Sunday, September 30, 2012

Too Busy–Give Time Away

I am really overwhelmed at this point.  I run effectively two businesses now, teach two classes, am on this years class of Leadership Cleveland, am part of a small group men’s bible study, am part of the advisory group of Christian Business Owners Fellowship, and mentor couples about to be married with my wife.  It just seems like I don’t have time to breathe.  Wah, Wah!

A few weeks back a friend from the small group men’s study asked for help in his new home.  Usual guy stuff – move furniture around, paint walls, etc.  To compound things, this guy lives a good half-hour away.  I couldn’t just drop by.  I said no, I just couldn’t.  He fortunately got help from our group as other guys stepped up.  He then asked for help again several weeks later and I said no I couldn’t then either.  Again, other guys stepped up.  Finally, we were doing a group project at a local ministry and again I said I couldn’t. 

You know if we have so little margin for other people we are probably overcommitted and I probably am.  I am going to have to make some changes to give margin.  The other thing is that I need to view service from a different perspective.  Of all things Harvard Business Review had the following podcast which I have uploaded to Soundcloud and is embedded below.  The premise if you can’t listen to it is that studies have shown that if you help people, by some miracle you have more time or seemingly more time.  How could that be?

Don’t each of us have 24 hours in a day?  I don’t get any more because I am special.  Yet, if we give away some of our time, we have more to get.  That is what this secular author is saying.  Yet it makes all the biblical sense in the world.  It is all about serving and helping people and somehow when that happens you have more time to spend.  God has wired us this way and when we get buried in our own agenda, we are missing out on what he wants best for us. 

I have to be reminded that I need to make time to be with and serve others.  If that happens, I believe the refreshment that comes from that will make me a better, more well rounded person.  Maybe even my work will get done regardless. 

Monday, September 10, 2012

Political Correctness - Those Were the Days

Sometimes I am just overwhelmed by the amount of political correctness that occurs today.  In the world of Twitter, Facebook, etc., the amount of conversation has increased dramatically, but so has the hyper-sensitivity.  As every word is recorded, so is it scrutinized.  It really makes people overly sanitize their statements making doubly and triply sure they have not offended anyone.

Consider GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin’s recent comments on rape.  Stupid, yes.  Misinformed, yes.  But no one truly believes that Akin believes rape is ok.  His comments were taken out of context and “gotcha politics” were quick to capitalize on his dumb statement.  I make dumb statements all the time and certainly knowing that they might be taken out of context makes me think twice.  However, is this kind of sanitization of speech what we want?  When it comes to potentially offending someone, we are hyper-sensitive. 

Do you remember this guy?

What happens when you have two outspoken racists at a party?  You get quite a show.  We cringed watching Archie Bunker, but for whatever it was worth, you got at least the words out.  It exposed him for what he was.  I think that is probably better in the long run than our PC culture sometimes today.  Do you yearn for the Harry Truman “tell it like it is” kind of guy.  I know I sometimes do.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

A Game That Tests Failure

Just completed another season playing baseball.  It is still a kick playing the game that I have loved since my youth.  I got started playing baseball as an adult when Debsue sent me to Indians Fantasy Camp for my 40th birthday.  I had been playing in some pretty competitive softball leagues in the NE Ohio area.  But once I stepped foot on the hardball diamond and started playing that game again, I was hooked.  That was twelve years ago.

I play with the Kent Mudhens in the Roy Hobbs 47 and over league.  I have kind of made my way along starting in the 38 and over and then retiring from that an moving up an age group.  I also play in a 38 and over Cleveland baseball league as a part-time player for the Bay Bisons.  We play from early May through August.  We also play in late October, early November in Florida for a week. 

Baseball is a tough sport.  Kind of like golf, it tests your ability to accept failure.  By way of illustration, about three weeks ago, I had a great game on a Sunday afternoon where I hit three doubles in a game in addition to a single and a walk.  The sound of a solid hit just kind of sticks with you and I had three solid doubles in that game.  My daydreams rehearsed those hits over and over again.  Unit Tuesday that is when I played for the Bisons on Tuesday night.  They hit me cleanup and I promptly went 0 for 5 with two double plays and striking out with the bases loaded.  As if that wasn’t enough, I lost a fly ball in the lights in left field.  A truly humbling experience.

Fast forward a week to that team when we played a much better team in the playoffs.  We were tied 2-2 going into the top of the eighth (we were visitors).  We got men on 2nd and 3rd with two out and our number three hitter up (I hit cleanup again – I guess they didn’t learn enough from the previous game).  They intentionally walk our guy to face me with the bases loaded.  The drama is further enhanced because the opposing pitcher and I played as teammates for eight years.  He gets to one ball and two strikes and my instincts are just to put the ball in play, but he grooves one and I line it into the gap driving in all three runners and then I score also as the ball gets by the catcher.  So now we are up 6-2 going into the ninth.  Unfortunately, we could not hold the lead and lost 7-6.  My teammates called me the “would-be hero”. 

The following Sunday, our Mudhens team got absolutely clobbered 23-2 by a fairly mediocre team.  I had never seen us so poor.  We normally are a good team.  I crowned my performance with a 1 for 5 hitting.  My last at-bat was an embarrassing strikeout captured by my wife below.  You can hear my little groan as I miss the last pitch.

I have a hard time accepting failure.  In baseball, I would fling my bat, utter a profanity here and there.  Most times my teammates didn’t hear my response, but they certainly could see my reaction.  Baseball like life tests the crucible of our inner fabric.  We all fail, but it is how we learn and respond that tests who we really are.  After a major business failure a few years back, I find I am a better person.  I am much more aware of who I am.  I also find that failure means that we take success much more in stride.  I am not in any way saying that we shouldn’t strive for success.  However, failure is really what makes us what we are. 

I found that my failure makes me more pliable, more useful to God, and more sympathetic to others.  God doesn’t shield Christ followers from failure.  He uses failure to make us better people.  Even the great hitters experience some failure.  Winners of batting titles fail 2 out of 3 times.  The game makes us good at striving for success but able to use failure to make us better.