Time At Hand

Noah and his three sons and their mother and wives lived on a 450' long, 75' wide and 45' high 'boat' for over 1 year. They were responsible to care for themselves and all of the animals in the known world; which, at the time, were all of the animals they had with them. All other living creatures had been destroyed. The flood waters must have been filled with the carcasses of hundreds of thousands of creatures. The dead bodies of dogs, cats, birds, horses, monkeys, yaks, goats, sheep, pigs, men, woman, children and babies would have floated and rotted and all over the earth. That is not the picture we see in the Sunday school hand-outs we give to our children. But that is the reality.

We commonly hear about the safety of the arc during the storm. But rarely if ever do we actually hear about or consider for ourselves the realities of this story. The are may have been the safest place on earth during that awful year. But it would not have been a pleasant place to be by any stretch of the imagination. The daily barrage of visual horror outside, on the water, would certainly have turned the stomaches of the 8 people on board. Only the most calloused, uncaring person could go unaffected.

The amount of work for those 8 must have been overwhelming. Just imagine, for instance, the daily task of distributing fresh water to each of those animals. Each day, without a day off, for over a year, someone needed to rise each morning, choke past the smell and vision of death all around, grab a bucket of water and hall it to the baboon, screeching and jumping around in it's cage. Every so often, someone would need to shovel out the dung from the stable of horses and mules and donkeys and zebras. Where did all of that waste go? My guess is that it went out a chute or other small opening, above the waterline and into the murky ocean of death outside. The ark may have been safe, relatively speaking, but it surely wasn't a fun place to be.

So what does that tell us about God's “shelter from the storm” for us? Can it be that God will save us from death but not always in a pleasant manner? Surely that is a conclusion that can be drawn. Noah and the seven people with him may not have been on the equivalent of a Caribbean pleasure cruise, but the alternative wasn't a good choice by far.

But God's safety was brought to Noah more than 100 years earlier. Noah had a generous amount of time to prepare. God's provision came with ample amounts of time. Plus, the very thing that gave the opportunity to Noah in the first place was Noah's habit of spending time with God and abiding by the knowledge of life that time spent with God provides. What conclusion does that lead too? It seems obvious. The time needed to prepare for the most cataclysmic events in life is available to us right now. The time is “at hand.” How will you spend it?

Bogged Down In Details

When Noah received the instructions to build a boat he must have been overwhelmed by the gravity of what was going to happen. He would have wrestled with understanding the immense project that he was given to undertake. The macro view of this project would have staggered the mind of anyone. The facts of this project were simple enough. The world was to be destroyed by a flood. Noah was to build a very large boat. A selection of animals was to be housed in the boat for protection from the flood. When it was all done there would only be Noah, his wife, his sons and his sons' wives.

Some specific details regarding how the boat was to be built were given as well. These details were sufficient enough to get the boat building project started but not detailed enough to specify how each board and nail were to be set. Noah would need to determine such details on his own or he would need to delegate those specifics to someone he trusted, with the knowledge to get that part of the project accomplished.

Noah's main job in this huge effort was to focus on God's voice. He needed to continue to communicate with the Almighty one who gave him the task to begin with. H needed to focus on trusting the future outcome, knowing that God is true to his word. He did not need to get bogged down in detail work himself. God's special knowledge about the “hows” and “whens” would be left to God. Noah only need concern himself with the next task on the list of things to do.

Noah could have begun thinking about how the animals would be gathered together. Maybe he could have done a little research on animal behavior. He might have begun questioning how all of those animals would arrive in his back yard. How would he and his sons herd this menagerie onto this enormous boat? The scripture says each species went on to the boat according to it's kind. So there must have been some way to segregate animals into manageable categories. There needed to be some way of distributing food eventually to each individual animal.

Noah trusted God to bring the animals to the ark. He trusted God that he'd be provided the skills required to build a completely organized floating barn that would sustain all of this life for as long as God required. Trust and obey. Noah's only foreknowledge was that God was in control.

We often get bogged down in the minutiae of the task at hand. We understand the project. We possess the skills to accomplish the deed. We know the people to contact to find information about the skills we are fuzzy on. But often we wait for every detail of the project to be well defined and thought over before we begin. God doesn't require us to possess absolute surety about the tasks he gives us to do. After all, the very thing required to communicate with God in the first place is faith. God commands us to have faith. Faith, the evidence of unseen things, calls us to believe that the outcome will be accomplished while the details are left unknown.

We build a relationship with the creator of all things. We here his voice in thoughts and urgings. We understand the task. But often times we sit, thinking about details and questioning the wisdom of the project. What we should do is take the specifics we do have, as incomplete as they may be, and get started knowing that the God of mystery, knowledge and wisdom will “bring the animals in” when the time is right.

No Doubt

November 1, 2005

Faith. How can you “just believe” something? What kinds of experience do you need to have with someone to believe that an event will happen or a condition will come to be based upon what they tell you? Imagine the situation for Noah. We find in Noah a man who's lifestyle and who's daily walk was so in step with the Lord that the Lord called him righteous. The Lord found him to be blameless among all the people of his time. It's good that Noah walked with God every day because God told Noah a frightening story. God told Noah that everyone except his immediate family would soon die.

The bible is not specific enough to tell us exactly how many people Noah knew. It does not tell us how many other family members of Noah were living during that time. It would seem logical that he would have had brothers and sisters. He might have had aunts and uncles living at that time too. The Lord told him that they would all die. His friends would die. The people on the street that he saw every day would die too. As a matter of fact, according to the biblical account every person he had ever seen in his entire life would all be dead except for his wife, his three sons, and his sons' wives.

All of the animals save those he took with him would perish. The houses and farms and shops and stores would all be completely destroyed. The meadow and the grove and the hollow and the field and all of it's beauty would no longer exist. A massive flood of water would completely take it all away.

Nothing like this had ever happened before. There were no leading indicators in the stock market of life to suggest that “Oh. Yes, I've seen this once before. It's likely that a flood is going to occur.” By all accounts we can probably say it had never even rained before! Further, God tells Noah to build a huge boat on the scale of the Queen Mary for those times. Incredible! There is no history in Noah's time to give him any confidence in what he was about to do. None whatsoever. Yet Noah, with the simple faith of a child doing his mother's bidding, puts in place plans to accomplish the task one timber, one board, one nail at a time every day for a hundred or so years, slowly building a monstrosity in his back yard. He couldn't hide this from anybody. His faith was put on display for the whole world to see for over a hundred years.

What kind of faith do you have? Let's say you wake up today and you feel impressed by God during your morning prayers to paint your house bright orange. All of it. Orange siding. Orange shingles. Orange doors, windows, shutters, and trim. Do you think you would do it? What do you think your neighbor would say? Would he ask you something like, “Hey there. I see that you are painting your house orange. Um... what in the world are you doing that for?” Would you say, “God told me to.” Or would you make up a different story?

The strength of your faith will indicate your willingness to go beyond the call of the normal. Your faith can only be built bit by precious bit through the investment of time. There simply is no other way to build it. Investing time in someone will slowly define how much trust in things not yet seen you are willing to have in what they say. Each of us can predict the future in some respect. Simply stating “I'll be there at four o'clock this afternoon to pick you up.” is a prediction of a future event. If you say that every day for thirty days and if you never fail in that task, it's reasonable to believe the same thing will happen the thirty first day. The time has been invested. The history has been written. The by-product is faith.

Noah walked a righteous life on a daily basis with God. He talked with God and he listened. Every day. Probably many times each day. Maybe continuously during the day. Maybe he never stopped communicating with God. There must have been an tremendous amount of time spent together for Noah to have even a glimpse of the faith it required to build that boat. He couldn't harbor even a speck of doubt that this would not happen. He couldn't. He couldn't because his faith told him otherwise. He needed to have absolute faith.

We each have a choice about every minute of our lives. God is willing to communicate with you at a heartbeat's notice. If you lack faith, begin investing time in that conversation. Begin reading his word each and every day without fail. You will be amazed at the vision it can provide. I don't know that you will ever have the faith to build a monument to a conversation to God like the arc would have been. But I do know that your life will be hugely blessed. I have that faith. I have that faith because I've experienced it in my own life. Try it for thirty days and see for yourself. Your life will be better. Of that I have no doubt.

God Spoke

God spoke. Out of his mouth came words. Powerful words. Words that created the earth out of water. The water was created by his word. How much power does a word have? God's words have ultimate power; the power of creation, the power of love, the power of comfort, the power of condemnation. His power is demonstrated in word. He is effortless in his ability to accomplish anything because all He needs to do to produce anything, physical or spiritual is to speak. His word is pure power.

We speak quickly and often. Our words stream forth in a never ending flow about everything we see. Our opinions are made sometimes quickly and often without thought. Why don't we take a minute to tap into God's power? We have the resource at our disposal. We also have a choice. The power of God to speak and solve our problem, answer our question, make our path clear is ever present. But we must chose to do two things. 1. Approach God with an open heart and mind knowing that He will give help. 2. Listen.

Consistency

Daniel Chapter 6.

Consistency. Chapter 6 of the book of Daniel tells a story of jealousy in government. Daniel was good at what he did. He had been appointed as one administrator of three who were overseeing 120 bureaucrats in charge of the account of the king, Darius. Because Daniel had obvious skill performing this duty, Darius decided to make him the overseer of the entire kingdom. The administrators and bureaucrats, being overcome with jealousy, decided to trip Daniel up in a point of lawso that Daniel could legally be killed. But Daniel was of such character that no legal reason could be found. So they manufactured a temporary law they knew with absolute assurance that Daniel would break.

The law was simple enough, under penalty of death, the citizens of the kingdom could not worship any other god or man except the king for thirty days. The end result, of course, is that Daniel was convicted of breaking this bogus law and was sentenced to death by animal dismemberment in a pit full of hungry lions. We are familiar with the story of how Daniel was saved any harm at all and gave credit to an angel who closed the mouth of the lions.

But one point that should be noted, possibly above all others, is that Daniel was prepared for such a cataclysmic event due to his consistency in his prayer life. Upon learning about the law, Daniel first goes to his prayer room to pray. His commitment to the true, living God is shown to be preiminent. The ironic twist is that it is exactly that consistent, daily shown commitment that even made the scheme possible! And it is exactly that consistent, daily commitment that built the relationship between God and Daniel that enabled the salvation to happen.

There is only one method to building a relationship between two persons. If a relationship is to be built, time must be spent. Daniel chose to have a relationship with God. He built that relationship by spending time praising, talking to, listening to, and thanking the one true God.

Daniel went to his prayer room three times each day “just as he had done before.” Why did the law work? Because of Daniel's consistency. Why did it ultimately fail? Because of Daniel's consistency. Why was Daniel spared? Because of his relationship with God. Why was that relationship so worthy of such grace? Because of Daniels steady commitment to a consistent, daily, even hourly communication with God.

Satisfaction. In the 12^th chapter of the gospel of Luke we read about the Rich Fool.

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on you guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Then Jesus tells the story about the rich fool. This farmer who had produced an abundant crop. But instead of celebrating his good fortune, he instead devoted his attention to determining how to get more. To have more, he needed to build bigger barns to store the additional crops. So he began building barns.

Now, there is nothing particularly wrong with having more or building barns. But Jesus tells us to “watch out” because greed easily becomes the focus. Concentrating on having more instead of being more traps us into a shallow life with shallow rewards.

¹⁹ And I'll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for may years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”

“But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.”

Whoa! While building the barns, while concentrating on what he could have, the farmer may well die! Ah, there is a tragedy. Imagine, all of that concentration on building barns. He's not even a carpenter. He's a farmer. He's not even doing what he loves to do because he's concentrating on how to have more.

Later in the chapter, Jesus tells the crowd that it is much better to concentrate on giving more and letting God provide the abundance. He compares a lily to king Solomon, one of the richest men in history. How beautiful is the lily and yet it's beauty comes at no cost at all.

It's really a matter of how you measure satisfaction. Will you find satisfaction in building abundance? Or will you find satisfaction in building up those around you. Will you invest in having more for yourself? Or will you invest in give more to others? Will your focus be, “I need more?” or Will your focus be, “I have so much to give.” Sometimes it is easier to imagine what will be written on your headstone. Imagine these two possibilities, “Here lies Joe, he built barns.” or “Here lies Pete, he built lives.”

Build a Boat

Patience. How long did it take Noah to build the Arc. The Arc was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 3 stories high. It certainly must have been the largest boat ever built at that time. Noah only had a few hands and hand tools to build it with. Every day for years he would have needed to saw a board, put it in place, hammer a few nails and then determine where the next board would go. The daunting task of constructing this enormous vessel would have taken hundreds of years. He would have done this with thousands of curious looks over time. He probably heard 10,000 sneers and jibes. But Noah was patient. He had an ability to remember the reality of God's Words. He certainly must have concentrated on that memory minute by minute by minute, day after day after day.

Why can't we be patient for even a year? A month? A day? God has his purposes for each of us. We worry and fret and wonder, “Where is God? Why does He not answer my prayer?” and we prayed only minutes ago. A 1000 years is as a day and a day as a 1000 years with God. Today is a good day to start practicing the art of being patient. Wait on the Lord today with a mind full of the knowledge that God is in complete, well timed control. He will be faithful. His purpose will be accomplished. Bless God with patience and begin living in peace.

My Son Matt - The Bass Player

This is my son Matthew. He's a musician. At heart he is an amazing person. He's very creative in very many ways. Currently he's working in Florida and North Carolina with a friend of mine in the recycling business. He's raising as much cash as possible in preparation for attending Ferris State University in the 2006 Winter term. I miss him. But he'll be home in a few weeks. 

Yeah. I'm Cool.
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Watering Grandma's Flowers
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An old newsletter article still makes sense.

I took a year off from teaching at Harvest. But next fall I'll start with the adult class again. I was looking through some old notes today and found this short article that was written for the Harvest Community newsletter. It reminded me of a seminar breakout session I attended last week that Steve Wiggins taught on devotions for worship leaders. I think its worth reading again. The dates aren't significant any longer so ignore them.

Picture yourself on a hill near a small town in the country. You have been met with the most incredible circumstances you could have ever imagined. The events of the previous few weeks have brought the highest highs of victories and the lowest lows of death. Not sure of your own safety, you look around anxiously awaiting the moment when armed guards might come from just out of sight to drag you away to most certain death. You know that trumped up charges could be brought to a courtroom in order to ensure your elimination from society. Yet, even as those thoughts race though your tired mind, you look upon the only person you know that had experienced that exact same scenario. He is alive and well, standing before you and teaching you new things, just as he always did. In the past he taught you about life; about a new life with a new way to look at everything. But his message today on this hillside is just a little different. Today he is teaching you that the burden of taking those “new-life” messages to a world of “old-life” people will be carried by you!

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." It’s called the great commission and it is meant for each of us. But how? How can we ever become prepared enough to make disciples, baptize people, and teach them to obey? It is a formidable task indeed. Yet the command has been given by the Christ; Jesus himself.

The command was given in the closing paragraphs of the gospel of Matthew just before Jesus disappeared before his disciples’ very eyes. What an amazing site that must have been. They stood there eyes wide open and mouths agape no doubt for a good long time. Until a couple of fellows dressed in white asked them “what are you looking at? This Jesus will come back one day, in the same way he left you just now.” Yeah, right. Uh, but just exactly what are we supposed to do now? Good question. It was a good question then. It’s a good question now.

In the ensuing days the beginnings of what we know as the Christian church began. These humble beginnings that virtually exploded on the planet were brought about by common people like you and I who see the incredible value and good that comes from carrying out the command to take the gospel to the world. These disciples were simple people who knew an incredible new way of thinking, of living, of looking at the world. They couldn’t wait to share it with everyone they met. So it is with us.

The Holy Spirit was sent to “live within them.” He empowered their everyday skills and common language into an unstoppable force that changes the world even today.
The church to which we belong today was born from those empowered, yet common, skills. We gain encouragement from knowing that the Holy Spirit continues to empower each of us to be able to carry on the great commission. All we need is to gain a little understanding of God’s word, listen to the Spirit, and do some ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Reading and sharing our thoughts and insights about God’s word with each other is a wonderful way to begin some basic training. It’s simple really. The more of God’s word you have “hidden” in your heart, the more prepared you become to carry on the commission of Christ. There is no better way to share what God is teaching us in His word than to gather for a few minutes each Sunday to study and share.

Our adult Sunday school class is targeted specifically at learning about God’s word. We began a journey through the bible beginning at Genesis 2 and ½ years ago. We have come so far! We have learned, shared, laughed and cried together. We have grown closer. We’ve grown closer to each other and closer to God’s word. But most importantly, we’ve grown closer to God. That’s because God speaks to us through His words. And His words are mighty powerful.

Our journey has brought us from the beginning of man to the historical beginning of the church we know today as Harvest Community Church. Just this past week we began reading and learning from the New Testament book of Acts. In the next couple of weeks we’ll begin seeing how the Holy Spirit, sent by Christ, empowered the men and women of Jewish and Roman cities of the bible to start a movement that would eventually thread it’s way to the top of Sixth Ave hill in Lake Odessa, MI. Incredible! Jesus’ great commission began on a hill in Galilee and now continues on a hill in Michigan.

That same spirit is waiting to help you take part in this great commission to take the “new-life” message to the “old-life” people on the hillsides of our little part of the world. Every Sunday after the morning worship service and fellowship time we continue to ground ourselves in God’s word; to hide it in our hearts in hope and knowledge that we will bring it out later on to help someone else.

The Bible. You must hide it in you heart. It must become a part of you. It will change you. Of that there is no doubt. But rest assured it will be a welcome change. It will be a change that enables you to stand on your own; grounded in the knowledge of the very word that created the entire world at the very beginning of time. That’s what the adult Sunday school class is all about. Please join us as we continue studying God’s word together.

CBS News | Viagra Report Spurs Reaction | May 27, 2005 18:58:04

CBS News | Viagra Report Spurs Reaction | May 27, 2005 18:58:04

Gee, I was always told, when I was young, that masturbation would make you go blind. Seems that when you're old just getting ready will do the same thing!

What a week for male enhancement drugs and sex in general. Gosh, we let convicted sex offenders get the stuff with government supplied money. That's pretty stupid is seems to me. I've always thought that when a person has "paid their debt" they should be put back on an even plane with everybody else. So maybe this will seem a little out of line. Sexual predators getting Viagra on government money would be like the local sheriff giving a rehabilitated killer a loaded pistol.

To continue the never ending barrage of sex in America we have a new way to sell hamburgers. Does Paris Hilton have ANY talent worth all of the attention? She is very pretty. There is definite sex appeal in the ad. I haven't actually seen the commercial though, except on the news programs. Maybe it would have been better if they'd just left it alone.

So let's see. In America, you must be pretty and sexy, not fat, able to perform sexually, not addicted to porn, a real man, a sexy woman, morally just, a conqueror of many, and on and on. We are bombarded with sex everywhere in almost everything. But we'd better not make an innuendo that someone else could possibly take as sexually offensive or we'll end up in court and forever vilified for our actions. We're prudish if we see any problem whatsoever with ads like the Paris Hilton spot. I don't get it. Mixed messages abound everywhere.

I suppose that when I was 10 years old or whatever, there was some other dude about 50 years old expounding upon how morally corrupt the world had become at that time. I wonder where he is now and if he thinks, in retrospect, that it was really as bad as all of that.

Hey, I wonder if any of those sex offenders taking government viagra went blind? No. I don't suppose we'd get that lucky.

mjv

Spending a Day

I spent the day in my studio working on a DVD project for a customer from the Hastings area. I also spent plenty of time in my basement computer shop working one of my brother in law’s computers. I spent the day setting up my keyboard so I could practice a some piano licks for an upcoming wedding. I spent the day doing stuff I like to do. I wish I could do that every day.

Now I’m writing a little bit. That’s a good thing too. Life is pretty good when you can do the things you like to do. Today, for me, life was good. I’m going to leave it at that.

See you tomorrow.

Union Bank Project Finished

May 9, 2005

I delivered the Union Financial video today. Melanie took a look at it and is pleased. Man, it’s great to have that one knocked off my list. The project was good for me to do because it reminded me of how much I like being creative. I had a great time actually doing the work. But it pressed my schedule a bit too much. That led to a bunch of stress.

A financial report is basically a lot of figures compared to a lot of figures and it figures to get pretty boring. So the challenge becomes how can I make all of the data interesting. Well, basically I boiled the data down to the relevant fact that a viewer would want to know. Then I created a graph to show the big mess of data, dimmed it and added the pertinent fact overlaid on the top.

But that only helps the data. Adding pics, with motion, did the trick in between each graph. That was pretty fun actually. I honed my skills with my software a bit and found some new tricks for my bag.
Overall, I was very pleased and apparently so is the bank. All in. All done. Just got to send them the bill. What a relief. Now on to the next thing.

I’ve got about 6 more video projects to go. Man, if I could make a decent living doing that out of my shop! I’d be there in a heartbeat.

It's May 8, 2005 - Mother's day

Or more accurately, May 9, 2005 12:15AM. I’m finally burning the Rev 4. DVD of the Union Financial Annual Meeting video project. Far from my best work, but a long way from trash, I hope it will pass muster with the uppers at UFC.
I like the opening montage of old photos. It’s sort of a warm and fuzzy look at a bank’s remodeling and grand opening in the late 1950s. I wasn’t there, we didn’t move to Lake Odessa until 1963, but I do see an old class mate in one of the photos. He was six years old at the time. As I recall, his grandfather was the bank president at the time.
I created an animated version of the printed annual report. I like that too. Royal music in the background gives it sort of a PBS-ish look. It’s all in gray’s so it looks silverish and even if I do say so myself, it’s very cool.
I tried my best to have the video look like something other than a fancy Power Point presentation, but when you have so many graphs you only have so many options. It really needs some on camera interviews to break up the data. But I got the impression that they wanted to limit the cost. So no new video this year.
I’m thinking about approaching them to shoot a different sort of video for next year. I’d like to produce a real day-in-the-life kind of thing. I’d set up a couple of their best customers to be the subjects. Gathering real B-roll footage and using close up, multi-cam interviews could really make the thing special. I’d love to get back into producing some television programming and I could use such a piece as part of a resume. But it would take so much time. I’m not sure I can handle the strain on my schedule. Still, it my get me out of this Lakewood gig. That would be a good thing.
I’ve got to go get some sleep. I’ve been hammering this project too hard. But a deadline is a deadline and the closer they come the shorter the days are. When I hit the sheets tonight it will be with the comfort that the thing is finished. At least until the bank gives me the final change orders! I hope they’ll be happy with it as it sits. I’m double scheduled already for tomorrow night and Tuesday is the show! I’ve run out of time. I wonder if I’ll ever recover from the lightening strike over spring break. Man I need those days back.

Adventures in Macintosh Part 1

Friday, March 25, 2005

So I’ve had this PowerBook for about 10 hours now. What a day it’s been. I’ve had about three of those hours to actually get to know my new Mac. Here’s the story so far.

As I unpacked the computer I couldn’t help but notice how detailed the packaging was. In my life as a K-12 technology administrator, I’ve had the opportunity to unpack over 100 Dell or Compaq laptop computers. Nobody has packaging like Apple. Nobody. It looks like its been designed by the same people who design the cases.

The case is a work of simple art. Clean lines of machined aluminum. Everything fits together with close tolerances. I’m impressed. The top opens easily, yet the hinges are tight. No bouncing screen like the Dell Inspiron 8100 I replaced last November with a new Dell Latitude 600. This is one nice box to be sure.

I opened the power supply first. Knowing that this computer just arrived from China yesterday and had been sitting in a warehouse for a while, I knew the battery should be fully charged before I went mobile. Once I had the power supply plugged in, I sat down in my easy chair, picked up the Powerbook and plugged the power supply connector into the side-mounted connector. The connector looks like an oversized RCA jack and the power supply has the related plug. As I plugged it in a ring round the perimeter of the plug briefly turned green and the changed to amber. Ah, the Apple engineers thought this feature through nicely. The connection is verified by the light. The color of the light indicates the battery state. My guess is that the ring will turn back to green once the battery is fully charged.

I pressed the power button conveniently mounted on the face of the computer in the right hand speaker grille. That Apple sound played and I knew I was on my way. The OS went through its very friendly set up routine. I wondered if it would find my wireless network. I expected that it wouldn’t since it is set up to not broadcast its name. My suspicions were confirmed when I had to bypass the network setup stuff.

Once I had the initial set-up completed I set the wireless configuration. Fairly easily done once I changed the WEP key setup to look for a 40 character ASCII key. The Powerbook associated with my network, grabbed a DHCP issued network address and I was off an running on the Internet. First order of business add some entries to my blog to begin describing my new adventure in the world of Macintosh.

An amazing world

Friday, March 25, 2005

It’s absolutely amazing. I ordered this Powerbook on Wednesday afternoon (March 22, 2005). I issued a PO to Wade Oehler in Irving, Texas for a 15”, 1.67Ghz, Superdrive Powerbook and asked him to add the three year extended warranty, an extra power supply (to leave on my desk) and the iWork software program.

Once the PO got to Irving he put the order process into place. I have no idea what that means at all. I only know that I got an order confirmation email before the end of the workday.

I received a shipping confirmation email the next morning that had tracking numbers for both Apple and for FedEx. So I checked the status. I was surprised to find that the order had shipped already. The original order confirmation said that I should receive the shipment on or before April 4, 2005. That’s 12 days from the order date. I figured that gave them plenty of time to ship the unit since I had not requested any faster shipping method.

But the shipping information on the FedEx site said that the unit had shipped on the evening of the 23rd. I thought; “Hey, this thing should be hear by Monday!” Wait a minute, it arrived at the FedEx ramp at 8:16PM on the 23rd. Then it got moved to some other shipping point and arrived there at 10:36, after the cut off time. But it’s only 3:00pm now. Double check – where is it being shipped from? I assumed Cuppertino, CA or Irving Tx. But it might have been some other warehouse too. It says: “Shanghai, CN.” Hmm… CN, Connecticut is CT, what’s CN. Oh! Shanghai, China! Well that explains the possible April delivery date.

This morning, Friday, March 25, 2005, I checked the status again, fully expecting to find that it was on some FedEx receiving dock in the states waiting to be air shipped to a local delivery depot. But FedEx was way ahead of that. The package left Shanghai at 10:40 the previous evening. I guess the cutoff time must have something to do with overnight delivery times because it left Shanghai 4 minutes after the cutoff message. To make a long story a bit shorter, by 8:43 on Friday morning, it was on a Lansing, Mi, USA delivery truck.

Too bad our offices are closed today for the Easter holiday. But Lake Odessa is a small town and I routinely see the FedEx truck driving around. So I got in my pickup and took a drive. 10 minutes later I saw the FedEx truck on the main drag. I identified myself to the driver and upon displaying proper ID and affixing my signature to his pick-up register, I had the Powerbook in hand.

Yes. It’s amazing, I’m typing this on a brand new Apple Powerbook on Friday at about noon. Wednesday, two days ago, it was in a warehouse in Shanghai, China. What an amazing world we live in.

A Brand New Powerbook G4

In the last couple of years or so, I've been watching the development of the OSX operating system. Apple dumped the old OS, revamped a version of UNIX, BSD Linux I think, slapped a new interface on the front end and created a very elegant and user friendly OS.

I've hemmed and hawed ever since about becoming a "Switcher." I even bought a G4 PowerPC once and implemented it into my audio and video studio. That lasted about a month before I sold it. I liked the OS, but it wasn't fast enough to edit video really and I have a bunch of Windows plug-ins for ProTools that I couldn't afford to replicate on the Mac. That was a year and a half ago.

Being a Network Admin at a K-12 school district, I have the opportunity to see and evaluate a lot of software. I also have the need to upgrade equipment and the mandate to be stingy about it. Thus the revisit to Apple OSX and the Macintosh. I have a lab with 5 year old computers, Pentium 400 Celerons, running Windows 98. That lab is probably the most current lab at Lakewood High School. As a matter of fact it is the most current lab in the entire district! That's a sad fact, but true. Enter the Mac Mini. For $479 per seat (26 seats) I can upgrade that lab to a very capable state. I just have to make sure the OS will play nice with Windows 2003 server, Active directory and the rest. I'm told it will.

So I've been researching these Macintosh computers, OSX and the applications available for them. In short, I've been very impressed. I am also impressed with Apple's very up front commitment to education both with hardware and with software. Al I need is some assurance that the OS will really do what they claim. So I've made one small Switch. I ordered a Powerbook G4 for my own use.

The Call

Why do some people want to be mechanics and others want to be farmers, while some want to become lawyers at the same time a different person wants to be a musician? What is it about "the call?" Why are some so successful at accomplishing those desires? Why are some people incredibly blessed to make their living by doing something that, to them, is more like play than like work?

What is it that you want to do? What would you be doing right now if there wasn't something else stopping you? What is your 'calling?'

The bible says ”If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (John 15:7-14 NIV)

Read that again carefully, first is the condition; "remain in me and my words." Are you doing this? If you believe that God is the creator of all things, then who could know more about life and how things work? Hide God's words in your heart. Find other Christians and get into a bible discussion or study group. Begin to 'remain' in Jesus and his words. Start by reading the bible every day. Maybe just a few verses or a chapter. Don't make it laborious. I prefer to start my day with bible reading. It seems to set that tone that helps me accomplish my purpose for the day. I can tell you this from personal experience that my life seems to "straighten out" with daily bible reading at the start of the day.

Second is the instruction; "ask whatever you wish." That doesn't mean "I wish I had a new truck." It means that you can talk to God about anything. Life, studies, football, how things work, how you should act, what you should say, what you should write. It means that God will supply you with what you need if you meet the first condition.

The last part; "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." means that God wants to be glorified by what we say, think, do, and create. It also says that God is glorified by your accomplishments in life because you are known as a man of God. Imagine that! God is glorified when we do the things, with His help, we want to do in life. Things that we'd want to do anyway! He supplies the desire, the knowledge, the ability and the motivation. We accomplish our heart's desires which pleases us, and He gets a kick out of the whole thing! Amazing!

You see, it's the perfect plan for imperfect creatures like us. We remain in God's fellowship and learn his word. We ask for his wisdom and help in whatever we do. God supplies the knowledge for us to accomplish our purpose, our calling. God is glorified by seeing that we are successful and are known as his children. Pretty awesome, right?

Now, if you're caught up in something other than your calling, it's time to reevaluate your position in life. Isn't it? Can you make your living, doing your calling? Maybe you can. I'd start with learning God's word and developing that relationship first. Then, I'd begin asking for direction, knowledge and wisdom. After that, I believe it will all fall into place. Try it. Prove me wrong or right. Start your day, for the next 30 days with reading the bible for about 30 minutes. I dare you.

Think About This

Challenges are simply opportunities to learn and be strengthened by exercising the abilities that God has given to each of us in advance. All we need to do is ask for His wisdom, then use those abilities to help ourselves, each other, and the rest of mankind.

There is a saying that goes like this, "If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always gotten."

Think about that for a second.

Now, make a list of what you do every day. What are you doing?

Now, make a list of what you'd like your life to look like.

Answer this question, "Does my life match that list?"

If your answer is "yes" then great! You are already doing what you need to do to accomplish your life's goals.

If your answer is "no" then examine that first list. The one that lists what you do every day.

How many of the activities are intentional efforts to achieve your intended life? Which items could you abandon to help you achieve your dream?

Take out your list of goals. How many of the items on your "doing" lilst are intentional efforts to accomplich one of those goals?

What? You don't have a goals list? Hmmm......

Take a minute and create one. Here are some example short-term goals:

$20.00 a week into savings
Make my bed every day.
Read one chapter of the bible every day.
Read one motivational book every month.
Listen to one complete CD album every Saturday morning.
Vaccuum my room every Saturday morning (just before listening to the CD?)
Walk/run for 30 minutes every day.

Some long term goals might be

Pay cash for my next car, value of $5000 or more, by January 1, 2006
Make the dean's list, May 2005
Pay cash for a new Music Man bass by September 2005.
Accumulate $1000 for emergencies in my savings account by June 2005.


You see, I look at what I've gotten (for myself and for my family) and decided I can do better. So I need to change what I've been doing. If I don't, I'll get exactly what I've always gotten. I believe my family deserves better from me. I think that maybe life is demanding more from me. So I'm re-evaluating and making changes.

So what about you?

You have the talent to create a better world! I know you do.

MJV