A Lifelong Dream

 Ever since I was a boy, I have had a dream.  It is a typical boyhood dream, but nevertheless, it was my dream .  I wanted to work for a baseball team, specifically  for the Chicago White Sox as their starting third baseman.  It turns out I was not much of a ball player.  I wasn't even a starter on my little league teams. Over the years I modified that dream somewhat.  I dreamed of perhaps being a broadcaster, that way if a job at 3rd base ever opened up I'd be ready to take over.  

A few years ago my brother had a Confirmation party for his daughter at the party suites of a local minor league team.  He shared the suite with a neighbor whose daughter had also been confirmed that day and is the operations manager at the ball park.  My brother introduced me as a guy who is passionate about baseball and whose dream job would be to work at a ball park.  He didn't mention the part about 3rd base probably because there's not a lot of rookies in their 50's.   His friend mentioned the possibility of a job  an usher.  I thought that might be a good job to consider for the next summer.  The next summer was 2020 and there was this little thing called Covid, maybe you heard of it, and since there was no season there was no where to ush.  

Eventually things got a little bit back to normal ,and by April of this year, I was back to working my pre covid jobs as a substitute teacher and  cashier/usher at a local movie theatre.  Last week the school year ended and on one of my last days at school my wife called me and said she had a crazy idea.  I love crazy ideas, so I was all ears.

"The Kane County Cougars need concessions worker this summer, you and I should get jobs there." she told me.  I told her that was not a crazy idea at all and we both  applied that day. When I was applying, I saw they were also hiring 15 year old's with a work permit.  My 15 year old daughter was also looking for work. so she applied as well.  In short order, we all received emails from the Cougars and  were scheduled for interviews.  Lucy's school year ends a week later than the district Amy and I work at so we scheduled the interview for the day after her (Lucy's) school ended.  When the interviewer saw that we were all in the same family he took us all in together.

Lucy, had never been interviewed for a job before but it became obvious to Amy and I pretty early in the process that we were all going to be hired.  It wasn't until we were leaving and the interviewer said very clearly that we'd all been hired that Lucy realized it.  She was ecstatic and couldn't believe it was that easy to get a job.  Amy and I will be working as cashiers and Lucy will be working in the picnic area.  As we will only be working home games, it still gives Amy and Lucy quite a bit of vacation time this Summer and I will be able to work out my schedule at the theatre so I can work both jobs.  

I have always kind of felt bad for people who work concessions at the ball park as they can't enjoy the game as they are helping others to do the same thing.  As I prepare for this job, I look forward to going to the ball park every day and being part of the festivities.  Even if a third base position doesn't open up sharing this job experience with my wife and daughter make it a dream job.  

The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

How to Get Through 2021: Press On.

 When I wrote my first How to get through 2021 post, I did not expect to write another one the next month and certainly not to write another one the month after that.  But this seems to be exactly what I'm doing. 

In my first installment, I talked about how Day by Day interaction with God will help us get through difficult times,  In the second I mentioned about how true Shoulder to Shoulder fellowship will aid us in that journey.  That should be it, I thought.  If God is not all encompassing enough relying on  and serving others who are also relying on and serving God should fill in the gaps. 

Well there seems to be a third ingredient in progressing through difficult times and I was reminded it of last night when listening to Spotify. I was listening to a song by Billy Sprague , a musician, song writer and performer who years ago lost his fiance in a car accident.  She was driving to one of his concerts when the accident occurred. He took a 3 year hiatus from recording and touring and his 2nd release after his return led off with the song, Press On.

  

Although Sprague certainly did not write this song for Covid the emotions expressed are similar to the results of living in lock-down. 

Consider these lyrics

... the passion for life drained like blood from my chest

And it took more than  my will just to take a step when the compass of hope was gone. 

or

Every desperate prayer seemed like heaven refused and some days I found faith meant just tying my shoes and it was all I could do to press on.

In shampoo bottle parlance, if Day by Day is wash and Shoulder to Shoulder is rinse then Press On is repeat.  Pressing on is a continuation of trusting God  and walking along side each other through our trials and our joys.  

Look at the Shoulder to Shoulder living happening in the 2nd verse...

On the oceans so lonesome I  was not left alone

had some heavenly friends when my heart was a stone

and they carried my heart ache and made it their own

when the current of sorrow was strong.

(and one said)

"I pray your memories will not drag you down

not be anchors but treasures of the love that you found"

and his kind words turned hurt into comfort somehow

and the wind in my sails to press on.

I think at least those of us  in western society consider pressing on a solitary activity.  I think it is actually quite communal.  There are heartaches every in life that could be greatly  benefit from  a group of people making it their own.  Even as I was writing this, a friend called to invite me to a church service on Easter which reminded me how his own father said kind words to me on an Easter Sunday some 30 years ago that put the  wind back  in my sails.  I'll save that story for another time. 

In Philippians Chapter 3 the Apostle Paul discusses the concept of pressing on.  In verse 9 he talks about attaining a righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith in Christ.  In verses 10 and 11 he talks about knowing Christ through his  suffering , death and resurrection. In verses 12 and 14 he describes how he is progressing to this point but having not yet reached it and how  he is pressing on towards that goal.  In the 2nd part of the 13th verse he writes something that describes a successful strategy for combating grief, co-vid or anything that life throws at us ...

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. Philippians 3:13B (NIV)

Paul as he often does is using his words to assign priorities.  The past can be very instructional to us but we should never let it define us.  Grief doesn't define us. Lock-down shouldn't define us. A Christians goal should be to become more like Christ.  We can do that by pressing on and we weren't meant to that alone. 

 

 I think this may be it, but who knows, there is still a lot of 2021 to get through and I know a lot of songs.  

How to get through 2021: Day by Day

I volunteer with our church youth group, It is for 6th graders through 12th graders.  Until recently it was two separate youth groups one for 6th 7th and 8th graders and one for 9th through 12th graders  meeting on separate nights of the week.  During the Summer we would allow the incoming 6th graders to join the middle school group and the outgoing 8th graders to attend both groups.  As the Summer would draw to an end I would give the outgoing 8th graders a short (2-3 minute) commencement  on their last night of the younger group.

In 2016 my son Charlie was one of the kids moving up to the high school group.  I challenged the students to have a "2020" vision of what they hoped to achieve in High School especially how they could be used by God in their new schools.  

Little did any of us know about what the year 2020 held for us. In fact my son's senior year was progressing quite normally until March 13th turned out to be his last day of high school that actually met at the high school.  Since that day, 2020 was a rather tumultuous year (Understatement Alert).  

The events of the past 2 weeks make 2021 look like it's going to be more of the same.  How do we get through another year like that?

The answer both figurarively, literally and musically is Day By Day

 

As this  great song suggests we can not only get through 2021 but thrive in the midst of it by doing these 3 things from Day by Day, day by day.

Seeing God more clearly

Loving God more dearly

Following God more nearly.

So like I told the YG in 2016 vision is important.  The vision that God is showing me for 2021 requires more time Seeing God through time spent in his word, Following God through obedience to his word  and Loving God by loving his creation.  I hope to expound on this more in further posts. Right now I'm just taking it day by day.