One More For JC

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) After serving me well for over a decade, my home PC decided in September that the time had come to finally pack it in.  I tried everything in my human power to get it back in business.  I did one disk check after another - just when it looked like it would work its way successfully to completion (after an inordinate amount of time), the process would die and start over again at 0%.  To make matters worse, the normally diligent one hadn’t done a backup in over two years, so the pressure was really on.  Countless Google searches got me down the path of building a boot disk.  However, just when it looked like a boot disk had put me on a path to restoration – whatever task I was doing would fail as well.  After reaching a point of acceptance that I was never going to fix the PC, I finally figured out a backdoor method to manually copy all of my files

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the LORD Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.  (Acts 20:24) As I looked out my kitchen window this week, I couldn’t help but enjoy the beauty of a single tree a neighbor had planted about a decade ago, smack-dab in the middle between her home and ours.  Fall is in full effect in the Minnesota and the autumn colors on that tree have reached its glorious peak.  Over the years, I’ve looked at that tree countless times and never thought much of it – but this year, I couldn’t help but shed a few tears when I did.  Just last month, Dee and I learned our former neighbor had passed away in March - she moved away a few years back, and sadly we lost touch.  In the weeks since, I’ve been hard on myself – wishing I’d done a better job of maintaining contact and not missing her funeral.  But believe it or not, that tiny tree has changed th

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6) After 21 years, I started a new job last Wednesday.  For about the past year, I’ve been praying for an opportunity to work with Dee again – and when one opened up in early March, I went for it.  The weeks following my resignation day were even more busy and emotional than expected.  Having 21 years of emails to comb through is a lot, but it’s amazing how quickly you can delete thousands of emails regarding a product that you will never work with again.  Personal emails, on the other hand, took the full month of March to get through.  I read each one word for word – from all the wedding announcements, to birth announcements, to the supportive emails over the death of a loved one, to all the farewell emails on a colleague’s (friend’s) last day.  The “FZ, I’m alive!” email from September 12, 2001 brought another