ENGAGING THOUGHT
I didn't have the luxury of siblings that were close in age (my brothers are almost a decade older than I), however, I do have 4 kids all within 4-and-a-half years of each other. Thankfully, they've grown out of the "I'm telling on you" stage. There were times, however, when they followed the time-honored traditions of eloquent sibling-confrontations:
Child 1: "Nuh, uh!"
Child 2: "Nuh, huh!"
Child 1: "Nuh, UH!!!"
Child 2: "Nuh, HUH!!!!" You know what I'm talking about, right? We all did the same thing (hopefully, we've grown out of that!).
I have cousins (all boys) that would fight on a regular basis over anything worthy of a fight. One of the classic scenarios - guaranteed to escalate - was the name-calling that turned into a demand for retraction. It sounded something like this:
Cousin 1: "Idiot!" (I've toned that down, these were brothers, after all).
Cousin 2: "You take that back!"
Cousin 1: "No!"
Cousin 2: "You take that back, or I'm telling!"
Cousin 1: "Oh, yeah? What if I don't!?!"
Think about that for a second, that was a huge demand to make on a little kid (especially an idiotic-little-brother). Cousin 1 made a much larger demand than Cousin 2's demand for a retraction of the name-calling. Cousin 1 demanded that the other contemplate and imagine a future resulting from inaction. "What if I don't?"
We don't normally invest a lot of time thinking about what our future might look like if we make no changes to the path we're on. Most all of us have heard a version of the statement by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus: "The only constant is change." We know that life is filled with different chapters, different seasons, even different locations for many of us. So we know that our future, no matter what happens, will have some elements of change to them. What I'm proposing, though, is the value of stopping once in a while and imagining what our lives might be like if we were to continue doing basically the exact same things were doing now. No changes to our activities; no change in our relationships; no change in our sense of purpose or fulfillment.
My wife, Bobbi, coached a swim-team for several years and one of her favorite maxims to the swimmers learning a new stroke was this: "practice makes permanent." Maybe you're not used to hearing it that way, maybe you've heard the similar, "practice makes perfect." That's simply not true, however. We develop behavioral memories (habits, we call them) based on the actions we do - whether those actions are right or wrong, positive or negative, productive or damaging - makes no difference to the fact that the more we do them the more they become permanent patterns. Perfect practice makes perfect.
That might lead to a sobering thought for some of us: everything we choose to do right now establishes the permanent reality of our future. EVERYTHING. There are no thoughts, choices, actions, or behaviors that "aren't a big deal" - as we often try to tell ourselves. They are a big deal - they are the practice which is making permanent in our lives. Every action (or inaction) builds the pattern of our lives. All of our excuses and justifications may make us feel better, but that won't change our reality.
So, with that as a backdrop, let's ask that question about our discovery and pursuit of God's DREAM for our lives: What if I don't make any changes to what I've been doing already? What if I continue on the exact same path; the exact same trajectory?
Child 1: "Nuh, uh!"
Child 2: "Nuh, huh!"
Child 1: "Nuh, UH!!!"
Child 2: "Nuh, HUH!!!!" You know what I'm talking about, right? We all did the same thing (hopefully, we've grown out of that!).
I have cousins (all boys) that would fight on a regular basis over anything worthy of a fight. One of the classic scenarios - guaranteed to escalate - was the name-calling that turned into a demand for retraction. It sounded something like this:
Cousin 1: "Idiot!" (I've toned that down, these were brothers, after all).
Cousin 2: "You take that back!"
Cousin 1: "No!"
Cousin 2: "You take that back, or I'm telling!"
Cousin 1: "Oh, yeah? What if I don't!?!"
Think about that for a second, that was a huge demand to make on a little kid (especially an idiotic-little-brother). Cousin 1 made a much larger demand than Cousin 2's demand for a retraction of the name-calling. Cousin 1 demanded that the other contemplate and imagine a future resulting from inaction. "What if I don't?"
We don't normally invest a lot of time thinking about what our future might look like if we make no changes to the path we're on. Most all of us have heard a version of the statement by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus: "The only constant is change." We know that life is filled with different chapters, different seasons, even different locations for many of us. So we know that our future, no matter what happens, will have some elements of change to them. What I'm proposing, though, is the value of stopping once in a while and imagining what our lives might be like if we were to continue doing basically the exact same things were doing now. No changes to our activities; no change in our relationships; no change in our sense of purpose or fulfillment.
My wife, Bobbi, coached a swim-team for several years and one of her favorite maxims to the swimmers learning a new stroke was this: "practice makes permanent." Maybe you're not used to hearing it that way, maybe you've heard the similar, "practice makes perfect." That's simply not true, however. We develop behavioral memories (habits, we call them) based on the actions we do - whether those actions are right or wrong, positive or negative, productive or damaging - makes no difference to the fact that the more we do them the more they become permanent patterns. Perfect practice makes perfect.
That might lead to a sobering thought for some of us: everything we choose to do right now establishes the permanent reality of our future. EVERYTHING. There are no thoughts, choices, actions, or behaviors that "aren't a big deal" - as we often try to tell ourselves. They are a big deal - they are the practice which is making permanent in our lives. Every action (or inaction) builds the pattern of our lives. All of our excuses and justifications may make us feel better, but that won't change our reality.
So, with that as a backdrop, let's ask that question about our discovery and pursuit of God's DREAM for our lives: What if I don't make any changes to what I've been doing already? What if I continue on the exact same path; the exact same trajectory?
ACTION STEP
Today's ACTION STEP may seem a bit on the defeatist side of things, however, I think it is important for us to realize that inaction does have consequences and a somewhat-predictable outcome.
Take a few moments and write out what you imagine the next couple years would look like if you do nothing in pursuit of God's DREAM. What will be the impact on your relationships? Finances? Emotional well-being? Whatever and however you can imagine the future looking like.
Now do the same thing for five years out; ten years out; 20 years into the future.
Tomorrow we'll do a bit of unreserved, pedal-to-the-metal imagining of the possible future.
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