A Slower Pace

It’s a good thing that this blog is not my job — because right now I suck at it and I would be fired. Is it possible to be fired from your own blog?

I am traveling this week for business to Oregon. It has been off and on drizzly and cloudy with occasional pokes of sunshine — kind of like Seattle south. But this morning is absolutely gorgeous with a bright morning sun and spotty clouds against a blue sky. Yesterday morning on my walk/run I was blessed with the opportunity to serve. This morning I received a different gift from God in the form of nature and seeing a beaver, heron and various water fowl. They were two very different gifts but gifts none-the-less for my morning.

Make sure that you are used by God today. He places so many opportunities — big and small — in front of us every day. It is up to us to identify them and act on them in the hopes that some day we will hear “Well done, good and faithful servant”.

Off to breakfast, work and an all day training.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I have never paid attention to it before, but there are several March dates that have some significance. I wrote about one of them here — March 4th (the only date that is a command – march forth).

This last Monday was another – Pi(e) day. It was March 14 (or 3/14) and 3.14 is the mathematical value for PI. Math geeks celebrate by eating pizza and have pie for dessert.

Today’s date is more special. I blogged about it here but I did not correlate it to a date such as March 16th. I am reposting it below because of the importance.
************************************************************
Almost all of us know the popular passage from scripture, John 3:16. — “For God so loved the world that he gaves his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Well, during one of my recent devotionals, I came across a passage from 1 John 3:16. It, too, was very impactful — “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

Pretty cool, huh? Well, I thought – “I wonder how many other inspirational verses are at chapter 3 verse 16 in the other books of the New Testament”. Below are ones from my research.

MATTHEW
“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God.”

MARK
“These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter)”

LUKE
“John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

ACTS
“By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”

ROMANS (this one doesn’t fit the 3:16 mold)
“ruin and misery mark their ways”

1 CORINTHIANS
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”

2 CORINTHIANS
“But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”

GALATIANS
“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds”, meaning many people, but “and to your seed”, meaning one person, who is Christ.”

EPHESIANS
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”

PHILIPPIANS
“Only let us live up to what we have already attained.”

COLOSSIANS
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”

1 THESSALONIANS (no 3:16)

2 THESSALONIANS
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.”

1 TIMOTHY
“Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great:
He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.”

2 TIMOTHY
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

TITUS (no 3:16)

PHILEMON (no 3:16)

HEBREWS
“Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?”

JAMES
“For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

1 PETER
“keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

2 PETER
“He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

1 JOHN
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

2 JOHN (no 3:16)

3 JOHN (no 3:16)

JUDE (no 3:16)

REVELATION
“So because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Today is the only date that is a command.

March fourth

It reminds me of Matthew 28:19 — Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

The 2011 season of NASCAR has officially started with the running of the 53rd Daytona 500 today. I recorded it due to some church stuff going on, but I made it home with about 75 laps to go so I watched it in the garage while getting some stuff done. My son hung out with me and we did some guy stuff along with working on his bike as the laps ticked off.

As it got down to the few remaining laps left, things started getting crazy — as they normally do at the end of the 500. I have had the Daytona speed week on TV while in the garage this last week and caught interviews and summaries. One kid that caught my eye was Trevor Bayne. He is a Sprint Cup rookie and hails from down the street in Tennessee. In his interview he brought up his Christian faith which immediately bubbled him up on my list of favorite NASCAR drivers. It would be interesting to watch this new 20 year old in this highly competitive sport of stock car racing.

So fast forward to the last handful of laps of the Daytona 500. Trevor and another favorite of mine, David Ragan, were paired up helping each other, at times, leading the race. It was cool to see two young racers with zero cup wins between them lead a pack of hungry veterans who have won before. On a restart, David Regan dropped down low and broke a NASCAR rule I didn’t know existed and he was black flagged a lap. Couple this with a wreck and you had Trevor leading for a green, white, checker finish. He was able to fend off some awesome drivers to cross the finish line first making him the youngest Daytona 500 driver. He didn’t even know how to get to victory lane which was pretty funny. But the best thing was his post-race interview and acknowledgement of God.

Fox interviewer — You are a Daytona 500 winner. Has it sunk in?

Trevor Bayne — No. I keep thinking I’m dreaming; I really do. I mean, I, man, we said a prayer before, you know, we pray a lot, and we expect a lot of things but this just shows how powerful God is. Man, I am so thankful for the job that these guys did on this race car because its unbelievable. I mean, this thing is….our first 500, are you kidding me? To win our first one, our second ever cup race. I mean this is just incredible. I can’t thank the guys that worked with me all day enough. I mean, there were 10, 15 different drivers that pushed us. Carl helped us there to get across the line. I don’t know what happened with David there that one point but, wow, this is unbelievable! I mean, these guys, Ford, Ford Motorcraft, the Wood Brothers. How cool is it to see the Wood Brothers back in victory lane. You got Leonard over here, he is the man. And, uh, you know, I just, it’s unbelievable. Thanks to Sprint and everybody for the series. Thanks for the fans that are out here. I mean, I’ve never been to a racetrack with this many people here and to win on this kind of platform is just incredible.”

And to also hear Carl Edwards commend Trevor as a really good guy was cool. Looks like I need to go get some #21 Trevor Bayne stuff.

Congratulations, Trevor! What an exciting Cinderella story.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I am traveling this week and on this Valentine’s night I was alone in Shreveport, Louisiana. Actually, technically I was not alone because there are two people from my company I am collaborating with for a partnering presentation today. But I was alone on Valentine’s evening away from my Valentine who is back with the kids in Kentucky. Babe, I love you!

But that aside, the three of us had an interesting time trying to find a place to eat last night. You see, it hadn’t immediately occurred to us that it was Valentine’s Day and mobs would be swarming out into every eating establishment yesterday evening increasing the competition for vittels headed to my hungry stomach.

We first called one of the nicest steak houses in town. The fellow co-worker who had been to Shreveport before knew of theplace and called ahead to make reservations or to see if we could eat at the bar. They were completely booked and pretty much hung up on him. We then walked over to a local casino to hit their very nice steak house. No dice, no open tables, no getting in without reservations. Well, that seemed acceptable because it was also one of the nicer places in town. We were just business travelers trying to eat, not romantic couples who had planned ahead.

We then hit the local developing boardwalk along the Mississippi River. Plenty of places to eat there. We passed by Cold Stone Creamery because, while we didn’t need reservations, it was still packed and none of us wanted ice cream for dinner. My co-worker who had been there before stated that he had never seen the place so busy, especially on a weeknight. It seems everyone was out treating their sweetheart while we struggled to get a bite to eat.

Another place there, Saltgrass Steak House, had a waiting time of 30 minutes. Not bad for 7:30pm and we threw our hats in the ring and decided to walk further down the boardwalk to see if we could “upgrade” and get in anywhere else, knowing that it would be our backup. Along the boardwalk, we came upon Hooters. I cracked myself up because I imagined the place pretty much empty except for a bunch of single guys dreaming they could find their valentine there. I also laughed because I said to my co-workers “What pathetic guy would take his sweetheart to Hooters on Valentine’s Day?”

I was right, there were no couples in there, just a few guys hanging out.

We finally made some grub headway when we were able to walk into Joe’s Crab Shack and not have to wait. Unfortunately, the wait was in the middle and on the back end because we were seated in the patio (it was nice outside) and our waitress tended to neglect us. Again, we all thought it a bit funny that we just wanted a meal because we were traveling and we had to compete with all these other people out there on one of the two most busiest “go out to eat” days (Mother’s Day being the other).

I hope you had a nicer meal with your sweetheart last night. Because remember, it’s not the meal, it’s the companionship.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Happy birthday to one of the great Presidents to serve our country! And today is his 100th birthday. May he rest in peace.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I don’t know if I have posted it here before or not but let me just say…..

I LOVE the Louisville International Airport!!!!! (Also know as Standiford Field or SDF)

This was my late afternoon yesterday.

4:11pm – wheels down on the runway
4:21pm – grabbing checked bag that had way too many hotel soaps, shampoos and lotions to fit into the 3-1-1 ziploc bags
4:26pm – pay and exit parking garage
4:58pm – arrive onto the property and take the farm entrance because the driveway is snow covered and hasn’t been redneck snow plowed yet
5:34pm – finish redneck snow plowing the driveway and clean up for a nice home cooked dinner

How cool is all that?!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I had a quick business trip this week — first to Memphis for a day and then Chicago. I leave this afternoon which is a good thing because it’s -5F here. Brrrr!!

Unfortunately, I had to learn that the hard way this morning. Not wanting to burden my expense report with another $42 room service breakfast, I headed to a 24 hr breakfast place that was within walking distance of my nice hotel on Michigan Ave. I remembered seeing it the previous night on the way back from dinner which was about 8 or 9 blocks away. I didn’t think not knowing exactly how far was a big deal because I knew the route; I just didn’t know how far but that it couldn’t be farther then 8 or 9 blocks.

So I had my nice black pea coat on and entered the circular glass revolving door. Upon exit, the freezing cold took my breath away…..and didn’t give it back. It was so cold that it was hard to breathe. I picked up my pace and began power walking to my breakfast destination. The crosswalk lights were cooperating making my time out in the cold more bearable because I was constantly making progress. Although I was regretting not having a cap or beanie.

1 block, 2 blocks, turn left and cross the street. Man this is cold. And now the wind is blowing down this concrete canyon taking all known warmth from any exposed piece of flesh. 3 blocks, look both ways, jay walk, 4 blocks, jay walk again. Man, I can’t feel my ears now. 5 blocks and my head is beginning to hurt as the wind freezes the snot from my rebelling nose. I think I see it up ahead on the left. I begin jogging. I reach the relief of the vestibule winded and frozen after a 6 1/2 block thermal gauntlet. Damn! I just figured out that I have to reverse all that after breakfast. Well, at least I’ll have time to thaw out and have a full belly.

Blueberry pancakes and an orange juice were on tap along with wonderful service from Mary. My devotions for breakfast were in 2 Timothy chapters 1 and 2. Soon enough it was time to brave the Chicago frozen tundra again so I heavily tipped Mary and busted out into the cold. The walk back was equally as brutal but at least this time I had the wind to my back. And on my elevator ride up to my room, I noticed the little LCD advertisement display telling me that it was 6:55am and -5F. Hmmmm…..I must have missed that on my ride down. It sure would have been nice to know. Not that I’d do anything different.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I sit here after this evening’s church service catching up on the gridiron battle going on at the Rose Bowl between the Horned Toads of Texas Christian University and the U of Wisconsin Badgers. 19 years ago I was at that same venue rooting for purple as the U of Washington Huskees road victoriously to a win. I still have my ticket stub signed by winning coach Don James. It was also my debute on ESPN as they interviewed Coach James in his victory suite afterwards and I happened to be over his shoulder.

I am again rooting for purple, this time for TCU, for a few very good reasons. One, I’m Texan and they have Texas in their name. Two, I’m Christian and they have Christian in their name. Enough reasons there but then watching the broadcast I find out that TCU head coach Gary Patterson spent time as an assistant coach at Cal Lutheran where I played one year of college football. How cool is that?

Go Horned Frogs!!!!!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

11:11am on 1/1/11.

We have another shot in 10 days on Jan 11. And two more on Nov 1 and Nov 11.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net