The Necessity of Hard Jobs

Before we get down to the nitty-gritty, I have to say two things; 1: To the four people who read this blog, I am sorry that I have taken so long to post. 2: I tried to write a post on this same topic earlier, but it is unfinished due to the fact that some things have realigned in my mind and what I would have published would have been crappy and come across as self-serving. No guarantee that this won’t be but we’ll see.

For the past two months, I have worked overnights in a group home in Maple Grove. It’s run by a non-profit company who has houses all over the city. I have 24 scheduled hours per week, meetings and training is paid time, and I can fill-in at other houses, which I have been doing recently. I have been working second shift when I work at other houses, which adds the challenge of a completely different routine to the challenge of working with individuals that I have just met.

The individuals that I take care of have various physical and mental disabilities, which are accompanied by often severe health problems. Or sometimes health problems cause the disability; it has been almost a month since one of the people at my primary house died of a degenerative disease I’d never heard of before I got the job.

It’s a difficult job: I’m not creating or selling a product; I am providing care for other human beings, which will never be an exact science. Sometimes I have hard time leaving work at work.

I wanted to write about my job because something is happening inside of me because of it. Maybe God is doing something new, or is reworking something that needed to be reworked, but I am seeing people differently than I used to.

You see for the longest time I have been incredibly uncomfortable with the handicapped, hospitals, nursing homes, etc., basically any place where people were in a different situation than myself. It’s not that I didn’t care about them, but I didn’t really want to be around them, which would make you question my intentions and heart, and that is perfectly fine with me.

Now I haven’t necessarily stopped being uncomfortable. Straight up honesty: I bathed an 84 year old woman this weekend, an activity that I wouldn’t have chosen had I been free to do so. I was incredibly uncomfortable, but early on in the job, I made a choice that I was going to do what was needed in order to properly care for someone, whether or not it was gross. It’s not about my comfort, but theirs.

Quite frankly, I really don’t want to be comfortable in my job. If I get comfortable with disease and death, with defect and deformity, if I get comfortable with the way things are, then I believe I will forget that our world is not the way that God wanted it to be. God does not want us to suffer, He does not want us to die; if I get comfortable, I fear that I will forget that.

Every time I go in to work, there is a reminder that our world is broken. The more I interact with people who are obviously vulnerable and dependent, the harder it gets to deny my own brokenness.

And in response to this, I choose to love. I choose to see someone who is just as needy as I whom I can lend a hand to. I choose to do gross things, the kind of things Jesus would do if he were in my place.

Hard jobs are a necessity because life is hard, but I think they also exist to soften us, to help us see ourselves for who we really are, and to remind us that when God says His creation is good, He means it.

Valentine Stew

So I have a few thoughts to share on Valentine’s Day. Nothing too revolutionary or anything like that; I just have some intellectual odds and ends about February 14^th.

-Knowing that Valentine’s Day is overrated does not make me feel me any better about being single on Valentine’s Day. Those in relationships who are not making a fuss at least have the option of not fussing together.

-If you are interested in someone and they do not share those feelings, it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you, or with them. It just means they are not interested.

-I want to make Christian themed Valentine cards. I learned last week that there are candy hearts with messages like ‘Jesus luvs u’ and such. They’re sort of like Testamints, in that you can share parts of the Gospel without ever actually having to talk to people. My cards would say things like

‘Jesus- He’ll never break your heart for no good reason’.

-My favorite part of Valentine’s Day is the reduced price candy in the following days.

Well those are my thoughts. Happy something or other.

Texting: The Saga Continues

So I have complained about texting and instant messaging before; I think my complaints were valid and we’re not going to go through those again (I also would have to look them up because I forgot what they were).

So instead, I have come up with some texting acronyms of my own. You know what I am talking about, like lol (laugh out loud) or rofl (roll on floor laughing). I will list an acronym and its meaning, because I am such a nice guy. And away we go.


LML: Lose my lunch

DIMU: Dancing in my underwear

TOT: Texting on toilet

STPTB: Skills to pay the bills

SWAG: Swag!

AYSTAFG: Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

IIRTAIRPBRCCCCBCPARCCWOA: If I really think about it, regular Pepsi beats regular Coca Cola, Cherry Coke beats Cherry Pepsi, and R.C. Cola wins over all.

Well, there it is. I give you permission to use those while you are texting or using instant messaging…providing you give me $.35 each time you use one.

A Long Overdue Blog Entry

So yeah I haven’t written anything bloglike in awhile, so it might suck but here we go.

It is the New Year already. I have only had to write the date on something once that I know of, but it felt weird to do so. Like maybe I had gone to sleep for too long and had missed something, you know, like several months of my life.

And in some ways that’s what the last few months has felt like. I quit my job, moved out of my parents house to a house in Minneapolis, and became a part of a new church family, all of those happening in a very short amount of time.

The reason this seems so strange and dreamlike is that it is just so different from the way I do things. Sometimes I do make snap decisions, but it is usually never over anything really big or long term.

But here I am, in north Minneapolis, next to Brooklyn Center, about 8 or so miles from Knollwood Christian Church, where I attend church and help with youth group and participate in a young adult Bible study. I have worked as a temp at four different places where I have recycled television glass, sorted car engine parts, made paving bricks out of old tires, and taken apart TV’s. And all of it is very real.

Some of it has been wonderful and full of amazing blessings, other times I have felt lonelier than I had in years. But, ultimately, it has been the right decision. God paved the way for me to be here, and He knows why He wants me here, and I think that has to be good enough.

My advice for the New Year is to enjoy it. If last year was not a good one, take comfort that our God was good. If last year was the best year of life so far, thank God for the reasons why it was and don’t assume He can’t or won’t top 2011.

On a slightly different note, there is a man at my current work site who looks like an Asian Barrack Obama. God Bless 2012.

Picking Up Random Stuff and the Problems It Can Cause

This morning, I was in an elevator at the temp agency that hired me and I found a nicotine patch on the floor. As any who know me well (or even if you read the title) could guess, I picked it up and put it in my pocket. It is still in my left front pocket as I am typing this. It has been there for almost 10 hours.

The main question is why? Why did I pick it up? Why did it go in my pocket? Why is it still there now, when I have had numerous opportunities to throw it away?

The answer is very simple: I don’t know. I have no use for it (it’s also a prescription drug, technically; kids don’t take someone else’s prescription). I am not one of those people who automatically picks up litter when they see it. I am, however, a collector of random junk.

It has been this way as long as I can remember, and probably before as well. I can imagine a confused doctor wondering how the baby he just delivered came to be clutching a ball of twine. Although I do not remember it, one of my parents had to pull me out of oncoming traffic because I saw a really neat stick in the middle of the road. For a few years I had a favorite comb that I just so happened to have found in a parking lot.

We have come to the point of the post where you ask: What is he talking about and what it does it have to do with life? To which I reply: You’ve got some nerve, buddy.

My point is that just like the random stuff I pick up, our lives can be full of random things that we don’t really need. Maybe it’s a bad habit, or an old hurt that just won’t go away, or something you did a long time ago that you have yet to forgive yourself for. Chances are that in someway or another, the pockets of your heart contain some worthless, harmful crap that need to be gotten rid of. (That was a metaphor, but while we are close to the topic go get your cholesterol checked)

If there is stuff in your life that is dragging you down, get rid of it. It way be awkward, painful, or gross, but in the end will be worth it.

More Emoticons For Y’all

I have serious things to write about, at a later time. I have ponderings about life, love, and God to ponder at you, but we can do that in a while. Instead right now, I just want to come up with new emoticons. I talked about/created some new emoticons in a previous post, so here we go again.

Emoticons that Signal Happiness

-A nutcracker making Chinese food

-A duck wearing a stocking cap and playing hopscotch

-A wheelbarrow full of puppies with Mexican accents

-A ninja wearing glasses

-A long distance trucker in a muumuu

-Simon Cowell getting hit in the groin with a wiffleball bat

Emoticons that Signal Sadness

-A kitten in an iron lung

-An unemployed lion tamer

-French Stewart

-An entire case of diet energy drinks

I guess that’s it for now. I hope that this could distract you from your troubles for a moment or two. God Bless.

Breaking Out of the Loop

Several weeks ago, my parents and I were driving home from church. My dad was going through the radio stations, settling on a Christian station from Duluth. However, the radio station had other plans, playing a loop of ads for the station. Lots of information about today’s best Christian music, without any music to be heard. Strangely enough, we listened to this for about five minutes before finding a new station.

I bring this up because quite often we each end up in our own loop. For a long time, I talked about how I really needed to find another job, but I never really did anything. A friend talked about how I should move down to the Twin Cities area, both so I could make some life changes and so that I could help him with the youth group at the church he works at. I thought that would be cool, but I kind of let that go for over a year, just sort of talking about it and never making any plans.

Recently I made a big change and I broke out of that loop. Without going through all the details, it became very apparent that God wanted me to let go of a lot of things I was holding on to and to move down to the Cities and so this past weekend I did. I am still super nervous and don’t really know my way around, and there are a lot of things to be worked out, but I am here. I have taken a huge step of faith, and I believe God will be faithful.

Maybe there is some sort of loop you’re in. Break it. That is really about all I have to say right now. Being stuck in a loop is not healthy, unless that loop is constantly being awesome. In that case, don’t break the awesomeness loop.