Investment or Future Regrets?

The longer this pandemic goes, the more we miss doing normal things. We are waiting for the time to travel, shop, get haircuts, have reunions, and have funerals.

We want to eat out, go swimming, play sports, enjoy concerts.

The normal things of life bring comfort, hope, encouragement, balance, and joy. We miss these touchstones. In their absence, we must find other things to keep us sane.

We lean so much now on family, neighbors, phone calls, and faith. We are reading, walking, praying, resting.

Let's try to think of these months as a time of investment, not a season to be endured.

What are you investing in? In 12 months, you may find yourself thinking: "I wish I had spent that quarantine time doing ___________." Let's try to think of those things now, and really invest. This time is hard enough without creating future regrets.

Zooming by Me

I really miss meeting people in person. I have been Zooming up a storm lately, for all kinds of meetings. But I have to say that I get distracted so easily with that computer screen.

Oooh, I wonder if I have a new email.

Was that my phone vibrating?

Why not have a quick look at Facebook?

What's the stock market doing?

I'll have a look at the news headlines.

Wait...what were you saying? I was paying attention...mostly. I just missed one key thought. Or did I? I'm not sure. I think I can chime in with something appropriate. At least I can make you think I was paying attention.

I need to get a lot more disciplined with this virtual connecting stuff.

Let's get together when we can. When will that be?

Saying Goodbye

Goodbye. God be with you.
Now, you are with God.
So many laughs, so many stories.
You were a magnet for children.
People knew you cared.
Your presence brought peace, assurance.
Rooms lit up every time you walked in.

Now heaven lights up.
It's your stories, your smile.
Now you can hug again, even if we can't.
You paint those word pictures, effortlessly.
You delight in the reunions.
You can finally ask Jesus all those questions.

You have left our hearts full.
But you have left a hole in our lives.
No one can fill your cowboy boots.
May we embrace life with your joy, exuberance, abandon, hope, and faith.
Most of all, may we shower the love of God on all we encounter.
You showed us how.

Designing Your Life

Tomorrow we start a Zoom group that could change your life. We will be working through Designing Your Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. These guys teach in the Stanford School of Design, where students learn about the design process. Students learn about design theory, and apply it to engineering, urban layout, automotive design, manufacturing systems, etc.

Evans and Burnett realized that design theory could also be applied to people's lives. So they introduced a course at Stanford called, "Designing Your Life." After years of teaching this course to full classrooms, the profs decided to write a book, so that everyone could access this life-changing process.

I read this book three years ago, but have not yet worked through it with others. And that is the key ingredient to design: enlisting input from others. You see, the design process is a team effort. No one person invented the iPhone. It took a team. And it still takes a team to tweak it and update it.

With our own lives, others can see our blind spots. They can help us think outside the box. They can put pieces together that we overlooked.

So, I invite you to jump into this study with us at noon on Tuesdays, via Zoom.

Shoot me an email, if you would like to get in on it. david@crossroadsnc.com

Can't wait!

Hope

What brings you hope? Hope comes from belief that something good may happen.
We can hope in circumstances: I hope it won't rain.
We can hope in people: I hope she remembers my birthday.

Hope in people is based on relationship and character.

Hope in circumstances is based on experience, history, and probability.

We need hope today. We can hope in the U.S. economy, our employer, our skills, the stock market, the medical community and all kinds of circumstances. That may be hope well placed.

But our hope in God is much different. We hope that God will show up, that he will redeem the losses we have endured, that he will walk with us through this trial, that he will bring resurrection from the death of COVID-19.

So may your hope be in him.

Love Your Neighbor

It looks like this pandemic is helping us love our neighbors. I met some of mine today, as folks were outside, greeting each other, catching up, and even celebrating a birthday. It's hard to love your neighbors if you don't know them. I have to start somewhere.

If we don't practice better loving-of-our-neighbors, then I think we are really missing one of the main lessons of this plague.

I saw today that the city of Miami has gone seven weeks without a homicide. It's the first time that has happened since 1957. That looks a lot like loving neighbors. Or at least not hating neighbors.

How has your neighbor-loving improved this spring?

Long Hair

Yes, it's been over four weeks since I got my hair cut. Actually I lucked into perfect timing with my last shearing on March 23. When I walked into the barbershop, the governor had just announced the closure of all such establishments in two days. My regular appointment happened to land two days before the order took effect.

It has been interesting to see what my hair does as it grows. I'm finding cowlicks and waves that I never noticed before. I may end up parting my hair again. For years I have not paid much attention to my hair, and virtually never had a bad hair day. But now, I need to make sure it behaves. Of course, there's nowhere to go but the grocery store and Zoom meetings, so hardly anyone gets to see my hair anyway.

I'm sure that most folks have much more issues with their hair. I don't mean to complain. I just want to get a nice trim before I need a ponytail.

Or maybe I'll just shave my head.