reality, it only knocks me down. Selfishness stagnates growths

Why is it that we can be so blind to stop ourselves from repeating the behaviors of those who came before us? Is it because we rely too much on experience but don’t learn to move forward from it. Sometimes we only learn how to repeat the habits learned from within it. What does that say about our potential for growth? What does it take to make an experience something to from which we can build upon and pave the road for a positive outcome. Are the failures of the past so ingrained into our beings that it takes too much effort to get beyond them (or we’re unwilling to exert the effort) so we either settle into a pattern of repeating them or totally ignoring them? What if a sinful pattern in my life could be used to help someone instead of drag them down into a self-serving outcome.

Belthazzar chose to follow the original selfish path that his Father had been persuing prior to God’s revelation to him. Where was Belthazzar when Nebuchadnezzar had his change of heart? Was he at boarding school and didn’t know what had transpired in his life. Why didn’t Nebuchadnezzar share the revelation with his son, or did he? Either way. Belthazzar chose to ignore it. Why?

I see habits formed in my own children that I possessed at the same age in my life. Spending money and not saving it. No identifiable goals for the future. A minimal involvement in church or relationship with God. It clicked finally clicked with me, though. I got it and give God credit for everything I am, can do, and have. I thought I’d demonstrated that to my boys but perhaps what they saw in me in earlier years was stronger than what they see in me now. Why didn’t Balshazzar see the change/growth in his own Father