Trusting Us With Silence

We had some great people (Matt and Jessica) over tonight for dessert and coffee (and Kim's famous apple cider) and we got to sharing stories about life. As we shared with them the story of how God brought us to Lake Cities, we told them of the blog entry that was instrumental in God bringing us here. Check it out here.

I read the following a while ago and I thought I'd share it.

As I read Fenelon (he's talking about, Francois Fenelon, the French mystic of three hundred years ago) on silence, I was reminded of what Oswald Chambers wrote about thanking God when he “trusts us with silence.” Fenelon put great emphasis on the value of silence—not only environmental silence, but silence of the soul, stillness of the heart, and tranquility of the mind.

Fenelon writes, “Sometimes the annoyances that make you long for solitude are better for producing humility than the most complete solitude could be. Do not seek God as if he were far off in an ivory castle. He is found in the middle of the events of your everyday life.

“Listen to the voice of God in silence. Be willing to accept what he wants to show you. God will show you everything you need to know. Be faithful to come before him in silence. When you hear the still, small voice within, it is time to be silent.

“Try to practice silence as much as general courtesy permits. Silence encourages God’s presence, prevents harsh words, and causes you to be less likely to say something you will regret. Silence also helps you put space between you and the world. Out of the silence that you cultivate you will get strength to meet your needs.”

Most of us aren’t silent often enough. A chief executive officer of a large corporation attended a weekend retreat recently. He told me that his most meaningful experience of the retreat was the exercise of listening to someone for ten minutes—without saying anything. He realized how much he learned in that listening silence.

God trusts you with silence. Don't let him down.

{Smith, F., and Goetz, D. L. (1999). Vol. 5: Leading with integrity : Competence with Christian character. The pastor's soul series (40). Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers.}

A Weak You Can Be a New You In a Week!

My son John is the healthiest person I know. He is also one of the most disciplined. I praise God for the way he is leading me towards better health. Recently he sent me the following information which I thought I would pass on. This isn't his own work and I really don't know where he got it. But the important thing is that it is good stuff. I'm trying to improve in this area so that I may better steward my body and bring God glory through my body. Improved health has far reaching effects including:

- Better relationships (more energy and focus, less stress and sickness, etc)
- Better work production (more energy and focus, less stress and sickness, etc)
- Better financial stewardship (heart attacks and back surgeries and stress meds aren't cheap!)
- Better self esteem (It's hard enough to like you somedays let alone like you plus 50lbs more)
- Better relationship with God. (It's hard to be close to the giver when you know you've abused his greatest gift beside salvation - your life!)

I could go on and on. But I won't...

Read, FOLLOW (or at least attempt) and enjoy! A new you is just a week away. Not a completely different you, but a better you for sure!

7-Day Starter Program: Guidelines

GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR HEALTHIER FOOD CHOICES QUICK TIPS:

• Eat ORGANIC! Eat at least one green salad each day, two if you can.
• Start out each day with lighter foods and move toward heavier foods later in the day. Heavy foods for breakfast can weigh an individual down throughout the day.
• Make your cooked meals simpler. Eat only one type of cooked food or animal food at each meal, and always have raw salad vegetables and salad fruits such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers with it.
• Remember to drink plenty of water. Try to drink water 30 minutes before meals. Drinking water during or after a meal dilutes the digestive juices and interferes with proper digestion.
• Chew your food! Your stomach doesn't have teeth! The famous Dr. Fletcher recommended 50 chews per mouthful.
• Change it up! Enjoy and experiment by adding a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, seaweeds, sprouts, grasses, herbs, flowers, and superfoods.
• Eat your favorite meals on the weekend so you don't feel deprived!
• If you enjoy alcohol with dinner, consider a healthy choice, such as an organic, sulfite-free wine. Numerous studies have now demonstrated that wine, when consumed in moderate amounts, provides antioxidant (flavonol and resveratrol) protection against numerous cardiovascular problems.
• Exercise. Walk around the block. Take the stairs at work. Park a little further away from the shops and walk an extra five minutes. Exercise increases your energy, builds muscle tone, curbs your appetite, and increases your metabolism. " Get plenty of rest.
  
  IMPORTANT! Daily inspiration and education are your keys to a successful first seven days. We encourage you to visit this link often and listen to the many programs we have available for you!

7-Day Starter Program: SAMPLE MENU 1

GENERAL SAMPLE MENUS:

BREAKFAST

Daily Essentials:

• 1/2 liter (quart) of water mixed with 1/2 tablespoon of MSM crystals
  
  Raw Choices:
  
  Any of the following types of fresh fruit:
• papaya, figs, grapes, berries, melons, apples, grapefruits, pineapple, etc.
• A smoothie containing superfoods
• A fruit salad
  
  Heated or Cooked Choices:
• 1/4 liter (8 ounces) of herbal tea. Squeeze in fresh lemon if desired. Use
  fresh maple syrup or raw honey to sweeten.
• Oatmeal (Steel-cut oats are best.
• Oats contain the beauty mineral silicon)
• Toast with coconut butter/oil or 1/2 avocado (made from whole grain bread or sprouted bread).
• Toast is easier to digest than regular bread.
  
  LUNCH
  
  Raw Choices:
• 1 shot (1-2 fluid ounces) of wheatgrass juice. (Wheatgrass tends to suppress the appetite.)
• 1 liter (quart) of fresh vegetable juice containing at least 50% green vegetables. 50% apples or pears
• One small leafy-green vegetable salad Guacamole: avocado, cilantro, olives, lime juice, tomatoes, onions, celtic sea salt, etc.
• One durian (fresh, if possible…frozen is okay, if fresh cannot be found).
• One whole durian is a big meal!
• Cantaloupe (contains a high amount of beta-carotene and antioxidants)
  
  Heated or Cooked Choices:
• One sandwich containing toasted sprouted grain bread, avocado, clover and radish sprouts, diced red bell pepper, sliced olives, onion and diced cucumber.
• Rice (or bean) burrito containing lettuce, onions, lime juice and tomatoes. No cheese.
  
  Animal-Based Foods:
• Including animal-based foods in one's diet is an individual choice. David Wolfe does not include them in his diet. Fish and wild game are more mineral-rich, contain better quality oils, and leaner protein.
• Goat's milk is much more digestible than cow's milk. Most of the world's population is allergic to cow's milk.
• Smoked fish (only from clean, organic sources - not herring, capelin, menhaden, anchovetta or cod)
• Goat's milk (preferably unpasteurized) Goat cheese (preferably unpasteurized)
• Goat kefir (preferably unpasteurized) Goat yogurt
• 
  

7-Day Starter Program: SAMPLE MENUS 2

GENERAL SAMPLE MENUS:

SNACKS

Daily Essentials:

• 1/2 liter (quart) of water mixed with 1/2 tablespoon of MSM crystals
  
  
  Raw Choices:
• 2 cucumbers
• 2 ribs of celery or bok choy
• One papaya or bowl of fresh figs
• One appetizer bowl of olives
• Dehydrated crackers
• 1 handful of hemp seeds
• 1 handful of macadamia nuts
• A young coconut
  
  
  Heated or Cooked Choices:
• Popcorn made with cold-pressed coconut oil
• Baked, no-salt corn chips with guacamole (avocado, cilantro, olives, lime juice, tomatoes, onions, celtic sea salt, etc.)
  
  DINNER
  
  
  Daily Essentials:
• 1/2 liter (quart) of fresh vegetable juice containing at least 60% green vegetables, 40% other vegetables or fruits (apple, cucumber, etc.)
• One large leafy-green salad
• Raw Choices:
• Gourmet raw food
• Dessert Sprouted bread (Essene bread is a dehydrated, no-yeast, flat bread made from sprouted grains).
• One cup of nettle or chaparral tea (after dinner or before sleep as a nightcap)
• Raw soup
  
  
  Heated or Cooked Choices:
• Toasted whole-grain bread (kamut bread, spelt bread) with cold-pressed coconut oil
• Steamed vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, etc.)
• Steamed artichoke hearts (the best of all cooked foods)
• Brown rice (turmeric powder can be used on this meal).
• Baked yam (turmeric powder can be used on this meal).
• Baked sweet potato (turmeric powder can be used on this
  meal).

• Tofu is high in protein. Be sure to select only soy products that are NOT genetically modified. Genetically modified foods contain irregular DNA and enzyme inhibitors that may have long-term damaging effects on our health.
• Rice (or bean) burrito containing lettuce, onions, lime juice and tomatoes
• Hummus with fresh vegetables and vegetable fruits (celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers and tomatoes).
• Vegetable soup (containing more mineral-rich vegetables and less carrots and potatoes).
  
  
  Animal-Based Foods:
• Smoked fish (only from clean, organic sources - not herring, capelin, menhaden, anchovetta or cod).
• Young, organic, free-range, or wild game (turkey, quail, wild birds, venison, etc.).

I Miss The Office

Do you love The Office? I do! And I miss it! A lot! So ... I thought I'd share a few of my favorite quotes:

* Michael Scott: It's simply beyond words. It's incalculacable.

* [during a "Diversity Day" exercise; Angela is wearing a sign on her forehead that says "Jamaican."]

Kevin: Hey.

Angela: Hey.

Kevin: You wanna go to the beach?

Angela: Sure.

Kevin: You wanna get high?

Angela: No.

Kevin: I think you do, mon.

* [Jim set a fence of pencils up between Dwight and his desk]

Dwight Schrute: Your pencils are creating a health hazard. I could fall and pierce an organ.

* Dwight Schrute: Someone forged medical information, and that's a felony.

Jim Halpert: OK, Whoa, all right 'cause that's a pretty intense accusation. How do you know that they're fake?

Dwight Schrute: [reading from a sheet] Uh, Leprosy, Flesh Eating Bacteria, Hot Dog Fingers, Government Created Killer Nano Robot Infection.

* Jim Halpert: Because right now, this is a job. If I advance any higher, this would be my career. And if this were my career, I'd have to throw myself in front of a train.

* Michael Scott: This is our receptionist, Pam. If you think she's cute now, you should have seen her a couple years ago.

* Michael Scott: What is the single most important thing for a company? Is it the building? Is it the stock? Is it the turnover? It's the people. The *people*. My proudest moment here wasn't when I increased profits by 17%, or cut expenditure without losing a single member of staff. No, no, no, no. It was a young Guatamalan guy, first job in the country, hardly spoke a word of English, but he came to me and he went "Mr. Scott, will you be the Godfather to my child?" Wow. *Wow.* Didn't work out in the end. We had to let him go. He sucked.

* Michael Scott: I guess the atmosphere that I've tried to create here is that I'm a friend first and a boss second, and probably an entertainer third.

* Pam Beesley: I don't think it would be the worst thing if they let me go. Because then I might...

[pauses]

Pam Beesley: Its just, I don't think it's many girls' dream to be a receptionist.

* Michael Scott: I'm friends with everybody in this office. We're all best friends. I love everybody here. But sometimes your best friends start coming into work late and start having dentist appointments that aren't dentist appointments, and that is when it's nice to let them know that you could beat them up.

* Michael Scott: Yeah, I went hunting once. Shot a deer in the leg. Had to kill it with a shovel. Took about an hour. Why do you ask?

* Dwight Schrute: Would I ever leave this company? Look, I'm all about loyalty. In fact, I feel like part of what I'm being paid for here is my loyalty. But if there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly, I'm going wherever they value loyalty the most.

* Pam Beesley: The thing about Jim is... when he's excited about something- like the Office Olympics- he gets really into it and he does a really great job. But the problem with Jim is that he works here so... that hardly ever happens.

* Phyllis: [the employees are listing what books they would like to read on a desert island] The DaVinci Code.

Angela: The DaVinci Code. I would bring The DaVinci Code. So I could burn The DaVinci Code.

Dwight Schrute: Yeah right, that would keep you warm for like 7 seconds.

* Dwight Schrute: Yes, I have acted before. I was in a production of Oklahoma in the seventh grade. I played the part of Mutey, the mailman. They had too many kids so they made up roles like that... I was good.

* Michael Scott: Yes. It is true. I, Michael Scott, am signing up with an online dating service. Thousands of people have done it, and I am going to do it. I need a username, and... I have a great one. "Little Kid Lover". That way people will know exactly where my priorities are at.

* Dwight Schrute: In the wild, there is no health care. In the wild, health care is, "Ow, I hurt my leg. I can't run. A lion eats me and I'm dead." Well, I'm not dead. I'm the lion, you're dead.

* Michael Scott: The most sacred thing I do is care... Today I am in charge of picking a great new healthcare plan. Right? That's what this is all about. Does that make me their doctor? Um, yes. Like a specialist.

* Jan Levinson-Gould: Some times a manager - like yourself - has to deliver the bad news to the employees. I do it all the time.

Michael Scott: Oh yeah, when have you ever done that?

Jan Levinson-Gould: I'm doing it right now, to you.

* Jim Halpert: Last night on "Trading Spouses," there's... did you see it?

Pam Beesley: No, I have a life.

Jim Halpert: Interesting, what's that like?

Pam Beesley: You should try it some time.

Jim Halpert: Wow. But then who would watch my TV?

* Dwight Schrute: Okay, first, let's go over some parameters. How many people can I fire?

Michael Scott: Uh, none: you're picking a healthcare plan.

Dwight Schrute: Please knock, this is an office.

Jim Halpert: It

[pointing to sign]

Jim Halpert: says "work space".

Dwight Schrute: Same thing.

Jim Halpert: If it's the same thing, then why'd you write "work space"?

* Dwight Schrute: Through concentration, I can raise and lower my cholesterol at will.

Pam Beesley: Why would you wanna raise your cholesterol?

Dwight Schrute: So I can lower it.

Jan Levinson-Gould: [on phone] Dwight, listen to me very carefully: you are not a manager of anything. Understand?

Dwight Schrute: That's not entirely true, because he put me in charge of picking a healthcare plan.

Jan Levinson-Gould: Really? Okay, when Michael gets back, you tell him to call me immediately.

Dwight Schrute: Call you immediately, good. Hey listen, since I have you on the phone, um, can I fire Jim?

Jan Levinson-Gould: No.

* Michael Scott: I think if I was allergic to dairy I'd kill myself.

* Jim Halpert: God, this is so sad, this is the smallest amount of power I've ever seen go to someone's head.

* Dwight Schrute: Studies show that more information is passed through watercooler gossip than through official memos, which puts me at a disadvantage because

[picks up water bottle]

Dwight Schrute: I bring my own water to work.

* Toby: I need to talk to you in your office, it'll just take two seconds.

Michael Scott: Literally two seconds?

Dwight Schrute: [Diversity Day exercise; Dwight has a card on his head that says "Asian"] ... lots of cultures eat rice, that doesn't help me.

* Dwight Schrute: I have been Michael's number two guy for about five years, and we make a great team. We're like one of those classic famous teams. He's like Mozart and I'm like Mozart's friend. No, I'm like Butch Cassidy and Michael is like Mozart. You try and hurt Mozart, you're gonna get a bullet in your head, courtesy of Butch Cassidy.

* Pam Beesley: I suggested we flip a coin, but Angela said she doesn't like to gamble. Of course by saying that, she was gambling that I wouldn't smack her.

* Meredith: I'll take the oven mitt.

Michael Scott: Sssssssucker! See, I wanted somebody to take it! Reverse psychology!

Michael Scott: Reverse psychology is an awesome tool, I don't know if you guys know about it, but basically you can make someone think the opposite of what you believe, and that tricks them into doing something stupid. Works like a charm.

Kevin: I got myself for Secret Santa. I was supposed to tell somebody, but I didn't.

[smiles]

Dwight Schrute: Yankee Swap is like Machiavelli meets... Christmas.

* Jim Halpert: I want to clamp Michael's *face* in a George Foreman grill.

* Dwight Schrute: Otherwise it's just malfeasance for malfeasance's sake.

* Michael Scott: You know what they say the best medicine is.

Kevin: Well, the doctor said a combination of Interferon and Dacarbazine.

Michael Scott: And laughter, also.

* Dwight Schrute: I.D. badges are long overdue. Security in this office park is a joke. Last year, I came to work with my spud gun in a duffel bag. I sat at my desk all day, with a rifle that shoots potatoes at 60 pounds per square inch. Can you imagine if I was deranged?Jim Halpert: [Michael's hands are tied to the rail of the Booze Cruise ship] What happened to you?

Michael Scott: Captain Jack has a problem with authority.

Jim Halpert: Oh, right, 'cause you announced that his ship was sinking

Michael Scott: He just totally lost it. If you ask me he caused the panic.

* Michael Scott: Last week I would've given a kidney to anyone in this office. I would've reached right into my stomach and pulled it out for them. But now, no. I don't have the relationship with these people that I thought I did. I hope they ask, so they can hear me say, "Uh, no, I only give my organs to my real friends. Go get yourself a monkey kidney."Pam Beesley: Jim cannot speak until he buys me a coke. Those are the rules of Jinx, and they are unflinchingly rigid.

* Dwight Schrute: Yes, I have decided to shun Andy Bernard for the next three years... which I'm looking forward to. It's an Amish technique; it's like slapping someone with silence.

Dwight Schrute: I was shunned from the age of 4 until my 6th birthday, for not saving the excess oil from a can of tuna.

* Michael Scott: I don't want somebody sucking up to me because they think I'm going to help their career. I want them sucking up to me because they genuinely love me.

The Four Hour Twitter 306 Birthday Dancing Horse

I loaned Stephen Bailey a book the other day that I really enjoyed. I hadn't thought about the book for a while, but I've since recalled to mind how impacting it was at the time I read it. I'm not going to say much about it - just check it out for yourself here.

I found a pretty cool application called Twitter. Kinda like a Facebook-Lite. Check it out here.

We had 306 in church yesterday! Beautiful, yet bizarre. Beautiful because each number represents a soul, a smile, and a story. Bizarre because every Sunday before that had been significantly less attended. Our previous record (for lack of a better word - and I don't like that word because of the baggage it carries) was 262 for a "regular" Sunday and 285 for an Easter Sunday. The week before we had 251. So where did the extra 55 people come from? Good question. We will find out this week.

Check back tomorrow (or in April...) for a recap of my sweet Laura's 18th birthday blowout! It was awesome!

And finally... like dancing horses? (and who doesn't, really) then click here.

Consistency

I'm watching Tiger Woods right now. Tiger is on the verge of winning his fourth Buick Invitational in a row. I'm on the verge of falling asleep. I pick up my laptop and notice the link on my igoogle homepage that reads: blogger. I realize that I haven't blogged in a long time.

There was time in my life when I was much more consistent in my posting. I often wonder if those days will ever return. It sure seems unlikely if my current pace and priorities remain the same. But I'll be honest with the three of you reading this, I'm alright with it. Sure I miss it but obviously not enough to change it.

Which leads me to back to Tiger. I've come to realize that his greatness is directly related to his incredible consistency. Some golfers rise up and win a tournament or two, but Tiger is winning tournaments with mind boggling consistency. Bottom line is that he is a machine!

Which leads me back to me. I'm not a machine so I'm going to get some much needed rest. Come to think of it...I consistently get less sleep than I should.

What is it that you do consistently? What is it you do infrequently that you wish you did more consistently?