When Life Outside Of You Happens

"With so much drama in LBC it's kinda hard being Snoop D-O-Double G," Snoop Dogg proclaimed once.  It is a telling statement of how the world around us has an affect on our lives. 


Think about it:  there are things that we know that we can control, mainly our personal responsibilities such as our health, money management, or time spent on personal relationships.  But, there are things that we cannot control in which we have to manage, like the weather, traffic jams, or Russell Wilson throwing an ill-fated interception in the Super Bowl.


The things we can control, we probably strive, or at least hope to strive at bettering those things.  The things we cannot control, we wish we could bend them to our will, it is human nature right?  Those are just minor things.


A question I want to bring forth to all of us is, what happens when are directly confronted by things beyond our control?  What is our responsibility then?  Although I live in Georgia, when 9/11 happened, the way I would travel in the future, my perspective on Islam, the way I looked at my role as a Christian was directly impacted.


So what does it mean when our life gets interrupted by a major event?  If you allow me to go to the Bible on this, Isaiah 6:1-8 gives us some perspective.  "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple....Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”  And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 

It would seem as if when things are outside of our control impact our lives, it is a way of God calling us to action.  It is our knock at midnight if you will.  And I know we get this feeling of helplessness with starving families in other countries but there are schools and community centers closing nearby and maybe there is something we should do for those kids.

Maybe there is a family on our block having a rough go at it and they could use groceries for a week.  Maybe there is a coworker who needs to carpool with us or they might lose their job if their late one more time.  Or there could be a married couple that needs a babysitter so they can go on a date because they have been on the rocks for a bit.

There will always be things beyond our control.  But when we are faced with things that we cannot control, will we step up and answer the call.  We all have a choice, so we should choose wisely, and we should choose with love.

Stat Sheet Stuffer

I was talking to a close friend of mine recently about accomplishments in life.  As we have gotten older, we started to think on what we have achieved and what we have not done given our opportunities and abilities. One of the things she pointed out to me though, is that she does not want a life of just accomplishing a lot of stuff.  For her, having a lot of stuff accomplished is just as bad as doing nothing at all.

A thought:  doing a lot f stuff.

Of course, me being a modern American man, I referenced sports to frame the conversation and what came to mind is a stat sheet stuffer.  Now a stat sheet stuffer is a player that has the ability to put up impressive statistical numbers in a lot of categories in a game, i.e. a triple-double, hat-trick, hitting for the cycle, etc. Stuffing the stat sheet is an indicator that the player is highly skilled in all areas of the game and, for lack of better term, can put up video game like numbers.  That type of skill level and performance would understandably draw a lot of media attention and cause the fans to say the player is good.

But, as one of my favorite sports analyst Skip Bayless would point out, stuffing the stat sheet does not mean it will win a championship.  Having the ability to fill up all the numbers in the box score becomes fruitless if the end result is still a loss.  And while most players universally would love to have the great stats and the win, if they had to choice, they would rather have the win over scoring a gazillion points.

Which brings me to this:  in our society today, we have come to measure accomplishing a lot by doing a lot. Think about it, we have awards and give out cookies for the smallest things.  As working adults, we stuff our resume with tons of experience that we may not even remember.  Whenever we go out on dates, we stuff our dates with all of our good qualities.  We just pile on and pile on the things that we do and while it all seems impressive, nothing is really gained from them.  In Matthew 7: 15-23, Christ talks about knowing men by their fruits and highlighting that just because people appear to do a lot of good things (stuffing the stat sheet or trying to win points with God), does not mean much.  The reason why doing all of those things are meaningless in God's eyes is because they are meant to glorify ourselves and not Him.

So lets change our mindset:  the mindset of wanting to do a lot of stuff  to the mindset of doing things and living a life that is meaningful.  Living a meaningful life may not always to be glamorous or come with a lot of accolades but it does come with touching a lot of people's lives and pleasing to God.  So lets not stuff the stat sheet, lets win the game.