Starbucks to Cut 600 Coffee Shops

Starbucks to Cut 600 Coffee Shops and 12,000 U.S.

Coffee snob that I am, when I first heard this last week I was panic stricken! Course I've never really understood why you can walk from one corner to the next and find a Starbucks, but then again, I am all about convenience.

First news releases in our area said that there was a Starbucks closing in Indianapolis and Ft Wayne so it seemed Michiana was spared. Not so much. As it turns out one the locations on the west side is closing. I feel bad for the people who work in that location and the consumers who have a Starbucks addiction like me.

I have to wonder if Walgreens or CVS won't be next. There are probably 3 of each of these within 5 miles of my house. Where does the competition line get drawn?

If Eienstein's Bagels or Caribou Coffee were smart they'd snatch up these abandoned Starbucks locations and create some competition!

A wise study

I’ve been trying to come up with a new Bible study to embark on but have not had much luck. I’ve tried topical things, researching specific words but nothing was clicking. I like to read scriptrue then ponder, evaluate and see how what I’ve read applies to my life.

I’m not, however, a big fan of tools in which you read a section of scripture and then it has a list of questions to be answered. Ok, I know this is ridiculous but to me it’s like taking a test or something. Sometimes I don’t understand the question or wonder whether I’m interpreting it correctly. And if I’m not answering it right, what then….I fail! YIKES! If I can make up my own questions…I know I’ll pass!

About a year ago I made it my goal to read the entire Old Testament within a year. Well it took about a year and ½ but it was great. Each day I took a chapter, read it and then journaled thoughts on what I read and how it applied to me. It was great and I learned a lot about the Old Testament and myself.

Yesterday at our weekly staff meeting Mark Beeson had referenced a book called “The Richest Man Whoever Lived” by Steven Scott that had been the focus of one of the previous Men’s Breakfasts with Mark Beeson. I have not read this book but it’s my plan to get it soon.

Mark had said that one of the men attending the breakfast had decided to read one Proverb each day and then reflect on that proverb each day and it had great impact on his life. I gathered that was what the premise of the book, to read proverbs, but since I’ve not read the book I’m not sure. Anyway, I thought what a great idea. So this morning I started my Proverb journey.

As I was working out this morning, a song entitled “Hurt” by Christina Aguilera came on my IPOD. I think this song was originally released as a ballad but who can go 9.5mph on an elliptical machine to a ballad so I downloaded the remix dance version. Anyway…the song starts out with

"Seems like it was yesterday when I saw your face… You told me how proud you were… but I walked away… If only I knew what I know today…”

When I settled in at Panera with coffee in hand and my online bible up on my computer, the words from the song rocketed back into my head after reading these verses

Proverbs 1:
7 Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning…..19 When you grab all you can get, that's what happens: the more you get, the less you are

How often do I walk away from God and don’t even realize it? I think it’s easy to get wrapped in my selfishness that I can push God right out of the picture and then realize that I did that on the backside of things. Stuff, notoriety, etc…. can put a big wedge between me and God if it’s derived from self serving motivation. Outcomes can be devastating. I have to make a conscious decision to start with God every time.

Proverbs 1 goes on to tell us that we can turn this around and point our feet in the right direction. God is waiting to pour His spirit upon us.

About face! I can revise your life. Look, I'm ready to pour out my spirit on you; I'm ready to tell you all I know. As it is, I've called, but you've turned a deaf ear; I've reached out to you, but you've ignored me.

The first lines of the song could be a reflection of me at times, when I’ve made decisions that distanced me from God, but I think the next few lines in the song could be God speaking back to me

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

Each time I read these words I get goose bumps. When I think of what Jesus went through for me…for me! I believe He really does want to hold me in His arms. I believe He wants to take my pain away. I believe He wants to hear my voice and be in conversation with Him. I cannot comprehend the sorrow that must overwhelm Him when He calls and I’m not there, I don’t respond, because I’m too wrapped up in ME.


"Because you hated Knowledge and had nothing to do with the Fear-of-God, Because you wouldn't take my advice and brushed aside all my offers to train you, Well, you've made your bed—now lie in it; you wanted your own way—now, how do you like it? Don't you see what happens, you simpletons, you idiots? Carelessness kills; complacency is murder. First pay attention to me, and then relax. Now you can take it easy—you're in good hands."

God tells me that when I pay attention to Him I can relax. I don’t know about you, but tension and worry take its toll on me and I’m not a big fan of them. Yet, sometimes it seems like I live on Worry Street, Tension-town, USA. Relaxing is way better than stressing. I think these last verses of the song sum it up well.

Would you tell me I was wrong?...Would you help me understand?...Are you looking down upon me?...Are you proud of who I am?...There's nothing I wouldn't do… To have just one more chance…To look into your eyes and see you looking back

Could we ask for anything more than the loving eyes of our God looking back into ours.
Thanks for the Proverbs study suggestion Mark. This is going to be a great run!

Isn't she....

I'm am so lucky to be married to this woman...

Isn't she lovely .....Isn't she wonderful ....Isn't she precious

Am I blessed or what!

Where oh where is my USB?

I am totally bummed tonite. I have lost my USB flash drive. It had a ton of important information on it. And the worst part, not all of it was backed up to an external hard drive.

I had it this morning at Panera. I was certain that I returned it to my back pack, but apparently I didn't. One of the regulars at Panera told me he'd just got a new laptop that had 1 g of storage. I distinctly remember pulling my flash drive out to show him that it held a gig of storage. It was only in jest but maybe this is what I get of harassing him.

I've turned my backpack inside out 3 or 4 times this evening but to no avail. I called Panera do see if anyone had turned something in but no results there either. After dinner we drove to Panera so I could look for myself in the area that I normally sit everyday, but found nothing. Again I asked management if anyone had turned it in, but no one had.

We went to Wal Mart after Panera. I bought a new flash drive while there with the hopes that I'd find mine when I got home and could just return it tomorrow. But when we got home it wasn't here.

There was a lot of work put into the files on that flash drive. I think I'm just depressed now. Fortunately I can recover most of it up to a couple of weeks ago from my external hard drive. But anything thats been done since then is likely to be lost.

I'm trying to remain hopeful that when I got to Panera for coffee tomorrow that it will have turned up. I'm holding out on opening the new drive until tomorrow morning. Maybe that's goofy....I dunno.

What 'cha gonna do?

Week One of Source

Granger Community Church (http://www.gccwired.com/) started a new 3 week series of weekend messages entitled "Source - Where do you draw your power." Mark Beeson knocked it out of the park with the first message surrounding authority in our lives.


Though the major text of Marks message came from Matthew 8, he challenged us with the truths found in Proverbs, Ephesians, Jude, Chronicals and Acts.


The dictionary defines authority as: the power to influence or command thought, opinion or behavior. Mark showed us examples of God's authority through illustrations found in Matthew 8. The words and touch of Jesus healed afflictions raging the human body (Matt. 8:5-13, 14-16). And, His power cast out demons (Matt. 8:14-34). Authority. Who else but God can do those things? No one. Text from Jude 1:25 confirms that '......All glory, majesty, power and authority are His before time, and in the present, and beyond all time!'

God spoke to and through Mark in amazing ways that made it so clear that God is the ultimate authority in our lives. Mark's message was captivating and challenging. He caused me to contemplate who or what other things I allow to have authority in my life that may cause me to stop short of God's authority.
Although I know that God has the ultimate authority in my life, I know that I often stop short of that and let other things or people rule. One authority bandit that was famous for ruling over me for a period of my life was the credit card industry.

The 'keeping up with the Jones' phase of my life caused Visa and Mastercard to have authority in my life for a long period of time. I relinquished authority to them so that I could be showered with possessions and impress my peers. When I stepped above the enslaving authority of Visa and Mastercard and willingly took that authority higher, God showed me how to turn it around. God is the authority over my finances.

There are appropriate levels of authority in our lives. My mother has an appropriate level of authority in my life. My supervisor has an appropriate level of authority in my life. My pastors have an appropriate level of authority in my life. But God has the ultimate level of authority in my life. And as Peter and the apostles said in Acts 5:29 "We must obey God rather than any human authority"


I left church Saturday nite, not only remined that God is the ultimate authority in my life, but with the peace that God has the ultimate authority over my life.

What did she say?

Sunday was our oldest son Adam's 24th birthday. We decided to take him and his fiance Meg to one of our favorite asian restaurants in Chicago (well actually Schaumberg) called Big Bowl. After lunch we drove up to Gurnee Mills to do some outlet shopping.

Asian food never seems to stick with me nor Lori, Adam or Meg so we decided to get some dinner before making our trek back to South Bend. Lori and I don't usually eat dinner when we finish shopping at Gurnee so we were'nt really sure what restaurants were in the area. We were sure there would be some since the Great America amusement park was just down the road so we drove in that direction.

We found a Craker Barrel and Lori noticed that there was an Oberweis Dairy across the street. Lori and I have been to an Oberweis many times over by Willow Creek Church in Barrington so we told the kids we should go there for ice cream after dinner.

Oberweis wasn't very busy when we walked in and we were able to walk righ up to the counter. I was the first to decide what I wanted so I ordered. The girl took my order and then said something to me that just didn't sound right......

"Are you seeing anyone?" is what I thought I heard her say to me. I was dumbfounded. For the first few brief moments I went into this 'out of body' time warp. I'm thinkin' to myself "oh no you didn't just ask me that in front of my wife!" That morphed into "hey, I guess I still got it...Rico Suave..(NOT!)" But then the angel on my shoulder knocked off the little devil on my other shoulder and I was slapped back into reality.....

What was probably just a few seconds had seem like minutes had passed....I just started laughing. Lori and the kids were looking at me like 'whats wrong with him?' The girl had acutally asked me if I had some kind of "Moo" card for frequent visits to Oberweis. I was dumbfounded. I told them (and the girl taking my order) what I thought she said and they all cracked up. Although I have to wonder if the girl behind the counter wasn't thinkin' "yeah right, yah big freak!"

I've come to the conclusion that I was either really tired or I must be older than I think and my hearing is on its way out.

We laughed about our ice cream experience all the way home!

How big is yours?

Mark Beeson said something profound to me at our mid week service this week (actually he says profound things all the time!) that really penetrated my thought process. "What if God was going to answer one of your prayer's today, would you be disappointed because what you prayed for was small?" WOW! Our God is so big and can do absolutely anything and everything that He wants to do.... are my pidly prayers insulting to Him?


I do believe that there are specific, finite things I need to pray for, but how can I broaden the scope? It's really made me think about the ways I've been praying over the past few days. Is it really my goal for just one small aspect of a huge situation to be resolved or blessed, or do I want the whole situation resolved and blessed. The impact has the potential to be astounding.




Take for instance my sister in law who is battling treatment for breast cancer. There is no way that I can possibly understand what she is going through. As a matter of fact I told her that just the other day. But I know that God cares about her, is taking care of her and knows exactly what she is facing every day. So I told her I pray for her because I know God knows what she needs. But I have changed the scope of my prayers for her. Not only to I ask that she be spared from the ramifications of chemical treatments but I ask Him for complete restoration. I know He can do that. I believe He can do that. And I am waiting for Him to do that. Sure I could, and I will continue to pray for her to be able to endure each specific incident, but my prayer is bigger now and I believe He hears it and we'll see the results.


....Or my youngest son who just recently graduated from college. My concerns for him have been centered around his debt from school, health insurance...the list goes on. My prayer, though I'm not sure was wrong was basically "God find him a job!" But I'm changing the focus of my prayer. I pray that he will find a job that is his passion, and not just pay well with good benefits. Yes those are important. But anyone of us can get a well paying job that is an absolute chore to go to day in and day out. I think when we soar at what God has designed us to be why wouldn't He make everything else fall in to place.


I'm implementing this in other areas of prayer life too. How can I put tiny limits on prayers from a God who wants me to have so much more. Mark spoke Thursday night of a story of a grandfather who gave his grandaughter a string of pop beads that she dearly loved. Later as the little girl was growing into a young woman the grandfather wanted the string of pop beads back and he replaced it with a string of pearls. God wants so much for us. Grandiose eternal things for us. But we often limit ourselves to the small and immediate. We settle for little when abundance is just around the corner.


Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that God is like the "jeanie in the bottle" who is going to grant you three wishes. I'm saying that we need to rethink our prayers and open them up to better and bigger opportunities with God. Instead of "God, I don't know how to pay off this credit card" maybe you could pray "God, bring income opportunities that will not only help me align with the stewardship of my resources with You, but get a handle on the debt that makes me think so small"


I'm so excited about this new direction of my prayer life. I'm on the edge, waiting with anticipation to see what God will do next!

A visit with my Grandmother (pt 2)

Who knew 11 days after my visit with my Grandmother that yesterday God would call her home.

I'm so glad that I went to visit her one more time. I'm so glad I got to see her smile one more time. I'm so glad I got to hear her laugh one more time. I'm so glad we got to reminisce one more time. I'm so glad she was in my life.

Thanks Grandma for always loving me like only a Grandma could. Thank you for caring when it seems no one else did. Thank you for good advise I didn't always want. Thank you for listening when no one else could hear me.

Thank you for wonderful memories that no one can take away. I'll miss you !

Real Men Wear Pink

Yes, I wore pink socks to the gym this morning.

I did laundry yesterday and washed several pair of my own gym socks but do you think I could find them this morning...NO! I can't imagine where they went. I folded and put everything away of mine that I washed but the sock were no wher to be found.

Fortunately I washed Lori's socks so grabbed a pair of hers and out the door I went.

Good thing it wasn't my underwear that I lost!

Our dog is driving me crazy!

I think our dog is border-line ready for the looney bin today. He has no peace today and is driving me insane right alongside him. I've been home all afternoon with him. Yeah, just me and the dog!

I've been doing various things. I mowed. I trimmed some shrubs. I did some laundry and some various other inside household chores. I should have stuck to outside work. The dog has done nothing but pace since I came in the house. Pace or walk in circles. What makes it eve worse is he is basically blind, so he ineveitably continuously walks into something as he continues to traverse around from room to room.

I went upstairs to do some ironing. I had been ironing for maybe 5 minutes when he just started randomly barking. He was barking because he thought he was in the house alone. The minute I came down and said something to him he stopped. I couldn't stand to hear him continue to bark so I took him upstairs with me.

Maybe 30 minutes later we came down and I fed him. It was may be 15 minutes earlier than he's used to eating but I figured it wouldn't hurt. While he was eating I took some other clean laundry upstairs. While I was upstairs he finished eating and started barking again until I came back down to the main level.

I decided to have some dinner so I made a sandwich and sat down to eat it. Remember I said I fed him a little earlier than usual. While I was eating he sat and stared at the laundry room where his food dish is at. When I finshed eating I noticed he'd disappeared. I went into the laundry room and he was standing in front of his dish looking straight down. Although he'd already been fed I dumped a small scoop into his dish as I didn't know what the dork was expecting. Soon after that he started his meandering around the house again, banging in to this and bouncing of that.

It was really nice outside so I decided to take my laptop out on the patio and do some journaling. I took the freaky dog out thinking maybe it would be good for him to get outside for a while. The pacing didn't stop. He know just had a bigger space to pace. Back and forth, back and forth across the patio through the grass. It started thundering in the distance so I decided to come in. "Pacer Dog" had decided to walk past my lawn chair and when I got up he was all tangled in my power cord. Arrgggghhh!

We came back in the house and thin incessant pacing and wandering continued. How long can this go on? I think he's going to make me as 'looney toons' as he is before the night is over!

A visit with my Grandmother

I went to visit my Grandmother Sunday. She's in a nursing home. I think she's going to be 95 in December. I walked into her room which is much like a double occupancy hospital room. She's so frail these days. I'm not sure if or when she is even able to get out of her bed. She recognized me a first, by my voice. I got her glasses for her but I'm not sure even then if she could see me. It wasn't long before our conversation started getting a little fuzzy. I realized after a couple more comments that she thought I was my aunt's son and had to remind her who I was. It was but a brief moment of reality until she got me confused again with my cousin.

My aunts and uncles had recently put her house up for rent. She was lucid enough to know about that (as she brought it up). I think it made her sad. We reminisced about some of the fun times we had there. She smiled as we spoke about times on her patio in the summer and family gatherings.

I was thinking about my visit with her today. I have to be honest in saying that I don't go visit her very often. I should be a better grandson than I am. I'm hopeful that the visit was helpful to her. My thoughts of our visit reminded me of a song by Richard Marx called "Silent Scream".

Twenty four and he believes for sure he's got it made
Fame is here for good and looks will never fade
He doesn't knowThe game is never over 'till the cards have all been played

Eighty three and still he feels his best is yet to come
He believes that youth is wasted on the young
He's alone
The only dream he ever has is being with someone

Love you when you're standing tall,
But nobody knows when you when you're falling
All you have to do is call,
But nobody ever hears the silent scream

Christmas came and went again but still nobody came
Staring at her wedding photo in a frame
She's alone
We should hope the loss of memory helps to ease the pain

Love you when you're standing tall,
But nobody knows when you when you're falling
All you have to do is call
But nobody ever hears the silent scream

Memories, moments you recall
We should be remembered for the greatest of them all
You can't begin to live someone else's life
Or you're own will pass you by

Oh, who's to know
Maybe we can learn a thing or two from everyone

Love you when you're standing tall,
But nobody knows when you when you're falling
All you have to do is call,
But nobody ever hears the silent scream

Richard Marx

Lonliness can paralyze anyone. My Grandmother has no phone. She didnt even have a television. Her visitors are few. Nobody ever hears the silent scream.

Josh is a college graduate!!!!

We just got back from an amazing trip to Orlando Florida to see Josh graduate from college. Not just any college, but his dream college, Full Sail University. Full Sail University has built a reputation as one of the premier media arts schools in the world. Throughout the entertainment industry, Full Sail graduates have made their names working on award-winning films and albums, acclaimed video games and design projects, live productions, working inside major media companies, and more. Full Sail's Show Production & Touring Degree Program covers everything from the rigors of life on the road to sound, video, and lighting design for live production. Josh has earned a degree in SHOW PRODUCTION and TOURING.

This is Josh receiving his diploma

and the line up of all of his instructors....

There were five different groups/degrees graduating Saturday. Each group and their instructors voted for one graduate in their group to receive an Advanced Achievement Award. This award represents the person whom they feel best represents their area of expertise, who is likely to succeed and be the first to find employment in their field. Josh was the recipient of the Advanced Achievement Award for the Show Production degree. In addition to the degree, he was asked to give a brief speech during the ceremonies.

Josh's girlfriend also graduated with a Show Production degree.....here are some candids of Josh and Alyssa at graduation....

and of course the graduate with his VERY PROUD PARENTS !

CONGRATULATIONS JOSH

Orlando

Here's some snapshots of our trip to Orlando. Our hotel was about 2.5 miles from Downtown Disney and we walked there everyday, sometimes twice a day.

Not only is Downtown Disney filled with countless Disney images and memorabilia but there is also Legoland

Lori was "Princess" for a day.....

My favorite ice cream place was closed for renovations....we're going back in June...I hope its open then

We got to meet Josh's new girlfriend......



....and spent the day with him at Disney's Blizzard Beach water park. The ski lift takes you up to a water slide that you go in excess of 60mph.....families seem to migrate to the ginormous wave pool....

I prefer the lazy river.......

One of favorite things is coffee and we found the best coffee place on International Drive......the coffee comed from Hawaii.....however, the name may not be so appealing!

It was a awesome week!

Naked pool guy

Ok, it's the morning of our last day on vacation in Orlando. We did some packing the night before but hadn't finished. We got up early to finish cramming stuff into the suitcases, but had actually done better at packing the night before than we'd thought and it didn't take much time at all to finish up.

I'm not a big fan of hotel coffee and made trip down to Dunkin Donuts to get my morning cup of java every day. With extra time on my hands on this last vacation morning, I decided to go get a cup of the liquid gold.

Our room was on the 3rd floor and just around the corner from one of the pools at the hotel. As I rounded the corner to the stairwell I noticed a couple of guys at the pool. The pool opened at 9am every morning and was always cleaned prior to its opening, so seeing the guys at the pool wasn't unusual and I just assumed it was being cleaned.

Upon my return from Dunkin Donuts, as I walked by the pool, I just naturally looked down at it. The guys were still there, but there was someone in the pool too. What? The pool didn't open for another 90 minutes. I stopped and looked again. There was a man in the pool and it looked like he was naked. He was making his way toward the end of the pool where the steps were so I waited. I was certain it must have just been white swim trunk. WRONG! As he came out of the water it was very apparent that he was indeed, NAKED. The thing I couldn't understand was the pool cleaning guys weren't doing anything to stop him. Or were they the pool guys? Were they the look outs?

I bee-lined back to the room, not believing what I just witnessed.

I looked at Lori and said, 'you're not going to believe what I just saw!' I told her what had happened and she was just as stunned as me. A few minutes later I decided to walk back towards the pool to see if they were still there as I wanted to report it to the front desk. I rounded the corner and the pool guys, if that's who they were, were gone. Naked guy was still there but getting dressed. His attire was very strange. It appeared that he had a yarmulke on and some kind of robe with tassles. Was some kind of ceremony going on in the hotel pool? I retreated back to the room.

As we hauled our luggage down to the car I saw yet another guy at the pool and the pool still wasn't open. This guy was wearing shorts and shirtless. It appeared he had some kind of light in a cone shaped aparatus.

Okay this was getting too freaky. Let me say that I'm just glad we weren't swimming in the pool that day! Definitely made our departure interesting.

Yes No Grow?

When You pray, assuming you do pray, do pray with expectation? I do. But what does that expectation look like? What kind of answer do you expect? And furthermore, what if that answer never comes to fruition? What then? But what if you get the answer you want, how different is your response? Does it drive you to pray more than you would if your prayer wasn’t answered? Or does unanswered prayer cause you to dig deeper?

Another category of response to prayer is prayer that is answered, but not answered as you’d hoped it would be. This isn’t unanswered prayer. It is answered prayer. It’s just not the response you wanted. What do you do with that? Does it make you pray more? Pray Less? Give up?

This week I heard a comment from Dave Ramsey on answers to prayers. He said that prayer can be answered as ‘yes’ ‘no’ or ‘grow’. It made a huge impact on me.

I’ve always felt it was awesome to get a ‘yes’ answer to prayer. I felt confirmed. I felt God was listening. Maybe even a little self-absorbed ‘cause I got my own way. On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, ‘no’ answers were very disengaging. How could God possibly not want this to happen! I prayed and prayed for it….what’s up with the ‘no’ answer.

I have recently witnessed both sides of this prayer ‘coin.’ A close relative of ours was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. As a family, we have all been prayer warriors, seeking the optimum results of this wicked disease. A few weeks ago the onslaught of chemo therapy treatments began. Going into it, we knew there was a distinct possibility of extreme nausea that can follow a treatment. I saw this with my own father who endured this several years ago. But, there are also those who have minimal discomfort throughout the entire chemo process. We prayed and prayed for the resulting illness not to happen, but much to our dismay horrible nausea came about 30 minutes after the treatment and it lasted for days. Never the less we continued to pray that they would be spared from severe nausea after the next treatment. Treatment #2 came and went. Although the sickness still came, it’s my understanding that it was far less severe. Prayer was answered. We continue to pray for deliverance from the nausea every day.

Another side affect of this treatment is hair loss. Knowing this was a very real possibility a ‘SPARE THE HAIR” mantra was created and included in each prayer we prayed for them. Despite our pleas, the hair loss became inevitable. Prayer wasn’t answered. At least at our level of expectation.

But in reality it was. I received an email early this week from our family member who’d been stricken with the disease. It read

….doing better today, going back for more fluids and talking to the , still believing my God will turn it around. Alas, he is not sparing my hair, had a break down early this morning, but you put your one foot in front of the other and go on believing still.

And later in the week

…..will probably be shearing me this evening, to keep hair out of drains.

I had emailed back with this response after seeing Dave Ramsey’s video…

At one point in the video Dave was talking about answer to prayer. He said answer to prayer is usually “yes” “no” or “grow!” I thought that was an awesome outlook. Of course I thought of you immediately as I’m sure you’ve had many yes, no, and grow moments in the past few weeks. I know I have. But whatever your answer has been you have continued to trust and forge ahead. I know this is because You love our God and You are confident He loves You and is taking care of your needs.

So even though they weren’t spared from hair loss, something much more valuable was maintained, a sense of trust in God, a positive outlook and a sense of humor. It wasn’t what was specifically being asked for but what God wanted. Prayer was answered. It wasn’t with a ‘yes.’ It wasn’t with a ‘no.’ It was with a ‘grow.’

We really have to be conscious of the opportunity for answered prayer ‘grow’ moments or they can pass us by. It’s easy to write off a ‘grow’ moment as a ‘no’ response that can take our response to the prayer in a totally different direction. Not only take us in a different direction, but also may make us miss a blessing that could have made a huge impact on our lives.

In Jeremiah 45, God tells Baruch that bad times are ahead. But he also tells him that he is going to keep him alive. It’s our choice. We can dwell on the negative….’oh things are so horrible, whatever will we do’or we can find the nugget of goodness that God wants to give us….’I’m keeping you alive!”

Jeremiah 45 1 This is what Jeremiah told Baruch one day in the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign as he was taking dictation from the prophet: 2-3"These are the words of God, the God of Israel, to you, Baruch. You say, 'These are bad times for me! It's one thing after another. God is piling on the pain. I'm worn out and there's no end in sight.' 4-5"But God says, 'Look around. What I've built I'm about to wreck, and what I've planted I'm about to rip up. And I'm doing it everywhere—all over the whole earth! So forget about making any big plans for yourself. Things are going to get worse before they get better. But don't worry. I'll keep you alive through the whole business.'"

This morning when I was at the gym a song entitled “Gotta get through this “ by Daniel Bedingfield came on my IPOD. Whatever we’re facing, lean in on God. He may not always answer the way you want him to, but find the nugget of truth in his response. Interestingly, the chorus begins with in self-dependance....but by the end the dependance is shifted.....

If only I could get through this
I get through this

I gotta get through this
I gotta get through this
I gotta make it, gonna make, gonna make it through
I'm gotta get through this
I gotta get through this....

Give me just a second and I'll be all right
Surely one more moment couldn't break my heart
Give me 'til tomorrow then I'll be okay...

If only I could get through this
If only I could get through this
If only I could get through this God, God gotta help me get through this

If only I could get through this
God, God gotta help me get through this
If only I could get through this
God, God gotta help me get through this
If only I could get through this...

Yes, No GROW !

The "Eyes" have it

Our dog is pretty old, 13 or 14 I think. His eye sight is very poor. He either has some pretty severe cataracts or he's pretty much blind. It's amazing to watch him get around. When he's outside he follows the edge of the side walk to keep his bearings. When he comes in he follows the permiters of the rooms until he get to where he is going. His hearing isn't too good either but he knows the sound of his food being dumped into his dish. If he isn't near the laundry room where his food bowl is located he'll run across the kitchen until he hits the carpet in the living room. Then he turns around and can find his way to the laundry room which was is opposite side of the kitchen from the living room.

However there are a number of times when following a familiar path for the dog doesn't always work out so well. He's been known to get off track on edge of the side walk and end up in the neighbors yard outside. He misjudges how close he is to the step coming into the house and fall of the side of the stoop. And more often than not, runs into walls or furniture when trying to navigate his way through the house. Although it's not really funny, I can't help but chuckle sometimes when he endures one of his mishaps.

I've noticed that I've become very dependant upon my contacts or my glasses to see anything that is small. Often when I get home from work, after wearing my contacts all day I'm ready to get them off my eyeballs. Problem is I don't always put my glasses on, as a matter of fact I rarely put them on. I can see distance ok so I don't think about it until I try to read something. I get so irritated then becuase I can't see it. My arm is only so long and even stretching my arm out as far as it will go doesn't help. Arrrggggghhhhhhh!!!

Last night I decided to watch a free On Demand movie on our cable system. I went upstairs to our bedroom and turned on the tv and climbed into bed to watch a comedy remake of the 60 series "I Spy." The movie got started and I couldn't hear it so I picked up the remote to turn the volume up. I don't like remotes in the first place and this new remote that came with our HD digital cable package has 10,000 buttons on it. Of course I couldn't see any of the buttons. My glasses were downstairs. So I got out of bed and ran down to get my glasses, went back upstairs, turned the volume up and settled in.

Not long after that Lori came home. She got into bed and we chatted a little and went back to watching the movie. Before she got home I had the lamp in our room turned on but it had gotten turned off when she got into bed. It wasn't long after she came to bed that she dozed off. The tv seemed a little loud for someone who was trying sleep so I thought I should turn it down.

I picked up the remote. I could see even less on the remote now because there was no light on in the room. I was too lazy to get up and go get my glasses off the dresser. So I thougth I could just remember which button I pushed before to turn the volume down. Not so much. I changed channels and and displayed a few other random things before I finally felt my way to the volume. Later when the movie ended and I wanted to go back to regular tv, I had another round of volume increases and a variety of other displays before I finally found my way back to regular tv.

Although I'm often amazed at how the dog does find his way around, I do feel bad for him when he falls off the landing or plows into a wall inside the house. I wonder if he was feeling sorry for me last night when I couldn't navigate the remote on the tv? Or was he just laughing at me too?

100 % cotton

I’m pretty picky about what goes in the dryer when it comes to my clothes. Just ask my wife what a fanatic I can be. A lot of my clothing is 100% cotton. As a rule, unless it’s been washed about 50 times then it’s not dryer worthy as I don’t want risk any shrinkage. We did laundry last night and one of my newer t-shirts found its way into the dryer. This morning as I was folding clothes I found it. You know that music in horror movies when something bad is about to happen that goes “eeeeeek eeeeeek eeeeeek,” well that was went through my head when I saw the shirt in the pile to fold. I pulled it out and held it up. I can’t say for sure that it shrunk but the length of it did look shorter. Yes, I was bummed.

So I’m thinking about this shirt shrinkage while I’m working out this morning. I think about God a lot when I’m working out too. Today I was thinking about my level of faith and it hit me how that tied in with the laundry. I was pretty bummed about the shirt that appears to have shrunk. How does God feel when my faith appears to shrink? Is He bummed too?
How am I affected when my faith shrinks? What changes? I think first and foremost, it opens the door for selfishness. It can lead me to believe more in myself than I do God. I’ve found that when I rely on myself for things in my life the results are rarely (ok never) as positive as when I take them to God. What can be confusing though is just because I tell God about whatever it is, it doesn’t always mean that I’ll get the answer I want. But, I get the best answer.
When I rely upon myself to resolve challenges in my life, I might get the answer I want, but there always seems to be a hole in the plan somewhere. There have been numerous times where I’ve felt I had the best solution; it was ‘my way or the highway’ only to be humbled later by digging deeper to see what God really wanted to happen. What if I had sought God first?
I recalled a verse that reminds me that even the smallest amount of faith call produce the most ‘ginormous’ results:

Luke 13:19
19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches."

I have to be conscious of growing my faith. I have to take steps to increase my faith. There is a worship song we sing at church and the chorus says “You must increase, I must decrease” The issue is clear. When I let my faith ‘shrink’ I become the increasing one.

No matter how much I seem I can put my faith in the dryer I’m so grateful that it never shrinks beyond God reach.

What causes your faith to shrink?

an "A HA" moment

I’m stepping out into a new area of serving at GCC, financial ministry. I closely follow the principles Dave Ramsey outlines in his Financial Peace program and since we teach this at GCC I thought this ministry would be a good fit for me. This past Tuesday we started Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace class and had an all time record of 400+ people start the 13 week course.

The week prior, I was approached with the following question “what does Dave Ramsey say about tithing?” Unfortunately I couldn’t quote Dave on this one but had a pretty good idea that Dave would say the tithe comes off the top of your income regardless of your financial situation. I did some digging and found this on Dave’s website:

If you cannot live off 90% of your income, then you cannot live off 100%. It does not require a miracle for you to get through the month. I think that if you sit down and look at your budget, you will see that you can make it while giving at least 10%. Read the Bible and take from it what you will, and if you tithe, do it out of love for God, not guilt.

I was elliptical-ing away this morning when an old ‘80s tune from the one hit wonder group “AHA” came on my IPOD. I don’t know why, but I was thinking about tithing at that very time. When the chorus of the song came on I thought to myself “hey, that really applies to the tithing concept in the book of Malachi”

Chapter 3, verse 10 says
Malachi 3:10 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.

The song’s chorus says “Take on me, Take me on, I’ll be gone in a day or two” Let me break down my thoughts on this. “Take on me” We should emulate Christ in our lives. I think God calls us to take on His persona the best we can by serving and loving others just as He would. Our tithe not only helps the church to operate, but it helps it to go out and show the world who God is.

“Take me on” God says, verbatim, in verse 10 …..bring your full tithe……test me in this. It’s like God is saying I double dare you to do this and see what I’ll do in return. However, I think there is potential for misinterpretation here. I’m not saying that God wouldn’t bless you monetarily, but there are some many other ways that we get blessed that get taken for granted. We need to be alert and aware of all the ways that God abundantly blesses us. Is your house warm in the winter, does your car get you back and forth to work? Just some thoughts.

The last part of the chorus says “I’ll be gone in a day or two” There was a time when budget wasn’t part of my vocabulary. At that time of my life money was here today and gone tomorrow. Let your money control you and you not controlling it is a hard habit to break (but that’s a whole ‘nother 80’s song to evaluate!)

Feedback

One definition of feedback says: a rumbling, whining, or whistling sound resulting from an amplified or broadcast signal (as music or speech) that has been returned as input and retransmitted.

Sometimes during our band rehearsals at church, while mic's are being tweaked and the sound adjusted for optimum output, there can be loud noise that comes from the speakers. Feedback. It's not pleasant and often offensive and deafing. Believe me it's not something you want to experience if you can avoid it.

Another definition of feedback says: the transmission of evaluative or corrective information about an action, event, or process to the original or controlling source


Sometimes you don't want to acknowledge this second definition of feedback as it can also be unpleasant as well. But just like the improvements the sound guy will make to eliminate the unpleasant feedback from sound equipment, you can also take action with the verbal feedback you get from others around you to make improvements to yourself.


I get feedback regularily. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. More often than not, when I get feedback that I don't like it means an area of "me" has been identified that may need some improvement. I have a choice in my response to feedback. I can be proactive, diving deeper into improving that unpleasant 'sound' in my life, or I can selfishly reject and dismiss it. When I reject legitimate feedback I'm only doing a disservice to myself.


Over the past couple of months I've received a lot of feedback. It's given me much to think and evaluate about myself. Just this morning, while working out, I was pondering some feedback I had gotten yesterday and the new song "Feedback" came on my IPOD. Freaky huh! The chorus says:


When you hear some feedback keep going take it higher
Crank it up, give it to me, come on
Crank it up, give it to me, come on


As I listened to the words it occurred to me that this is the choice I face. I can 'take it higher' and make adjustments and improvments accordingly. I can build on the feedback I receive. Or, I can reject it.

The chorus goes on to say 'crank it up, give it to me, come on'. You need to be able to discern the feedback you receive and identify what is helpful. This is not always the easiest task to accomplish. It's easy to become offended or deny that what you've been told isn't true. You have to take the wall down that blocks you from seeing where you can improve and welcome feedback so that it can 'take me higher.' Oh I know, easy to say when you just typing it in a blog, but if it's something you want to do you have to make the effort to follow through.


What do you do with feedback in your life? Is it just unbearable noise or is it a tool that takes you higher?

Discovered

Friday night we went out to dinner with some friends and I paid with my Discover card. The next morning after our work out we went to Panera for a bagle and I got my wallet out and couldn't find my Discover card. I had the receipt for dinner in my wallet so I called the restaurant. They advised I had to call back later when the manager would be in for the day. I wasn't panicking just yet as I thought I probably just left it at home.
When we got home later that morning I searched all the usual places that I would have put it and couldn't find it anywhere. Panic was starting to settle in. I called the restaurant again and spoke to the manager. He advised that nothing had been turned in but I could call back in about an hour when the waitress who waited on us would be in for the day and perhaps she may have some information.
The anxiety of not finding the card began to mount. I continued to search in the house but still found nothing. An hour had passed so I called the restaurant again. The manager advised that the waitress said that I didn't leave anything on the table and there was nothing on the floor after we left.
After I hung up from the restaurant I immediately called Discover to report the card missing. The people at Discover were extremely helpful. They asked the typical questions to confirm my identity and then asked if I knew where I'd mad my last charge. I told them that it was at a restaurant the previous evening. The Discover rep asked me if I'd gotten gas after dinner (in my car, not from the dinner!) I said "no." She said "well someone did!" Apparently I'd dropped the card somewhere and a dishonest person had apparently found it and decided it was theirs to use. Discover advised they would close the account immediately and to instructed me on how things would be handled from there forward.
I want to give kudos to Discover for their very professional and helpful attitude they had with and towards me when I was the irresponsible one. Thanks Discover for calming me in a anxiety filled incident!

Where are his pants?

It occurred to me at lunch today the my neighbors, well those who are up at 5am anyway, must be wondering about me. Here's why.

I get up a 4:15am -ish every day so that I can be to the gym by, with any luck, 5:15am. I get up that early so I can wake up, have a little coffee and mentally prepare myself for a workout. I always check out side to see if it's snowed over night so that I can clean the walk off for the dog. He's a dachshund, short legs and all, so I like to give him a little clearance for the underbelly. Anyway, two days this week we've been dumped on with snow and I've had to shovel before I left for the gym.

I take my work clothes for the day in my gym bag and on hangers in the car. So when I leave the house its usually in shorts, a t-shirt and my Nikes. This morning when I saw the snow I grabbed my parka and gloves and went to work on the snow. Keep in mind that the parka is long, like about to my knees. As I was shoveling away 3 or 4 cars went down the street. It occurred to me at lunch today that it must have appeared that I had no pants on cuz my parka went below my gym shorts but my legs were showing. I had to wonder if what the people who drove past me this morning, and the people that drove past me earlier in the week must have thought....is he not wearing pants?

Well just for the record, for those of you in my neighborhood who might have seen me shoveling and anyone else....YES, I HAD PANTS ON!

I'm thinking that if it snows again tonite I'd better just put some sweats on over the shorts!

You think you've got baggage.....

Waiting for baggage is the absolute worst part of traveling. Without a doubt, it seems like the longest, most drawn out part of your journey. You want nothing more when you reach your destination to get your suitcase and move on, but you stand and wait and wait and wait.

Our flight from Orlando was do to arrive at Midway around 10:30 Friday night but do to unforseen thunderstorm in Ft Myers we were delayed and didn't arrive until near midnite. After deplaining we made our way to baggage claim to begin our predestined baggage waiting period. In an attempt to make our departure quicker, Adam went to get the car from the parking garage so that when we had collected all the suitcases we could make a swift departure.

It was late and everyone was tired and wanted to get home. Some of the people waiting for their bags were very aggressive in getting up to the carousel to retrieve them. One particular gentleman was so intent on being the first to get his bags that he kicked the emergencey shut off button at the bottom of the carousel and it came to a screeching halt. Not exactly sure why this shut of button encased in plastic so that it just couldn't be bumped, but it wasn't and now no one was getting their bags.

So about 10 minutes later maintenance finally got the carousel running again. We had managed to retrieve 3 of the 4 bags we needed when disaster struck again. The bags came up from a lower level on a conveyer belt and then toppled onto the carousel that went round and round. A car seat came to the top of the conveyer belt, however a strap and buckle that was sticking out from it got caught where the conveyer belt wrapped back under and the carousel came to a screeching halt again. A maintenance man showed up a few minutes later but couldn't get the buckle unwedged from the conveyer. After a few attempts he gave up. One of the passengers who was waiting for his bag jumped up on the carosel and pulled and tugged until he finally dislodged the belt and buckle.

People started hollaring at the maintenance man that the problem was fixed. He then got on his radio and cell phone trying to get someone from the depths of the the baggage department to get the carousel going again. We waited and waited but nothing happened. People started to get irrated and the comments began to fly. One guy jumped up on the carousel and was trying to look into the hole from where the conveyer belt hurled the bags up to the top to see if he could see his bag I guess. The maintenance man didn't like that and very loudly told him to get off the carousel. The guy yelled back that he had to get somewhere. It was midnite, who has to get anywhere at midnight. Or it was midnite, didn't we all have somewhere to be!

After what seemed like an hour (but in reality was probably 10 minutes) the conveyer belt and carousel started up again. Luggage began to pass by us once again and low and behold there was the last piece of luggage we needed. It has actually already gone by once and we all missed it.

It would have been nice to have known that the last piece of luggage we needed was just on the other side of the carousel from us, but hey, had we seen it we would have missed all that drama!

Quit your whinin'

Some dogs whine when they're puppies, some dogs whine they're sick, some dogs whine when they want to go outside. Our dog whines when he wants to go to bed. And quite frankly, HE'S MAKING ME CRAZY!

Round about 7 or 7:30 he starts in with his pathetic wimpering. It's not a long or painful sounding whine. It's almost like a sigh.....that he repeats over and over and over and over. And, when we ignore the whining the pacing begins. He walks from the living room to the bottom of the stairs and back. He then sits down and whines again. After a few minutes, he tries to climb up the side of my chair. When that approach is ignored him as it usually is, he backs down and repeats the cycle. This pattern goes on until we finally give up and go upstairs.

The whining technique also seems to come in handy when he wants his dinner. I have never seen such a neurotic dog in my entire life! The only real reason for this post is because he is driving me nuts tonite.

Florida in 3 days

It's amazing how quickly you can forget what winter is really like when you have the opportunity to go south for, even just a couple of days. I just got back from a trip to Orlando for the annual Willow Creek Leadership Summit National Strategy Event. It didn't take me long at all to settle into no coat, short sleeve shirts and flip flops. Palm trees and sandy beaches surrounded the very large lake at the Disney Coronado resort where we stayed. Definitely a welcomed paradise in the middle of a Michiana winter.

Disney wants your stay to be as easy as possible. When you check in your room key also serves as a charge card for the entire Disney area. You can use at any
Disney park, restaurant or store on the property and the charges will just be billed to your room. It only functioned as a means to open the door to my room for me. Dave Ramsey would be so proud! However I did have to carry the room number around on my wallet. The resort was so huge I was convinced without the room number stuck to my wallet I would never find my room again!

I was hopeful to be able to spend a little time with Josh while I was there but with all the meetings we'd be having I wasn't sure if that would be possible. As it

turns out I did get to see him. We had an awesome visit. He moved to Orlando to attend Full Sail last spring and we'd never seen his apartment as he moved sight unseen. I got to see where he was living this week.

Although we were consumed by activities and meetings I managed to make time for some alone time for myself. Each morning I'd get up early, get some coffee and walk around the lake 2 or 3 times and watch the sun rise. It gave me an opportunity to talk to God and reflect. I was surprized at the number of people who were up and out between 5:30 and 6am. One morning there was even an organized race being run.

My early morning walks also gave me time to think about how much I missed Lori. She loves flowers and they were blooming every where you looked. I had forgotten to bring my digital camera with me and the camera on my phone didn't take the best pictures. I did manage to capture a couple pictures.

The weather on the last day of our Orlando experience was probably the best. Go figure! The sun shone all day and the temps were in the 80's. All of us moaned and groaned about having to return to the frozen tundra awaiting us in Michiana. But as the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end." It only makes me look that much more forward to our vacation back to Orlando in April!

A Winter Revelation

As many of you know, we put our house on the market just after Christmas. Ever since we put the "For Sale" sign in the yard we have had some pretty harsh winter weather. From freezing rain, fog thick as pea soup and snow up to our armpits, it doesn't seem to stop.

One of the perks of the villa where we want to move is that all of the snow removal will be done for us, as well as lawn care, etc. It's not that we have a big driveway to shovel now, but just not one of our favorite things to do (but then again, who does love shoveling snow!)

Anyway, after getting dumped on with more snow this morning, Lori took the first shot at shoveling the drive. About 30 minutes later enough snow had fallen that I decided to shovel again before we left for work. Yes we do get up at 5 am!

We've said all along that if God wants us to move then the house will sell in His timing. If He doesn't then it won't. So Lori comes to me with this revelation after we get to work today about the snow shoveling. She said that while she was out in the blowing snow this morning that she figured either God doesn't want us to move so He keeps sending this less than desireable weather to Granger, or its really going to make her appreciate the fact that once we get moved into the villa that we won't have to deal with snow anymore! Isn't she great! I love her!

We went digital today

Our current tv is over 20 years old and dying a slow death. We finally took the plunge and bought a flat screen digital HD television today and will be putting the the old tv out to pasture.

We'd been toying with the idea of going digital for a while but figured as long as "old faithful' still had a picture we might as well put it off until 2009 when going digital would no longer be a choice but a fact of life.

It was a good plan until recently our tv just started changing channels on its own. You be enjoying a program and the tv would switch to channel 2. You'd put it back to the channel you were watching and it would switch to channel 2 again. This could go on for as long as 5+ minutes until it would finally stay on the channel you were watching. This problem just continued to get worse and worse over the last week.

So this weekend we decided to start seriously looking for a replacement. Our son Josh is the family electronic's guru so everytime we'd see a tv we liked we'd call him for his input. He actually called us at one point and said he's seen a good deal online at Circuit City so we decided to go check it out today. I hoping that was to just be helpful and not to get us to quit calling him! (LOL)

What a sweet deal! If you bought a tv from Circuit City and had your cable upgraded to digital HD through Circuit City they'd take $100 off the price of the tv. We were going to upgrade to digital cable anyway so why not do it througt them. To even sweeten the deal even more, they had 90 days same as cash.

Unfortunately they were out of stock on the model we purchased but its on order and we'll have it in a week. I can't wait to watch a picture thats more crisp and clear than we've ever had before and for the tv to stay on the channel I put it on!

94 days and counting

I'm so excited...we made our spring break reservations for Florida this morning. Got a really good $69 on Allegiant and an awesome hotel rate too.

94 days and counting!

SHOES

I found these great, but very worn looking, shoes at Kohl's today but the best part of purchasing them was the reaction that I received from the clerk at the register.

I put them on the counter in the box they came in and proceded to check out. The clerk opened the box, as they do, to check to make sure the sizes of both shoes are the same (and I'm sure to make sure you're not smugglin something else out of the store). When she opened the box you should have seen her face. She saw these shoes, that though brand new, looked like they had seen better days. She looked at me and asked if I had the shoes that belonged in the box. I didn't make the connection but Lori did. Lori started laughing and said 'those are the new shoes.' The clerk looked at them like 'you've got to be kidding me!' We said, seriously, those are the new shoes. She just shook her head in disbelief.

On the way out to the car we laughed about what had just happened and Lori said you gotta put that one on your blog!

A "Bed" time story

It was just a day or so past the Christmas holiday. The man's son was home from college and he and his wife were both on holiday as well. The son had taken advantage of his time away from school to visit the friends and family that he hung out with prior to going away.

On this particular morning the man, the wife and the son were sitting around just having coffee and talking. The man and the wife were going to visit the man's grandmother later that day as it was her 93rd birthday.

During the course of the conversation the son mentioned that mother of a close friend he'd visited during his break was sleeping on the floor with only blankets for comfort.

The man and his wife wanted to downsize their living arrangements and had only a week before, put their house up for sale. In the midst of putting the home for sale they were disposing of many things that they wouldn't have room to take with them to a smaller home. Upon hearing that the friends mother needed a bed, the man said that he would be willing to sell the one of the newly purchased beds in one of the spare rooms to the mother of his friend. The son replied that he didn't know if she could afford to buy a bed and perhaps that was why she was sleeping on the floor. The man was adament about only selling it so the conversation ended.

A little while later, as the man and the wife were driving to see the grandmother for her birthday the man and the wife had a brief discussion about the bed situation. The man didn't want to budge on his position of only selling the bed. The wife felt the need may go deeper than that, but agreed to disagree. As he was driving the man was wrestling in his head with what was the right thing to do. He prayed that if giving this bed away was something that God wanted him to do then God would just have to give him a sign.

Not long after praying that they drove past a little white church with a sign out front that said "Share Jesus with someone today." The man's heart melted. It was obvious to him that God has spoken. In the quiet of the drive the man resolved himself to the fact that he had to give the bed to the mother of the friend and expect nothing in return.

The next day the man said to the wife, "We have been blessed abundantly, over and over, time and time again. We have a brand new bed that is sitting in a room that is serving no purpose but for appearance only. A woman we know is having to sleep on a cold hard floor. I think we should give the bed to her."

The man called the son and asked if he had a means to get the bed to the friends mother. Later that night the bed was delivered. The room at the man's house sits empty now but not really. Love fills the room where the bed once sat.
It's not what you have but its what you do with what you have.

Oh yeah...did I mention the man in the story is me.

Matthew 25:14-30

Winding down, not so much

Seems like forever since I've posted a blog. Life had has been a whirlwind since the beginning of December and it feels like there's hardly been time to stop and even just take a breath. Between the regular routine of life and all that the holidays add to one's schedule it gets just plain crazy.

Christmas Eve at GCC was phenominal. I feel so fortunate to have been able to be a part of the behind the scenes work. The hours of planning and comittment paved an incredible program to tell the story of the birth of Jesus. And who'd of thought that it could have been done with music from the Beatles. It was outstanding.

And if all that didn't make things crazy enough, add to that the fact that we decided to put our house on the market as well. You can see the virtual tour at http://sbi.mlxchange.com/Pub/EmailView.asp?r=134878721&s=SBI&t=SBI . We've been listed since December 28 and todays open house brought our first 'lookers' Hoping now that the holidays are in the past that traffic will begin to pick up and we'll have a buyer soon.

Josh came home from school in Florida for 2 weeks. It was nice to have him home. He was up early the first few days he was home and met us for breakfast. However, sleeping in became more appealing and breakfasts turned into lunches. He hung out at home with us a few evenings. We got caught up on all that he was learning at school and how his life in Orlando was going. I don't mean to make it sound like we don't talk to him when he's at school, but you know that a phone conversation isn't the same as just sitting around and talking about life. I was quite surprized to learn that he doesn't really like Florida and hopes to land a job in Chicago after he graduates in June.

Today was Josh's 2oth birthday. I had to hustle him out of bed this morning as I had to get the house spic and span for the pending afteroon open house. We took him out to eat at Fridays but promised we'd keep his birthday on the down low so that he wouldn't have to endure singing and balloons tied to his hair. After lunch he accompanied us to look at tv's as our is about on its last leg. I think he arrives in Orlando around midnite tonite. With any luck I'll get to see him in February when I go to Orlando for the Leadership Summit meeting.

I was also introduced to Facebook in December. As if I had time for that! But I got hooked immediately. Still not quite sure of everything I can do on it but know how to post on someones wall and have gotten pretty good at that. It's the simple things!

We did have a few days off between the holidays, but of course a majority of that time was spent shopping, the thing, well one of the the things Lori and I do best together. Got some pretty good post Christmas deals.

We also did some major cleaning at home while we were on 'vakay.' The villa we hope to move into has no basement and much less storage space than we have in this home. We're really not packrats by any means but still managed to get rid of an amazing amount of stuff that we'd just been harboring for over the years and will hopefully make the transition into a smaller home easier to do.

Here we are starting the second week of January and there still isn't time to stop and take a breath yet. I'm waist deep in end of the year things to do at work. In addition, 2 major projects that I started last year are nearing completion. At times, well actually a lot of the time, it feels like there is no end in sight.

But odd as it may sound, I'm looking forward to what God has in store for me in '08 and ready to embrace it with all I have to offer.