Thinking Small

One key to appreciating everyday life is to think small. The big issues in our lives--jobs, finances, kids, schools, etc.--are complicated and can take up lots of our mental power to consider all the options, possible outcomes, and surrounding effects. If that's all we think about, we can be pretty miserable. And, there's not a whole lot we can do about it; if your job makes you miserable, it may take awhile to change that.

But several years ago, inspired by a Peter Mayle article I read, I began seeking joy, or at least pleasure and appreciation, from the little routines and obligations I have to do every day. This has been a revelation for me, and has dramatically improved my outlook on life in the here and now. Here are some examples:

• French Press Coffee: I bought a little french press coffee maker to make my daily jolt of caffeine. The french press takes a few minutes longer than a drip machine, but I like the taste better and the little ritual of preparing it every day, combined with the stylish look of the pot on my breakfast table, adds a little lift to my morning that my old Mr. Coffee machine never did.
• A good pen: I quit using the clunky ballpoints that typically filled my pencil cup at the office, and instead put a good rollerball on my Christmas list. Thanks to the generosity of my family that year, I now take pleasure in the smooth travel of good ink over crisp paper whether I am simply jotting down a phone number or taking copious notes at a meeting. Sometimes I even wish I had more to write.
• Walk to the mail: Instead of stopping my car at the mailbox on my way into the driveway, I go ahead an pull in, then walk up the driveway to get the mail. As I walk I have a chance to look around--at the trees, the sky, the other houses, the leaves in the yard--and appreciate the beauty of my neighborhood. It also gives me at least a few breaths of fresh air every day. This only takes 120 seconds or less, but it adds joy to my day.

Hopefully you see the point: our days are filled with quotidian tasks that are potential sources of pleasure and joy. We treat these daily routines as necessary evils in our chase for whatever it is we think will make us happy--the next promotion, the higher salary, next year's vacation. But maybe it's the journey, not the destination, that should be the source of our joy.

What do you do every day? How could you do it better or more deliberately to add a little joy to your everyday life?

Class Notes--Session 2

What are some ways we relate to the past?

1. Study/Learn from it

2. Obsess over it

3. Run from it

4. Forget it

5. Glorify it

6. Idealize it

What does the Bible say about the past?

1. Philippians 3:13-14: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_forgetting_ what is behind, I _press________ on.......

2. Ecclesiasties 7:10: it is not ___wise_______ to ask such questions.

3. The Prodigal Son: Luke 15:11-32

a. Father: __forgot_____ the past

b. Son: ____learned___ from the past

c. Brother: __obsessed____ over the past

Conclusion: __Seize________ the opportunities that ___today______ presents you!

How should we relate to the past?

The rearview mirror: stop __backing_____ into the future.

1. Put it __in___ ___its___ ____place____.

2. Keep it in ____perspective________.

3. __Build_____ a better one.

HOMEWORK: Write your history. Perhaps imagine your obituary if you were to die today. What would be written about you? What would you want to be written about you?

Getting Past the Past

One challenge to living in the present tense--to enjoying life today--is the sometimes-strong effect of past events on our lives and minds. Sometimes it is bad things--the death of a loved one, a personal failure, an unfortunate accident--that has shaped us and that continues to shape us, affecting how we see ourselves and how we act. Sometimes it is good things--a previous success at work, a personal triumph, the birth of a child--that forever change our self-image and way of looking at the world.

But either way, there is a danger of getting stuck in the past, of reliving the bad things in our mind, trying to think of what could have been done differently; or reliving the good things, never moving on and recognizing that there may be other successes in our lives to come. In extreme cases we can get stuck and completely lose touch with the present--we can be miserable, simply because we aren't engaging with the world around us today.

This Sunday we'll be talking about how to keep our pasts in healthy perspective so that they doesn't ruin the present. But this week, I read an article about a woman who has been through horrors--her family's fishing boat was blown to bits by Irish Republican Army terrorists, killing her father and son and seriously wounding her--and yet she has emerged with an appreciation of life and an ability to still enjoy the present. I found it inspirational, and I hope you do too.

See you Sunday.

Class Notes--Session 1

I was made aware after Sunday's class that while I had passed out notes, I had not passed out pens, so there were several people who wanted to take notes but couldn't. To remedy that, and so that you can share the highlights of the session with friends if you like (by pointing them to this blog), I'll reproduce the notes here with the blanks filled in:

LIVING IN THE PRESENT TENSE

Week 1

What is time? A SEQUENCE of EVENTS .

How Man Views Time

A. Time is a LIMITING factor in our lives.

Our context for life has three dimensions:

1. SPACE

2. CIRCUMSTANCE

3. TIME

B. Time is ILLUSIVE .

We get pulled between MICRO time and MACRO time.

C. Time is A CURRENCY .

1. It has VALUE .

2. We want to SAVE it.

3. MORE is better.

How God Views Time

1. God CREATED time.

2. He is the I AM . (Exodus 3:13-14)

3. A DAY is like A THOUSAND YEARS . (2 Peter 3:8-9)

EVERYTHING is PRESENT TENSE to God.

HOMEWORK:

1. COUNT THE CLOCKS IN YOUR HOUSE
2. TRY TO LIVE AT LEAST PART OF A DAY WITHOUT LOOKING AT A CLOCK

There Is No Time

Most people I know complain at least occasionally about how busy they are. Polls show that Americans feel more time stress than ever, despite academic studies that show that leisure time has grown significantly in the past 50 years. The computer revolution has introduced supposed time-saving devices into our lives that should yield more leisure time--but instead seem to create more work. How have we become so busy?

One of the best depictions of this paradox of time was written by Peggy Noonan almost 10 years ago. Click here to read it, and marvel at two things: first, I think she succinctly captures the feeling of rush and stress that both blesses and plagues contemporary life. Secondly, she was eerily prescient in the prophecy she lays out in section III of the article; it came spectacularly true less than three years after this article was published. I recall being sent home from my office on the morning of 9/11; that day, as Peggy predicted, I had time.

I find this article a good reminder to appreciate what I do have, and an inspiration to be more deliberate in how to spend my time. I hope you do, too.

How It All Began

A couple of years ago I made a homecoming trip to my college alma mater where I visited with several old college friends. We spent the weekend recalling the many experiences we had shared during those years, both fun and otherwise: parties exciting and boring, intramural games won and lost, fraternity pranks successful and foiled. It was great fun reliving the old days, and on the way home my wife Sylvia, who had been a good sport to sit through the weekend listening to it all, asked me, "Why don't you have friends like that anymore?"

"Because I don't have time," was my answer, an answer that got me thinking. Why don't I have time to have friends? What am I doing with my time? As I began to be more aware of how I was spending my time, and more deliberate in deciding how to spend it, I gradually came to realize that for too long I had been doing a lot of things solely because I thought I was "supposed" to do them: that was just what people like me did. I was "keeping up with the Joneses" not only in material possessions but in time management, too.

I came across a book by Carl Honoré, In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed. His epiphany came when he found himself reading one-minute bedtime stories to his two-year-old in an effort to save time. Preposterous, right? And yet I realized that I too, in a misguided quest to maximize personal efficiency, was shortchanging my family, my friends, and myself in a quest to do more, more, more. When the kids were little and I was caught up in a flurry of diaper changes and feeding times, it was tempting to think, "I can't wait until this phase is over." But be careful what you wish for, because in the blink of eye it is over, and the kids are gone. I was so caught up in doing the stuff that dads do that I was missing the joys of being a father. What else was my crazy busy schedule causing me to miss? Should my life really be measured only by my productive output?

And so began the personal journey that has become Present Tense Living. How do I spend my time? Why do I spend it that way? What do I want to do with my time? What does God want me to do with my time? Perhaps these questions ring true for you, too. My purpose for exploring them is not a quixotic effort to do nothing--I'm not ready for early retirement--but instead is my attempt to ensure that I spend my time in the way that I want to based on my God-given talents, abilities, and desires. It is fine to be busy. But I want to be busy on things that matter to me.

Do you feel in control, or out of control, of your time?