kylegilbert

Two Thursdays ago I was brutally attacked by my gallbladder after eating a couple of pieces of pizza.  I didn’t realize that I had gall stones, but the combo did a number on me.

I’ve honestly never had to deal with such pain before, and by 11 pm, I was begging Josh Whitehead to run me to the ER.  He was kind enough to take me – and it wasn’t until 20 minutes after I got the morphine (around 3 am, I think) that I finally felt OK again.

This Tuesday, I had laparoscopic surgery, and my gallbladder is no longer with me.

Today, I’m feeling great, other than four sets of stitches, a yellow-bruised belly, and some soreness.

I put this video together for Keri as a gift on Mother’s Day, but I just now got permission from her to post it up here.  I think it turned out pretty great.

Just in case you haven’t seen this yet, this is a collection of bicycle stunts that one guy has done.  Really amazing!

Our culture today has rejected the “plastic” feel that characterized certain elements of the past few decades. Instead of being content with artificial, the culture now upholds and seeks out the values of transparency and authenticity. This shift is beneficial for the work of Christ. They make a rich soil for the communication and application of the gospel. They give people a safe place to come clean with their sins, fears, and insecurities to find accountability and encouragement from others.

The bad thing is, many people are selling out for a cheap imitation of transparency and authenticity. Rather than creating fertile ground, we’re tempted to hide our insecurity under a top soil of sarcasm. It can be fun and lighthearted when used sparingly (I love to smile and laugh), but it can be a cheap cover up too. Rather than encouraging and building one another up in love, we can spend our time trying to keep people laughing.

Given time, sarcasm will erode our communication and leave us with interactions that are even more plastic than in generations past.

This is a great opportunity for the church to shine brightly in our world today. Rather than a new kind of fake, may we demonstrate transparency with humility and encouragement.

There are several people in my life that I consider to be my heroes for various reasons, but ever since college the first person who always comes to mind when I hear the word “hero” is my Grandmomma, Dorothy Willingham.

Today, my dad called to let me know that she passed away – stepping out of this world an into the next.

This was a complete shock to me (she did have a major stroke almost a year ago, but since then she’s been working hard to regain mobility and speech). In fact, when I talked to her on the phone yesterday, she was having a great day – telling me that she was going to try to walk down the aisle in my brother’s wedding in June. Despite the shock, I’ve still had a tremendous sense of peace (with sadness), as Keri and I have talked about her today.

She was an amazing woman. Here are a few of the reasons Dorothy Willingham is my hero:

• She was a devout follower of Jesus Christ. The real deal. You could see it in her life.
• She was unswervingly loyal. From the fun times that we had with her growing up, to teaching in the public school system for half a century, to the kind service she extended to those she knew who were going through health problems – she was always willing to help care for the people around her.
• She never gave up. Even through the discouragement of her own health setbacks, she kept pushing forward.
• Unlike a lot of people I’ve met who get crankier with age, she was always fun to be around, and she was always laughing and making me laugh. She loved to be the center of attention, and she was willing to say and do ridiculous things to get people to smile.

Thank God for people like Dorothy Willingham who are faithful to the end and who show us how to live. Until we are reunited, we will miss her tremendously.

This is a photo I took of my son at a birthday party this past weekend.  I sure do love this little monkey!

For a couple of months, we’ve been operating with four workstations in our office. Two spots are for our financial team, and the other two are for our communications team (an interesting combo for sure). Together, we called ourselves the “Office of Awesome.”

This week, our office got even a little more awesome. We turned the workstations around to face the walls and opened everything up in the middle.

For over a decade now, I’ve managed my finances through an envelope system (dividing income into budgeted spending categories), and I’ve found it to be very helpful – keeping us out of debt, helping us to spend within our income, and helping Keri and I not fight about money.  Unfortunately, there aren’t many solutions out there that make it easy to do while also using credit and debit cards (we pay off the balance each month).  I started out using a spreadsheet, but switched to software about eight years ago.  It worked great at the time, but it still required several hours of work each week to stay current.

A couple of months ago, I started searching for a replacement to my out-of-date software.  I began with Quicken and a few others, but it was challenging to get them to really use an envelope system.

Then, about three weeks ago, I stumbled upon a system called Mvelopes that is absolutely terrific.

• It’s web-based, so I don’t have to worry about crashes or updates.
• It’s very easy to set up and use.
• It connects to my bank accounts and saves me the effort of having to manually enter expenditures.

It’s not cheap, but there’s a free trial.  For the time this is saving me each week, it’s worth the money.

If you have challenges keeping up with your money and sticking to a budget, you really should give this a try.

Here are some videos that show you how it works.

And, lastly, before you ask:  No, I’m not getting any kind of kickback for this post.    I’m just putting this on here with the hope that it will be a useful resource for others like it has been for me.