It is
Monday, August 15, 2011, and I could tell by the huge numbers illuminated on that clock on my nightstand, that it was time to get up, get ready, and go. I am an early person. I am known for being an early person. Guess what I have learned about being an early person? It doesn't really mean much. In fact, you can take your early person status and about $3 and get a small, and I do mean small, cup of coffee. It's easy for us to assign some type of superiority to almost anything associated with how we choose to do things, but again, that's about as foolish as it gets. I know some folks over in Louisiana who used to be the most die hard Dallas Cowboys fans imaginable. They operated their goings and comings around the Cowboys football schedule. The Cowboys, after all, were America's team. They were at times almost obnoxious because of this infatuation with a Dallas team. The Cowboys began to falter some and the New Orleans Saints began to become a factor and eventually became champion. Now these same folks are by the Saints like they had previously been by the Cowboys and perhaps even more so, if that's possible. Guess what? I can't see how their choice of teams has really made any contribution to anything other than some of the dollars they have spent on team garb, but it does show just how fickle we really are. All those years the Saints struggled as a home state team with no love from those devoted to the Cowboys. Since becoming a winning franchise they now have this unprecedented support and following, even devotion, from folks who once wouldn't even talk about them. See what I mean? We are some really messed up folks. Don't you agree?
That's only one example and if we are true to form, you and I will probably do something silly at some point and time in our schedule for today. This means we shouldn't take ourselves serious to the extent that we fail to recognize that we too carry some quirks of our own, even though we may not recognize them the way others do. I didn't say we shouldn't be serious about life and the living of it, but as it relates to ourselves, we need to do our best to see it for what it is, and to laugh along with others who also see what's really going on. I remember once when I was with the big company there had been a change at the top of our food chain, senior level management. The new group vice president decided to interview all the senior managers in the organization. Everyone was nervous and intimidated since the scuttlebutt said he was going to shake things up. My turn came. I was responsible for delivering computing and telecommunication services throughout the corporation. He quizzed me about my approach. He then asked me a very silly question. It made no sense but he seemed very serious. What was I to do? When in doubt always tell the truth. That's what Paw Paw Mac would have advised and that's what God expected as well. I essentially told him as politely as I knew how that his question was foolish. Later I heard through the grapevine that he decided I was good for the organization because I was the only one who stood up to him. How do you like that? By the way, he was serious in the question that he asked me, but it was still a silly question. That same dude later signed off on my promotion as a department head and I am thankful that on occasion I've remembered some of that which was poured into me from those who taught me that honesty is always the best policy.
That fellow was very well educated and highly touted as a polished professional. But he was still capable of asking a really dumb question. How is that possible? The same way it is possible for you and I, that's how. No one likes to be embarrassed but the older you get it is the more you realize that some of the stuff you thought to be embarrassing was really just being human, just being silly, and mostly it wasn't that big of a deal. Oh, I know, that at the time it may have seemed to be a big deal and I've worked with folks who could not even tolerate the thought of them not having it all figured out every moment of the day. Guess what? They didn't and their efforts to convince others that they did, well, that turned out to be pretty funny. We really do need some big picture thinking here. You might be surprised to learn that I flipped off the platform at our local fellowship while teaching my class. That was embarrassing and scary. But once everyone learned that I wasn't seriously injured I regained my footing and continued my teaching, only later to learn that I would need surgery for a busted knee. I didn't say silliness didn't have consequences but it is common to us all, 100%. God used even that little fall of mine to move me forward and today we can still laugh about it. I will tell you that I've never been happier that we didn't have the video recorder going for my class. I prefer to enjoy a private laugh on that particular one, if you please, thanks. Big picture. In the grand scheme. How big? For us who are believers, it's as big as eternity as in never ending. That typically makes most of what we fret over nothing larger than a blip on the radar screen of life. The breakthrough comes when we can begin to see it that way in real time, as our life unfolds. Okay. I'm tired and you are too, that is, if you stayed to the end. Have a good one and I'll see you again soon. May God bless.
Amen. .....More later.
It is Monday, August 15, 2011, and I could tell by the huge numbers illuminated on that clock on my nightstand, that it was time to get up, get ready, and go. I am an early person. I am known for being an early person. Guess what I have learned about being an early person? It doesn't really mean much. In fact, you can take your early person status and about $3 and get a small, and I do mean small, cup of coffee. It's easy for us to assign some type of superiority to almost anything associated with how we choose to do things, but again, that's about as foolish as it gets. I know some folks over in Louisiana who used to be the most die hard Dallas Cowboys fans imaginable. They operated their goings and comings around the Cowboys football schedule. The Cowboys, after all, were America's team. They were at times almost obnoxious because of this infatuation with a Dallas team. The Cowboys began to falter some and the New Orleans Saints began to become a factor and eventually became champion. Now these same folks are by the Saints like they had previously been by the Cowboys and perhaps even more so, if that's possible. Guess what? I can't see how their choice of teams has really made any contribution to anything other than some of the dollars they have spent on team garb, but it does show just how fickle we really are. All those years the Saints struggled as a home state team with no love from those devoted to the Cowboys. Since becoming a winning franchise they now have this unprecedented support and following, even devotion, from folks who once wouldn't even talk about them. See what I mean? We are some really messed up folks. Don't you agree?
That's only one example and if we are true to form, you and I will probably do something silly at some point and time in our schedule for today. This means we shouldn't take ourselves serious to the extent that we fail to recognize that we too carry some quirks of our own, even though we may not recognize them the way others do. I didn't say we shouldn't be serious about life and the living of it, but as it relates to ourselves, we need to do our best to see it for what it is, and to laugh along with others who also see what's really going on. I remember once when I was with the big company there had been a change at the top of our food chain, senior level management. The new group vice president decided to interview all the senior managers in the organization. Everyone was nervous and intimidated since the scuttlebutt said he was going to shake things up. My turn came. I was responsible for delivering computing and telecommunication services throughout the corporation. He quizzed me about my approach. He then asked me a very silly question. It made no sense but he seemed very serious. What was I to do? When in doubt always tell the truth. That's what Paw Paw Mac would have advised and that's what God expected as well. I essentially told him as politely as I knew how that his question was foolish. Later I heard through the grapevine that he decided I was good for the organization because I was the only one who stood up to him. How do you like that? By the way, he was serious in the question that he asked me, but it was still a silly question. That same dude later signed off on my promotion as a department head and I am thankful that on occasion I've remembered some of that which was poured into me from those who taught me that honesty is always the best policy. 
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