Putting Pop in a Water Glass is Stealing

One thing that really makes me upset is when people come into my store, ask for a water glass and then fill it with pop. It predominately happens with high school boys, but there have been multiple instances where it has been adults doing the stealing. I have even seen mothers come in and blatantly take pop for their kids. Nice example – I’ll bet those kids will be the teenage boys in 10 years.

What happened today takes the cake though. A kid came in an asked for an application. While he was sitting in the store filling out the job app he was swearing and making a lot of noise. Then he comes up to the counter and asks for a water cup. Unbelievably, he proceeded over to the pop machine and filled up the cup with soda. Are you freaking kidding me! We didn’t feel the need to interview that dude.

I’m sure I filled up plenty of water cups with pop in my day – but man it drives me nuts.

Technical Director Job Update

Thanks for all your prayers. No word yet. I’ll let you know as soon as I know.

Weekend Update

It’s been a great, long day. After church my wife went gung-ho and decided to rent a carpet cleaning machine. I wasn’t completely jazzed about the project but Stephanie and an amazing friend of ours cleaned all the carpet in the house! It was sweet! Thanks AF.

Note: We’re hoping to get the house on the market August 1. To all the Negative Nancy’s: we know it is a tough time to sell but we feel the call of God to move and we’re trusting him with the details!

In the meantime, I spent 3 hours in the garage cleaning, organizing, packing, and sweating my butt off. The kids loved it all. They swam, played baseball, rode bikes, and generally caused major havoc outside all afternoon. To end the night Stephanie cooked a fantastic spaghetti dinner and then the family all went to McDonald’s for ice cream.

We’re tired but we had a great day.

Moving Forward

By the time many of you read this it will probably be too late, but I would ask you to pray anyway.

Some background – last Thursday, frustrated from not hearing back from Target, I decided to search a few ministry job sites, looking for something that might be a good fit for me. I was very excited to see a job opening at a church in MN. The job looks like a position that would be fun and creative and stretching at the same time. The technical requirements of the position are a little beyond what I have previously done, but it is all something I would be interested in learning – so I applied.

Some older background – almost 12 months ago, after being on a 6 month leave from the ministry where I served, I came to the difficult decision that it would be best for my family and I if I resigned from my position as Associate Pastor. It was clear to me then, and has been made clearer since, that were some significant areas in my life that God needed to work on before I could continue in pastoral ministry.

Currently – Praise Jesus for his faithfulness. While the last year has been difficult for us God has continued to stand by us and hold us when we couldn’t stand. So, now I look towards the future. I think about church work all the time and I miss it daily. I don’t feel called back to pastoring just yet (though I know it is my future if I keep walking the path of growth I am on) but I really wish I could work in the church environment again. So, while I am excited about the professional possibilities Target offers – not to mention the idea of never cooking a fish or cheese curds again – I am praying that God moves in the ministry position I applied for.

Tomorrow morning (Friday) the church will be reviewing resumes and probably deciding which candidates they would like to meet. I want to be one of them. So please pray. Thanks.

Top 20 Church Logos

Kent at Church Relevance says,

A good logo design is…

Distinctive. Memorable. And timeless.
It is aesthetically pleasing.

It is scalable, looking good while as large as a billboard or as small as a dime. It looks good in color as well as black and white. And it is simple enough that it can be applied to a media spectrum as broad as paper to plastic and t-shirts to websites.

Most importantly, a good logo communicates the unique qualities of its brand.

With that in mind he identifies his Top 20 Church Logos. Which are your favorite?

Not What I Signed Up For

My crabby quotient has been extremely high lately, which means my compassion quotient has been atrociously low. Not that compassion is normally a strength of mine, which spells all the more disappointment in the lives of people around me.

I remember singing “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” when I was growing up in church. Somehow I picked up the notion that Jesus was going to make all my days great. Blue skies and birds singing. Ha. I was a touch off on that notion.

You might think that growing up in church, going to a Christian university, completing a Master of Divinity degree, working in ministry for 6 years, and consuming all the sermons and blog entries I can, would have some kind of positive effect on that ‘joy, joy.’ But tonight I’m wondering about that.

What does it really take to meet Jesus and have your life radically changed? I’m not sure that’s happened. I mean, I know of Jesus, we’ve talked a few times, I try with much of my physical and mental ability to follow him, and yet I still find myself crabby, short fused, depressed, and void of empathy for those I profess to love. You’d want to believe that things would be more different.

Sanctification (becoming more like Christ) has become a long, hard, painful, sometimes treacherous journey for me during the last 18 months. There have been many steps forward, but also some backward. Strongholds, defects, and wrong ways of thinking/ feeling/ being have had to be confronted and dealt with – and these things change ever so slowly. Why God does not snap his metaphorical fingers I don’t know. I probably never will.

He has put me on a path. There is a road that only I can walk. And I’m going. I just wish the collateral damage wasn’t as large, and that the road wasn’t so long and confusing.

Keep Drinking Your Soda Friends

If I hear one more news station report about the study linking soda to heart issues I am going to puke.

(CBS News) BOSTON People who drank more than one diet soda each day developed the same risks for heart disease as those who downed sugary regular soda, suggests a large but inconclusive study.

It is interesting that in the lead of the online article the word inconclusive comes up, but during the TV broadcasts the news anchors are reporting this like some kind of matter-of-fact study.

What really annoys me is that they spend a majority of the report discussing how diet and regular soda seem to have the same link to heart problems, all the while ignoring the obvious fact that most people are eating a Big Mac and large Fry while sucking down their soda of choice.

I know I went to public school but I kind of wonder what is harming the heart more in this meal – the soda or the 100’s of calories and fat grams consumed while chewing?

Here’s to drinking soda – regular or diet – Cheers!

Target Update – I Got an Interview

Finally some good news to report. I got a call from a woman at Target yesterday. I have an interview set up for August 7. I will be interviewing for an Executive Team Lead position, which is a person who oversees different areas in a local Target store.

Had to wait two weeks to hear from them, now I have to wait two weeks to interview. But at least is is progress! Praise Jesus.

Weekend Recap

On Saturday my wife and I went to the Macaroni Grill for dinner with our friends Jon and Emily. We’ve known them since college and Emily does our taxes every year so we took them out to say thanks. Then we hung out at Starbucks for awhile, talking and playing cards. We had a free babysitter so we took advantage of the chance to stay out a little later than normal.

Yesterday we a family day. After church (Open Door) in the morning we ran some errands. Then, when lunch and naps and a disappointing Twins game we done, we did some browsing at Barnes and Noble and Pier One before eating Chipotle for dinner. We are at the point now where we have to buy food for all three kids; freaky stuff, especially considering that Jacob eats 3-4 quesadillas by himself!

Next we went to a church service in Edina at The Upper Room. I’m pretty excited about a position I applied for at the church (Technical Arts Director), so I wanted to visit and say hello to the Creative Director. He was a real nice guy and we had the chance to chat quick between services. Stephanie and I didn’t know there was no kids programming at the 7 pm service so we only stayed for the singing time. Jacob and Izzy knew some of the words to the song Mighty To Save and they sang along. It was really special to stand with our kids and hear their little voices ringing out to heaven. Plus, we ran into a friend we hadn’t seen in a long time, which was nice.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Hope you had a good one as well.

Submitting to the Lord’s Will

Last night I was talking about some things with Stephanie and this section of James 4 came to mind,

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (ESV)

I have a lot of requests , um, demands for the Lord. I have wishes that pertain to my employment, where I live, the type house I live in, the behavior of my kids, the size of my family, the life change I want to see in myself (and others), my future, my safety, lifestyle freedoms, etc, etc.

The problem is that I often state these things pretty arrogantly, without regard for what the Lord’s will would be in each of them. I have a picture in my head of what my life should look like and darned if God has a different one. Which brings into play 1 Peter 5:5,

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

It is critical, before we blame God when things aren’t going our way, that we stop to reflect and ask ourselves, “Is God opposing me because of my pride?” Another good question to consider us, “Am I living with a submissive spirit to the will of God, or am I trying to arrogantly force my own agenda upon him?”