Joel Stiff's Adventure

Control

September 7, 2014 by Joel Stiff

Very few things are in our control.

Other people are never in our control.

We cannot control other’s decisions, attitudes or actions.

The only one I can control is myself.

I must focus on controlling what I can control and that is myself.

I cannot worry about anyone else.

I was sorting through some sockets yesterday and kept misjudging the sizes. I shouldn’t have because I’ve been working with these tools all my life. Everything was off by a size or two. I grabbed a 5/8 thinking it was a 9/16. And the 9/16 looked exactly like a 1/2. That’s when it dawned on me. I was judging the sizes based on how I remember them from my childhood.

Have you ever heard someone say that we don’t get near the amounts of snowfall that we did when they were children? They will say how the snow used to be up to their knees or waist when they were kids and now it doesn’t get near that high. What they are forgetting is that their knees and waist were a lot lower to the ground when they were younger. So, it’s not actually snowing less, they are just taller.

My brother and I were looking for a house of some of our parent’s friends. We used to go visit them when we were kids. It was a big white house that sat far back from the road. It had a huge front yard with some oak trees up by the road. We would often hit the fallen acorns with a wiffle ball bat. We never feared hitting the house because we were so far away. As men trying to find this house, we couldn’t seen to find it. We knew where it was, but in its place stood a smaller white house with a shallow yard. The oak trees were there, but something had changed. We had. The same house and yard that seemed so expansive as children had now shrunk down because of our perspective.

Problems are like this. The things I used to worry and fret about as a child, no longer concern me. The woes I had as a teenager and young adult don’t matter. The problems I would fret over as a new, young pastor don’t get to me like they used to. My perspective has changed.

Have you ever told a problem to someone and they act as though it’s no big deal while you are losing your mind over it? They have a different perspective than you. One of experience, one of understanding that everything is going to work out fine.

Panic is the opposite of trust.

Preparation

September 5, 2014 by Joel Stiff

We are gearing up for our fall attendance campaign at our church.

We are utilizing an old cowboy western theme.

When we have a theme, we decorate for it and construct a program around it.

It usually takes far more effort to get everything ready for a program than it does to run the program.

If the time is put in before everything begins, it is generally successful.

If we fail to prepare well, we can expect some disappointment.

One man put it this way, “Greatness is not in the performance, but in the preparation.”

Yo, bro!

September 4, 2014 by Joel Stiff

This is my brother Cory.

Or Bob, or John, or Johnny, or Johnny Rocket, or Rocketman or Cadillac Jack.

I’ve taken time to brag about my family on each of their birthdays. Cory’s was on February 6th, about three weeks before I began this blog. I decided I wasn’t going to wait until next year to say a word about a good brother.

We have a pretty great relationship. I am six years older than him, which created a distance as we were growing up, but now that we are both men, the time is negligible.

He’s always allowed me to lead. Mostly straight into trouble. Nothing sinful or wrong, but just unplanned. Like the time we went rafting downriver expecting to row back up it. Or when the motor on the boat just wouldn’t stay running. Or the time the dirt bike sunk up to the tank in mud. Or the time we expected to find a water source after twelve short miles through the woods in full gear only to end up sucking water out of rain puddles. Or the fifteen minute mountain biking trip because the mud was so thick on the trail we couldn’t even pedal. Or the time I convinced him to go to Arkansas with my crazy grandpa for a funeral. Riding in the back of a GMC Sonoma while I fell asleep at the wheel. A trip that would lead us straight into the home of the craziest man in Arkansas. Or the time we took off on a motorcycle ride around Lake Michigan and my bike wouldn’t start to even leave for the trip so we just packed a set of jumper cables and left anyway.

I’ve tried to be there for him. I was ready to leave college and come home and work to help my family when he was hit by a car. I did get to spend the night in the hospital and bring him a talking Alf doll. I tried to help him through a difficult transition in his life about six years ago. When he was little I would always help him when he didn’t have enough cash to get by. I told him, “Just give me all your money and I’ll take care of you.” It always worked out in his favor, I promise.

He’s also been there for me.

Especially lately.

He probably doesn’t even realize how much he has helped and encouraged us in recent times.

He was in Georgia with us when we decided to come back to Flint to start our church. He quit his job and moved right back with us to get it going. Even now, eleven years later, he is involved in nearly every aspect of our ministry in some way.

Even with busy jobs, busy families and busy lives, we try to spend some time together every two weeks. It, more often than not, ends up in another crazy situation. It’s important to me that we do that.

I couldn’t have asked the Lord for a better brother. I love him.

But don’t let him know I said that.