I'm gonna' check myself before I wreck myself.

In November I wrote on decisions and on living deliberately. Little did I know I was actually preparing myself for the months, and I believe years to come. Almost immediately after posting that blog I found myself needing to act on what I had been working over in my mind for a while. And now, once again, I am faced with another situation that calls for a decision. I can choose from several different paths, one being, the path of least resistance which is, “go with the flow” “do what I have always done”, or I can choose to diversify myself, and become more dynamic with my life. 

I am finding change is not always comfortable. It can be very intimidating with uncertainty in the future. No one really knows what tomorrow holds. No one knows the last breath they will breath. That is why we MUST do the things, and BE the people that will cause us to be fulfilled and to flourish. At the end of each our lives we will look back on our lives (if given enough time) and we can assess what we have done, what we have accumulated, where we have gone, who we have known and who we have loved, we can assess our family and friends and our relationships with them, and we can assess what we spent our time worrying about. Sadly, I fear that too many of us spend our best years held back by worrying of finances, or the lack thereof. I fear too many of us will spend our time worrying about our job. Too many of us will spend our time attempting to accumulate our entire life just to enjoy a short retirement where money is no longer an issue, but we all know very well even retirees worry of their money. So again on this fine day in March 2016 I am challenged again to not allow the menial rigour of life to consume me or my family. I refuse to allow the “daily problems” to keep me from being the Christian, husband, and friend that I desire to be. 

My great friend, MK, described flourishing recently in a way that rings so true in my ears. Flourishing is sacrifice, service, care, patience, gentleness, and most of all pure love. In general we spend our lives searching for the love of pleasure, but to truly flourish we must learn to find pleasure in love. So, it is my goal for today, and tomorrow, and this year, and my entire life to learn to find pleasure in love and in all that love is. 

Change is coming. What I once always knew may be different tomorrow than in the past. What is most important is how I handle the change, and ideally, how I can create and determine the change that happens in my life to become a better and stronger Christian.

Humility

C.S. Lewis once said, 

“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”

How often we all struggle with our own pride. To assert that we have no pride is in itself prideful. Now, I don't personally know of a single individual who thinks that their opinion, point of view, beliefs, and generally speaking, their actions, are wrong. We could all agree that if someone thinks that their own opinion, beliefs, etc are wrong that this particular individual might need to be checked in to a mental institution. I would argue that pride in its essence, or purest form, is simply thinking to highly of oneself or of ones own actions, thoughts, or beliefs. The issue with this is that someone, if not most people, if not you and I, will eventually have to admit that our position may have been wrong. What's most important is how we will handle ourselves knowing we have done or said wrong. Pride is knowing this and refusing to change and apologize, and right what was wrong. The difference between truly "repenting" or just feeling bad, saying sorry, and continuing in our sin against others or God. 

As of late, one passage of scripture that has been challenging me regarding humility is found in Philippians 2:1-4 (ESV) “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

The NIV says v.3 “Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,”

So, back to C.S. Lewis’ quote, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” If I could add at all to this wise mans words I might say, True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less, but also, to think more highly of others.  Maybe now would be a good time to stop and consider my actions and my opinions of others. Maybe I should value them and their opinion at the same level I value my own. Did Jesus himself not say to “love your neighbour as yourself?” 

Feel free to share your thoughts, beliefs and opinions in the comments; I promise I will do my best to practice what I preach.

Choices.

Why do I do what I do? This question is probably one of the greatest questions that I can personally ask myself. The idea of questions has been something that I have been pondering and working over in my mind for the past little while.

Asking ourselves questions causes us to answer those questions and to make decisions based on our questions. Whether they are thoughts, ideas, actions, relationships, or any other decisions we make, these decisions greatly affect the future of our lives, and the outcomes that we will live out. To add to that I desire to make my decisions based upon actions as opposed to reactions. To make actions determines that we are in control of our own outcomes whereas to make reactions determines that we are making decisions to the environment around us. In other words, I would rather affect and determine the environment around me rather than have the environment I find myself in affect and determine my reactions. A friend of my father has often said a phrase that I feel helps myself live in this way of making actions rather than reactions; "live deliberately" is the phrase I have heard numerous times. To live deliberately means that we don't necessarily just go along with life and whatever happens just happens. To live deliberately as simple as it sounds, which is to make deliberate actions and not just "go with the flow". Now, there may be times where going with the flow may be alright if the "flow" is headed in a direction we want to be, but if the "flow" is heading a direction that we do not desire to be then we must deliberately make actions that will determine our destination. So, why do I do what I do? And why do any of us do what any of us do? Do we do what we do because that's what is easiest; the path of least resistance. Or do we deliberately choose to make actions and be in control of our environment and destination. 

I could ramble on and on of the various levels of importance of types of decisions, ie, choosing clothes to wear or food to eat, or relationships, or a spouse, or whether or not we seek relationship with God. The point is, each of these decisions, often times seemingly unimportant, will and DO drastically affect the big picture of our life and of our destination. To end this I want to leave you (if there is a "you" even reading this) with a few questions. Where do you want to go, and why? What are you going to do to get there? And I encourage you (and me) to do what it takes to go there, to be that person, to build that friendship, to become that man I desire to be, to make those deliberate decisions to become who and what we desire to be and to determine our environment and our destination.