Diary 5/31 - 6/07

Daily thoughts that may or may not be helpful.

Saturday, May 31

It’s been a year since we moved into our house, so we invited the home builders over for a cookout to thank them and celebrate. For them it may have been just a job, but for us, it was life changing. Each day they came to work, they were building a setting for our lives: a place for us to feel safe, relax, love, mourn, connect, worship, enjoy, eat, learn, sleep, work, wait, and more. We’ve already had meaningful moments in the house. It is where Buddy passed and Rex received his college acceptance and we met Asia’s boyfriend and our niece visited before deploying to Iraq and Asher started a new school and we repented from false teaching and Colette had her first vegetable harvest and I bought my first chainsaw and we welcomed a new puppy. I like to say that the way you spend your days is the way you live your life. When you look at it that way, then a job becomes much more than a job.

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Sunday, June 1

In a previous post, I wrote how it’s reassuring as a parent to see Rex cultivating various parts of his life as he heads to college: faith, physical, social, vocational, mental, hobbies, etc. I included these parts in a list. That’s one way to envision it. When you do, each part is equal in importance. You are looking to achieve balance—say one part faith, one part physical, one part social, etc. The goal is inclusion of all of the parts so you are not excluding any of them. This would be a well-balanced life. But there’s another way to envision these parts—as a large circle with a smaller circle in the middle of it. Inside the large circle, write the parts of your life and in the smaller circle, write faith. Rather than giving each part equal status like in the list, this model gives the primary prominence to faith. Why? Because although a well-balanced life is noble, a faith-first life leads to flourishing. Who cares if your physique is rock solid if your soul isn’t saved? Who cares if you’ve got a million dollars if you can’t take them with you? Who cares if you’ve got a phone full of friends if you’re an enemy of God? The cool thing about the inner circle idea is that faith touches all of the other parts and makes them better. When you put Christ first, then health becomes stewardship, work becomes mission, money becomes gratitude, friendship becomes grace, and every part of your life becomes a means of fellowship with God. I’d rather live a flourishing life than a balanced one; I’ll take the circle over the list.

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Wednesday, June 4

Asher started working as a service car washer at CMA for the summer. It’ll be fun to drive to work together and have him on campus. I heard that last year, Chick-Fil-A received 70,000 new store applications. They are a franchise business, so each store is owned and operated by a franchise owner. It’s not easy to get approved to own a Chick-Fil-A store. Of the 70,000 applicants, only 70 were approved! The HQ ruthlessly protects its brand. One of the key questions that guides the approval process is this: “Would I want my teenage child working there?” CMA is a good place to work, so in my case, the answer is yes.

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Thursday, June 5

I read a book once in which the author unpacked the history, culture, and contributions of 75 countries, and identified the core value for each country. For France she said protest, for America she said entrepreneurism, for Sweden she said innovation, for Brazil she said joy, for Israel she said chutzpah, for India she said spirituality, and so forth. I thought of this book when this evening, after a long day of work and much more to do, I sat down in one of our Adirondack chairs to protest. I was protesting a busy life that often disregards beauty and stillness. I was protesting a life that spends too much time on a screen. I was protesting a life often too shallow to feel and to ponder. I’m not French, but some times we all need a little protest. (Viva la France!)

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Friday, June 6

Asher is getting rave reviews for his work ethic and here’s a benefit—they assigned him to clean my car! It was sparkling. Maybe he doesn’t have to go back to school in the Fall.

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Saturday, June 7

I’m on an airplane and the guy in front of me is selecting a lock screen for his phone. He is scrolling through possibilities that the phone suggests based on his photo favorites. He pauses at his bulldog, then a woman who appears to he his wife, then back to the bulldog. We have a winner! It’s bulldog over wife!!

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LAST WEEK

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