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What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
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Dismissing the crowd for Selah time

This will be my view tomorrow...on my day off. I am going to have A WHOLE DAY OFF. It's going to be so wonderful. I'm guarding it with my life! I'm going to enjoy it immensely. This is the view from my back patio. This is what I see when I sit in my jacuzzi. Right now the weather is cooling down, and it's the perfect time to sit on my swing, and read the Bible, or just think in silence. Oh, the bliss.

I'm in good company because Jesus loves to do things like this too. He always guarded His boundaries. We read about it in Matthew 13:36...Jesus left the crowd and He went into the house. The crowd was still there, but He wasn't. He came apart and found a quiet place to rest. There are times even now when life gets too noisy, and I just come apart to find a quiet place to rest. As much as I enjoy people and entertaining and parties, I enjoy solitude to a great degree. Again, I'm in good company. Jesus loves it too.

In Matthew 14:22, Jesus made the disciples get in the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side. After that He dismissed the crowd so He could pray. It had been more than just a bad hair day for Him. (Did the Lord ever have bad hair days?) Well, this was a really bad day because his cousin had just been beheaded. He needed to find a place to sort through things and be quiet. He needed God to renew and comfort Him. 

I have learned that on a regular basis, I need to dismiss the crowd in my life, at least one day a week, and preferably also a little bit of time each evening. And it doesn't always have to be because of a tragedy. On the contrary, if I don't have this time regularly, I will become a tragedy!

Some people can't handle silence. They always have to have noise. I love silence, and I need it. Every space of my life doesn't have to be filled up. I need margin. I need rests. Music would not be dramatic were it not for rests. There are various keys, time signatures, notes, and then there are...rests. In scripture we sometimes find the word "Selah". It simply means rest. After the Psalmist said something, you find the word "Selah." It means...rest, be quiet, think about that for a minute. And that's what I'm ready to do...rest, be quiet, and think for a minute. I want to even to something mindless tomorrow, like watch a non-sensical movie or TV show. It doesn't have to have any intrinsic value, just something to sit back and enjoy without having to think too hard.

I have even decided to leave the cleaning until Saturday. There's time on Saturday for dusting, vacuuming and the like. Tomorrow is Selah time.
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