"Whatever"

I was talking to my friend Imran yesterday. Imran is a Pakistani guy that recently won the second round of Bahrain’s Funniest Person. Imran is a hilarious stand up comedian that is trying to get his own stand up show off the ground. He wants me to figure out how to be a part of it. So anyways, he called and asked if I was busy, I said no. He said…are you ever busy? That got me thinking. I covered this in an earlier blog, but its important to cover it again. I don’t think Im ever busy. I can’t remember the last time I was busy in fact. Even a few months back when I worked 6 day weeks for 5 months straight at about 70 hours a week it didn’t feel that busy.

So am I busy? Lets review what I did today. I have two big projects due on Oct. 1, we are on a tight five week production deadline for both of these projects and they need to be in Arabic, this adds another big hoop to jump through. We are interviewing for a sales manager so I had 8 interviews this week one today, Had to schedule call backs on Thursday for the top three candidates. I have to figure out cash flow two big checks coming in on Wed., set up the acting school in Oct. at two different venues, finish the deal with the Funniest Person, start to promote, prepare the practice session on Thursday for our third show on Oct. 7, pitch to Bahrain TV, take a few sales call, listen to a few client pitches, stay on top of my staff of 20 to make sure they are still on task, finished editing the English version of the Port Video, remixed it, at lunch, watched an episode of 24, while eating. I did all that and still played on the internet and chatted for about 3 hours. I kind of felt like I was slacking, but certainly didn’t feel busy today.

I have had several people approach me the last few months and mention that I’ve already had a big impact on the island. That really surprised me. Because I guess I haven’t really thought about it that much. We have produced over 15 corporate/documentary videos so far, in addition to about 35 weddings photo and video. We have had 100 students go through our acting program in Bahrain, all getting their own personalized DVD. We created the Funniest Person, got written up in several periodicals. We were able to give the staff either 1 or 2 pay increases. Personally, I’ve had about 30 different people come to my positive living course, taught about 20-30 teens in church, had several really meaningful lunches and dinners with friends, played a lot of squash, kayaked for hours, watched about 10 seasons of shows like LOST and Prison Break, Heroes, and 24. I’ve gone back the U.S. twice and to Athens once, Dubai several times. Shared my faith with lots and lots of people both in person, on the phone and via chat. So when I spell it out that way…it does seem like I’ve done a lot on paper. But emotionally and pschologically…It doesn’t feel like a lot. Im not trying to be arrogant or egotistical in annotating everything that has happened to me. Instead I want to give the credit to where credit is due. It’s a total God thing, and Im falling under His extreme favor. It seems like all this stuff, these accomplishments are happening pretty natural for me. Which indicates that im part of God’s plan. I don’t feel like Im any more talented or more blessed than the next guy. Im just merely a vessel that learned to say “whatever” to God early on. Now God is using and blessing me. I think God wants us all to say “whatever…so he can fully use us. In the Bible there are countless of examples of God using simple people so he can show His glory. I think I fall into that category.

When Im living my life right, he uses and blesses me more. When I drift off into sin, he still uses me…but not as much and my blessings slowly decrease. I think it’s a circular human nature thing. If we don’t keep our eyes on the target ahead, we sometime run the risk of drifting off-course. I’ll be honest, as I always am with you. Im not as passionate about my faith as I was when I first arrived here. Im still more passionate than most, but compared to where I was and where I am now…there’s a difference. So the last few weeks, I’ve been really seeking God and saying “Whatever.” He is answering my call and Im being blessed for it.