Have Cheap Luggage, Will Travel

I think I might be a spare tire Christian. Here is what I mean.

I love food. Eating out in nice restaurants is my favorite thing to do, my passion if you will. If have seen my butt lately, you know what I mean. :) When I have plans to eat out, I think all day about where I am going to go, what I am going to wear, and what I am going to order. I get consumed with the excitement of my favorite pastime. Food is a driving force in my life and my faith has never been anything like that to me. It has been more like a spare tire than a steering wheel.

My parents raised my family in a church ever since I can remember. I know all about the story about how Christ died on the cross and us from ourselves, blah, blah, blah. Until a few weeks ago, that story had as much impact on me as an inspiring late night TV show. I never really made God an active part of my life and therefore the significance of that story never really hit me. When you really think about it, it can almost be too much. Would you send your child to die a horrible death for me?

When the reality of what was done for you sets in, that is where the passion for God (just like my passion for food) begins to bloom. I know that I always rolled my eyes at those crazy Christians get giddy at the thought of church or studying the Bible. What weirdos. Or are they?

If we look at the grand scheme of life in the perspective of everything that God does for us, than does anything else but spending the rest of your life thanking him really matter? All of the raises, new cars, great friends, family and food (for me) are so stupid in the light of the creator of the universe caring about me as a person. Does your faith matter to you like that? If not, what really is more important? After coming to this realization myself, all I think about is how can I possibly go back to living my life the way I did before? I can’t.

I used to be a sandwich artist. Don’t laugh, it’s true. My first real job was making Subway sandwiches in a gas station in Sherman, TX and I have to say to date, it was the best job I ever had. Let me tell you why.

Do you remember your first job? If it was anything like mine, you were elbow deep in mayo and bread dough on top of dealing with an ungrateful customer that could care less about you as a human. Now how does an emotionally taxing environment such as that turn into the workplace utopia that I so fondly remember? It lies solely in the efforts of the two women that managed me, Diep and Jenny.

They didn’t have impressive degrees or lots of experience or any strategic plan to whip the teenage rabble that they managed into shape. But they did understand the one thing that will produce success when you have people under you. The difference between a manager and a leader.

Mangers know that they are excellent at the job that they are teaching you to do. When they walk into a room you know it and know that they are in charge. They spend lots of time organizing and directing their staff and the focus is on them and their skills that they bring to the table.

Leaders are also excellent at the job that they are teaching you to do, but they let you discover truth yourself instead of telling you how it is. They are not in it for the glory. So when they walk into the room, they will blend into the crowd. The focus for leaders is their employees and are comfortable letting the spotlight fall on them.

The distinction between the two can have a tremendous impact on your staff. Diep and Jenny were leaders hands down. They set a great example for me that I still try to emulate until this day.

Now, one of the best things about this story is that those women still impact my life today and they ran a gas station. Point being, you don’t have to be a manager in a huge company or even in a leadership position to be a person of influence. Look around you and be more mindful of people you encounter. Try to practice leadership characteristics and not management in your daily walk. I bet you are surprised how influential of a person you really are and didn’t know it when people start thanking you for the impact your have made.

So lesson for the day, find a leader in your life that you respect and spend as much time as you can with them. Be a leader to someone in your life and spend as much time as you can with them. And be nicer to your sandwich artist next time you go to Subway.

I used to have this wall hanging basket that had two ceramic rabbits in them that my mom gave to me and I have dropped that thing with those rabbits about 1000 times and keep gluing them back together. You can still make out their mangled shape is but uneven cracks and dried glue are all over them.

Have you ever kept something to the point of ridiculousness? Just kept it because it has always been around and it doesn't feel right to get rid of it? I discovered this week I have been doing that with brokenness in my life. Let me explain...…

My life, as I am sure most peoples has, has not worked the way it was supposed to. I grew up in a nice Christian home that stressed values of going to church and all of the warm fuzzies that come with that. Things were coasting along just fine. Then, in between the ages 17 and 20 a close family member attempted suicide and my parents got divorced after 23 years of marriage. Until then it never occurred to me that really bad things like that happened to Christians. God was supposed to keep that from happening, right?

I bounced back okay from these tragedies on my own and in the process of recovery determined that life did not fit into the nice neat box that God intended. It therefore also made perfect sense to me that going to church and hanging around those people that still believed in the "box" was a waste of time. After a while, I became really proud of my new approach to faith. I was so enlightened and the church going crowd was blind the realities of life.

That belief has stuck with me that until this week. I was talking to a co-worker and remarked that I was glad that most of the people that work at Women of Faith have had life give them a kick or two along the way because it makes us real. She said that it helps, but that it didn't have to be that way.

At that point I felt like those rabbits, broken, flawed, and hanging on my cracks for dear life. Even to the point of wearing them like a badge of honor. That counts as ridiculousness.

I realized through the words of my co-worker that God wants to spoil us with whole lives without cracks and tragedy and by hanging on with pride to our flaws we can keep him from spoiling us.

Needless to say I am in the process of getting rid of those personal cracks. As for the rabbits? I got rid of them too. Sorry mom. :)

"A stranger is a friend I haven't meet yet" - Will Rodgers

I love my job. I work for a inspirational women's conference called Women of Faith. We are the nation's largest woman's conference and typically host about 30 conferences a year all over the country in areas. Each conference averages about 15,000 attendees and I get to travel to most of them. And I get to spend a good portion of my life in a sea of strangers.

Now, you would think that since my job is public relations for the event that I would be a social butterfly. Just think of your typical image of a publicist. Slick, prepared, always smiling, and networked in with famous people. By looking at the quote above, it's a good bet that Will Rodgers could have been the founding member of the PoweR Girls team on MTV if he was around to endure this era. I have to admit I want to be the opposite of that.

According to Rodgers, there are tons of friends out there to be made. The guy next to me on the plane, the woman that I met at a conference, and the list goes on. I don't want to have a 1000 friends and to know the people "in the know". I want to invest my time in a very few friends and family.

Why do we move far across the country from our family and not give it a second thought? Why do we make a new sets of friends every time we change jobs or move? Why can't we as a society (or me) spend more time investing in a few great relationships and family?

We get so busy with our lives that we forget what is really important. My boyfriend has had the same friends since high school. I often tease him about it, but he might have something.

My theory might have a touch of anti-socialism but if that is wrong, I don't wanna be right. :) So, I dedicate this day to knowing what my two sister's favorite colors are, taking my Mom for a leisurely lunch, and other such activities that will make me an un-social butterfly.