by The Howitzer

I’m a sweater.  Not the kind you wear but the kind of guy that breaks out in a fit of perspiration whenever I get hot.  Even now, when I am mainly coaching and not playing much, I can have a saturated shirt before the game even starts.  To be honest I kind of like that.  When I sweat I feel good.  I might not look good (or smell good for that matter) but there is something honest and appealing about working hard and exerting yourself to the point of working up a sweat.  That is true in athletics and is also true in our occupations.

 I want to continue some thoughts related to our love and hate relationship with work.  In our first article on the topic we uncovered how man was cursed in his work because of his disobedience to God in the garden.  In Genesis we hear God describing his new working environment like this, “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.  Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you ; and you shall eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  It is this work environment that has created a relationship that can be described as on-again-off-again.  Kind of like the junior high girl who can’t decide if she likes you.

 Today I want to make some observations about the idea of work that both bless us and curse us. Before I start on my list, take a second and make a list of things you love about work and things you don’t love about work.  My list is below of what I love and hate about the SWEAT I experience in my job.

 Success and failure are everywhere- Our work is a major source of both our successes and our failures.  I can go from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat in a matter of back-to-back phone calls.  On the wall in my office is a specific sales goal that I have for my area.  When I reach the goal I am elated and when the recession hits I find myself in the doldrums.  My work is a place where I experience both highs and lows and it is hard not to both love and hate the environment that keeps me on an emotional rollercoaster.  Love it or hate it work brings both success and failure.

Work is hard- I love to work hard.  I hate to work hard.  Sometimes there is nothing more exhilarating than to experience the grind.  Sometimes there is nothing more frustrating than to experience the grind.  I am proud of the fact that I am a hard worker.  I am weary thinking about how much work it takes just to survive.  I find within myself a Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of experience.  On one hand I am drawn to a life of ease on the other I must work to feel good about myself.  I have heard it said that all great things come on the back of great effort and that is true but life also exists outside of the realm of great things and occurs in the quiet moments of rest.  Love it or hate it work is hard.

 Encouragement and discouragement rule the day- This observation is at the heart of the previous two.  Our jobs both fill us with courage and at the same time back us into the proverbial corner and beats the snot out of us.  Just ask the guy who just got a promotion or a raise and you will find that he walks among the cloud (however momentarily).  King of the castle!  What an encouragement to be recognized.  But, you also need to ask the guys who lost their job in the recession about the utter helplessness they felt when the job search went on longer than they anticipated.  Jester of the court!  How can this thing called work have so much sway in how we feel about ourselves?  Maybe it shouldn’t but it does.  Love it our hate it work is a major source of both encouragement and discouragement

 Accountability is a part from top to bottom – I don’t know about you but I both love and hate that I am man under authority.  There is a safety in knowing that my propensity to do my own thing at the expense of others is balanced by the fact that I am responsible and accountable to my company.  And that doesn’t matter where you fit on the organizational chart.  If you are at the top you are accountable to the shareholders and the employees.  If you are on the bottom of the heap you have bosses who you have agreed to perform a function for in exchange for money to pay your bills.  If you are in the middle you get a little of both.  The unexamined life has been said to not be worth living and I think that is true.  But, the life lived under the scrutiny of accountability can be difficult at times as it exposes your true self.  Love it or hate it work is a place where you will be accountable for your actions.

 Time is exchanged for our labor- If I didn’t work I really don’t know what I would do with my time.  I love vacation but after a while I am ready to get back to work.  Easily one third of our waking hours are taken up by work and while I love the structure I am also frustrated at times by how much of my time is extracted each day by my work.  My day is probably not much different than yours.  I get up early enough to have a small prepare-for-the-day time and connect briefly with my family.  I then go to work for an extended period of time.  After returning home I engage with my family and their activities until we grow weary and go to bed to start the process again the next day.  Weekends are filled with the things that we wish we had time to do during the week and over time you begin to wonder if you are on the right train.  Am I using my time in the best way?  Work both fills my time with meaning and robs me of time to do the things I want to do.  Love it or hate it work takes a lot of time.

 Our workplace is the best of time and the worst of times.  We struggle to find meaning in the midst of the chaos at times.  And then occasionally we get to experience a little of what Adam must have experienced before the fall: a little heaven on earth.  Do I love to work?  Sometimes!  Do I hate to work?  Sometimes!  Love it or hate it one thing is clear: work is here to stay so we need to deal with it.  I agree with Solomon who said, “I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor- it is the gift of God.”  Thanks Lord for the gift of work.

Photo by RLHyde

by The Howitzer

I remember vividly one of the first times that I realized that I both loved and hated being employed.  I was a college student and was home for my first summer break.  One of the best jobs available for the transient worker was in the public school system.  It paid pretty well and they were hiring college kids for the break. I really needed a job because I was putting myself through school and I was very thankful to be hired. In the summer, there was a lot of work to be done in maintaining and improving the schools.  There were two classes of workers- the skilled and the unskilled. The skilled workers got to paint, do carpentry work and fix things.  The unskilled like me got to mow grass.  But even on the mowing crew there was a caste system.  Some of the guys got to drive the tractor, some pushed mowers and some of us (me) got to strap on a gas operated weed-eater for 8 hrs a day.  I think that is why I didn’t buy a weed-eater until I was 46 years old and even then I bought it for my wife because she wanted to weed-eat our yard.

Man’s relationship with work has always been a rocky one.  If you go back to the early chapters of Genesis you find Adam being hired as a middle manager in Garden of Eden, Inc.  His position focus sheet was to “cultivate and keep the Garden”.  There was only one rule in the employee handbook:  “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”  We all know how the story goes from there, the headhunter comes along and begins to sow seeds of discontent with Adam and Eve and convinces them that they would be much better off if they just owned their own business.  Besides the only thing standing between Adam and God was the knowledge that was contained in the fruit on that stupid tree.  So, Adam breaks the one rule and promptly is presented with his walking papers.

One of challenges in his new gig is that from now on his work was going to be more difficult.  Listen to how God describes his new working environment.  “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.  Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you ; and you shall eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  We don’t know how much this differs from his previous work situation in the garden. But suffice it to say that the grass was not greener in this case. 

Adam’s choice has put us all in position to both love and hate our jobs.  Because of our lineage connection to Adam, we all have an innate feeling that work is a God given blessing that we use to fill our days with meaning and take care of our families.  In the same breath, we resent the SWEAT that it takes to eek out an existence and the time that it takes to make that happen.  This is complicated by the fact that most of us are in subservient relationship with fallen men and women as employers and are surrounded with fellow-workers who can be challenging at times (to say the least).  Add all that together and our lives as workers can be difficult.

Over the next few articles, I would like to lay out some observations that make our working lives tough to manage and how we can go about re-envisioning this area of our life to be a gift of God.  Solomon put it this way, “I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor- it is the gift of God.”  Stayed tuned as we examine the SWEAT of work and how to turn it into a good thing.

Photo by Abhijit Tembhekar

By The Howitzer

For the past couple of weeks I have been battling depression.  The funny thing is there is nothing wrong (well at least not on the mega scale.)  Maybe I am just dealing with getting older.  I don’t seem to have as much pep in the step as my grandmother used to say.  And now the TV is blaring about how the adult male loses testosterone as he ages.  Great!

But to be honest the battle I am in is one of dependence.  I am too dependent on myself.  The longer I allow my spirit to feed on itself the weaker I become.  I know that man was created to be in a dependent relationship with God, but I like to connect with that which I can see.

This reality flies in the face of the wisdom of the Scriptures. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your steps.  Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

The balance I seek will only be found in re-establishing my trust above- not within.

Photo By fakelvis

by The Howitzer

What if I told you it was possible for your children to be wise? How would you like it if your kids moved from naivety to knowledge? Where would your sons end up if they understood the words of the wise and their riddles? Is it possible for your daughters to be wise in their behavior, righteous in their endeavors and exhibit justice and equity in their dealings with others? Too big of a stretch? Think again!

If I had a pill they could take and become that kind of person I would be an instant zillionaire. It’s amazing what parents are willing to do to help their children succeed in life. We buy $135 baseball bats, we hire private tutors, and send them to gymnastics, dance lessons and karate. But when it comes to investing in their wisdom acquisition we aren’t quite sure what to do. Oh we may send them to the youth group at church but we wonder if they are making real progress. It doesn’t help that by the time they are in early elementary school they feel like they already know it all. And don’t even get the parents with teenagers started about the aversion to instruction for that decade. What is a parent to do?

I am not a doctor but I have a prescription. They need a daily dose of the Proverbs and I am not talking about the sayings you find in a fortune cookie. But rather they need time tested, God-inspired wisdom. You may or may not realize it but the Bible contains a book called Proverbs that is a collection of the wise saying of the sages of the ages. Most of these pithy sayings are very, very practical in nature dealing with real life. In fact most of the things that you quote your grandmother as saying probably started from something in the proverbs (if you don’t believe me just read them through sometime). Thirty-one chapters of sayings, instruction, warnings, and directions that is a virtual library to the parent helping the younger generation understand how to live.

Word to the wise (yes, I am talking to you) (well, maybe): Just like the flight attendant instructs you that in the event that there is a drop in cabin pressure you must first put the oxygen mask on yourself before assisting your children, so you must become wise before instructing your children. I am not saying you have to be a guru before starting the journey but you have to be on a journey before you can start them on one.

Simple challenge: Would you consider working your way through the Proverbs (34 pages in my Bible) looking for wisdom for yourself and your children. I know of folks who read a chapter of Proverbs every day corresponding to the date of the month (31 chapters- 31 days). Put your mask on first and then start helping your kids breath the clean air of wisdom.

Photo by basictheory

by The Howitzer

I met George over 10 years ago. I had taken a new position in a church and was spending some time getting to know some of the guys in my congregation. As George and I began the twenty-question game, it was obvious that he had some dreams and aspiration burning in his gut and these dreams would probably require him to relocate or at least shake up his current employment situation. As a relatively young guy- who was used to being mobile since we had no kids at the time- I began to quiz him about his timetable. His response was pretty reasonable in that he would probably wait till his youngest child had graduated form high school. I assumed that they were probably in an upper grade, but was shocked when I discovered that they were still in elementary school. Welcome to the world of long-term perspective.

My son is fast approaching the 3^rd grade and as I did the math I realized that when your kids enter third grade you have exactly 10 years left with them before they graduate high school.

Lately I find myself thing a lot about kids graduating. My son is fast approaching the 3^rd grade and as I did the math I realized that when your kids enter third grade you have exactly 10 years left with them before they graduate high school. Lord willing we hope to see him graduate from the same town he has been growing up in- thanks George for the perspective. Ten years to blastoff! It’s hard to believe that he will be graduating in the class of 2020. That sounds like an old movie about the future, but the future is right now. My wife and I have embraced the idea that our main job as parent was to launch Joshua to be a responsible, productive young man into the world. We just didn’t know it would begin so soon.

So, the countdown begins: 10 years to blastoff. Houston, we may have a problem with that!

Photo by keithusc

by The Howitzer

I have a good friend who is really good in accomplishing the important things on his list. He doesn’t seem to complete everything but consistently achieves his top priorities. I want to be more like that!

If you have more than seven goals you are probably confused.

We live in a complex world with a lot of moving parts. Even if you break down your focus to just a few things, it is easy to get confused and overwhelmed. Lately, I have been pushing myself to pick one thing in each major area of life. Funny thing is I feel like I am making progress.

Let me engage you in a simple project. Using the grid below, identify your top 7 goals. Remember you only get one per area. If you have more than seven goals you are probably confused.

Faith

Family

Finances

Health/Fitness

Friendship

Work

Hobby

Now, find someone to hold you accountable to your goals.

Photo by Carissa GoodNCrazy

By The Howitzer

I hope you never pass me on the road when I am in a country frame of mind cause county music make me cry. I know I am supposed to be tough but some of those songs are geared to rip your heart out (if you have one, men). One of my favorite memories as a child was cleaning the house every Saturday jamming out to the old school twang. Even then there was more to the genre than just old dogs, children and watermelon wine. But, these days the writers of these songs are trying to connect at a heart level with the fans. Tim McGraw describe today’s country this way, “some say that it’s too country, some say it’s too rock n roll, but it’s just good music if you can feel it in your soul.”

Whether you are talking about love, parenting, your heritage or just plain life there is something that occurs in the heart as you allow yourself to feel deeply about the things you love. Most men just check their emotions at the door “because real men don’t cry”. Or do they? I find it refreshing to coach my son’s sports teams. Not only do I get to spend some great quality time with him, but I also get to connect with real life through the eyes of young boys who are trying to deal with some of their first bouts of winning and losing and understanding who they are. You miss a lot from the other side of the fence. In the dugout there is a lot of thing going on that is shaping the next generation of men. Someday they won’t be able to wear their emotions on there sleeves but when you are 7 or 8 it’s ok to cry if you lose the city championship. I wish I was a kid again.

Don’t believe me try some of these on for size :

Things change by Tim McGraw

Just To See You Smile by Tim McGraw

Southern Voice by Tim McGraw

Another American Saturday night by Brad Paisley

He Didn’t Have To Be by Brad Paisley

I Don’t Know Why They Say Grown Men Don’t Cry by Tim McGraw

There is a God by LeAnn Wommack

I Hope You Dance by LeAnn Wommack

Something Worth Leaving Behind by LeAnn Wommack

You’re Gonna Miss This by Trace Atkin

Big Idea: There something wrong with you if you cannot connect emotionally with things that speak about valuing the things you love: God, friends, family and life.

By Greg Primm

Something’s been bothering me for far too long.  It’s a question some of my friends and I talk about from time to time, but mostly we just ignore it.  We ignore it, push it down.  But it keeps popping into my mind lately.

How am I supposed to reconcile these two pictures?

The first is a picture of my house.  It may be smaller or bigger than your house, but I guarantee that your house doesn’t look like the second picture of the destruction caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti.

How do I reconcile the fact that I have so much while others have so little?  That just because I happened to be born in America, my life is easy compared to those in numerous countries around the world.

Reconciliation

What about this word, reconciliation?  For the longest time, I didn’t understand the concept in the framework of the church.  I’ve heard since I was a child that Christ is the reconciliation between God and man.  I just nodded as if I understood what that meant, never really taking the time to figure it out.

In my job as an accountant, I reconcile things all the time.  Bank statements, balancing the books, financial reports — all have to be reconciled to make sure they are accurate.

The process of reconciliation is largely understanding the differences between two things and seeking to make the differences as small as possible.

I do this in my job everyday, but somehow in the rest of my life, it’s not so easy.  I’m here, someone else is over there.  I live in one house, they live in the other.  I have plenty, while they have little.  That’s just the way its supposed to be, right?

I know the answer is a resounding “no”, but it’s only recently that I’ve been able to verbalize what I’m supposed to do.  After all, how can I make a difference?  How can my family make a dent in the inequities I see in the world?  Should I feel pity  sadness  guilt?

I finally realized that I shouldn’t be concerned as much with the how big the gap appears to be between the two pictures above, but instead should focus my energy on how to shrink the gap between the two.  If I focus on the size of the gap, I’ll do nothing.  If I focus on just making a difference, however small, suddenly I can start moving. It’s only through a process of reconciliation that I can hope to make a difference.

It won’t be easy. Reconciliation requires me to:

Go where I don’t want to go and talk to people who are different from me.

Give more than I want to and consume less than I need.

Care more, judge less.

Watch less, do more.

Time to get to work . . .

by The Howitzer

A newfound interest of mine is NASCAR. To be honest, I have never had much interest in a bunch of overgrown teenagers racing around an oval track. With the exception of some fantastic wrecks (where no one seems to get hurt) I never really understood the NASCAR junkie. That is until my son realized that one of the drivers had the same birthday as him. So, we began to watch his favorite new driver: Jeff Gordon. It seems that Jeff is pretty good and is always in contention so it’s kind of fun watching a winner.

It’s funny how your perception of things changes when you have a dog in the fight. Now we watch this rush of adrenaline through the lens of the #24 car. And we have come to understand that all NASCAR fans do the same thing. Everybody has their favorite driver. As we continue to connect with the sport, we realize that there is something intoxicating about watching cars race around at 190+ miles per hours and our heroes are completely addicted to speed. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be bump-drafting the car in front of me at those kinds of speeds. The frenetic pace must be staggering.

The closest I get to that kind of pace is in managing my schedule. It seems that my life’s engine revs pretty good as well. It’s been said that life is a vapor and is as fast as a warm breath on a frigid morning. We are here for a moment and then gone. We all have been given 70-80 laps around the track and then pass the checkered flag at the finish line and hope that we have finished well. Some have their races extended and some get taken out the race early.

Life is extremely fast and if we are not careful we will caught up in the adrenalin of busyness. Ever pressing forward, life passing by at the speed of light. How do you combat this? How do you slow it down? The key to slowing down your life is not necessarily gutting your schedule but instead making sure that what you are doing is important. Let me give you 5 ideas to slow life down.

1) Take advantage of early mornings and late nights. There are two consistent quiet periods on either side of each day that are underutilized and are great in slowing things down. There is not much competition for your attention from 5-7am or from 10-12 pm. Most of us can take advantage of one of these. For me the early slot is better because I turn into a pumpkin at 9:00 o’clock at night. Using these time periods will slow you down by giving you time that normally gets wasted. Some people say they wish there were more hours in a day and it’s possible you may be able to redeem a few more in this way.

2) Develop a hobby that is advancing your strengths and interest. We all have gifts and interests. For most parents we put those on hold for the sake of the kids (which is a terrible example for the children). You have heard the guy who says, “I love golf and I could be pretty good at it but I just don’t have time.” What a waste. We need to be developing our talents. Most of us don’t have that many anyway so maximize what you do have. When you identify something you have an interest in, figure out a way to engage with it. Don’t let it consume you, but if you will develop yourself you will slow things down by feeling a sense of accomplishing something very important. You may not get more time but you will enjoy how you are spending it if you build in some hobby times.

3) Focus on spending time with your family. If there is one thing that will simplify your schedule it to say no to outside things and spend more time with your family. Even if the schedule is NASCAR like, meals together, games played on family game nights, even TV watched will slow down your life. The only thing that I do not want to be said about me at my funeral is having my family say I was too busy for them. To say yes to family times is to say no to other competing values and will slow the focus of your life down. And at the same time it will help you gain insight into the strengths and interests of your most important relationships.

4) Cultivate a habit of taking a nap. There is no empirical data that supports this hypothesis but I know from 47 years of experience that nothing brings new perspective and energy than a good ole nap. If you take advantage of your early morning and late nights you will need it. Years ago I learned a valuable lesson from Bobb Beihl in how to deal with fatigue. If you are feeling like you are on the edge of burnout, see how quickly you can get in an extra 10 hours of sleep on top of your regular sleep schedule. A rested spirit can deal with the demands of the day much better than an exhausted soul.

5) Develop a Race Plan. Do you have specific goals in each of the major areas of your life? If you don’t you need to check out our life planner. If you think that a race car just puts gas and tires on the car and pushes the gas pedal you may have missed the strategic aspect of racing. Those guys have a plan. You need a plan too.

I am sure that there are other things that help slow things down and if you have an idea leave us a comment. One thing is sure, we cannot continue on the pace that most of live and not take a pit stop occasionally. NASCAR fans know that and we need to build in an occasional stop to change the tires, refuel and talk to your pit crew. If you are going to win you have to take care of business and not let busyness take you out.