In just a couple days it will be my two year anniversary with my current employer. Those two years have gone by awfully fast, and I may be reminded of how quickly life seems to go on by when we start getting older. But my purpose in this blog isn’t to discuss aging. Rather, my purpose is to discuss how this work anniversary represents new beginnings (and we’re never too old for new beginnings).

I was with my last employer for approximately ten years. It remains one of the best jobs I ever had and I truly loved my work and found purpose in the company’s products and mission. My coworkers were among the finest people I have ever worked with and the endless pool of talent around me was inspiring and propelled my own abilities forward. I forged friendships and working relationships that extended to suppliers around the country. But for all the good I can list, my employment there ultimately ended poorly.

Over the course of the last ten to twelve months of my employment at this company, there were subtle signs that I was no longer appreciated. The signs started becoming less and less subtle and eventually turned into the proverbial writing on the wall. For the life of me, I may never know exactly why, and it was a bitter pill for me to swallow. I had poured my heart into my job and believed relentlessly in the work I did. Still, it became quite clear that I was on my way out, one way or another.

I have never been one to wait idly by and let my fate be determined by someone else. So I dusted off my employment seeking skills, updated my resume, and I got to searching. I felt rejected, I felt hurt, and I felt unwanted. And I started questioning myself. Were my abilities fading? Was my skill set outdated? Was I too old? Would anyone want to hire me? As the number of companies I connected with grew, I wasn’t getting offers and my self-doubt was becoming hard to ignore.

Then I landed the job I have now. It was clear from the first phone contact that they were impressed with my resume and, at least on paper, I was exactly what they were looking for. Working through the interview process it seemed they were even more excited about me and I grew very excited about the company. It was a perfect match and I have been exceedingly happy in this position. In fact, it’s hard for me to think of a better position for myself. This job has been the truest kind of blessing.

And, while this job has been more than enough to cure me of the feeling of being unwanted, I have been contacted by four other companies since I took this job, each inquiring about my availability. Truly I have gone from utter dejection and wondering about my own value to being sought after and feeling so satisfied with my current employment I am turning down offers that were unsolicited (but deeply appreciated). In my career, I have experienced a new beginning. A rebirth, if you will.

And so it is with our lives. When we come to Christ in repentance and faith, we come feeling dejected, unwanted, and unworthy. We come questioning our own value and, quite often, feel hopeless and alone. But through Jesus we experience a new beginning, we are reborn and made new. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!” (2Corinthians 5:17) Are you in need of a new start? Why not make today the day you come to Jesus and lay your trials at His feet and accept the gift of new and eternal life that He so desperately wants to give you?

If you have any questions about how to obtain this new life, please write to us at ReignDropsBlog@gmail.com. We’re happy to answer your questions and help you find your new beginning.

If I may start this blog entry with a confession. Donna and I are working hard to stay within our budget and, as such, we have been trying to be as thrifty as possible on our date nights. And, I can truthfully say, I enjoy being with her so much that the experience wouldn’t be any better if we spent lots of money anyway, but I digress. My confession is that last night we went to see the movie “Spy” at the cheap theater ($3/each). Spy is R rated. And that’s why I am confessing.

The unfortunate thing is, Spy is a really funny movie. The premise is somewhat predictable, I suppose, but there are pratfalls aplenty and the characters are engaging. The dialogue is witty and there are a few plot twists to keep you guessing along the way. Had they kept it clean, and gone for the PG rating, it would have been no less entertaining and no less humorous but, unfortunately, the movie’s makers sank to the use of four-letter words and a couple brief shots of naked body parts. Frankly, I am not sure why entertainers see the need to use vulgarity – but my opinion is that the minute a comedian sinks to coarse language and sexual innuendo, it’s because he or she lacks the confidence to be funny without it.

This past week I attended the Willow Creek Association’s Global Leadership Summit (GLS 15). Among the amazing content of this year’s summit, comedian Michael Junior was a highlight. He was amazingly hilarious without ever resorting to such low-brow sexual innuendo. I’ll return to a few comments about the leadership summit in a moment, but let me finish a few thoughts on clean comedy first, if I may. Two of my favorite comedians are Brad Stine and Ken Davis. A quick search on Google will yield a few clips of each and you will discover just how gut-bustingly funny clean comedy can be.

And if you are married, you simply must watch Mark Gungor’s Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage. Donna and I laughed so hard at this material we had that teary-eyed, side-splitting, barely-can-breathe thing going on. I’ve included clickable links below because I want you to easily be able to find for yourself that comedy doesn’t have to be course or crude to be funny. In fact, when it resorts to such things it actually is less funny.

Now….with that out of my system, let me just recap the Global Leadership Summit if I may. While I have been aware of the summit for many years this was the first year I attended myself. As such I was a bit apprehensive, as I tend to be when trying new things, but my trepidation was completely unnecessary. The Global Leadership Summit turned out to be far more engaging and motivating than I could ever have imagined. There was content for every aspect of my life including my career, my ministry, my church life, and my marriage. The worship music on day two brought tears to my eyes as I felt God’s hand upon me, lifting away my fears and comforting my soul. It was an experience only God can bring.

I am certain that I return to work this week a better manager than I was when I was last in the office prior to GLS. A strong theme in this year’s GLS was love and caring. Both for my fellow team members and my customers and suppliers. When I show genuine concern for the well-being and growth of those with whom I interact, they experience excellence and are allowed to grow and develop to the best of their ability as well. And I also learned that as a leader, I have given up the right to make excuses. Rather, it is my job to lead my team over, thru, and around whatever obstacles stand in our way. And God is with me every step of the way, providing all the strength I need!

The Global Leadership Summit is held at locations all over the world, there surely is a location near you so mark your calendars for August 11th and 12, 2016 and get signed up to experience GLS for yourself!

Finally, here are the links I promised:

Michael Jr
Brad Stine
Ken Davis
Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage
Global Leadership Summit

As always, if there are any questions we can answer to help you in your faith journey, feel free to email us at ReignDropsBlog@gmail.com.

God bless.

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“Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.”
― Anne Lamott

I don’t remember when I first became drawn to Lighthouses. I just remember seeing one and feeling the ethereal draw on me. I think I first related to its loneliness, not yet its confidence. That sense of profound loneliness came at a very early age for me.

I wasn’t an ordinary happy-go-lucky girl. Life circumstances saw to that. I was happy enough, but I also felt a chasm between me and others. I could see things about people that many girls my age didn’t seem to know. Someone once said I was an “old soul.” I saw others in different ways, saw their indifference, falsities, motivations and woundedness. If you are exposed to these as a child, and you pay attention, you learn things about people. Losing a parent, by whatever means, and having your life and circumstances turned over like a floundering ship, strips you of your security. When you see and watch turmoil around you long enough, you pick up on clues. You come to recognize the patterns and subtleties of the storms around you.

Like the lighthouse, I stood amongst the storms but it isn’t until now that I realize how like it I was, hence the draw. I somehow lost touch with my light, or maybe never knew how far it shone, until I had some length of years and experiences as a lens from which to shine through. In reality though I know I never understood then that the source of my light was God. I didn’t yet know that my place was to be firmly planted where I was, wherever that was, since the one and only constant I had in my life was God. He was the source of my light and the rock solid foundation I could rely on, as the lighthouse is built on solid rock, standing firm regardless of the tumultuous sea around it and the lost ships tossed about in the surrounding, ever changing waters.

It took many years for me to learn and know, to a degree that I would never doubt, that God is my constant and continuous source. Now I am trusting Him, knowing that he will provide as I work to be a beacon worthy enough for him to shine through.

God’s word tells us, “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” (Isaiah 26:4) He is the solid foundation for your life. If you find yourself tossed about by circumstances and you are feeling alone, trying to maneuver through a storm, seek shelter in the one who knows you.

I can recall seeking and searching, trying to figure out why the events of my life came to be, and each time that I relied on my own understanding nothing felt safe. There was no peaceful harbor to shelter me.

God says, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” (Jeremiah 33:3) It was only by turning to God, calling to him that I found the peace I sought for so long. He opened my eyes and my heart and helped me to understand the things that I never could.

He is everlasting and will be your solid foundation; and his love for you is so much bigger than any storm or circumstance. If you feel like that ship out in the turbulent waters, look – for there is a light, though distant now, it is there, rock solid and everlasting. “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high and how deep his love is.” (Ephesians 3:18)

If you would like to know more about the solid foundation that God provides, please drop us a line at reigndropsblog@gmail.com, we’d love to hear from you!

Those of you who have read this blog from the beginning will recall that at one point in my life I had a wee bit of a problem with drugs and alcohol. For anyone new here, suffice it to say that when it came to following the rules, I didn’t. I won’t dig into the details on that, I’m sure most of you reading this have experienced your own rebellious streaks at one point or another. If I have learned anything, it’s that I’m not nearly as unique as I might have once thought myself.

This rebelliousness that most of us have gone through, or perhaps continue to struggle with, is nothing new. Give a thorough reading to the Old Testament and you’ll see example after example of individuals and groups who rebel against God. The words “so the people did whatever seemed right in their own minds” (ie: Judges 17:6) have regular occurrence. It seems by our very nature we are a pugnacious lot.

While there are all kinds of rules we are expected (and sometimes reluctant) to follow, such as income taxes, speed limits, and the like; let us be concerned with the laws that God has set before us. In the Bible, from beginning to end, we find God has lots of rules for us. I won’t take the time to dive into a detailed analysis of all God’s rules, for such an analysis is beyond the scope of this blog, so let’s just focus on a few examples, taken from the Ten Commandments.

“You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20:15) So let’s get honest with each other. Who has not stolen something at least once in their lives? Maybe it was just a little something, like a few office supplies from work. It didn’t have to be something big, it was still stealing if we appropriated for ourselves that which belonged to someone else. And someone who steals is called…a thief, right?

And then there’s the rule that, perhaps, I struggle with more than any other: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house…..or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17) I suspect I am not alone in my covetousness. For me, it’s usually gazing upon that new Corvette that my neighbor just bought, or some other shiny object in my neighbor’s garage for which I feel such avarice. Have you not found yourself desiring that which belongs to someone else? Fess up, don’t leave me hanging out here on my own!

We are always tempted to wonder why God has such rules for us. Perhaps the answer to that question actually lies, in part, within one of those rules. In Exodus 20:12 we find this gem: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Ah, there we have something “so that you may live long….” Yes! Our understanding of why God has rules for us is revealed in that statement.

Now, almost from the first moments of our lives we are already failing to honor our parents. “Be home before dark.” “Eat your vegetables.” “Do your homework.” “Don’t play in the street.” I think we all know why our parents had those rules in place for us. In all likelihood, we have (or had) similar rules for our own children. Because we love them dearly and we want them to survive in this world and to be all they can be. And now we see, in the fifth commandment, that God wants the same for us: to survive in this world and to be all we can be!

So, in today’s world, a lot of people think God’s rules are archaic and irrelevant; but many of us have the same rules for our children as our parents’ had for us because, as adults, we have come to realize that those rules were sensible in every way. And so it is with God’s rules, they made sense then and they make sense now – for it is only when we follow God’s rules that we experience all that life has to offer. It is only when we follow God’s rules that reach our highest potential and experience true freedom.

When I rebelled against my parents’ rules I was first and foremost rebelling against God and my life was a constant uphill struggle. Sure there were some happy times, but deep inside was constant unrest and deep dissatisfaction with life. But I have found the more I follow God’s rules the more peace and serenity I enjoy. I want you to know that peace and serenity, too, so I invite you to try life God’s way. What have you got to lose?