Duke, is he a dog or a mouse...

About a year ago our daughter found a beautiful young golden retriever running the streets of Abilene in the rain. We happened to be in town and she was leaving on a trip, so we were convinced to take him home to FW with us "until she found his owner."  Righhhtttt. To make a long story short, there were numerous efforts to find said family with no luck and he has since become a part of our family.

I can't remember what Emily called him early on, but one night Lynette said he looks like a Duke. At which time his head popped up and he looked directly at me like "She knows my name!"  I asked him if his name was Duke and he got visibly excited, so Duke it is and shall be until he audibly lets us know otherwise.

There  are a number of odd things about Duke. First, we found that he will eat anything that is left out (he is large enought to reach anything on the counter or island in the middle of our kitchen). His favorite things appear to be chocolate. He has eaten from our counter two or three chocolate cakes, a couple of pans of brownies, and several chocolate chip muffins pulled directly from the muffin pan. The wives tale about chocolate being bad for dogs evidently does not apply to Duke. On at least two occasions he has eaten something wrapped in plastic wrap or foil because I have found his bowel movements in the yard, neatly wrapped in those undigested coverings as if intentionaly done for convenience.

The most unusual thing about Duke (and here is where your help is required) is his aversion to storms. This 65 pound dog becomes a pacing, whining scaredy-cat that shivers uncontrollably when a storm arrives. It is bad enough during the day, but at 3 in the morning it is more than a nuisance. Nothing like having a big dog land with all fours in the middle of you during a deep sleep. We have tried most everything and nothing seems to work.

Finally, a few nights ago Lynette had all she could take. We have a crate in the room that our small dog has used in the past and she decided Duke was going in that crate. I looked up from the bed to see her on the floor pushing Duke with all her might into the crate, and Duke was winning. After several intertaining minutes, Lynette succeded and Duke was packed in for the night. I threatened to film the next encounter for all to see on youtube, but Lynette reminded me I might not want the video of her in her night gown pushing anything across the floor. Point taken. Could you wear pajamas, I asked?

Anyway, if anyone knows a fool-proof way to help bring out the man, er dog, in Duke during storms we would appreciate it. Dog whisperers are welcome.

How important is Passion?

[This was recently posted on my nonprofit blog.]

It seems that everyone is looking for passion. Employers want passion from their employees, coaches want their teams to be passionate, speakers, preachers, and salesman all seek to motivate and create passion in their audiences. New nonprofits often exist because someone is passionate about a particular cause. But how important is passion to the overall success of our business, team, church, or nonprofit?

Having been a coach for several years and a sports fan forever, I have witnessed many "upsets" of favored teams by a "passionate" opponent. Most of us can pick out one or two of these instances when the underdog fought off the odds and exceeded their potential - coming away with a victory even they did not expect. The real question, however, is how did those teams do after that victory?

While a single passionate victory can do a lot to motivate or inspire success, those victories seldom change long-term outcomes, if that victory is built on passion alone. Passion built on knowledge and understanding, however, can sustain you. A team that is passionate because it understands what is necessary to win will win more often. A business whose employees are passionate because they know their company is a quality company with a good plan to be successful will be passionate for the long-haul.

More important, a person whose faith is built on knowledge and understanding will be sustained through the good times and bad because their faith is not dependent upon passion alone. Likewise, a nonprofit that involves people who are more than passionate and willing to invest themselves in the mission, will find itself more successful.

The bottom line is that passion without understanding is shallow at best and seldom sustains. As a leader of your business, church, or team hang your future on passionate people who bring with them the tools they need to support your mission even when their passion is lacking. If you do, when the down times come (and we all know they will) you will find the dip in enthusiasm will have less effect on your overall success.

Let's try this again....

Well, this is my second attempt at blogging and I will try to be more consistent with my posts this time around. The last 18 months have been interesting, to say the least. My son Bailey graduated from ACU, got married and started a new job. My daughter Emily graduated from ACU, got married and is about to start a new job. Both have settled in the area about three blocks from each other, but not too close to their parents (by design, I'm sure).

My 93 year old father spent a month in the hospital which culminated in major surgery, which he came through like a champ. Lynette also had major surgery and had an additional two hospital stays as a result. I came down with a staff infection that became sepsis (blood poisoning) and spent a week in the hospital with an additional four weeks of in-home antibiotic infusion. This was followed by surgery four days after Emily's wedding and another month of recouperation. 

We daily praise God for blessing our family through the wonderful times and the difficult ones. It has been tough, to say the least. For the first time in a couple of years, Lynette and I are feeling like the stresses of life are easing. However, we do not assume everything will be easy moving forward. We have taken a look at our priorities and have decided to intentionaly relieve ourselves of some of the "stuff" in our lives. Twenty-seven years of marriage can produce a lot of baggage - literal and metaphorical. Our goal this year is to purge our lives of the things that prevent us from having a closer relationsh with God, our families, each other, our friends and those in need.

I'm not sure how successful we will ultimately be, but any step in the right direction will be positive. God is consistently good, even when we are not.