Teaching

I'm still "tingling" from today. This is a day that I have looked forward to for about two weeks. One of our major customers sent in a group of 8 people for training. I had the fabricating portion of the training and was able to share the intro to fab material that now includes many visual aids. Response from the group was great and everyone walked away with a little bit more knowledge about our industry. This visit really impressed me because this customer realizes that it is important for its employees to know about the products that they purchase and the processes that make them. I'm a bit biased, but truly believe that education is essential for continuous improvement and effective decision-making. The day concluded with a great dinner at the Emporium.

Tomorrow is Friday. Whew. What a ride.

If you are reading this tonight, have a great tomorrow!

Out!

Pie Revisited

A few posts ago, I mentioned that Clella gave me this awesome peach pie. (I knew it was awesome because it came from the same set of pies that someone may or may not have had two pieces of a few days prior.) Anywho, when I got that pie safely back to the T-abode, the knife came out of the drawer and carved out a nice sixth of the pie. However, as I longingly prepared to scoop the piece out, the fork stopped. I covered the pie up and stuck it into the fridge. Okay, you know what? I really wanted that piece of pie and another piece for breakfast and another piece for lunch and so on. Yet, it ended back in the fridge. The next day five work friends enjoyed the pie, too. It is this multiplier effect thing that I wrote about. Clella gave one pie unit but it had the total impact of giving 6 pie units. This is God's economy and the reaction from one of my buddies was priceless. So I think Clella and her pies (and friendship bread and other goodies) are another great example of restoration. So there are two examples thus far and Justin left an awesome comment on the original post. Please revisit the previous two posts and share your thoughts and observations about restoration, renewal, resurrection-living!

And...

cut!

Restoration of the Emerald Alliance

Last Friday, the Emerald Alliance marching band took the field at half-time of the Homecoming football game. This year's show is Phantom of the Opera. It was awesome! I hear them practicing quite frequently because of the proximity of my residence to the school. It was so amazing earlier this summer to hear the sounds of brass, woodwinds, and percussion dashing across the grounds. However, there is much more to the story. You see, this is the first year Bremen has had a marching band in several years. It was disbanded due to declining numbers and other problems. As a marching band alum, I missed the marching band at the football games. Consequently, it warmed my soul to see this group take the field on Friday and perform. The marching and forms were near perfect. The music was excellent. The color guard outstanding. On Sunday, I opened the South Bend Tribune as was delighted to read that the band had received a gold rating at district competition (and all 3 special awards) and earned a trip to regionals. In four years of marching band, we only made it to regionals once. That gives an idea of how tough this is - particularly for a small school and small band. So congrats to the Emerald Alliance for this amazing restoration!

Another Run

I wrote this last night but was unable to post due to Internet connectivity issues…

Tonight, it is great to be sitting here on the green couch with my legs propped up on the hexagon end-table. This weekend has been a bit of whirlwind and it is nice to relax for a few moments of reflection.

Last Wednesday, I was out running in the morning. I left the house around 6:30 and headed out into the darkness. However, it was quite different than previous morning excursions. The temperature had dropped significantly and the coolness wrapped up my body. I could see my breath for the first time this fall. Yet, the coolness felt refreshing as the perspiration started to come forth from the exertion. I passed fields of corn and soybeans and inhaled the richness of harvest-time. Into the fifth mile, the rain started to pellet my exposed face and legs with pins of cold water. Throughout this run, I attempted to pray. Like so many other times, the words did not seem to flow so I prayed the Lord’s Prayer.

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done,
On Earth as it is in Heaven.”

This portion of the prayer really seemed to hit home as my body was overwhelmed by the sensory experience of this run.

It is all about Jesus and His Resurrection.

Restoration.

Renewal.

Resurrection.

In our common way of talking about when someone dies, we talk about them going to Heaven. We talk about them escaping their worn out bodies. The relatively popular song, “I’ll Fly Away,” is filled with these allusions.

Yet, the empty tomb is a reminder that the body is not something that is just abandoned as trash. Why is this important to me? Well, it makes our existence here on Earth important and meaningful. We aren’t just living here temporarily so that we can abandon our bodies – and all the aches and pains – and whoosh, head off to Heaven.

However, this is what really started to make me think. The word body does not just include people bodies.

What about the body of Christ, the Church?

What about real persons living in communal bodies?

What about the planetary bodies, like the Earth?

Again, these are not just things that will go away into the dump heap. They are real and tangible and in need of ongoing resurrection. I think this is what Paul is trying to get at when he writes, “I die every day,” (I Corinth 15:31) because with death comes resurrection. Yet, It is not just about individual salvation and resurrection. Sachs writes in the Christian Vision of Humanity, “’My’ resurrection is not complete until the entire created world enters into its promised fullness.”

The run reminded me to be aware of the the resurrection that is going on around me – to be sensitive to the sights, the smells, the experiences - and to be a participant in this amazing endeavour as I anticipate the return of Jesus to Earth.

Tomorrow night, I hope to start sharing some examples of resurrection in action. Please feel free to contribute your observations and experiences!

Writing

Well, I would eventually like to write about several things that have been whirling around in my noggin.

Among them,

Restoration, resurrection, and the importance of the tangible body

Average Propensity to Serve vs Average Propensity to Soak (This is a concept that I came up with on my own based off of econ concepts. It applies to church life and I'm really excited to share.)

Tailgating

Powerpoint 2007 - Our company has not upgraded to '07 and I had no idea how awesome this new version is. I've been working on the econ powerpoint and I'm beside myself with excitement at the new design possibilities.

However, I'd just like to take a minute before heading to the shower (and maybe even getting my hair to untangle) to write about a friend.

Today, a friend stopped by to use my computer and Internet. He is a new student at Ivy Tech this fall and was looking for an article to review. In the process, he pulled up two of his papers and asked for some help with punctuation.

English is his second language.

I really admire his eagerness to head back to school and rise to the challenge of learning, reading, and writing in a language other than his own native tongue.

This has to be extremely difficult and frustrating. Quite frankly, I can't imagine going to school and having to write about chemistry, accounting, or economics in Spanish. Sometimes, it is hard enough to write about in English!

I wish him the best of luck on this new adventure!

Of Fire Pits, Toilet Paper, and Peach Pie

Tonight, the firewagon made its final trek down the driveway, through the alley, up the street, through intersection, to the personal care products trailer. However, this journey was not without mishap because, for the first time, the firewagon tipped over and one of the stone panels broke into three pieces. Although this was a little disappointing, the cracks adds some extra character to the fire pit.

The temperature has dropped a bit this week so the fire felt great. We just started roasting hot dogs when the high school principal stopped by with a special delivery. Last night, he managed to interfere in the homecoming TPing of the school. Evidently, the kids dropped everything and ran. They left behind a bunch of unopened packages of toilet paper that managed to end up in the personal care products trailer. Thanks to the high school kids for this donation!

After walking the fire pit home, I opted to not study for the upcoming accounting exam and headed over to Clella's house. We had a pleasant conversation. Thanks to Clella, my coworkers will enjoy some peach pie. (I'll enjoy it, too!) Now, it is time to the hit hay. Tomorrow is Friday!!

Out.

Multiplier Effect

Tonight, we had another great econ class. Of course, there is quite a bit to talk about right now with the bank failures, foreclosures, and credit crunch. Actually, I'm listening to CNN right now and they call it the "economic crisis." We also talked about GM and Ford and the perils that they are facing. So this is all kind of bleak stuff, but it is pretty interesting to discuss. I really like econ. It makes a lot of sense to me and it seems very relevant.

Tonight, we talked about the multiplier effect. The multiplier effect is this phenomenon that happens when money is spent. Okay, yesterday, I purchased bananas and apples at the grocery store. Usually, I just think about giving the cashier the money and then taking my apples and bananas. However, what happens to that money after it leaves the cash register? Well, some of it goes to cover the cost of the apples and bananas. Some of it goes to pay utilities for the grocery store. Some of it goes to pay property taxes of the establishment. Then there is some that goes to the employees. Guess what these employees do. They go buy more apples and bananas (or maybe they go down to Subway and get a sandwich). Down at the Subway, a certain amount of the money used to purchase the sandwich goes to the employees at Subway. One of the Subway employees heads up to Meijer (after getting gas and coffee at the BP) to buy a pair jeans... My $4.05 just carried out into a portion of many future transactions and maybe ended up having an overall economic impact of $6.48. So move the decimal points a few places and change purchases and $4,050,000 has an impact of $6,480,000.

As I was driving home tonight, I started wondering about the multiplier effect. What if we changed the unit from dollars to... smiles, hugs, charitable contributions, love, praise, encouragement? What if someone smiled 405 times and the total impact of second, third, and fourth rounds of smiles ended up being 648? That's a pretty good return on investment - especially when a lot of investments are losing ground right now.