Busy, Busy, Busy...but to what end ? part 1

It has been a little while since I last posted. Life right now is very busy. Busy at work, busy at home, busy at church, busy planning, busy re-planning, busy writing, busy...busy...busy. Over 40 years have passed me... A little over 15 000 days... 360 000 hours...21 600 000 minutes...1 404 000 000 heart beats ( One billion 404 million heart beats)  and counting. My body is busy without me even thinking about it.

Then I read Haggai 1...⁵ Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. ⁶ You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”  ⁷ This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways"... And I can't help but reflect on what is being said in this chapter. Twice the Lord says "Give careful thought to your ways." What is the Lord talking about? People being busy with what they want to do. For several years the Jewish people had returned to Jerusalem and they did not rebuild the temple...God's house. Their priorities where out of sync. they had a "me" first mentality. I think that today, in our busy lives, we often have this mentality. Me first. 

The prophet goes on to write:

⁸ Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. ⁹ “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. ¹⁰ Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. ¹¹ I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

Here we have a very clear, concise, cause and effect. God's house was neglected...and God was not happy. People were busy doing "their own thing." The result was this - there were consequences. There was accountability. 

to be continued....

My last 15 years...in 6 paragraphs :)

It's a new season !

    

     It's funny, I keep thinking back to a conversation that I had with a pastoral friend of mine – he asked me, “Tim, how do you feel about administration?” I know that I am gifted in that area. I sort of enjoy doing it now. As I reflect back - every work position in my adult career has had a lot of administration qualities. And even if it didn't start that way, eventually it changed into an administration role. I can organize, analyze, and dissect a situation. Then put results on paper.

      For years as a pastor I would read, pray, write – whether it was a Bible study, sermon, a youth event, minutes of a meeting or writing a newspaper article – I used many administration skills.

      When I worked for a Fortune 500 company (which will remain nameless) I remember a lot of people asking me “what do you do?” I often found that hard to answer. A couple of my colleges from the Canadian Headquarters would call me “the guy”. If they need something done – call Tim. Often I wouldn't do it myself, but I would know who to ask and how to ask in order to get the task accomplished. So what did I do...I wrote SSOP's, HACCP procedures, SAP procedures, Chemical training procedures, SPC procedures, Visitor presentations, All employee meeting presentations, employee letters, KPI reports to World headquarters, Year end reports to the Board of Directors at WHQ, Daily multimedia updates on the internal information system....I was sort of a ghost writer....I would write the procedure or presentation then the manager would put his/her name to it and either present it or keep it for documentation. It didn't really bother me too much – because I knew that when a meeting, or presentation went well and my supervisor got the recognition from the VP's or Directors (even though I didn't get the credit) in a round about way was a reflection on my work.

      And now I am branching out into more administrative activities. For the last couple of weeks I've been developing a Health & Safety Manual for a business. You know – about 30 policies and procedures – Workplace Harassment policies, Violence policies, Blood born pathogens, Lock out, Confined space, WHMIS, PPE, Emergency evacuations, etc, etc, etc, and don't forget all the documentation that has to go with these procedures...training records, inspection records, medical records, Hazard analysis, visitor rules, etc, etc, etc...I'm up to about 300 pages so far and should be complete in the next week or so. Don't get me wrong, I rather enjoy doing this. I have pretty much all of this mapped out in my head, then I put it down on paper...or computer file, then paper.

      What's next though...I always look forward, but often don't see really far down the road. I've tried that. Making long term goals...It's never worked for me. I think I know what I am to do, then the rug gets pulled out from under me. But I get back up. I've just got to keep getting back up. 

     Everyday I continue to feel God's calling on my life and my family. I tried for a long time to ignore it, but I can't. It's a burning ember that fails to go out. Recently I interviewed for a pastoral position, interview went well - but another person was chosen. That's ok, God has a place for us...We just have to find where :) Maybe I am too stubborn? Maybe I think about the situation too much? Maybe I just don't have enough patience? (I know that my wife will say....yes, yes, yes) But I digress... I keep saying this simple prayer... “Lord, where do you want me and my family? Make it known, and we'll go.” I guess everything is in His timing...and I just need to wait. Two scriptures that have kept me going are Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” And Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  I realize that it's a daily faith walk for me, and it looks like it's going to keep on being one :)