I can't add anything...

So please visit mdog so she and I can gloat together.

Miami - 38
OU - 7

Say What?

From the Fort Myers News Press, November 6, 2005

"Margaret Sheets of Lebanon, Ohio announces the cohabitation, without benefits of clergy, of her delightful son James and Gayle Schmidt of Fort Myers, Florida. They will receive visitors, but appointment only, B.Y.O.B. at their home on Ensign Court in the Caloosa Yacht & Racquet Club. Large cash appreciations may be directed to The Committee to Finance Gayle's Man's Lavish Life Style, James E, Sheets, Chairman."

An Easy Life

In the last 4 days I have worked about 60 hours. I am really tired. Some of it has been office work, but some of it has been emotionally draining "people work." I was driving home last night and I was thinking, "Why am I so tired?" when I realized I had put in a full week's work in 3 days. I don't say that for pity... and I'm not a work-a-holic. In fact, most weeks I work a pretty standard 50 hours like everyone else. This is just a busy season for me. And the end is near.

I spoke with my brother tonight. He is really struggling. He works from 8-6 driving for Fed Ex. He goes home to be with his family until 9 and leaves to work for Lowes from 10-6 am. He sleeps, at best, 2 hours a day. They just found his wife has cancer... and they don't have insurance.

The working poor have it tough. If he didn't work he could get all kinds of help, but because he makes "too much money" he gets pretty much nothing.

My life is easy.

Vulnerablity - Significance

So I'm a pastor. I've never said that on this site, which I determined today at lunch with mdog, is really stupid. I'm playing this silly game but anyone in my congregation who posts on this site knows that I'm me. So the game is over. It's too hard for me to blog about anything real and not talk about my job. It really is a huge part of who I am... maybe too much.

So I'm guessing that you all have times where you struggle with significance. It's funny, so many times I have people say to me, "Well, at least you are doing something eternal with your life. At least you don't struggle with feeling like your life isn't making a difference."

That is bull pucky. (That harsh cuss word was for Patrick's sake).

Take preaching. So almost every week I pour over a subject or thought. I spend hours thinking about it and wrestling with it (usually over a period of weeks or months). I run ideas past people. I talk about it while I stand up and sit down and walk along the road... you get the point. And then I stand up there... and I'm vulnerable... and I say that thoughts that have been inside my soul... and sometimes it comes out and makes sense and sometimes it doesn't...

And I get done...

And I wonder if any of it made any difference at all.

I mean really.

And don't get me wrong, I think preaching is biblical and important. (So let's not turn this into a discussion on the importance of preaching). And I think I do it okay. But you have to do it to understand...

Sometimes the looks on people's faces... they are so blank... and I'm thinking, "What are you thinking about? Why are you thinking about what you are having for lunch!"

And when I get done, I want to go into a hole and hide. (And that is when people often tell me what they didn't like or where they disagreed with me!)

I'm not writing this for positive strokes (but we all like them, don't we)... but to tell you... my readers... that LIFE is a struggle for meaning and significance. And those of you who live in cubical land... what you do is just as significant (or un-significant) as what I do. And everyone struggles with this and if they tell you they don't... give me their name. I want to meet them.

So this site might change in tone. Or I may just shut it down. :O)

Life is a gift

Some of you may have heard of the pastor who, while doing a baptism last week, grabbed a mic to say something, and was electrocuted. This was from his sermon the previous Sunday. I'm not usually into this kind of thing... but it spoke to me deeply today... maybe it will speak to you.

"Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun.

If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE. Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time.

If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well.

Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed. If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old’s nose, don’t be disgusted if the Kleenex didn’t catch it all… because soon he’ll be wiping his own.

If you’ve recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well. At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven.

And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift."