Came across this quote/poem/whatever tonight and it seems to fit perfectly:
I’m not going to stress over you anymore. It isn’t worth it.
I tried to work something out but you just ignored it.
I’m not trying to say I don’t want you, because I definitely do.
All I’m saying is I’m done chasing after you.
-unknown
And to all, a good night.
-jcw
I came across an article on the CNN Money site with tips for advancing your career. They give five methods for doing so: Make a lateral move, Solve the boss’s problem, Hone your soft skills, Capitalize on change, and Build the right skills. You can go read the article for their explanations of these methods.
What caught my attention was more the order of things. To me, most of these items are related. And, while I understand that being written for Money it needed to be business related, I feel that the whole list could be simplified to one rule and that rule applies to life in general. So bear with me and I’ll try to share my point of view on this. Read the rest of this entry »
As some of you know, I’m looking for a new job. Today I was on a phone interview with a potential employer and they asked me an interesting question; “If you could be anyone in the world for a week, who would you be?” My first thought was Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. But then I thought about all the stress those guys have to deal with, all the people they have hanging on them. So I started running various people through my mind and eliminated each one before their name fully formed.
Finally I told the lady that I couldn’t think of anyone else that I wanted to be. I told her I didn’t think I could be as happy being someone else as I could being me.
After I got off the phone I sat and thought more about that question. And it struck me kind of odd that, after the way last month went with me losing my wife* and my job within weeks of one another, that I still love my live. I might be sad or bummed out sometimes, but overall I really like my life. I know it sounds corny, but to me this was an important realization. While I have much to learn, I am who God wants me to be and I wouldn’t trade it for a thing.
Oh, and I completed the phone interview and then aced the face-to-face interview this afternoon. I have a second face-to-face interview next week. Praise God!
* By losing my wife I mean that she left, not that she died. I should have been more clear there, it seems.
A thought occurred to me tonight. There are a few places in the Bible where God is referred to as a gardener of sorts. I’m going to expand on this analogy a bit. Indulge me if you would.
Whenever I’ve seen someone plant tomatoes, they put a stake in the ground next to them so that as the plant grows, it can be tied to the stake for support. In our lives, Jesus is that stake. He’s the perfectly straight marker that one day God will use as a standard when judging this world. As we grow in our spirits and strive to be more like Jesus, we’re essentially tying ourselves to him for support, to help us to be straighter. Sometimes in life, when we go through a rough patch, it’s just God tending to his plants, putting another string around us to pull us upright. Just as with tomato plants, this upward growth is unnatural for us. We find it uncomfortable and limiting. But, like everything a gardener does, it’s for a purpose.
As my mind processed all this, I realized that every rough patch in my marriage could be traced back to a point where one or both of us were fighting against this upward growth. Where we wanted to grow at a more comfortable angle, where we want to cooperate with gravity and just take it easy rather than striving to go straight up. But, just like a tomato plant, doing so will eventually lead to tipping over completely. Thankfully, every time we’ve reached this point, we’ve turned back and asked the master gardener for help. And every time he’s picked us back up and started working to straighten us out again.
Thank you Lord for always being willing to help straighten us out.
Recently I attended a small youth leader training seminar. Overall, it was decent enough. But I was constantly amazed at the information being presented. From the opening session until the very end I noticed a common theme. The bulk of everything being said was business 101. Sure, they changed some of the words. But the basic underlying message was the same.
Now, I’m not saying that it’s wrong to run a youth group, or even a church, like a business. In a lot of aspects, I think it would be an improvement. But once I got past the surprise that it was basically a flashy business lecture, I was amazed at how basic knowledge that has been taught in business world for years is being presented to youth leaders as revolutionary. But that’s cool because it puts me ahead of the curve. 
