Day 1 -- Hospital Admission

Well, we got Jeanne-Mari all checked in. And much easier than in years past, I must say. We were in her room in just over 30 minutes from arriving...and that's just crazy-fast.



Me, Jeanne-Mari, Carol (my mom), and Wayne (my pop)
at the Oasis in May.

 She's in room 427 at Seton Downtown. Her room will probably change tomorrow, so keep up to date.

Patients with Cystic Fibrosis are usually in the hospital more often than once every three years (JM was here in 2005 and 2008...so we're right on our schedule), and so the check-in nurses on this floor thought we were new to the area. But everybody pretty much knows her now. :) These CF nurses really are the nicest ones around.

Background: JM hasn't been feeling too hot lately (to say the least). She's been run down, had fever, and not sleeping well. She had an x-ray and some other tests earlier this week and we found out she has a lung abcess--it's not a common CF development, but it's here. It's in the same location where she had a lung infiltrate earlier this year. Obviously, the medication didn't fully fix that problem back then. So now we're here.

As of now, the plan is that she'll be in here for two weeks...so hopefully we'll get out of here by August 4th or 5th.

Personally, I didn't think I was worked up too much...but I dropped some fruit and then spilled a bunch of coffee on a chair in the waiting area. Made a real mess. I guess this is affecting me more than I thought it was. :P

We've already had several phones calls, many offers of help, and tons of prayer. All are greatly appreciated.

Our spirits are good, Jeanne-Mari is smiley, Melissa is handling things well (as am I--sans coffee incidents), life is still good, and so is God.

Want to know more about Cystic Fibrosis? Visit this site: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/disorders/whataregd/cf

"Get-To" vs. "Have-To" Attitude

So many times we get stuck in life because we have a terrible attitude. For example, when I was in college, I had terrible grades. School felt like a chore. When I had to make a choice between doing something fun and studying, it was either "I have to study, but I'll just pull an all-nighter" or "Can't go because I have to study"....mostly the former.

My grades stayed the same until I realized that school is teaching me things I need and that I should want to learn. I eventually moved from a have-to to a get-to attitude. "I can't go tonight because I get to study about physics and learn about how the Universe works" or "I get to learn about the tensile strength of different types of steel before tomorrow--so, no, I can't go out with you."

I got better at just doing life after I made this switch. And life got a lot more interesting. Here are some more examples of "get-to" possibilities:

"I get to go to work today."
"I get to do something hard today."
"I get to go for a 5-mile run."
"I get to buy reading glasses because my eyes are getting old."
"I get to get old."
"I get to eat right today."
"I get to go to church."
"I get to honor God."
"I get to treat right the person who mis-treated me."
"I get to get up early."
"I get to mow the lawn."
"I get to have a sunburn."
"I get to face a fear."
"I get to pay bills."
"I get to have cancer."
"I get to show grace in a tough situation."
"I get to bungie jump."
"I get to learn through a really bad breakup."

You can go all day long. And some may seem extreme. But it changes everything. Personally, I appreciate every little part of life a lot more.

Customer Service is alive at Shari's Berries!

Recently, I ordered 2 batches of chocolate-covered strawberries for my mother and my wife--both for Mother's Day. My mom's order was delivered and were amazing. My mom is still raving about them.

However, the order for my wife wasn't too hot. The strawberries were delivered not cold...and they were not good strawberries. We ended up throwing several of them away. Definitely not the results we had heard about or what my mom experienced.

So I sent an email giving positive feedback for my mom's order and negative feedback for Jeanne-Mari's order. And WITHIN AN HOUR I got a personal email back from SB giving an apology and offering several options of recompense--including resending another order at no charge.

We're definitely taking the re-send of the strawberries. Jeanne-Mari is just as excited as she was the first time. I'll make sure to let you know how it turns out...I'm expecting them to be great.

By the way, my email was sent after normal business hours. I wasn't expecting to get a reply until tomorrow at the earliest. This whole experience has been quite a nice surprise.

So are you looking for really awesome dipped strawberries?? Order from Shari's Berries (http://www.sharisberries.com/). And if there happens to be some kind of problem, you can still be confident that they'll stand behind their product and their service.

Do I sound like a commercial? I hope so. I've learned to really appreciate good customer service nowadays...since it seems to be disappearing from most places.

Payback vs. Justice

Osama Bin Laden was killed yesterday. It was a weird feeling watching the pictures of people celebrating in front of the White House. Then more weirdness this morning as Facebook posts were all over the place...either "Yay, he's dead!" or "Why is everybody so euphoric over this event?" 

However you feel, it's definitely a different world today. But the reason for this post is that I saw the BEST paragraph on revenge/justice when I was perusing ESPN. It's so poetic. And, yes, sports stuff. Can't you really metaphoricalize (is that a real word?) anything with sports??  :)   Here's the section:

"'Payback' is easy.
  Payback comes out of petty cash.
  Payback is an elbow when the ref isn't looking;
  payback is a pitch up and in;
  payback twists your arm and steps on your hand after the whistle.
  Payback is short-form accounting.

But 'justice?'
  Justice reckons the infinite.
  Justice counts the cost of the universal and settles all debts.
  Justice doesn't truck with revenge.
  Better than anyone, sports fans understand that justice, true justice, lies far beyond the reach of any one of us.
  It is thus never ours to deliver."

The more I read over this, the more I like it. For the whole article, go here: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?id=6464808

Just Thinking...

-What makes a 15-year-old girl feel so much pain that she wants to end her life?
-And the bigger question...What in the world are we going to do to make sure this doesn't happen again?
-What needs to change in our attitudes, actions, and words?
-As Christians, we're called to step up and defend those who are "weaker."
-It's time we did.

HPY Student Worship Team Formation

Starting a new worship team for HighPointYouth! I'm kind of excited about it, but what gets me really jazzed is seeing our students so excited about it. Not sure what it's going to look like, but I think it will involve several guitars and a choir. Should be awesome. And will be great for Senior Sunday on May 29th (though it will go live much before that at Reverb on Wednesday nights).

So far, we have Zack, Oliver, Zoe, and Vanessa (one of our leaders) on guitar. Mallory and/or Cameron on the keyboards. And we even have a sax player and a ukelele player (Jared plays both). Eclectic. These guys will do great, but I'm really spiked about the choir.

Tyler, CJ, Mark, Scott, Haylie, Olivia, Jessica, Michayla, Kari, Rachael-Anne, Jeremy, Lauren, and Katie. This will be a cool choir. They'll look good and sound good, obviously, but they'll also make a big impact. It's gonna be crazy.

Sex is Awesome. Especially when you Wait.

The conclusions made in this post are dependent on the assumption (and I think it's a vital one) that romantic relationships are always better (and way healthier) if they start as friendships first.

Let's step through it. Think of the positive character attributes that someone would wish for in a friendship.

 Honesty
 Respect
 Forgiveness
 Sense of Humor
 Trust
 Loyalty
 Love
 Good Communication
 Common Interests
 Common Values

Look at each one. If you have a friend and the relationship has a healthy dose of these attributes, then you have a real gift. Something to be cherished and valued highly.

Now, consider a dating relationship. It's vital (for a healthy dating relationship) to have each of these things. Therefore, the foundation for a really cool dating relationship is friendship.

Just like a good friendship, if you have a dating relationship that has a good positive dose of these ten things, then it's really special. It needs to be valued. And you don't want to mess it up. 

However, if you add sex to the relationship (like our culture tempts us to do), then several things happen. 

First, several of the attributes (and possibly all of them) are affected negatively. Trust, Respect, and others are affected in a negative way. Mainly because the commitment level is still at the 'dating' level.

Secondly, once sex is added to the equation, it's real easy for everything to move to the physical...and it starts to become the foundational part of the relationship. And it gets really messed up. Pretty soon, all the couple wants to do when they get together is hang out and find ways to have sex together. I know this is a big generalization, but it's a truth...especially for high school relationships.

I'm even going so far as to say that sex added to a non-marriage relationship will only do one of two things:  (1) It will take a good relationship and mess it up. (2) It will take an unhealthy relationship and make it last longer...which causes more heartache and hurt for both people in the long run. Neither is good and your heart is worth the best.

So why is the commitment level such a big deal?
Let's say a couple in a healthy dating relationship doesn't add sex to it yet...and they continue to grow in friendship, and respect, and trust, and sharing common interests, and learning more and more about each other, etc. It's a great relationship and they decide to get married.

Think of the peeps at the wedding:  Bride and Groom. Maid of Honor, bridesmaids, flower girl, ring bearer, bride's family, bride's friends...Best man, groomsmen, groom's family, groom's friends--all the people that are absolutely the closest to these two people. And in front of all these special people, the groom verbally states his love and makes a lifelong vow--basically giving himself totally away--to his bride. Then the bride verbally states her love and makes a life-long vow--basically giving herself totally away--to her groom. It's an amazing commitment--the biggest vow someone can make to another human.

Then when sex is added later that night, instead of negatively affecting those ten things, it actually makes everything stronger! Sex after marriage INCREASES respect, INCREASES trust...it just locks everything into place. It's the final piece that makes two people one. That is why sex is so awesome and why God created this amazing gift for us humans.

All this makes me realize that God really likes us. He doesn't say "save sex for marriage" because He doesn't like us or because he's trying to keep us down. He says it because that makes everything the best! God actually wants to best for our lives. Really cool thought. And something I need to focus on often.

Enough for now. All comments are welcome.  -Mike