Archive for the ‘Work’ Tag
It was a beautiful moment
Filed under: Reflection | Tags: Be the change, Together Time, Work
Leave a Comment Starbucks.
We sat in comfy chairs with hot drinks and our laptops, well, on our laps.
Working together to update the website for our ministry.
Mom and me…working on our ministry to help people navigate the white water of adoption or foster care.
What will come of it?
Only God knows.
It’s our passion.
Isn’t it His passion?
It felt great.
It feels great.
Pray for us.
Sometimes you have to a long ways out of you way in order to see where you are going.
My “never thought I’d do that” list
Filed under: Memories, Reflection | Tags: Change, Legacy, Work
Leave a Comment I’ve started a “never thought I’d do that list” and I’m going to make it a page on this blog so I can add to it from time to time like my other lists. I am imagining a conversation with myself (today) with myself around age 18. Back then I didn’t know what I didn’t know and certainly had no clue what was waiting for me just around the corner.
So here goes. The order is only the way the items come to mind – no hierarchy. I can also think of some things that are too personal to add to the list.
My “Never thought I’d do that” list:
- Care for a terminally ill child (on the other hand since we’re all terminally ill – what was I thinking?).
- Have 75 foster children call me Daddy.
- Have 12 children (I have a feeling this one will change).
- Get a vasectomy (yikes).
- Get fired (They said your position is eliminated but would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?)
- Suction bodily fluids from a sick child several times a day.
- Clean up so much barf (mostly not my own).
- Work for the Catholic Church – for a Cardinal Archbishop even.
- Leave my first job.
- Be a CEO.
- Not be a CEO any more.
- Like dark beer.
- Go whitewater rafting.
- See four of my own children be born.
- Realize that both my parents were dead.
- Go through school so many times (with each child).
- Bring home a premature baby.
- Change diapers for 27 years straight.
- Learn to use a pulse-ox machine.
- Go our to a restaurant carrying an oxygen tank on my back (not for me).
- Have three kids in college at one time and no paying job.
Trying on jobs like shoes
In my condition – self employed
d as a professional soccer dad – I find myself trying on just about every job I see. Its a strange new habit I’ve developed, but in a way, it is a good experience. Socrates said an unexamined life is no life at all (paraphrasing). I think it is a good thing because it is another creative exercise.
Most of the jobs are not a good match for my skill set or experience. I don’t want to sound like a snob. In fact the thought of getting paid for doing something that didn’t take a lot of thinking sounds inviting but it is not good stewardship with my gifts so it must not be the job for me in God’s timing. Besides, being a soccer dad is pretty important in the “real” scope of things – jobs that will have an eternal impact.
I mean I try on every job I see. It is like an addiction. For example:
- Target employee (red isn’t my color).
- UPS store – they had a part-time help wanted sign in the window.
- Waiter in a Mexican restaurant – I only speak English – the dining experience wouldn’t be the same with me.
- Parking lot security at a shopping mall – my son said all you do is drive around all day – I could listen to a book a day. Tempting but probably not good steward with my gifts – violation of one my code to live by.
- Clerk in Home Depot or Menard’s – tempting but not a good gift match.
- Awana missionary – what if I didn’t like the pastors of the churches that were supporting me?
- CTA bus driver – they all look like they don’t get enough exercise.
- Goose Island Brewery Tour Guide – I could do that!
- Used car salesman – need a new wardrobe.
