A star is born!
Now everyone will know that he was a talent from the very beginning!
I was having a conversation with a co-worker this afternoon, and it wasn't until I got home that I thought about how cool it actually was in retrospect. My co-worker is Indian, and I am Texan. According to a lot of people, there is absolutely nothing we should have in common based on our backgrounds, ethnicity, religion, and whatever other divisive classification you want to think about. But we were talking about our kids, and that made whatever other distinctions melt away.
It just became two guys who are still trying to figure out the whole fatherhood thing while each raising two boys. It's nice to see that there's no difference in those areas when it comes to the joys we have when our boys tell us they love us. There's no difference in how we feel when we see our boys "get" something for the first time. And there's no difference in how we are stumbling around, trying to be the best fathers we can be without really having any prior experience.
I think one of the reasons God decided to have us born into families is to give us a better idea of how he feels about us. Without knowing what it's like to have to care for children, how could we ever have the slightest idea about how God feels caring for us? I think it's pretty awesome, and it's obviously not relegated to those in a Christian home.
It's scary that the entire tone of my day at work can be determined by a red light. Allow me to explain.
My job is not a 9-to-5, check in and check out kind of thing. I support enterprise-wide systems that have to be up and running 24x7x365, and no one hesitates to call you in the middle of the night if something isn't working. In addition to this lovely support time, I also have new development in the pipeline. And, you guessed it, it's always something of a critical nature.
So if I come in to the office and see the little red light on my phone indicating that I have a voice mail, a chill goes down my spine. I know that whoever left that message for me may have changed the entire plan that I had for myself that day. And that's just the way this job works.
But, hey, I have two young boys, so I'm used to having my plans changed for me.
I can't believe it. It's April, and it's snowing here. This is definitely not what I had in mind when I agreed to move up to Green Bay two and a half years ago. Sure, I knew I'd see snow every year; that is unavoidable in the Frozen Tundra. But in April?!
The funny thing is that I didn't even know it had snowed. I'm in the middle of a large windowless room containing a giant cube farm, so I was working along oblivious to what was happening around me. I guess that's supposed to make me more productive.
But the good thing is that the snow was gone by evening. In that sense, it reminded me of those good old Texas snowfalls. But there's more snow in the forecast for Wednesday and again over the weekend. Will it ever stop?
And where's that global warming when you really need it?
I was surfing the web tonight, in a very successful attempt to avoid doing the self-assessment portion of my performance evaluation, and I found a blog that someone I used to work with publishes. I won't bother mentioning it, mainly because it was filled with lots of stuff that was incredibly hateful and offensive to me. As a Christian, I have certain beliefs about God and Jesus Christ that mean everything to me. This blog belittles those beliefs and considers me to be just another right-wing fundamentalist Christian freak. The funny thing about all of this is that I worked with this guy for years. We hung out together after hours, had some good times, and shared a lot of common interests. But for some strange reason, the topics of religion and politics never came up. I guess it was good that they didn't, because we definitely would have had a major debate. People often assume that I must be a Democrat or a liberal. They look at my last name and assume quite a bit. I wonder how many people would be surprised to know the following things about me:
So does that make me some NASCAR-loving, backwoods redneck? Am I somehow stupid and unenlightened? (I would hope that my Yale degree would say otherwise.) And what would those people who worked with me back in Austin for so long say if they saw this list?
I pray for people who have hardened their heart to the Gospel. By subscribing to the idea that moral relativism is cool, they've made it easier to promote all sorts of things that clearly are against what God has told us for thousands of years is wrong. (Oh yeah-- I didn't mention that one: I think there actually is an absolute standard for what is right and what is wrong. God has written that on our hearts.)
Now, does any of this mean I'm perfect? Far from it. Because I believe all of these things, it helps me to know that I have a spot in heaven because of Jesus and not because of what I've done or not done. Is it logical? Can it be explained? Not in any way except through faith. There is that voice in me that tells me to be still and know that Jesus is Lord. And I do. It's as simple as that.
So, all you liberal, hating ex-coworkers of mine-- now you know. Hate me if you will; it's not like we're that close anymore anyway.
Posts
All Comments
