Archive for October, 2008

30
Oct

Much Ado About Nothing

   Posted by: Sandi    in Faith, Life

I didn’t watch Obama’s infomercial last night.

I didn’t watch Pushing Daisies.  Or the World Series.

I read a book.  I helped Builder pull out a tooth (ah, at last there’s one whose location was made known to me!) and settled him to sleep.  I discussed homework with Cyclone.  Laughed with Spousal Unit.  Tended to the concerns of my family.

Then, I let my mind meander until I fell asleep.  Somewhere, oh, after eleven. <tired smile>

The busy-ness of life reminds me much of the title of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.  (I do enjoy Kenneth Branagh’s rendition of this play.  One of my favorite of the Bardic interpretations.)  We concern ourselves with things that seem quite frenetic as they approach us. Matters of high concept or great importance.

And truly, there are matters requiring our attention.

But it is far too often that these Great Matters are so transient in our lives. We invest energy, put up a great “ado,” if you will, about these things.  They pass.  We will continue to get up in the morning, continue to pass our day in the customary fashion, and find some New Matter about which to obsess as time moves along.

Don’t we always?

Yet while these great matters are happening, what is happening to us?  To our relationships?  To the building blocks of our lives?  Are they neglected as we engage in much ado about… Well, nothing permanent? Nothing lasting?  Nothing that will, really, improve the tone of our relationships, the matters of faith, the very best of ourselves that we can give to others?

I am not a political person.  Politics are ephemeral.  I will be voting early, today, as is my right and responsibility.  America will elect Whomever next Tuesday.  It will not likely be a completely fair election, and I am certain we will have to rethink how we choose our leaders in the near future, but still, someone will come out on top.  Promises will be fulfilled, promises will be broken.  Doesn’t matter who lives on Pennsylvania Avenue, in that tightly guarded home-office, discontent and far too much expended negative energy will result.

I am a woman of faith.  Because, to me, my best energies are spent on what lasts. Relationships with God and my family and friends.  These are truly lasting matters.  Worth expending much effort to maintain and defend.  Worth all the “ado” required to keep them healthy.

We only get one shot.  Make sure that whatever you spend your time on, is worth it.  Much Ado About… What?  We each have to fill in the blank for ourselves.

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28
Oct

Good intentions should require responsibility

   Posted by: Sandi    in Life

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”
- Peter Drucker

Drucker was one of the voices of sensible, rational organizational management, consulted by top corporations as well as by independent faith and non-profit organizations.  He understood how people worked together in their failures as well as successes.

The above quote I think is particularly apt as it reflects a responsibility for one’s choices.  It is all well and good to profess one’s heart out, but nothing is truly a “plan” until it has been sweated over with real (not academic) effort.  “Potential plans” are truly just intentions.  Wishes. “Wanna-be’s.”

It’s good to have wishes, it’s good to have goals.  But they’re nothing but empty words until you’ve got your hands dirty and your brow wet in trying to achieve them. Until your heart aches over failures.

Until you’ve taken responsibility for making your plans become reality, they’re just daydreams, really.  Attractive, luminescent, but insubstantial.

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26
Oct

What does he expect of me?

   Posted by: Sandi    in Faith

“I’m a good person.”

“I know a lot of Christians who aren’t as kind/loving/fair/good as this other person.”

“I think Heaven will be open to anyone who does their best.”

Nice sentiments, surely, but that is not what is taught in the word of God.

“What does he expect?  I go to church, I give, I volunteer…  Why do I feel it’s not enough?”

Jesus was pretty explicit regarding what is expected of someone.  Some folks feel that their actions are what matters. And actions are very important! They are not, however, of first importance.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind,” Jesus said in the gospel of Matthew.

Of first importance is not what we do. Not how we treat others. Not how much we have given, given, given.  Because actions can be deceptive.  I know that I have done things many times for the wrong reasons.  Out of a sense of guilt or obligation, perhaps, or a wish for self-aggrandizement, maybe.  The deeds might have looked good, but God knew my heart.  Those deeds – any deeds alone – do not make up for a heart that does not follow that first priority.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.”

What does he expect?  What does God, who made all that there is and enjoys showing us his handiwork as we see pictures from a NASA website or marvel at the persistence of a spider digging a hole in the sand, want from us first?

Our love. Our devotion.  A relationship that is real.

One day, we will all meet him. Scripture says that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  Some, I think, will do so out of heartbreak, knowing they have been wrong, all of their lives.

But some will do so out of sheer joy and amazement and wonder.

And love.

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