Pilot Retirement Age

The U.S. congress & senate unanimously voted to raise the pilot retirement age from 60 to 65 earlier last week, and President Bush just signed it into law.

Here's the Chicago Tribune article:
Pilot Retirement Age - Raised to 65

The last 6 years has been rather difficult - 30% pay cut, negative growth, and now my Captain upgrade has been extended another 5 years. I feel like complaining about all this, but it won't do any good. My career has been OK. Grandpa had it great after upgrading in 1 year, and flying in the glory days of aviation. Dad had it not so good (although he loved it)... he had multiple furloughs & worked for a bunch of different airlines.

I've been mulling over the idea of changing airplanes to the B-777. It's been almost 13 years on the MD-80, and a change would be good. Annie likes the idea, so 2008 might be the year for it - we'll see.

Sledding Adventure

We had 6 inches of snow over the weekend! Highlights included buying a new snowblower at Home Depot (finally!), getting our Christmas tree, and SLEDDING at Paulus Park in Lake Zurich.

Here's a 3 minute video...

Controversy at Willow Creek?

Willow Creek is a "mega-church" that we've been attending for about 7 years. They just came out with a book called "Reveal". It sums up the results of a study that involved a survey of more than 70,000 churchgoers from over 300 churches around the world. The controversy...

U.S.News & World Report
Crosswalk Blog

Our senior pastor (Bill Hybels), and executive pastor (Greg Hawkins) both spoke about this at the service last weekend. According to them, the results aren't quite as shocking. They use business techniques such as surveys, leadership conferences, and mission statements to help run the church. Some people have a problem with a church who's organizational chart looks more like a business than a traditional church. I don't. Mostly because their mission statement goes something like this... help non-religious people transform into fully devoted followers of Jesus. I think that's cool, and I'm happy they are evaluating the techniques they use to help people with this.

My goal as a Christian is to grow spiritually - not just with knowledge, but to grow from the inside out. I'd like to get to the point where I'm not always asking God to help me with my agenda in life, but what I can do to further his agenda. I'm not there yet. Will I ever be? Probably not, but it's a goal worth pursuing because if I set my heart towards working for God, then everything else will likely fall into place.

This all begs the question: What is the role of church in terms of the spiritual growth of an individual?

For me church is a place to get motivated and challenged. And it's also a place to be entertained. Yeah, you got it - entertained. And why not? What's wrong with 20 minutes of entertainment over the course of a 90 minute service? Church is also a place where serving opportunities exist, and for organizing people into groups for study & fun. Maybe that's not your idea of church, but that's what it is for me.

How do I achieve spiritual growth? Going to church on the weekends is surely part of it. So is my personal study and quiet time in prayer & reflection. And the couples group that Annie and I attend twice a month. Serving others, like shoveling their driveway, helping financially, or maybe going on a mission trip (which I have not done). It's all about LOVE - loving God & loving others. And losing the attitude that this life is all about me. It's a struggle. My bad side (sinful nature) seems to prevail a lot, but I really do find peace and guidance and direction when I ask Jesus for help. And that's way cool. Thanks God.