Patience Pays Off

I will be the first to admit that patience is not my greatest gift. I'd like to share a story that illustrates why it is indeed a virtue, and something we should strive to exhibit.

My family took a trip to the lake in August. It was a 3 generation trip- my mom, my siblings & their spouses/significant others, and my nieces and nephew. We booked our cabin and boat in December (remember this, it becomes really important soon). We arrived Friday night and had a dinner and a bonfire at our awesome cabin. Saturday morning we headed to the marina to pick up our boat for a fun filled day on the lake. I went to the rental desk and gave my information. I very quickly could tell something was wrong. The person was looking around a lot, and then consulted with others. I was eventually told the problem- our boat had accidentally been rented for 2 days the previous day. This particular weekend was a very busy one at the lake as there was a large gathering occurring. Our group was 11 people, and only this particular style of boat would fit our family. Thus, no boat. They told me they were checking with their sister marina to see if we could get a boat from them. When I inquired how long that would take, they said at least an hour. I was not happy already since, as you may recall, we'd reserved this boat long ago. Of course, the other marina had no boat. I wanted to lose my cool so badly, but I didn't. I said "I made this reservation in December. I have 11 people here, including 3 little kids who've been told they're going to boat." I then stopped talking. Thankfully, by this point, the manager was involved. His first question was "How far do you live from here?". My answer was "2.5 hours". He then said "How long are you staying?". I informed him we were leaving the next morning.

The manager was good. He said "This is our fault, and we're going to make this right". This guy was speaking my language. He offered us three smaller pontoons at no charge. We said 2 would be fine. We had also planned to rent a tube. They threw that in for free. I asked if these boats would pull a tube. He said they wouldn't. He then offered us a jet ski to use for free. I asked if we could tube with this. He said the person who rented it didn't recommend it, and left it at that. I asked about gas charges for all our watercraft, and they told us that was on them. Yes, you read that right. We got 2 pontoons, a tube, a jetski, and the gas for free. 

We had an awesome day on the lake. We boated to a nice cove, ate lunch, swam like fish, and took turns both riding on and tubing behind the jetski. My entire family from my mom to my 2 year old niece was on the jetski at one point or another.

All of this cost us nothing. The jetski rented for around $400/day, and the boats were at least $100/each. Had I lost my cool, I do not think for a minute they would have given us this deal. Patience does indeed pay off. My mom said "the look" I gave during the situation also didn't hurt.

And out came this calf

Have you ever had anyone tell you what you knew was an obvious lie? My favorite example of this takes place in Exodus. To set the stage, the Israelites are in the desert after being delivered from bondage in Egypt. As part of that process they've seen the 10 plagues (Chapters 7-11) , experienced the Passover (Chapter 12), crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, and immediately after that watched Pharoah's army drown in that same body of water (both in Chapter 14). They've eaten quail and manna by miraculous provision (Chapter 16), and their thirst has been quenched by water from a rock (Chapter 17). Some of the leaders even got to see God (Chapter 24). It's been a amazing journey.

At this point in our story, Moses has been on a mountain for 40 day and nights. He's been spending time with God, receiving the 10 commandments, instructions for the tabernacle, and laws to guide society. So all is good with Moses. However, down in the camp, it's rapidly running off the rails as seen in Chapter 32:1-8 (NIV):

1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods[a] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,[b]Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

Poor Moses. He's communing directly with God, and while he's doing so to lead his people, they have already broken faith. Moses is a true leader though. God says He's going to destroy the people but make Moses into a great nation (verses 9-10). Rather than take up this amazing offer for himself, he begs God for the lives of his people, and God grants his request (verses 11-14).  He goes down from the mountain and takes care of business with the people (verses 19-20). Then he talks to Aaron (who is his brother, by the way, and served as his spokesman to Pharaoh while they were in Egypt).

 21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”

His response-"I messed up. Please forgive me." Right? Not exactly.

22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. 23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ 24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

First he blames the people, then he lies about how the calf came to be. Moses knew Aaron's story was a lie. As you may recall, God told Moses that they "made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf" (verse 8). Nowhere in this story does Aaron ever own up to his own part in this disgraceful scenario.

I tell people when you've messed up, you need to own it. If not, you're doing another wrong by lying. As the saying goes, "if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."

Company car trauma

My mom called to make a reservation to use a company car for a business trip. The response was something along the lines of "you can if one's available then". She thought it was an odd answer as she was booking it quite far in advance, so it was unlikely anyone else had already reserved it. Later she talked to someone else, and the information she received explained everything.

The company had hired a new person to be the courier for the organization. The person had been texting and driving (illegal in our state and downright dangerous of course), caused an accident, and totaled the car. Did she get fired? Of course not. They instead let her use the other company car to perform her duties. Any guesses what happened next? If you said "she was texting and driving and wrecked that car too", you are correct. They did finally fire her after that.

A lawsuit waiting to happen

Friday my coworker was part of the interview team for an IT Manager position. One of the interview questions was a very good one-"Have you ever made a hiring mistake, and if so, what did you learn from it?". Here's what the candidate said:

"I hired an older guy (flag #1) who was (insert protected racial class here aka flag #2). He wasn't getting the job done, but management wouldn't do anything because they were scared he'd play the race card. I learned you need to hire younger people."

Wow. My coworker called it "the interview of the century". After the interview was over and the candidate had left the room, the hiring manager said "This guy will land us" and my coworker ended with "in court". A word on the interview team- all 3 people are over 40 (the threshold for age discrimination law) and my coworker is the same ethic group mentioned in the candidate's response. In addition to this gem of an interview response, the candidate used profanity throughout the interview. As you can imagine, we'll not be hiring him.

Bonus interview story from Friday: I was doing interviews for another position, and a candidate tried to hug me!

Floating is great for the pool but not as a life strategy

In July we were conducting interviews for an entry level professional position at one of our facilities. When I saw the candidate I'm about to describe, I was done. She was wearing shorts and sandals that were only 1 step up from flip-flops. This was definitely a predictor of things to come.

After the interview, one of the interview team said "That's a situation where you think should I rush through the interview or use it as a chance to practice your interview skills." Talking with her we learned that she was 27 (One of the interview questions for this position was "Tell us where you see yourself in 10 years." As part of her answer she said "Wow, I'll be 37.") In 27 years she had managed to:

- Get her associates degree 

- Work 3 years at entry level jobs

That's it. Oh yes, and she's not working now. She lives with her boyfriend and her dog (again, she volunteered this information), so I suppose he's supporting her. The hiring manager said "At 27 I had my engineering degree (bachelor's), was married with 2 kids, and was working 2 jobs." I myself at 27 had a bachelor's degree, had been working a professional job for 4 years and living fully self-funded on my own for 3 years.

I did feel sorry for her in one regard. The day the interview took place was one of the hottest days of the year. When I initially greeted her, I asked her how she was doing. She said not well since the a/c in her car had just died. The poor thing's face was red as a beet. When I was telling my brother the mechanic this story he said "It helps to have a job to pay to fix your a/c." He's not wrong.

When I got home from work I called my mom and left her a voicemail that said "I want to thank you and Dad for not letting us float through life." Of course, she had to call me to hear what prompted this appreciation on my behalf. She, of course, cracked up, and added "Maybe the dog will get a job".

Morale of the story: Floating is great for the pool. It is not, however, a great life strategy.