“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14, NIV)
A clean slate. That’s what a new year is like. A chance to start over. An opportunity to do things differently.
But so many don’t. They just keep living like they’ve always lived. And they get the same results. Year after year they live in bondage to their habits and hates and fears.
I want to challenge you this new year to make changes that will allow you to serve God more fully.
Forgive. You have been forgiven. I’m assuming you’re a believer. So forgive. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Let the past be the past. Go to your aggrieved friends. Seek peace. Pursue reconciliation.
Forget. Stop focusing exclusively on your past. What’s done is done. The good stuff and the bad. Forgetting what is behind, press on. Seek God. Love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Let Him show you what He wants for now, for today, for this new part of your life.
New. That’s what you are in Christ. Live like it in 2009.
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Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Caroling, caroling, here we go...
Caroling, caroling, there we went! Christmas night the family went strolling (ok, we drove) around town terrorizing people with joyous noise! Actually, we didn't sound too bad. No one threw anything at us (except cookies at one house...thanks Bill and Lorene). We had a great time. At the last house, as we were walking away, I heard the guy say, "I don't think I've ever been caroled to before." Pretty fun!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
End of an era?
I read this on Phil Vischer's blog shortly after posting the Veggie Christmas song...
And now for the day's bad news… an era has ended at Big Idea. 2/3's of the staff of Big Idea Inc. was let go yesterday, shrinking the company down to just 11 people. All that remains is the marketing team, one designer (Ron Eddy), one director (Brian Roberts), and Mike Nawrocki. The rest of production, including old-timers like editor John Wahba and music maestro Kurt Heinecke, are all gone. Ron Eddy, the very first designer I hired way back in 1996 to launch a team that at one point totaled 30 people, now has the distinction of being Big Idea's first designer, and last designer.
The layoffs weren't a surprise for any of you following the news about Big Idea's parent company. Entertainment Rights has been flirting with bankruptcy for the last six months, and recently revealed they only have enough cash to survive through January. So drastic cuts were in order.
As for Big Idea, VeggieTales video sales peaked nearly 10 years ago and have been steadily declining ever since. Classic Media squeezed profits out of VeggieTales not by innovating, but rather by reducing costs, renegotiating distribution agreements, and then pushing as many videos into the market as they possibly could. The kids video business has been in steady decline for more than a decade (mirroring VeggieTales decline), and the prior owners of Classic did nothing to seriously address this decline. While putting VeggieTales on NBC was billed as a strategic move to grow the audience and ministry, it was, in reality, part of the former owners' effort to sell their company. It worked. Entertainment Rights, blinded by the "dazzle" of TV deals with NBC and movie deals with Universal, grossly overpaid for Classic Media and Big Idea, and, as a result, is fighting to survive with $200mm+ of debt and a market capitalization of less than $20mm. (Astonishingly, the total value placed on Entertainment Rights, Classic Media and Big Idea by the stock market today less than what Classic Media paid to buy VeggieTales out of bankruptcy back in 2003.)
I could write a whole book about the strategic blunders that have resulted in the loss of a quarter-billion dollars of value for Entertainment Rights shareholders, but that really isn't the story here. The real story is that any sense of the original team behind VeggieTales was lost yesterday. Big Idea is now a logo only, representing a marketing team, and Mike. (Okay, and Ron and Brian. But Mike remains symbolically as the "face" of what Big Idea used to be.)
There are a couple more videos in production, which, apparently, will be completed and released. What beyond that? Who knows. God is good, and he will accomplish his goals in his timing, according to his perfect will. If God has additional ministry in mind for the cucumber and tomato I created in a spare bedroom in Chicago 18 years ago, I believe it will still come to pass. The sad thing today is that a bunch of good friends are staring down a Christmas season in a tough economy without jobs. But God knows that, too, and he has a plan for each one of them.
Let's keep them in our prayers this Christmas.
And now for the day's bad news… an era has ended at Big Idea. 2/3's of the staff of Big Idea Inc. was let go yesterday, shrinking the company down to just 11 people. All that remains is the marketing team, one designer (Ron Eddy), one director (Brian Roberts), and Mike Nawrocki. The rest of production, including old-timers like editor John Wahba and music maestro Kurt Heinecke, are all gone. Ron Eddy, the very first designer I hired way back in 1996 to launch a team that at one point totaled 30 people, now has the distinction of being Big Idea's first designer, and last designer.
The layoffs weren't a surprise for any of you following the news about Big Idea's parent company. Entertainment Rights has been flirting with bankruptcy for the last six months, and recently revealed they only have enough cash to survive through January. So drastic cuts were in order.
As for Big Idea, VeggieTales video sales peaked nearly 10 years ago and have been steadily declining ever since. Classic Media squeezed profits out of VeggieTales not by innovating, but rather by reducing costs, renegotiating distribution agreements, and then pushing as many videos into the market as they possibly could. The kids video business has been in steady decline for more than a decade (mirroring VeggieTales decline), and the prior owners of Classic did nothing to seriously address this decline. While putting VeggieTales on NBC was billed as a strategic move to grow the audience and ministry, it was, in reality, part of the former owners' effort to sell their company. It worked. Entertainment Rights, blinded by the "dazzle" of TV deals with NBC and movie deals with Universal, grossly overpaid for Classic Media and Big Idea, and, as a result, is fighting to survive with $200mm+ of debt and a market capitalization of less than $20mm. (Astonishingly, the total value placed on Entertainment Rights, Classic Media and Big Idea by the stock market today less than what Classic Media paid to buy VeggieTales out of bankruptcy back in 2003.)
I could write a whole book about the strategic blunders that have resulted in the loss of a quarter-billion dollars of value for Entertainment Rights shareholders, but that really isn't the story here. The real story is that any sense of the original team behind VeggieTales was lost yesterday. Big Idea is now a logo only, representing a marketing team, and Mike. (Okay, and Ron and Brian. But Mike remains symbolically as the "face" of what Big Idea used to be.)
There are a couple more videos in production, which, apparently, will be completed and released. What beyond that? Who knows. God is good, and he will accomplish his goals in his timing, according to his perfect will. If God has additional ministry in mind for the cucumber and tomato I created in a spare bedroom in Chicago 18 years ago, I believe it will still come to pass. The sad thing today is that a bunch of good friends are staring down a Christmas season in a tough economy without jobs. But God knows that, too, and he has a plan for each one of them.
Let's keep them in our prayers this Christmas.
Really dumb...
A few years back, I had the opportunity to join a friend in jumping off a 30- or 40-foot railroad bridge into murky water. Really dumb, right? Shouldn’t be done even if your friend insists that it’s fun. I knew that to be true going in. I’d heard Joni Eareckson Tada’s story, seen it on film. She dove into a lake and hit her head on a rock just beneath the surface, a rock she could not see because the water was murky. She broke her neck and ended up paralyzed for life, confined to a wheelchair, unable to do most things for herself. (She is, I must say, able to do some really remarkable things, but she is paralyzed.)
I thought of Joni as I clung to that railroad trestle staring at the rushing water below. I knew I’d hit the rock my friend had missed for years. I’d die or be crippled for life. Every ounce of sense within me screamed, Don’t jump into murky water!
I jumped anyway. It took me a half an hour to summon enough stupidity to overcome my perfectly rational fear, but I jumped – twice. The second time was only slightly less terrifying than the first. It was not fun.
I’m reminded right now of the redneck’s famous last words. You know what they are, right?
“Hey, Bubba! Watch this!”
I have no desire whatsoever to jump off a bridge into murky water again. For that matter, I don’t have the slightest yearning to jump off anything other than a diving board or the edge of a pool into any kind of water. (Maybe out of a canoe into a fairly calm river or a calm lake.)
I don’t like doing things I know to be really dumb. It’s really dumb to do really dumb stuff knowing that it’s really dumb. Doing really dumb stuff is how you end up in the back of an ambulance in great pain.
Just had to get that off my chest.
I thought of Joni as I clung to that railroad trestle staring at the rushing water below. I knew I’d hit the rock my friend had missed for years. I’d die or be crippled for life. Every ounce of sense within me screamed, Don’t jump into murky water!
I jumped anyway. It took me a half an hour to summon enough stupidity to overcome my perfectly rational fear, but I jumped – twice. The second time was only slightly less terrifying than the first. It was not fun.
I’m reminded right now of the redneck’s famous last words. You know what they are, right?
“Hey, Bubba! Watch this!”
I have no desire whatsoever to jump off a bridge into murky water again. For that matter, I don’t have the slightest yearning to jump off anything other than a diving board or the edge of a pool into any kind of water. (Maybe out of a canoe into a fairly calm river or a calm lake.)
I don’t like doing things I know to be really dumb. It’s really dumb to do really dumb stuff knowing that it’s really dumb. Doing really dumb stuff is how you end up in the back of an ambulance in great pain.
Just had to get that off my chest.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Christmas special...
I hope you enjoy hearing my eldest daughter playing "Angels We Have Heard on High" with our church organist. They played this duet during worship Christmas Sunday 2008. I think they did a great job. (I might be biased.)
Friday, December 19, 2008
Smelly streets...
I probably wouldn't have noticed this news story if I didn't have a friend who lives in Ankeny, but here it is. Tone's Spices donated 9 tons of garlic salt to the city to use in combination with regular road salt to melt the ice and snow that coated the thuroghfares of it's Iowa hometown. Problem is people are getting hit trying to scoop the stuff up for their dinner. (I made that last part up.)
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