>Waiting

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Steve Picray

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A guy at church tonight asked me if I enjoyed being a nurse. I told him “yes and no.” Yes means that I like parts of my job, I enjoy helping people, making sick people better, etc. I don’t like working nights (but our debts require me to). I don’t like the cattiness of some of my co-workers. Most of all, I don’t like the fact that God called me into the ministry, but because I have debt, I have to do something else right now.

I am hoping and praying for the day that my debts are paid off and we can re-enter the ministry, serving God full time. God reminded me a few years ago that nothing is too hard for Him. I have to keep telling myself this. Perhaps I’m not ready, and so I strive to get closer to God, growing in my faith. Perhaps the place that He has for me is not ready. And so I wait, trusting in His timing.

Waiting is hard.

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>WHO Radio

Posted on January 22, 2011 by Steve Picray

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I was listening to 1040 WHO Radio this morning. Let me back up. I used to listen to this radio station all the time when I lived in Iowa. When we moved to Indianapolis I couldn’t listen to my favorite shows on WHO anymore. I was frustrated that Indianapolis had no equivalent radio station.

Last fall I got an iPod touch through a program at work, and about a month ago I discovered the “iheartradio” app for iPod/iPhone. Now I can use my iPod to listen to WHO (so long as I’m in a wifi zone). Then I discovered I can use my phone as a mobile hotspot! So now I listen to WHO radio in my car on the way to/from work sometimes. I can imagine that I still live in Iowa. It’s actually nice to hear the farm report (even though I don’t know what some of it means, but I’ve heard about “pork futures” since I was a kid, so it feels right).

This morning I was driving home from work listening to WHO’s Saturday Morning Live with Dick & Cheryl. They were talking about businesses that operate under the “honor system.” For those of you in Detroit (and other places unfamiliar with the “honor system”) I will explain. There is a store with good set out (food, produce, crafts, other products or whatever), and there is a box where you put your money. Sometimes you can even make your own change from what other people have put in. Most people pay, some people don’t, and some people pay more than asked, so it all evens out in the end. I would think this practice would be getting more and more scarce as the days go by.

So I’m listening to this radio show where the hosts are encouraging people to call in and give examples of places in Iowa that currently operate under the honor system. People call in and give many examples. Suddenly I had a thought: What if there’s a guy out there right now listening to this show making a list of all these businesses that leave a box filled with money lying around unattended. I wonder if they thought of that. Hmmmm.

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>I am Resolved.

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Steve Picray

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My New Year’s Resolutions: (BTW, the picture is of the HMS Resolution. If I knew how to put captions under pictures, it would be there.)

I resolve to quit smoking, getting drunk, going to wild parties, etc. Oh wait, I already don’t do those things. Seriously, I will start with the obvious: I need to lose weight. It seems like every year I make another attempt at becoming more self-disciplined in several areas. The two most telling areas for me are physical and financial. I eat too much junk. I don’t exercise enough. I spend money on things I don’t really need. I waste money by making stupid decisions. Well here and now I say: this will continue!

What? Were you expecting me to say it would stop? Naaah. I am going to make a serious effort to wean myself off junk food, sloth, and financial stupidity, but I recognize that I am human, and humans do dumb things. I have quit bad habits in the past, and while they never really go away, I can say that after a long time their drawing power drastically diminishes. So I am resolved. But what does that mean? I looked “resolve” up in the Merriam Webster dictionary, and found that the word has eight different definitions. I think that when people refer to “new years resolutions” they are talking about definition #5 “to reach a firm decision about,” but it seems to me that #4a may be more appropriate. That one states, “to deal with successfully: clear up” (as in “resolve doubts” or “resolve a dispute.”). When we make a decision in regards to the New Year, usually it’s an effort to deal with something: our health, our wealth, our job, our relationships, etc.

Face it, we can make all the “firm decisions” we want, but if we don’t follow up by “dealing with” the problem, it will never go away.

This year, I am dealing with my weight and my finances. Hopefully I can reach my goals of dropping the pounds, becoming more fit, finally getting up to consistently running 3 miles a day, and needing to buy new clothes, because the old ones don’t fit anymore. Who’s with me?

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>Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2010 by Steve Picray

>For those of you who celebrate the birth of the Son of God, Merry Christmas! For those of you who don’t, please go about your business and have a great day!

I have had a few Bible study ideas that have been rattling around in my head, but I’ve been unable to pursue them since my Bible study software has been on the fritz. While I was in Missouri for my annual deer hunt, “something happened” to my computer, resulting in a soft-restore (reinstalling the OS, etc, and keeping the files) as opposed to a complete wipe of the hard drive. Ever since, there are several programs that didn’t work, one of them being my Logos Bible Software.

Yesterday I took the time to backup my necessary files (music, photos, etc) to my external hard drive. Then I did a complete wipe of my hard drive and reset it to the “factory” settings. This meant that I had to go through and weed out all the garbage software (TRY AOL FREE!) that HP originally included. After that I began the five hour long process of reinstalling all my necessary programs (Windows Update, Office, Firefox, Chrome, Norton, Logos, Nero, iTunes, etc). The most difficult part of the install was sorting through the garbage that iTunes picked up on the reinstall. The most tedious part was waiting for Logos to quit “indexing” so I can use my computer again. Last time I installed Logos 4 it took a day or so before it was done with this “indexing” thing.

One of the ideas I was thinking about is this whole Christmas idea that “Hark, the Herald Angels Sang.” Did they? I know that the Bible doesn’t say they sang at the birth of Christ. It clearly says “said” in the English versions I have. I haven’t studied the Greek though. Luke 2:10 says “the angel said…” Luke 2:13 says “…heavenly host praising God and saying…”. But my question is this: Do they ever sing according to the Bible? And if so, when? I know Job 38:7 says “the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (at the creation of the universe), but that’s not definitive. Anyway, before you pepper me with mockery (“of course they sang! It says so in Hezekiah 5:4, bonehead!”), remember, I’m saying I haven’t studied it yet.

Anyway. One of my resolutions for the new year is to make no resolu….. Nuts. Oh well. 😉

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