Good Weekend – bad work

May 29, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life, Religion, Work 

The weekend was pretty good.

On Saturday Carolyn and I headed up to Camp Johnsonburg for the annual alumni reunion.  We saw lots of folks that we don’t see on a regular basis, we had some quiet time for ourselves, we hiked a bit in the woods.  Dinner was excellent as usual.  We also dropped off Carolyn’s old car as a donation – it’s apparently going to be the Health Center “drive the kid to the hospital” car this summer.

Sunday was quiet at home – church and evening relaxation.

Monday we visited a friend that we haven’t seen since the birth of her latest child a few weeks ago.
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Then, I came to work.

I found out in a short period of time that the woman who has the cubicle across from me is leaving.  (Actually, it’s more like we share cubes – they are really tiny and essentially open on 3 sides.)  She’s a really talented person who had gotten stuck in a rut here due to the company’s failure to have another person share her job and allow her to grow into a bigger one.  We lost another similar person a few weeks ago.  The good people are leaving my department (and the company as a whole) far too quickly.  I’m about out of reasons to stay.

I’ve recently been asking myself (and a few others) – how can you tell the difference between needing to look for a new job, or needing to look for a new career?  Any thoughts?  The need to answer this question is getting more acute.

Blood Pressure OK

May 1, 2007 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Life 

I headed back to the doctor today, because I thought my blood pressure was still high.

The nurse took it – 118/80

The doctor took it – 114/78
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I guess the new dosage really is working.

Also good news – my cholesterol is 198 – high end of normal but acceptable.  It was a little higher last year.  HDL, LDL, Triglycerides were all normal.

Whoosh! and a question on calls

April 23, 2007 by · 7 Comments
Filed under: Life, Religion 

Whoosh!

That’s the noise that I probably made getting through all that I had to do this weekend.

Saturday, the Youth Sunday rehearsal ran long.  I was at church from 10:30am to 2:30pm.  I was completely impressed with the youth.  The 3 seniors who delivered the sermon hit the message perfectly and needed very little tweaking.  The rest of the crew adapted to their jobs quite easily.  I’ll write more on this later.

Sunday was Youth Sunday.  I was the usher-herder.  I also had to get prepared for the Adult Forum afterwards and eat breakfast.  Everything was a rush.  The service went great, and as I said above I’ll write more later.

After the service I had to run away from the youth and go finish setting up for the adult forum.  I was the 1st speaker of 3 – covering the biblical basis for environmental stewardship.  I think it went well (nobody came up and said that I did a good job, but they seemed to be paying attention).

After that, I ran home and had exactly 30 minutes to eat lunch, shower and change to go to the opera with Carolyn.  We saw Rigoletto in Trenton.  I’ll write a whole blog post on that for you.  The opera was good – the lead soprano was amazing.

—————————————————-

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Last week sometime, in my way over-churched haze, I remember having a dream one night.  I don’t remember what the dream was about, but I do remember one snippet.

I was involved in something at church.  My current pastor passed me a note (it wasn’t during a service or meeting or anything – he just handed me a note as we met standing up somewhere).  The note said something like “Be sure to listen for a Call.”

Now I realize that I’ve recently become re-involved in the church, and that I’m a likely candidate for over-enthusiasm.  If you remember my story, once upon a time I was deciding between Computer Science and Religion as my college major.  Due to some unhappy church-related events Computer Science became my major, and Religion my minor.  I honestly believed going into college that I might be headed for seminary.

The only word I’ve ever heard encouraging this came more recently.  I told my current Youth Director (under whom I work as a Youth Advisor) my personal faith story.  He asked if I’d consider seminary now.  I told him that I’ve only been back a year or even a few months (depending on how you count) and that besides – I’m a bit too used to my current income level.

I don’t know what this dream means, but it is intriguing.  Is this a message?  Is it just the product of doing too much church in too short a time period?

So here’s my question to the professionals out there.  Would you be willing to tell me (here in the comments, in e-mail, or even on your blog) what your Call was like?  When did you know that you were being called to the ministry?

Busy Week

April 18, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life, Religion, Sports 

Here’s my crazy schedule for the rest of the week.

Wednesday – 6:30 – 8:30pm – Youth Sunday rehearsal
Thursday – 6pm – 10pm – Trenton Titans playoff game
Friday – 6:30pm – 10:30pm – Trenton Titans playoff game (if they win Thursday)
Saturday – 10:30am – 1pm – Youth Sunday rehearsal

Then Sunday:
8:45am – leave for church
9am – 9:30am – set up for Earth Day adult forum
9:30am – be adult shepherd for ushers for Youth Sunday
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11am-ish – as soon as the service is over, run directly to the lounge
11:15am – be the speaker for the 1st 15 minutes of the Earth Day adult forum
Noon – Adult Forum ends, go home
1:30pm – leave for opera (Boheme OperaRigoletto)
1:45pm – pre-curtain talk (always worth the time)
3pm – 6pm – opera
6:30pm – come home, collapse

Unfortunately, I have to miss the post-Youth Sunday service lunch with all participants in order to do the Earth Day presentation.

Blood Pressure

April 6, 2007 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Life 

Well, the doctor upped my blood pressure meds today.

My weight is about where it was last year, and I’m exercising about as often.  I’m a little older.  My stress level has increased dramatically – from the stress of joining a church and getting involved in committees (particularly the latter) to the stress of layoffs and reorganizations at work.

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Happy Easter!

NOT to committee, at least not this one

April 3, 2007 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: Life, Religion 

I got a call last night on the answering machine from a member of the Stewardship committee.  This was my “contact later” mentioned in the letter from the pastor.  (I blogged this previously here).

I called her back today.

I started off by mentioning the fact that my pastor had sent me a separate e-mail talking about another initiative that he’d like to speak to me about.  That initiative – which deals with visitors, seekers, and the perception of the church in the community – is a much better fit for me.  It falls right in line with my personal experience, my retreat experience, and some of the things that I’ve written for this blog (which is apparently what brought me to his attention in the first place).  He also specifically mentioned that I should choose either this new initiative or the stewardship committee, but not both – in order to avoid “new member overinvolvement” syndrome.

Then I mentioned my concerns about last year’s stewardship campaign (detailed in my blog post referenced above).  I also listed the good that I took from last fall’s campaign and how I increased my pledge 25% above my original plan based on one speaker’s message about taking risks knowing that God will provide.

She explained that they plan to use Herb Miller’s Consecration Sunday program for next year’s campaign, and that they are trying to get the focus from keeping the church heated to giving what you are called to give.  I agree that this is the correct tack to take when it comes to stewardship.  However, I’m not sure that I’m a good fit.  The last thing that I want is to be the lone voice of dissent no matter how valuable that might be to the committee.  Remember – I’ve only been a member for 6 months.

I’d also like to see some concentration on the gift of time and talents rather than just money.  Based on my committee work here thus far, it seems that the congregation suffers from the usual church disease – a small number of people do a lot of the work.

I really believe that the other “visitor/seeker” initiative is a better fit for me because:

  • It’s something that I’m really passionate about
  • Working on it doesn’t necessarily require knowing lots of other members
  • It’s more focused on giving to individuals rather than taking/accepting from them (I put my youth group work in this category too)

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I think the way that we left it is that I’m not interested in the Stewardship committee.  I’m hoping that my feedback will be well received (it was clearly heard and understood).

As for the other initiative – Tuesday will tell (next Tuesday, that is).

While I was dreading this phone call, I think it went well.

——————————–

In other news, my blood pressure is acting up.  I got refused by the blood center for a platelet donation last night because my BP was too high.  They tend to get a higher reading than the doctor every time (probably because I go to them straight from work and straight from the highway), but I checked at home this time and it really was that high.  I have a physical scheduled for later this week anyway.  I’ve been on medication for high BP for over 10 years, but maybe my body has adjusted and they need to up the dosage.  We’ll see.  Mom’s BP has been all over the place (from normal to very high) for years, so I guess I inherited a problem.

Awkwardness Survival Guide

March 30, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Can't Make This Up, Life 

I Stumbled Upon this website today:

Awkwardness Survival Guide

I’ve done all of them except for the last one.

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At least my sister and I haven’t come up on the “Kiss Cam” on the big screen.  My seats are in a place where it’s REALLY hard for the cameras to reach.

(If you decide to join StumbleUpon, add me as a friend – markrsmith83)

Prayer Request Update

March 24, 2007 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Life 

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Continued prayers are requested, and thanks for prayers received.

Prayer Request

March 22, 2007 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Life 

Please pray for JP, a former camp co-worker of mine from 20 years ago.  He’s been hospitalized with breathing difficulty and is not responding to antibiotics (for suspected pneumonia).  His wife is expecting their 4th child on April 1.

UPDATE 3/23/07:

The doctors think it’s definitely pneumonia–a bad case–and today they took a fluid sample from his lungs to determine precisely what type. The test results should be back tomorrow, at which point they’ll be able to determine a more targeted, aggressive treatment than he has received so far.
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He’s on a ventilator–apparently that’s SOP for pneumonia–and still sedated, because reportedly the conscious patients don’t enjoy the ventilator so much.

His wife is doing reasonably well and has the support of family.

Healthy Kitties

March 21, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life 

Yesterday was the day for our feline senior citizens Isaac and Albert to take their annual trip to the vet.

I think I made one error in judgment.  Generally, my wife and I get home in just enough time to get the cats into their carrier, collect the community stool sample, and get to the vet on time.  Yesterday, we both left work a little early.  The result was that we had time to give the cats their evening feeding before we left.

We bundled the cats into their carriers and drove away.  We do this is Carolyn’s Chrysler Concorde so that there’s enough room in the back seat for both carriers and me in the middle.  I sit between them and try to calm them.

Unfortunately, Isaac got so upset that he threw up in his carrier just as we reached the vet.  The nice folks at the vet’s office cleaned his carrier and gave us a clean towel for him to use on the way home.

Our cats are 11 years old, and BIG.  They have large frames rather than being fat.  Albert weighed in at about 14 lbs. – down from a high of 15.  The vet says that Albert is at his optimal weight – he’s just really big.  Isaac is the larger cat at 15 lbs. down from a high of 18 lbs.
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Albert had some odd kidney readings a few years ago, so both cats have been on annual blood and urine tests.  Those were taken.

Carolyn clips their claws and brushes their teeth regularly.  She thought she saw a problem on Albert’s molar, so we checked.  The vet pronounced their teeth wonderful for their age.  In fact, she said that Isaac’s teeth were what she’d expect from a 3-year-old cat.

Isaac has been moving a bit slow lately – particularly up and down stairs.  We asked the vet to check for arthritis, and she thinks there might be an issue with his hips.  We decided that it’s a little early to do X-rays, but we’re going to try Cosequin (glucosamine and chondroitin) on both of their food.  We’ll see how he does.

Otherwise, the cats are in excellent shape!

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