I’m shorn (sheared?) and shining (hair-wise). It’s Wednesday, which means it’s my day to do the production sheet at On-Hold Concepts (www.onholdconcepts.com).
The thought no longer gives me even a minor case of the nerves, after 20 or more times doing it. I have a new skill! (Not that it’s terribly transferable, but hey… it proves my brain is still working.) (Ohhh… I guess being an "award-winning" copywriter also proves my brain is working. Sheesh…)

Don’t ask me what kind of award. You know what kind of award. The On-Hold Concepts Traveling Trophy Award. I won it just yesterday – for being a good co-worker and representative of my company when I’m out and about (and within). I really should take a picture of it. It’s unique as only individuals can make it. It started out as a trophy that shows a man taking a bull by the horns and throwing it over his shoulder. Since its purchase, numerous things have been added: an On-Hold Concepts CD, tassels from a hula skirt, quotations from Tony Robbins and Ronald E Osborn, a pink plastic doll slipper, a teensy weensy bottle of Tabasco sauce, a stick-on smiley face, a keychain that reads, "You’re Number 1 With us!" – and the two things I added. It makes me smile…

I haven’t won any writing awards yet (much to my chagrin but not to my surprise.) Ought to win the most prolific blogger award, though. I can’t seem to shut up when I get home. After a long day of writing…. I just keep on writing!

It’s an obsession.

I’m gonna help the women’s ministry leader create this year’s Christmas publicity again. Vernita asked and I said, "You bet’cha!" Any creative work I can do for the church – yes, yes, and YES! I was given this writing passion by God, so using it to bless his church is perfect use of it. I’d like to do it more. Alas, they took the creative aspects away from me when I was there. Gave ‘em all to a fellow with a graduate degree in communications. Nice fellow. I like him. I don’t like that they gave him every single one my favorite tasks, but I like him! He’s a truly wonderful fellow!
It’s why I didn’t stay. I’m so freakin’ good as an administrative assistant that, in all earlier positions, I was always getting diverted to those tasks (same thing in Hollywood at the studios). I’ve had enough of administrative work for the rest of my life. Writing is my passion, so I figure it’s the thing I need to be doing till I croak. (Can I write in heaven, God?)

Jackie and I have another duplex to look at. I hope and pray this one is it – it’s well within our price range, and that means we’d have extra to fix it up if it needs it –- lawn irrigation, fence, what have you. Jackie will drive by it today and see what she thinks. (We’ll get inside later, if it looks good from the outside.)

I sure wish something would happen so we could settle in and feel truly "at home" again! That would be a good thing! But I do believe in waiting on the Lord. He’s working out a plan – if we jump the gun, we might shoot His plan for us in the foot… and that would be foolish to the max!

The last part of Jacob’s book (The Year of Living Biblically) was less satisfying than the first three quarters. He wrote at the outset that he felt that truly applying Christian biblical principles and praying to Christ as Lord and Savior would be negating his Jewish background and heritage, and he generally interviewed the more fringe/outlandish folks in Christianity (snake charmers, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc -- but he did notice in every denomination how deeply and enthusiastically we love one another in church, the true test of a Christian environment). Maybe he did that in the first three quarters (visited the far out/most "weirdly" devout in the Jewish faith), too, and I just didn’t notice it because I’m not well-enough versed in that community of faith to recognize who’s mainstream and who’s to the right or to the left or beyond the pale. But without immersing oneself in the "culture" of church (or synagogue, or mosque) and interacting over a period of time with a core group of people, how can anyone truly be captured by the spirit of God that has captured them?

All this said, I must remember and repeat to y’all that AJ’s book is great for what it is: a book of humor. AJ wasn’t in the experience for a year to be captured…

But anyone with a true passion to interface with God will find Him. He’s not in the least bit elusive to those who seek Him – which is what the Bible reveals from Genesis through Revelation. God isn’t playing hide and seek – he wants us to find him. Playing at finding God is not going to win the prize.

But I still love AJ Jacobs. I just think that, like so many others, much of his agenda involves (as he revealed) staying in control of himself and of any situations he faces. Those who are rigidly in control of themselves rarely, if ever, find God. God is found when we get to the end of ourselves and realize there’s something more -- a whole lot more!

I’ll pray for him. I’d like to see AJ get a relationship going with God – Hebrew, Christian – I really don’t care which! Jesus was/probably still is Jewish -- but He loves every one on earth and wants us all to "get" what he did for all of us.

Why is this so hard to believe? Will someone please write in and tell me the answer to this puzzling question?

It stumps me utterly.