Like a Mule

I have a shocking, public confession to make: I can be stubborn. This probably isn't a new revelation for anyone close to me, but it's something I need to admit. It's not even new information for me as I've known this about myself for most of my life. While it can sometimes be a positive trait as I push forward through adversity, it can also have a negative impact.

I hurt my knee running in a 5K just over three weeks ago. My hamstring had been tight during the week leading up the race, but I felt I could power through it and then take some time off. I was really insistent on placing in the top three in my age group and felt I could make it happen. While I did get the medal I was looking for, I paid the price with a still-lingering injury. My stubborn nature (which pushed me to run when I probably shouldn't have) caused longer lasting effects than I anticipated.

How often is stubbornness an issue in other areas of life for all of us? We can see it in our unwise financial choices, the need to be right to the detriment of our relationships, having to get the last word in and causing irreparable damage, striving to be the funniest person in the room and belittling others, or simply running down unwise paths in pursuit of self-gratification. Sadly, we'll discover our stubborn nature has longer lasting effects than we intended and doesn't only inflict personal damage, but hurts those around us as well.

Waste Management

Yesterday I wrote about the things that take up our time that might be misconstrued as time wasters even though they are beneficial (read that here.) Today we want to look at those things that actually drain energy from us. These might indicate ways that we squander our time and influence without realizing what we are doing.

We waste time when we:

• Allow forgiven sin to continue to cause us shame. When we genuinely confess sin to God and seek His forgiveness, we have to leave that in our past. God has cleared the slate and we only damage ourselves when we continue to stay sorrowful once we are forgiven.
  
• Make the same repeated mistakes without learning from them. We are all imperfect and will stumble in our thoughts, words, and actions. When we continue to do the same foolish things we are proving our own stubbornness and causing tremendous damage to ourselves and those close to us.
  
• Ignore opportunities to share Christ with people around us. God is constantly placing people in our path (divine appointments) and we can choose to ignore these moments due to lack of recognition, fear of rejection, or apathy. This is wasting our personal story and a chance to change someone's life for eternity.
  
• Fill our schedules with busyness that has no eternal impact. We can inflate our own ego by having a personal agenda that keeps us constantly moving but never influences the Kingdom. We waste tremendous time when we are consumed with creating a persona that has the appearance of impact, but really only satisfies our ego and deep need to feel valued.
  
• Fail to see the value in our loved ones. We have a limited number of conversations, times of investment, and experiences with the people we love. We can choose to use each one wisely or allow our emotional state to short circuit these by either causing negative impact or having zero influence at all.
  
• Put off what God is calling us to be part of. God will work through our choices and even our inaction, but we often fail to realize the significance of each day's opportunity to mature and develo our faith. 

We can work to eliminate the obvious small-impact time wasters in our life, but are we willing to tackle the difficult areas?

Fast as Lightning

We have had a stormier-than-usual summer here in Georgia. There has been a tremendous amount of rainfall and it is usually accompanied by gusting wind, peals of thunder, and brilliant flashes of lightning. We had a storm roll through earlier this week that was very threatening and didn't give us a great deal of warning. In one swift moment, we were blinded by a bolt of lightning as the thunder sounded simultaneously with the sizzle of electricity. The boom shook the house, immediately

knocked out our power, and fried our modem and router. It must have hit a transformer nearby as I found a piece of burned ceramic in our driveway after the storm (see picture on right.) Even though we felt like this came out of nowhere we realized that the storm had been building for some time before descending upon us.

It's no different from many of the devastating moments in our life. It seems like it hits us all out once & out of nowhere, but this release point has been building pressure over time. Moments of infidelity are forged out of careless thoughts, wandering eyes, and ignoring boundaries. Financial ruin is shaped by overspending, selfish purchases, and a lack of planning. The pain and aftermath of suicide is built through ignored depression, unwillingness to ask tough questions, and lack of compassion. The damage from each of these is as devastating as a lightning strike.

The best way to avoid the repercussions is to actively work in prevention mode before the storm hits your horizon. Don't get caught resting and falsely believe you're immune, but make the daily, disciplined decisions to prevent destruction before it happens.