andrew dodson

It seems I need to clarify some of my words from my post on the power of influence. The whole point of the post was to say this – I need to learn to be a better positive influence on those around me. Plain and simple. The Bible calls us to be imitators of Christ, and I fail miserably at times.

Maybe Justin was right that I needed to edit out some of the details regarding my co-workers. However, it’s not the co-workers that are the problem. It’s me! I’m impatient at times. They’re just doing their job by asking questions. I do not think they are annoying. As I come to a realization of the sin in my life, I see my impatience with them. As mentioned, the point of the post was not to call them annoying. It was to show my own sinfulness in being impatient with them. The problem is me!

I may have also been off-base by saying my boss and myself are the only Christians that work here. I don’t know the details of all of my co-workers relationship or lack thereof with God.

Apparently, my blog has more of an influence than I realize, as well. A copy of the post was mailed to one of my co-workers. If the person that mailed the post would like to contact me, I’d be happy to discuss this further and clarify my words.

This is the first in a series of posts about the book I’m currently reading, Chasing Daylight, by Erwin McManus.  Today’s post deals with chapter four in the book:  Influence – Breathe In, Breathe Out.

Something I’ve been struggling with for a long time is the image that I convey to others around me.  My influence on others.  As a Christian, I don’t want to display a perfect, holier-than-thou image, and make others think I’m better.  At the same time, I want people to see a reflection of Christ in me that will make them want what I have been given.  In the recent past, it seems I fail miserably at being a positive influence on people.

I’m lucky to have a job where my boss is a Christian.  It’s a small business that employs five others besides myself.  Of this group, my boss and myself are the only Christians.  Seems like a perfect opportunity to be a positive influence on others, right?  That is my goal every day.  Once the day begins, and the hustle and bustle sinks in, it becomes more difficult for me to put on that positive face.  On busy days, I can be stressed trying to make sure everything gets done, so I’m short on patience.  Two employees in particular test my patience every day with constant questions and interruptions.  It’s taken me a while to realize that God has put these people in my path to show them Christ.  Under normal human conditions, it’s easy to be short with them, answering their question as quick as possible so they’ll leave me alone!

McManus says we were created to influence and be influenced.  Our faith is not to be individualistic.  It should affect others as well.  Influence travels through relationships – it is contagious and spreads quickly through human contact.  Our influence and character are closely related.  Through our influence, we show our character and pass on attitudes, values and other virtues.  Having a right relationship with God results in having a right relationship with others.  And this where my problem lies.

Do I have a right relationship with God, if I’m impatient with others?  First Corinthians tells us that love is patient and kind.  So this is where I learn to deal with this problem.  As God has shown me time and again, the key to being the type of person He wants me to be is to be in Scripture every day, praying every day, and growing in my faith every day.

When I’m dealing with these two employees, McManus says that we must realize that what may look like an inconvenience might be no less than the beginning of a life-changing moment.  We should never underestimate the power of one word, one action or one deed.  We are vessels of good that can be used to generate good.

Finally, who has been an influence in your life?  I can name several.  But, it’s easy to forget about the one person in history who was the greatest person of influence.  God’s one and only son has the power to transform lives through His influence.  Jesus did this by bringing people close.  Take the disciples for example.  In order to be an influence, we need to bring people close to us, and let them in our lives.  I hope this post is as good for you to read as it has been for me to write (type?).  Thanks to Erwin McManus for his book, and to God for giving me the grace to forgive in the times when I’m not a good influence to those around me.

I’m planning on posting a couple of extensive posts soon (more theological in nature), but for now, we’ll have to settle for some more random blogging:

• That bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis?  Yeah, Josh and I drove across that bridge last fall when we went to the Desiring God conference.  For some first-hand coverage of the situation, visit Desiring God.
• I’m halfway through Chasing Daylight (woo hoo!).  The posts mentioned above will deal with my reading of this book.  Look for them this weekend, or early next week.
• I’m excited about the previously mentioned internet ideas that CLS is pursuing.  I will likely share more about these this weekend, as well.  I didn’t come up with the ideas, but there is one in particular that I have done the majority of the work for so far, so I’m particularly interested in the result of that idea.
• The JMB DVD is nearing completion!  We will preview the DVD this weekend and see how it’s coming along.  Bert has been hard at work mixing the camera angles together for your viewing enjoyment.  We should have it completed in the very near future – just in time for our slate of fall concerts that are coming up soon.
• I’m buying a new ride cymbal tomorrow – a 20″ Sabian HHX Manhattan ride.  I’ve had my eye on it for quite some time and found a person getting rid of one in Lexington.  He’s going to be in Frankfort tomorrow, so I’ve made arrangements to meet up with him and do business.  You can hardly find them used on eBay, which is one reason it’s taken me a while to get one.  New, they go for $350.  Yeah – not gonna shell out that much for a cymbal that I don’t “need.”  But, I’m getting it at a great price and it will satisfy my desire for a jazz sounding drum set.  It’s designed to sound like the popular rides from back in the day when jazz ruled the music world.
• Speaking of money, I paid off my biggest interest-bearing debt today!  I’d originally planned on paying it off over the next two months, but I was itching to pay it off.  So, I took some money out of savings and paid the sucker off.

This post may break my personal record for most categories used.  Stay tuned for more this weekend…

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.  I’ve worked a lot at CLS this week, which hasn’t left much time for anything else.  I’ve been working about ten hours per day, going to the gym in the evenings, practicing drums and by that point, I’m pretty worn out, so I usually crash in front of the TV for the rest of the evening.

I’m not complaining about the ten hours per day this week.  Actually, I’m excited about it (yes, I know it’s odd to hear someone actually happy about working ten hours per day for four days straight… I actually enjoy my job).  CLS is in the process of getting a couple of internet ideas off the ground.  We now have a website called the CLS General Store that will be selling apparel to businesses online.  We already do this with a local bank and it has been successful, so we’re in the process of adding some more business customers.  The General Store also has retail apparel for all local schools.

The second idea is going to be a little more fun.  We’re launching an online t-shirt store that will allow people to submit their own designs.  There’s several online sites that already do this, but ours will be a little different in that we will also have Christian t-shirts, Frankfort t-shirts, Kentucky t-shirts and more.  We’re still working through some details, but the basic framework of the site should be up-and-running in the next few days.

In other news…

I’ve been working hard on my budget lately.  For the last several months, I haven’t been good about managing money at all.  Dave Ramsey says that if you don’t manage your money, your money will manage you.  It’s quite true.  If you don’t tell your money where to go, it’s funny how it just disappears on its own.  As an example, I paid off my car at the end of last year and planned on saving for my next vehicle to be able to buy it straight out.  As of today, I have $0 saved for my next vehicle.  Aside from filling out a monthly budget, I’ve also been trying to plan long-term.  I’ve set up a few savings goals and goals to pay off debts.  I’m hoping that by year’s end, I’ll be in pretty good shape.

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This my last day of work at CLS for the week.  Tomorrow morning, I’ll be heading to Jonathan Creek to record their praise band.  I’ll be back on Friday.  While I’ll be “working” at J-Creek, there’ll be a lot of downtime.  Some of the downtime will be spent getting a jump start on mixing the J-Creek portion of the recording.  Some of the downtime, I’ll actually be doing some work for CLS, remotely.  The rest of the downtime, I hope to be kicked back reading a book or something of the like.

I’m attempting to get everything squared away today, so that my absence from CLS for the next three days won’t be noticed as much.   I’m getting all the art ready, getting orders written up, invoices sent out, etc.  But, it’s difficult when our internet is down!  It seems we had a billing glitch with our service provider, so they shut off our internet.  We’ve been told it will be 72 hours before we’re back up-and-running.  Needless to say, we’re heavily considering making a quick switch of providers.  Not good business on our current provider’s end.

Through all of this, however, I can highly recommend Sprint’s mobile broadband service.  We’re using a laptop with one of their USB cards to get by in the mean time.  It’s very close to broadband speed, and has helped us keep up around here.  My boss’s comment:  “It’s good that it finally came in handy that I also own a cell phone store.”  Yes, that it is.  The only catch to the broadband cards is they only work on Windows PC’s.  Bummer.  Otherwise, I’ve been impressed with its performance.

So, the next time you hear from me, I’ll be blogging from J-Creek.

New Attitude has posted a blog update about their busyness in preparation for the upcoming conference in Louisville (this weekend).  The cool part is they have a small photo gallery of the process of making the t-shirts.  Go check it out…. it’s how it’s done, folks.

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Here’s a rundown of a few random things:

• Jerry Falwell passed away today.  Shane did a short write up, and Challies chimed in as well.  I don’t know much about him, but I know that you either love him or hate him, judging by society’s opinion of him.  Not long ago, I watched a sermon of his on television, and actually took notes.  I have to admit that I didn’t agree with a lot of what he said in that sermon.
• I ended up leaving work at five.  I figured if I waited around and the system didn’t get fixed, I would’ve wasted my evening.  Instead, I’m enjoying a night at home.  I’ll just need to buckle down and be efficient tomorrow to catch up.
• I officially canceled my Verizon account today.  For the past several months, I’ve carried a Sprint Treo, but the cost to cancel my Verizon contract was more than it took to just pay the bill each month until the contract ran out.  I was pleasantly surprised that the call took less than five minutes.  They were extremely nice and didn’t question me at all.  No transfers to retention departments.  Easy as pie.

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I was excited about the opportunity to get a lot done at work today and enjoy a peaceful evening at home.  Turns out, my day here at work hasn’t gone according to plan.  The disadvantage of relying on a web-based job control system is that if the breaks, you can’t do anything.  Of anyone at CLS, my job relies heavily on the job system.  I spent part of the day working on the design of our online store, which should be launching in the next few weeks.  Other than that, I’ve been a glorified secretary – just answering phones and waiting on customers. 

My dilemma now is whether or not to wait for our IT company to fix the issue, or just head home at five.  If I wait, I have the chance of completing the work I wasn’t able to do during the day.  That ruins my “peaceful night at home” however.  If I go home and enjoy the evening, it means I’ll have a lot to do tomorrow.  Hmm… I still have thirty minutes to decide, so we’ll see….

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Well… it’s that time of year.  CLS has been busy printing a job for a big Kentucky event (can’t say the name b/c we’re only printing it – it’s a contract customer’s job).  So… my life is CLS right now, as is a lot of other people’s lives.  I don’t mind so much.  The only real plans I have for this weekend is going to see MercyMe in concert on Saturday night.  I will also be off work on Sunday due to church activities.  Other than that, I’ll be at CLS.  Drop by if you want to help 

(p.s. – big thanks to all of those that have agreed to come in and help!)

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It seems in our current society, everyone is “busy.”  When we see a friend and haven’t spoken to them much lately, it seems the response on both sides is, “Oh, I’ve just been SO busy.”  I admit that I fall into this quite regularly.  I’ve grown to the point of not even wanting to say, “I’ve been busy.”  Mostly because I know that everyone else is busy too.  It’s almost as if it doesn’t count as an excuse anymore.  It’s become the norm.  However, there’s a physical danger to being too busy.

Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, recently blogged about his personal health issues from being “too busy.”  (read here)

My goals as of late have been trying to find ways to simplify my life.  I enjoy all of my activities, so I’ve been trying to manage time better to have personal time for relaxing and recreation.  One of my mentors, who leads a very busy life, recommended making time for myself over a mentoring session at the beginning of the year.

Biblically, we’re called to adhere to the rules of the Sabbath.  While I’m still confused as to whether Saturday or Sunday is considered the Sabbath (most people think Sunday), I fully plan on devoting one of those two days to myself, family and friends.  My hope is that by devoting time to myself, I can renew my strength and focus throughout the week to be productive in other areas.