Tip toeing through a tired Tuesday!

I am actually surprised to be here sending out my version of 'why not?' for a Tuesday, May 25, 2010. Surprised because to tell you the truth I have been really heads down from can to can't for the past several weeks. I can remember a time when I used to be able to happily report how I thrived on dealing with more than I could handle, and I welcomed chaos as a motivator. Not so much these days. I am so very thankful to be working in an environment where we are now very very busy. We have huge projects with a variety of coordination efforts and activities to keep up with and manage. We also know that it is a blessing from the Lord God of heaven that we have been given the work we have to do. This does not mean, however, that I am as able to thrive on all of this like I once was. Added to my regular work schedule has been the outside activities involving family, Church, and ministry related opportunities. Anyone who knows me knows that if I am going to be a part of something I will try to see to it that I do my very best. And, it is that doing your all for so many different things that really tends to zap you over time, especially if you are no longer the young punk who thrived on variety and adversity. Complaining? Not even a thought of that! Perhaps I am trying to excuse a little of the lameness that has crept into my blogs of late. But, they are what they are, and I am still privileged to get up and go and do what I can do as best I know how and hopefully do so in a way that brings honor and glory to our Great God!

This past Sunday we treated our Jimmy and his children to lunch. We had wanted to go to a regular sit down restaurant but the kids had the Golden Arches in mind. I told our four year old Alex that we wanted to go somewhere and eat some real food. He said, "Poppy, they have real food at McDonalds, they have real chicken, and they have real ice cream too. It really is real food, Poppy!" How can you argue when the case has been made in such a clear and concise manner? This episode reminded me of how it was for us growing up. Eating out was not something we did. I do remember when we went into the next larger town they had a place called The Hole in the Wall where you could buy hamburgers, four for a dollar. We would occasionally stop and get some of those burgers but not often because there were six of us kids and not too many dollars to go around. When we did get those burgers, they were a real treat. They were those wrapped up in that flimsy paper that the grease would stain. Talk about good! Talk about a treat! And, talk about probably being loaded up with all the stuff that everyone runs away from today. What made those burgers such a treat was the fact that we rarely ever did it. In today's world most children grow up on fast food and other than a meaningless prize in the bag along with some genetically altered food products, it's the same old same old to them.

Whatever we did as a society to almost eliminate home cooked has not been a good thing. We have reordered our lives and to me it seems those gathering times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner have been replaced by a drive by eating approach, not only in how we take in our food, but also in how we live out our lives. We live in a world where fast needs to be faster. I remember well the time I saw someone talking to a microwave begging it to get done quicker. Come on man, come on, what's taking so long? I wanted to grab hold of them and tell them how that the frozen meal they were cooking would take 30 minutes or more to heat up in a conventional oven but they were unable to wait for 90 seconds? That episode has become an instructive metaphor to me in how we all need to take a deep breath, and get a grip. I used to tell people when they asked we what I enjoyed most in terms of challenges that I like doing big things. Big projects that have big impacts. Maybe all those big things have taken their toll because today I might just settle for something a little less demanding. Just kidding! I would rather go out in a flame than to wet nurse my way through each day defined by its mediocrity. I wrote something on that once for my organization where I talked about the mendacity of mediocrity and our enemy called 'average'. Okay, that's enough incoming random thoughts for one day, time to move on and see what God has in store! God bless. Amen. .....More later.