Doug E. Pudge

Preparation & Perspiration

You know, I was thinking. This week has been full of a lot of ups and downs for the Pudgeman. Monday was a pretty typical Monday for me but with one twist, there was a big meeting that was scheduled for Friday and I had to do some preparation. On Monday afternoon the company president called me as asked if it would be a good idea to change our pre-meeting with the lawyer and accountant to Wednesday. That way we would have Thursday to do any extra prep work that needed to be done. I agreed that it would be a good idea so I made a great deal of progress getting ahead on my regular work just so that when I came in on Tuesday I could spend the entire day doing meeting prep! Well, since God has a sense of humor, Autoform had no power on Tuesday when I arrived. After about 3 hours of waiting patiently on Edison, I decided to grab a laptop and work on my reports at home. Good plan if you ask me seeing that the power wasn't restored in Ann Arbor until after 4 p.m.
I worked on the reports until around seven in the evening when I got this call from ONOM! He was calling to see if I wanted to go for a walk in the woods (that's Mollette for playing golf)! I thought, I've been going at it pretty hard today, nine holes would be kinda nice at this point. So off we went for one of the most competative rounds he and I have ever played. The game went back and forth and coming up to number nine ONOM was up by one stroke. I had about a three footer to tie the game. I hit the put and the ball did a 270 lip around the cup and ONOM takes the round by one. Great night.
Now, back to the drama. Wednesday's pre-meeting went very well. I found that much of the prep work that I had been doing wasn't going to be needed for this meeting. Not a problem, the data needs to be compiled anyway and it wasn't wasted time but it was a relief that I wasn't going to be under the gun to get it finished. I left this meeting with a couple of simple assignments that I would finish quickly the next morning. Now, since the meeting was in Farmington Hills and it was now 3:30 in the afternoon, the plan was to go to you know where and see what's her name! So I did! Now, one thing that becomes important here is that since I did not work in the office on Tuesday at all, since I still had a lot of work to do, since I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep and since I was at my desk at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, I was beginning to get tired! Rachel knew how tired I was and was even more sweet to me that usual (hard to believe that this could even be possible)! We went to dinner (her treat) and had a wonderful evening together. At about 8:30 it was time to leave. I made it home and absolutely crashed in the bed and did not move until the alarm went off.
Well, now we get to Thursday. Once again, there was a lot of work to do. I had a couple of small meetings and a conference call that required my attention. Other than that it was finish my Friday meeting prep and get material orders done. I had a great pace going and was accomplishing much. About mid afternoon I got an email from our lawyer saying that the other group wasn't ready for this big meeting on Friday and are wanting to postpone! I thought to myself "great, I was really ready for this, now all that time is wasted!" Please understand this was my first thought and my mind set changed very quickly.
Here's what I learned from this experience. First of all many times in life we prepare for things that may never happen. We spend money on health, life, auto and home insurance to be ready just in case. We often times think through situations and are ready to give answers to questions that are never asked and although it might seem like wasted time it really isn't! I see similar parallels in our Christian walk. We study, pray, fast and share our lives with one another to be "ready in season and out of season". We are preparing for the next challenge, the next hurdle or the next valley while we are on the mountain top! Sometimes we are prepared to the point of dissapointment if we don't get to use what we have prepared! Through all of this one thing is perfectly clear to me..........................GOD IS IN CONTROL! He causes the sun to rise and set according to His will and His desire. I just have to keep on preparing for life the best way I know how and allow Him to handle the rest even if that means my meeting gets cancelled or postponed. Be blessed beyond belief today.

posted by Doug E. Pudge @ 8:09 AM