Andy's Blog

I haven't been writing very frequently this month and I apologize. It has been a hard, but GREAT month. I have been working 60-hour weeks trying to get our studio ready for our national syndication (some real exciting stuff), but I have also been spending the weekends at Hilton Head Island - which has been a blast. Last weekend I was down there with just friends, this past weekend I went down and met up with family, this upcoming weekend I am going down with Molly.

Last weekend was really a great time. On the first night we went to this amazing restaurant, that had these beautiful, huge windows that overlooked a cove on the island. I had some great shrimp and scallops, and enjoyed some good time with some family.

About 20 minutes into the dinner, a huge storm rolled through out of the blue - and when I say huge, it was huge. For someone who loves storms, it was awesome! But the first thing that came to my mind was, "crap, did I close my sunroof." This got me thinking about materialism.

I was sitting at the end of the table with my Uncle and I vocalized, "you know what is strange, I add this 'luxury' item to my life (yes, a sunroof is a luxury item to me), and look how it adds complication and becomes something that 'owns' me."

Back when I didn't have a sunroof, I never worried when it rained. I just enjoyed the thunderstorm and the company of those I was with. But now, it "ruined" the moment - because I couldn't get it out of my head.

Now obviously I don't think having a sunroof is wrong (or other luxuries) but it does make you realize that Jesus was right when he says that, "it is easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven." Why? Because the only thing that is suppose to "own" us is God.

We want the beach house, but then would worry about hurricanes. We want the nice car, but then would worry about it getting dented. We want the huge house, but then we got to hire people to tend to it and everything is more expensive to fix. And then we realize life is unnecessarily complicated. Now don't get me wrong, I am still going to enjoy the luxuries of life. But I think the idea is to recognize that if we aren't careful, that which we strive to own in life, eventually owns us.

This was a great week. Awesome Braves game on Tuesday that was probably the most fun baseball game I have been to. I finally got my new office organized. A 60-hour work week. No wolf criers. And to top it all off, a two-day weekend on the beach at Hilton Head Island with friends. When I went out to the beach this morning, I grabbed a Business Week that was sitting on the coffee table. I eventually read an article about recruiting methods used by top companies (like GE, ExxonMobil, etc...) and contacting college professors for "leads" on their top students.

All is good right? Seems simple. Companies want good, rising stars. Therefore they turn to college professors. Well, it gets complicated because often times these companies pay professors directly for help, or they support them in other ways (donation to the university ear-marked for their department, support of their PhD program, etc...).

This brings us to the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. In their fear of favoritism, they have set a policy that disallows professors to recommend students unless the company has contacted the student first. Now, as I sat in a beach chair thinking about this, I had to ask myself: if I knew this as a student considering UV's Business School, would I attend it? And the answer I have come to is no!

Maybe it is because I think this is actually a really smart idea. Maybe it is because I was liked by most of my professors. Maybe because I have seen first hand a great example of a professor recommending a friend of mine for a position that fit him and the company remarkably well. But frankly, Darden is a classic example of disabling fear.

We did a show the other weekend on volunteering and "serving others." One of our callers commented that people don't help much anymore because they are feared of "doing it wrong and then getting sued." Bingo! A fear of being sued disables them from doing something they should. Darden has a fear of showing favoritism (and possibly being sued), so they are disabling their professors to provide a great service to companies, to their students, and to themselves (usually there is some compensation to the school).

I don't want to live my life in any sort of disabling fear. Whether it was flying the weekend after 9/11/01, or studying abroad in the Middle East (both of which I was afraid to do but did anyways); or helping people even though they might possibly be able to sue or slander me, or setting University policy, fear should never be an influence in the decision to do the right thing.

I did something this week that I have only done three other times since graduating college: I took a full, 2-day weekend. I have worked 6-days a week 108 of my 111 weeks of employment (except vacation). I am not complaining about this. But this 4th 2-day weekend got me thinking about why I don't take more of them. And then that brought me to the realization that I think Jesus probably pissed off a lot of people sometimes. Why? Because he wasn't afraid of "wolf criers."

I have two people I work with that are awful wolf criers (you know, as in the boy who cried wolf). But instead of crying about a wolf, they come to me with projects that are usually last minute and always an emergency, with the tone that their department is more important than everything else going on (even though the "Worship" department is what is always tasked as what is most important). I'll spare the details. But sure enough, at the end of this week, I had another wolf-crying session from one of the two and it got me thinking about Jesus.

Jesus wasn't afraid of "wolf criers." I think a passage in Mark sums this up the best:

Mark 1:35-39 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!" 38Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." 39So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Now a little context. Jesus had just got done healing many people in Capernaum. So, naturally, when people caught wind of this, everyone who was sick came to him. Pretty noble right? I mean, healing people is way more important than producing a video. Yet Jesus "figuratively" stares them in the face, in all their pain, and says, I have better things to do (including rest) and I am sorry, but I need to stick to that.

Jesus knew two things: 1.) what His mission was, and 2.) that He, being fully man, was limited by time and energy to meet the expectations of everyone. These are two things I am not sure I am good at. I do think I am better at #1 than I am at #2, but it doesn't matter if I know what my purpose is, yet fail to hold to it. I can't blame people for coming and asking. I can really only blame myself for being more concerned with what they think of me over what my purpose is.