I Forgot!

Don't you hate it when you are getting ready to say something, and it's really profound, then you open your mouth to speak and POOF! the thought is gone? The older people in my life tell me I'm way too young to have that problem. Something must be seriously wrong with me then because I've had this problem for a LONNNG time. I sat down to post something this morning and I was really excited about it. As soon as my fingers hit the keyboard, it was gone! How does that happen?!

My children frequently tell me they forgot. "I forgot to fix my bed" "I forgot you told me never to bludgeon or drop kick my brother" "I forgot you told me never to throw rocks at the car or the house" "In the 10 seconds it takes me to walk from the kitchen to the bathroom I forgot you told me to brush my teeth" and so on.

Voters forget all the time. And so do their representatives! Politicians conveniently forget what they promised their constituients they would do in office and the voters forget to hold them accountable for it come election time.

We forget to pick up the drycleaning or the milk on the way home. We forget to pay the credit card bill. While we are in the shower and already 10 minutes late for work we realize we forgot to pick up more shampoo & deodorant and we forgot to do any laundry the night before. How does that happen? Why does our memory become so clear at the moment of crisis, standing there dripping wet with nothing to wash with, nothing to keep us from sweating and smelling, and it not really not being an issue anyway considering we have nothing to wear?

So many times on our faith journeys we forget a lot of important stuff. We conveniently go along with our lives, forgetting what God has done for us. The nation of Israel sure did it a lot. Read the Old Testament. But, as soon as they realized they were out of shampoo or the Assyrian army was knocking on their door, a moment of clarity came to them. Didn't God get us out of this before?

Those of us on a faith journey today are just as guilty as those Israelites. We bee bop along living happily ever after, many times forgetting the big and small things God has done for us along the way. Does it make him love us any less? No. Is that reason crises comes along? Not necessarily. Would life be better if we didn't forget? You betcha.

Some of us haven't forgotten because we never really knew. Some people are still contemplating whether or not to buy a ticket for this journey. Even for those people, I bet if they looked back on their lives, they would find something they could point to and say, "God did it." I'd grab that memory and find out how to make more.

Forgetting can be good if it helps us to remember the next time. Even that can be redeemed. By the way, don't forget to bring home more milk.

A New Look (inside)

First, thanks to those of you who commented on my last post. Second, thanks to those who came back this week to see if I did resume posting. Just a Thought will continue with something new each week (hopefully). Yeah, I know what you are thinking. "Whew! I don't think I could get by without it." I do hope that for someone each week, this blog will provide some insight that the other 55 million and growing blogs do not.

Which brings me to my purpose. I began this blog for two reasons.
1) To encourage those on a journey of Christian faith to go deeper and farther in their journeys. I set for myself the probably impossible goal of having the impact of a 30 minute sermon in the space of a pocket devotional. From the few offline comments I have received, I think I'm on the right track.
2) I want this blog to be a place where someone not on a faith journey can find connections from matters of faith to their own lives. I had all sorts of visions of the cool, relevant topics that I might write about. I think I have missed the mark on the "cool, relevant" part. But I do think that a person searching for faith and meaning can find those connections here.

Another issue was at work within me two weeks ago when I pushed pause on Just a Thought. I was feeling terribly shallow in my understanding of my own faith. I felt inadequate in my knowledge. I felt I had grown complacent about my own spiritual growth for the sake of my growth as a leader and "producer". I believe God directed me into self-diagnostic and repair mode through several different avenues - other blogs I read regularly, discovery of rusty skills and forgotten knowledge when preparing for a particularly theological heavy sermon, and the growing dissatisfaction of just going about the regular routine and not seeing anything new happen.

So, I did something new. I started a new blog last week. It's very different from this one. It's more like a systematic Bible study and theology class. Actually, it's not like that, it is exactly that. It's there to help me keep my mind sharp. I've also opened myself up to further criticism if people much smarter than I ever read it. And it is a place where I will probably be much more introspective. Though it will appear to be more academic, I hope to keep it plain enough that anyone could understand. That shouldn't be too hard, considering the skill level of the author ;-) BTW, if you do check out the new blog, be sure to start at the bottom of the page. I've already got a few posts there.

But what about here? Do I have any thoughts for this space? I sure do. I spent last week writing a bunch and storing them as drafts for when the time is right. For now, let me encourage you to enter your own self-diagnostic mode. Whatever your stage on your faith journey, it's good to just evaluate your progress. Are you satisfied? Is there anything you'd like to change? Any questions you need to tackle or have someone answer for you? If you are still contemplating the leap into a faith journey, look inside and figure out why.

Thanks for coming back. See you next week.

What are your thoughts?

I read this week that the 50 millionth blog appeared this past summer. 175,000 are added every day. The blogosphere doubles in size every six months.

Which got me to thinking. Out of what is now probably close to 55 million blogs, what makes mine so special? Why even bother? I know why I originally started it, but I don't think it is living up to my vision, if you catch my drift. Maybe it's the pressure of feeling like I have to write something powerful and thought provoking every week.

I had hoped there would be more interaction here with whomever reads it. Perhaps that has been low because of the way in which I have written.

I need your help. Please post some kind of comment. I'm begging for attention. Please notice me! Seriously, I would like to know if anybody really reads this. If they do, I'd like to know what they think. I'd like to know what they'd like to read more of. What do you think this blog's purpose should be?

At any rate, "Just a Thought" will go off the air until Oct 30. In the meantime, tell me what you want to find here.

In the words of Walter Cronkite, "Thank you, and Good Night."

What time is it?

Someone's going to accuse me of being lazy because I've not posted anything new this week until Wednesday. But timing is everything. You gotta have time to do it. And you gotta have someething to say. Some weeks I have more to say than I have time. Others I have more time than I have things to say, at least meaningful things to say. Some weeks I have neither. I'll let you decide which kind of week this is.

Timing is everything in many areas of life. Just ask a major league hitter. Or an all-pro quarterback. Or a race car driver. I know a guy who drag races as a hobby. He says that races are lost by THOUSANDTHS of a second. Timing is everything.

Timing is everything in the world of business. Analysts always offer critique on how some corporation released their product too late and lost out to the competition. Anybody remember the tech stock bubble of the late 90's? I know a lot of people who wished they had been given more time.

Timing is everything in a faith journey. Many people don't realize this. I like to think of matters of faith as equivalent to matters of my health. If I wait too long to go to the doctor, things can become worse, much worse. I read the sad account of a woman in her 30's who just refused to go to the doctor until she knew it was too late. I was reading about her funeral.

For those of us on a faith journey, there will be numerous opportunities to speed up or take a turn to unexplored territories. We might debate them, then decide to go for it. But we miss out on some important gains because we got in too late. Sadly, we usually decide to stay on our current course and not take the risk at that time. And time passes as we miss out.

Timing is everything for people not on a faith journey. Things happen in life that point us in the direction of faith, in the direction of God. We wonder if now is the right time. We decide maybe not. Then another opportunity comes along. We wonder if the right time is then. If we choose not, the cycle repeats. Usually.

I think we eventually run out of time. I don't mean that someday we all die so sieze the moment, although that's not a bad idea. I think you can live the remaining 30 years of your life, yet the time has run out on your chance to take a faith journey. I have no hard evidence, but I have enough anecdotal evidence to rival War and Peace in its length. You can only say "No" so many times before people quit asking.

What time is it in your life? What step of faith, if any, is being asked of you?