Monthly Archives: July 2015

Sunday Summary

The Latest 07-26-2015

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It felt like a long week, but it always does feel long when most of it is spent on a business trip. And, I didn’t have much rest going into it. I was asked to give the message at Central in Oskaloosa last Sunday. There were two services, one at 8:30 for the older, more traditional crowd and 10:45 for the younger, more contemporary crowd. I was pleased when Howard and Donna DeGroot came up to say “hello” after the first service. I hadn’t spoken to them in a long time. They seemed excited to meet Wendy and it was good to catch up.

After the service Wendy and I high-tailed it to Ankeny where members of the Vander Hart clan had gathered. Becky, Court, and Lydia were visiting from Denver. We had lunch and hung out all afternoon. It was the first time we’d seen Lydia since she was a newborn. It was fun to get reacquainted.

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We buzzed home in the evening and I packed for my trip. I spent the week with our client in San Antonio and Laredo, Texas where it was very hot. Good week, however. While I was away Wendy and Suzanna played host to Becky, Court, and Lydia who introduced Lydia to Pella. I was sad to have missed it.

I landed back home in DSM (relatively on time) Friday evening about 7:30 p.m. Almost immediately upon arrival back at Vander Well Manor, Wendy and I walked over to McQuade Pub and were refreshed, body and soul, by Kevin and Linda’s hospitality. As usual, it was a late evening of drinks and meandering conversation.

2015 07 Suzanna in Fiddler

It’s opening weekend for Union Street Players Fiddler on the Roof. Wendy and I usually take summers off of productions, preferring to spend whatever free time we can manage at the lake. Suzanna, however, is in the chorus and Wendy and I are involved behind the scenes with ticket sales and various production issues. We announced at USP’s monthly meeting that we will be stepping down from the Board after 10 years. Grandma Vander Hart told Wendy that the local radio station even found the event newsworthy enough for their local news broadcast this week. You gotta love small town Iowa.

knia story

Wendy’s mom came yesterday and is spending the weekend to see Suzanna in Fiddler. VW Manor feels like a Bed and Breakfast this week and we love it. We are excited for the coming week. Taylor moves home after her year of grad school in Scotland. Madison arrives back in Iowa on Thursday. The entire Vander Well clan joins to celebrate nephew Sam’s wedding to Lydia Yoder on Saturday morning.

Photo Friday, Tom's Photos

Photo Friday: Napping on the the Lawn

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2015 06 Wendy and Tay Napping - 1I’ve come to realize that there are some photos that you love, and you don’t really know why. This photo from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh is one of them. Every time I’m flipping through my photos and I see this one my soul smiles. I love the simple joy lying on the grass, napping in the sun. I love the way Wendy and Taylor are placed in such natural, beautiful surroundings. I love the blue of the sky meeting the green of the trees and the lawn. Of course, I loved experiencing that morning in the gardens when it happened and perhaps that is the most powerful attraction the photo has for me.

Anyway, I hope it makes your soul grin a little too.

Chapter-a-Day

Shift Focus

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Shift FocusDo not gloat over me, my enemy!
    Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
    the Lord will be my light.
Because I have sinned against him,
    I will bear the Lord’s wrath,
until he pleads my case
    and upholds my cause.
He will bring me out into the light;
    I will see his righteousness.
Micah 7:8-9 (NIV)

As a person in leadership, I am aware that I often stand in a public spotlight. As a person who doesn’t exactly hide my faith, I am equally aware that people are going to weigh my words and watch my actions. I long ago gave up trying to be the person I suspected everyone else wanted me to be. I am quite sure that I have given plenty of evidence for any who wishes to accuse me of hypocrisy. I am painfully aware of my mistakes and shortcomings.

My heart resonated with Micah’s verse this morning:

“I have sinned…I will bear the Lord’s wrath.”

Guilty as charged. Perfect? By no means. Hypocrite? By all means; More often than I’d care to admit.

But then, Micah shifts focus:

until he pleads my case
    and upholds my cause.
He will bring me out into the light;
    I will see his righteousness.

Salvation is not in Micah being a better person. He doesn’t write: “until I attain moral perfection,” “until I become righteous,” or “until I become a better person.” Salvation is not in what I do, but what God does for me in spite of my flaws and my failures. Salvation in the Light of God’s righteousness. Jesus never said, “seek righteousness,” He said, “Seek HIS Kingdom and HIS righteousness.”

Today, I’m reminded that My hope is not in my human struggle for elusive moral perfection, but in having God step up be my Advocate despite my glaring imperfections.

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Throwback Thursdays, Wayfarer's Journal

TBT: 10 Years Ago

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wendy@artfest2005It was 10 years ago this summer that I asked Wendy to marry me. This photo was taken the day we looked at rings. Great woman, good memories.

Chapter-a-Day

Boiled Down to Bullet Points

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bullet pointsHe has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8 (NIV)

I am on the road training this week. When our group analyzes a company’s phone calls, we methodically tear it down into a ton of behavioral and analytical data points. When sharing the data with Customer Service Representatives and translating it into actionable training points I find that the sheer volume of data and the machinations of our analytical process can easily overwhelm them. As I walk through the information, I sometimes see my client’s eyes glaze over and I know that I’ve lost them.

Over time, I’ve learned that many individuals simply need things boiled down for them. They don’t want lengthy explanations or an exhaustive review of all the data. They just want the Cliff Notes, the Reader’s Digest condensed version, the bullet points, or the crux of the matter. The client I’m working this week has well over 50 different data elements that we measure in their phone calls, but in my training this year I’m only talking about the five things that matter most.

Life and faith can sometimes be like that. God’s Message is a lengthy tome assembled over centuries in different languages. The contents are arranged categorically rather than chronologically. Some of it is history, while other parts are poetry and song lyrics. Other parts are letters and some of the stranger bits are prophetic messages in poetic form. It can be confusing to find and grasp the larger storyline. Sometimes we just want things boiled down into a bullet list.

God’s message through the prophet Micah does it nicely in today’s chapter:

  • Act justly (e.g. do the right thing by God, others, and yourself)
  • Love mercy (e.g. love tangibly, forgive continually, give sacrificially)
  • Walk humbly (e.g. be considerate of others; put their needs ahead of your own)
Chapter-a-Day

Christmas in July

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wise men

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
    from ancient times.”
Micah 5:2 (NIV)

Back in the day when I led youth, I always enjoyed celebrating Christmas in July. It was just the sort of silliness that kids loved. I would gather the young people for caroling and other traditional Christmas festivities in the sweltering Iowa summer.

This came to mind this July morning as I read Micah’s prophetic word concerning God’s Messiah coming from Bethlehem. While we celebrate God’s gift each December and give nods to the idea of celebrating the reason for the season all year long, I wonder how often we really stop to celebrate God’s gift once the New Year arrives, the tree is down and the decorations are put away.

“Wise men still seek Him” is a popular phrase around December. Today, I’m thinking of those astronomers, the Magi, who took a good long while to travel to Bethlehem chasing that star. We don’t know for sure when they saw the star and how long it took them to get to Bethlehem from their home. Perhaps they stood in sweltering summer heat contemplating the prophesied King who was born. I am more wise guy than wise man, but on this hot July morning I find myself thinking of the prophet Micah’s words and singing a Christmas carol:

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sins and enter in,
Be born to us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell:
Oh, come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!

Chapter-a-Day

Paving the Way to Person I’m Becoming

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paperboyBut they do not know
    the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
    that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
Micah 4:12 (NIV)

Wendy and I spoke to both our daughters over the weekend. They find themselves in similar situations. Taylor finishes her graduate work in August and then has to figure out where life’s road will take her. Madison finishes her bachelor’s degree in December and has the same questions about direction. It’s a time of both anxiety and excitement for them. I can appreciate that. They’ve both worked hard, done well, and I’m a proud papa. I’ve enjoyed seeing how their experiences earlier in life are framing their current and future directions. Some things I could have predicted, while other things surprise me.

It also has me reminiscing about my own experience. I started working when I was a kid. Paper route, lawn mowing, doing inventory for my dad’s company, and babysitting were my first endeavors before I became a teenager. I even  worked at a campaign during the Iowa caucuses. At thirteen I was allowed to bus tables in a restaurant and eventually I made my way to retail. But I still had a lot of odd jobs like pollenating and lifeguarding.

As I’ve continued on through life I’ve come to appreciate all of my experiences. The biggest lesson was the development of a work ethic, but I also learned things like what I really don’t want to do for a living if I can help it. At the same time, it gave me a tremendous respect for those who really do like jobs that I could never do and gave me a huge appreciation for those who do whatever they can, because that is where they find themselves on life’s road.

I’ve come to accept on this journey that I rarely know or comprehend the plan. I find myself in this place going through these circumstances with little knowledge of how this is going to be of great help to me further on down the road. But they do. If I am wise and continue to walk this path intentionally, then I will someday look back and see how my experiences today pave the way for the person I will be tomorrow.

Uncategorized, Wayfarer's Journal

An Open Letter to Buffalo Wild Wings

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source: mike mozart via flickr
source: mike mozart via flickr

Note: I tried to send this to you privately via your website but 1) the location I visited wasn’t listed on your website and 2) you didn’t give me enough room on your contact form to share my experience.

I am a loyal BWW customer. I travel around the country on business and always seek out BWW because 1) your naked tenders are [relatively] healthy 2) I’m usually alone and your Trivia is a fun way to waste an evening, and 3) I can watch my beloved Cubbies wherever I happen to be in the country.

I’m in San Antonio, Texas tonight and went into your Windcrest location at I-35 and I-410.

Disclaimer: I’m a 20+ year Customer Service consultant, which gives me a lot of empathy for companies and their Customer Service challenges. It also means that I’m very sensitive to customer expectation, customer experience, and customer satisfaction. I also sought out your BWW location and drove 20 minutes in rush hour traffic to get there rather than eating at the Chili’s across the street from my hotel.

I entered about 6:10 p.m. It seems to be a new location for you. The crowd was light. There were more staff members than customers. A manager was parked at a table with a stack of applications or some kind of “new hire” sheets. Cool. Spacious. Clean. I’m impressed.

For the record, I’m a creature of habit. My routine when I’m by myself on the road is to go straight to the bar and order 1) a tall, cold Miller Lite 2) four naked tenders, hot bbq, and fries 3) the Cubs game on just one of the 3 million screens before me. Tonight, I stuck to my routine.

The nice bartender immediately asks for my I.D. I turn 50 next April, and am almost completely gray, but I appreciate the law, am respectful of the request, and am always happy to pull out my I.D. The bartender asks if she can take my Drivers License to show her manager. My immediate reaction was to laugh and think, “Sure! I don’t care. I’ve got nothing to hide.” As she disappeared through the kitchen door, however, I thought to myself: “Wait a minute. I’m in Texas, which is a border state. What if she’s making a photo copy of my license? What if she’s scanning it? Have I suddenly become the victim of identity theft?!” (Disclaimer: My hotel room in Texas was robbed in January, making me a little sensitive and a wee bit cynical.)

The bartender returned a few minutes later, a manger behind her, and gave me back my license. I asked her what the problem was and she told me that she had to have it approved since it was an out of state license. I get it. In retrospect I would have appreciated her asking the manager to come and take a look at it rather than disappearing in the back with my license, but okay.

I settled in. I thought my request for the Cubs on a screen was fulfilled when FoxSports1 did a live look in, but then realized it was just a cameo. I asked again. This time it was a different bartender (the one who took my license seemed to have gone off shift). A few minutes later he asked if the game was up yet. I told him it wasn’t. He asked again.

As at Sam’s Cafe American in Casablanca, “Time Goes By.”

My food arrives. “Is there anything else?” the bartender asks.

“Yes, I still don’t have the Cubs on any of these screens.”

He apologizes and leaves to get a manager who comes and says they’ll take care of it. Still no Cubs. Manager comes to check a few minutes later. Nope. No Cubs. They start asking each other what channel.

“It’s 665,” I tell them. I’m a fan. I have DirecTV. I’ve been in countless BWWs and I know you all have DirecTV too. They are impressed. Me, less so.

I’m eating. I’m waiting. Into my fourth naked tender the Cubs game appears on three screens.

“There you go! Three screens!” I’m told.

“Thanks,” I think to myself as I sink my teeth into my final bite of naked tender. It’s 6:45. I’ve been there over a half-hour, and am almost done with my meal.

As a loyal BWW customer, I’m telling you that this experience fell below expectation. However, I feel better having gotten it off my chest. Thanks for listening.

Chapter-a-Day

The Problem of Power

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source: allen brewer via flickr
source: allen brewer via flickr

Her leaders judge for a bribe,
    her priests teach for a price,
    and her prophets tell fortunes for money.
Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say,
    “Is not the Lord among us?
    No disaster will come upon us.”
Micah 3:11 (NIV)

As I write this the next Presidential election here in the States is 16 months off, but already the candidates are queueing up and the political machinations have begun. We had a family gathering at Wendy’s folks yesterday afternoon and casual conversation has already turned to be all about elections. It’s going to be a long one, I’m afraid. It’s times like this that I wish life had a fast forward button.

I am glad I live in a land with free elections and representative republic. As a lover of history, however, I’m constantly reminded that political power is a corrupting force. As Lord Acton observed, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Even in a system with checks and balances, I’ve observed that political offices (both elected and appointed) become places from which individuals and parties make rules to entrench their position and take advantage for themselves and their friends.

In the days of the prophet Micah, the situation was no different, as Micah observes in today’s chapter. God’s Message teaches that we live in a fallen world. Our sin leads us, despite our best altruistic efforts to the contrary, to make self-centric decisions for ourselves and our own. The more powerful and influential position we yield the more difficult it becomes to succumb.

Today, I’m feeling a bit cynical, but I’ve got plenty of evidence from events past and present to justify my cynicism. Perhaps that is why God’s Message exhorts us so directly to pray for our leaders and those in power. At the same time that I’m pointing the finger at politicians, I’m also mindful that power’s corrupting force is present in any human system from families to churches to companies to neighborhoods and service organizations. In my admittedly meager positions of influence I am aware of the negative affects power can have on me if I am not aggressively mindful, humble and accountable.

Top Five Tuesday

Top-Five Friday: Songs I Can’t Stand

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change the channelA couple of weeks ago Wendy and I were driving home from Des Moines and the song Knights in White Satin came on the radio. Within a split second I’d changed the channel.

“Okay,” Wendy exclaimed in a bit of a shock at the speed with which I’d freed myself from that horrible noise, “I guess we’re not listening to that song.”

No. No we were not. And, it prompted a conversation about the songs that are like fingernails on a chalkboard to you; the songs that come on the radio and you can’t get to the Tune button fast enough to change the channel.

So, for “Top Five Friday” here are my Top Five songs I can’t stand:

  1. Tears of a Clown. John Wayne Gacy. I’m just sayin’.
  2. Whiter Shade of Pale. Haunting, drug induced weirdness. [gag]
  3. Knights in White Satin. Again.
  4. Wildfire. My sister, and every radio station, played this insipid horse song non-stop back in 1975. Thank God it’s founds its way to the musical scrap heap.
  5. Philadelphia Freedom. Does SiriusXM have a contractual obligation to play an Elton John song continuously across their channel line-up? I swear I can’t surf the channels without running into multiple Elton John songs playing at all times. Ironically, this song is also from 1975. I guess I was going through a nine-year-old phase.

There you go. Now, it’s your turn. What songs make you want to hurl?