Trusting our Father

“Have courage for the great sorrows of life
and patience for the small ones.
And when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task,
go to sleep in peace. God is awake.”
- Victor Hugo

Arrogance & discord go hand-in-hand

“Arrogant know-it-all’s stir up discord, but wise men and women listen to each other’s counsel.” – Proverbs 13:10 (The Message)

Prayer

“Masking irresponsibility with prayer makes one an irresponsible person who prays.” – Andy Stanley

Get it done!

I’m a connoisseur of quotations. I can get more mileage, more inspiration, more motivation, and more insight from a pithy sentence than from most entire books.

I am also a perfectionist. Though there was a day I would have written that sentence with pride, these days my perfectionism is more like a disease for which I am in constant search of a cure.

I happened across three quotes the past week or so that the Lord has used to give me the proverbial kick in the rear as it regards getting stuff done.

“A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” – Gen. George S. Patton

“He that is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else.” -Ben Franklin

Voltaire wrote “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien,” frequently translated as “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” However, I like Ken Flowers’ variation on Voltaire’s theme, “Perfect is the enemy of done.”

This week, thanks to Julie Morgenstern’s book Never Check Email in the Morning, as well as a group of guys who meet with me every Tuesday morning at 6:45 to sharpen each other and drink coffee, before 10am and before I’ve checked email I’ve tried to do the one thing that absolutely must get done that day.

This is more painful than a root canal for a perfectionist. But three of the last four days I’ve done it. I’ve taken my multiple to-do lists and paired off a single item and just got it done before 10am and before I opened my BlackBerry, Outlook, etc.

So my motto this week has been, “Get it done!” And I’m doing it; not perfectly but I’m getting it done.

The ‘81 McDonald’s Day Massacre

When my wife and I were dating – well, actually we weren’t yet dating as I was in the process of trying to make that become reality but it wasn’t at that time yet reality – we would often swing by McDonald’s for lunch or dinner.

And, no, I wasn’t cheap, we just liked McDonald’s.

Those of you who are married remember what it’s like to just want to be helpful to the one you’re wooing. Of course you had ulterior motives, but for the most part your helpfulness was genuine.

Back to McDonald’s and my hopefully-soon-to-be-girlfriend. I remain convinced to this day that one reason she liked to go to McDonald’s was because of the ketchup. She, along with the rest of her family, absolutely loved ketchup. Per capita, they consume more ketchup than any other family in the country. They consume more ketchup than some small states.

So one of the ways I tried to show my genuine helpfulness was by opening a dozen plus ketchup packets for her during the pre-eating part of our meal; that time when straws are inserted, wrappers are unwrapped, and napkins distributed.

Grabbing half a dozen ketchup packets, I would line them up in between forefinger and thumb and shake the ketchup to one end of the packets with vigorous movement. I would then open all six packets simultaneously and squirt the ketchup onto her burger wrapper.

This had been our unspoken understood ritual for a year or longer. Because, remember, I’m trying my best to be helpful.

But for some reason known only to God and her, that day I failed to notice she had already opened each ketchup packet and without squirting the ketchup onto her burger wrapper had laid them onto her tray one on top of the other.

In my rush, for I was not only trying to be helpful I was also extremely hungry, I grabbed said ketchup packets and began my vigorous shakedown.

If you’re a “24” fan, no doubt you’ve watched Jack Bauer clean house with a machine gun. Now imagine a ten second slow motion clip of me in place of Bauer and ketchup packets in place of a machine gun and you will get a picture of the McDonald’s Day Massacre of 1981.

I can attest that six ketchup packets, shaken simultaneously with vigor, can coat the insides of an entire McDonald’s restaurant – tables, booths, floor, ceiling, customers, manager, and hopefully-soon-to-be-but-probably-not-in-this-lifetime-girlfriend.

Ketchup literally went everywhere in slow motion machine gun staccato fashion. Dining room attendants hurled mops, mothers pushed young children under tables, and grown men screamed like little girls.

Fortunately, some tragedies have happy endings. My hopefully-soon-to-be-but-probably-not-in-this-lifetime-girlfriend actually became my girlfriend, then fiancé, and finally wife, testament that it really does pay to be helpful and nice guys don’t always finish last.

However, to this day my wife doesn’t eat at McDonald’s and I’m not allowed to touch ketchup, especially in packets.

Free Book – Book Review

Free seems to be the new buzzword of the decade – free samples at mega-marts, free online music from Indie artists, free initiation at the country club.

For decades the reigning logic has been that people appreciate something only to the degree that it costs them something. But it seems the tide has turned on this once common sense. Free is now good, free produces a following, free builds trust.

While Brian Tome’s newest book, Free Book, is about our freedom in Christ, he still plays off the new free. The asterisk following the title directs one to the bottom cover which reads, “*Nope, sorry. Not that kind of free.” Good marketing.

However, does Free Book actually convince of the other kind of free – freedom in Christ, freedom from bondage, freedom to be you, freedom to be like Christ?

Yes and no. I think Tome does an adequate job making the case for living freely in Christ. However, I think he at once goes overboard in painting a picture of freedom that comes close to “anything goes” while at the same time attempting to make his case from biblical examples. Biblical examples notwithstanding, at times it seemed much was being interpreted through culture rather than vice versa.

Conclusion? I enjoyed the book but not as much as I was hoping I would. I appreciated the challenge but at times felt it forced. I embraced his authenticity but felt like he has an axe to grind.

I closed the cover wondering that if Jesus were to read this book, would he smile, cringe, correct, or distribute? If the latter, I hope it would be free.

Some cool cars I’ve seen recently

a text poem

i don’t want to wait until tomorrow to tell
u how i feel & i only have 162 characters
so meet me at that coffee shop u know
the one because i want to tell u i lov
__________

“a text” © Mike Gothard, 2010

SNOW – January 30, 2010

This is your brain – Part 2

(Continued from yesterday)

Our brains never completely turn off or even rest throughout our entire lives, unless you have to speak on a stage in front of people.

However, in spite of the amazing capacity and function of the brain, I still find myself on occasion echoing the words of Curly from Three Stooges fame, “I’m trying to think but nothin’ happens.”

The Apostle Paul writes in Philippians, “You’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things that are true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.”

Paul makes a big deal about what you and I put into our minds because what we fill our minds with will ultimately determine who we become and the kind of life we live.

Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as a person thinks within himself, so he is.” King Solomon warns in Proverbs 4:23, “Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the source of true life.”

The events your attend, the materials you read or don’t read, the music you hear, the images you watch, the language you use, the conversations you have, the daydreams you entertain – all of these things are shaping your feelings and your thoughts and are ultimately shaping your actions, your character, and your future.

Be careful because what goes in will eventually come out.