Answered Prayers – A Lift For Your Weekend. (And, Some Funny Stuff!)

Posted on by

This blog has a praying audience. I know this from the comments I get on different pieces. Sometimes you pray that I’ll get bad arthritis and quit writing, but most of the time you’ve lifted me up in prayer, or prayed for someone when I’ve assembled the prayer warriors to embark on a special mission. Those prayers we lift up to Heaven are not always answered with a yes. But when they are, it’s good to mention them in public.

Please follow me on Twitter, and “Like” the Facebook author page. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits!

I have seen miracles in my life. Some great, some small. But any miracle is huge when you consider the fact that modern people assign all miracles to the Bible. Some even think that they stopped shortly after the Pentateuch, and that anything in the New Testament is embellished by a cult of yahoos following a carpenter around. I beg to differ. I will offer one small example today and then we’ll get on to the levity.

Tuesday my wife and I had a discussion about where we wanted to travel this next year. We both want to go back to Haiti with Healing Haiti. But an amazing trip to Israel is on the horizon. We discussed it and decided that we would likely go to Israel and wait on Haiti. But we agreed that Haiti wasn’t off the table, just pushed slightly to the side. We’d never been to the Holy Land (well, lots of trips to the Deli, but not to .. never mind) and wanted to do that before we were both old and decrepit. (That’s scheduled for 2016)

Wednesday a friend of mine announced he’s leading a trip to Haiti. I called him within minutes of his post on Facebook and got the low down. He and I had talked about doing this a month ago and I told him the odds were against it – my vacation lining up with his trips was unlikely. Well, God made it work – I already had that week off. I’d much rather be on a mission than attend another writers conference (good conference, but God’s work in the fields of Haiti takes precedence) this year. I’ve already been and done, I can skip one.

I prayed last night, asking God to help me find the finances to make it happen. My acting is sporadic but it can crank up unexpectedly and pay for a lot of these trips if it goes well. I went to bed with that on my mind.

I woke up early this morning – my phone was ringing. It was a friend who had been talking to a friend in another state. He needed somebody to do a voice over series for local distribution in a small market. Would I be interested? Could he give the guy my number? Absolutely. I aimed him at the voice over links on the “About The Author – And Some Links” page of this blog. You may never have noticed it. My mugshots and voice over stuff resides there until I build a comprehensive new site.

Six hours later the phone rings again, this time it’s Tom from Moore Creative Talent. Tom wonders if I can come in and audition for a voice over tomorrow morning. Sure thing.

In the space of 14 hours God sent me two opportunities. I’ve got to make them work, but that’s twice the voice over work/opportunities I’ve seen in a while. (I know, 0x2=0 but math has never been part of this blog.)

The point is, God listens. He has us do the work. But I asked with a pure heart for help in making these trips to serve him and grow in my faith. The answer came whistling back in hours. That’s why I continue to pray: not to get stuff, but to keep in touch with my boss the Jewish Carpenter.

So, I promised levity. It’s even related. I found this delightful series on youtube.com called Adventures in Voiceover. Mike Rowe, the Dirty Jobs guy, is a very talented voice over talent. He did these videos and really touched my heart. Some are sincere in nature but he infuses them with humor. All of them offer a bit of a view into what voice over is like for me. I’d love to have half of his talent, but I’m good to go with what God has given me. See above. WARNING: Mike occasionally uses bad words.

I hope you enjoy these and have a great weekend. I will. What are you up to for the next 48 hours?

Happy Any Day Now – A Book Review And Fan Letter.

Posted on by

First, for those of you in the audience who won’t ever read anything outside of the Christian bookstore, Happy Any Day Now is not for you. What a shame that is, please reconsider that choice in reading material, as there are many excellent secular authors and Toby Devens is at the top of that pile for pure enjoyment. Her book does contain mild cursing and sexually suggestive scenes – nothing graphic, but I can understand that you won’t want your 11 year old reading the book. Nope, this is a book for adults. If you fall into that category, read on and get the low down. It’s a Five Star Amazon book, and I have to agree with that score – it’s wonderful.

Please follow me on Twitter, and “Like” the Facebook author page. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits!

Stolen from www.tobydevens.com without any hint of shame.

Stolen from www.tobydevens.com without any hint of shame.

I recently attended a meet-and-greet where Toby was talking about her book. She had a great story of how she came to be an author, and she did something I’d never seen done before – she read the first chapter to the audience. I sat spellbound while she read. I was fascinated with the choice of words and called the book up on Amazon.com while she was reading. I bought the book, downloaded it, and finished the first chapter reading along. The amazing internet strikes again.

Without spoiling the plot for anyone, it’s the story of a middle-aged cellist with a symphony orchestra and her approaching 50th birthday. The book opens with her fortune being told by a Korean Mudang and the first chapter ends with a twist/hook that will rip authors out of their complacency and demand they try harder. Yes, the best chapter hook I’ve ever read. Bar none.

The heroine/protagonist is half Jewish, half Korean, and half boy crazy (math does not figure in this blog.) Not as in can’t get enough men, but as in men make her insane. This should be archetypal chic lit, but it’s not. It’s a great story, extremely well told, and written in a superior manner. Toby Devens can write. She is one of those great joys who is never guilty of excess word usage. Not sparse, but right on the money. I loved reading this book.

The ending? You’d never guess it from the first 50 pages. That means you don’t suspect it until later that day when you’ve read the whole thing, ignored your family, and forgotten to eat. I plowed through the book in three days in my time after work. I was truly sorry that it wasn’t longer. But since Toby is writing another book I have that to look forward to on my Kindle.

One final thing about the book that impressed me was the questions/answers/additional material that she provided for the reader. This is the kind of thing that many Christian books do, kind of a study guide for the book. That makes this very compatible with book groups. If your book group is looking for a fun read that is readily accessible, offers insight into two other cultures, and made me laugh more than I have in a while, Happy Any Day Now is the book you seek.

There’s A Leadership Lesson In A Minty Shake.

Posted on by

I have lived in my current home for 20 years. That’s a lot of visits to McDonald’s and a lot of hamburgers for a fat guy. It could have been a lot more hamburgers except that the leadership at my local location is poor on a good day. Some days there is no leadership at all that I’ve been able to spot.

Please follow me on Twitter, and “Like” the Facebook author page. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits!

In that 20 years I have boycotted the McDonald’s at the end of my street for periods that add up to about five years. While that may not seem significant over a 20 year period, it means that the store less than 1/2 of a mile from my front door has missed out on $10/week x 52weeks x 5 years. The math works out to a very conservative $2600.00. The reality of it is it’s probably a much higher number when you factor in my great reluctance to give them any business on a regular basis. I go to other restaurants, make food at home, and go hungry rather than make myself even more nuts with their shoddy performance. It’s probably more like $10,000.00 over the past 20 years that has gone elsewhere.

I’ve observed countless places of business in my 54 years. Some have great leaders, some have poor leaders. Great leadership is seen in places like Tinucci’s of Newport, Minnesota. Over the many years I’ve frequented this place I’ve seen the owners bus tables, direct the staff, carve the prime rib (it’s one of the best prime rib places on the planet) and serve coffee. The Tinucci brothers set a standard for their staff and then make sure it’s met. They lead by example. They learn the customers’ names, they make sure the food is properly displayed, they train and direct the staff. They are how you run a business and make it work through good times and bad.

The McDonald’s at the end of my street is on the other end of the spectrum. There are no standards in evidence. Over the past 20 years I’ve seen a total period of about 8 years (leaving 12 bad ones) with some sort of standards. Managers have been on the site, doing a good job for about 4 of those years and there was a bit of bleed over during the rest. In a few cases the good employees led themselves and their peers, but that’s doomed when you come right down to it. The lazy, stupid, slovenly part of the dark force overwhelms the empire eventually and leads to a half-built death star getting it’s butt kicked.

McDonalds, with a well priced menu of varied foods, should be a default setting for guys like me. It is when I’m on the road. But in my own neighborhood it’s a place I avoid. Last week’s visit tells it all and I’m more than happy to share my story so that other business leaders might learn from this place.

I went in to get a Green Shake and a fish sandwich. Who would guess, an Irish Christian during Lent enjoying that combination. The lackluster young man who operated the register didn’t acknowledge me as a human. I almost walked out but he stood there mute and I was ready to order. I waited past the customary length of being ignored and just gave him my order, complete with a “please” at the end of my order. He, in response, said nothing and stood with his hand over the screen that showed my choices. It was done on purpose. He was covering up the screen to be a jerk. It’s not a convenient, anatomically easy place to leave your paw when operating the machine.

No “Thanks for your order.” No nothing. He just turned away and started gathering something in the back.

The ill-trained young woman with the filthy uniform (I didn’t know McDonald’s authorized bare-midriff this time of year. But, it did show off her gang tattoos quite nicely) stuck a plastic cup in the shake machine and punched the button. A glob of white hit the cup, followed by a large plume of green, followed by a dribble of white. As she put the second cup in the machine and repeated the sequence, she cursed to herself and said, “XXXX thing is still XXXXX’d up.” No call to a manager to fix the machine, no dumping the drink. She furtively looked to see who was watching her and then grabbed a long spoon sitting in a container of water and stirred the shake so it was uniformly streaky. Rinse and repeat with the second one, now coming out of the machine. Spoon back in bucket.

I bit my tongue. I had places to go and work to do. I was going to blog about this so I let them rampage.

The bags with my food were delivered by another employee a few minutes later. Set on the counter with a readback of the items inside, they moved off without any apparent care in the world who picked them up. End of customer service.

The fish sandwich was done wrong. I’d ordered two of them without tartar or cheese, and two regular. I got two with no tartar, no cheese, and two with cheese and a passing glance from a Tartar who lived nearby in a Russian Language home for the mentally ill. Not enough sauce to entice an ant out of hiding.

The fries were cold. That’s a great trick at any fast food store, but if you prepackage them and let them sit in a rack away from the warming lamp I guess it can happen.

How does leadership come in to this? If the owner of the franchise, or the manager the chain put in place, actually cared about me as a customer, they would be all over the staff for their attitude to begin with, and work their way on to the shake machine. It’s the small things, as the Tinucci family understands, that make the whole thing work or fail. If you tolerate the noisy employee yelling at a coworker in the back, you’ll tolerate the broken shake machine, and then move on to the point where the parking lot is filthy and the windows smudged.

Each step in the ladder is either up or down. You can stand at the bottom and push, or you can show how to climb the ladder. You can climb to the top and offer a hand up, or you can climb to the top, hop on the roof, and lose sight of all that goes on below. But if you stand anywhere on the ladder and stop, all of the others are stuck in place. Likewise, if you don’t put the ladder in place, and encourage your team to learn to climb, they all stand around with nothing to do.

So, McDonald’s, I’ll be absent from the local franchise for the next 6 months – my usual time-out period. During that period I’ll be frequenting White Castle, Mickey’s, my own kitchen, and Holy Land. I hope that revenue isn’t really too important to your survival. I don’t care anymore about you and your welfare. It’s a reflection of your attitude toward me and my neighbors.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way. But at least fix the shake machine.

Book Review – Make That Endorsement, for Dive Deeper By Jenifer Jernigan

Posted on by

Given the submarine related posts you find here on occasion, you might expect a title like Dive Deeper to be involved with evading torpedos, getting below the sonar layer, or perhaps, just trying to avoid a super-tanker coming your way at periscope depth. Nope: it’s a Bible study book. And it’s really good.

Dive Deeper

Dive Deeper


Please follow me on Twitter, and “Like” the Facebook author page. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits!

The full title is actually Dive Deeper: Finding Deep Faith Beyond Shallow Religion (InScribed Collection) and it’s written by Jenifer Jernigan who is with the same literary agency as your genial host.

It is the nature of the publishing world that we cross paths with other writers and are asked to endorse their books. They will do the same for you down the road. I hope so, and I hope the other authors like what I write. Because I won’t endorse anything I haven’t read, and I don’t expect them to do anything but that when my time comes.

In full disclosure, I have not read the entire book. I read the first part of it, what is called a “launch team” version of the opening. But it was enough to let me know that this study program is going to be great.

Many times you find yourself, especially as a baby Christian, dragged to a Bible study class where one of the older women in the church rambles on for an hour about what Samuel meant to the ancient Israelites. Or, worse yet, how we can incorporate ancient law as found in Leviticus in our daily chores around the farm. Yes, those are how Bible study groups die. Jenifer’s book is a fresh approach to the concept. It engages, promotes a deeper look than just the scripture, gives a cultural context, and aims the reader toward exercises that put the passage under study into effective use in their life.

I perused my advanced copy of this while I was on vacation and was impressed. Impressed enough that I bought it on my kindle while writing this blog today. I was under no obligation to do anything here. I could have ignored the launch party, ignored the polite emails, ignored the whole thing. But it is so well done that I bought a copy with my very own visa card.

I may be a bit lazy (very, let’s be honest) in my Bible studies. I’ve been spoiled by a pastor that does a great job every week. But my work schedule is going to keep me out of the church that day for the next few months and I need a new approach. That new approach is Dive Deeper: Finding Deep Faith Beyond Shallow Religion (InScribed Collection) .

I’d encourage you to at least download the sample and look at it today. You’ll buy it. I am sure of that in my heart. Jenifer has done a great job making the works much easier for newbies to approach, and for old hands to Dive Deeper.

Good job, Jenifer!

.

Today We Give Thanks At Commotion In The Pews.

Posted on by

There he goes again: more prayer and thanksgiving. Yup. Lots of it today. I hope this post will inspire you to some of your own.

Please follow me on Twitter, and “Like” the Facebook author page. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits!

We go about our lives trying very hard just to keep moving forward, not failing. That’s a pretty low bar, but it’s what many of us have set as our goal. Don’t win big, don’t triumph, just get by and avoid disaster. I’m not willing to live my life that way, it’s boring and demeaning. There are times we pull into our shells and recoup our strength. There are times we muddle along. But when we fully appreciate the things around us and give thanks to God for all of it we flourish as immortal beings. Yes, we are immortal beings (well, some are immoral beings – amazing what just one letter changes.) Are we not children of The One True King?

With that in mind, I give thanks today. I thank God for my friend Dusty who’s coming back from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. I don’t know what the Gunnery Sgt. has been up to there, I don’t want to know – secret squirrel stuff. I am glad that she’s coming home. She’s coming home a changed woman. For the better, I suspect. She’s coming home to a husband and kids who adore her. She’s coming back leaner and meaner. She’s coming back as a tested leader. She’s coming back as my friend. I will continue to pray for her – it’s tough coming back from a deployment. Six months is a long time. I was a complete rat and jerk for at least a week after I’d been gone for a month or three. Double that and I would have needed a month in a stupor sleeping on the floor before I could be trusted in polite society. I hope and pray her transition is quicker and less difficult.

I give thanks for the power of prayer and God’s healing. My church witnessed that power on Sunday when one of our ministerial staff, Reverend Robinson, had a seizure/episode/whatever at the end of the early service. Ambulance summoned, hundreds of voices lifted in prayer, all of you praying throughout the day, and the Rev. good to go for preaching the late service. God had a hand in that – no doubt about it. I’m thankful for the power of the blood.

I’m thankful for a great week of vacation in Florida with my mom and my wife. Best vacation we’d had in years, probably the best visit with my mom since my father passed away. We didn’t do much of anything special – except for the Cuban cafe and we’ll do that later down the road – but we all loved each other and made things smooth. I cooked, I ate, I wrote, I prayed, I talked with them both. It was what I needed after a winter that just never quit. I came back to 40 degree weather (a heat wave around here) and a clear sidewalk.

I give thanks for a job where my brain is challenged. I love going to work and doing what I do and making customers happy. I’m the wizard behind the curtain: they never talk to me, never see me, never even know my name. But if I do my part in the play their equipment works and their lives improve. I don’t want or need their accolades, just doing the job well is enough for me. How many of you have a job where you can say that? I am truly blessed in that regard.

I thank God for a dog who smiles and wags her tail when I walk in the door. Stormy has come so far in the last 15 months. I am in love with her and all that she brings to our house. God picked her out for us, and us for her. She’s over at the couch right now loving on my wife and I’m so full of joy looking at the two of them that it’s about to burst me.

Those are just a few of the things I’m thankful for today. I’m thankful for you, my readers, as well. You are a source of joy and strength to me in this blog. Thank you, God, for these good people who flip to this page and read along with my life.