And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself: Well…How did I get here ?

Yeah, “How did I get here?”

Just one year ago this holiday wasn’t near as much fun. In fact, like most family holidays before it, it was slightly depressing. But this year I’m celebrating the holiday with MY family. Not just my parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and other assorted family; but for the first time I’m sharing that experience with my wife and two sons. Wow, that’s a great feeling.

Like the Talking Heads refer to, I do have a large automobile and beautiful house, both of which I’m thankful for. But, more so I have a beautiful wife and beautiful family (and a beautiful dog and two beautiful cats).

Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young helps me finish out my thought process with:

Our house is a very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
‘Cause of you

Thank you God, for blessing me this year with an amazing family! Your blessings are new every morning. Thank you.

What are you thankful for this year? Share your thoughts as a comment.

What Do I Do These Days?

August of 2008 marked my fifth year of working for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois. I maintain computer systems that host lots of web sites, email services, distributed storage, and authentication services for NCSA. You may have heard in the news recently that we are now in the process of building the world’s largest supercomputer, which is supposed to go online in 2010.

While I enjoy my job, my true passion is my church, Grace Community Church. I volunteer several hours each week there leading our TechArts teams (sound, video, production, and IT) and also help lead and serve on our board (which has been a huge task this year). For the past year and a half, Grace has been networked with LifeChurch.tv, which is one of the most innovative and powerful churches in the US. This partnership has really excited me again about the life changing power of the local church.

Highlights From 2008…

In January our pastor resigned. He’d been the pastor of our church since long before I started attending 16 years ago. I helped lead the task of hiring a new pastor and leading in new ways during the transition of hiring our new pastor on July 1.

My dad went to Moscow and Siberia for a month-long mission trip in June & July. I was pretty proud of him, since he hadn’t gone on any mission trips for a few years due to his health. He spent a lot of his time training Christian leaders there from some churches he’d help plant about 18 years ago.

My Mom had both of her hips replaced this summer and fall. She’s been off work for almost 6 months as she’s been rehabilitating. Things have gone great for her, but it’s made for a slow rehabilitation for a lady that’s always on the go. Since both my parents have had both hips replaced now, I think I need to schedule an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon in about 15-20 years.

In September I became kind of a surrogate father. A friend of mine from church has 2 teenage brothers that she adopted a few years ago. The oldest one has been having some issues with her this year and they’d gotten to a point where she wasn’t comfortable with him continuing to live with her. So, R.C. has been living with me for the past few months. It’s been a really good experience for both of us.

Lessons & Growth in 2008…

1. This year I’ve realized a new confidence in how God has created me. He has created me, and that’s good. Over the years I’ve gathered a lot of wisdom, and as a result I should use it and share it. In the past I’ve normally kept quiet and not offered my opinions, but I’ve come to realize my opinions also come with years of experience and are valuable. I no longer consider myself a kid, but rather a man who God can use. I’m no longer afraid of greatness.
2. This year I’ve also gained a new level of trust in God. At church things looked almost impossible this spring. But, I’ve been reminded that I don’t need to have all the answers. Despite me not understanding all the details, God’s got my back and I can relax and not worry. If I’m following God’s leading, He’ll take care of the details and lead us to a new place.

So, anyway, that’s a brief look at God at work in my life this year. It’s funny how most of the excitement from this year was totally unexpected, but has been one of the best yet of my life. He’s still the Lord Emmanuel, God with us. I’m excited to see what new excitement is awaiting in 2009.

Merry Christmas!
-Bill

2.009 is even lower than I predicted a month ago. I like it.

Sent from my phone.

I’d come to serve these poor people.  I wasn’t sure what tasks lay ahead.  I knew some people were injured — maybe I’d work in triage wrapping bandages.  I knew people were here without money and food — maybe I’d work a food line.  Maybe I’d setup cots or give out clothes or cut branches or unload supplies or clean porta-potties.  I was willing to do whatever.  It’d likely be hard and probably push me out of my comfort zone.  I didn’t know how to encourage and support people after such a terrible event.  What if I needed to help in the clinic and had to touch someone’s blood?  Oh well, I want to make a difference and I guess it will be worth it.

Little did I expect that I’d be surfing the internet, creating online web forms, using my wireless laptop, configuring simple networks, and other geeky stuff that I always enjoy doing.

God has an amazing way of using our passions to serve with.  It’s great to be willing to do whatever for the glory of God.  But since God created us intentionally he’ll generally use the passions and skills that he wired into us to bring glory to him.  That’s part of what makes serving so much fun.

How have you seen God work through the skills and passions that He’s given you?  Did that surprise you?

• Wow, a hurricane.
• Hundreds of thousands forced out of their homes.  That sucks.
• I hope someone helps them.
• The church down there should help them.
• The Church should help them.
• Our church should do something.
• I should do something.
• I should do something tangible.
• This process is unorganized.
• Why doesn’t the Red Cross have this more organized?
• Why doesn’t that leader organize things a bit better?
• Why aren’t we doing this or that?
• If I were in charge, I’d do it differently.
• Why aren’t the leaders doing a better job of leading?  This is their job!
• Wait, these ‘leaders’ just showed up and decided to do something.
• This isn’t organized.  If I were here for a few days I’d do something different.
• Wait, I’m here now.  I can lead now.  I’m here for a purpose.

Be present in the moment.  Don’t criticise from the back seat.  Even if you don’t drive for long, be willing to take your turn when the opportunity presents itself.

It was the end of our first day working at the River Centre shelter.  We’d driven through the night the day before and I was now working on only about 6 hours sleep for the past 48 hours.  I was exhausted and at the end of my rope.  But, we now had a 5 year old boy latched onto us who needed some love and attention.

His mother had left the shelter that morning around 10a and he didn’t know where his mom was.  It was now about 9 hours later and we didn’t want to leave this boy alone.  I’d already sent most of our team off to find the place where we were supposed to be sleeping, but now after searching for his mom for about 90 minutes I was at the end of what I could handle.

In selfish desperation, I said a short prayer…

Lord, if there’s any way possible, it’d sure be nice if this boy’s mother could show up here in the next couple of minutes.

Literally about 90 seconds later I see 2 women walking in and this boy going to them.  It was the boy’s mother and aunt.  God had answered my simple prayer.  I couldn’t believe it.  The timing was just too weird to not have been God’s personal response to me.

So, why do I tend to only turn to God and ask for his help as a last resort?  Why do I think I have to solve things on my own and exhaust all other resources, before turning to God?  It’s either that I don’t trust him, or I’m too proud to feel like I need his help.  Either option is stupid.

Lord, help me to come to you with my daily needs.  Help me to trust and depend on you in both the little and big stuff of life.  Without you I’m not all that hot, and I need your help.

Do you have any stories of when God answered a really simple prayer of yours?  Do you have trouble asking for help with the simpler needs in your life?

When we arrived at Baton Rouge and checked in for job assignments, my team was told that we were needed to comfort and encourage people at a medical clinic and at a shelter.  I remember thinking, “What!  I don’t know how to comfort people.  I was expecting to do real stuff like clear brush, move supplies, or repair houses.  I don’t know how to comfort people, let alone lead others in doing this.  Give me a chainsaw instead.”

Then suddenly I was put at ease.  I told my team that I was a bit anxious about this sort of work but encouraged them (and myself) that this just meant listening to people, understanding their struggles and pain, and giving plenty of hugs.  I could do that.

Over the next two days I used my skills as best I could to look up information for people on the internet.  I connected a mother to her daughter that was about to give birth in a hospital.  I looked up phone numbers for distant family members.  I sent email to people to let them know their family members were in our shelter.  I searched through the lists of missing, safely found, and confirmed dead for names of their family and friends.

But, the bigger thing I did was that I took time to listen to each person who asked for my help.  People were lonely, confused, and hurting.  They wanted a friend who cared, even if it was only for a few minutes or hours.

I heard a elderly man tell me how he got out of his house, only to discover his wife didn’t follow him out immediately and was then trapped.  He left his home absolutely helpless to save her.  I could tell several others had similar experiences, but they couldn’t work up the courage to talk about it.  Instead we’d exchange big bear hugs with understanding tears in our eyes.

Several other people told me how they had been estranged from their families in previous years and how that was so painful now when they needed them.  Besides the trauma of the hurricane, the hurricane brought their normal, every day pain to the surface and they couldn’t ignore it as easily as normal.

People need compassion and relationship more than they need their questions answered or problems fixed.  While it’s good to help people by serving them, everyone’s deepest needs are for love and relationship.

Lord, help me to see people’s need for love and relationship.  Help me not get distracted with doing good things and miss really getting to know the people around me.

Am I the only one who struggles with this?  Tell me about your experiences and struggles with this.  We can encourage each other in this area.

But, tonight I was reminded of a huge thing I learned during Labor Day weekend in 2005.  That was the weekend following disaster in the Gulf Coast, known as Hurricane Katrina.  As I was thinking about this one lesson that I learned that particular weekend, I realized that there were some other lessons I learned that weekend.  And each of these were really huge, significant lessons that have shaped my life since then.

So, this is an introduction to 5 key lessons that I learned from the weekend after Hurricane Katrina.  Read about my 5 lessons here over the next few days:

1. Techno Savior
2. A Little Less Action, and a Lot More Talk
3. Pray Tell What?
4. It’s Safer Driving from the Back Seat
5. Shouldn’t This Be Less Fun?

One of the habits that I want to develop is documenting my life lessons and glimpses of when I’m certain God showed me something.  These lessons from this one weekend are just that.

How do you remember when you learn a life lesson?  How far after an experience do you typically need to be to understand what that experience has taught you?