another bday

Well, there it goes, another year.  I am now 33, which is a palindrome, so what’s not to love about it?!  On the flip side, I found it to be interesting.  A lot of the younger people I work with say “wow, you’re old!”  But the older people (40-50ish) say “you’re just a young lad/pup/kid etc”  So which one is it?  Who knows, it’s like age purgatory.  Just stuck in the middle.  Good thing I don’t have a mid-life crisis yet, that would be really bad.  We’re looking forward to this year, we have quite a few big decisions to make, our kids are growing, with our oldest rocking out some pre-school stuff.  We are going to try to do some home-schooling with him we’ll see how that goes.  My baby sister goes off to basic training for the army, i’m pretty excited about that one.  I’m hoping she can be done with everything before I get out, as we’re in the same unit, it would be pretty awesome to actually serve with her, even if it is only for a short time.

The new year has also started for the college.  We had really good momentum at the end of the school year last year, and so we’re trying to get some of that back.  Some positive things are happening though, there’s a community day.  Community businesses and student organizations all have a table in the main building and we were asked if we wanted one, for sure!  So we have that this week…ahhhhh…Yea just remembered it was this week, holy cow that came fast.  It’s always an interesting challenge only being able to do this one day a week.

We actually get to go home and see my family!  Wow, it’s been a while.  It’s always a challenge and an adventure, kind of like a choose your own adventure book, make one decision about housing, or time and it changes everything.  But it’s going to be great, our nephew has a bday at the end of Feb, we have a few bday’s in March and my sister leaves for basic, so it’s a big period of time for us.  It should be a good time.

Until then, off to make some more latte’s and serve all the people of Gillette.

Ouch

yea, that hurts.

Airline continued

Following up on a previous post, Good Morning America did a story this morning about adding more fees to airline travel.  Including $25 just to talk with a associate at the desk for help!  Really?!  Wow, this is pathetic, How can people manage their own estate just fine, or hire someone to do so but corporations can’t seem to do it?  Where is our personal responsibility?  We expect others (gov’t, school, church etc) to give us money, resources, or pick up the slack for our shortcomings.  I’m not rich by any means, in fact quite the opposite.  But I don’t expect other to provide everything for me.  I know the economy stinks, I know things are goofy as a whole.  What happened to the American idea of picking ourselves up and working hard to do it?  That’s what made this place to good and why people want to come here.  I’m not a raving political radical whatever…in fact I hate politics, I guess I would like to see some of these large corporations, government and individuals take personal responsibility and not pass the blame onto others.

A couple of years ago Group magazine did an article called “The Entitlement Dragon”, it talked about how this generation feels that they feel entitled to have something just for being them.  They don’t understand the idea of you work/earn something, rather mom and dad, teacher should give them something just for showing up.  I think this has trickled into the larger picture.  Maybe it’s a “trash goes up hill” kind of deal, I don’t know.

I talked with a professor on the college campus and he spoke to this, his students couldn’t believe that he would give them a bad grade.  They said “you can’t do that”, his response…”ummm, yes I can, you didn’t do the work.”

There’s a correlation to our relationship with Christ here as well, and maybe i’ll think about that one and write later, but for now, I will kind of spew out some annoyances about airlines.

ahhh…life…good times.

It’s been an interesting few weeks for myself and my family.  For the longest time I have been pretty stressed out as to what we would be doing and where that would be.  I’m not fully at peace, since I don’t have an answer, however we really are ok with the “unknown”.  We really feel that the work God has been doing in myself and family, is starting to show some color.  We have no idea what’s next, but we’re pretty peaceful about it.  And that is in several different areas, which is kind of surprising really.  I’m really excited about the future, and I feel that I am in a place mentally and spiritually that is healthy to do what God is asking of me.  It’s beyond the rudimentary operational aspects of ministry, or the frustrations that I was caught up on, I really am excited to go and do!  It’s been a painful and frustrating pruning process, which I have thought of a Skit Guys video about God’s Chisel.  How sometimes God uses a chisel to shape us and sometimes it hurts.  That’s what it’s been like for the past year, a year of growth and pain, but now we’re close to some of the sanding and polishing.  At least in a few areas in my life that were pretty rough.  It’s far from perfect.

I’m excited to see what God has in store this semester at the College.  We ended last year on a pretty high note, and so it will be interesting to see what God does this semester.  My prayer for myself is really to be very deliberate in conversation and interaction with people and students.  I have recognized that I fell/fall into the be sure you’re their friend mentality.  Which doesn’t fully work.  I can get to know them, interact and all that, but if i’m not fully sharing Christ, in whatever form that looks like, than why am I here?  I’m not going to stand on a street corner or anything, just be more transparent.

This semester we’re going to be talking about the Parables of Christ in a modern context with some great short-films covering them.  It’s going to be pretty cool.  On the flip side, one of the aspects of the ministry that I really wanted to take off never did.  So i’m evaluating and praying over that one.  What was it that didn’t work etc.?  It’s been frustrating, at the same time it’s been good.  I’ve learned a ton and have much more to go.

The time frame for us is a little goofy, looking at where things line up with the Church, housing, the job etc, it all kind of comes to a head at once, so that’s interesting and concerning.  But again we’re not really stressed out about it…yet.

As the song goes… “God only knows…”