Wednesday - "Hump Day"

I’m feeling a little preachy today, so here are some admonitions for all my blog readers.

We typically call Wednesday “hump day” because we’ve made it to the middle of the workweek and to signal that we are closing in on getting over the hump. I guess we need these little sayings to help us make it. For the most part we believe we live very complicated lives. Typically we are mostly on the run and when we are not, we think something must be wrong. One of my Paw Paw Mac’s favorite jokes was about a Cajun fellow. He said someone came running up to this fellow and yelled at him and said, “Boudreaux, Boudreaux, your house is on fire!” This fellow jumped up and started running as fast as he could. After running for half a mile and nearly collapsing, he began to slow down and he thought to himself, “Wait a minute, my name’s not Boudreaux, and I don’t even own a house!”

Perhaps this little joke has much to say about why we often find ourselves on the run. We do it because we think that’s what we are supposed to be doing. Making this schedule here, and taking care of that over there, and showing up because I really need to be involved. At times these choices are made as compromises but we really take little time to evaluate those that are most important, especially long term. I well remember my life on a treadmill of my own making. It was not that I didn’t always have stuff that I could be doing, it was the fact that I became a captive to seventy and eighty hour workweeks, and it always seemed to be the thing I had to be doing. People called me a workaholic but I actually believe it to have been self-imposed poor management, reflecting a distortion in priorities.

It’s clear now that it wasn’t what I had to be doing all the time, and of course I found that out, unfortunately, later, not sooner. When I left the big company after nearly twenty-four years, there was exactly zero mentioned about the dozens of missed holidays, vacations, and other important events where I was at my desk. I have no regrets about the hard work I put in, but surely there could have been more balance. I missed some very important things while keeping my place on that treadmill. The point is this. Sure, there will be times whenever we all are overbooked and must burn the candle at both ends. But, I beg you to not allow that to become the routine, but rather spend as much time working to fit in the most important things.

The Bible tells us that this life is like a wisp of smoke, a vapor. It is fleeting. We have 24 hours a day and we have choices to make. Let’s put God, family, and serving others first, and then be willing to faithfully give ourselves to the other things we need to do. More Later.