People I love

Debi and I were at Barnes and Noble last night and ran into Cody. He was meeting Dawn and Beth to go to dinner, and Debi and I were just chilling away from the kids for a little bit. Anyway, it was really good to see him, since it's been a while. It got me thinking last night and this morning about how blessed I am to have been a part of the lives of so many awesome people. God has graciously alowed me to grow close to a lot of people, and that's a tremendous blessing. I read that in America today, most people have less than three "close" friends. I thought I'd try to list off people I consider "close" friends, and found that I have a ton. (At least people I would consider close... they might not say the same about me, but that doesn't bother me much.) Having stayed in student ministry as long as I have, I've had the wonderful opportunity to grow close to a new group of people pretty much every year. Even those that are gone I still consider close... anyway, what an awesome thing to have. That's the goodness of the Lord.

A Girl Like Me

This is well worth watching and very well done, though it'll make you want to cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjy9q8VekmE

different types of sin

I got this from Noel's blog and thought it was funny. My favorite is BG

Cash Flow and Accounting

There's a never ending flow of difficulty that comes from business ownership. It's constantly dealing with too little work, or too much work, or employee problems, or customer problems, or equipment problems, or lack of organization, or whatever. The problem I'm focussed on now though is cash flow. Trying to make sure that your cash flow is there is just plain difficult. When customers are late on payments, or there's a job that goes significantly over budget, it can seriously cripple you. I realized today that I really don't charge enough for the work that we are doing to make sure that my cash flow stays constant. For whatever reason, there's a voice in my head that says, "that's too much! Your competitors are way below that, you'll never get this job if you bid that high!". It sounds stupid, but it's a hard thing to bid high on jobs. Your natural impulse is to go low to try and win the bid. As a result, the labor budget is tight, and if any problems occur on the job your profit margin is gone, along with your cash. Come payroll time you find that the job you won really cost you money.

So, if you've read this far into this post, you are probably bored out of your mind. What I wanted to share though was that it's the Lord who provides for everything, including cash flow. I was reminded of that today when I won a bid where I was $2000 over my competitors bid. We still won the job based on the value of our service. It's a good reminder to trust the Lord when I'm bidding and give a realistic price that does not hurt me or the company in the long run. Knocking down the price just to get the job is basically saying that I don't trust the Lord to provide, I'm counting on the lower price.

Psalm 37

The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
and He delights in his way.
When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong,
because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.

Reaching the in-betweeners

great article on reaching single adults in their 20's

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20061207/23925.htm

My Generation

I read an interesting post on another guys blog about the way my generation (22 - 34 year olds) approach work and life. (Read it here)

If you don't want to go through the trouble of reading it, the general thought is that for a great many members of my generation, the idea of "settling down" into a career is rejected. Instead, some decide to prolong their education needlessly (just for education's sake, not to produce anything with it), others travel and try adventure as a way of experiencing life. Those who do get jobs try to find jobs where they perceive themselves as "making a difference", and compete with a ton of others for low paying social service jobs.

From the perspective of someone who is basically fully involved in living the enterprenurial American dream... I do see that my generations general attitude toward work and career is a bit off. We prayed through Colossians yesterday in the prayer and fasting time, and I was struck again by the verses that talk about a slave serving his master as if serving the Lord. The reality of the matter is that all work is spiritual work. We do it unto the Lord.
At the same time, when I was working for Honeywell I had a dificult time justifying in my mind the idea of working for a corporation that really did not care about people as much as profit. In actuality, I never even considered that I would make it my career, I somehow always expected to move on. That same is true today, I certainly don't see myself as a painting company owner the rest of my life, I expect to move on.

I think the fundamental thing I see in my generation is a lack of patience. The idea of working hard at a "career" job for 5 to 10 years seems like an eternity, like missing out on life. The reality is it's not that long. It goes by crazy fast. Anyway, I could blabber on more about this but I'll quit.

Biomusicology

I'm not one usually to be "ministered" to through songs, but I felt like the Lord was encouraging me through this one.

Biomusicology - Ted Leo

Had we never come across the vastness of pavement
The barrenness of waves and the grayness of the sea
Never lost or ne'er been misguided
We'd have ne'er reached seas so shining

Or come from out of a hansom in Camden
To a bar in the basement
While all the while it rained
Or come around to the friendliest of faces
Handsomest in ugly places

Or come from out of the tunnels we dig in
To see that tunneling's not living
And working doesn't work
Or come to find that loving is labor
Labor's life and life's forever

Or come to see that keeping's not giving
You get what you've given
You get what you deserveAnd in the midst of all of the action
Maybe only there found satisfaction

Chasing sea-foam dreams
Around another dirty old town
Parallel run streams
Toward the gray ocean from the green ground
'Oed und leer, das meer
But look beneath the glassy surface
All the songs you hear
Down there they have a purpose
All in all we cannot stop singing
we cannot start sinking
We swim until it ends
They may kill and we may be parted
But we will ne'er be broken hearted

You can download it free from http://www.tedleo.com/2/