Tax Time

It is the time again. Time to start on the taxes. Now, some people get really worried about taxes. Some people at the mere mention of the word go into cardiac arrest. Some people "forget" to pay their taxes (was that a political reference?). Personally, I find it a game. I find it a challenge to find every possible legal way of paying the least amount of taxes possible. Don't get me wrong, I think everyone should pay their fair share of taxes. But the way the tax code is written, there is tons of loop holes, heck there is even loop holes for the loop holes. I still do my own taxes. And don't tell this to the IRS, but I have never been audited! You know you are proud of me! So as another tax season is upon us, happy deductions!

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.

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.

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!

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!