Run with God

Couple Surprises on a Friday

Had a couple surprises today... first off was myBabyGirl(s) surprising me on Google VideoChat. That is, in case you're curious, a big 'ol honkin smile underneath my goatee. I love myBabyGirl(s) and would drop just about anything to talk with them. Beowulf even stopped by for a brief visit.

Secondly, (and not nearly as cool), saw a rumor that the new Mac Minis will gain support for Dual Displays. Instead of just having one DVI output, the Minis will have two... which means that, if true, this is an incredibly cheap option to run ProPresenter/ProVideoPlayer from.

Come on, Apple! Give us an economic option for Dual Displays!

Hopefully, more surprises like this will be coming soon...

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When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."

Though Satan should buffet,
Though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

And Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight.
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll.
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall decend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Psst... Yeah, you...

My daughter, Caitlyn, is going to be born in, like, 34 days. That's like one month. And after next Saturday (as in 5 days) if Amy has any more contractions the doctors will not stop them.

Uh, yeah. I'm sorry, but does anyone else think this is insane? Just throwing it out there. I'm going to be a daddy in like one month. Or as soon as one week.

Serious question. I don't look like a daddy. I don't feel like a daddy. I don't talk like a daddy. I don't blog like a daddy (I'm assuming this because my daddy doesn't blog). At what point do I start doing daddy stuff? When do I become, for lack of a better word, daddy? Is it like this life-changing thing where it will hit me like a ton of bricks, or is a more, gradual thing?

the full one six eight

i've been struggling lately with who i am, or at least how i can be the person(s) i need to be within the one six eight.

every week i get one hundred and sixty eight hours...

... to be the husband
... to be the (soon to be) father
... to be the friend
... to be the employee
... to be the boss, and boss
... to be the Paul
... to be the Timothy
... to be the student
... to be the teacher
... to be the blogger
... to be me, whoever me is...

there are some weeks that i can do everything within the one six eight.
there are some weeks that i might as well not even try.
there are some weeks i prioritize, focus on some areas and ignore others.

but for some reason,
for this season,
God has me running for each one six eight.

each role is different.
sometimes i'm aggressive. other pensive.

and during this weekly one six eight sprint,
some things i succeed at. others, i fail...
at least until the one six eight clock resets,
and we go at it again.

if i didn't love the challenge so much, i'd probably be depressed.
but i don't have time. one six eight is counting down.

God, help me to be the man You want me to be for the full one six eight. while my environments change, my roles change, and my personalities change, help me to stay true to the identity You have laid out before me. thank You for running alongside of me. help me to stay focused on You, the reason i do the one six eight.

Butchering HTML... or why Jeff misses GoLive

I spent today hacking (read: butchering) HTML... it's been years since I've done it... and what should have taken like 30 minutes took hours...

1) I miss Adobe GoLive. Back when I was running eBeliever, I could use either GoLive or (then) Macromedia Dreamweaver. Even though Dreamweaver was the Industry Standard, I liked GoLive's Interface. It worked excellently with Adobe Photoshop and (then) Adobe ImageReady. The CSS Editor was slick. I knew where all the tabs went. Heck, I spent four years of my life working in that application. Fast forward to today: the majority of the day today was spent hunting around Dreamweaver for a certain tool, or a certain attribute field, or the color dropbox. My day was frustratingly ugly (I ended up coding a lot by hand... also ugly)...

2) I LOVE Dreamweaver's WYSIWYG editor - coding is top half the screen, and page layout is bottom half. Incredible! If I had this years ago, I may not have sold eBeliever...

3) I remember what I didn't like about eBeliever... staring at a computer screen all day. Thankfully tomorrow I'm going to be nowhere near my laptop... so I'll get to explore other avenues of my job description.

4) Even though I've been blogging for almost two years now, I really haven't done much advanced stuff since I left eBeliever almost four years ago. There are some cool tools out there now! Stuff that I was not able to do back then (or too costly to set up) I could do easily w/o a problem.

5) Doing a little bit makes me want to do more of it... CF has a couple big web projects on the horizon... I'm very excited... Anybody got a manual for Dreamweaver CS3?

Christian Bookstore for sale

As painful as it is for me to say it, I'm selling The Living Word. It's time for me to simplify my life. I've enjoyed the opportunities God's allowed me through the unconventional ministry of a Christian Bookstore in Miami. Initially, when I took the position at Christ Fellowship I thought I could do both. The workload has become too much for me, and I'm ready to let go of the bookstore and put it in the hands of someone that can give it the attention that it needs. I am mentally exhausted from the pace of my life, and with the arrival of myBaby in the Fall - I am the first to admit my life needs to change.

Honestly, the economy is down right now. With that in mind, I have priced the store reasonably to allow the buyer a cushion... I live 4 minutes away from the bookstore, and I want to continue to have a Christian bookstore in my neighborhood! The ministry of The [Living] Word has been in Miami almost 15 years now. Lord-willing it will continue.

So to you, my readers, please pray about the opportunity.

Maybe you'd be interested in ministering to the people of Miami through the unconventional method of retail. If so, comment/email/call me and I'll go into specifics on what I am offering, and what I am looking for. I promise you, it's a good deal.

Maybe you know someone who would be interested in this opportunity. I am offering a significant finder's fee... if a buyer is referred to me by another person, then the referring person will get 1% of the selling price of the business (I look out for my peeps!)

Questions? Please don't hesitate to ask.

God, thank you for the ministry, the experience, the friendships in the community. I pray that You would lead the right person to this ministry, and that Miami would continue to have the resources available to them.

Overkill[ed]

I can't get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications

Especially at night
I worry over situations
I know I'll be alright
Perhaps it's just imagination

Day after day it reappears
Night after night
My heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away

Overkill by Colin Hay/Men at Work. (full lyrics available.)

Check out a guest appearance on Scrubs (my favorite comedy) by Colin.

Enjoy the song (btw, Benjamin Gate did a cool job covering this song...)

Controlling Chaos, Jeff style

Years ago, when I first bought the bookstore, I was a well-documented control freak. Recently, though, I've made myself release some of that and trust the people that are in place. Today was one of those days.

I spent today @ CFWK (5am-noon working on that). Great start. Probably blog on it later this week.

So while I focused on gathering the final pieces of CFWK, other people were watching my other interests.

I get a TXT message from Jonathan C, a friend of mine (and a youthworker at CFR). Great guy. Evidently he was at a Shane & Shane Concert... below is the conversation:

Jonathan: I am at the shane's concert... and they gave you a shout out! You here?

Jeff: What'd they say?

Jonathan: Some girl came out and said buy stuff. LOL... Not like that but something in that nature.

Jeff: For C28? Awesome. Where's the concert?

Jonathan: Yeah man, its in Palm Beach Atlantic... Man you don't even know when your company does stuff. HA HA

Uh, yeah, probably should have known that we were out at a concert. In retrospect I remember talking about it (thanks Ryan and Emily) but didn't remember it was this wknd.

Another example at the bookstore... We just hired a new employee (Chris B). Good guy. Hard worker. Looking forward to seeing him in this role. I saw him today when I was at CFH. "Hey Chris, did you get trained this week? Are you on the schedule yet?" "Yeah, I did the training. I start this week." Kyle and the entire bookstore crew have done a great job making the bookstore function without me.

Not only with the businesses, though, it's exciting to see it on the CF campuses. This was a busy week at CF. Seemed like a lot of volunteers were traveling/sick/unavailable this weekend. Coupled with the fact that Landon and I were at CFWK's launch, and Hector was at CFR to assist in their Video Teaching service... not many people were left at CFPB to ensure the service went smooth. I, honestly, was a little nervous.

I get an email from Charlie, one of our volunteer camera directors, giving me the scoop on how Sunday went at CFPB sans all Media Staff.

Hey today I got a chance to get a quick glance at your life at CF Palmetto Bay. By that I mean, I got a chance to see volunteers at work that really had it together. It was cool, very cool. I wish that the employees that I pay would care as much as the folks I saw today.

He gave me a heads up on some of the volunteers that did a phenominal job this week. Steven, Anthony, Juan, Jay, Donadi, Phillip, Jackie, Amy... THANKS! You all are greatly appreciated. Thanks for helping to fill in the gaps!

God, thank you for these opportunities to be overwhelmed with ministry. Thank you for the stress. Thank you for the potential impact. May we continue to do great things for Your kingdom.

Nights & Wknds

Today, Sunday February 3rd, between the hours of 7am and 3pm I had fifty conversations on my cell phone. Not an exaggeration. Exactly 50. Honestly, I don't think I talked to that many people face to face today... but evidently I can on my cell phone.

I guess that's the side effect of the Multisites...

And yes, I kept my phone on VIBRATE lest I get the wrath of the dirty look when the phone rings in the middle of the message.

Needless to say, thank God for Cingular's Free Nights & Wknds.

Thinking Outside the Box

Thanks to ABSO Jesus for putting it into perspective...