I’m no expert, but this seems good for Sirius. Here’s the press release from that was just issued.
NEW YORK, Dec 27, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) today announced that it recently surpassed three million subscribers and expects a strong year-end.
I’ve had mine less than 48 hours… and I already love it. Good service, lots of channels, good content.
This week is a big "looking back" week. It’s in my nature to be reflective on the past. I want to get hung up on what I’ve been up to, what God has done, and what could have gone better. In fact, I tend to worry about yesterday more than I consider right now or tommorow. I want to spend my time looking forward. Forward for my family. Forward for Light Force. Forward for YMX. It’s my hope to make this a week of dreaming and visioneering. In the days to come… as I do this, I’ll post some of those dreams here.
But don’t think I’m going to be tied down to this on my week away from the office. I’ve got a lot planned for fun as well.
Everyone seems to want to talk about Christmas presents. Well, this is the big thing I got. I’ve wanted to have satelite radio for a while and back a few weeks I decided that Sirius is the one I wanted of the two. (It helps that I own their stock, eh?) So far I really like the radio and the service. The one we bought connects to our home stereo in it’s cool little cradle and of course works nicely in the car. Another benefit of the membership is that I can listen online. That will come in handy at the office.
Later today, we’re off to Ford Field and the Motor City Bowl. Even though Detroit+December=COLD we still host a bowl game. I’ve never been to one and I’ve always wanted to go… so we’re going to watch Memphis take on Akron in the "Who Cares Bowl." But, like a lot of things, the company you go with is as much fun as the event.
P.S. There have been some excellent member submitted articles over at YMX. I know I am completely biased, but some of these are great and it’s my pleasure to feature them.
As 2005 is drawing to a close, I have been thinking a lot about what a great year it has been. Here is my "top 10" best moment of the year.
1. September: Getting the keys to our first house. We still feel it was a major accident that someone let us buy this place.
2. July 7th: Leaving Detroit for Belfast after 7 months of planning and fund-raising.
3. Thanksgiving Day: Having everyone over for a relatively stress-free day was incredible!
4. January-June: The Northern Ireland team was incredible and all of our pre-field training brings back many happy memories. Particularly the adventures just to get to the meetings as we seemed to have snow or have a weather emergency for each one.
5. October 28-30: Chicago College Visits. This is just a blast as we explore the city in a small group, enjoy Maria’s home cookin’ and just invest in the upperclassmen in a special way.
6. August 7th: As much as I enjoyed the time in NI and especially Fivemiletown, there was nothing like coming home to Kristen and the kids.
7. November 5th: Sure, we just raked leaves for some people… but it was a highlight of my year.
8. March 27th-April 2nd: The Chicago mission trip was a special special time for Light Force. In some ways it has gotten overshadowed among all the rest, but it was a sweet time.
9. May 15th: Megan’s 4th birthday party at the Detroit Zoo. What a perfect day.
10. December 21st: Yeah, it was just this week. But it was a blast to have so many people in our house and hard to compare that to anything else.
Of course, there are many, many other memories that will last from 2005. Romeo’s graduation, lots of stuff in Fivemiletown and travel ling to/from Belfast, tons of things with LF students, and oodles of moments with the kids. Overall, this year was an amazing year. The highs are so much higher than the lows. I am almost reluctant to think about 2006… this whole year will go down in my personal history as a highlight.
It’s been well documented around the church that I am not the biggest fan of Christmas. Too much commercialism, bad memories, and not enough Jesus for me. This year it has been amplified by "the megachurches" who have decided to call off church this Sunday because of the holiday. [See story]
So, just to prove that I really do enjoy some aspects of Christmas here are some selections from a talk I delivered here in Romeo 2 Christmas’ ago.
Perhaps between a man and a woman there is no higher manifestation of love and romance than the gift of a child. Though not all couples will or even can experience the gift of a child it is safe to say that it is ultimately in God’s design for marriage that a child or children would be born. It is a joyous gift shared between God and His beloved mankind.
This is why we are here tonight. This is where my story has ended. On my road through pessimism and disgust I have found these truths. These are the themes of Christmas that stand the test of time, that make it all worth it. This is why I can once again say “I love Christmas.”
Let me share some insights with you as we close.
– God has given us Christmas out of His love for humanity.
– It may not be taught in Scripture that we have to celebrate it, but it’s the best we can do.
– It is God’s expression of romance between Himself, holy and just, angry and loving… this is why we like to be with family this time of year… it is an expression of our inward-born romance.
– Christmas is God’s gift to all man.
o Have you ever noticed something? Christmas is by far the most recognizable of all celebrated holidays in the world.
o It’s celebrated in places where you will hardly ever hear the name of Jesus… where you can hardly imagine Christ being.
So, it was just a nightmare last night. But I really did dream that I opened up my January bill and it was $7329. I hope that dream doesn’t come true.
Last night was the annual Christmas party for Light Force. It was the first time we’d had a full on youth group event at our new house and it went really, really well. I wasn’t actually sure if our house could hold everyone and was secretly hoping that we’d only have 15-20 people! But alas, about 40 showed up and packed our house. It was the first time I felt like the new place was small! If we do another party… I think we could easily go up to 100 if we were inside/outside.
I had games planned and a cool "end of the year speach" that I never got to do since
there were so many people. (How do you get 40 in your living room for a PowerPoint game when there are already 22 in there playing Halo and it is too smooched? Ah well, it was a great time and we look forward to doing it again.
This morning as my Bible Study group got to Hebrews 11, we came to a very famous bit of Scripture. This has been called "The Hall of Faith" in the Bible.
This is a laundry list of people, who at some point in their lives chose to follow God’s way faithfully instead of what made sense to everyone else. Despite everyone screaming at them in the rough waters of life, like John Candy in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles "You are going the wrong way," they continue to listen to the voice of God.
The author closes out this "Hall of Faith" by answering the big question, So what made these people so great? Why should I care about them? "And all these [faithful ones in Hebrews 11], having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect." (NASB)
The point in their being right is that God fulfilled His will, not that we can look back in history and say "nanana booboo." He allowed those people to do that to accomplish His higher plan in providing Christ. Remember Moses, whom the Jews highly revered failed God and proved himself to by imperfect. Even in that fact, perfection points to Jesus.
Here’s where it relates to my students. There are smart people at school who hate to be wrong. In 
fact, they are so arrogant that they don’t care if they are right or wrong, so long as they are viewed as being right. Despite the sign that reads "keep right" they veer to the left to follow the path because that seems to make sense to them. And here’s the deal that is deadly, some will be willing to have faith and hope in "what makes sense" all the way until their death. (This morning we talked about those who put their hope in the flawed science of evolution. Despite basic laws of science which make the theory impossible to be more than a theory, many have put their faith and hope in it.) Their hope and trust is in what they can see and observe. They accuse people who are correct of being arrogant out of their vanity. They’d rather save face and be separated from God in their arrogance to remain "right in their eyes" than admit they could be wrong.
But where is their faith? It is in what is seen and observed from their eyes. They call us arrogant when in fact it is through their arrogance that they are blind.
I saw this today on the Purpose Drive Youth Ministry Conference website. Then I got to thinking… is this my buddy Todd Porter? I mean, he was at PDYM in 2005? Maybe it’s him.
From time to time people comment to me about my weird facination with the stock market and my unique ability to plan for retirement before I am 30… I don’t think it’s weird, I just think it’s good stewardship to have a simple plan for the future.
Here is an excellent article from CNN about "how to retire rich." Yeah, it really isn’t that fancy and you don’t have to be a genius. What you do have to do is simply put money away somewhere you can’t get to it incrementally. When you allow interest to compound over say… 30 years… dollars turn to thousands of dollars. It isn’t fancy, it is really simple.
The first step is to salt away as much as possible. Contribute at least
enough to get the full match — anything less and you’re leaving money on the
table.