profiles in attitude: the israelites in the book of numbers

I just started my sermon series on attitude at the Los Gatos Christian chapel yesterday. it made me think of how far I need to go on my attitude, and how much I need to work on my attitude each day. this morning, I was reading in the book of numbers and I saw that the Israelites put on a clinic of how to have a bad attitude- and God also reveals how He feels about our bad attitudes.
:: numbers 11:1 says, “now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused.”

bottom line: complaining makes God angry. because complaining is essentially telling someone else, “what you have given me isn’t good enough.”

:: in numbers 11:4 it says, “the rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat!”

bottom line: being discontent with what you have infuriates God. God had given them all the food they could want- they just wanted options. so God gave them so much quail-meat to eat that they barfed it out their noses.

:: in numbers 11:21 God tells Moses that He is going to feed the Israelites enough meat to fill them up for a month. moses thinks God is exaggerating and reminds God that there are 600 thousand Israelite men and that’s a lot of meat. God’s response to moses’ lack of faith is, “Is the LORD's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you."

bottom line: an unbelieving attitude doesn’t score points with God either.

:: in numbers 12, moses’ sister Miriam, and his brother aaron start talking trash about Moses’ Cushite (African) wife. they start spreading the word that they might be better to lead israel than moses. God calls Moses, Aaron and Miriam to the tent of meeting and says, “ When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions…but this is not true of my servant Moses; …with him I speak face to face, …why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"
Miriam got leprosy for spreading her criticism and gossip.

bottom line- the attitude of our words matter to God- and He can’t stand the criticism and the gossip. we ought to think twice before we criticize someone that God has placed in leadership.

:: in numbers 13, a group of spies are gathered to scope out the promised land to see what its like before the Israelites enter. 2 of them come back thrilled at the opportunities- 10 came back complaining that it would be too hard to conquer and that they should just turn back. their negative attitude spread throughout the community and the people started to freak out.

bottom line: a negative attitude spreads and it escalates- so if you have one, keep it to yourself.

:: in response to everyone’s bad attitude, God tells the one who are afraid that they will never enter the promised land, and that Israel will wander the desert until the last one is dead.

bottom line: a negative attitude takes away your opportunities and keeps you from the great things that God has for you.

:: the two spies that had a great attitude got to go to the promised land- I love what God says about the spy named caleb in Numbers 14:24 “but because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.”

bottom line: an awesome attitude brings opportunities from God.

and the ultimate bottom line is that: my attitude is a spiritual issue.
its really not reflective of how I feel about my environment or my relationships or my status, its about my connection to God. again, God says of caleb: “but because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.”

a great attitude comes from following God wholeheartedly;
and when I stop following God with everything,
the way I see life
and people
begins to warp;
and my attitude turns sour.

so how has your attitude been?
has it been limiting you?
or is it creating opportunities for you?

probably the better question is, how closely are you following God?

is attitude everything?
pretty much.

God is love.
-rev-rob

joseph's attitude, part 2

I've been thinking and writing about attitudes for awhile now; I have recently finished a speaking series on attitude that will launch this fall called sabotage. the idea is that a bad attitude will sabotage your life, and it can only be defeated with the secret weapon of a great attitude. thoughout the series, I will look at several saboteurs and illustrate how they damage our lives and our futures, I'll also spell out the secret weapons that neutralize these saboteurs.

I'm also working on a series on the life of joseph; and in preparing for this, i've been reading chuck swindoll's book on his life. chuck spend a lot of time on joseph's attitude. a few months ago I wrote about joseph's attitude and felt that I covered the subject pretty well. chuck one-upped me and I'll share his thoughts-

:: chuck spends a lot of time of jacob's bad attitude. after joseph is gone, he is hanging on to benjamin for dear life. when the brothers tell him that they have to take benjamin to egypt, jacob freaks out. chuck notes that this guy is a partiarch! he has wrestled with angels and has received the promises of God. he should have the best attitude of them all, and he should be strengthening their faith; but instead, everyone has to strengthen his.

:: when joseph was in the dungeon, after being sent there by potiphar, he meets pharoah's cupbearer and baker. joseph has every right to a bad attitude in this situation. he has been sold into slavery, and then wrongfully accused of attacking mrs. potiphar, and then locked into a dungeon; but joseph apparently had a great attitude in the dungeon. he was put in charge of the entire prison, and when he sees pharoah's two officials he asks them, "why are your faces so sad today?" personally, I would answer, "oh, I don't know... maybe its because I'M IN A DUNGEON?!" you need to have a great attitude to get your focus off of yourself and onto others. you need to have a great attitude to encourage others. and you need a great attitude to serve others, which is exactly what he did to the cupbearer and baker. swindoll points out that if he were joseph, he wouldn't want anything to do with dreams ever again, but joseph listens to their dreams and interprets them. that's a great attitude.

:: at the end of the book, swindoll says, "greatness is revealed mainly in our attitudes." he says that "it takes God to make a heart right. when I have a bad attitude, I look at life humanly. when I have a great attitude, I look at life divinely." he says that joseph was great, "mainly because of his attitude." he ends his chapter on attitude saying, "walk by faith, trusting God to renew your attitude." it takes faith to have a great attitude- faith that God is in control of my situation and that He has good in mind for me.

so I ask you the same things I'll ask my students and myself: how is your attitude? is it sabotaging your relationships, your opportunities and your future? or is your attitude revealing greatness? a great attitude comes from God. it is the fruit of His spirit in our lives. so plant yourself in Him and and let your sparkle shine.

God is love.
-rev-rob

rainbow-rob

here is an ideas that I have been thinking about for a long time- I think I just got some words that express what I’m thinking. let’s see if it makes sense-

first of all, jane loves rainbows. she draws them often, and she always has the colors in the correct “roy g biv” order. she prefers that her clothes have rainbows on them. so I got the idea to pick her up a prism so that she can make her own rainbows at home. we both discovered that rainbows are kind of hard to make! they only work with sunlight; and the beam has to be very strong- like at sunrise or sunset. and the light has to hit the prism at just the right angle. we have spent a long time in front of windows with our prism, raising it, lowering it, twisting it, turning it, until that perfect position is found and colors shoot out on the wall or on the floor. jane thinks its super-cool, and to be honest, so do I.


I’ve been thinking about this with my speaking to middle schoolers. I watch a lot of speakers speak to middle schoolers; some speakers really connect with students, and some just don’t. sometimes I watch a speaker, and its like their words are shooting a beam directly at the prism of these young hearts and minds, and there are colors shooting off everywhere, and there is wonder in their eyes. other speakers preach their guts out, and have lots of insightful illustrations and speaking tricks, but for some reason, their words are just a little off. they maybe hitting the students every now and then, but the signal is weak, and the students are distracted. its like the light is hitting the prism at just a few degrees off; and some colors are coming out, but the rainbow isn’t quite there.


I would love to say that my messages fire off rainbows every time. there have definitely been times when I could just feel that my words were in the zone and I had the crowd in the palm of my hand and there were those moments when “you could have heard a pin drop.” there have been times when I have had so much joy and fun with my message, and I could tell that the students had just as much fun participating with me in that. and then there have been many more times when I ask myself, “should I really be doing this for a living? shouldn’t I be at least good at this to do this for a living?” there are some days that my passion for the topic isn’t quite right, or my energy level is low, or the room is distracting, I just thought an idea would work, when it really didn’t.

sometimes I watch some of my friends speak, and every time there are rainbows shooting off everywhere; and I get kind of jealous. and sometimes I just swipe their ideas and hope that they will work when I speak. either way, I have a new goal when I speak: I want to aim my words directly at a middle schooler’s heart and mind; I want to zero in on their world and bring the light of God’s word directly into the prism of their heart. I’m not aiming to impress the adults, I’m not aiming to impress my seminary professor, I’m not aiming to get something on tape that others will want to copy, I’m aiming for that rainbow. get your sunglasses out folks, its time for church.

God is love.
-rev-rob

strengths-finder results

I just took the strengths-finder test and this is what it came up with! if you know me, then you might say that this kind of describes me pretty well:

ROB WALTER


Developer


You see the potential in others. Very often, in fact, potential is all you see. In your view no individual is fully formed. On the contrary, each individual is a work in progress, alive with possibilities. And you are drawn toward people for this very reason. When you interact with others, your goal is to help them experience success. You look for ways to challenge them. You devise interesting experiences that can stretch them and help them grow. And all the while you are on the lookout for the signs of growth—a new behavior learned or modified, a slight improvement in a skill, a glimpse of excellence or of “flow” where previously there were only halting steps. For you these small increments—invisible to some—are clear signs of potential being realized. These signs of growth in others are your fuel. They bring you strength and satisfaction. Over time many will seek you out for help and encouragement because on some level they know that your helpfulness is both genuine and fulfilling to you.


Empathy


You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own. Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. You do not necessarily agree with each person’s perspective. You do not necessarily feel pity for each person’s predicament—this would be sympathy, not Empathy. You do not necessarily condone the choices each person makes, but you do understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. You hear the unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words, you seem to find the right words and the right tone. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings—to themselves as well as to others. You help them give voice to their emotional life. For all these reasons other people are drawn to you.


Achiever


Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.


Relator


Relator describes your attitude toward your relationships. In simple terms, the Relator theme pulls you toward people you already know. You do not necessarily shy away from meeting new people—in fact, you may have other themes that cause you to enjoy the thrill of turning strangers into friends—but you do derive a great deal of pleasure and strength from being around your close friends. You are comfortable with intimacy. Once the initial connection has been made, you deliberately encourage a deepening of the relationship. You want to understand their feelings, their goals, their fears, and their dreams; and you want them to understand yours. You know that this kind of closeness implies a certain amount of risk—you might be taken advantage of—but you are willing to accept that risk. For you a relationship has value only if it is genuine. And the only way to know that is to entrust yourself to the other person. The more you share with each other, the more you risk together. The more you risk together, the more each of you proves your caring is genuine. These are your steps toward real friendship, and you take them willingly.


Responsibility


Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution. This conscientiousness, this near obsession for doing things right, and your impeccable ethics, combine to create your reputation: utterly dependable. When assigning new responsibilities, people will look to you first because they know it will get done. When people come to you for help—and they soon will—you must be selective. Your willingness to volunteer may sometimes lead you to take on more than you should.

jane's hair salon

last night, I was on my way home from work when my cell phone rang. the called ID said it was “HOME.” I thought it was Deanna. I answered and said, “hello?” a little voice on the other line said, “jane’s hair salon, can I help you” I said, “oh hi- I need my haircut. can you help with that?” jane said, “oh this hair salon is just for dolls, sorry. but when you come home you can see the hair salon in my room.”

when I got home, jane showed me the line of dolls in the hallway waiting to get their hair brushed.she had a sign for the door. and inside her room was a little place for a doll to sit and look in the mirror while jane brushed her hair. she was very proud of it.

later on, we went out to run an errand. jane insisted on stopping by our neighbor victoria’s place to tell her about the salon. I didn’t want to bug Victoria, but I thought I would at least see if she was home. we walked by her condo, and she had the door open with the screen closed. she was sitting in her front room with her husband.

jane said, “hi Victoria! did you know I have a hair salon? its open on mondays.” Victoria said, “really? well it is monday, and I think I need my hair done!” jane said, “well its only for dolls.” Victoria said, “well I think I have a doll that needs her hair done.” and she went back into her condo for a few minutes. “where is this going?” I wondered. she returned with a very old box that looked as if it had been saved and preserved for decades. “uh-oh.” I thought. “this is not the kind of doll for a five year old kid…

she opened the box and revealed a vintage doll with all of its original clothes in mint condition. she said, “this was my favorite doll when I was a little girl.” “don’t give it to jane!” I thought in my head. she went on to say, “I lost my favorite doll when I was a little girl, and I searched for it at doll shows for years until I finally found it.” “don’t hand it to jane!” I thought. jane just stood there stunned. Victoria said, “I got this for my grandkids to play with, but they weren’t interested; and its just been sitting on the shelf in a box for years, and it needs some love. I’m looking for a little girl who likes dolls who can show this doll some love.” in a heartbeat jane said, “I like dolls!” “you do?!” said Victoria, “would you take care of my favorite doll?” “SURE!” jane said. “then you can have her.” said Victoria. I was floored. I said, “wow! are you sure Victoria?” “I’m sure.” she replied. we forgot about the errand and ran upstairs to show Deanna. jane got to work on a detailed and thoughtful thank you card that she delivered later on that night. victoria put the card on her refrigerator with the other cards that jane has given her. (she and jane have a very cute friendship going).

I looked the doll up on e-bay and they don’t even have one on there. all they have in the accessories for it. from what I could tell, the doll was made in the early 60’s. it was probably worth a ton, especially in its mint box, and she gave it to jane! maybe she just watched toy story 2. either way, I was blown away by her kindness and generosity.


speaking of toy story, the whole conversation was like the last scene from toy story 3- an older person grew out of their toy and gave it to a child who could appreciate it. this was a gift that lit up jane’s eyes and heart, and I think it lit up victoria’s as well. I think it gave her more joy to see it in jane’s hands than on her shelf.

giving is a cool thing.
so is being a dad.

God is love.
-rev-rob

5-year-old-theologian pt. 1

a couple of weeks ago, jane and I were having a daddy-daughter-day at Gilroy gardens when we received a phone call from Deanna- she was having abdominal pains, and she was driving herself to the emergency room. we met her there. it turned out to be kidney stones, and she was much better by the end of the night. while Deanna was at the hospital, and laer that night, jane and I prayed for her to get better. a couple of days later, jane and Deanna were talking and jane said, “mom- I don’t think it was the hospital that made you better.” Deanna asked what made her better. jane just pointed to the sky and said, “God.”


sometime later, jane and I were at burger king. we got our food and sat down and jane said, “dad, I heard you thank the people for the food, but I don’t think they were the ones that made it.” “who made it I asked?” again, she just pointed up and said, “God. He made everything.”


kids don’t need a debate or an apologetics course to believe in God. their hearts know that He is real and that He heals and provides. maybe that’s why jesus tells us that we need to receive His kingdom like a child. I heard a speaker recently say that children are vulnerable, gullible, and weak. eventually we grow out of that; but when it comes to our relationship with God, those are good things.


God is love.
-rev-rob

mary poppins outside

its friday, my day off, and this morning I was thinking of how I might spend my day with jane. I looked on a website that has all kinds of ideas of things to do with kids, and i saw this picture:

my daughter's love for mary poppins has been documented here, here, here, and here.

for those reasons, I felt like this is something that we HAD to do. so we got out jane's mary poppins costume, and deanna updated my bert hat, and we headed out to the outdoor theater in fremont. the movie didn't stat until 8:15, and jane goes to bed at 7, and she was pretty mellow when we arrived. we participated in the pre-show chalk-drawing-contest:

 

we posed for a few pictures,

and we had a little post-dinner snack: M&M's. to say that the M&M's gave jane a sugar-rush is an understatement. my daughter hopped, sang, talked, pointed, and laughed through the first half of the movie:

she was way too hyper to sit down:

we kind of bugged the people around us with all of this energy. one lady got up and moved, another gave us a scowl. we eventually got up and moved to the back of the ampitheater to be nice to the other movie-goers. we won a big box of chalk for jane's chalk drawing! we left at about 10pm even though there was a lot of movie left. everyone in the ampitheater had a great time singing along with those timeless songs, but no one had as much fun as jane and deanna and I.

being a dad is fun.

6 month update

if you’re keeping tabs on your pal rob, here are some updates:



I made some new year’s resolutions at the beginning of the year; here is a 6 month update:


I made a resolution to eat no fries and no fried food all year. that has been pretty good. I’ve been in situations where there has only been fried food available and have had a few bites here and there. it hasn’t been perfect, but I’m doing pretty good. my new goal is to have a soda-free-summer. about 25 day in and I’m going strong. I don’t even miss it.


we have also not charged anything for the last 6 months. this has really helped us to pay down our credit cards! whenever I buy something online, I first go and get a gift card and use that instead of my credit card. I’m hoping to make it until December, but we’ve got a cracked winshield on one car, and bald tires on another. hang in there car parts!


we did get to take Janie to Disneyland, and we can’t wait to get back. she has recently fallen in love with toy story 2, and we are excited to go on the toy story ride and take pictures with buzz and woody.


I said that I wanted to have a good attitude, and I’m really working on it! (that last post wasn’t the best example). I have read a bunch of books on this, and I think about this and talk about this all the time. its cool, because I often hear my friends talking about it too.


I wanted to get to the gym 250 times this year. this isn’t going to happen. I make it about 3 times a week if I’m lucky. I’ve added some meetings to my weekly schedule that make it almost impossible to go everyday.


I’m still making a ton of homemade toys! I just made jane a soccer field for her figures, and a hat for her buzz lightyear costume.


my trees didn’t make it. there are 2 left. they are fighting to stay alive. I had the students plant pine tree seeds instead. I’ll share more about that camp in the future.


my job is a blast, and my family is awesome.
thanks for keeping up with me. and thanks for reading my blog.


God is love.
-rev-rob

bring exact change to vasona

so, today I took jane to oak meadow park to ride the train. we brought $10 in cash (2 $5 bills); $5 for parking and $4 for a train ride with $1 left over. there was no parking attendant at oak meadow, so I thought we saved $5, but there was no parking spaces available because they were repairing the parking lot. so we went to park on the street, but there was no space on the street because everyone else had to park on the street. so we went to the next door vasona park to park, even though parking there is $6.


there was no parking attendant at the booth at vasona either; so again I thought I saved $6. but I saw a sign that said that you have to get your parking ticket from a machine. everyone else in the parking lot had a ticket on their dashbord. So we got back in the car and drove over to the machine. the parking ticket cost $6. all I had was two $5s. I stuck both in. instead of giving me $4 in change, it printed a $4 refund ticket. We got back in the car, went to the train station and asked if we could trade the $4 refund ticket for 2 train tickets. the train guy said, “oh that is for vasona. we are oak meadow. we have nothing to do with that.” I asked how to get a refund. again he said, “I don’t know- that’s a vasona thing. we’re oak meadow.” so I spent a bunch of time getting a parking space, I spent $6 on a ticket, and now I can’t even buy train tickets because I have no cash left.


so I called the number on the ticket. I got the standard, “if you know your party’s extension…” I pressed zero. a lady answered. I asked her how to get a refund and she told me to come to the administration office. I asked her where it was. she had a hard time explaining that to me. she asked me where I was. I told her that I was at the billy jones wildcat railroad. she said, “oh you’re at oak meadow! we’re vasona. you parked in our lot. we don’t have anything to do with them.”

it turns out that the administration office was a couple miles away, on the other side of the park, near the youth science institute. I let the lady know that this was frustrating and inconvenient. no good attitude prizes for me today.

so we got back in the car, drove over to the administration building and gave the lady our refund ticket. she asked a guy in the office to help me. he did not look up from his computer for a minute. then he gave me a form to fill out. after I filled out the form, he gave me my $4 in change.

so we lost about 45 minutes of playtime because:

1. vasona and oak meadow don’t work together, even though they are side by side parks and the train goes through both of them.

2. oak meadow had no parking and vasona didn’t staff the parking booth,

3. the parking machine doesn’t give change,

4. they let a machine answer the phone, and they make you fill out a form to get change when you over-pay, and really,

5. customer service is not really a value.

it took me a while to calm down. I was so ticked off. but then I started thinking about customer service in my world. are the systems set up for the guest, or are they for my convenience? am I making it easy for people to participate? or it it way too complicated for people to sign up for events, to pay, to get information? how well do different departments work together in my world? do people walk away from event under my leadership with the same frustration?

we can’t let that happen. its got to get easier. its got to get streamlined; and frankly we have to care about the frustrations that people are dealing with and stay with them until they are fixed.

vasona tried to save money by not staffing the ticket booth, and they tried to save time by letting a machine answer the phone; and what they communicated to me was that Janie and I were not worth their time or money. and that makes me not want to come back. (but how can I stay away?!)

when it’s a park, its frustrating. when its church, someone’s eternity could be on the line.

bottom line #1: we have got to be excellent and customer service and make sure that everyone has a great experience.

bottom line #2: bring exact change when you park at vasona.

or use your credit card (which I wish that I did!)

boardwalk growth chart-

here is a picture of jane from may of 2009, and from today, june 2010-
looks like she has grown about 3 inches taller! what a big kid!

(and yes, she is sporting (678) business card in the 2nd picture- that's just me being a freaked out father. praise the Lord we haven't had to use it!)