We Must Not Fear

Is change really so frightening? Change does not mean dark days, it means a willingness to risk new actions in order to get new, better results. “Change” is not a frightening word when we are already in dark days. Then “change” is a word of hope and a concept of empowerment. Why is "change" such a scary concept now?

Change is certain. Life itself is a process, not a steady state. It is by digging in heels and fighting to remain in that impossible steady state that we give up any control we might have over the outcome of this change. First, accept that there will always be a moment following the current one, and a moment following the next. Each moment exists with its own states and momentums, always in flux. These forces can be shaped and guided as we desire, but only once we accept that they exist.

Brothers and sisters, “change” is not evil. “Change” is not destructive in its own right. Change is whatever we make it into.

Bust-Butt Attitude

Talk to me any day, and I will proudly tell you that I love to work. I don't love doing mindless, often pointless, repetitious tasks. I can't stand trading my mortal time for a couple of dollars. But I love work.



Work is the act of creating value with actions. Most people tell themselves that they don't have time to do small tasks. They can't be bothered to help. A wonderful example of this is watching a Taekwando class set up at the local college. More than eighty percent of the people in this class are greenhorns. These people have little to no experience in a pseudo-military environment, and some adapt faster than others.



The first group of people, the doers, are in control of their lives, outcome, and surroundings. Some of them can be in the middle of a category 5 shitstorm and not feel helpless. At the very least, they do not wait. Things do not happen to them, things happen because of and around them. They turn each event to use. They work to overcome the inertia of idleness.



The second are the followers. They do not have control of their lives, and are generally somewhat lost, in a holding pattern, and unwilling to put forth effort to acheive a goal. They flounder. They do the bare minimum. The goal is simply declared "too hard" and discarded. The quick learn quicker not to expect true excellence from members of this group.



In order to set up for this class, two or three people need to go to a different portion of the building and fetch the mats. If there will be sparring or pad drills, that gear needs to be retrieved as well. But many is the time I have seen one, three, or even five people stand and wait in the empty gym, waiting for the equipment to magically appear. Then we doers arrive (or have already arrived and are bringing in equipment), and the rest of the class simply watches it all happen. No-one moves. No-one volunteers to assist in any small manner, from giving a mat a small push as we unroll it to maybe--gasp--walking with us to fetch the rest of the equipment.



Avoid these people. Surround yourself with doers, who evaluate and improve their own results. Who set up their own goals, ask for assistance, respect greater skill and knowledge, and most of all, do everything they can, in every field they can, whenever they can.



It isn't tough to have a bust-butt attitude. All you have to do is increase the value of things within your sphere through both small and large efforts. Pick up the flyer the person in front of you dropped rather than leaving it on the ground. When it's automatic, you don't even have to break stride. Don't wait for people to ask for help, offer it. Many times, you don't even have to ask. Just give your assistance in carrying out the details of the task at hand. Rather than standing around, ask where you can be useful. Even better, look for a place, identify it, and go be useful there! Why bother to ask a higher-up's permission when you can take the initiative?



Veteran wildland firefighter Peter Leschak writes of "developing a reputation as a 'good crew'" through hard work, volunteering for every assignment offered, and most of all, doing this work efficiently. On many fires, this attitude on the part of even a few crewmembers has been enough to earn a mention of their "bust-butt attitude." Among fire grunts, that takes something special! Leschak tells of working a shift with one crew recruited from the city by the Job Service. Because of the sheer amount of fire in the West that year, these people had not been through the regular process that self-selects the self-motivators and efficient workers for assignments on fires. Leschak's experience quickly revealed that these people, average joes in every sense, had no place on the fireline.



In fact, most people will act like the Job Service crew most of the time, throughout most of their lives. They will stand around while other people bust their butts on things that are "not my problem." Do this in a high-performance situation and you will be pulled out of that situation. Do this in everyday life and you will do nothing special.



______________________



In essence, that's what I mean when I say I love to work. I love to spend my idle time identifying and then doing all of the small, asynchronous tasks around me that most people leave undone. Oftentimes this means nothing more than working on the details of making my everyday performance better. When I choose to do something, I do it with a purpose. There is no place for being half-assed in a life well-lived. Take pride in the details. In my efforts to do everything I do as well as possible, I've come up with a few basic tenets to guide a purposeful life.



-- First, do no harm.

-- Seek learning and experiences



-- It is not the mark of a professional to deal well with action. It is the attitude and behavior in lulls that distinguishes the professional from the layman.



-- On the same token, the smallest thing you do reflects on you. Nothing is "close enough" only because nobody else is watching.



--You are always on duty.



-- Be your own worst critic, be your own best motivator.



-- Keep your own counsel, but seek the advice of people more capable than you.



--No situation is a waste of time until you are not learning anything from it.



-- Share the glory with whom it is due, but when something goes awry, aways shoulder the full responsibility.



-- "Sorry" means it won't happen again.



-- When you make a mistake, work to make it right.



-- Nobody can "make" you feel or act a certain way. It is always a choice.



--Everything is possible.



-- Avoid poisonous people, poisonous attitudes, and poisonous environments. Something is wrong when you say "I can't because..." and not "How can I?"

How? Imagine.

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one



How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing?
How can I go forward when I don't know which way to turn?
How can I go forward into something I'm not sure of?
Oh no, oh no
How can I have feeling when I don't know if it's a feeling?
How can I feel something if I just don't know how to feel?
How can I have feelings when my feelings have always been denied?
Oh no, oh no

You know life can be long
And you got to be so strong
And the world is so tough
Sometimes I feel I've had enough

How can I give love when I don't know what it is I'm giving?
How can I give love when I just don't know how to give?
How can I give love when love is something I ain't never had?
Oh no, oh no

You know life can be long
You've got to be so strong
And the world she is tough
Sometimes I feel I've had enough

How can we go forward when we don't know which way we're facing?
How can we go forward when we don't know which way to turn?
How can we go forward into something we're not sure of?
Oh no, oh no

What if?

A friend of mine has suggested that if you want to save the world, ask a child. I know she's not the first. But really, why ask a child? What's so special and wise about someone who can't think for themselves? They haven't seen the world, so how can they fix it? Is the world even broken?

Yes, my friends, that and more. Ask a child because they do think for themselves. Ask a child because when you get an answer, they won't be thinking of themselves. Ask a child how to help a child. Ask a child how to help your againg parents. Ask a child about death when you're feeling down. Ask a child about pain when you're feeling cocky. If you're hot shit, why ask someone who sits in their own shit?

Why not?

The people who haven't decided that the world is normal and nothing can change, they're the people we need to have as advisors. Advisors should NOT be seen-and-not-heard. Advisors like these need to be given priority, and given an honest ear.

Young blood runs in the streets in Athens and Gaza and Mumbai. Young blood runs in the veins of the movers, the shakers, the visionaries and the revolutionaries. Tap the flow of the second to stem the flow of the first.

Ask anyone under three feet tall anything and you'l get an answer in Ifspeak. Why did we stop speaking Ifspeak? Ifspeak is the language of the people who advance our world. Can'tspeak is the language of the people that drain our world. What if we really could eliminate global hunger? We can't, you say? What if we just run the numbers. We can't redirect those resources anyway? Why not? Why should you be the one to say that ntohing can change. Push your pencil elsewhere, Jack, I'm pushing the truth.

Whiskey Lullaby

She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette

She broke his heart he spent his whole life tryin' to forget

We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time

But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind

Until the night

1st Chorus

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger

And finally drank away her memory

Life is short but this time it was bigger

Than the strength he had to get up off his knees

We found him with his face down in the pillow

With a note that said I'll love her till I die

And when we buried him beneath the willow

The angels sang a whiskey lullaby

The rumors flew but nobody know how much she blamed herself

For years and years she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath

She finally drank her pain away a little at a time

But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind

Until the night

2nd Chorus

She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger

And finally drank away his memory

Life is short but this time it was bigger

Than the strength she had to get up off her knees

We found her with her face down in the pillow

Clinging to his picture for dear life

We laid her next to him beneath the willow

While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby.

Hopefully the last in a series of posts about this sort of thing

Isn't it interesting that the times you want drugs or alcohol the most are the times you need them least?

That unless you stay stone-cold sober, you'll never get out of whatever hole you've stepped into?
It's not how a man takes the good times that counts, not in the end. It's how he takes the bad times. Does he crawl into a bottle and drink the mortgage payment, or does he cut back on his own indulgence first, so the people he loves don't have to? Does he face the challenge, or does he ignore it, run away to the next one?

No matter how dark times get, they can always get darker. Things don't get better on their own. You have to make them get better. Whether it's unfair wages or a dead-end relationship, it's up to you to fix it. Sometimes that means getting out of the situation. Other times that means fixing the situation. Most of the time you just need to fix your own perspective. But it always means doing something.

Not everything you can do helps. You can grab a shovel and help your own gravediggers twice as easy as you can pull yourself up out of that grave. But you can't change anyone but you. That's all you really need, really. Nobody can make you think or feel or believe anything if you don't let them. If you aren't content with "almost" or "could have," if you are willing to try that much harder instead of just complaining, you can overcome anything. Even if the objective hazard is too great and death is certain, there is a certain dignity in facing your own death with integrity.

The wisest people are those who don't say so.

"He stood like a rock, a man among men. Then he let that lumberjack hit him again... then with a voice as kind as could be, he cut him down like a big oak tree. He said: 'You got to walk that lonesome valley. You got to walk it by yourself. Lord, nobody else can walk it for you. You got to walk it by yourself.'" -- "Reverend Mr. Black" by The Kingston Trio

This article is from Mind Mullings, a blog by a fellow in Colorado Springs. I came across his blog purely by chance, but I've bookmarked and frequented it because I think he's a wiser fellow than many.

Have you ever planted a tree? I have…lots of em.’ When a tree comes from the nursery it is “balled and burlaped.” The roots are wrapped to protect them until the tree gets planted. Imagine what would happen if the burlap never came off of the rootball. Would the tree grow strong and healthy? Nope. In fact, it would die. The roots would get so confined that the tree would actually kill itself. Just because it is a tree doesn’t automatically mean it can grow. It needs water, sunlight, and space to thrive in.

Now you may be wondering why I’m giving you a tree planting lesson. I don’t expect many of you plant trees on a regular basis but the question I have for you is: are you in a place where you can grow?

You might be okay right now at the nursery wrapped in your protective burlap but what will happen in two years if you haven’t planted yourself somewhere? What will happen in five years if you are still wrapped in the burlap and you haven’t grown in stature, wisdom or other things of the Lord? What will happen if you manage to plant yourself but don’t get any sunlight, water or space?

Be like an old oak tree; never stop growing.

Here are three practical suggestions:
Put yourself in places where you can grow. Sitting at home watching sitcoms doesn’t cut it.
Ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of areas in your life you need to grow
in. Ask for humility while working on these areas.
Talk to a close friend and ask them what your weakest character trait is. Work on it.