After I was complaining today about getting rained on and having to walk from one building to the other without an umbrella, I was reminded of what people on the other side of our nation are facing.






I was quickly reminded that my wet shirt is not so bad after all, and that many people are wishing they had the rain that we're having today. I'm thankful for freedom to choose my perspective in life. Rember to pray for the people in Southern California.

These are the guys that help me through my days. Their music leads me to find my way in life, and pushes me to strive for more than mediocre. My life hinges upon my reality of God, who He is, and how He loves me. And these guys write some great songs that encourage people to rest in who God is. Find out who God really is, and rest in that.

I hope you enjoy the song. I've been searching a lot, for many different things. Who I am, who I'm supposed to be, where I'm supposed to be, when am I supposed to be there...so I'm posting this song because it meets me where I am. I'm incomplete..."step outside your doubt, and let yourself be found"


He's washing his face to start his day
He's lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely
Nothing in the mirror ever shows him
what's within

Now's he's checking out the faces
On the back of the milk
He's sour under all this pressure
He thinks the missing person looks an
awful lot like him

And he starts his engine
But he knows that he's missing gears

Incomplete!
Where will you find yourself?
Incomplete!
Where will you find yourself?
(Where will you lose yourself?)
'Cause you're the missing person now
Step outside your doubt
And let yourself be found!

He's sick of the race to just save face
He's tied and tried, he's sick and tired
He's tired of the holes that are keeping
him incomplete

He'll push the pedal to the floor
Like the day before
He's trying to be always trying
Try to find an end to justify his means

I just finished the book The E Myth Revisited for the second time. It's a great book about small businesses. It dives into all of the issues that make most small businesses fail, and talks about how to avoid them, or fix them if you already have problems.

The author, Michael Gerber, tells a story about himself in the book that was so eye opening for me. He talked about his experience in life with business. He tells of a time when he got a job in Silicone Valley. He had a brother in law that was in business consulting who got him the job. After Michael got the job, "He was dumbfounded by the magnitude of his ignorance. And yet, something called him to stay. They asked him, 'How can you help me?' He answered, 'I don't know.' They asked him, 'What do you know about my business?' He answered, 'Nothing.'

Michael said that it was at this time in his life that he realized something big. "The curtain lifted between the world that was theirs (the business people) and the world that was his...It was then that he realized with a suddenness that make him giddy that, while he didn't understand their business, neither did they!" He goes on to say, "No one knew what he had believed they knew. That everything was just like he had thought it was, a mystery, but that he wasn't the only one who didn't know what was going on. What he learned in Silicon valley is that no one knew what was going on! It was completely open to interpretation."

I really believe that is one of the things that holds people back from following their dreams. We believe that so many people around us have it all figured out. And that's crippling to us. It's crippling because of the fear that someone around us who has it all "figured out" will see us fall on our face while we're trying to chase a dream. It's crippling because we don't view other people in the reality that they live in. We lift them up on a pedistal. The Donald Trumps and Warren Buffets, we think they're superhuman. But in reality, they started in the same place that we are or have been. They started with fear of failure, being crippled by the curtain in front of their eyes, thinking that they didn't know as much as the others around them. But somehow they got past that fear, and no doubt defied what most of the people in their life would call impossible.

The book closes with this paragraph, "The curtain is your Comfort Zone. And your Comfort Zone has been the curtain you have placed in front of your face and through which you view the world. Your Comfort Zone has been the tight little cozy planet on which you have lived, knowing all the places to hide because it's so small. Your Comfort Zone has seized you before, and it can seize you again, when you're least prepared for it, because it knows what it means to you. Because it knows how much you want to be comfortable. Because it knows what price you are willing to pay for the comfort of being in control. The ultimate price, your life. So if this new path, if living with your spirit, means anything to you at all, if you truly care about it, then guard it with your life. Because Comfort overtakes us all when we're least prepared for it. Comfort makes cowards of us all."

Gosh that's good. That last line, "Comfort makes cowards of us all." I whole heartedly believe that. It's a book about business, but it can be applied to anything we do in life, with business, relationships with God, relationships with friends and family. Comfort paralyzes us. Comfort makes cowards of us all!

I have an exceptional wife. She's so intentional with the way she loves me, and always makes me laugh when I'm frustrated or having a bad day. She had the idea to go visit Tim and Anne Marie, my brother and his wife, in Georgia this past weekend.

We had such a great time! We got to visit with family and be together for the 16 hour round trip drive. We woke up on Saturday morning to about 50 degree weather in the mountains. The leaves were changing colors and falling, and the crisp mountain air didn't leave you gasping for breath because of the humidity.

We got to go to downtown Blue Ridge with our niece and nephew to an event called Paws in the Park. We walked around and saw tons of beautiful dogs, and a pot belly pig with a leash! It was a good time. Time just seems to go slower in the mountains. It's something that I long for here. I feel like the days and weeks fly by, and I'm left wondering what happened to the time.

Our weekend trip to Blue Ridge gets a five star rating. A $5 bag of roadside boiled peanuts, Georgia peaches, 16 hours on the road total, and a little over 100 bucks in gas later, we're back home feeling refreshed and ready for another week.

And I have a few random things on my mind.

1) I love kids. They make me laugh. My niece, Emily, had a dream a couple nights ago that her bed turned into a car and she was driving it. Then she got pulled over and got a ticket. And for some reason, she felt the need to point out the fact that there were black shoes in the car with her...they weren't alive or anything, but it was very important that she mentioned it to me...with a chuckle she said, "Cletus, there were black SHOES in my car!!! BLACK SHOES!"

2) Cold weather reminds me of fresh starts. I don't really know why. Maybe because we don't have much of it in Florida, so it's something refreshing. I LOVE cold weather! OMG. I love cold weather.

3) Courtney's birthday was this week and I have really enjoyed celebrating with her. We've had so much fun lately. I'm really grateful for that. I'm still trying to decide on her gift...we're going to Disney for one night next weekend and that's when I'm giving her gifts. I have a couple ideas, but I can't decide.

4) You've probably noticed that I haven't been blogging about much negative stuff lately. That's because I've realized in my life that negativity is infectious. It eats you up, and spreads like the plague. I hate being negative...so I'm attempting to have a positive outlook on life. It doesn't mean that bad things don't happen, and that there aren't days that suck, but there's something positive that happens in my life every day. I believe it's a gift from God, something positive, and I'd rather focus on that than the negative.

Until next time...