Go Fish

Several weeks ago, the Men’s Ministry from my church decided to go on a fishing trip. It wasn’t until very late the night before that I finally decided to commit to join the group. (I am still working on that slow-commit thing).

We were to meet at the church at 8:00 am, so this meant I would have to rise pretty early in time to shower, dress, get my fishing supplies, and drive to the church which is about a forty minute drive from my home.

Shower….done. Dress…..done. Get fishing supplies….not so smooth.

Some of my fishing equipment, namely my fishing net was in my attic. As I prepared to go into the attic quickly deciding I was not going to use my very nice fifteen-foot extension ladder; instead, do to time constraints, I chose to use the fold out six-foot ladder. I climbed the ladder moving up to the second-to-last step into the attic with about half of my body extended through the opening. I grabbed the fishing net, turned and gently tossed the net out of the attic onto the garage floor - then it happened. I shifted my weight a second time in preparation of descending….and boy did I start descending.

To give you a bit more perspective of the descent, I was standing about 5 ½ feet up the ladder as I stand 6’7” tall.

As I turned again to balance myself, the ladder tipped-over. As I began to fall out of the attic I attempted to grab the wood framing, I grabbed it partially but could not hold on; I heard the ladder crashing over then saw myself coming down towards the ground. Luckily I fell partially on my feet….I immediately said aloud “Thank you Lord.” I then felt a burning sensation in my left hand, looked at my hand and saw blood dripping onto the concrete floor from my 3rd finger, pinky, and down the outside of my hand – a diagonal cut about 7 inches in length. I then said aloud “I think I need stitches.”

After my head cleared I finally thought better of getting stitches because I had committed to go on the fishing trip and did not want to break that commitment. So I went back into the house applied lots of pressure to the gash hoping to stop the bleeding, then in as casual of a voice that I could muster – I asked my wife if we had a bandage (thank goodness she was still groggy and in bed). I poured peroxide on my hand then applied six bandages, told my wife I loved her, grabbed some Tylenol and left quietly.

Although grossly behind schedule I managed to make it to the church only nine minutes late, at 8:09 am; as cars were filing out of the parking lot I joined the caravan as the final car!

There were 30 men in all, and I have to say we had a great time:

Good fellowship
Good food
Good laughs

In all of the fun, believe it or not, out of 30 fishing lines in the water, not a single one of us caught a single fish!! I can’t remember ever going fishing and not catching even the smallest of fish.

As I was driving home, reflecting upon the days events it struck me that the reason none of us caught any fish was because we were being prepared to be fishers of men.

Matthew 4:19

Quality Time

I had a conversation with my wife about a month ago about quality time, and I have been thinking about our conversation ever since that conversation took place. Both of us ironically had different views of its varied definition. My wife’s perspective is: Time is time; therefore you can’t quantify it by determining its degree or measurement. My perspective is time is time; however, it can be delineated into sub categories to include degrees and measurements as in some of the examples that follow:

Occasion – A period in which an action or process exists or continues.
Leisure – Found time to do something.
A Set Moment – Arrived on time.
Age or Era
Condition – Hard times, good times
Rate of Speed
Determined by a Clock or Calendar
A system of reckoning time – Solar time
A series of recurring instances

and especially as a 10th example where time can be defined by a person’s experience(s) – experience being the key word. Further, I am of the opinion that by definition of quality – being both a degree of excellence and a distinguishing attribute, further (modifies) or (contributes) to how the “time” spent is utilized.

For the sake of debate, I would like to site an example of the difference of time and quality time.

Example: Mother’s Day is upon us. It is appropriate for me to take “time” to acknowledge my in-laws day. I can call via telephone with well-wishes. I could purchase a card or gift and mail it. I could do any of the above and physically visit and drop-off the card, gift or the like and move on. Or lastly, I could do any of the above in her presence, spending “time” with her. I trust you would agree that each choice is acceptable however due to the effort necessary to carry-out the last choice (with sincerity) and the willingness to carve time out of my schedule in order to share my time - yielding (our time) I believe equates to “quality time.”

In a world where seemingly everything moves at the speed of light, in this me society, where immediate gratification takes too long it is extremely critical to spend some quality moments with your loved ones and not mistake quality time with courtesy time.

I would love to hear your perspective!

5 Tips to Becoming More Positive

Have you ever wondered why it seems negativity most always accentuates the positive? This has really been on my mind as of late due in part to my more recent communication with several negative-minded individuals in the last couple of weeks. The odd thing about it is when I asked one of the individuals to look at this particular situation in a more positive light (with examples), they not only refused to shift their thinking, this person then got upset with me….huh!

I am absolutely certain if one thinks they can’t….they can’t; if one thinks they won’t…..they won’t.

The following is a short non-exhaustive list of ways to begin thinking more positively.

#1. Love yourself! Simply put, one cannot love anyone else if one does not have self-acceptance or love for oneself.

#2. Fully understand and act upon what makes “you” happy or what you love to do, or what you want to achieve; then go for it! No goals, no glory.

#3. Take ownership and responsibility for your actions. (Negative-thinkers very seldom - if at all - hold themselves to the same standard as they hold others).

#4. Tell someone you love them! Kindness is always reciprocated.

#5. Don’t wait for people, things, situations, etc. to fall from the sky. It doesn’t work that way. Take action, action, action for it is written:

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? James 2:20 KJV

A Lifeguard

This moment for me is sort of bitter, yet sweet. I am both happy yet sad…because….I just received my Tee-shirt that reads LIFEGUARD Give Blood ~ Save Lives.

I won’t tell you my age, but I will say I have been living for some time now, and I have donated blood for the very first time-ever in my life! There has been no real reason to speak of why I have not donated blood before – I just haven’t.

This epiphany to donate is not new, earth-shattering, nor will it make the six o’clock news however I have finally taken the step and placed trust in the work of the health professionals to make use of this donation and treat it as a gift to someone else.

Although I do not have an answer as to why I have not taken the time to donate before, I will tell you I found myself in the midst of a campaign where I took part in promoting an effort to donate blood; then it hit me – I took a brief moment to self-evaluate and decided my campaigning to others to donate blood made little sense when I had not taken the same step I was heavily promoting!

So there you have it. Donating one pint of blood can help save as many as three people’s lives.

So, help save a life, or three.

This fact courtesy of Blood Centers of the Pacific