Thursday, January 29, 2009

What an Executive Director does

Many people have asked me what exactly does an executive director do. Fair question. So I thought I would tell you what I did today. Today I was talking to our bookstore manager and someone came up to me and said "The toilet is overflowing!" So I go upstairs look and well the toilet was overflowing. So I begin to plunge. I plunged and plunged and plunged. Nothing! We got a little snake, nothing. So we called the plumber. When the plumber got there, I quickly became the plumbers assistant. Next thing I know I am holding a garbage can to catch waste water from a pipe we disconnected to get to the other pipe. Filled the 35 gallon can up. Then I had the fun job of looking down a pipe waiting to see raw sewage flowing freely. Once I saw it flowing, it was time to clean up which included dumping the garbage can full of nasty water. Well at least I can say the bathrooms now work again.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The perfect way to end a snowy day

Right now I am sitting on our double recliner with my wife. We are both on our laptops just sitting watching some movie. After dealing with the snow and ice all day to be able to sit on my comfy recliner with my wife. I know I sound really old. But hey when life is this good, you just don't care. Hope I can stay awake to the end.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Steelers and Crabs

No, unfortunately I am not talking about eating crab while watching the Superbowl. I do admit that I would enjoy that. But I am talking about my son Isaiah. Apparently he too has Superbowl fever. He is always wanting to play Steelers and Crabs. Now I know what you are thinking, huh? Well apparently he thinks that when the Steelers get in their three point stances they look like crabs. So to play Steelers and crabs you run around the house trying to zap each other. When zapped you have to freeze until you are zapped again. However, if the person who is being chased catches the one who is doing the zapping, he is allowed to tickle the zapper until the zapper says "pop." Now I do not think I am going to patent this idea or anything like that. So I encourage all of you out there to play the greatest Superbowl pre-game game -- Steelers and Crabs!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Helping People

One of the challenges when you are dealing with people is to stay compassionate. It gets tough. You hear basically the same story over and over. Couple names switch, events are in different order, but it easily can turn into some sort of depressing country song. Now at the same time you can not allow yourself to fall apart at every sad story. A very difficult balance to say the least. So I have a couple of guidelines I like to follow. I thought I would share them:

  1. People matter to God.
  2. This is a fallen world with lots of problems
  3. Most people who come to you for help, need it.
  4. Trust a person until they give you reason not to.
  5. Unfortunately, you are not able to change the whole world in 1 day.
  6. God has given you every resource you need for today
  7. Trust God in his leading.

There you go there is seven guidelines. You have anymore?

Sunday, January 25, 2009

That's the way it is supposed to be

Tonight I was at a community unity service. Let me tell you, I had a blast. I saw what I love to see: churches and pastors united, working together. Now I have never had an ounce of tension with our Richland Ministerial Association. Those guys are my friends. But apparently there are some communities that just don't get along. The pastors in the group tonight seem to be good friends. Now I am not advocating for a "one church" type system. We need our separate places to worship God in our different styles. I am just saying that the love of God has to be greater then our differences. Tonight it clearly was.
My question to you is this. If you found out something good happened at the church down the road would you be happy for them? Or would you get jealous?
Tonight, I saw people united. Tonight I saw churches be The Church.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Getting rid of books

I have a confession to make, I am a bookaholic. I like books. Probably because I think they make me look smart and I need all the help that I can get in that area. As a result I have a plethora of books. Today, I was finally able to get them out of the boxes and on my shelves. I took this opportunity to go through some of them and find the ones that I am willing to part with. I did a pretty good job. I think I eliminated about 1/2 of them. Now I am going to take the ones I don't want and try to sell them on Amazon. Now of course I have an a motive behind doing all of this. The money that I make from selling the books goes to my "book budget." So I sell book in order to buy more books. Which will make me have to do the process all over again. Maybe I should seek professional help to deal with my bookaholic sickness?

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Running!

I have not been able to run that much lately. I could give you excuse after excuse. Like I have been busy. But that is just an excuse. I could say that it has been ridiculously cold. It has. But that is just an excuse too.
Honestly I think it is because right now I do not have a goal. I do not have a race on my calendar to get ready for. I have decided not to run the Pittsburgh Marathon this year. There is a certain part of me that would like to do it, but there is not that burning desire at this point. I hope it is a successful marathon. Next year for me? Maybe.
Maybe I am a goal oriented person. If I am doing something for a specific reason, I will get it done. I will do the work that I need to do get it done. I can stay focused. Without that goal, it is tough.
I ran today, and it made me feel better. But I need more of a challenge. Maybe I will find a race to enter. Could give me that motivation.
Now rest assured I am talking about running. But having that goal in any area of life is essential.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Prayer Service Reflections

Today we had a prayer service for our elected officials in light of tomorrow's inauguration. We did this with about 6 different churches participating, all of different backgrounds and denominations. Quite interesting. I was glad to be apart of this. It was nice to come together and not to endorse a politician, not to bash a politician, not to be political in any shape or form. Our job is to do what we are told to do, pray for our leaders. Now I promise you that there will be decisions made and law's passed that I do not like. That I do not think are correct. While that might be true, we still have the responsibility to pray for our leaders. Love coming together to do what we are called to do, I don't know, sounds almost Biblical.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Ohh Yeah!!!!!!

Today I had about 5 different ideas for blogs. They were some very insightful thought provoking ideas. Ones that would make you say "wow." Ones that would leave you wanting more and more.
But, I just got done watching a great game and Pittsburgh is going to the Super Bowl! Needless to say I can not remember anything that I was going to blog about. Go Steelers!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Giving up is not an option

Friday I wake up and get in the shower. While I am in the shower the water pressure kept getting less and less until there was no water. Argh. My pipes were frozen (again). So I start with all my tricks. Nothing! I could not get it unfrozen for anything. So I left the heater on it for a couple hours, get back home, try again, nothing! Argh! Called the plumber. He could not fix it. Argh. He gave me an idea that involved a big torpedo heater and some plastic. So I rented the torpedo bought the plastic and made basically a room. I heated it to about 75 degrees in there. After doing that for about 3 hours, I tried it again, and it worked! I had running water! So then I had to return the torpedo heater, get some more heat tape and insulation. Went home. Put the heat tape and insulation on. Finally at 10:00 I take a long hot shower.
Yes it felt good to get it done. I think that is result of refusing not to give up. This case it was water. But what if it is something that God is calling you to do. It might not happen right away. Will you finish the task or will you give up?

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Eating with my wife

Tonight I did something that I have not done in a long time. I ate with my wife...Just my wife! How fun. I talked to her tonight with the only interruption was the server asking us what we wanted to order. Wow! It was nice to be able to have a full conversation, no interruptions, no mess to clean up, and no cutting food into small pieces. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids. I love being with them. But it is nice to spend some time with my wife. Just was a real good time.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Praying for our Leaders

Today, I had a meeting with a bunch of pastors (and surprisingly it was only an hour). We were planning a joint service next Monday to pray for our elected officials before the big inauguration. Had a couple of thoughts I would like to share.
  • I think it is neat that this will be on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Just something interesting about that to me.
  • Love the opportunity we have to do what we are told to do. Pray for our leaders. Do we have to agree with them? No! But we are told to pray for them.
  • Though this is not the first time that we have done something like this, it never ceases to amaze me how easy it is for us to do this. There is no tension among my fellow pastors. There is no worry about who gets the credit. There is no "well if he is involved then I am not going to participate." Just love how there is no tension there.
  • The group of pastors I met with today...They love Jesus! The Greater Richland Area has a bunch of good guys leading their churches. That is sweet!

Monday, January 12, 2009

The big mo

I think one of the most overlooked aspects in life is momentum. I don't think we give it enough credit. Seriously, it is important. Being the sports junkie that I am, I am convinced that teams win (or lose) because of momentum.
After my experiences at Bakerstown, there were times when we had momentum and things were happening. It was great. Then of course there were also times when we did not have the mo going. During those times, well, things were not so good.
The question that I have been pondering lately is how to get and keep the big mo. As far as getting the big mo, that is not too difficult. Basically you find anything that is good, or excellent, or worthy of praise and you think of those things. (Phil. 4:8) Then soon after that you have momentum.
The keeping it is the hard part. I think the problem comes when we become content. When things become good enough. The key is to be always pushing the bar. Sure, celebrate the "wins" along the way. Sure, enjoy the moment. But the drive for more has to be there or else there is no mo.
I would love to hear your thoughts.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Sledding

This morning I had to be at the Lighthouse. The whole time I was there I wanted to be outside playing in the snow. I got home at lunch time. Ate lunch. Then we got the boys all bundled up and it was time to play. Boy did we play. Last year Isaiah did not ever go sledding with me. This year he did! And later on I got him to go by himself. That was a blast. The whole time he is laughing and having fun. I was just having a blast. I love that I can do these things with my kids. Probably because I am just a big kid myself.

Friday, January 9, 2009

My addictive personality

I have one of the most addictive personality I know. This is true in just about every facet of my life. Food, exercise, games, ect.. I don't now why. I just do something and I have to take it to the next level. That is why I wasn't satisfied with running a 10k or something like that, I had to do the whole marathon. Currently, it is Tetris on Facebook. Just can't get enough of it. Is anyone out there willing to admit their obsessions?

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

How a good day is made

I am not sure how this happened, but when I was in the shower this morning I started singing (in my head) From the Inside Out. It could be because that is the last song we practiced at our worship team practice. I am not sure. So all morning long, I was rocking out (in my head) all morning long. Made for a good day.
Now I would love to sit here and say that I do this every morning. Just not true. But maybe I should try to do this every day.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Ode to Obi

Today was not a great day. Our cat Obadiah, Obi for short, was really sick yesterday. He threw up several times. This morning we took him to the vet. The vet told us that he would need surgery (really expensive) and that the surgery may not work. So we had him put to sleep.
I know I will miss that little fur ball. We got him a couple months after Heather and I got married. He was the friendliest cat you have ever seen. I loved those days when he would keep my feet warm by laying on top of them. He was a little bad a times. We learned not to keep food out. But overall he was a really good cat. We will miss him.
You probably wonder why we named him Obadiah. Honestly, it is just a fun name to say. It also helped me learn another book of the Bible.
Obi was a good kitty.

P.S. No! No! No! We do not want another cat! We do not want a dog! We do not want fish! We do not want a ferret! We do not want a rabbit! We do not want a snake! We do not want any pet whatsoever!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Frozen Pipes

When we got home yesterday, Heather started to fill up the bath tub to give the boys a bath. Shortly thereafter, we find out that there is no more water. Look at it real quick and realize that the pipes are frozen. Quickly, I go to the source of the problem. I remove the cover over the pipes and rest it against the wall. I then get a blanket on put it over the cover and make a little tent. Next, step is to get the portable electric heaters and the blow dryer. Now I kept my eye on it, and would occasionally feel inside the "tent." Wow! It was pretty warm in there. After about 10 minutes, I kicked the pump on, and you hear these little chunks of ice going through. Fortunately no broken pipes. And everything worked fine after that.
Now rest assured this is not the first time this has happened. The first time I had no clue what to do. I had to call my dad to ask him what to do. This time (#5) I did it in about 15 minutes start to finish.
What I find funny is when Isaiah or Samuel grow up and have their own home, I know what is going to happen. They are going to call me and ask me what to do. And of course I will tell them.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Long drive and 3 year old!

Now I know what you are thinking. You are thinking "now there is a disaster waiting to happen." We went to Connecticut this past week. Roughly 500 miles one way. On Wednesday when we drove up we only stop 2 times. One for a quick bathroom break. The other for supper, gas, and a bathroom break. Not bad if you ask me. And then on the way home, we only stopped twice again. Once was for the gas, food, and bathroom. The other was just gas. I am really amazed. I thought for sure we would be stopping like every hour. Makes me a little more ambitious to go further places. Any suggestions? :)