Sunday, June 29, 2014

Living Intentionally

It was with great apprehension that I answered the phone call. The caller ID showed it coming from the same area code of Bruce's family. They only called my phone if there was an emergency. I was quite concerned. 

No emergency. Not even family. It happened to be a friend from our college  days. We had not seen each other in 19 Years!  He wanted to meet up, he was planning in being in the Cadillac area the next evening, and wondered if Bruce and I would be available. Of course we were going to make that happen!

Andy. I remember him being young. Passionate for Christ. We had been involved in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship together. I remember his excitement when he was able to get into the local Christian radio station there. It is a station Bruce and I still try to support today. Over time Andy had become the director of the radio station. It would be great to reconnect. The meeting was set. 

Andy. He was easy to recognize. Aged, yes, a bit heavier too, but in general he looked the same. It was great visiting. We spent over 2 hours sitting at the picnic table in the park. A beautiful evening, a nice sunset. Andy was asking some very intentional questions about our lives. Our jobs, and our long term goals. He pitched us a business concept. Really?  Yes really!  We had not seen each other in almost 20 years and he came to pitch a business concept. Interesting. 

Life leadership. A newer company. Intent on making opportunities for growth among its people. Andy gave us material to look over. It is not for us. We will be talking on the phone Monday evening to go over the materials, and any questions we may have. It is an easy decision to let him know we are not by any means interested. The company is very "amway-esque". It reminded me of when a close friend had gotten into (forgive my spelling) MonaVay. Similar to a pyramid scheme, they use arms and legs as the link example instead. You make money by building teams. Okay. But my background in retail sales tells me there has to be a product. Their product Andy tells me is changed lives. Through seminars, DVDs, CDs, and books that can be purchased. Okay. Now that is product. Real tangible product. But Andy is not selling me this product, rather he wants me to sign up, spend money, to get into a company that sells this product?  I question weather he believes in this product. I never asked who the costumers were. Again my background tells me that there has to be someone buying the product in order to make this work. In reading through the material, though, I can see the costumer base. It is the bottom level business team members. The ones that Andy signs up under him. Yeah that does not work for me. There is no money to be made here. Rather only money to be spent. Money I do not have. 

Living Intentionally. 
During our conversation Bruce asked Andy about the acronym, LIFE for the company name and logo. Living Intentionally For Excellence. Okay. Interesting. That got the wheels in my head spinning. And any of you that know me knows that can go for a long time. 

Living Intentionally. For excellence? Who's excellence?  I think I do live intentionally. But for excellence?  Again who's excellence?  My excellence? Bruce's excellence? Your excellence?  Do you live intentionally?  When I cause mischief at work it is usually intentional. (What me be mischievous? - Never!). When I get up in the morning and set my mind on the tasks of the day I can start them with good intention. I want to continue to live intentionally. But I plan on living intentionally for Christ. He is my Rock, my Savior, my all and everything. The only material I need (although there is a ton of great side material out there) is my Bible. My B-I-B-L-E. Yes that's the book for me. I do not need a company selling motivational material to learn to live intentionally. And it is not for excellence that I need to live intentionally for. It is for my Christ Jesus and His excellence that I intentionally need to put all my life efforts into. 
So I ask you,  are you living intentionally?