What a weekend. 2500 miles, 36 hours in the car. Round trip from West Virginia to Louisiana. Lots of time to ponder life, look at the scenery, and eat french fries.
And now Tuesday feels like the worst Monday ever. It is hard to get started again, because my brain is not quite engaged. The idea to take a little time off when needed is a good one. An even better idea is to take the time off and get some rest, so that when returning to the place of duty, one is fully prepared and energized.
I should not complain. The trip was necessary for the sake of one of my family members. My daughter had a major presentation and I went simply to support and encourage her, to acknowledge a year and a half of exceptionally hard work. So I do not regret the trip. I just forgot how taxing it was going to be.
You would think it would be easy. Most of what I do concerns thoughts, ideas, and words. If I could just think up some words, tell my fingers the letters and what order to put them in, and then it would all just take care of itself. Not so. Good ideas are hard to come by, to express them into coherent language, to communicate with clarity and impact is difficult on the best days. Nigh unto impossible on the fuzzy days.
Scarlet O'Hara would give good advice here. I'll think about that tomorrow. For today, I will resign to the fact that I am getting next to nothing done, and just let that be.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Its about Time...
I started thinking the other day, which is usually dangerous, about time. How much time is spend doing the various things I do, where I go and why, and that sort of thing. Because there never seems to be enough time to do all the things that need to get done. Am I the only one that is short of time?
168. We all get the same 168 hours each week. No more, no less, cannot use them like rollover minutes, cannot save them. We can only spend them, at the rate of 168/week. A relatively large number of those hours are spent asleep. Sleep is productive and important, but not in the ways we want them to be.
There are a variety of demands on my 168. I must be a husband and a father. I must be the pastor of the church, which includes a whole variety of various tasks. I must care for our belongings like home, cars, yardwork. 168 seems not to be quite enough to do all those things. Perhaps a 36 hour day, and 252/ wk would be more practical.
And there are some things I seek to do, not must do, but want to do. I want to find more time to write, this blog, the various books I have in my head. I want to go fishing. I want to spend more time with the people I care about. I want to travel to Cabo San Lucas and scuba dive. Time, sweet time.
The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Circumspectly is a fancy word for carefully. Foolish folk waste time. Wise folks are careful and conscientious about how they use that most limited resource, so that the time spent is productive and beneficial to self and others.
I have come to the conclusion that there is never enough time to do everything that one seeks to do. 168 is just not enough to get it all in. But what we can do is do the important things well. And the other things may have to be left undone.
There is one more thing I must do. This is not an afterthought, but deliberately mentioned last, so that it will be remembered by you who read. I must be close with God. I must know Him and be known by Him. I must look into His Word regularly, I must communicate with Him regularly in prayer. I must spend enough time with God so that His presence is the transformative agent in me. And that takes time.
168. We all get the same 168 hours each week. No more, no less, cannot use them like rollover minutes, cannot save them. We can only spend them, at the rate of 168/week. A relatively large number of those hours are spent asleep. Sleep is productive and important, but not in the ways we want them to be.
There are a variety of demands on my 168. I must be a husband and a father. I must be the pastor of the church, which includes a whole variety of various tasks. I must care for our belongings like home, cars, yardwork. 168 seems not to be quite enough to do all those things. Perhaps a 36 hour day, and 252/ wk would be more practical.
And there are some things I seek to do, not must do, but want to do. I want to find more time to write, this blog, the various books I have in my head. I want to go fishing. I want to spend more time with the people I care about. I want to travel to Cabo San Lucas and scuba dive. Time, sweet time.
The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Circumspectly is a fancy word for carefully. Foolish folk waste time. Wise folks are careful and conscientious about how they use that most limited resource, so that the time spent is productive and beneficial to self and others.
I have come to the conclusion that there is never enough time to do everything that one seeks to do. 168 is just not enough to get it all in. But what we can do is do the important things well. And the other things may have to be left undone.
There is one more thing I must do. This is not an afterthought, but deliberately mentioned last, so that it will be remembered by you who read. I must be close with God. I must know Him and be known by Him. I must look into His Word regularly, I must communicate with Him regularly in prayer. I must spend enough time with God so that His presence is the transformative agent in me. And that takes time.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Those were the times, weren't they?
I was talking with some friends the other day, an older couple, and they began to tell me how things have changed so much, that life is not like it used to be, and then it came, that dreaded phrase, that which makes me cringe... The Good Old Days. I listened politely while my mind wandered off. I courteously nodded my agreement, and discreetly got called away to another conversation.
What good old days do folks so fondly remember? Exactly when were those times that everyone remembers so fondly? Was it the seventies? How can those days be considered good? Just look at the clothes. How can anyone remember how good the seventies were because so many people were so high all the time?
Perhaps the sixties were the good old days. When the country was on the verge of disintegrating over Vietnam, with civic and political assassinations, riots in the streets. Did we forget that so quickly?
In the fifties, rock and roll was coming on strong, and the folks longed for those days before Elvis could swing his hips on the TV and before all these kids went crazy. Surely the fifties were not the good old days.
Was the nineteen forties the good old days, when the entire world was at war? When there was rationing, shortages, and telegrams expressing the deepest sympathy of our country?
Shall we continue? Was it the thirties, when unemployment was at 30%, when the middle of our country was a dust bowl, when the entire world was in an economic depression? The twenties, during the era of prohibition in which the common man became a criminal, and the criminals were the law?
When were those good old days that are so fondly remembered? Before indoor plumbing? Before electricity? When we lived in caves and hunted in tribes? How far back do we need to go to get to the good old days? What exactly are we longing for?
Instead of pining away for that which never existed, might we instead just begin to make these days better? Can't we just live to make today the best we can make it? Why don't we instead try to get some control over our lives today, try to spend this day a little more constructively. Maybe tomorrow will be the best days ever, if you and I will just work toward making it so.
God Bless You.
Brian
What good old days do folks so fondly remember? Exactly when were those times that everyone remembers so fondly? Was it the seventies? How can those days be considered good? Just look at the clothes. How can anyone remember how good the seventies were because so many people were so high all the time?
Perhaps the sixties were the good old days. When the country was on the verge of disintegrating over Vietnam, with civic and political assassinations, riots in the streets. Did we forget that so quickly?
In the fifties, rock and roll was coming on strong, and the folks longed for those days before Elvis could swing his hips on the TV and before all these kids went crazy. Surely the fifties were not the good old days.
Was the nineteen forties the good old days, when the entire world was at war? When there was rationing, shortages, and telegrams expressing the deepest sympathy of our country?
Shall we continue? Was it the thirties, when unemployment was at 30%, when the middle of our country was a dust bowl, when the entire world was in an economic depression? The twenties, during the era of prohibition in which the common man became a criminal, and the criminals were the law?
When were those good old days that are so fondly remembered? Before indoor plumbing? Before electricity? When we lived in caves and hunted in tribes? How far back do we need to go to get to the good old days? What exactly are we longing for?
Instead of pining away for that which never existed, might we instead just begin to make these days better? Can't we just live to make today the best we can make it? Why don't we instead try to get some control over our lives today, try to spend this day a little more constructively. Maybe tomorrow will be the best days ever, if you and I will just work toward making it so.
God Bless You.
Brian
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