Posts Tagged ‘deepthoughts’
06/12/2009
8 months ago I was hired on at the hospital. I was pretty much told on the day I arrived that “you’re boss has been fired, and your going to be doing two jobs while being paid for one”. The other job was that of basically a project manager, making sure that my areas were able to be moved into the new tower effectively. Now that the tower is over … well that’s a bit relative, at least until I work out all of the optimizations. I do have to say, it is nice to just be what I was hired to be – a supervisor.
I have learned a few lessons in this whole ordeal.
1) I need to operate better in my strengths, and find someone else to operate better in my weaknesses.
2) Just because someone else says they “need it” right now, doesn’t mean that they “need it” right then.
3) It is ok to prioritize your work and schedule based on your goals assigned to you by the one who writes your review.
4) There is never, ever any good reason to work 60 hour weeks multiple times.
5) There is never EVER a real good reason to work a 73 hour week .. and end it with a 19 hour shift.
6) If your wife says you need to slow down, slow down!
7) When your heart goes wacky and causes you to take a trip to the ER just to be “reset”, it’s time to chill out and relax a bit
When your staff can see you half naked laying in an ER room it’s a good idea to ask them to close the door. Yeah … also, make sure you have clean underwear.
9) Take breaks!
10) Don’t neglect your relationship with Jesus (or family) because of work. It will ALWAYS be busy.
Have you learned anything from your work habits?
Tags: busy, deepthoughts, tough, work
Posted in ponder, work | No Comments »
04/20/2009
I have had the privilege of preaching many times over the years.
I remember the first times I preached … I was extremely nervous. I had planned and studied and crafted it so well, that when I delivered it, it lasted a whopping 20 minutes long. I was aiming for at least twice that.
Preaching is a funny thing. Much like music style at church, there is a preaching style that is preferred. I have tried to change my style to fit in ways that people needed to hear.I used to spend hours preparing not only the studying portion of the message, but the presentation. That presentation would include the notes and the visual aspect (stuff on slides). I usually would wait until the last hours to produce the “visuals” and then stay up to the wee hours of the morn finalizing that … then going to the church to make the final copies. Ugh.
I have a routine/habit for preaching that tends to go like this.
- Decide on a topic
- Spend time researching the topic
- Realize that I didn’t pray enough and jumped the gun
- Pray
- Allow God to direct me to a topic or passage of Scripture
- Read the passages on the topic or the passage in context
- Read the passages in a BIGGER context
- Think through logical points (based on research)
- Take a break and play some kind of game or do something to distract me
- Create outline that makes sense
- Think that I don’t have enough to last for 40-50 minutes, so prepare more and repeat steps above
- Re-create outline
- Realize that I have to much to go with so trim
- Re-create outline
- Study more because now it doesn’t seem enough (again) …. repeat these steps a few time
- Usually on Saturday I pull my final stuff together and then go to church to practice in my head (not outloud) trying to get the message outline in my head
- Freak because it is either to short or too long
- Go through outline making edits
- Normally I take a nap in the sanctuary (not necessarily on purpose, I just lay down trying to go through the major points in my head and end up sleeping in between praying and preparing) … oh yeah, I didn’t mention this but I really do a lot of praying throughout trying to make sure that I am listening to what God might have me change and to make sure when I preach, it is His words being spoken but within my personality/style.
- After the nap (I mean prayer and outlining) I usually play around on the piano and think how fun it would be to be a rock star.
- Then I go over the message a couple more times and then realize that the whole message is dumb because I haven’t spent nearly enough time making sure that I am allowing God to guide my thoughts and just created MY outline.
- Pout
- Get up and read the passage in a bigger context to make sure it is fitting the point of the original author and that it is focused on Jesus.
- Before going back home, finish printing the final outline and visuals.
- Go back home and go to bed (usually Mer is sleeping by then ’cause it’s laaaate in the night/eeeeearly in the morning. While sleeping I am praying and going through the outline.
- Wake up in the AM, get coffee and something in my stomach resembling a breakfast that is not greasy.
- Go to church and if early enough stand on the platform and try to think through who might show up, pray for them and go through the message.
The last time I preached though … I didn’t follow my 567 step routine. I was sick. I had a final go/no-go decision to make by Saturday afternoon and at that moment I felt ok. Later that night I was sick. It was the worst that I have “presented” a message in years. What upsets me the most was my reaction though. I know that when I preached I presented our need for Jesus (if anyone who was there didn’t hear about Jesus, let me know so I am not off base), I was more upset at my presentation of it. That is just wrong. I should be satisfied that Jesus was preached (as in we are sinners and need a way out of our sinful condition so we can actually begin a relationship with God … all of that is done through Jesus who took our place for the penalty of sin … if we believe that, we can begin that relationship). I had thought I got beyond the “Randy is a good preacher” phase … but I guess not. I would honestly be ok (at this moment) if I never receive a compliment again. The only comments I really want to hear are “wow … I saw Jesus” or “That’s what God is?” or even “I want Jesus”.
I do recognize that to honor Jesus more with my skills, I do need to put some time into my “Craft” of preaching. I don’t want to just stand up and say “Jesus”. I need to develop a reason for him … sometimes just simply showing what He did so others can develop a love or appreciation for Him. But I don’t want the focus of my preaching to be about me. Nor do I want the focus of what I preach to be about whatever people want to hear – like popular topics, or how we should feel good about ourselves, or certain theology. All preaching should be focused on Jesus.
Enough from me … what about you?
Tags: Bible, deepthoughts, Jesus, ministry, prayer, truth
Posted in Jesus | 6 Comments »
02/06/2009
A couple of weeks ago I decided that I would step down from Men’s Ministry. A bout a week ago I made that knowledgeable to the church leadership. This week it is now official.
I feel like a failure.
I shouldn’t … but I do.
Strange how I think that I have grown a bit in my faith enough to get over insecurities of not having a “title” or “position” in the church, like a trained assassin this came back in my life and skillfully knifed me. I can look back and can see how I had been establishing myself in the position, as if God really needs ME to do it. I am doing ministry, but not being very effective. I held on to the title of Director but didn’t do any directing. After talking out loud with a pastor at church I realized that what I REALLY want to do and what I am currently doing are not lined up. It’d be like asking a football player to play basketball – sure it’s a sport, but is it the one you are skilled in?
What I feel gifted in is leading, training (discipling) and teaching. For me, directing a program involves some of it, but adds on another element of what I don’t want/need to do. I had this constant pressure of wanting to keep the program going and pleasing guys (guys who don’t email back – ya know, the whole reading thing). The problem was that even though the turnouts were well attended for the various things we have done, I wasn’t being satisfied.
I also know that right now, I am in the midst of some pretty big things at work that are tugging my time away. I -can not- be split in too many ways. My wife and I are trying to make sure that we spend adequate time with each other as we need to. Stepping down from this role really is a wise thing to do.
Yet, I still struggle with that failure thing. If I had put more effort, more time, more thoughts into it, it would still be running. But I can’t. I am just a dude. Yet still … I battle this thing of what makes up my worth. I can say on the surface that I know that my worth isn’t in what I do or what my title is. But I swing that way. Argh! This will be a trying time for me. I need to make sure that I find my value in Jesus and what He thinks of me and not in the things I do. If I move in this direction of faith, I will be better and leave this foolishness of pride behind. It is easy to evolve ourselves into the proverbial human-doing (instead of human-being) I know corny corny corny, but quite true. My doing should be a result OF who I am.
So “what am I?”
I am a sinner – who has been given an incredible amount of grace by Jesus who died for my sins so that I can have a relationship with the Creator of the world and also has the ability to not be eternally effected any more by my sin which gives me an incredible amount of freedom to live life in the way that Jesus did which allows the world to see Jesus to also be redeemed. Whew … long sentence.
Tags: busy, church, deepthoughts, Jesus, thoughts, tough, work
Posted in Jesus, leadership, ponder | 4 Comments »
10/30/2007
OK, I am officially in a new blog location. Thanks to my buddy Vin. I don’t have a lot of knowledge of how this new style will work, but over time should find out.
So here is my deep thought from this last week.
World Series.
It was totally cool that the Red Sox won the world series. Everyone was cheering and laughing and having a great time. But why did I get excited?
Sure, I was born in Boston so there is the affinity for all sports near Boston. But why do I get excited that a team of people win? When I think a little more intently about it … the facts are this.
I am getting excited over watching 9-10 people doing their job.
Who get’s excited for me doing my job?
Who comes and pays money to watch me do my job?
Who organizes nights and days to make sure they can spot me doing my job?
Who does that for anyone else?
I know that a few years from now, only the die hard Sox fans will remember exactly what happened. I spent MANY hours watching the postgame stuff and barely remembered which year the Red Sox won the last World Series (2004). 20 years from now … who will care? I don’t remember all the people on the team, but … it is just people doing their job.
Then I got frustrated, why can I not get as excited about Jesus doing his job? Have I misplaced my worship? Honestly, right now, I think I may have. This saddens me.
What are your thoughts?
Tags: deepthoughts
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
