Attitude

"Your attitude about who you are and what you have is a very little thing that makes a very big difference." -Theodore Roosevelt

Some Nights

For the past 3-4 years I have had 1-3 "Songs of the summer" This is #1 for summer 2012

Giving

Last night I was fortunate to get together with Chuck. I met Chuck through the ESL program I helped out with this past year. He and his wife ran the program I helped out with. Getting to know Chuck and Sue over the past year has been a blessing. They invited our group of 6-10 leaders over to their house for a meal, which I made sure to never miss since they are AMAZING hosts, almost monthly. The passion for people and desire to "not go quietly into the night" are two of the things I enjoy most about those two. Chuck and Sue are in their 60's and have run a small construction company together for years. They seem to be pretty well off and unlike most of their generational counter parts they choose not to spend all of their evenings closed off in their home or just hanging out with their friends. They put a lot of time and effort into running a once a week evening ESL class for refuges who are not able to make the day-time classes offered buy the Lutheran Services organization. Anyways Chuck and I had talked about getting together for coffee for a few months now and until last night had been unable to work it out. So last night we spent a few hours in conversation and one of the things we started talking about was giving. It started with Chuck telling me a story... He said one time a few years back he decided it was time upgrade his mower even though his current one was still working. So he asked one of his employees if he would like his mower, his employee said sure. A few weeks later he was with two of his employees and one brought up to the other that he still owed him fifty dollars. Chuck asked why, the one employee said he sold the mower Chuck gave him to the other employee. My first reaction was a thought about the parable of the unforgiving servant. Then Chuck made sort of a can-you-believe look and then said something to the effect of so I said to the employee "you can't sell that mower, I gave it to you". The employee quickly retorted "Yes I can, you GAVE it to me. So I can do whatever I want with it". I continued to think about the parable and was thinking that it was a pretty crappy thing to do. Then surprisingly he started defending the employee. He said the employee was right. Chuck gave it to him and if he was honest their shouldn't be any considerations attached. Which got me thinking about the attitude we give with and then Chuck said "We are called to give to the church freely, we are not called to direct". Basically when we give with an attitude of concern for how wisely our donation is being used or what it is going towards we are trying to put considerations on our giving or direct our giving. This is something I have been specifically challenged with in regards to support specific ministry staff on a monthly basis and finding myself thinking "Wait a second, when they are going on that vacation or buying xyz.... that is nicer/better/cooler than whatever I have. Should I be supporting them?" Thought this was a good challenge for my attitude in giving.

Homeless

I am homeless for the first time in my life... Maybe that is being a little dramatic but I don't officially live anywhere. At the end of June I moved out of my place in Des Moines. My internship finished in the middle of May and I have been unemployed ever since. So how have a spent almost two full months of "free time". Well I started out really enjoying having the extra time. I felt like I was on summer vacation like the good old days of high school. I spent time biking, reading, running, hanging out with friends and trying to figure out what was next. It honestly wasn't to stressful at first, it was actually rather enjoyable. After a few weeks of little feedback from job applications I realized I needed to start doing something different. So I decided to spend some time going to the cities I wanted to be in. I spent a long weekend with my parents in Minneapolis and had a couple networking meetings then went back to Des Moines to prepare for a longer trip. I left Des Moines for Manhattan, KS where my brother lives. He does construction so I thought I might be able to work for him to pay for some of my trip expenses. It worked out pretty well I worked for him for 4 days and covered the cost of my trip. From there I kept heading west to Denver where I spent 5 days roaming around downtown meeting with different people who are working in the industry I am trying to work in. Overall it was a good trip. It can be pretty uncomfortable to shoot out emails to people you don't know and ask them if you can meet with them to talk and get some advice but almost everyone I met with was very helpful and friendly. I'm thankful for the kindness that was extended to me by people who did not benefit from giving me their time and advice. It was really good to hit the road and get out of Des Moines I think it helped me to confront some of the hard decisions I needed to make. One of them being moving out of my place in Des Moines. I decided to leave because outside of the company I did my internship with there are practically no real estate companies in Des Moines I would like to work for. I've also wanted to live in a new city & state ever since I graduated high school. I didn't quite anticipate joblessness pushing me to make the move but it could end up being something I will be very grateful for in the future. I spent 10 days in Minneapolis with family and am now back in Des Moines to spend a long weekend with friends and then head to Chicago on Tuesday for an interview on Wednesday that will hopefully turn into a job. If not I will be spending some more time on the road and then heading to Minneapolis for at least a couple weeks to try and figure out what is next. I'm strongly considering a move to Denver probably at the beginning of September if I haven't gotten a job by that point. I was hoping to go out at the start of August but I have a week long trip to Virginia in the middle of August that makes moving then less practical. I'm thankful for the challenge of unemployment. It has not been easy but it has been a welcomed wake up call. I have had the opportunity to have a lot of time to think and considered what I would like to be doing, where I would like to be and the things that are important to me. By no means have I come up with the answers to all of those things yet but I have been challenged to come to reality with where I am at in the different areas of life and am in a position to approach this adventure with confidence and humility. I have spent a good deal of time trying to determine if a career in real estate is something I am passionate about. Some of the reading I have been doing, Dave Ramsey in particular, has made me think hard about passion. I believe that the ideal career is working in something you are/can be passionate about. During my internship I don't think I was ever at a point of being passionate about the work I was doing. It was big corporate and I felt disconnected from the end result and the vision of what we were doing. Hopefully some of that was being an intern and not having the same level of responsibility of an analyst. I'm not sure... I will probably be thinking about that for a while. "Life is full of ups and downs for everyone, it is much better to enjoy the journey than wish for something better"