I am writing today about Excellence. I think that if you are involved in something that is worth doing your should do it to your fullest. People will make mistakes and everyone accepts that, but if you put in no effort, then why do it? Think about church for a moment. At church I run the technical ministries. If there is a week that I am on to run the service, and I slid in at 9:45 in the morning, do you think the service would be the best it could be? I would say no. I need to set levels during band practice and run through the sermon to get the flow before the service starts. Do you think I could do that if I skated in under the wire? Nope.

Some people may say that Excellence is unattainable. Perfection is unattainable, but doing the best you can with everything you do is not. I am tired of excuses. I think it's OK to check people who are not doing their best. If you have someone who you are counting on, and they fail do you let them skate by and make them feel good or do you tell them they made a mistake? If you are on a baseball team and your pitcher decides to not practice and come at the last minute, do you think you have a chance of winning?

The thing people do not get is that you have 20 other people who put in their all. They are busting their butts to put in 100% and then one person takes the ship and drives it of the cliff. EVERYONE ELSE'S EFFORTS WERE NEGATED BY THE ONE PERSON. Now sure there will still be some good plays that happen despite the person, but the team will get no where close to where they could have been. Is that fair to the team? Is it fair to the person who was there 3 hours before the game to wash the bats and groom the field?

The "ahhh it was alright" attitude is not OK. Do you think that a team will get anywhere when key people have that idea? Do you think anyone behind them will give a rip about what they are doing? If "OK" is where you want to set the bar, then why have a bar? Is it incredibly hard to hold people you call your friends accountable, but will they grow if you don't?

Dreams are a funny thing. At church this week we have bee talking about God invading our dreams. I thought I would share how God has effected me through my shattered dreams.

Ever since I was little I dreamed of being a DJ. I memorized station ID's (one of my favorites is from WIXX, "Broadcasting from Title Town USA, today's best music WIXX"), legal ID's ("WIXX DePere, Green Bay, Fox Cities. A Service of Midwest Communications") , and how DJ's would segue between songs. At the time I thought that this was what I was going to do for the rest of my life. God had a different plan.

I was failing out of High School. I went the the Mahtomedi Alternative Learning Program (ALP). At the ALP I was able to complete the work I had been failing for the last 2 years in one hard year. I then had the opportunity to go to College on the states dime. I jumped at the chance to go into the Radio Broadcasting program at Riverland Community and Technical College (RCTC) in Austin, MN. I got down to college and loved my radio classes. I got a job working at KWEB as a board operator in Rochester ($5.25 an hour). I was also working at KAAL as a TV Production Assistant ($5.00 per hour) .

I was in Austin for a few weeks and I thought I should go looking for a church. I found New Life Christian Vineyard Fellowship (NLV). I was freaked out the first Sunday there. It was very charismatic and I was very not. I did go back for some reason though after a couple weeks and started going to youth group. I was 17 at the time so I barely made the cut off. I started hanging out at events and things like that. One of the people there, Rachel Lunde (now Strouf), was working at the Austin Auto Truck and Travel Plaza(AATTP). I was getting a little low on cash so one day when a few of us went there after youth group I applied to work there also. I got hired as a weekend overnight manager ($9.50 an hour).

I had really come to love the people at church, but I felt less like doing Radio as a career. I gave up the dream one night while I was working at AATTP. I just had received my paychecks from my jobs ( I worked all 3 somedays) and the AATTP paycheck was a lot bigger than the other 2. I started to take a look at my future job options in radio, and I was not liking any of them. I would be working at KHIC in Tumbleweed Nebraska for my first few years, and that did not excite me. I decided that I would drop out of college and head back home. I quit my jobs and was done with Austin. So I thought.

Fast forward a few years and I went back to Austin to check out the Extreme Youth Center at NLV. I loved it. I went to church there again and I loved it. I started driving down to Austin every weekend to do church. I then started to run the Extreme youth center at the church with my now wife, Sara.

The whole point of my dream was not for my radio career. It was so I could get to where I needed to be for God's plan to work. I would not be at Journey right now if I hadn't tried radio. I would not be with my wife, if I hadn't tried radio. My life would be in a whole different place without my shattered dream.

I would like to first start off by apologizing for the rant that is going to follow. Some may say the following will seem insensitive. It has been on my mind for quite awhile what I am going to write about. I figure if I put it out there someone can either benefit or get upset with me about it or help me process it.

1. People in need. I see certain people who appear to love to be in need. They are always broke. They are either emotionally broke, or monetarilly broke. But there is no helping them. They reach out for help but they never take any steps themselves.

I will first address money. If you look at every paycheck and you never have enough money to pay your bills and take care of yourself maybe you need to re-examine your current place. Now I am sure someone just yelled that I am being self-righteous. "Bill, you have no freaking clue what it is like!!" I do however know what it's like. I have been on the edge of bankruptcy. I had 2 houses foreclosed upon. I almost lost my job, my sanity, etc etc etc. I had nothing. I have been there. I have had to ask for help myself. But there comes a point where you need to pull yourself up by the bootstraps. I didn't just sit around saying woe is me, I made changes. If you have more bills than paycheck then something has to change. Do you really need everything you have? Do you really need to live where you live? If you answer yes to both of these questions, then there is only one other possible option. You need a better paying job or a 2nd/3rd/4th job. That is it. It is really that simple. You say, "But Bill, I could never work that much!" Then you will need to see one of the first options I gave. I know someday I will be faced with the same choices again, but I hope it will be easier to figure out for me the next time. I am tired of seeing people who hit the same well time and time again with no self-responsibility. YOU NEED TO HELP FIX YOURSELF.

Now for people who are emotionally broke. If you would like to seek help from other people, at some point the people will get tired of you talking about the same problem that you can not deal with. I can talk about your issues all day long, but until you want to do something about it, it will never help. I have seen no one ever just sit and talk about their problems without a solution coming up either. This may seem scary to some people, but sometimes the solution is not a fun solution. You made need to move from where you are at, stop seeing someone you care about, or make other harder choices. If you are willing to help yourself you can be healed. People say that God will heal me when he is ready to heal me. God will definitely help you become whole again but he usually is waiting on you to really want to be healed. I was emotionally broke and stuck in a horrible relationship. An old friend and I had a relationship that had ended. I hoped beyond hope that it would start again so I sat around driving my heart father into the ground. It never happened. I had to eventually let go. God had a better plan for me once I did.

2. People who are just playing the game. People come around all the time just lusting for attention. Everything is always wrong. They hunt for things to be wrong. If nothing is wrong with them, their co-workers brother's nephew's cousin got hit by a bus and needs stitches. It is ok to bring up prayer concerns and things like that but not when you are just grasping at straws people will get bored with you. If you want me to help you with anything I am here for you. If you need something to just throw-up on all the time, there are trash cans for that.

3. People who expect you to devote all of your resources to the bug up their butt.
If you come up with a killer idea that you want to take on, take it on. Don't say, "Yeah I have this great idea that you are going to help me with!". I am not going to take a project you thought up and make it happen for you. I will however help you if I can. If I can does not mean I will be replying to any request telling me I will help you and how I will help you. I am my own person. You may have to get others to help you.

4. People who don't even want help, but expect you to be their crutch. I am still trying to figure this one out. This one is very hard for me, because I was taught to be a nice person. The only way I think these people will change is if I start being a dink to them. These people hunt me down like dogs. They can sniff out that I am the weakest person in the group. I think these people have an instinct that tells them this. They are like a lion waiting for one Zebra who appears to be weak and they pounce! I think as a church we are especially susceptible to this. Would Christ turn these people down?

I am no theologian, but I think at some point Christ would tell these people to take some responsibility for themselves. Your thoughts?