http://www.cracked.com/article_17216_5-most-popular-safety-laws-that-dont-work.html
And I thought they were trying to protect me all along!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
It's the end of the world as we know it!
Most people don' t know this about me, but I'm a doom and gloom guy. I contemplate worst case scenarios all the time. Such as:
-What if terrorist, an earthquake, a drought, ect took out LA's water supply
-What if the economy continues it's downward spiral to the point that a loaf of bread can't be bought with a barrel full of money (Germany post WWI)
-What if our Socialist gov't grows into Russia (1980's)
It could go on, but these scenarios all lead to one question. How do you survive when the luxuries of modern existence are no longer an option? Up to this point I can say I'm wholly unprepared for such an event. I wouldn't fare better than they guy next door. I have no reserve food supply, no water, no idea how to maintain a live able temp in my home, no emergency plan.
You would think someone who spends so much time contemplating his own demise would have a plan. I've spent so much time in survival mode that preparation mode never seems to get here. I'm getting closer to preparation mode as I watch our economy continue to crash. Is it too late, or is there still time.
http://www.codylundin.com/
This is the man with the answers. And he's been nice enough to write a book on urban survival. BTW, I'd love to have his house.
Maybe like the many doom and gloomers before me, I'm fretting over a hypothetical that will never happen in my lifetime. But then again, maybe not.
-What if terrorist, an earthquake, a drought, ect took out LA's water supply
-What if the economy continues it's downward spiral to the point that a loaf of bread can't be bought with a barrel full of money (Germany post WWI)
-What if our Socialist gov't grows into Russia (1980's)
It could go on, but these scenarios all lead to one question. How do you survive when the luxuries of modern existence are no longer an option? Up to this point I can say I'm wholly unprepared for such an event. I wouldn't fare better than they guy next door. I have no reserve food supply, no water, no idea how to maintain a live able temp in my home, no emergency plan.
You would think someone who spends so much time contemplating his own demise would have a plan. I've spent so much time in survival mode that preparation mode never seems to get here. I'm getting closer to preparation mode as I watch our economy continue to crash. Is it too late, or is there still time.
http://www.codylundin.com/
This is the man with the answers. And he's been nice enough to write a book on urban survival. BTW, I'd love to have his house.
Maybe like the many doom and gloomers before me, I'm fretting over a hypothetical that will never happen in my lifetime. But then again, maybe not.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Resurrection Day
Soon it will be Easter. I'll be hiding eggs for the kids and the family will be playing and enjoying each others company. But we'll not be thinking about Jesus, or his miraculous victory over death. We'll not be reading his story of what he did and why he did it and who he did it for. No, we'll be celebrating Bunnies and eggs, and whatever else this holiday has become.
I sit here thinking about where I am in life. Why God chose this time, this family, these circumstance for me? Every day I feel my humanity, my vulnerability, my inadequacy at who I am and what I do and who I'm responsible for. Yet, my family is somehow provide for, there is food on our table, a roof over our heads, cloths on our backs. We don't have an extravagant life, but we certainly aren't left wanting. God has truly provided for us.
I'm often told I'm good man, hard worker, good husband, good father, good this good that.... But when I look in the mirror, I don't see any of it. Kinda of like the woman whom is beautiful and everyone tells her so, but she looks in the mirror and can only see her flaws. I look in the mirror and my flaws glare out at me. No amount of blood and sweat can wipe away those flaws. They are like weeds, you pull one and three more pop up.
What are my flaws? Not sure I'm ready to lay them out for all to see. It's enough that I see them.
You know, when I was single I didn't much worry about my flaws. I was much more willing to sweep them under the rug. But as a husband and a father, my flaws become burdensome weights. My errors trickle down to my family. My bad ways and bad habits become my children's bad ways and bad habits. A carefree nomad is not fit to be a father. Yet I find myself longing to be that carefree nomad again. Ignorance is bliss. Irresponsibility, joyous.
But I am a husband and I am father. It's a heavy burden which God has deemed fit for men to bear. It is a burden filled with blessings. Blessings which usually aren't readily apparent when you want to throw your screaming two year old out of the jeep after the third hour of crying.
I guess I'm just tired. And worried. Our economy is collapsing, job security is a phantom, the home and the security I work so hard far, is always on the brink of slipping through my fingers.
I'm making all these plans for the future. Paying off debt, going back to school, buying a home, upgrading our family vehicle, starting a business. Each one by itself seems daunting and unattainable. Throw them all together and I'm beginning to buy into my wife's label of me. She affectionately labels me and my friends "The Dreamers".
But I'm not dreaming. I will achieve my goals. I will succeed and my family will be the better for it. Maybe I'm just looking for my second wind. Maybe I should be recognizing that right now is the calm before the storm. The storm is coming. The cards are not stacked in my favor. But I have to believe in my success. I have to trust God will carry me through. If I didn't have that hope, that assurance that God is in control and that he loves me and that he is driving my life and will drive my success, than I would just crumble into nothingness.
The burden of life; the burden of being a husband, father, provider; the burden of being a corporate leader, the driving force of a major division of my company; the burden of raising my kids to be God fearing adults; the burden of tomorrow, and the next day and the next day; the burden of friendship, being a shoulder to cry on; The burden of struggling to keep God's law which I know I'll never ever ever be able to do; the burden of existence, would crush me to dust. An so on and so forth.
I thank God that the burden is truly his. I thank God that while it may seem that I stand as Atlas with the world on my shoulders, it is truly I who am standing on the shoulders of God and it is he who is lifting and carrying the burdens which I bemoan about. It is He who assures me that I will get through today, and tomorrow and the day after.
And as I stand here tired, and weary with life, I know that I will be ok.
"When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live.
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul
But Lord 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul"
Horatio Spafford (you should read his story. He lost 5 children and his successful law business very shortly before writing this)
Happy Resurrection Day.
I sit here thinking about where I am in life. Why God chose this time, this family, these circumstance for me? Every day I feel my humanity, my vulnerability, my inadequacy at who I am and what I do and who I'm responsible for. Yet, my family is somehow provide for, there is food on our table, a roof over our heads, cloths on our backs. We don't have an extravagant life, but we certainly aren't left wanting. God has truly provided for us.
I'm often told I'm good man, hard worker, good husband, good father, good this good that.... But when I look in the mirror, I don't see any of it. Kinda of like the woman whom is beautiful and everyone tells her so, but she looks in the mirror and can only see her flaws. I look in the mirror and my flaws glare out at me. No amount of blood and sweat can wipe away those flaws. They are like weeds, you pull one and three more pop up.
What are my flaws? Not sure I'm ready to lay them out for all to see. It's enough that I see them.
You know, when I was single I didn't much worry about my flaws. I was much more willing to sweep them under the rug. But as a husband and a father, my flaws become burdensome weights. My errors trickle down to my family. My bad ways and bad habits become my children's bad ways and bad habits. A carefree nomad is not fit to be a father. Yet I find myself longing to be that carefree nomad again. Ignorance is bliss. Irresponsibility, joyous.
But I am a husband and I am father. It's a heavy burden which God has deemed fit for men to bear. It is a burden filled with blessings. Blessings which usually aren't readily apparent when you want to throw your screaming two year old out of the jeep after the third hour of crying.
I guess I'm just tired. And worried. Our economy is collapsing, job security is a phantom, the home and the security I work so hard far, is always on the brink of slipping through my fingers.
I'm making all these plans for the future. Paying off debt, going back to school, buying a home, upgrading our family vehicle, starting a business. Each one by itself seems daunting and unattainable. Throw them all together and I'm beginning to buy into my wife's label of me. She affectionately labels me and my friends "The Dreamers".
But I'm not dreaming. I will achieve my goals. I will succeed and my family will be the better for it. Maybe I'm just looking for my second wind. Maybe I should be recognizing that right now is the calm before the storm. The storm is coming. The cards are not stacked in my favor. But I have to believe in my success. I have to trust God will carry me through. If I didn't have that hope, that assurance that God is in control and that he loves me and that he is driving my life and will drive my success, than I would just crumble into nothingness.
The burden of life; the burden of being a husband, father, provider; the burden of being a corporate leader, the driving force of a major division of my company; the burden of raising my kids to be God fearing adults; the burden of tomorrow, and the next day and the next day; the burden of friendship, being a shoulder to cry on; The burden of struggling to keep God's law which I know I'll never ever ever be able to do; the burden of existence, would crush me to dust. An so on and so forth.
I thank God that the burden is truly his. I thank God that while it may seem that I stand as Atlas with the world on my shoulders, it is truly I who am standing on the shoulders of God and it is he who is lifting and carrying the burdens which I bemoan about. It is He who assures me that I will get through today, and tomorrow and the day after.
And as I stand here tired, and weary with life, I know that I will be ok.
"When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live.
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul
But Lord 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul"
Horatio Spafford (you should read his story. He lost 5 children and his successful law business very shortly before writing this)
Happy Resurrection Day.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
37 Years
Today we had a retirement party for a gentlemen whose been with my company for 37 years. I wasn't even thought of 37 years ago. What did he do for all those years? He worked the floor and drove forklifts. Day in and day out for 37 years. And in his last year here, the only year I knew him, he was always smiling, always courteous and always safe. Everyday.
Where are the people like him today? Where is the young kid willing to work himself day in and day out, content that he brings home a paycheck for his family? Where is the young man who knows how to be wealthy at any wage? Where is the young man with the commitment to press on for 37 years?
I don't think I know anyone in my generation like that. My record at one job is 6 years, and that is only because I was under a contract that would land me in Ft Leavenworth had i violated it.
Where have all the good men gone?
Where are the people like him today? Where is the young kid willing to work himself day in and day out, content that he brings home a paycheck for his family? Where is the young man who knows how to be wealthy at any wage? Where is the young man with the commitment to press on for 37 years?
I don't think I know anyone in my generation like that. My record at one job is 6 years, and that is only because I was under a contract that would land me in Ft Leavenworth had i violated it.
Where have all the good men gone?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)