I have a big puppy dog.  Suzie Mango is almost 9-month-old and weighs over 80lbs and she still has that pup mentality.  Thankfully she is very well behaved, has a decent awareness of her surroundings, still a little clumsy and the only thing she cares about is food. 
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Very easy-going puppy, but the one thing that I didn’t realize is the amount that she sheds.  Man, oh man, it is bananas how much she sheds.  She sheds everyday but apparently right now, she is shedding like an entire dog’s worth of hair.  I seriously think I can make a miniature sculpture with the dog hair we collect.  When I get done playing with her, I am very furry because I am covered in her hair.  This requires me to take her outside to play, just so she doesn’t get a bunch of hair inside the house!

Vacuuming every day is a requirement in our household now.  So that required us to get a good vacuum that specializes in getting dog hair off from carpet and rugs.  So, I bought that really expensive Dyson cordless vacuum.  It’s probably one of the most expensive things we bought…. Item wise. 

But I must say it is well worth it!  A powerful vacuum handles Suzie’s shedding fur really easily. 

Now I am not sponsored by Dyson, but if anyone working for Dyson is reading this, I’ll advertise for you, let’s work out a contract!

But the point of me writing about dog hair and getting an expensive vacuum is simply that in life the things that can give us great joy and comfort require some hard work and investment.  Now investment is not necessarily about money, but it can be about time.

Our dog Suzie gives my family and I a great amount of joy.  Yeah, she sheds and it’s a lot of work cleaning everything up, and time consuming taking her outside so she can shed out there and needing an expensive vacuum to clean everything up.  Sounds like a lot of work and disrupts my daily routine.  But the biggest and best tradeoff is having Suzie part of our lives.

Think about your faith in the same way.  If we cherish it and it is something that should be giving us great amount of joy, then it does take our time investment, it does require us to do some work and living in faith may disrupt our daily routine, or at least having faith will require a new daily routine. 

Do not take your faith for granted.  Like my puppy dog Suzie, faith needs to be taken care of and requires us to do some work.  Afterall, all good things require us to do more work.  All good things require an investment of money and time.  So, treat your faith like any object of joy.  Invest time and money in it.  And it’s not just about praying and reading the Bible, that’s just the minimum.  Your faith is growing, and it will require you to invest more time, patience, and material that will help you give clarity in your beliefs. 

Faithful living, that is doing all we can to mimic the life of Christ and follow His commands will force us out of our daily routine.  Sometimes we have to go outside of comfort zone and experience how God is showing us something truly amazing, so don’t miss out on it!  When you choose to venture out of your comfort zone just have confidence that God is with you and is somehow guiding you so that your faithful living will continue to provide great joy and peace.

Fishing in PA is tough.  I have fished mostly Glendale Lake and Canoe Creek for specifically Largemouth Bass.  And I learned that those places can be challenging because of the pressure they receive.  I don’t ever fish private waters and often times search for hard-to-reach places because many times I am fishing with my children, and I know those places would be too dangerous for them.  So, I am fishing in a lot of easy access places.

Fishing Central PA for the last 7 years has been tough, but I usually feel quite confident that I will always catch fish.  They may not be the biggest bass out there, but still a nice size, and I feel that Glendale Lake and Canoe Creek State Park has a good population of between 1-3lb largemouth bass.  Which should never disappoint any angler.  We should be thankful that we are catching fish, right?

The problem now is that I have gotten spoiled!  You see back in April I went out and caught a 6lb largie then on a few outings I have been landing 4-5lb largies consistently.  Now I just sound like I’m bragging!  But lately, I have been catching fish but no longer pulling out this big fish.  And I feel disappointed. 

I got spoiled… The problem is that I started the fishing season landing big fish and now suddenly, I am expecting that I should always be hooking into and landing big fish.  That is a problem.  You see, I should just be happy in catching fish, because it is fun.  To catch a fish that you are targeting on a consistent basis, and finding the pattern to how to get any fish to bite is exciting. 

But now if you expect that every trip you take to go fishing to land a big one, then anything less is just disappointing. 

This is like in life.  We should never think that we are expecting the biggest, best, and greatest thing to just fall in our laps as if we are entitled to such.  I should think to myself that I am no longer catching these big fish anymore because the pattern has changed.  These fish got smarter, and they are no longer in the areas that I am fishing.  So, I shouldn’t expect to get them at this moment.  I know that if I change locations, keep trying, keep working hard at locating and figuring out the patterns to bigger fish, I will start getting them on the bank again.  But that stuff takes time.  Just like all good things in life. 

To be honest, I got extremely lucky in landing big fish in April and May.  I just happened to throw the right lure in the right places to discover what they are looking for to get them to bite.  It just happened that way.  I’ll view it as part of God’s grace. 

So, when it comes to life, don’t ever think we are entitled to receive anything.  We all need to work hard and get what we deserve.  Never expect things to fall in our laps.  Sometimes good stuff happens to fall in our laps like winning the lottery, but it doesn’t happen all the time.  So just be thankful when good fortune falls on you and give thanks to God.  In the meantime, put in hard work, keep trying, never feel entitled, and get what you deserve.  And if by chance, you putting in the hard work, doing your best, trying hard, still leaves you empty handed, then keep trying, keep grinding.  There is God up there knowing that the hard work you do here will be rewarded in heaven as well.  And that hard work will also be recognized soon. 

Don’t feel bad if you don’t get the things you think you deserve, just be grateful, and enjoy the work you put in.  

So, the photo you are seeing is all the calls I get from spam callers…. So far.  It’s only 3:30, Monday while I am writing this, and I am expecting more today.  I will probably post this blog on Wednesday, and I am sure that My phone call log will look like this.   I also didn’t show you that this all begins around 10:00am and then I guess they take a lunch break at 12:00pm, and then start rolling again around 1:00 or 2:00pm. 
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This is what my phone call list looks like every day for the past 3 weeks.  These guys do take a break on the weekend, which is nice, but from about 10:00am to about 6:00pm I am getting a phone call about every 5 to 10 minutes from some spam caller.  I don’t answer them, at first I did, and they seem to always be looking for Shirley or Jeff and always about senior care, med care, or resurgent debt.

This is currently causing me a lot of stress and grief.  I am told that if I don’t answer these calls, it will eventually get better, but it hasn’t yet.  My friend keeps telling me to just withstand it and it will go away soon.  But when?

These “people” doing the spam calling are the definition of resilience.  They will not let it go, and they will always keep calling.  Blocking numbers do not help, because they will only find a new number to use for their reason for calling.

What is the dang point of doing this kind of spam calling?  I mean, how successful is this and how do they have your phone number?  How do these calls just keep getting through? 

Anyways, its really been bothering me and also the persistence ringing or my phone is making me feel a bit depressed.  I am looking to see if I can get my number changed, which is going to be a hassle, because if I change my number I have to update all the accounts, billings, and credit cards, and whatever in between.  Also, I have to tell everyone what me new number is going to be.  But I even wonder…

Even if I change my phone number, is this spam calling still going to be a problem for me?  I just have a feeling that it is still going to continue.  Honestly, I get that spam calling is going to happen, but every 5 to 10 minutes every day from 10:00-12:00 and then 1:00-6:00pm.  I can barely use my phone without hearing it buzz in my hand. 

Anyways, I wanted to write this blog, because I know I haven’t posted anything last week and I think the week before that as well.  Mostly due to me having no motivation to write anything inspirational.  Even this blog is more of a complaint, and I am writing this just to get my feelings out, and hopefully at the end of writing and sharing this, I can feel a little bit better, so I can be more efficient in my daily living and work at church. 

But as for right now…. I have to do my best to live with the constant buzzing all day….  Just so you know, as I am writing this blog, I missed 4 phone calls two from med supplement, one from medicare, and another one from senior help. 

It’s a weird thing to pray to God to reduce the amount of spam call for me to maybe 10 a day.  But that is what I am praying for.  Anyways, I’m going to try to get motivated to do some work. 

I hope people reading this aren’t having the same issue I am, because it really does wear you down and makes you feel depressed.