Surprises

The Green Bay Packers are going to the Superbowl. Next week Sunday, the team will compete against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the annual mother of all football games.

I'm not telling you anything new here. we all know this unless we have been living under a rock.

But. If i would have tried to convince you six weeks ago that this might happen, you would likely have looked at the statistics and told me I needed another beer, which would have been likely anyway.

Here is the thing about life. You can plan. You can work to a goal. You can try to control your world. But any time you think you can predict the future, you find out that you must have left your crystal ball at home today.

I am not saying that careful planning and what not is a bad idea. Just be sure to not think that you have any idea what is really going to happen. Because life has a way of working itself out.

Personally, I know what it is that I believe is responsible. But the long and short of it is that in the end, things seem to work out one way or another.

There is a question that people ask regarding life. When something bad happens, everybody blames God. Or uses it as proof that He doesn't exist. You know exactly the comment I am talking about. Somehow, it seems as though some bad situation is automatically proof that most of what I personally believe in doesn't exist.

The other thing that people do is not ask or assign credit when something good happens. Outside of a truly rigid christian society, when does God actually get the glory?

It is so easy for us to say there is no God because what God would allow this to happen. Why isn't it just as easy for us to say God must exist because this happens?

Two reasons.

One. Because we are all kindergartners. We EXPECT that our lives will go very well, that we will get all the toys we want, that our food will be the things we like to eat, and that we will never have a sad day. Like a 5 year old, these are the things that we want and expect from our God, if he exists. If we don't get those things all of the time, then either God is hateful or he doesn't exist at all.

Two. Because we want to believe that somehow God will intervene in our day to day lives. Let me tell you something. God knows. He knows what is going to happen in your life each and every second of each and every day. He doesn't have to intervene because nothing is going to surprise him. He knows.


So why do bad things happen?

I recently had the opportunity to watch a video by a guy that I'm not sure I truly agree with that does describe this very well.

God is our heavenly father right? Then those of you who are parents will definitely understand this, and those of you who aren't probably will too.

In the lives of my children I have gotten to experience both types of situations with them, the good, and the bad. As an example, because my children like to ride their atv's, they tend once in a while to crash. There was an example of this once at our usual riding haunt about 15 months ago. Turtle crashed. and crashed hard. looking back, I can say that the most important part of that crash was the amount that our relationship grew immediately after, and during the ensuing conversations about it. I got to hold my child during a rough time, when he was scared, and angry, and frankly blaming me for not watching him closer. (notice a similar thread here?) And then when we talked about it later, I asked what he did during the crash, how did he not get injured? You know what his answer was? "i did like you told me dad, i held on until i couldn't anymore, the four wheeler just went the other way then" (so if you follow your "fathers" advice it will work out at the end?)

I would not give up that bad thing for one instant. I got to comfort my child. I got to bond with my child, and my child recovered from his pain and his fear. Yes. God knew that he was going to crash. Yes, God knows that awful things are going to happen in all of our lives. And Yes, he could intervene at any time. I believe that he allows it to happen for a reason. I believe that God feels like daddy on those days to his children. And I believe that; like turtle's long forgotten crash; the worst hurt of this world will be a pimple compared to the joy that he has in store for eternity.

You get where I'm coming from?

Everything that I believe about Christianity has come from a book. I have never heard the voice of our lord. I have heard the message, from the book, rolling off the lips of many other people who are basically just like me. Either I am right to believe the things that I do; or it is one hell of a good book. But I promise you this much. If you at least take the teachings, for what they are worth, you will find peace in the good and the bad in your life. You will find some solace. And hopefully you will be able to recognize the fact that you might not be able to understand. And that's ok.

Ambition

As most of you know by now, I have taken a new job. As a person who has a history of working at jobs for a long time, you can imagine the amount of interest this new position must have had for me in order for me to make the change.

The job that I am taking on is not particularly different than the one that I had before. The level of seriousness that I am taking with it is very different. I did not take this on to fail.

And that is the problem.

Because of the excitement that I feel about the possibilities for this new spot; I find myself having to constantly reign in my ambition and excitement. It seems as though I find myself trying to do too much too fast. I can see all of the problems clearly. I can see the potential for improvement very clearly. And of course I arrogantly think that I can fix all of it.

What I fail to sometimes remember is that the group of people that I work with have been together for a long time. The things that I would like to see done differently have been done this way for a long time. I have only been involved for a couple weeks.

I know that I dont have enough background knowledge about where I am, who I work with, and the process that made the place the way it is to make an educated guess about what really should be different.

BUT I feel as though there are things that I would like to see different.

Thus the paradox.

It seems as though everybody in my personal life is telling me to wait. Dont do that yet. Hold your horses. Slow down.

And my new boss is telling me to go for it. Make it better. You can do it. That is your call to make.

Oddly, I have a better relationship with my new boss than I ever had with the old one. Yesterday he asked how I liked the job, and then suggested that we hold a noon-time cookout in honor of me joining the team. This is going great.

But it could go sooooo much better. There is so much opportunity for this place. There are so many things that are good, but could be great. And you all know how much I hate to wait.

This has been a huge ego boost. I have gone from feeling very meaningless to feeling very powerful. I have gone from having limited access to things to determining who has access to what things. And all of this has perhaps made me feel rather important. Which I can now see that I am not very important at all.

So, tonight, I wrote myself a note. Its a little post-it, and it will hang on my monitor starting tomorrow morning. it says

"not yet. wait a little longer. be patient. be sure you understand first. Listen the team you are just a small part of."

So I will bide my time. I will continue to act as a resource to these people. A helper. I wont try to be in charge, rather, I will ask questions, I will ask advice. I will ask how it has been done before. and I will remember that compared to these people; I dont know anything about anything. Maybe that noon-time cookout should be in honor of how long the others have been on the team.

And maybe, just maybe, I can make a dent in the place.