A quick look at our future

Many years ago, I heard others try to convince me that listening to predictions of the future were - in their words, .."a fool's errand".  It made sense to me in those days as I certainly did not have the facts at hand that might even suggest, I could look into the future and based on my limited knowledge, help others to see that the path they were following were merely subtle tricks to ensnare their future attempts at success as the world knows it to be..

I have changed my mind.  The day came when I had the courage to lay aside any thoughts about the future - for others.  I came to that realization when I was confronted by the word of God, specifically involving the way I had been living  I was drawn to our Lord's command in the verses we like to call "The Sermon on the Mount."  I was confronted by His command, "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand."  Trying to reconcile that thought in my mind, I suddenly became aware of the many ways in which I had rebelled against my own Mother, ignoring the conditions that were, in fact, affecting the decisions she was confronted with at the time.  It was the heart of the Depression years, her husband, the father of her children, was dead and somehow, she had to make a living for her own self and the two of us, hardly more than mere toddlers.

Repent?  Oh yes, I had many reasons to repent and did, right there, right then.  His response was more than just His acknowledgement.  I was riding on a Greyhound bus and it was time for us to stop for breakfast.  As I walked through the door to the cafe, I was greeted by the waitress insisting we were a good looking crew.  My immediate response was, "I think I have been 'born again'" and she immediately replied. "Well, praise the Lord, let's get my brother a breakfast" and she was gone. Soon, she returned with a huge plate of eggs, toast and sausages.  "Oh, I can't afford all of that," I protested and she as quickly. she responded, "My Brother, our Father- has taken care of the bill.  Eat up!"

I will never forget those moments.  I had been attending church for most of my life and now, I had a hard time reconciling all that was happening to me.  Difficult, yes, but I was now determined to follow His lead..  Almost forty years have passed since that wonderful morning.  A couple of weeks passed and I was sitting in a church pew and listening to a choir of older folks singing, "It gets better and better as the time flies by, oh what a love between my Lord and I."  Perfect, I thought, this has to my theme song.  It still is!

God has blessed me over and over and over again and I say that in spite of the fact that two women I have loved and married are now gone on before me.

Life does seem to take strange turns, but I have discovered that around every corner I have seen our Father standing there, encouraging me to move on, to stand up and declare His victory over sin and yes, death itself, had been accomplished at a place called Calvary, through His Son, our Lord, Jesus the Christ.

What seems to fascinate me so often is the tendency for others to predict the future as if they had proof positive that their thoughts include specific evidence as to what will, or will not happen.  I have long since had it proven to me, the more accurate wisdom we find in the scriptures.  "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may brig forth."  (Proverbs 27:1)

Recently, a man was in my apartment fixing a stove burner and before he left, I discovered he was even eager to tell me the "real" story about that day we refer to as, 9/11.  It was not foreigners who had carried out their deadly mission, but our own government's plot to deceive us.  He believes that. He had seen evidence that this story was in fact, a fact.  Well now, I did not, but I should have reminded him of the scriptures that teach, "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord."  (Jeremiah 17:5)

Even better, I should have offered my testimony as evidence of my belief and commended to him a measure I have used to guide my own steps as I have progressed through the years of my life, "Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God, above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear to be, lights in the world."

I have lived long enough to recall the voices that were also raised after Pearl Harbor, suggesting that too was evidence of our government's manipulation of the truth  More proof that the Bible is accurate in its examination of the truth that is often, manipulated to serve the purposes of the enemies of God and frustrate the lives of those who have yet to realize His love for each one of us.

Amazing coincidence, or ????

I was amazed when I picked up a letter addressed to me from a friend who had recently moved away and I was even more amazed as I started to read the note and discovered these words...

"I want you to know how grateful I am to you.  You taught me so much about how God works in our lives and how the timing is perfect.  I appreciate your thirst for knowledge and your perfect love for others.  I hope to develop those qualities in myself.

I remember the day (after we had known one another for awhile), when I saw in your face that you had become a new person.  I knew that knowing our Lord Jesus Christ really does transform us and I knew the forces of Hell were shaking, realizing that you were in a covenant relationship with God.

I love the person that God has made you to be and how humble and accepting you are of His will."

She closed with a thought that she had recalled in thinking about our relationship.  "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life."

Believe me, I was humbled to read these thoughts.

And then, along comes an e-mail from another friend, even though we have never met, but she writes many inspiring thoughts and that is why I knew I had to learn more about this person.  Today, her blog read: "Why is it that I always find myself second guessing my story" and asked this questions of the readers, "Can you relate to that?"

I would like to respond, "Well, of course, we often come in contact with others we would like to share our thoughts about our conversion and life - in Christ, but the fact is, we inhabit a planet with 7 billion plus others, most of whom have a much different approach to life.  The chances of meeting another who has spent a lifetime, perhaps, hoping to met someone with whom they might instantly agree are infinitesimal.  Our first step in leading others to share our beliefs starts with a realization that we have something in common, such as community, school, sports, etc.  There is the best market place for souls.

We used a sing, "Wishing will make it so,"  Fascinating lyrics, but the fact is, when we are discussing eternal principles, wishing only makes our creeds sound as if they are lyrical and not, factual.

My younger friend was kind and I appreciate the thoughts.  The fact, however, was that there were almost forty long years between the time that I bowed in submission and the conversations we shared.

We all have stories to tell, no question about that and it is good when we can relate them to the stories we have heard in church and Sunday school, but those that arouse curiosity are the ones that open the shuttered minds of others.  The first forty-five years of my life found me in a church or religious sanctuaries but still, when God opened the shutters in my mind, I had to ask Him what he meant by the word, repent.  The fact that it cleansed me of guilt and shame, became the first step in believing there is a God and that He loved me, even me.

And now, living on purpose has become the reality that I had been seeking and has become the answer to the overwhelming numbers of questions being asked, every day in every community in our nation and in every other nation on our planet.

Change of pace...

Sorry to have to change pace, but all of a sudden whoever it is that provides this service - and I know it is a service, well, they cut me off, insisting I return to aged efforts that I do not know how to delete, nor do I know how to overcome.  Thanks for my loyal friend, Karen, I am here - and grateful for all of her assistance.  Fortunately, I am here .

Yesterday, in my frustration, I realized I can write and send it via e-mails, but my filing system for such is woefully inadequate, so that won't work - for me.

I was prompted by an e-mail I had from my friend, Jeff Goins, who was reporting on a conversation he had with a writer friend of his, Shauna Niequist, who has her latest book - Savor, in distribution.

I love that word, a delightful word that is seldom used to describe life as it ought to be.  The subtitle to her book states: Living Abundantly, Where you are, As you are.  The caps on where and are were placed by me as I believe that if we really want to live, it starts with Where we are and As we are.

Some of you know that I celebrated my eighty-fifth birthday last August and I live accordingly.  I am blessed in the truest sense of that word.  It hasn't always been that way. For too long and too often, I spent my life - on Tomorrow Isle.  Tomorrow, I'll do this or that.  It never happened.  Is it any wonder that one of our most despicable words ends with the letters,,, it!

Shauna obviously lives in the belief that she has proved an old axiom that I used to talk about, but never really applied to my life.  Tomorrow becomes what we - all of us, earnestly plan to do, today. It may not be exactly as we might have planned, but it could become another step in that direction,

What I love about her book - without having read it, yet, is the word she has chosen to define life is as it ought to be, savored.  To "savor" anything means to enjoy it unhurriedly.moment by moment, minute by minute.  You can describe life as being savory when your moments are actually, appetizing, appealing, urging you on to do even more.

As a younger man, eager for the success I had observed in others, the "key" word was motivation.  To be successful, you had to be properly motivated, where properly is the key word.  We live in a society where others invest a few dollars every week, hoping, often praying, that they will win the prize of a lifetime - the lottery and yet, I have heard of winners who then, lose it all and wind up devastated, never realizing that the word success must start with the words "I will" or else it has no real meaning in the every day life we inherit at our birth.  I have cousins by marriage who won two jackpots within ninety days of each other and while they appreciated their good fortune, it did not substantially change their lives.  Unfortunately, the strength of his heart did not match up with the zeal he had for life and it was cut short, 

We believe we are in charge and if we are fortunate enough to be raised in a home with two loving, appreciative parents, we may learn that we are no better off than the youngsters born to live in the streets, but who realize that just because his or her parents were not as prepared as others might have been, it was no reason for them to not take life seriously.  The essential element that prepares us to become successful does not come through external appearances, but from an inborn drive that can propel us to do great things, to become known as great people, merely by embracing the opportunities that are everywhere to be found.

Unfortunately, many among us are urged to enjoy the lives we have created for ourselves, but they feel unknown, unwanted by those who come into and quickly leave their lives, or disappointed by the assumption that others are more fortunate.  We cannot delve deeply into the lives of others, but the truth is that we can delve deeply into our own and most will discover that the one ingredient they miss is the lack of enjoying, savoring life as it is.   The answer is to dispose of the false assumptions as easily as we find ourselves getting rid ourselves of the garbage we amass be merely attempting to feed our bodily structures.

I am indebted to those who invented mirrors and the others who placed them where we cannot avoid at least a glace or two, every day.  We must learn to realize that the face we see in the mirror is little more than a reflection of our hearts.  We cannot change the beat of our hearts, but we can change the way we approach the days of our lives.

How to Locate"your" Job - phase four (still more)

It is amazing - to me at least, the "coincidences" that seem to appear when a person concentrates on a particular theme.  So it came about yesterday, while talking about creating a job service for members of our church and while there were several attending the sessions, the remarks of a couple still linger in my mid and - I believe, they are worth mentioning.

In my opinion, the best measure of potential success can be discerned by the influences of the people who serve as contributors to the individual's life, prior to the application.  Two of the individuals who were expressing their thoughts on the process revealed that since they had been successful in finding the right kinds of employment along the way, others ought to follow that example.  To me, that is precisely what is wrong with many of the existing services along the way.

They seem to forget, every person comes to the task of discovering a job worthy of their attention has traveled a different path.  Some may have graduated from the same school, have attended the same classes, even have similar GPA's, but entering a new environment, their similar backgrounds are not necessarily the better gauge of success for everyone.

As my friend Jeff Goins related in a article appearing on my computer this morning, there is no assurance, the same experiences will lead to the same results.  As a basis for his article, he talked about his young son suddenly deciding to dance.  He had not been encouraged to do this, he just started to dance and it was obvious to his parents, he was making a lot of the right moves.  Jeff made a point of realizing, his son was not always going to be encouraged to dance.  Would he eventually become a great dancer, none of us can accurately predict his future.  We are always going to be subjected to differing opinions from others.  That Jeff encouraging his son as a good start.  It may not always be that way.

There was a time when I could not have responded to the theme of the article.  I was not what either of my parents wanted when I appeared in 1929.  My father wanted a daughter - he already had two sons from a previous marriage.  My mother wanted to please her husband.  That worked for awhile and then she was pregnant again.  This time, I had the measles and so I was sent to live with my grandparents to live on their farm.  My parents had their daughter and somehow, depending on circumstances I suppose, it would years before I returned to what should have been my natural home environment.  That lasted for a year or so and then, my father became ill as the result of injuries incurred in a previous auto accident and I was returned to the farm.  He would die as a result of his infirmity and so, I grew up without a father.  I am told I was a good kid, made good grades in school and to be honest, I enjoyed the farm far more than I had ever liked city life.

I guess the first time I realized what I had missed came after joining what was then, the Army Air Corps and found myself among 1,700 other basic recruits on a troop ship headed for Japan where we would serve for two years on duties that none of us really understood until we reached our duty stations.  On board, I guess I heard hundreds of stories of how the others had enjoyed their adventures with their fathers and I began to get sad, thinking of all that I had missed.  But that was temporarily forgotten when I got to my new duty station and joked with the job placement interviewer, saying the only two things I knew how to do was milk cows and drive tractors.  It never occurred to me to tell them I was also an accomplished grocery clerk.  Anyway, I was sent to the Motor Pool to drove tractors, truck tractors.  It was a good thing I was not afraid to try as I wound up as a competent and valuable air man.

Then, I was transferred to a new station with a General's suggestion that I could do better and wound up as a clerk in the Personnel Office, because I knew the alphabet better than the other guy I replaced. It was a start on a "career" lasting nearly twenty-five years.

Little did I realize it along the way, nor for years afterwards, I had little or no respect for the officers or work superiors I had reported to in duty assignments.  It carried through my college years and into the "real" work world, where I would eventually discover, I really wanted a father, a loving father, and then one day, I came to the realization I had had one all along.

To me, the religious training and previous experiences in church came into focus and at my age then, nearing my 45th birthday, realizing that the One we revere as our Creator was better known to me as my Father, it changed my whole life.  Gone were the days when frustration seemed to follow me from job to job, opportunity from other opportunities, and life became real to me. 

I am not here to preach.  I have little or no interest in trying to convince others to believe as I believe, but my whole focus is to remind my readers that finding a job worthy of your efforts requires more than just preparing a resume and showing up for an interview.  It that is your goal, I can't help you, but if you are serious about creating a career, let's talk.  I am available, today.

It all starts with those cards, remember?  When you have gone through that practice, we will be ready to actively begin your search.

How to locate "your" job - phase four (more)

After finishing the last post, I came upon a series of articles written by other bloggers, none of whom claim to be experts in the area of personnel recruiting, but as I scanned them, it seemed to me that each one was writing about attitudes that many people have about relationships.  If there is anything a job candidate needs, it is the ability and the confidence to persuade their interviewers that he or she is the best person for the particular job under consideration.

One blog got to me in a hurry.  If anything, he might have qualified as one of the worst job candidates I had ever met in my experience interviewing others.  He apparently wanted to discuss mediocrity as his title suggested and he started with the suggestion that "you (his readers) will never be good enough" and that is sad as he has no real idea of who might be reading his suggestions.  He went on to talk about "hope in your darkest hours' and then continued to suggest that "being lazy is good for productivity".  Now, I must be honest, he did talk about other positive characteristics, but I need to remind my readers, people who are evaluating others employment opportunities are not interested in hearing about mediocrity, fear and laziness,

In creating a resume, you should be using thoughts like competence, confidence and coping with all of the challenges you have faced in precious work places.  They might not have offered all of the challenges you are seeking in a new position, but whether or not the other workers approached their responsibilities with the same attitudes as you now want to convey, they all offered attitudes or skills that the employer apparently appreciated.  Sometimes, we tend to forget that in every job situation, there will always be those who excel in their work attitudes and others who are still learning You might indicate you had also offered assistance to those who were less qualified.

A fact we all need to consider, when we are born, there are over seven billion others who are more qualified than us to do anything besides suck on a bottle and fill our diapers, and 230 million plus other citizens of our nation who will be competing with us, in one form or fashion, for the rest of our lives.  You probably have discovered that most of them are more than just competent in whatever endeavor they have pursued, but the good news is, in every situation you might face in life, you have the innate ability to outperform them.

The next report concerned a certain Professor who came to our country from another nation who now is called a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and  Management at a West Coast college and has been lauded as world's leading researcher on positive psychology  I loved one of his many thoughts on the subject.  "Repression ("being kept down") is not the way to virtue.  When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished.  Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason."

We don't hear that word - virtue, very often.  It meas goodness. We appear to live in a world where it often seems that being "bad" is the best way to get noticed.  The opposite is true.  You get rewarded for being good and being bad often meas time in a lock down.  The better answer then might appear to replace fear with faith; faith in yourself is a good place to start.  And you express that faith by being competent in your chosen endeavors.  The good professor makes a point that is too often ignored.  We all need to live productive lives - not only as a way to earn a living, or gaining acceptance among our fellow beings, but to add to the society in which we live.  I have often visited prisons as a way of reaching out to those less fortunate and I cringe as I go through those steel gates. Those men and women are there because somewhere along the line, they failed to grasp the concept of a life in which we add to the lives of others rather than taking what they had no right to take. 

The other person I met through his writing endeavors is best known as Sir Ken Robinson, another Professor, an Englishman originally from Liverpool, whose book, "Out of our Minds: Learning to be Creative" has been a best seller.  His thoughts on creativity at every level of our lives, starting in the primary grades ad extending throughout our lives, is widely known throughout Great Britain and in the United States.  It makes good sense.  One of the greatest thrills I have ever experienced in my many years was watching my children take toy blocks and build something out of them, even before they had words to describe their creation.  I made friends with a autistic child who was given a toy computer and had it working before her Mother had even read the instructions.

We are all creative.  You doubt me, I guess.  Well, just take a few minutes to listen how that dent appeared in your new car, just after one of your teenagers returned from a visit with one of their friends.  Oh, you said they were lying.  Not in their opinion.  They were just being - creative.

Think about it.  You probably never thought of the times you were only being - creative.

How to locate "your" job - phase four (add on)

I knew what I wanted to review on this page, but for the life of me, I could not seem to discover the best way to start in on it.  Then, my computer came up with the perfect introduction.

You probably don't recall such a time, but a few years ago a Psychologist by the name of Nathaniel Brandon wrote a book entitled, "The Psychology of Self-Esteem" and suddenly, it seemed,was the talk of the town, so to speak.  To some, it was the better answer to the problems of juvenile delinquency and it found its way onto the curriculum of most secondary schools.  The article that prompted me to pen my thoughts on the subject suggested that it reigned supreme for two decades as the answer to many of the problems that seemed to plague the modern family.

I recall being fascinated with it as I know I left my family and high high school as a candidate for the individual with the lowest self-esteem.  At least, that was my opinion of myself as I realized I was half way around the world and I didn't have any real buddies like the other guys in my barracks.  I was the proverbial loner, adrift in a world of my own making and no real answers for my dilemma.

Then came the day when Lt. Colonel Chitty took over as our Base commander for the weekend and I was charged with the task of writing "special" orders for an officer leaving for temporary duty at another base.  I knew how to do it, but I was accustomed to signing them off, "By order of Colonel Price", the actual Base commander.  That day I wrote, By order of Lt. Colonel Shitty and failed to notice my mistake when I handed the copy over to our Japanese clerk-typist.  Monday morning came around and I noticed the others laughing among themselves as I passed by.  I was busy at something else I had to do when our Adjutant called me and told me that Colonel Chitty wanted to see me, now!

"Yes, sir!" as I snapped to attention, eager to do whatever he might have for me to do.  "Sergeant, where did you learn how to spell?"  I thought I had made an error in typing, but then he showed me his copy of the orders I had typed.  I wanted to drop through the floor.  "Sergeant, I have one question to ask of you, is this how your buddies refer to me when I am not around?"  "No, sir!"  I was beginning to shake.  "Take it easy, son, we all make mistakes, this even made me laugh, wondering if you might have thought of it as a joke.  You do good work, Sergeant.  Aren't you ready for promotion to Staff Sergeant?"  "Yes sir, I hope this doesn't stand in my way."  "Not at all, Sergeant, with the good work that you do, I think I might even offer my recommendation to the promotion board."  "Thank you, sir. Is that all, sir?"  "Sure, just be sure you have a speller around the next time you have to type anything for me."  Yes sir, thank you, sir!"  And I was on my way.

Every one else in our headquarters building thought I was getting "royally chewed out" and I just answered their questions with, "No, he was just wondering if it was time for me to get a promotion."

This formerly shy young lad, a few months away from the farm, suddenly had a jolt of what would later be known as self-esteem and I was "somebody".   But I also noticed the older guys on the staff and while they congratulated me occasionally, they dealt with me as an equal and I didn't let it all go to my head.  That is my lesson for anyone in a new situation, especially a new job.

Self-esteem is appropriate as long as you realize, while mixing with other employees, you are part of a team, whether they refer to employees as team members or not.  They need you as much as you need them.  Some people would have us believe we are a sports crazed society, but to me, the final score is merely a indication of how each team played.  Of course, we are constantly reminded that we, or the other teams, have super stars, but they are only as "super" as their team members carry out their assignments during the game.

When you come into a new job opportunity, you need to keep this in mind if you want an advance in your pay or a better opportunity for the future.

And you are able to do as I learned how to do in that most embarrassing situation.  Yes, I was a shy young kid, not sure of myself or any real qualifications.  But I did have memories of my days at work with my grandfather on the farm and he demonstrated how to act when things go wrong as they will from time to time.  I also had two uncles, successful business men, who I had admired and I have to believe, deep within, my admiration also had to include my estimation of how they got to be where they seemed to be.  And then there was another uncle who was - in my estimation at the time, only a farm boy as well, but he made me feel important by simply asking how school had been on most days and then adding a compliment on something I had said or done.

They were probably building self-esteem that I would not realize for many years, but as all of us look back, I am certain you too, will find those confidence builders in your life.

Back again, after a unanticipated interruption

Sorry about that.  First, my computer "ate" an essay I had intended to post following on the one about "fox" hunting and other unanticipated interruptions in the paths of life we tend to follow.

Some have said the key to the satisfied life is to plan on such occurrences, but the facts of the matter are that is difficult to anticipate the activities of those who set out to make our lives more difficult and there are always going to be accidents.  Such as the other day. I was making a left turn and a young lady coming from the opposite direction, who should have have stopped or, at least paused to let me pass in front of her, did not!  So, now I must rely o my friends for transportation until I get another car.  Fortunately, neither of us were injured.  Life moves on.

An instructor in college used to attempt to teach us by reminding us that between those those two appendages we call ears, where some among us hang our glasses, we have a brain, a magnificent lump of matter, that hears all and unless we put it into gear, it tells nothing.  What goes in, stays in. Now that I am approaching my 86th birthday, I stand amazed that just this morning I heard a tune on the radio and recalling the melody, I began to sing the words.

If I was a college professor, I would encourage my colleagues to teach their students how to link what their students learned much earlier in the lives to the subjects being taught in classrooms.  For example, I began my education in a one room country school house and our teacher used to refer to lessons she had learned in college and on at least one occasion, she explained what she had learned about science, in particular how our earth and our sister planets, the sun, the moon, the stars, etc., moved about in space without running into one another.  I sat at my desk, totally fascinated as most of us had never heard about those interests - until a few years ago when I heard a NASA scientist talk about the "Colossian cohesion".  He was using that term to explain my childhood curiosity.  As he told our group, the Bible teaches that ..."in God, all things hold together."  (Colossians 1:17)

One of my closest childhood pals grew up to become a Marine Corps jet pilot and I never hear of those pilots that I don't reflect on that friendship even though we have only met, casually, twice in all of the passing years.

On the other hand, I once used a curse word while talking to another pal and I can almost remember the hurt he inflicted on me as result.  Yet, we remained as close friends right up until the days before he passed away.

Our brain matter does retain far more than most of us can possibly recall.  I do not remember my father at all, but the pain I experienced over the years, because of that fact, has often caused me to do things to fuel my own natural anxieties.  As a result, I believe, it has taught me more lessons than most of the psychology books I have ever studied. 

That is why I put so much emphasis on completing the cards I suggested, adding positive references to the names you have collected.  There is a strategy involved in most employment interviews where you are asked to answer questions you may have never anticipated.  You might be surprised to learn how may candidates lose jobs only because they did not anticipate such strategies.  If you have a firm understanding of your skills and every day life as it has occurred to you, you should not have any problems getting his or her approval.

Your greater problem is the research that is required to locate potential employers.  By far, most of the candidates I used to interview had no idea of the possibilities for their skills.  Most were content to review the active job openings and rely on their u-employment insurance to support them until an opening was advertised.  Those days ought to be relegated to the ancient history department in the public libraries.  The first step we used to recommend was for our candidates to visit their library and review the employment pages of the local newspapers for the previous year.  Today, that possibility is more likely a waste of one's time ad resources.  For the most part, today, companies tend to rely on recruiters for their top level jobs and staffing services for the routine job requirements.

Tomorrow, we're going to suggest how to deal with this reality and create your own job opening.