The police shoot skeet several blocks away from our house a couple nights a week, but that’s beside the point (it made for a good title!!). I was actually just trying to think of something to write about, and the last time I was at the barber shop came to mind! It was a busy time at the shop, so I had to wait for around 20 minutes while people had there hair trimmed (even those without much to trim!-]) and talked to the barbers. Whenever I am in the chair, I feel kind of awkward (boy, the spelling on that even looks strange!) because I feel semi-obligated to have a discussion with the guy cutting my hair, but because of the buzzing of the razor, I feel like I have to speak up. Since everyone else in the room, besides the other two in the same situation that I am in, is dead quiet while they “read” their magazines, my talking seems more like shouting. Of course I can’t move my head to project AT the barber, otherwise he’ll likely cut of part of my ear!! It is quite an event!!
Anyway, to get to the point; there was another customer waiting for his turn while I was in process. He was sitting a few feet away from me, so I looked at him a few times during my conversation with the barber to make him feel included. The barber asked me how school was going (I think I’ve told him every time I have been in there for the past 2 years…), and I responded that I had graduated about a year-and-a-half ago. Just then my eyes fixed on the man sitting “at my feet”. He was looking rather ambitious, and decided to jump into the conversation by saying “high school is a great time isn’t it?” For those of you who don’t know, I graduated from college about a year-and-a-half ago!! This man was placing my age around 19 years old!! (I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not!…)
In contrast, I was in a meeting a few months ago with a client. After the meeting, he asked me how old I was and suggested that he was guessing that I was about 32 years old!! Somewhat taken aback, I told him to switch those two numbers and he’d be closer!!
The moral of that story is that within a few months my apparent age changed by 13 years…and I got younger!! I am so grateful to God for the people he brings into my life that he uses to send me a little joke every now and then! It just goes to show that it is not the work, or the school, or the events, or the goals, or the years that are the most important; it is first of all our relationship with God, and secondly (or so) relationships with others. Our interacting with people around us, whether they are clients, or people we pass as we walk down the sidewalk, has the potential to impact their life and our life in a positive way. With a conclusion like that, my story should have a better, more spiritual punch-line!! I’ll work on that next…
It looked like an opportunity, but maybe it wasn’t. I thought about it and prayed about it for many months. What did I hear from God? He seemed to be giving me encouragement, but not too much. He seemed to be opening doors, but only a little. There was no fire from heaven or dry fleeces in the morning dew, but I kept looking…
I am someone who is easily swayed by emotions or circumstances, which makes for a very interesting life; but it is also very difficult to depend on God for my happiness and fulfillment. I have to consciously turn my attention and focus on Him. I have to make a deliberate effort to trust Him in everything. I have to pray continually for His Grace to overcome obsticales. This, I believe, is what faith in God is all about. It is not just verbally praising him in the midst of a horrific incident, it is the daily laying down of everything at His feet. God is interested in every component of my life because he has put it all in place for His ultimate glory.
Over the next several posts in this “Plot 1″, I will try taking you through this situation I went through without describing what the situation is. This is so that the focus will be on what I learned/am learning from it, and not what events transpired. God has been very good to me. That is, He has provided many opportunities for me to learn and to grow in Him. All too often, the bigger problem is letting these lessons slip past my heart and missing the benefit.
I was reminded recently of the power of God as displayed in Creation. Over night the temperature dropped 40 degrees to -25 at night. It amazes me that He has control over these things and can do as He wills in almost no time flat! There are many opportunities for me to be thankful to God for the ordinary, but none seem as extraordinary as when I am walking from a warm house to a truck that started fine on my way to work. The point is that not only can God whip the environment in whatever direction he desires, he can also shower the provisions necessary to withstand the changes. He gives the grace to move forward through every situation. But why? I must often remind myself that God is encouraging me in a relationship with Himself. The goal is to know Him and honor Him in the best way possible.
I recently have listened to a song with the phrase mentioned above in it several times. While it may not follow the purpose of the song, it is intriguing to think how this phrase would effect my life in light of what role my relationship with Christ is supposed to play for me as a Christian. Right now I have an active faith in God that gives me the courage and hope to make it through difficult situations as well as the mundane day to day, but I often find that this is not enough to keep me feeling “good”. It is almost like my faith only controls my mind and will, but the emotions are dependant on situations and people around me. I think the phrase in Proverbs about “controlling” one’s spirit includes at least some aspects of emotions.
If all my contact with people I know were to disappear, as stated in the quote, it would take me a while to get back into a positive and out-going attitude. Part of this, I believe, is God-ordained. In the beginning, he saw that Adam was alone, so he brought someone along to provide some fellowship and to help encourage him in the ways of the Lord. God has created a need within each of us for contact with other partakers of His Grace, not just for encouragement, but also for incentive to conform more completely to the image of Christ. He has also created a need (even though we may not feel it) for interaction with those who have only experienced God’s common grace and have not entered into a personal relationship with their Maker. The purpose of these relationships could be not only to influence them, but also for us to put our love for Him into practice. Sometimes this is when our dependence in Him really gets put to the test because our worldview is challenged.
As I enter the Christmas season (which is almost over already, I guess!!) I will try to appreciate more the time that I get to spend with family and friends because it is a benevolent gift from the One that loves me the most!
In my position at the office, I manage most of the projects that I work on. For small projects, this is not a major deal – it just means that the clients contact me with questions and modifications. But on the large projects, this can cause some pressure. This is because often times I am behind schedule – in fact, I have been at least 2 weeks behind schedule for the entire year of 2008 up to this point with the exception of a few days in early October. There are constantly emails coming in and people calling asking questions on their projects and wondering when I will be finished with them. These are always somewhat uncomfortable moments because I really want to make the client happy by telling them that I am working on their project now and will get them everything the next day, but often I know that I probably won’t get to it for another week-and-a-half or so.
For me this does two things: it motivates and pushes me to work faster and harder, and it forces me to deal with pressure. The first one is definitely one of the trends in my life – I have always tried to find a more efficient and quick way to get the job done, only now, it really matters! It doesn’t effect my grade or my plans, it effects hundreds of people and thousands of dollars. As for the second issue, in the past, I have not responded to well to pressure. I have taken the situation into my own hands and run with it. This lead to attitude problems and other poor results. In my present circumstance, I am forced to keep in good spirits and interact well with all those around, even in the heat of it all.
Through this all, I have learned to leave my work (and my reputation) in God’s hands and let Him take care of the details. Sometimes this is easier said then done because, although it is His “problem”, He uses me to get it accomplished! There is also a conflict because the fact is that it is my responsibility. God does not want me to forget that importance or not feel that it is just not my fault, He just wants me to trust Him for the results and that it will all work out for the “good of those that love Him”. At this point I enjoy the pressure and would even feel odd it it wasn’t there. God enables me to keep plowing through and getting stuff done even though I am not as timely as I’d like.
And while I’m at it I’d like to mention that I am very grateful for God’s provision of work for me. It is easy to lose sight of how much of a privilege it is to be able to go to work for 8+ hours every day and get paid for it, but with the economy such as it is, I am constantly reminded of this and my mindset is slowly becoming more positive in this area!
My name is Steven Uecke. I am just a normal guy living a normal life. Recently I was going through a difficult situation and was trying to receive God’s direction. In the past I have often searched for God’s direction with either earnest prayer, Scripture reading, or looking for signs. I found that many times what I came up with as “God’s direction” was really me viewing circumstances through the eyes of what I wanted to happen, and thus quite often, it would seem that God would agree with me! Once I moved in that direction and things didn’t work out how I thought they should, I would question the “direction” I received. With that in mind, this time I decided to just listen and see if God would speak. I went for a walk on the new bike path in front of our house (more on that later!) for a few miles and was simply quiet. All of a sudden a thought came to mind that seemed unrelated to the situation I was listening for an answer on. God seemed to be telling me to finally get around to starting up my website, and that I should use it to let others know how God is working in my life. Seeing as though this is the first post, I am just giving a little backround, but in the future, I will be describing what is happening between me and God as I go though life as a normal person with important decisions to make.