Foundations

Gun’s Quote-of-the-Week:

“Life is made up of pluses and minuses.

The pluses give us hope.

The minuses give us strength.”

-Unknown

The past two weeks have been replete with dropped balls, frustration and stress. I do not at all like being this way. Not during December. Not during Christmas. This is a time for joy, peace, hope and love. Not blood, sweat and tears. We can save that for the other 11 months, thank you very much.

2011 has been a very hard year for me. There is no good reason as the following happens to all of us. It started with a new job that was very difficult to transition into and challenging to maintain. It seemingly took forever to get on my feet. Still not 100% sure I’m actually on my feet, to tell the truth. There are more good days than bad, but it is so hard to have to walk into a situation and not know what is going on. Lack of experience is one of the most frustrating attributes I have ever encountered. There are just so many questions out there that I don’t know the answers to. Yes I’ll learn, but this past year has been learning the hard way.

It was the second week of January when I had a car wreck. Nobody was hurt, maimed or killed, but my insurance dropped me. Getting new insurance significantly cost more, and I paid for the repair out of my own pocket trying to get my original carrier to not count the wreck. That didn’t happen. Then the transmission went out. The radio quit. The dash lights have burned out. Now the check engine light is on. Again.

The senior class that I grew to love in my youth group graduated in May. It was the first class that I spent all four years with as a volunteer. I had no idea that was going to be so hard. Transitioning into the new group of freshmen after so many that I love left for college was much more difficult than I imagined. All of a sudden, there were a ton of kids that didn’t know my name and I didn’t know theirs. In a way, it felt like I was starting over.

Then there was, of course, the loss of one of our own teens due to suicide.

I could continue my lamentations for 2011 but if you have any sense at all you should have stopped reading them half-way up already. Suffice it to say I’m done with this year. I hope it burns with the heat of 10,000 suns in raging fires of hell while I sit and watch it from above while eating kettle corn. I’ve never been a huge fan of New Years. This year, I’m having a party. I may even smoke a cigar.

(I will never smoke a cigar.)

There are enough pluses in 2011 to give me a real sense of hope for 2012. A lot of ground was broken. There were a lot of new starts. There was a lot of foundation work. There’s a girlfriend. (True story!) My hope is that with the extra strength that I have gained from all the minuses, I can quickly build a strong house on top of that foundation and bounce-back from all these setbacks. Indeed, there are times when you have to tear down before you can build up. This is my time.

My sincere hope is that you can do the same. May your pluses and minuses grant you the hope and strength that you need to carry on always.

…and that’s why it’s a Gun’s Quote!