Category Archives: inspiration

We’re Here to Help

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I met with a friend today whom I hadn’t seen in months – probably close to four. His wife had a baby about eight weeks ago, and 12 weeks ago, my wife had a baby, and 16 weeks ago, my family moved a half hour away from where we used to live. It makes spending time with former friends difficult and many times, just plain unmanageable. But not today.

So his wife just had a baby; and, just like me, he’s a stay-at-home dad (whatever that means). It’s not the easiest road to travel, and now my friend and I can empathize with each other and those dads around the country who stay at home during the day and make less money that their wives.

We concluded our time together, our babies in hand, by me saying a few words of encouragement and praying for him. The main point I wanted to drive home was that we’d always be available to him and his wife if they needed to talk, bounce ideas off of us, hang out, pray with or for them, or otherwise agonize together as parents.

Megan and I want to be known as doers of friendship, not just lip service friends. We want you to know that if there is anything we can do for *you*, we’re here to help.

When I’m Not Me

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http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CrayonLogs.jpg

Over the past month, I’ve had conversations with two different friends about what it means to be “me” – whoever you are. We all came to the same conclusion:

One thing that makes you you is that you find special satisfaction in doing a particular type (or types) of work. You’ve been uniquely gifted, and if you’re not regularly exercising those gifts, you’re acting contrary to how you were created to act.

Those gifts could be anything: dancing, typing, editing, marketing, talking with people, building, designing, writing, punching or crunching numbers, analyzing, caring for someone, snapping a picture, digging holes, driving, teaching, learning – whatever. The thing is, sometimes your desired vocation doesn’t turn out to be your occupation – at least for a particular season in life. But hang in there. I say that as one who struggles with this very thing.

Just to clarify: vocation is just one part of who we are. It isn’t the whole person. It’s not even the most important part of the whole. But it’s a part that gets over-emphasized in countries like the USA.