It’s amazing how time can just slip by. It has been a week since my last entry. Right now I’m headed to Ketchikan for their Staff Development Day. I brought my Bible along and opened to Mark 8:34, “…whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” This leads me to questions:
From listening to Brad Duncan repeatedly, I am reminded that I can only choose one of two ways:
I can’t help but think that Mark 8:34 is a prescription for Happiness. Why is it we are naturally disposed towards pleasure?
I want to be a man of strength – one who is an example for his family, friends, & association.
-cb
This morning I chose not to awake early enough to listen to the tape of the morning. Last night I had watched Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle until 2 AM. It was a good movie, but for all its exciting content, I was less than pleased at the provocative content and attire of the three attractive main characters. I suppose that’s a lesson to be learned.
Instead of tape listening, I went downstairs and had breakfast quietly while I read from Traveling Light. I found this chapter to have great benefit, but lesser application. It was a chapter about the burden of Grief that comes with mourning a passing loved one. There were some points that I highlighted from the chapter, but as I don’t have the book in front of me, I’ll post them later.
Today, during work, I spent some time to create another space, specifically for work. It felt great to break away to spend important development time on content that I can specifically think about work for. I’ve set up the space at: http://spaces.msn.com/members/workincody/
At lunch, I read from The Richest Man in Babylon. It was an extremely short parable chapter explaining the scene of a strong attack against the walls of Babylon, and the city’s defense. We likewise cannot afford to be without adequate protection. This rings to me in different realms.
• Finances – the chapter’s intended context speaks to having insurance, savings, and dependable investments to be protected in the case of an unexpected tragedy.
• Emotionally – Seek out those who will assist in protecting you from non-productive thoughts. Don’t seek to spend time associating with those who are less developed in that realm, because it will wear off.
• Spiritually – Prayer makes a huge difference. Keeping your mind soaked in readings that will support your spiritual thinking helps to protect as well. Reading scripture. Rebuking attacts from the evil one is also sometimes imperitive.
• Physically – Having some sort of accountability can be useful. Go to the gym with a friend. Schedule your visits as to not miss them from lack of focused thought. Perhaps protection can mean keeping your gaurd up against ailments or physical harm – it may mean taking vitamins, or it could mean lifting weights to facilitate your defense, should the need arive.
Genesis 16-18 outlined more information about Abram. In verse 16, we are told the story of how Sarai, in her frustration gave her slave to Abram to have a son. That was a lame idea, because it only generated feelings of jealousy and malcontent. Eventually she beat her slave and drove her (Hagar) away. Fortunately for all, the Lord met Hagar in the desert, and bade her to return.
Next, in verse 17, the Lord committed to Abram that he would be the father of many nations, and with the new name Abraham, it was granted to him. As part of the process, he was circumsized along with all the men of his household. This was to signify the everlasting covenant that God had promised.
Verse 18 was about the precursors leading up to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The 3 men (the lord?) who were to destroy Sodom & Gomorrah came to spend time with Abraham before continuing their journey of destruction. Abraham was a good servant, and was consoled that the city wouldn’t be destroyed if there were but 10 men that were good.
Matthew 7 contains more lessons of Jesus. There are some great scriptures in this brief chapter:
• “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” – Be liberal in your praise and reluctant in your condemnation. Heck, be liberal in everything!
• “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
• “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
I listened to the Wolgamott Rally tonight. I picked up an item from each spouse: from Leslie, I recognize that it’s worthwhile to have the mission in mind even during the seemingly mundane task, and from Brad, I realize that the greatest fear in life, is not so much of dying, but of dying without living.
The Purpose Driven Life emphasized God’s purpose for us – to glorify Him. “The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God.” All sin, at it’s root is failing to give God glory.. To bring Glory to god, you can do everything that He directs you to do in your life – fulfill your purpose! “When anything in creation fulfills its purpose, it brings glory to God.”
God’s 5 purposes for my life (to bring glory to god):
Through worship of him – God wants our worship to be motivated by love, thanksgiving, and delight, not duty. Worship is far more than praising, singing, and praying to God. Worship is a lifestyle of enjoying God, loving him, and giving ourselves to be used for his purposes.
By loving other believers
By becoming like Christ – Spiritual maturity is becoming like Jesus in the way we think, feel and act. (Remember that Jesus wasn’t a passive, weak man, he was a man of great strength and resolve when the situation called for it.
By serving others with our gifts
By telling others about him – God expects us to share his truth with others. That in itself is a great privledge, helping them to find their purpose, and preparing them for their own eternal destiny.
Living your life for the glory of God will REQUIRE a change in your priorities, your schedule, your relationships, and everything else. “Will you live for your own goals, comfort, and pleasure, or will you live the rest of your life for God’s glory, knowing that he has promised eternal rewards?
Sometimes, you’ll be influenced to doubt; to wonder if you have the strength to live for God. Don’t worry. God will give you what you need if you will just make the choice to live for him.
Verse to remember: “For everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power, and everything is for his glory.” Romans 11:36
Question to ponder: Where in my daily routine can I become more aware of God’s glory?
June 4, 2004
Day number two in a row! Neat!
Alright, briefly about the day… Went to work, was distracted a lot by dreamweaver, though that wasn’t entirely bad cause I’m learning about CSS. It has lots of potential, but there’s certainly a learning curve. I talked with Heather (?) for about an hour today. She’s the one with arthritis and a conspiracy theory against computers. That was neat. It was nice to share with her, though I don’t want to give an impression that I’m interested. I would be alright with getting to know her I suppose… She’s set high standards that would be good to learn from. Went to talk with Dr. Shepro today about orthodics. He, of course, is biased about his strategy and it seems that Patrick is naturally biased towards his training. I went ahead and set up time to meet with Patrick which was nice. It was at the end of the day, so that gave a little leeway for asking questions about whatever I could think of. Basically I took away that I don’t really need orthotics, but it is most important to stretch out my calves and quads… I am really tight there (duh.) From there I had ultimate, which naturally was a good time, though I was tiring more easily than I had been expecting. I had a collision with Anna that rolled my ankle slightly and my thumb/wrist pain decided to act up, so I ended up calling it quits a couple points earlier than everyone else. I then walked to Breeze In to return Anger Management. It was a good movie, but not really my style, some of the humor was a bit rough. Not crude, just not really my style. During the walk over there Helen wanted to talk, so we did – the entire hour that I was there! I actually was hoping to get some CommuniKate in, but that didn’t happen.
Right now, it’s 12:18, so I think I’m being consistent with my sleeping patterns I suppose. I have to be at work tomorrow at 7:30 so I’ll be going to bed here shortly.
More thoughts about the relationship thing with Helen… Well, I keep getting the feel that I am going to be breaking up with her, though I don’t really want to run from something that I should be addressing in the course of the relationship – namely the sexual aspect. In talking with Bill & Sharon, it’s pretty obvious that the next step that I need to pursue is what I want to accomplish, and how breaking up (or staying together) might support that direction. Sound advice, but naturally, not the easiest to follow.
Alright, so that’s enough for the moment – I’m headed to bed. G’night.
April 10, 2004
So yeah, it’s Saturday, and here I am listening to some music (Brittany Spears – Toxic) before getting ready to go off to work. I just installed Dreamweaver MX 2004 – so I look forward to working on some projects which I should be able to commence with now that I’ve got it installed.
Ooh, went to get the mail and found that I had a couple movies waiting for me – Bruce Almighty and The Rookie. I’ve seen both before, but I’ve been working on building a personal library, and they’re both ones that I wanted.
I have to get ready to go to work at one so I’ve gotta run. Time for a shower and then off to work! Ooooh… I still need to do taxes yet this year… ick.
April 6, 2004
It’s Helen’s b-day! Whee! Though I really don’t know what will transpire due to that. Actually, right now, I think I’d rather take a brief nap – I might even do that when I’m all done with checking my email and writing this entry.
Work was alright today – was semi-busy since Jeff was out sick. I took a little bit longer lunch so that I could cover until 5, but the time taken was well needed. I ran around taking care of deposits/mailing for the Wildes… Whew – if having rental properties is as much effort as I put out the past couple of days, I don’t think I want any (unless they’re excessively profitable.)
I need to call Compaq about my computer to get it all fixed up before the warranty is up. I think I’m gonna take care of my taxes first and then work to back everything up so that I don’t have to rebuild data again… that’s been no good – though I’m so glad that Helen has been willing to do most of the data entry for last year’s finances.
Alright, next I’m onto making starclient work, bleh – more fixing things… I can’t wait till it’s all better.
Journal entry of some sort
3.15.2004
Lunchtime
So here I am – It’s a Monday, I’m at lunch, and it’s nice cause I can take some time to note whatever I happen to think about.
My first thought while sitting down is that I’m pretty sore. It comes from ultimate yesterday – a practice with the Upsea Daisies… My quads, calves, and ankle are all sore. Oh well. They’ll get better.
It’s cold sitting here. Although I do like the lighting. It’s bright which is always a nice thing (unless trying to sleep.)
I have to go back to work in 20 minutes.
Okay, so finding things to talk about is a bit of a challenge at the moment, but they’re starting to come more easily now.
It’s surprising at what a difference being Russian can do for an appearance – For instance, both Lera and Alyona (Helen) are quite attractive. I’m sure there are many women who would be bombshells if only they dressed the part. It seems that Russian women do.
I’ve been reading more than normal lately. That has been nice. I’m going to try to read each day before I get done with work. This morning I was able to read before my shower out of ‘Communication, Sex, and Money’. It’s interesting that sometimes while reading, I can notice myself being resistant to changing – especially when it means work on my part – as in relationships or habits that I might have. I don’t really know what the cause for the hesitation.
I had the thought yesterday to talk with Toby Coate about his spiritual walk and the like – I like the fact that he seems to live what he says, and plays the part well. There are other people out there who seem to use their lives as a forum to periodically apply the good learning and teachings that happen within church settings, but all-to-many people decide that no one is looking. I’m sure that even I do that to some extent.
My battery life on my laptop sure isn’t what it used to be… it’s surprising how quickly it gets drained – I’m only been unplugged for maybe 55 minutes, but still I’m at the low category something like 16 minutes left!
I need to use the facilities but I think I’m gonna wait for about 5 minutes so that I can go while on my way back to work.
I’d rather go home for the remainder of the day – oh well. Oh, I need to do more finance stuff. Lookie there – Patricia is back online I’ll chat with her a bit before going back to work.
I wonder if I’ll ever get to see her again. It was interesting to have the intense summer fling thing – fun, but unnerving since there wasn’t ever really anything defining about it.
Oh, bout time for me to go back to work. I guess it was nice to type for a few minutes – perhaps with time, I’ll get better at this.
Bye.
Okay, so another day down. Work at the helpdesk was good, nothing unique to report other than my training of Holly. It was good, though I like training when contacts are coming in.
Another good thing was that we talked about our interlude. I suppose we were both aware that it might be awkward working together. I found that she wasn’t upset with me, and that is good. Right now the air is cleared. We’ll see what happens. Adriana backed out of climbing at the rock dump… that was lame. In retrospect, I gave her a real hard time about that. I want to do that less (give hard times.) Perhaps we’ll go soon. I think Friday is the planned time.
Tyson gets back tomorrow. Oh my gosh. It’s been 2 years already! Yikes. I wonder what he will think about my activity level. I hope he is graceful about it. I’d guess he would.
Helen paged me today, just a little note/msg to let me know that she loves me. I wonder what love means.
I still might go to fairbanks in a couple of weeks. I’m waiting for a guy at statewide to get back to me about it. Hopefully I’ll know more tomorrow.
I talked with Eric for a while today about the housing arrangement… It seemed to go well, but we’ll see what happens with Amanda. I wish there was some easy way to accomplish everyone’s desires. Likely not, but it’d be kinda neat.
Tomorrow there is a Pohl BP here. I need to use some time to clean, and maybe do some dishes too.
Oh today I found out that I have female sperm. I guess all guys have it, but needless to say, I was a bit surprised.
Well, I’ve still got some reading.
Night!
-Cody
Today I got together with Bill and Sharon and went to a lecture thing at the downtown library. Some guy talked about the research involved with writing his book, some 20 years of reading prepared him. The book was someone’s journal for the 18 months before the declaration of independence or something like that was signed. It was pretty interesting. He read a few exerpts from teh book which made it a whole lot more intriguing. Afterwards I worked at Bill’s shop, Sam’s Auto Body for an hour and a half, scuffing a bumper to be painted later. I then had spagetti for dinner & read a little, up to 99 pages now, but I gotta go – it’s past my bedtime. —