Loving People

My wife, Vange, is bent on loving people. The more we hang at LifePoint, the more we are transitioning our effort to care more about PEOPLE.... and less about the perceived normal "rules" of doing church.

Monday, a good friend of ours lost her mother. (Our friend's daughter plays soccer with my girls and hangs at our house a lot.) We have come to realize that there are no magic words or anything we can do to take away the sting of losing someone. A few weeks ago, Bob addressed the Biblical principle of "shiva"... just BEING WITH someone during a trying time. Responding with a "loving people" attitude, Vange, Ashli, and Haley went and bought a cooler and filled it with ice and soda, and grabbed a few snacks and delivered them to our friend's house. They spent a few minutes just letting this family know that we love them and are with them through this time. This is a BEAUTIFUL picture of loving God and loving people.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love and people with every word and every action.

Moving pictures

I'm really aggravated about not being able to move pictures around on my posts.... My buddy Emily (gimme back that filet-o-fish) is sitting here watching Idol with us... I'm gonna con her into helping me... :-)


Add pic... cut and paste it elsewhere.... seems to work...


Thanks EP!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and people with every word and every action.

Old Bitter Lady

I have a lawn client who is a young, single mom. I'll call her Jill. Let's just say she doesn't put much effort into taking care of anything..... house, car, job, kid...... She has a neighbor. I'll call her Bertha. Bertha is one of those people who is in every one's business. Here are a couple of highlights of my experiences with Bertha:

• She badgered me repeatedly to try to find out what Jill pays me to maintain the lawn - she still does not know
• She gave me an earful about calling the police on the guy who owns the house (Jill's stepfather) because there were some leaves piles in the corner of the house and back yard fence. She wanted him put in jail for that....
• She came into my enclosed trailer, grabbed my arm and threatened to put me in jail for allowing dust to be blown on a car in her driveway. (I was mowing on a windy day and even though I always keep the discharge going away from her driveway, the wind blew dust everywhere.)
• I've seen her sweeping twigs and leaves from her driveway and lawn onto Jill's yard... Jill doesn't have any trees in front....

Here is where the story gets sweet.... Yesterday, I was at Jill's house mowing. I could not get into the back yard because there were so many toys and so much trash all over the back yard. Bertha had been edging her walks and driveway. I got done with Jill's front yard and was blowing off her walks. I stopped and approached Bertha and asked her if she'd like me to blow off her driveway and walks for her. She preferred to sweep them herself. Her reply was soft and thankful. Instead of threatening me or bullying me about the leaf pile (the leaves had gathered again just like last year), she asked very politely what we could work out to take care of the leaves. I had already decided to haul them off.... since I could not mow the back, I had time allocated for her property and the leaves needed to be handled.

I got the leaves all cleaned up. Then, Bertha and I had a very cool 20 minute discussion about her life story and teaching her kids right from wrong..... and how she lost her husband when her 3 kids were very young..... and what she did to survive. She totally opened up her soul to me. We touched on how wonderful God is in the midst of adversity (Broken Pieces). It was a beautiful conversation and time well spent. As I walked away she stopped me one more time and said "Jim, I'm sorry I've been mean to you." (She called me Jim because my mowing trailer has JAMES LAWN CARE on it.)

I just wonder what God was doing in her heart during and after our chat. I know for me, it was simply loving God and loving people by how I acted.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and people with every word and every action!

God and Eye Drops

This morning I got some disturbing news about my job.... could be a major bump in the road... I'll come back to this idea in a minute...

Griffin is getting over Pink Eye. We got the eye drops a few days ago and knew exactly what we needed to do to get Griffin healthy again. Here is the problem: Griffin was TERRIFIED of having something dripped into his eyes! Vange tried everything to prove to him that it would be OK. She even dropped some wetting solution drops in all the other kids' eyes and let Griffin watch so he could see that it was no big deal. Didn't work..... The whole family tried to convince Griffin that any minor discomfort he would feel would be just that, MINOR, and it would be over super quick. He could not see that the medicine was needed to get him to a better, healthy place. Finally, I had to hold him down and hold his head still while Vange pried his eyes open and applied the drops.... it was NOT pretty. He has survived the drop applications, and last night, he was a big boy and didn't fight it at all..... he was very proud of his accomplishment.

Back to the job story.... I never want to over analyze or over spiritualize anything. But, here's the deal.... I really feel like God is speaking to me (not audibly...). Imagine God's voice:

Doug, trust Me... it's not that bad. It'll be over before you know it. This is going to help you. Look around at your family and friends, haven't I steered them through similar situations to get them to a better place? Don't make me hold you down....

The very same process that we were trying with Griffin, God is using for me. Calm fears, apply the medicine/change, and get to a better/healthy place. Look, I can't prove that this is a step toward something better... Just like I hope that Griffin TRUSTS me enough that he knows I'm doing what is BEST for him, I'm trusting God that he is looking out for me.

Romans 8:28
We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. They are the people he called, because that was his plan.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and people with every word and every action.

Snacks

I've been called a lot of names over the years..... some good, some bad. Some of the names that are most fitting pertain to my snacking habits.

Count Snackula

Dr. Snackenstein

Snack Disposal

All are fitting.... I've included a pic of the snacks currently stashed at my desk.... they won't last long. What are your favorites?

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God and people with every word and every action.