Encouragment part II

Can 5 minutes make a difference? Definitely! Well, at least for me they can. They made a huge difference for me today and my guess is they might for someone else as well. Five, ten or even thirty minutes really isn't that big of a deal. You might miss a T.V. show that you can DVR or you might have to get up a little earlier or stay up a little later or give up a little bit of your downtime (seemingly non-existent if you have little ones), but man, can that time be used to invest in someone else's life. You might not call it an investment when you do it and you might not even know the impact it has, but to quote a friend of mine "it was really good for my soul" today because a friend took some of his valuable time (and he is super busy like all of us) to encourage me. And I really needed that today.

Lane took the time to hang with me a couple times today. To listen to me (a rare commodity), to challenge me (it is the loving thing to do), to laugh some with me (another important quality that is often over-looked) and to talk about life. I love conversations like that. Then he blew me away this afternoon by giving me some more encouragement. Words that affirm who am I and let me know that it matters. Encouragement that will continue to impact me for a long time.

See that is the thing with encouragement. It doesn't take a lot of time, but it does take being intentional. It means taking the focus off of myself for a little while and using that time to build someone else up. See I spend the vast majority of the day focused on me, but when I take that time to instead to pour into someone else, my time is way better spent.

So look around you. Who do you need to encourage? Who could benefit from you investing a few minutes of your day in them? It won't cost you much, maybe a little time, but it can make a huge difference in their life. What are you waiting for?

The little things

How do you handle the tough things in life - the hard decisions to make, the difficult conversations to have, admitting you are wrong and asking for forgiveness, dealing with the consequences? I think these are the things that define who we are. These are the types of situations you can't fake with a smile and pretend everything is okay. These define your character and integrity. The good times are fun and they reveal parts of who we are, but the difficult shows the cracks. When you apply pressure or stress to an object it will reveal where the defects are at. Same with us. The tough situations will reveal who you are.

The question is when these situations occur, and they will, how are you going to handle them? Are you willing to let others see your faults and help you or do you "man up" and tackle it on your own? The pressure will come and others are watching how you respond. We think a lot of the time we live in a vacuum and our choices don't impact others, but the reality is that our choices are influencing others. They see the real character and integrity of who we are or where we are lacking in those. The small choices we make each day lead us to how we will handle the tough ones. Compromise your character and choices in the small things and when the stress is there the cracks will only grow larger. So maybe the better question is how are you going to handle the small things in life? What does your actions today say about your character and integrity? Character and integrity are built one choice at a time and it only takes a little compromise to cause a dangerous crack in the foundation.

Worthy pursuit

Is it worth pursuing? I wonder if we ask that question quite frequently without knowing it. Is it worth the effort that it will require? Or will I just sit back and see what comes along?

I often talk on this blog about pursuing Jesus. See to me pursuing something means I am determined to do my best in that pursuit. It is a choice I make to whole-heartedly chase after something. I chose to pursue my wife when we were dating. To put my best effort forward. (Hopefully, I continue to show that same kind of pursuit even though we have been married for quite awhile now.) It isn't something you would do with a weak, half-hearted attempt. A pursuit implies that it matters deeply to you and something you are willing to sacrifice for.

What are you willing to pursue? A lot of the times we give lip service to pursuing things. We know something is important and we talk about pursuing it, but are we willing to sacrifice for it? Talking about doing something isn't the same as doing it. Pretty simple huh? But still we often do that. We talk about what we are going to do, but then we never get around to actually doing it.

Complacency is the easy answer. It doesn't require me to do anything. It is the opposite of pursuing something. Sometimes I think we get to spot in our pursuit where we stop to rest and forget to start pursuing again. We become complacent and comfortable where we are at. We take things for granted. We feel we are entitled. We have stopped pursuing.

So what is important enough for you to pursue? What are you willing to sacrifice for? Jesus? Community? Your family? Your career? Friendships? Are you actively chasing those things? Are you making any sacrifices? Or are you complacent? What is worth pursuing?

Good enough?

Am I good enough? Do you ever ask this question? Do you ever struggle with the need to be constantly improving? I don't want to be just average. I don't want to settle for just okay. Am I a good husband? Am I good dad? Am I good friend? Am I good employee? Am I a good leader? Am I good sponsor? What do I need to do to be better? It is a never ending process. I don't think it is wrong to want to be better, but...

Sometimes that means I miss the moment. I miss the chance to celebrate the good that is happening right now. If I am always looking to the future then I can forget to enjoy the present. It is kind of like being on vacation and being so busy planning your next trip you don't take the time to enjoy the one you are on. It isn't bad to be planning ahead but we can miss some of the fun and incredible moments happening right now. I can look so far down the road that I miss the chance to enjoy the good.

Also the same applies to God. I work hard at trying to be better. I try to earn His love. If I read my bible every morning, if I pray often enough, if I... but I can't be good enough on my own. I will fail. I won't measure up. I will sin. I am so busy trying to be good enough that I forget to enjoy the moment. I miss the chance to hear Him say he loves me just because. Just because He created me. Just because He wants to spend time with me. It isn't based on what I can do or how good I can become. It is simply because of who He is. Trying to be better and improve myself isn't wrong, but I don't want to miss the great because I am busy trying to be good enough.

Sometimes I need to hear someone answer the question "Am I good enough?" Hear someone say that it matters that I am part of their life. That it does make a difference. Sometimes I need that encouragement, but I don't ever want to get so busy trying to be good enough that I forget the simple fact that am I loved just as I am right now. How much I am loved isn't based on how well I perform. I am good enough because He is perfect.

Random thoughts from the last 24 hours

It is interesting to me how many random things catch my attention. They may only hold my attention for a minute, but they still capture it for a little while. So here are some of the random things that have held my thoughts captive over the last 24 hours. (Some of them I will continue to dwell on for quite awhile, while others of them will be quickly forgotten shortly after writing them.)

• Saw that the Al and Tipper Gore are getting divorced after 40 years of marriage. Really? This is sad to me. Sad that you could love someone for that long and then be willing to give up on that. Don't know anything about their marriage (obviously), but isn't it worth fighting for? On a brighter side, I'm going to St. Louis this week to celebrate the fact that my parents will have been married 50 years later this year. I feel incredibly blessed to have their example of what a loving marriage looks like in my life.
• Noticed a "slippery when wet" sign this morning as I came into the building. I pass it every morning on my way in, but I just now noticed it. (Not bad. It only took about 2 years to notice it.) Do we really need to tell someone that if something is wet that it will probably be slippery as well? Isn't this common knowledge? Do we really need signs for obvious things? Maybe I give too much credit to people on what should be common sense. I really don't think common sense is really all that common. (Also laughed at this sign for other reasons, but I won't bring that up.)
• Being teachable is an important quality that doesn't get enough recognition. Hard quality to come by as a lot of people think they have it all figured out. (Funny how you can have it figured out and the person who disagrees with you can also have it figured out. Someone must be wrong.) Teachable means you are humble enough to know that there are things that you can still learn whether you are 14 or 72. I don't think you can be too humble. I dare you to try? (Which by the way, humility can't be faked. Maybe for a little while, but it is a characteristic of who you are or it isn't.)
• Felt kind of quiet last night for no particular reason. I appreciated the friend who asked me (a couple of times actually) if something was wrong. There wasn't, but I noticed I felt more joy when I was able to start focusing on someone else. Sometimes serving and focusing on others may be the best cure for our problems. It takes the spotlight off of ourselves and lets us love others. We are really good at loving ourselves, but we can always use the practice at loving others.
• Don't watch much TV or very consistently for that matter, but if I was to pick a character that I relate to the most it would be Jim from "The Office". I love when a comment is made and he gives that look to the camera. That look that says "Did you get what they just said?" I experience that frequently. It is best when it can be shared with someone else who gets it. Nothing more frustrating that having one of those comments made and no one to share it with. Love that my wife has been corrupted by me (her words) and catches those most of the time and that some of my good friends also operate on the same immature level as me. Makes live more interesting and fun. (Also like the character that he played in the movie "It's Complicated")

Hope you notice some random things that make you laugh today. Look around because they are there. Also hope you have some thoughts that make you did a little deeper as well. Good balance of both of these are good. Enjoy your Wednesday!