My Eight Things

Ask anyone.  I am not known for my consistency.  I am a whirring ball of ideas, intentions, attempts, and failures.  I even tried knitting a scarf once (and by "once", I mean "this year") and made it about two inches before I was over it.  It's now a very inadequate hot pad, which makes Caroline smile.

I've started something that kind of excites me.  I call it my "Eight Things."  There are eight things that I've written on a list, and post at my desk.  Things that I want to be consistent with and want to form habits around.  I used to think that if I got into a habit about something, it might be "legalistic" and I wouldn't actually get anything good out of it.  But as I was watering my plants one morning, I realized that giving life-sustaining nutrients to something that needs it, is not legalism - it's food.  Sometimes I eat out of legalism (that is, I know I should, even if I don't feel hungry) and sometimes I drink water out of legalism (before I'm thirsty, because I know I ought) but my consistency does not negate the benefit.  If I read my Bible, and mediate on a verse, I might not be hungry for it, but it will still do me good.

So I made a list of good things I should be doing every day, in no particular order.

1) Read your Bible
2) Find a verse to mediate on throughout the day.
3) Spend time in prayer
4) Pray for Caroline
5) Exercise
6) Drink water
7) Journal
8) Eat breakfast.

There are times that I think that any kind of routine or habit will be completely abandoned in three days, never to be seen again.  But it's been eight days, and I'm still doing my "Eight Things" every morning.  If that doesn't sound like a lot, the exchange rate for "Stephen keeping up with something" to "anyone else keeping up with something" is about 4 to 1, so I'm on fire!

I've been able to repeat this each day, because I think to myself, "treat today like it's the blueprint you want every other day to be based on."  You only live one day at a time anyway, so this is a perfect model.  What kind of habits do you want to form in your life?  What are you going to do today to achieve that habit?  That is the only question that really matters - what are you going to do today?  Yesterday is as far away from you as the beginning of time - and when tomorrow gets here, it turns out, it's just today.  So what habit, today, are you going to form?  Ask yourself that question every morning.

Dualism

I think we think of God in dualistic terms without even realizing it, and this is a great disservice to His greatness.

Dualism is basically the two sides to a coin.  When asked about opposites, a conversation might go something like this:

-What is the opposite of black?  - White.
-What is the opposite of good?  - Bad.
-What is the opposite of left?  - Right.
-What is the opposite of up?  - Down.
-What is the opposite of God?  -Satan.

The problem with this is not that they are opposites, but that these are all considered equal opposites.  Jeremiah 10:6 says "No one is like you Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power."  All Satan ever wanted was to be like God, to be on equal footing with Him.  We too often believe the lie that Satan is God's equal opposite, when in fact, there is none like God, good or bad.

In fact, Satan's equal opposite is more likely to be Michael, an archangel.  We are doing God a great disservice when we buy into the dualistic idea that God's opposite is Satan.  There is no God like our God.

Something Fantastic and Trivial

Did you know, that if you took those old root ends of green onions, put them in a cup of water, they would grow again?  They do.  The tallest one has been in there about a week and a half.

Here is why I think that is amazing.

We chopped it up, used the green onion to season rice, and plopped the root ends into water.  This plant took air, sunlight, and water and has transformed those three things back into an onion!  Anyone who farms or gardens is probably rolling their eyes at this point, wondering what the big deal is.  Here's the big deal: this thing is sitting there, calmly and fantastically recreating itself.  It knows it's an onion, and it knows that given the simple conditions of water, air, and sun, it can clone itself just so your rice can be seasoned again.

This thing sits in dirt, and it has done something that I couldn't imagine doing in all of history.  Imagine amputees sticking their severed limbs in a bucket of water, sitting in the sun, calmly growing their limbs back? 

I almost think that this is a more pure form of "renewable energy" that everyone clamors about.  Maybe if we payed more attention to the renewable energy source that has been sustaining us all these years, rather than finding a renewable energy source that can sustain our rapidly growing technological obsessions, we would find what we're looking for.  

Quixotic

One of my favorite words lately is the word "Quixotic" - a word which took on it's meaning from the fictional character Don Quixote, who attacked windmills thinking them to be giants (or were they actually giants, pretending to be windmills?).  The word has come to mean overly idealistic, unrealistic, and impractical, but I love it.

Comedian George Carlin said "Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist."  I think that we all started out as idealist in the beginning - we wanted to believe and to trust, to go on a quest for something worth fighting for.  But over time, we grew up.  We found out that there are a great number of things which are not ideal, and to be ideal is to be foolish - childish.  This may be why so many people admire an idealist, but so few people want to be one.  We are inspired by movies like Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, or 300, because characters like that firmly believe that one person can change the world.  We admire their faith, but have seen too much of the world to believe that it's possible.

Maybe growing up is bad for us.  C. S. Lewis, author and theologian, said "When I became a man I put away childish things - including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

Don Quixote may have been insane - but I will take one ounce of that kind of insanity over all the saneness I've ever seen in this world.  Can one person change the world?  As long as your answer is "no" I guarantee you'll be right.  I challenge you to be just a bit more quixotic - have a bit more faith that your actions can have a real impact on the world around you.  Throw your hope in the face of reason and see what happens.  If you fail, you might look foolish - but if you succeed, you might change the world.  I'd take that bet.

"To dream the impossible dream.
To fight the unbeatable foe.
To bear with unbearable sorrow.
To run where the brave dare not go.
To right the unrightable wrong.
To love pure and chaste from afar.
To try when your arms are too weary.
To reach the unreachable star.

This is my quest, to follow that star.
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far. 
To fight for the right, without question or pause.
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause.

And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest, 
That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm, 
when I'm laid to my rest.
And the world will be better for this: 
That one man, scorned and covered with scars, 
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage, 
To reach the unreachable star."

"Impossible Dream" - The Man of La Mancha

Insignificant People

I realized something today - I have never, in all my time living, met an insignificant person.

I was at a gathering tonight, and my dear friend David said, in a prayer, that God saw fit to have this exact person living at this exact time in history.

Think about this for a second.  If every person living were placed in this time in history - not two hundred years in the past - not two hundred years in the future - this exact generation and this exact person, then every person you've ever met has great significance!  God "saw fit" - thought it proper - to create this person, with their particular issues and voice and height and weight, and caused the infinitely complex universe to cross your paths.  This makes the seemingly causeless universe be injected with galaxies worth of purpose and planning.

Science, I dare you to find answers to every mystery this world contains - but you will never begin to fathom the depth of purpose and intentionality that any given person contains within their lives.  God saw fit to make it so - therefore no one is purposeless, and no one is insignificant.

The Problem with Job Hunting

It's not that there aren't jobs.  It's just that there are so many jobs for people with far different skills than you have who have been practicing those skills for far longer.

As I look over sites like Monster and Indeed, I see postings for people with no skills, and postings for people with a great deal of skills - but very few for people with the ability to acquire skills.  Perhaps this quality - and I call it a quality because I find that second only to "curiosity," it is an essential part of a great person - is difficult to prove.  One's aptitude to figure out new things quickly and to rise to the challenges of any job is not a quantitative skill, and so, on paper, it appears that your only worth lies in the skills you have already acquired.

What jobs did you work in college?  If you worked at all, you probably did not work in a field you want to see yourself in ten years down the road.  Personally, I made it through college by waiting tables at Olive Garden.  This is because, when I started college, I was not qualified to be a full-time writer, editor, teacher, or professional of any kind.  But now that I've finished school, it seems potential employers only care about the work I have already done - not the work I am now capable of doing.

But it seems that by working for car dealerships at just above minimum wage and waiting tables to pay for school has only qualified me to continue doing what I did to get qualified to do something else.

But I will keep hunting - and hunting is the right word, because the animal known as "dream job" is an elusive and shy creature.  

Relational Equity

To all of my readers (I think we're up to four now, if you count my parents) who noticed that I haven't been writing on this blog in about two months, rest assured, I am still here.  It hasn't exactly been a hiatus though - between preparing for and actually going to Indonesia this summer, the only thing I've had time to write is job applications.  Though if you are interested in our international travel, feel free to browse the blog I maintained while overseas.  

There is an idea that I've heard a few different ways that I'd like to write about today.  I think it originated from Stephen Covey's book Seven Habits for Highly Effective People.  It's the concept of relational equity, or the emotional bank account.  It goes something like this: every relationship you have is kind of like a bank account - sometimes you put things that give it a positive balance and build a strong account, sometimes you make withdrawals, which can leave it with a negative balance.  Understanding the relationships you are in, and how your "account" is with that person, is highly important - especially in a work environment or in any kind of counseling.  

The account, though, is meant to be used for something good - right?  Money does not exist simply to have it - we are meant to use money in a responsible way.  I've had a couple friendships at work that seemed like the account kept building and building, but I never "cashed in" on that balance or made a withdrawal.  

In Matthew 25, an example is given of business owner who goes away on a long trip.  "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.  To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey."  In the end, the man who was given five bags invested it and got more, and the man who was given two bags did the same.  But the man who was given one bag buried it in the ground and gave back the same amount when his boss returned.

We have things, even if those things are the invisible influence or relational equity with other people, for a reason: to invest it well.  If someone looks up to me, I have a responsibility to that person to leverage the relationship for some kind of good.

Look around you at who you have influence over.  What if you were given that influence so that you can speak truth into their lives that they wouldn't hear from anyone else?  Look around you at who you have a negative balance with - what can you do to build that account balance?