Five things friday

Five things for your Friday viewing pleasure...

1. I've been thinking about changing this blog for awhile now. I've wanted to make it more 'useful' than just a mere record-keeping spot for me, or a place to display my passive-aggressive sensitivities. Everybody has bad things happen to them. It's time I got over it and stopped playing the victim. So I'm going to try being a little more positive and try posting things that might be a little more helpful to others.

2. On another blog-related note... I wish I had never taken that 6-month break from public blogging last year. Granted, it doesn't appear that I took a break if you read back through my blog now. That's because I still wrote something almost every day - I just didn't publish anything for 6 months. I took the break because someone asked me to stop blogging. They didn't think a pastor should do it. So, out of the kindness of my heart, I stopped. However, they ended up taking a dump on the church and leaving anyway, so... that's what I get for trying to be a nice guy. Not that I am opposed to being a nice guy, but I also need to be wise and discerning. Just because somebody says I am wrong does not always mean I am wrong. Sometimes I am right. And I wish now I would have not stopped blogging. This has never been a super popular blog, but it's had its moments; and I did use to average 100 or so visits a day. I am not even close to that now, and while I know some of it is due to blogging not being as popular anymore... some of it is also due to the break. I do understand that I DID need to make some changes, and now I'm planning to make those changes. Yes, it will still have a lot of record-keeping and be pretty personal, but hopefully there will also be more helpful stuff along the way too.

3. On a personal note... Son Isaac and his FIANCE did get home from San Fransisco yesterday. They left last Thursday and it took them about 3 days to get there via train. They stayed in Chinatown while they were there, and did lots of walking and sightseeing. Then they flew home yesterday. They arrived in Indy around 2:30 pm, and after picking up their car and dog, they made it back to Anderson yesterday evening. Sounds like it was a good trip. Which is always good when a marriage proposal is involved. :)

4. Useful tip for today: Have you ever put Vicks vapor rub on your feet?? If you have, then you know what I'm talking about. If you have not - then you don't know what you're missing!!! And, no, you don't want to do it when you're going to be walking around, or just for kicks. But if you have a cough or sore throat... then DO IT! Do it at night when you go to sleep, and put socks on after you rub the vicks on the bottom of your feet. Someone told us about this a couple years ago, and I had kind of forgotten about it. But the other night I was still fighting this cough and throat thing, so I just smeared some Vicks on the sole of both feet before I went to bed, put an old pair of loose fitting socks on over them, and when I woke up I felt 100 times better. If you have a cough, give it a try.

5. The last item for today is not only a useful tip, but this was almost life-changing for me. I will likely be linking to David Wong's article again, but when I read his "6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You A Better Person" this morning... it was just what I needed to hear, and just when I needed to hear it. Yes, it has all kinds of foul language and is pretty darn harsh, but I need to read this thing over and over and over again. And if you're a lame-ass lazy person suffering through life feeling sorry for yourself - you need to read it over and over and over again too!!! It does actually even contain some biblical truth to it as well. In fact, I wish I could use this in my church, but that might be taking it a bit far. However, to me, this is the missional church idea in a nutshell. As he says, "Who you are inside is meaningless aside from what it produces for other people." An example he uses is: "Children die every day because millions of us tell ourselves that caring is just as good as doing." Yeah. I know this is not the gospel, and it's a long article, but it is super-freaking good!!! And I will likely be linking to this Glengary Glen Ross speech again as well, because I need to hear this myself over and over and over again. I'm thinking a few other people do too. Anyway, I'm sure this article and the clips in it won't be for everyone, but if you don't like it, be sure to ask yourself why. Here is the url, in case you don't want to click through the link: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/

There ya go, folks. Have a good one. Peace out; and in.