Marc’s Musings

I just went to Staples.

It’s my version of “Calgon, take me away.”

Just being there makes me feel more organized.

*sigh*

It was a bit embarrassing when the Staples guy asked if I needed any help. Somehow saying, “Nope. I just get energy from being here” sounded incredibly cheesey.

Oh well.

I did get this pen though. It takes you back, doesn’t it?

If I hear the words “I understand” one more time I think I’ll scream.

I’ve been on the phone with credit card companies and service providers trying to straighten out various billing things.

Take last night, for example. My card started being rejected. So I called and got someone in Bangalore that kept saying “I understand and you can use your card.”

He wouldn’t even let me ask my question…how in the world could he “understand”?!

It seemed he wasn’t able to speak without first saying the words “I understand.”

Apparently there was a pre-emptive security thing that stopped three transactions to protect me. “It’s fine now.”

Yeah, great. But there are still three transactions that were declined; one from a local store. We’d bought some vitamins, paid for them, and left. The next day I find out the credit card company decided this looked irregular.

“I understand but it’s fine now.”

No it’s not! There’s a local family store that didn’t get the money they were entitled to from the credit card company!!!

I wish I’d recorded it so I could’ve put it on YouTube or something. It would’ve been comical if it weren’t so frustrating.

Well, today I sent DirecTV an email to find out what my 2 protection/service added monthly charges were.

Guess what. The person replying wrote, “I understand” in the first couple lines!!

*sigh*

Who writes these call center scripts anyway?

And who thought it was a good idea to make people stick to them instead of talking like humans?

Just heard this on Garrison Keillor’s The Writers Almanac:

“Any idiot can face a crisis - it’s day to day living that wears you out.”
–Anton Chekhov.

So true.

I’m going to commit to trying to not be an idiot today.

This picture was taken on the first Sunday at Advent.

Yep, I actually wore the air respirator during the Advent sermons.

To hear why, go to the sermons page at watervillevineyard.org.

Or just listen here:

12/9/2007 Advent 1: The Matrix

12/16/2007 Snow Day: No Sermon

12/23/2007 Advent 2: Hope!

12/30/2007 Advent 3: Life in the Kingdom

It’s all ours!

We just made the final payment on our 2001 Ford Windstar, license plates “IWILLGO.”

We leased it for a couple years. Then we bought it with what felt like an incredibly long loan.

But we owe no more.

And it feels better than I expected it would!

The International Bible Society has just come out with a work called The Books of the Bible. I got my copy Friday after work.

It’s amazing.

They’ve removed all the chapter and verse numbers and reformatted the text to reflect the way it was written. Letters have breaks at the natural places where the author changes topics, not arbitrary places that a monk put in as verses.

Books are arranged totally differently! More along the line of the time they were written. So 1 Thessolonians, being Paul’s first epistle, is first. And the Gospels are mixed in with the New Testament writings.

I’ve read more of the Bible for sheer pleasure reading in the past 2 days than I’ve read in the last 2 months. Large portions of Isaiah. (It makes SO much more sense without the verse numbers!) Large portions of Deuteronomy and Matthew. And entire epistles like both Thessolonians and James.

This is the best $9 (+ shipping) I’ve spent in a long time.

For more information, go to the IBS The Books of the Bible site.

Today is the 5th anniversary of my resigning from The Stony Brook School to obey what I thought was God’s invitation to come back to Maine.

Five years.

It seems so long ago. Fortunately time blunts the conflicting emotions of that tumultuous time. God has done so much in my life and allowed me to accomplish and experience more than I could’ve imagined. Think like:

• Moving back to Lewiston
• Learning that I really would drop everything and “go” if Jesus called me like He did the disciples
• Learning to really trust God to watch my back and protect my reputation
• Became a Certified FranklinCovey Coach
• Starting Fundraisingcoach.com and PitmanCoaching.com
• Teaching a Kingdom of God class at the Vineyard Church of Lewiston
• Depending on God for every red cent (and being blown away by my parent’s generosity with the house)
• Hosting Passover Seders
• Seeing my speaking career ramp up
• Having the privilege of training nonprofit boards and businesses like a physical therapy practice and a equine vet practice
• Developing the entire Nonprofit Fundraising Institute and presenting it to organizations and through a local community college
• Applying for over 100 jobs, projects, and joint partnerships in less than 2 years
• Doing a couple Marriage Encounters with Em
• Being asked to pray about starting the Vineyard Church plant in Waterville
• Finding the first job that was a perfect fit here in Maine, as Director of the Inland Foundation (I’m glad I didn’t stop after 97 or 98 job interviews!)
• Moving to Waterville and joining the wonderful team of Maine and NH Vineyard pastors
• Adding Sofia to our family
• Finding tremendous favor with the Waterville community, like this story on pastoring and this one on fundraising coaching
• Finishing the manuscript for my book Ask Without Fear! (it’s supposed to be in print by this March!)

This is by no means comprehensive. But it’s humbling to see what God’s done.

I wonder what God has in store for the next five years!

In an earlier post, I gave the times for the Republican and Democrat caucuses in Waterville.

In this great article from the Morning Sentinel, the reporter describes the process for caucuses.

Looks like I’m in for an interesting time!

You’ve gotta love it when you plan out a sermon in December and ABC News does a promo video for it the week before you’re to preach it!

The next installment in our “Don’t Come Up Short This Year” series is “Flush Debt.”

ABC News was kind enough to do this story:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4182646

(It’s about 2.5 minutes.)

I sail!

Over the last few weeks, we’ve had some really serious movies for discussion. So we decided to lighten things up abit next week.

Men, come and join us for the incredibly funny: What About Bob?

Wednesday, Jan 30 at 7 p.m.

Come and you may just ask yourself: Is this some new kind of therapy?