A quick pile of rocks

Weeks like this past one don't come around too often. It was a day full of big and little "successes" as well as some hard hits. It's so easy to focus on the hits and lose sight of their realistic small size in the scheme of things, their brevity, and their source. I'm choosing now to sit down and remind myself of the blessings that showed up yesterday.

• I took a big step of accomplishment and commitment in one of my businesses' top priorities: I chose a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) to record, track, and enhance the relationships I have with my customers. Before this past week, I was held back both by fears and by ignorance of what I needed. I set out to remove the ignorance, and once that was accomplished, met some awesome people who also helped me knock out the fear factor.
• I met some really cool guys named Chris and Nick. One of them is the maker of the CRM I built, and the other is a marketing guy. Both were people I wanted to meet for what they could offer to my business, but I walked away from both impressed with their deep roots in spirituality, their care for me as a person, and their challenges to me to simply do what I knew I needed to do.
• I made the decision to pursue a business opportunity that will land me 15-20 clients all at once on July 1. This might seem like a no brainer, but it was one of those deals where I was doing too much questioning of myself, the details of the deal, and whether or not it was the right thing to do. Once again, I took the week to boil away the uncertainties, and once that was done, the fears seemed to melt away.
• I was able to spend an hour talking with teenagers at my church about confirmations - about God showing up in our lives in ways that remind us He is there, He is involved, and He wants to be part of our everyday decisions.
• I gave my son a yellow submarine for his birthday. If you had been a fly on the wall of my home since ... oh ... a year ago (?) you'd know how often he asked us (and asked Santa, and asked Jesus to tell Santa) for this.
• I've seen my wife's maturity and commitment to our Father like never before. This mess with a sick horse has been more emotionally harder on her than me, and I've seen her step up to the plate in faith, trust, acceptance, battle against warfare, and hope. She is an inspiration to me.
• A good friend of mine who knows my love for piling up rocks in my blog started her own blog, mypileofrocks.wordpress.com.
• I had a nice conversation with my neighbor boy, the one with a reputation around the neighborhood for being a loud obnoxious drummer for a local band. I love the kid. (not his drumming, but the kid). I've taken steps in the past to confront issues head on with him and it's resulted in a place where I can now have GOOD face to face conversations as well.
• We had around 30 people over to our house last Sunday on a spur-of-the-moment Memorial Day get together. I love my friends. A few of us hung out until midnight just sitting on the deck, looking at stars, and talking.
• I received good sized payments from 4 clients in one day on Friday. It's been a little dry the last few weeks, so getting this all at once was a welcome reminder of the fact that "we're doing ok." In fact, we're doing rather well as we transition from one thing into something much different.
• I received a lot of grace. There were a few rough moments this week... as in extremely hard... several of which are still grinding on my life. But there is grace, from the Lord, from my wife, from my friends, and even... from myself.
• I got in 5 miles of running. And lost 5 pounds in the past 2 weeks.

There's no way that's "it." But it is a list. It's something I or someone else who knows me can come back to (like in Joshua 4) and say, "what's this pile of rocks here for?" Why did I list out all these good things yet ignore the bad? I do so, not because I am naive and hope the bad things just disappear, but because it's far to easy to lose sight of the blessings in light of the lies, the hurts, and the pain. TRUTH trumps a lie, but lies often overpower truth unless exposed to the light.