Meditation For (Christian) Dummies – 2

October 10, 2008 By JBW

Continued from the previous post. It seemed like meditation could be an important spiritual discipline to help me grow. But, let’s face it, it also sounds weird. I associate meditation with Buddhists and George Harrison and New Age Eastern religions that are so taboo as I was taught from my right-wing fundamentalist Evangelical upbringing, because they are the Cults Of The World. Well, OK, that was when I was 14. The way Dr. Payne described it to me just now, it actually sounded kind of cool, and... Read more

Meditation for (Christian) Dummies

October 7, 2008 By JBW

My mentor, Dr. Payne, suggested that I start meditating. He mentioned it one day as he calmly observed me work myself into a lather over the usual career frustrations and corporate political struggles. He made it sound so easy and fun. And I said, “Well, yes, that might help calm me down.” But I was also secretly thinking to myself how meditating would make me sound extremely hard-core spiritual. You know, the way everyone thinks that Buddhists are so much... Read more

With God We Will Do Valiantly

September 24, 2008 By JBW

I have been thinking a lot lately about excellence. Not just at work, but in every area of my life — as a Christian, husband, father, friend, church volunteer, Board member, Starbucks customer… Do I truly aspire to excellence in the work I do? In the relationships I have? In every-day interactions with strangers? I guess this sudden conviction is a result of the convergence of many different coincidental situations, conversations, blogging comments, books and bible readings that ultimately leads... Read more

Good Work

September 21, 2008 By JBW

I just finished reading “The Gift of Work – Spiritual Disciplines for the Workplace” by Bill Heatley. Bill had visited my Blog a couple weeks ago, and was nice enough to direct me to his recently published book (see Bill’s comment on “About Me”). What’s interesting about Bill is that he is much more than just an author — he is a full-time manager of an IT department for Kaiser Permamente. So he’s really a working stiff just like me, who... Read more

The Purpose of Work

September 5, 2008 By JBW

As some of you may know, I go to a Presbyterian church. It’s located in a bucolic, historically-preserved town that happens to be a stone’s throw from the pharmaceutical Mecca of the Northeast, and also within commuting distance of both New York City and Philadelphia. Needless to say, we are a church community filled with our fair share of corporate executive-types. Also there are many entrepreneurs, artists, doctors and lawyers, and a few farmers (throwbacks from the olden days from... Read more

Middle-Age and the Meaning of Life: The Countdown Begins

August 29, 2008 By JBW

Lately my lungs shut down while I’m sleeping. They just decide to stop working, like they’ve had enough and they’re not going to put up any longer with the unreasonable demands I’ve placed on them. They’ll show me who’s really in charge. I dream these nightmares of drowning, being strangled, choking, and dying. The worst part is that it happens during the deepest stages of sleep, when my body is in a state of paralysis. So that when I begin... Read more

Does This Blog Make Me Look Fat?

August 25, 2008 By JBW

This week I am celebrating the first month of going live with this wacky idea of a Shrinking the Camel Blog. Of course it has been a wonderful creative outlet to express my irreverent thoughts on the spiritual lessons found in business and career life, and to meet other bloggers, too. By the way, where did all you people come from!? I was surprised how quickly the traffic started up, thanks to some early links and support from people like... Read more

Even Jesus Got Annoyed

August 21, 2008 By JBW

I can pretty much guarantee that the disciples were annoying at times. I mean, come on, they were just ordinary guys like you and me, right? They had to get on each others’ nerves from time to time. The bible doesn’t really showcase Jesus’ irritation levels, but if we read between the lines of some of his exchanges with the disciples, we can see a little hint of annoyance. For instance, here’s a gem from Matthew 16, right after Jesus... Read more

Righteous Irritation

August 17, 2008 By JBW

I recently read Kiersten Mitchell’s blog of the Brazen Careerist about using anger to get ahead in the workplace. Her point is that sometimes anger can be a healthy driver for “proving yourself” as you work your way through your career. Upon reading this, my first impression was, “Wow, I just finished a blog posting about Stabucks and loving your customer. And now I feel like your blog is going to kick my blog’s ass.” But then I started thinking, well, maybe she’s... Read more

Thou Shalt Love Thy Customer

August 13, 2008 By JBW

I love Starbucks. No, I really love Starbucks. You need to know this about me. It’s as if Howard Schultz had me specifically in mind when he built the store concept: the serious roast, the eclectic but ever-so-cool music, the aroma, the European Café beatnik ambience. And, Oh, how I love the coffee! Or, maybe it’s just the idea of me drinking coffee at Starbucks is what I love. In any case, I am to the point where I won’t,... Read more