Extra Cheap

This week I decided to go ahead and settle on a budget. So lets get some facts straight before somebody goes "Ramsey" on me. I'm a bike technician making $10/ hr with a graduate degree worth of student loans (and degree). Luckily I found a cheap apartment ($325/ month) and I keep my electricity bill low by not running heating or air ($17 last month). So I'll figure the rest out later including throwing in some extra budget for roadtrips (it should be one word).

While thinking of a budget I was trying to figure out how long it would be until I could get my xbox 360, internet and giant 42" plasma tv. Honestly I find if I cut back on food cost and driving I can save some serious cash in a few months. That's how I financed the NZ trip last year. But that got me thinking about how much stuff is too much.

I work in a sporting goods store. I see stuff all day. It makes me sick sometimes. There are so many people without stuff and we have so much stuff. This isn't a political conundrum, its a christian problem.

It's estimated that in 2007 1 million people died of malaria. MALARIA! Its not that hard to cure/prevent. 70% of those were under the age of 5. CCF claims to be able to offer a carton of malaria medication for $321. What have I wasted $321 on in the last year??? It's estimated that 4500 children die a day because of unsafe drinking water or insufficient toilet facilities. Women and girls in underdeveloped nations walk an average of 3.5 miles carrying 5 gallons a water a day. I don't know how long it takes you to walk 3.5 miles with carrying 5 gallons half of the way but after that I'm not sure I'd want to walk another 4 miles to get to school. In the US and Europe we spent $17 billion on our pets while people and children are struggling to survive.

But you know what? I work really hard for my hard earned money. I'm not responsible for taking care of other people half way around the world. Maybe if they went to school and learned some basic biology and geology they could dig there own wells and make there own vaccines. What's God done for me lately? I work a cruddy underpaying job and live in a one bedroom apartment in the ghetto. Maybe I'll just keep my money.

LORD, we cleared this land, we plowed it, sowed it and harvested, we cooked the harvest, it wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be eatin’ it, if we hadn’t done it all our selves. We worked dog-boned hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, LORD, for this food we’re about to eat. Amen.” - Shenandoah

On the other hand there's Mathew 25:44-45.

I think like Jimmy Stewart a lot in Shenandoah. But honestly at least I have a job and God has blessed me with it and in it (read #1 Dick's in the nation and #1 bike tech for sales and gross warranty sales). Sure I don't have as much as a lot of people, but I sure have a whole lot more than most people. Running water alone puts me ahead of 1 billion people.

I still don't know what to do about the xbox and big tv.

Help?

Paul "I'd also like to get some climbing gear" Murphy

My cool Church (Re-post from 10/?/06)

Today I was thinking about cool people at church and how I'd like a church just full of cool people. My cool church would be full of cool people. Aaron Hasten would be our cool preacher. He'd have killer sermons every Sunday. We would all sit and make hmmm noises every time he made a thought provoking comment. He'd have cool stories to go along with his cool lessons. Some Sundays we wouldn't even have sermons just praise and sweet fellowship. We wouldn't have a song leader. We'd only have Chris Thompson sitting on the front row with a microphone. He wouldn't be the song leader, only the song starter. Yeah, that'd be cool. Oh, and Stephen Lamb would be there to do the Sunday morning adult class. He would have amazing lessons every week about salvation, and tying in current events with our Bible lesson. Lessons about the LRA, Christianity in China, and cool stuff like that. The Harding University Ultimate Frisbee team would be in charge of Sunday evening services. Guys like Justin Bland, Luke Dockery, Whit Jordan, Branson Bridges, Johnathan Lindsey, Jordan Walters, Daniel White, Jake Beveridge, and Landon Ganus. We'd have better attendance on Sunday evening because of people who's church's weren't as cool sneaking over for our service. Serving communion with cool communion thoughts would be some of the greatest servants that I'll ever know; Matt Fields, Kyle Jurek, Jeremy Stoneburner, Curt Harbuck, Brandon Stone, Danny Vaden, Thomas Kinsley, Stephen Jennamann, and Kevin Stewart. We'd have cool outreach ministries too. Ministries like a homeless ministry lead by Daniel Tignor, Sam Travaglini, and one of our deaconesses Amanda Pratt. I think it'd be cool to have deaconesses. We'd have a church athletic program headed up by Sean Brown, and we'd field a team for every game played at the park. And we'd be good because we have a cool church and cool people like Greg Maddux and Doug Flutie would come to our church. We'd dominate in sports. We'd have cool computer stuff because David Kelly would keep us up to date with everything. We'd also have cool elders, elders like Greg Beam, Dr. Klein, and James Taylor. I think having James Taylor as an elder would be pretty cool. We'd have cool functions like singles ministry mixers, multi-denominational worship services, and of course pot-luck lunch, except on every Sunday. And pot luck would be cool because we'd have like a lot of different nationalities go to our cool church so we'd have lots of different foods. Sam's mom would be in charge of the potluck.

People everywhere would want to come to our cool church. Max Lucado would send his resume' once a month and ask if he could preach for us. We'd just tell him that we might have a spot for him one Sunday about three years down the road if he wanted to be a guest speaker. Donald Miller would come to our church and help with the college class. Byron Nelson would have helped with our Retired ministry and golf lessons. Joshua Harris would want to come to our church but we'd make him take care of the toddlers during class; without physical contact of course. Weird Al would host Karaoke night on Thursdays. Barrack Obama would come to our church too, he'd be in charge of our bus ministry (I think that's a joke but I'm not really sure). Bottom line. Lots of cool people.

But there would be alot of problems with our cool church. First of all I think I'd get too old for our singles ministry and find myself not fitting in anywhere. I also think that I would eventually get kicked out of my cool church for not being cool enough. But even worse, I think people would start coming to my church because it was the cool thing to do and not because of their devotion to Christ. Also, Jesus didn't just invite the cool people, but everybody. The fact is at church you're gonna have to deal with some not cool people. Which you can already tell I have the wrong attitude about. Sometimes it is difficult to find a common ground with the people you go to church with, especially if you go to church 9000 miles from home. Bottom line: Jesus loves everybody and thinks they're pretty cool. I should probably find out what so cool about them.

Paul "got kicked out of his own cool church" Murphy

Exhausted

Insert generic apology about not blogging here --->.

It's been busy since I started work 2 and a half weeks ago. Worse I came into worked exhausted from the ultimate tournament. Ever since I started I've been pulling down 50 hour weeks. I've had several scheduled days off but I all except for two of them I wound up working anyways. Conversations went like this:

My stressed manager: We've got a bunch more stuff to do, and a full truck coming in the morning when we only have four people working.

Me overhearing the conversation: I can be here at 6am.

MSManager: That's awesome.

So I've accumulated serious bonus points with the manager. Including one episode where I messed some stuff up the day before we opened (today). My manager was disappointing that it wasn't going to be perfect. I told him I'd stay as long as it took to fix. More bonus points.

Last week was REALLY busy and tiring. I worked 50 hours with one day off. So what do you do when you have a day off? Roadtrip to Nashville to see Aimee. I left Wednesday at 5:30 and crashed with Josh C. Aimee and I got to spend all day Thursday hanging out. Then around 11:00pm I left for home. I got here about 6am and was at work at 8am. A little tired but completely worth it.

Oh, I'd also like to start putting up a Dicks Deal of the Week on the blog. This is where I scour the store for good prices and post them.

Two Deals this week: 1. Diamondback Response '08 Mountain Bike- rock solid mtb with sweet gear discounted $80 to $319. The Response 09 is $399

2. Safari TT double jogging stroller- $40 down from $199. Also if you go to the Anderson store I only have the display model so you get an automatic 10% off.

Paul "Stoked to be dating Ms. Lexington 2002" Murphy