What's on Your List?

We are society that is obsessed with lists: bucket lists, shopping lists, and to do lists. There was even a book written a few years ago called the Book of Lists. And it seems that this time of year we’re more obsessed than ever.

It starts in late November or early December with the lists that the little ones make in the form of a letter to Santa, followed by the list of naughty and nice that the jolly old guy makes and checks twice, and now we’re into lists of New Year’s resolutions, top 10 lists of news stories, blogs, favorite movies, books, songs, and even the top 10 technological advances of the year.

There’s lists being tweeted, posted on Facebook, broadcast on television and on the radio and printed in the local newspaper. And that doesn’t start to cover the major news magazine countdowns.

There are even lists of negative things, like the worst dressed, the dumbest things said by politicians and most inappropriate things said by public figures.
Seems like all the major things have been covered so maybe somebody should come up with lists of least favorite vegetables, most annoying friends and family members, or ugliest dresses seen in church.

So instead of lists of New Year’s resolutions you’re not going to keep, books you’re not going to read, movies you’re not going to watch, and things said by people you don’t care about, what would be a list that would interest you?

My list would probably be the top ten ‘entitlement oriented people’, but it would be hard to keep it to 10. Any suggestions?

Did You Oil Your Eyeglasses?

So yesterday afternoon some friends came over and we played games. You've been to those gatherings where people play games. In a lot of situations games are bad, but in this case they were good. They weren’t the social encounter type of games where you try to avoid saying what you’re really thinking, but what you’re really thinking is so obvious that you really don’t need to say it. It wasn’t one of those games where you keep checking to see where your spouse is as you’re flirting with all the other guests.

Nope we were playing board games. 'Tabu', where you give clues, but certain words are Taboo as clues and your teammates try to guess the word. And another one that has something to do with sentences. Everyone picks 10 cards and makes up sentences with the random words on the cards. The more points the better.

Sometimes as the evening goes on, adult board games, or kids board games played by adults, get pretty ridiculous as the players get a little oiled, but the only thing that got oiled yesterday was a pair of eyeglasses. Say What?
We stuck to finger foods, water, soda, and coffee, and about the most exotic consumable was some flavored creamer for the coffee.

And we had fun.

We laughed, we watched the snow fall, and just enjoyed each other’s company.
As far as the oiled eyeglasses? The winning sentence went something like this: George Washington dripped sloppy oil on coldly twisted eyeglasses. Grammatically correct, almost makes sense, and was worth a lot of points!

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to entertain you when you’re in good company. And I thank God for putting that good company into my life.

CELEBRATE SUCCESS!

As part of my job as Pastor, I periodically get to meet with other Pastors in the local (local being a relative term since we usually drive 2 hours to Pocatello) area. There are several things on the agenda, one of them being book discussion. The Region’s Executive Minister carefully selects books for us to read each year, and hopefully each of those books has valuable lessons for those of us ‘in the trenches’. I get more excited about reading some of the books than I do others. To be expected.

One of the things I remember from reading some of these books over the past year or so, is the need to celebrate successes in the life of the church. Seems rather obvious, but then I’m reminded of one of the lessons from when I worked in a hospital 35 years ago: if it’s not documented – it didn’t happen. (Obviously in the context of write down what happened, and what you did, so the next shift and the doctor will know what’s going on with each patient.) People probably know that something is happening, but its up to the leadership team to make sure that they know, and also that they know that it’s important. And somehow, in the church, celebrations of success tend to create a momentum that leads to even more successes.

Successes still happen without the ‘celebration’, but they might be smaller, fewer, and not even recognized as successes. Don’t get me wrong, the Holy Spirit still moves and does wonderful things in our lives even if we don’t recognize it, or others don't recognize it, but it’s hard to build on something when people don't realize that the foundation has been laid.

Likewise we need to celebrate the successes in our personal lives. Alcoholics and addicts celebrate milestones of sobriety, ex-smokers celebrate days without a cigarette, dieters love to announce how many pounds they’ve shed, people in the work force rejoice over bonuses and promotions, students count completed semesters toward the degree. Couples celebrate anniversaries and numbers of grand-children.

Whether it’s being able to read “Green Eggs and Ham” or meeting the deadline and finally sending your own book to the publisher, there’s something to be celebrated. If you’re putting together your first twenty-five piece LEGO kit or building a house, there are successes waiting to be recognized.

It doesn’t have to be a big party, but when we recognize the positive accomplishments in our lives, we have less time to focus on the negative things. Positive or negative, what gets fed –grows. What’s your current success story?