Decisions...

One of the things I enjoy the most about my job, is that I get to work with children and youth. One of the things I enjoy most about working with children and youth is that each year, I have the opportunity to spend at least two months discussing history and faith.

I enjoy history. I like finding the connexions between different events that lead up to what we do or why we do what we do in today’s society. Over the past 8 weeks, I have met with four of our youth each Sunday. I have enjoyed getting to know them better, allowing them to get to know me better, and helping them learn about history and about our faith. A lot of history, especially church history, is about how the choices or decisions of someone have ripples that still affect others today. This is a topic we came back to often.

A Rule (a way of measuring how we are doing) attributed to the leader of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, was:

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as you ever can.

This Rule was a way to remind the people called Methodist that the decisions they made in the past must be lived out into the present and beyond. I know in my own life it is easy to choose to do something good, yet it is much more difficult to choose to do good in all that I do… I know that I need reminders in my life to help me remember choices and decisions I have made in the past, so that I can continue to honor them in the present and beyond.

There are some decisions that I no longer have to be reminded of. They have become a part of my life. I don’t have to be reminded I am a husband and a dad. Because of those choices, there are choices and decisions I don’t have to make because of those decisions I have already made. I cannot choose to fall in love with a woman other than my wife. I made that choice eleven years ago. We chose to have four kids. We cannot now chose to be the parents of only two of them.

There are days it would be much easier not to stay committed to decisions that were made. There are days it seems easier to just quit and start over. We grow or mature when we choose to live out decisions we’ve made.

How are you reminded of the decisions you’ve made (anniversary’s, etc.)? Are there decisions you have made that you find it hard to live out? Press on, grow, and see the difference you make….

Health Warnings

My daughter made me a get well card yesterday. I have been sick for a little over a week, longer than I chose to recognize I was sick. I noticed a few of the signs early, but chose to ignore or explain them away. I don’t like being sick. I don’t like my wife or kids to know I am sick, because they worry, and in my role as Dad and Husband they shouldn’t worry about me (at least that is the understanding of the roles of Father/Husband I picked up on from an early age, and am slowly learning they might not be the healthiest understanding of my roles…). I don’t like to miss work. I like what I do (at least most days).

Over the past two years though, I have been sick more than I have in my life, at least that’s the way it feels. I would like to blame it on my environment, but I figure that is not really the answer. I think the truthful answer is that my body is maturing (I am told that’s just another way of saying getting older) and it can’t continue to be put through the unhealthy lifestyle of my late teens and twenties.

Over the past two years I have slowly started to learn my body gives me signs when I am about to get sick. Sometimes I heed the warnings, but often times I choose to ignore them or explain them away. When I choose to listen to the warnings I don’t get as sick, my wife and kids don’t have to worry (as much), I don’t have to miss doing the things I enjoy…

It is healthier for us to listen to the warnings signs of our bodies, our relationships, etc. But most of us have not taken the time to learn what those warning signs are, or we choose to ignore them. Too many of us have falsely believed we can just power through getting sick or conflict or whatever. Many of us choose to live and relate unhealthily, and eventually it does catch up to us. Our bodies and our relationships will only take so much. Eventually our bodies will make us stop and attempt to recover. Eventually those that we are in relationship with will say enough. Have you taken the time to learn the warning signs of your life? Do you chose to listen to those signs? When we don’t, we suffer when we don’t have to, and those around us go through stuff they don’t have to….