Happy Friday, — happy end of the work week. I hope your week has gone well and that you are happy with your work. Being happy with what we do is so very important. If we are happy, we work better, we get along with people better, we work as a team more efficiently, and our mental health is so much improved. As a military commander, I spent a lot of my time out of the office and out in the field with my people. I don’t know what other services do when they “aren’t at war” but in the Air Force, everyone has a job and 99% of those jobs are civilian relatable. My AFSC or “career speciality was Law Enforcement and Security. I started off at the absolute bottom of the enlisted tier as a guard, walking around aircraft and guarding entry gates keeping our USAF resources secure. I did that for four years and had the opportunity to work with some really great people in a specialized unit for my last year as an enlisted man. After I got out, I went to work here in Evansville at Whirlpool Corp and again, I enjoyed the work but realized quickly that I was making the same pay as the guy next to me who had been there for 25 years, so I went to college and got my Bachelor’s degree and returned to the Air Force, this time as an Officer, —- and also returned to my Career field, this time leading folks that were doing the job I had done as an Airman. I loved my job, I loved being in the Air Force, and I loved being a leader, and rose to the top of my profession, retiring as a Colonel. 

I attribute that success to the fact that I was always (well almost) happy with my job, my assignments, they people that I was lead by, and the people that I was fortunate enough to lead. It was a good 32 year career and life for me and my family. I was fully blessed by God. 

My second career and life is also a full blessing from God. In 2002, I began my studies to become a lay/licensed minister for the United Church of Christ. I know I could certainly have gone on to Seminary and gotten my Master of Divinity degree and gotten ordained but after dragging Ms. Kate around the world for all of those years, I was not going to ask her to put up with me going off to Seminary for another  three years. And being a Lay pastor has been everything I could have hoped for. I have been blessed to be able to preach the Gospel for almost 20 years. I have been surrounded and welcomed by three wonderful congregations and we have created blessed Faith Families over these past twenty years. 

Be happy in your work! No matter what that job might be, find the million ways to look at it as a blessing. God did not put you on this earth to be aa grump and make life miserable for yourself and others. You know, on this cold and somewhat dreary morning it would be easy to make it a frumpy day, but —- I looked out my window and my neighbor’s daffodils are blooming. I’m happy. 

Peace.