A Month for Change

I've been trying something new this year. Each month, I either pick one thing to do for the entire month, or I pick one thing to avoid doing for the entire month. They say it only takes a month to form a new habit, so I've been trying to improve myself by focusing on one thing a month.

It doesn't have to be a big change, I just try to pick something that I've been thinking about and feel like I should change in my life. Sometimes it's a good habit that I want to form or reinforce. Or it can simply be something that I worry I'm doing too much, so I'll fast from it for a month to make sure that it doesn't have power over me.

Here's what I've picked each month:

• January - spending half an hour of quality time with God each day
• February - nothing deliberate, although I did travel overseas for the first time in my life; and had an all-juice diet for a week because of sickness!
• March - flossing my teeth every day
• April - not eating any fast food burgers or fries (I felt like I was buying them too much for lunch; taking a break for a month forced me to find alternatives.)
• May - arriving at work earlier in the morning

Focusing on one lifestyle change at a time has been encouraging. It's been effective (I'm still flossing my teeth every day, something I've never been able to do!), and it makes me feel like I have the power to actually change the things in my life that I want to change.

This all started accidentally with me deciding to spend more time with God in January, but now I look forward to picking something new each month. I think I'm going to keep doing it. Just think... in 5 years I could form 60 new habits!

A Tough Job

I haven't had a chance to post for a few days, but I wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful wife. She's only been a mom for seven weeks, but she's doing an amazing job. I'm realizing more and more that mothers just don't get enough respect. Caring for a child is a demanding job. I've been really impressed with how Bee's been handling it.

Little Bits of Gold

I have an addiction.

I compulsively buy Doritos whenever I go to the store. It doesn't matter how many bags we have in our pantry... if I walk past Doritos, I have to buy a bag. If they're on sale, I have to buy two.

I justify my purchases as stocking our pantry with snacks for the small group that meets at our house each week. But really, I just love Doritos. I especially love trying different kinds of Doritos. If they come out with a new flavor, I have to try it.

A couple of months ago they had a contest where they came out with two new flavors and had people vote on which one they should make a permanent new flavor. Smoky Mesquite BBQ or Wild White Nacho Doritos? The BBQ ones were better, so I was happy to see that they are now a permanent flavor. I would have bought a bag yesterday when I was at the store, but they were all out. The sign said I could get a raincheck if I wanted; instead, I bought a bag of the classic Nachos flavor and another bag of Blazin' Buffalo. You guessed it... they were on sale.

This Journey

If you haven't realized it already, I'm thinking a lot right now about my role as a Christian in the workplace. I feel like I'm on a journey this month to discover more of God's calling on my life, so I'm using this blog to help me record some of what He is showing me.

So I'm sorry if there aren't a lot of light-hearted fun posts this month. I'm just in a thoughtful mood. :) I hope you'll stick around and be a part of this journey with me. I'm especially trying to post things that I've found encouraging and challenging, in the hope that you'll find it worthwhile too.

Distracted Working

Another excerpt from Marketplace Christianity, talking about doing our work as unto the Lord:

Wholehearted means our heart is not divided between the job at hand and our desire to do some other ministry work. Rather, the job at hand is our ministry work. Because it is really the Lord we are serving in our tasks, then it is impossible for us to be less than completely wholehearted. In sharp contrast to this biblical mandate, modern Christians are generally the worst workers on the planet, precisely because they are not wholehearted, but divided-hearted. Their hearts are divided between work and ministry. They give little at work because their hearts are somewhere else. Early in my career, I went to work as late as I could, I left as early as I could, and gave as little as I could, but got as much money as I could.

This really convicted me. Sometimes I'm exactly that divided-hearted Christian that he is talking about. Sometimes I've got other things going on in my life that are more meaningful to me than my work, so I spend my time thinking about those things, and put in the minimum amount of time at work so I can rush off and do something more worthwhile.

But this isn't what God wants from me:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. Ephesians 6:5-8

If I'm doing my work as if I were serving the Lord, I should be giving it everything I've got!

Far-sightedness

One of the dangers of focusing on our dreams is that we can miss the everyday opportunities that God has put in front of us. I've been thinking about how many people with needs God has put into my life, right now. Sometimes I overlook that and want God to give me something big, something exciting to do. But He's already given me so many people around me, each with their own need for encouragement, advice, comfort, or correction.

It's a stewardship issue, really. Will we be faithful with the small things that He's made us responsible for today? We have to be faithful with the little we have before He can trust us with more.

Pursuit

I just finished watching the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. In it, Will Smith's character spends the whole movie with circumstances around him going from bad to worse. But through it all, he has a dream and keeps pursuing it no matter what life throws at him. (We're talking major things here: his wife leaving him, getting evicted, arrested, etc.)

I was reading over my last post, and the word "pursue" kept jumping out at me. To pursue doesn't mean that we've arrived at our intended destination. It just means that we haven't given up on getting there; we're actively trying to find our way to that destination. It doesn't even mean that we appear to be closer each day. But it does mean that we've tried, and through trying we accomplish more than we can realize at the time.