Growth

Today was initiation for new members into a professional student fraternity, so I helped the student organization initiate 110+ new members early this afternoon. I'm sure these new members are excited to belong to a group which will nurture them through scholarship, service, leadership, social and networking opportunities. It's so awesome to watch the organization and students grow and take on more leadership and service. I was just thinking about how this time last year the fraternity itself was only an idea and how it has grown to nearly 200 members! My "pic of the day" is of a blooming Amaryllis which symbolizes growth and strength guided by God's hand.

Paul worked on the new website while I was at initiation and he's still been working on it since my return. It's a fireplace kind of day, but we're out of firewood. It's cloudy and rainy with a snow mix forecasted later this evening. By 3 p.m. it was dark enough for the automatic outside lights to come on. We've seen next week's forecast and it looks like the temps are struggling hard to make it into the upper 30's even though we are near the start of March.

"You have planted them, and they have taken root: they grow and bear fruit." Jeremiah 12:1-3 (NIV).

Lessons

So you may be wondering why I chose this pic as my "pic of the day", as I was writing this I remembered a photo I took of a friend and his little girl several years ago. She was practicing writing her name and she looked up at her father for approval. Of course you would have to know the father to understand the humor behind the face he is making. Nonetheless, when undertaking life lessons I think of us looking up at our heavenly Father in a similar child-like way for approval, insight, wisdom and comfort much like this little girl. Almost as if to ask, "Did I do it right, did I understand the point of the lesson?"

Today at work we had a reception for one of our colleagues. Shortly before the reception, I realized that the two people who were supposed to help me with set up had left work without notifying me which left me with my own self-taught lesson today regarding teamwork. I tried to focus on the reason for the reception instead of my own anger and pity party. This particular colleague had worked for our academic unit for nine years before becoming so ill that she could no longer work and has to undergo daily kidney dialysis while hoping for a kidney transplant. So the least I could do is help organize and set up for her reception.

I ran across the following excerpt from a daily devotional that I thought was fitting in light of my colleague's and personal ordeals (from the past two yrs): "Real trials in life are not ifs - they are whens. In fact, life's most profound lessons cannot simply be observed, they must be experienced. It is there, in actual seasons of heartache and loss, that we gain greater insights into life, faith and our need of God. To that end, James wrote, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience" (James 1:2-3). http://www.rbc.org

I started the morning making a "Do Not Disturb" in an effort to minimize the amount of interruptions I receive during a peak volume time for our office (a lesson I learned from last semester). We are in anticipation of the rush that will start next week for early registration when students get advice and enroll in summer and fall classes. We'll be in back-to-back appts. pretty much all day for the next 5-8 weeks, ugh! I worked on the sign on and off all day and had an appt. with a student first thing this morning who needed help choosing classes at another college that would transfer back to MU. This morning I also attended an advisor session with Logan Chiropractic College to help us understand the pre-requisites and admission requirements for applying to the Doctor of Chiropractic and Masters in Sports Science & Rehab programs so we can help advise our students on appropriate courses and co-curricular activities. In addition, we all met a wonderful recruiter and learned a lot about their programs (a nice life lesson!)

I tried to organize all the info about Logan and jot down relevant info so I wouldn't forget it before my weekly noontime yoga class. After that I scrambled to answer emails before it was time for the aforementioned reception. I spent the latter part of my day trying to get a handle on my email box and prep for PEK's (professional health professions fraternity) initiation tomorrow afternoon before leaving work at 6:30 pm. I was leaving as the custodian was coming in and he reminded me that most people leave by 5 on a Friday;) I told him that I also had to be back for the PEK initiation tomorrow.

My boss had a good idea the other day, she said we need to learn (another lesson again) "how to work smarter instead of harder". Something I'm aspiring to do. When I got home we looked at Paul's start on the new website template package we bought and then we ate, and now I have the Olympics on in the background while I write this and Paul continues work on the website.

Perseverance and Hope: At the Fishin' Hole

My "pic of the day" was inspired by the thought of fishing...more as an analogy though that popped in my mind as I walked across campus this afternoon. The closest picture I had of fishing was Penarth Pier in Wales (a pic that I took in Dec. '05). Following another 10 hr day, I have the following analogy to share below.

Imagine starting to fish alongside everyone else and one by one everyone else starts catching fish, but you don't. You try adjusting everything you can think of (the length of your line cast, type of bait, your location) but nothing seems to be working. Overtime everyone else has left the pier with multiple "trophies", while you strive to make the first catch. Chalking it up to bad luck, you try again, then again and again, only to come up empty handed. Meanwhile everyone else continues to catch more and more. Time passes, and your inability to catch anything starts to effect all parts of your life. Suddenly, you no longer can be a part of seemingly normal activities that others take for granted. This includes the community fish fry, contest for the biggest catch, money from fish sales, friendly banter between fellow fishermen, ect.). Many folks offer encouragement but they don't understand to what extent this "drought" is effecting you and your family.

Weeks turn into months and suddenly months turn into years and still no fish. You've watched as your friends have caught trophy winning fish; or several in a row; or have been given fish by those who have caught too many to keep...but still you have not been a recipient of a single fish. Overtime this has effected your quality of life, without money from fishing needed to survive you find yourself in a never ending cycle of wearing yourself ragged just to sustain the resources you currently have. At the same time you find yourself having to cut back on the amount of bait you use, having to duct tape your fishing rod together, having barely enough fishing line from having to cut out the bad places and tie the sections together; and not have the fishing tools necessary because you can't afford to replace them. At the same time you see folks that you were once on par with arrive to the pier with brand new top of the line poles having more bait than they can possibly use, and sporting all the newest fishing gadgets. These same people tell you not to worry about your recent bad luck and that it will change. It's easy for them to say as they aren't living day-to-day with the repercussions of not being able to catch any fish. Nor do they know of the other internal hardships that you've had to endure coinciding all at the same time. Hardships that others have not had to endure in their life, and combined with hardships that should just come one at a time over a lifetime not all at once.

During this same time, you encounter many other fisherman who don't have any sensitivity for your situation and who continually brag about their catches, tell you about all the fishing equipment they have just purchased and criticize you for being disappointed and down. Slowly overtime, your fishing supplies dwindle so much and you've lost so much money that you barely have the resources to keep trying. Your once long fishing pole is now a distant memory to the reality of your short, nub of a pole. You ration the bait to make it last, and you fishing gear is out of date while your clothes are starting to wear thin in places and tear. You wonder why you keep trying when nothing changes, when there aren't any breakthroughs and when no fish will bite. You feel a couple nibbles at your line, and you excitedly reel it in full of hope but there is nothing. You think about how hard you work and how many hours you put into this just to end each day in exhaustion while barely earning enough to survive and pay the bills.

You look up and see others moving forward: affording new fishing tackle and gear, new homes, vacations; being able to afford weddings and families; earning promotions from fishermen to bigger titles based on the amount of fish they've caught ; ect. Meanwhile, treating yourself to the smallest of treats (that others take for granted and consume daily) becomes impossible. At the same time you keep getting hammered with bad news, hardships and disappointments. You ponder what else you can do or what you are doing wrong (while wondering what else can possibly go wrong). You ask yourself when does this change? You become exhausted from preserving, working hard and striving to gain nothing. You realize how long and hard you are working for nothing except to barely keep your head above water. When does something good happen? It becomes a lot like treading water and we all know how fast one tires and can no longer sustain treading. Slowly you realize that your stamina is fading and you can't keep up this pace. Something needs to change, but what? How do you renew perseverance and hope?

"Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy." James 5: 10-11 (NIV).

I'm also reminded in a daily devotional that, "A tunnel of testing can produce a shining testimony." http://www.rbc.org/odb/odb.shtml. I'm ready for my tunnel to open to a sunny sky!