Summer nights are purposeless and wonderful. On one of these I started skimming through "Eat That Frog" at Barnes N Nobles, a time management book that I seriously needed to both diagnose and remedy by organizational issues. Sick of my unsuccessful, grossly mediocre existence, I slowly lapsed into life planning mode. I began to see this picture of myself as the glistening wonder of perfection who accomplished all she set out to do. With the simple implementation of these methods my life would be so much better. I would be organized. Successful. A vision of beauty. Lets be real, all I needed to do was memorize each principle and force it into habit.
After the second chapter I put it down and started regurgitating all of the information to the helpless victim of my mother sitting across table. My mom, being a combination of selflessness and endless zeal for learning, was actually engaged in listening to me ramble about my sorry life and how these principles were going to help me be more organized. But sometimes rambles have purpose. This time it led to a realization gem I discovered as it came out of my mouth. The blurb went something to the effect of, "Mom, this book makes really good points, but the reason why I'm uncomfortable modeling my life habits out of it is because, although I would be made more effective, I don't know if the goal of life is effectiveness."
I promise I'm not just playing Mrs. philosophical here to be cute or clever. Getting to the root of things actually makes a huge difference. So we're all aware that our lives, broken down, pretty much are determined by what we do. I once heard a quote I loved, "You create your habits, then your habits create you." The problem is that we get so used to living a certain way and dealing with the consequences, that we often fail to see the importance of re-thinking why we're doing something, and whether or not its a legitimate reason. The second problem is that too many of us let our immediate external influence, literally, decide what our values are. Whether its contemporary culture, family, friends, or books we've been exposed to. And the third problem is our lack of confidence in the fact that we are fully capable, in the most practical way, of changing our values and habits to crate a different life for ourselves. Point blank: we're creatures of choice. Our choices determine our lives.
All of what you do flows from why you do it, whether you're aware of your motives or not. All of why you do things stems from what you believe is important. Thus, all of what we do (skipping a few steps) is determined by what we really think is important. For instance, the book Eat That Frog is tooting the horn of time management for the purpose of being the most effective that you can. I think its great to be successful, efficient, and proficient at your vocation. However, efficiency was only ever meant to be an outcome, not a fundamental. So it follows that if efficiency is your Bible, well, you might be moderately happy but you won't be thriving. Because you were not made to be merely efficient. Everything that makes up you was fashioned for something more profound, more beautiful.
Do we want to be human doings or human beings? Is the purpose of life to make every minute count and be so conscious of the counting?
Really, now, what should our Bible's be saying? We all need one; we all have one. It might not be the Christian Bible but you still operate by something that propels you to make all of the decisions that you do. According to our friend Webster, the definition of Bible is "any authoritative book. The Scriptures of any religion." Your Bible could be the randomness of your desires at whim. It could be a combination of what school has taught you is important, and the values your family raised you with. Regardless, I think it would do us all a great service to blow off the dust of our Bibles, find out what they really say, and see if they are harmonious with the truth that formed the foundations of the earth by which everything operates in accordance with. If they are dissonant we are bound to be frustrated. Endlessly lacking.
So discover. Analyze. Decide. Change.
The difference between living for efficiency at base or living for something like grace, love, and the glory of God is astronomical. You will not just live, but thrive.
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