judi free!

We had the opportunity to hang out with a great lad named Adam from Leeds, UK for the past 2 weeks. He is passionate about social justice including refugees, missions work and the environment. He is devoting his whole life to it! His passion made me think…

What is my role as a Christian? What should I care about and spend my time and money on (biblically speaking)? Am I really serving Christ with the actions in my life? Should I care more about refugees (or insert any other issue)?

As I pondered these questions, I read a blog post from Jenni which really sums it up for me.

We are the body of Christ. Each member does something different. God ignites a passion in each one of us to further His Kingdom. Some will create worship music, some will train the next generation, some will stand up for women in leadership, some will fight for clean water and medical supplies around the world, some will care for the sheep - all working for the good of the Kingdom.

We should not be filled with guilt if we aren’t personally passionate about doing all of these things. 

In a company, you don’t feel guilty that you aren’t doing the payroll if your job is to do marketing.

Trust that God is putting the right desires in the right people’s hearts to fulfill His mission.

We are part of a community (also called the Body of Christ) that is doing the whole work. I may be passionate and focusing my time on mentoring teenagers, but I can also support Shelly, Whitney and Pastor Sarah in Ethiopia – and they support me too. This makes us connected in the body…We can’t do it all ourselves, but we can be true to the passion God has put in our hearts.

I may never go on a missions trip…that doesn’t mean I’m not doing what God planned for me.

This morning, I got up 20 minutes early before Mark got up and did the following:

1. put on a long robe
2. poured a bowl of fruit loops in my favorite bowl with my favorite spoon
3. sat on the patio with my feet up on a chair and slowly ate my delectable breakfast
4. read 2 chapters in Luke

The whole ordeal was only about 20 minutes – but it was just what I needed to shape my day. It was peaceful, awakening, and real. I hope to have more mornings like this. I hope I can start everyday by giving God some time and focus. This is where worship begins. This is where life really starts. And yet, I complain all of the time about not having enough time to spend with God…

What else could I do and accomplish if I just got up early by 20 more minutes?? Excercise, Laundry, Dishes…everything else on my list that I’m just to “busy” for???

Where else do you “find” time?? I’m in need of some more!

Morning Fuel

I love finding inspriation in the most unlikely places. I was listening to an audio recording of my company’s President & COO – Walt Rakowich. I am so honored to work for this man. He has a heart of gold and he cherishes the people that work for him. He is helping so many in the world through our company.

In a presentation he was making regarding the ProLogis sustainability commitment, he said the following which hit me like a ton of bricks:

It’s one thing for us all (meaning internally) to talk about it; it’s another thing to tell the world about it.

This made me think of how we all blog and talk in our church circles about the great things we are doing, but it’s something else entirely to tell the world about it. Walt makes the comment that when you tell the world what you are doing and what your goals are, then it’s like having a gun to your head – they will hold you to it!

Let’s tell the world about Jesus and hope they hold a gun to our heads to live according to His love.

I’m in Charlotte, NC this week for a “green” building trade show. I’m happy to be here, but I had a terrible flight. Stuck in the back row of the plane, I was sitting next to some large fellows and before we took off, the pilot announces that one of the engines won’t start. I felt so helpless. I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs to get me off of that plane! I slowly started to panic while the plane started to smell like jet fuel. After about 10 minutes, the pilot announces that they “reset the computers” and now the engine is working – I’m still not relieved in the least! Then, after we took off, we hit quite a bit of turbulance. I was so scared and gripping my seat. I turned on my iPod Touch as loud as it would go to the song “How He Loves” – it helped some. 

I was fine after we hit cruising altitude and watched “The Office” the entire flight. 

All that to say that a couple of years ago I used to fly every other week – on some of the worst puddle jumpers – and I never had any issues with panic or fear…I even liked it to an extent. Now, I get short of breath even before I board the plane. What has happened to me? Am I just out of the swing of flying? I fly back home on Tuesday and I’m dreading the flight. Pray for me….

On a side note, I got some awesome new ear buds for only $30 and they totally blocked ALL of the plane noise. They are called V-Moda and I got them at Ultimate Electronics.

View from my hotel room:

In my quest to conserve energy at home, I learned something new today – very simple too!

Even when your cell phone or mobile device isn’t charging, that big plug it uses is warm – because it’s using energy even when it’s doing nothing. Physically unplug chargers from the wall to keep them from silently sucking down wattage while you’re not using them.

 Thanks Life Hacker for the great tip!

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned my new found responsibility to protect the environment. On this, the day of St. Patrick, here’s a great GREEN idea that’s worthy of my support:

Donate your old cell phones (I have boxes of them) to support our troops. Here’s how it works:

This organization makes it incredibly easy to donate your cell phones. All you need to do is print the pre-paid shipping label and drop it in the mail box. EASY! You can print the label here: Cell Phones for Soldiers

If you still can’t manage to do that, please give me your old cell phones so I can send them in.

ProLogis is full speed ahead on the road to sustainability. It’s been a fun venture so far from a corporate point of view – yeah, we care about the environment, yeah, we support the communities in which we work, and yeah, we are financially secure…

However, Mark and I are from small cow towns where recycling and caring about the environment is only for hippies and earth muffins and the concern for water conservation is only for irrigating crops. The more I work on sustainability for ProLogis, the more I feel a responsibility to incorporate these sustainable practices into my personal life.

Mark is still sceptical about it and says I’m being brain washed, but the longer I live in Colorado in this beautiful natural environment, the more I feel a need to protect it.

SO – Here I go…get ready for Eco-Judi. The following are my goals in my personal life for the next 3 months (did I mention that all of these practices will also save us MONEY!?!?! 

1. Reduce my energy consumption by: replacing halogen lights in my house with high-efficiency lights, using eco-buttons on our computers, turning off any electronic device or light if it’s not in use. I will also get an eco-button for any friend or family member who is willing to use it.
2. Reduce my water consumption in my house by: fix leaks and “running” toilets, only do laundry and dishes when a there is a full load
3. Incorporate recycling for our trash.
4. Purchase home items that are made from recycled materials.

One thing Mark and I have alreday done is stopped using water bottles completely. We use a water purifier at home for water and we carry reusable water bottles.

I hope you all can keep me accountable for these goals.