A Place To Stand

Here’s some good advice in these uncertain economic times:

While taking a break during a ministry trip, we were snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea. The boat that had taken us to the deep water for better sites had gone back to shore, and I began to feel panicky about being in the open water. Finding it hard to control my breathing, I asked my son-in-law Todd and a friend, Dave Velzen, for help. They held my arms while I searched for an outcropping of coral close enough to the surface for me to stand on. Once I had a place to stand, even though surrounded by deep waters, I was okay.

Are you feeling a bit panicky about events in your life? Maybe it seems as if you are surrounded by the open waters of relationship problems, or money woes, or simply an inability to put your life in order. Perhaps you feel as if you are drowning in a sea of trials and trouble.

May I suggest two things? First, find a fellow Christian or two who can come beside you and hold you up (see Eccl. 4:10), pray for you, talk with you, and remind you that you are not alone. Then rest your feet on the only solid foundation in life: Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). Life’s troubles are too tough to take on alone. Get some help and find in Jesus a place to stand.

ADM 316 Workshop 1 Postscript

I hope everyone got something out of the class last night. The first night is always tough, because we have to get through all the administrative stuff, so I hope no one felt rushed during the Excel portion of the festivities. Those of you helping out your partners in the buddy system deserve a round of applause, as I heard several comments last night that it was beneficial to have somebody with them helping them along. As I mentioned last night, if you still feel a little bit uneasy with using the application, you might want to work through the hands-on exercises on your own.

Next week, we’re going to try and speed things up a little bit during the Excel lab, but the main takeaways that you might want from this week’s assignment are:

• Understanding how to get around in Windows and Excel
• Cell formatting
• Creating a formula
• Absolute vs. relative references

Next week, we’ll also be delving into a lot more useful technical information about hardware and software. We’ll also talk more about the paper and presentation due at the end of the course.