Could you give it a little push?

I've been at the same job for over a year now. In that year, I've taken the same walk to work every day. Down Centre, cross 6th, through the underground tunnel, past the Steel Plaza T platform, and through the spinning doors. 5 days a week the same 1 point something miles every morning.

I've learned to use recognition of people coming off the T as a good measurement of whether I'm early, late, or right on time. If I see the lady with the red coat and blue snow gloves, I'm right on time- continue with the same pace. The guy who usually wears a plaid shirt? I'm running early and can slow down a bit. If I see the shorter guy with the crutches I'm running late- panic. The reason I usually panic is not because I'm late, its deciding whether or not I want to be even later.

This guy walks up the ramp every morning at approximately 8:33. He's on crutches because he seems to be paralyzed from the waist down. Because of his condition, it takes him probably 10 times longer to get to the revolving door than it would take me. Which brings me to the next problem: the revolving door. This man needs to have both hands on his crutches leaving no free hand to actually push the door. Every time I see this guy, I hear him say the same thing to the person behind him, "could you give it a little push". Then, "Thanks again" when they get through the door and the person passes him. In the mornings that I see him, I go over my 3 choices. I could a) Stick with my pace and pass him by and let someone else help him, b) take an extra minute or so and go around to the stairs and avoid him so that I can stick with my pace but I dont have to feel guilty when I pass right by him or c) stand up to this fast paced world with deadlines and time constraints and help this guy out, even if it is just helping him revolve the door. On different days, I've picked each one of these options. The first two eat at me the whole day. Helping this guy out though means I'm 10-15 minutes late for work. I dont even know why it's such a big deal to me, I'm sure someone will come along and help him through. Sometimes I feel like I want to be late every day of the week so that I can build a relationship with this guy. He probably recognizes me by now, if I saw him every day I'm sure conversation would build. He's such a sweet guy. Ugh. I'm back to the issues in my first post about whose responsibility is who's.

"Q"

I just came across an article about the theory of "Q". I don't really recall ever hearing about it, but it does sound familiar. It's really interestin and if any of you know more about it please tell me. If you, like myself 5 minutes ago, have no idea what "Q" is, let me fill you in. "Q", which stands for Quelle (german for source), is a hypothetical book that provides an explination to the parallels in Matthew and Luke that are not present in Mark. It's all very interesting. I'm hungry for more information, so if you've got it hand it over.

Survivor

One of my co-workers came up with a type of fantasy Survivor game. There are 8 people in my group and 16 Survivor members. Each of us picked two names, threw in a couple bucks, and let the games begin. I've got Sydney and Taj. Sydney is a model and Taj is a former pop-star. I'm gonna lose.

The Way I See It #76

I really liked what my starbucks cup told me today:

The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating -- in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear the likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.

99Designs

I'm working on launching a jewelry store on www.etsy.com. It's a pretty awesome website. So I'm looking for a banner or logo for my jewelry store to make it a little more appealing to the eye once I get some stuff up. I e-mail Josh and Jordan about suggestions on how to go about making a banner. Josh sends me this website:

www.99designs.com

The basic idea of it is that people looking for logos, brochures, anything really in the graphic design realm can post a contest for graphic artists. The minimum prize for one of these contests is 100 bucks. There are hundreds of contests up. I wonder if some of those artist can actually make that their primary source of income? Maybe not, but if you're good enough, you can end up winning a significant amount. It's a pretty cool idea.

Unfortunately, I didn't have 100 bucks to offer as a prize, nor did I have the 40 bucks they charge you to host your contest, so I'm still looking for a banner/logo. Let me know if you've know anyone or have any brilliant ideas on how to create one.

Am I Ready for His Return?

This post is inspired by the thoughts of my sister, Keren. Keren is awesome (as are all of my siblings). She's so creative and just a very "deep" person. Check out this video she created (to the song she wrote and recorded)about purgatory inspired by "Dante's Inferno":



The part of the song where she finds my dad makes me kinda sad. She portrays my dad acting sort of cold towards her I think. Keren has described to me how she envisions heaven. She says that family wont really matter in heaven because the only thing that will matter is praising and worshiping God. Keren is the only person I can think of that doesn't buy into common comfort phrase of "You be with them again in heaven". She told me that when she gets to heaven, she sees herself in a huge crowd of people all worship God, she looks over and sees my dad, they nod at each other, smile, and then continue to worship. That's a radical thought to me. I guess I've always bought into the idea that the first thing I'd do when I get to heaven would be track down my dad and my brother Caleb, run to them, hug them, and let them know how much I've missed them. But the more Keren has stirred up my thoughts I realize that maybe that's a bunch of crap. Maybe we'll be so awestruck in the presence of God that nothing of this Earth will matter.

I think that's kind of a cool idea. That God is so majestic that he erases the importance of everything that we hold so dear to us. On the other hand though, I hate that idea. We get so close to people here on Earth and then, when they die, that's it. Gone forever. There's no comfort in that. It makes me wonder if we are really ready for Jesus to return. Don't you think that in the back of ours minds we're wishing for Him to hold off, we just want a little more time with our loved ones before we enter heaven and lose them. I dunno, maybe I'm way off, maybe Keren's way off, but maybe some of it makes sense- it at least makes you think a little.

More on that...

Forgive me as I get used to all this blogging stuff. I'm realizing that I either need to get my thoughts more organized or get a life because all day after writing that first post, I've been reflecting on it and thinking up new thoughts.

It's funny because I'm just now realizing that I've been struggling with this idea of "whose responsibility is whose" for longer than just last Saturday on my way to school. Makes me wondering if God is presenting this common theme for a reason.

Last Thursday night at Bible study, we were studying Luke 4:31-44. Again, I pulled something out of the scripture that was probably a result of me looking into things. Check out verses 42-44:

42 Early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them. 43 But he replied, “I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that is why I was sent.” 44 So he continued to travel around, preaching in synagogues throughout Judea.

Jesus left the people of Capernaum. His job there was done and he had to move on. I don't like that idea of Jesus leaving. We joked at bible study about there not being a follow up appointment. Jesus didn't establish relationships with these people and check up on them. He healed them, and moved on. Again, I wonder at what point are our jobs done with people. Did Jesus pray for the people he healed in Capernaum, did he ask others how they were doing? I don't know what it is about all this but it bothers me.