Job.

The past few nights I have had the urge to read the book of Job. (This post isn't about my j-o-b unfortunately, I wish I could blog about that...)

Job was so faithful to his Father. Through his faithfulness, God blessed Job with abundance of livestock and a great family. Even after Satan got permission to 'test' Job from God, Job still remained faithful. (It's sounding now where I'm reading that Job is questioning things, but I'm not there yet..) Something else struck me funny.

"When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, "Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly." Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they'd sinned."

My question is can Job really sacrifice for his children and God forgive them? I know this is the Old Testament but there is a case in the New Testament where Jesus mentions to a crippled man, "You are saved by your friend's faith."

I have my thoughts on this, but I'd be interested in hearing what you guys think about this.

Forsaking All I Trust Him

Sometimes faith is all you can have.


God, Your will be done.

My intentions...

Things this week have been pretty crazy for me. With the changes in work, things just seem so unstable. Time flies by and so does my time with God. I sit down, more like lay down, to be with God and end up falling asleep. Last night my schedule was open, and I took full advantage of it.

For my baptisim, I got the book titled, "The Secrets of the Secret Place". I'm using this as a study guide for my campaigner girls, but last night I read a chapter that really got a thought process started.

I have always thought being a Christian was a way to live your life, believing in what God did for us, and impacting the lives of others. In the chapter I was reading it talked about not being a Christian to impact other's lives. But the main purpose of being a Christian is to be closer to God. It's a simple thought but in reality I can honestly say I don't think I've processed that before. I do want to be Christ-like because I believe thats how God made us. But I wanted to be a positive influence on other people. With that in mind I use other people as accountability. But in reality I should want to do this for God.

Today I am pushing through work with that focus in mind. Suffering through cold calls, for God only.

My passion..

Yesterday was a very defensive day. With changes in the market with Hippie radio 101.1 we have been faced with a lot of skeptics. There is even a website where radio folks, who have nothing better to do with their time, do nothing but talk smack about jocks, stations, etc. I found myself getting defensive.

But with this in my heart, I realized my passion. I have always had a love for music of all genres. But now music is my passion. I have dedicated my career to music and I know the power of radio for advertisers. My mission is to grow businesses through the power of music.

Today I feel energized to go show people my passion and excitement for not only Hippie 101.1 but radio.

Hippie Radio..

The past day has been filled with change for my job and Independence Media as a whole. Most of the time people are scared with change, and I can't lie, I was at first. As of tomorrow, we are introducing a new format to this market. Mix 101.1 that was once carried by Scott & Gin will now be Hippie 101.1.

http://www.hippieradio.net/ (program website)

http://www.myhippie.com/ (local website)

Check it out, and Baby Boomers around tune in to Hippie Radio starting Wednesday the 19th!

Liberty Mutual..

The power of advertising is something I have chosen to base my career on. Yesterday as I was relaxing watching the Cubs and Bears dominate, a commercial came across that caught my eye.

http://www.whyresponsibility.com/

Although this morning it took me long to figure out what company it was, because the creative of the commercial was what really stuck in my mind...I watched this again and still got that good feeling. What an inspiration, and to show that everytime we do something nice for someone else, people are watching. What can this say about our Christian lives? If we live like Jesus on a daily basis, doing things out of love and kindness, people will notice and in turn do the same thing.

Yoga

Technically Friday are 'optional' days on Summer's and my workout plan. With interuptions yesterday neither of us went. (She actually had a puking kid, I just needed sleep.) This wonderful Friday morning, while the sun was still sleeping, Summer and I decided to attend the 5:30 am Yoga class at Gold's. A few reflections:

1. I am not as flexible as I once was.
2. I never knew how 'tight' my body was until I was stretching it.
3. My back as never felt so good then when I was in the different positions.

There was quite a spiritual side to Yoga that I was never aware of. I always thought of hippies when I thought of yoga. (According to Blue Like Jazz hippies have the unconditional love like Christians should, minus the whole pot thing.) We prayed for a blessing before and after the session and we meditated before we began. This provided a time to get one on one with God. Although my muscles were quaking during some of the routine, I will have to say I thoroughly enjoyed downward dogging it all morning.

(I just wonder how sore I will be tomorrow)

Monday Monday..

As I sit here at my desk this Monday morning, I wonder where my weekend went. Friday night I got the privilege to help my friends make their new house a home. This included painting, and ripping up floors. How exiciting that I was able to be apart of their new life. Saturday was a day dedicated to Young Life. I spent 7 hours (no I'm not complaining Summer) getting trained and hanging out with my fellow Young Life leaders. Saturday night was a great time to share with my old college roomates that came in town just for Sunday.

As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, God has been working in my heart. One of the things I have been challenged to do was to finally give my heart to Him. To symbolize my acceptance of this, I made a public declaration in front of my friends and family. Yesterday I was baptized. Not your average baptisim I must say, I mean how many people can say they have seen someone baptized in a softtub?

I would have people ask me, "So how do you feel?" after the actual dipping, and in complete honesty I didn't feel any different. Well, not until I was trying to sleep and kept tossing and turning. I was replaying the events in my head, wondering the effect this had on others. I'm not the type of person who can handle compliments, or cry for that matter. But yesterday I was forced to accept the nice things people said about me, with a simple "Thank you." I knew it would be an emotional day, but I don't think I have ever been as nervous as I was. My hands were shaking, my stomach was turning, I couldn't even get through the first paragraph of my testimony without crying for pete's sake.

I enjoyed being able to share this experience with my friends. I was finally able to talk to my college friends about my faith in a way that would explain why I moved away. I affirmed my mom after all the years of a broken relationship, and I got to finally thank the people who broke down the wall around my heart, the Waids.

I now realize that declaring this step in front of 40 people must bring about change in my life. I have 40 brothers and sisters in Christ that don't want to see me fall. What an inspiration to be a better person.

Thank you to everyone who was able to share this day with me. I love you all.

Christianity in sales..

The reputation of a sales professional is money grubbing and scandalous. That is a stereotype that I am dedicating myself to break. I have noticed a continual struggle with my workday. My goal is to have my work glorify God. I want to serve other's and their businesses by offering growth through radio. The problem with breaking the stereotype is that people automatically assume you are nothing but a sleazy salesperson. It takes tough skin, a genuine heart and perseverance to show them the difference. I'm working on that.

I want my work to glorify God. I know He will provide me with clients that will see my true heart. Until then I pray for unconditional love to the people who call me names, and have nothing but rude comments in response. I want to be the difference in sales, at Independence Media, and to the community in which I am calling on. The difference with my work will be my character, which is solely a result of God in my heart.

(It's nice to know that the corporate employee I shared this with yesterday is in full support of my method.)

Something new..

Since I am getting baptized on Sunday, I am using this opportunity to discover secrets hiding in my heart so I can completely get washed clean.

A theme that I never really thought of before was my body being God's not mine. The things I do with and to myself aren't just hurting me, it's against the Holy Spirit that is in my heart. Summer and I have started a 6am workout. So we can get a workout in before work and kids get out of bed. It definately was a different experience getting ready for work at the gym. I enjoyed it! It's only 9am and I'm wide awake!

Church this weekend definately got me inspired to give my all to God in all I do. This week I will focus on my work being for God, instead of my career.

I pray that God continue to shine a light on things that I should focus on, and give away to Him this Sunday.