...and We're back!

This week I put in 58 hours at work. I've rarely reached, much less passed 40 hours on the job before. I realize that 60 hours isn't that many for some people (hi dad!) and that there are many people who work much harder than I do (hi dad!) on a regular basis, but for me, this was a first.

Wednesday to Thursday went like this : Woke up at 5 AM and worked till 7. I took an hour to get my kids ready for the day before the baby sitter came. I then worked from 8 to noon, had a 1/2 hour lunch with my wife and my trainer and then got back to work. After a quick dinner (1/2 hour, maybe) I worked till around 4AM when my eyes started acting funny. At 6:30 Thursday morning I was back in the chair again and worked till 11 or so that night.

Enough excuses. I'll be back to my normal once daily postings again on Monday. Thanks for the patience.

Better : Serving More Willingly

As I mentioned on Monday, I'm trying to get a project done by August 1st. The company being sold depends on it, and a $5000 bonus for myself and a co-worker depends on it. We've made good progress so far, but still have a ways to go.

Stingy Service

Sunday night my wife and I were talking about becoming better people, and I came to the conclusion that I needed to do more service and better service. It's not that I don't do service, but I usually have to be asked and I usually am running a cost-benefit analysis of my time while doing the service...in other words I'm stingy with it.

Changing My Attitude

In light of that discussion, I tried to have a good attitude on Tuesday and Wednesday nights when I needed to go and do some service instead of working or sleeping.

Tuesday night was a meeting with the leaders of the mens organization at church. I'm the secretary now. We spent an hour an a half discussing how to help different families in the church who are struggling with different issues. The issues range from spiritual doubt to the emotional stress of someone who was driving during an accident which killed her mother and injured several others.

The seriousness of some of the problems discussed and the lack of easy answers makes me all the more grateful for my minor problems of not getting enough sleep so I can get a nice bonus.

On Wednesday I went and helped a friend of mine's mom replace the ceramic lighter in her gas oven and to fix her computer. The repairmen wanted $200 to fix the stove, and $150 or so to look at the computer respectively. It took about two and a half hours, but she really didn't need to be spending her money on fixing those things when I could easily fix them myself.

Service Doesn't Count As Sleep

The down side to service this week has been that I've had to work later and get up earlier to make up for the time. I think I did a good job this week being happy to serve, but happy service doesn't make my four make me feel rested.

Reset Button

It's 2AM Saturday morning and I'm configuring my computer to run tests against the code I've been working on this week. I will likely read this tomorrow or next week and say to my self 'What were you thinking? That doesn't even make sense'.

The point I was trying to make is this : Service can be a sacrifice. Sometimes we need to give up things we want (like sleep) in order to get the things we really want (to be better as serving others). Some people we serve because we are in a position to reach down and try to pull them up. Others we serve because we can help them in a way that they can't help themselves.

Whatever your reason, find a way to serve and don't be stingy with your service.