weekly post from August 12, 2006

Hello friends & loved ones,

Another week has passed and another weekend is upon us. Hard to believe that our church will celebrate 25years in Rochester in just one week. It's a cause for celebration and joy. I'm very excited that I will be one of the djays playing music at the dance next weekend. I thought it would be a wonderful idea (and Jim concurred, always a good sign) to start off by playing the song that was #1 in the country the week in 1981 that the church was founded and follow that with the #1 song in the country the week of the 25th year. I've got both songs lined up ready to play. With so much to look forward to, how could I complain?

It seems that our culture thrives on complaining (yes, that is the C word as referenced above). Country artist Terri Clark said it best in one of her songs, Poor, Poor Pitiful Me. Why do we want to wallow in self-pity and focus on the negative things in our lives? When someone asks, "How are you?" instead of answering with a litany of complaints and woe is mes, we should be answering, "I'm healthy, I'm alive, I'm free etc........ Jim and I both have a saying that makes us cringe when we hear it; hanging in there. To me that implies that one is drowning and barely making it. We have so many opportunities and options for reaching out and getting help. We shouldn't be prideful or afraid to ask for assistance if we need it. We may not have the best president but he's not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. We may not like some things about our country but we don't have to deal with Hamas or Hizballah. It's not a bad life, we should be focusing on what we've got not what we don't have. Sure everyone goes through hard times, however, the mark of character is how one comes out the other side and how one reacts to those difficult times. I'm not saying all complaining is bad, I'm saying we shouldn't make a career out of it.