Merry Month before Christmas!!!!

Now that I am ensconced in the Wonderful World of Retail again, I have remembered my ancient aversion to Christmas.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. I love the thought of what it means, I love the idea of God submitting to the pains of birth so that He can eneter the world like one of us. The Faithfulness of Joseph and Mary, the wonder of those who came and witnessed Baby Jesus.... this is amazing, wonderful and awesome stuff.

But its not retail Christmas. Retail Christmas is the process by which we get you to buy more stuff than last year. Retail Christmas is merchandising the stock, rotating the displays, focusing the view and cycling the staff. Its people jostling, shoving, pushing to get the last widget in the pile, or the batteries for said widget.

My warehouse see's it all come and go. The truck drivers pull up and we unload truck after truck after truck after truck after... well you get the idea I think. Its a never ending process of stuff for money.

This is what I hate. The tension, the mobs, the tears, the anger, the grouches, the sneaks and thieves, those who prey on people who just want to make a child smile, but don't realize they are going about it the wrong way...

As I walk around my store, I get the feeling that I can see Jesus in the temple, the day that he drove out the moneychangers. I fear that my store is something that He would drive out. Because we encourage the greed and hatefulness and dissatisfaction in people. We tell them that they need the next best thing, that they want this and that. Get in line, pull out that credit card, spend spend spend!

I am sorry Lord. Take me somewhere else...

Geoff

Well the store is open and we are doing well. That is the upside. The down side is that I am averaging about 15 hours a day at the store...and no, thats not an exaggeration.

I get there around 8:30 (we open at 10 am during the week) amd I leave at about 11:00 to 11:30 pm. So far the latest I have left was 2:30 am (which sees me get home at about 3 am).

I love retail, I love working with customers, but managing has its own unique set of problems and I have never had a staff this large before. Its daunting and I am getting pretty tired.

So keep us in prayer.

In related news....

Nathan is doing well in College, got his student loan (and thus gets to eat somewhat more regularly than when he was depending on us for eating money) and bought a new laptop. This is apparently God's will for him, in that he can now be studious in class (vis a vis the laptop) and slay malignant creatures of darkness (vis a vis the laptop and World of Warcraft) by night.

All in all a satisfying combination apparently. My wife is working diligently at her store as assistant manager, our daughter is striving to perfect her driving skills ( and I must confess is doing a non-bang up job (which in this case alone is a good thing)) andthe dog and cat have masticated various objects about the house.

Still looking for a fulltime ministry position....

So whats new with you?

Well the store is open and we are doing well. That is the upside. The down side is that I am averaging about 15 hours a day at the store...and no, thats not an exaggeration.

I get there around 8:30 (we open at 10 am during the week) amd I leave at about 11:00 to 11:30 pm. So far the latest I have left was 2:30 am (which sees me get home at about 3 am).

I love retail, I love working with customers, but managing has its own unique set of problems and I have never had a staff this large before. Its daunting and I am getting pretty tired.

So keep us in prayer.

In related news....

Nathan is doing well in College, got his student loan (and thus gets to eat somewhat more regularly than when he was depending on us for eating money) and bought a new laptop. This is apparently God's will for him, in that he can now be studious in class (vis a vis the laptop) and slay malignant creatures of darkness (vis a vis the laptop and World of Warcraft) by night.

All in all a satisfying combination apparently. My wife is working diligently at her store as assistant manager, our daughter is striving to perfect her driving skills ( and I must confess is doing a non-bang up job (which in this case alone is a good thing)) andthe dog and cat have masticated various objects about the house.

Still looking for a fulltime ministry position....

So whats new with you?