From the Mind of MandoRon

My wife has been encouraging me to read Crazy Love by Francis Chan for a few months now.  (You can interpret that as nagging if you want to…)  This week’s business trip to Florida seemed like a good time to start, so I began reading it a few days ago.

[Note:  For full disclosure, I am sitting on the sun deck at my hotel overlooking a jellyfish-strewn Cocoa Beach.  This isn't really relevant; I'm just rubbing it in.]

As I was reading Chapter 2 over breakfast this morning, I started thinking about some of my motivations and selfishness.  Francis Chan uses several funerals as examples in the chapter.  I don’t know about you, but I like funerals where you hear about the people who were touched by the recently deceased.

I’ve often thought that I wanted my funeral to be like that.  I want there to be many stories about the people that I touched or helped or motivated.

Am I not an incredible person for wanting to help people and have an impact on their lives?  I’ve even been reading about servant leadeship on this trip! 

But this morning got me thinking about my motives.  I think my motives have been rather selfish to date.

We are called to help others.  Not to be known for helping others.  Do you see the difference?  It’s all about who gets the fame and glory.  Is it you (or me)?  Or God?

Our calling is to help others in order to bring glory to God.  Period.  End of discussion.

Am I only the one who has struggled with this?  Feel free to weigh in with a comment.

My wife recently bought me a Stephen Covey “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” daily calendar.  While it’s not quite as cool as last year’s Fender Custom Shop calendar, it does have some great nuggets of wisdom.

Tuesday, in particular, caught my attention:

“Our level of development is fairly obvious with tennis or piano playing, where it is impossible to pretend.  But it is not so obvious in the areas of character and emotional development.”

Profound!

As I have been interviewing people for several positions at work, it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot.  It’s so hard to ascertain character in a 60-minute interview.  You never know when someone is faking it…

A 60-day probationary period sure would be nice sometimes.  Although, we’d probably end up using it as a crutch and not be discerning enough before hiring…

For the last 2 weeks, I’ve been reading the Life Application Study Bible Devotion on YouVersion.com.  Yesterday’s devotion (referring to Exodus 17:2) really hit home:

“The people complained about their problems instead of praying. Some problems can be solved by careful thought or by rearranging our priorities. Some can be solved by discussion and good counsel. But some problems can be solved only by prayer. We should make a determined effort to pray when we feel like complaining because complaining only raises our level of stress. Prayer quiets our thoughts and emotions, and prepares us to listen.”

I don’t know about you, but I seem to default to solving my problems through careful thought and discussion (read as complaining…).

I found out 2 weeks ago that my cheese is being moved.  I learned that there are some changes coming with my new job.  (Change is a great thing; except when it happens to you…)  My job doesn’t appear to be jeopardy, but I’m not exactly sure what my role is going to be either.

So I’ve been trying to think through all the possible outcomes, and the pros and cons of those outcomes.  But here’s the deal, it probably won’t do me a lick of good.  In fact, it will probably just stress me out.

Yesterday’s reading was a good reminder for me to put my trust in the Lord and let Him take care of things.  After all, I’m just along for the ride.

As I was leaving Quik Trip with my coffee this morning, I noticed a Toyota parked next to me with the engine running and nobody home.  It got me thinking about some of the things that leave me bewildered.

Here’s a partial list:

• Why do people leave their car running unattended outside of convenience stores? 
• Why can’t  I eat whatever I want and lose weight?
• Why doesn’t the rest of the world operate on my schedule?
• Why would anyone would cheer for OU?
• Why are people so mean to each other?
• Furthermore, why do people try to get ahead by destroying other people?

So what are some of things that cause you to scratch your head?  (Figuratively.  Not literally.  We’re not talking about head lice people…)

My friend @mechem retweeted a link to an interesting NY Times project called Mapping America: Every City, Every Block.  I’d recommend checking it out.

You can type in your city or zip code, and then check out census data overlaid on a Google map.  The initial map is racial/ethnic distribution, but be sure to click on “View More Maps” to see education levels, household income, and a few other things.

It’s a good way to kill some time.