Unexpected

My friend Chris gave a short talk this morning during a meeting about how God has worked in the Bible. Typically, He used unexpected means or people to accomplish great things.

Do we like the unexpected? NO, most of the time we don't because we see the unexpected as "out of our control". So, here is the line that Chris used to sum it up.

If we know that God works in unexpected ways and we learn to expect that to be true, then the unexpected becomes expected! Chew on that for a while and good luck today looking for God to send you something unexpected...it's always good in the end!!!!

I love you all.

Long term friendships

My wife has a friend who came up to Prescott for a visit. There were nearly inseparable during their early years. They met in the church nursery and she has remained in our lives ever since. As we have moved around during our married life, Lori and Kari have not seen each other nearly as much, but regard each other like "best friends".

While they have not spoken as much as times past, it was fun to see them together this weekend. The amazing thing about friends like Lori and Kari, is they can pick up where they last left off. There is no drama or pretense. Neither holds the other responsible for the amount of communication they have before getting together.

Value those who play this role in your life. Soak in the times when you can be together and don't worry about the times that you are apart! Good friends are hard to find sometimes, so make the most of the time you have with them!

2012 Budget discussion

You may not be interested in the politics of budgets for America, but I want to suggest that you should become engaged in the conversation. I watched this interview with Chris Wallace and Rep. Paul Ryan. It's a good discussion about the direction we are headed in our American spending.

I, for one, am glad that the future is being discussed BEFORE it can become reality. Perhaps we can all agree to ask Washington to payoff the debt, just like we have to do in our homes, counties and states.

Watch the interview here.

Reading George W. Bush Book

I am a few chapters into the book Decision Points by George W. Bush.

It's a interesting look into the beginning's of Bush's life and it's fascinating. One thing stuck out to me, a few days after his father lost the White House to Clinton, "W" ran a marathon in 3:44. That's 28 minutes faster than I ran a marathon. That is a remarkable accomplishment.

You will enjoy his direct nature and honest assessment of his decisions. I have tons of respect for someone who has a standard and sticks by it, plus if they make a mistake, they admit it, apologize and move on!

Capable of much more

Last night I attended my 6 year-old's school program. He attends Washington School and it's a cool old brick school dating back over 100 years! This program was a patriotic celebration of our country. These kindergarten children learned the many famous songs and documents about our freedom as Americans. One little girl named all 50 states, another boy recited the preamble of the Declaration of Independence and my son spoke the preamble of the Constitution.

When he was assigned this difficult task, I didn't know what to think. "Domestic Tranquility" is not an easy phrase to pronounce or remember. I was amazed. All these children learned a tremendous amount, but why is that so amazing. CLEARLY THEY WERE CAPABLE OF MORE THAN I THOUGHT!

What about you and me? Has someone told us that "it can't be done" so we believe them? Do we just not try because we don't think it's possible? Perhaps we need to examine the messages we believe. Can a 40 year old run a marathon? Yes!!! It's hard work, but it can be done.

Be encouraged and rethink what you believe! Blessings today on you!

I work here because...

I have spent my entire adult life working with young people. 12 years I worked as a Youth Pastor and the last 9+ have been working at a youth camp. Why? That's a great question. Can you answer that for yourself?

Why do you work where you work? Sometimes, we work because we have commitments to keep and ANY job will do to meet those demands. This is a tough place because we sacrifice our passion at work to attain something we value more.

For me, I have chosen a long time ago to work in ministries with kids. This is not lucrative, but that's not the point. I want to see kids benefit as I did from my youth pastor, Don Kluttz. Currently I work at this amazing camp BECAUSE kids and adults make life-altering decisions at this camp and many like it across our world.

Today, I hope you take a few moments and consider the purpose of your work. Perhaps you reaffirm your commitment to care for your family and work outside of your passion area because you love others. Perhaps you reaffirm your work in you favorite area even though it does not pay what you would like.

Meeting people

I have been reading a great book on Marketing & Sales. It's called We: The Ideal Customer Relationship

There are many great parts to the book and it's a very pracitcal guide to Sales, etc, however, the best part for me was the section relating to "encounters". The author, Steve Yastrow, develops the idea about how we meet people. He goes to great length to discuss 1) preparing ourselves to meet and listen and talk with people. 2) He challenges me to "leave the moment" behind that I was just in, and take time to prepare for the next moment (meeting someone).

There is so much more, so read the book, but it begs this question for me. Do I take the time to PREPARE to meet people? Do I take time to PREPARE to listen to my spouse, children and those I contact everyday? Do I PREPARE for those I meet regarding work or is it just a job and they are just customers????

Hope we all learn to value people more!