Too Many Choices

I have a problem when I watch TV. There are so many options I’m constantly thinking about what I might be missing on the other channels. The result: I sometimes spend two hours watching TV only ‘channel surfing’

Because this is a huge problem for me, I guess I can’t expect to resolve it overnight. But I can at least be aware of how it affects me, and I can try not to make it worse by succumbing to the temptation to examine every possibility before making a decision to watch something.

Do you struggle with ‘choice overload’ anywhere in your life? Here’s what I’m learning: to be satisfied with “good enough” instead of always fretting whether I got “the best,” I’m practicing being grateful for what is good in my choices rather than regretful about what is disappointing, and I’m not worrying so much about what I might be missing while trying harder to enjoy the “two” channels I’ve decided to ‘surf’ back and forth on. Trust me, nailing-it-down to only two is a huge accomplishment!

The Darker Side of Choice

I’m finishing up a book, “The Paradox of Choice: How The Culture of Abundance Robs Us Of Satisfaction.” Essentially, this book is dealing with the overload of choices we are faced with daily and why the freedom to choose seems no longer to liberate but actually debilitates. The author writes:

“There is no denying that choice improves the quality of our lives, yet the fact that SOME choice is good doesn’t necessarily mean that MORE choice is better.

There is a cost to having an overload of choice. As a culture, we are enamored of freedom, self-determination, and variety, and we are reluctant to give up any of our options. But clinging tenaciously to all the choices available to us contributes to bad decisions, to anxiety, stress, and dissatisfaction–even to clinical depression.”

Hmm, resonates with me. Our best choice sometimes is the freedom to simplify. I’ll post more on this tomorrow.

If Looks Could Kill

Tempted To Be Spectacular

I confess, I have a great desire to do something great which has both positive and negative potential. The negative potential is that of doing something spectacular that would win me great applause. I’m not proud of that, yet it’s always before me. And, I struggle with the tension of doing something great, not for great applause, but rather out of great love.

Mother Teresa said it best: “We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It’s not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it.”

I’m learning to discipline myself, to resist the temptation to be spectacular, and to immerse myself more fully in the great example Jesus modeled for us in the way of great love and servant leadership. That’s the greatness I desire most!

Reading The Bible Wrongly

I never heard the Bible could be damaging until I read a book, Pai Desideria, by Phillip Spener in one of my history classes in seminary. Spener thought that people who read the Bible in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons, can actually be damaged by their reading. He wrote:

How many readers…do harm to themselves? If…they read without sincere prayer and the purpose to obey God, but only to get knowledge, to make a show, or to use what they’ve learned with pride and for their own glory.

Have you ever met any people who read the Bible the wrong way, for the wrong reasons? It seems to me that Jesus made mention of this several times in the gospels also. What do you think???

Cement That Holds Society Together

Read this, this morning and thought I’d pass it on: There are three qualities without which any civilization is bound to disintergrate…

1.) Honesty. Even those who are prepared to put through a dishonest deal themselves, expect other decent, honest, honorable people to hold society together and to make life possible.

2.) The Spirit of Service. Unless there are at least some people who are prepared to live unselfishly, our whole social structure breaks down.

3.) Purity and Fidelity. Not even those who break them would wish to see them destroyed.

Extraordinary Kind Of Love

Debbie and I are celebrating 18 years of marriage today, and we’ve agreed to “go” another year with the hopes it can still get even better! ) I often think–in a culture where ‘breaking marriage’ is way too common–why has it seemed to work so well for us? I’m really not sure there is a definite answer, but here is what I believe to be true for us:

Friendship is a major component to real enduring love! Sometimes it’s less glamorous, or even less passionate, but it’s deeper and kind of wiser. At the heart of our relationship is a great friendship.

Unfortunately, much of our culture only knows the erotic piece of love, yet it’s only one part of a larger whole. But when the erotic is joined together with commitment and friendship, it becomes a much higher, bigger, complete, extraordinary kind of love that you just can’t let go of!

MLK – In The Name Of Love

Today’s the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death, and yet what he lived for still lives on, why is that? The freedom and equality he preached was motivated by love, in fact, love is the ultimate expression of both.

I can’t help but think that the power of love is the most powerful force in the universe, and it seems to maintain that power in both life and death; that’s why we are still inspired by people like MLK long after they’re gone. Henri Nouwen says it like this:

“The real question before our death, then, is not, how much can I still accomplish, or how much influence can I still exert? but, how can I live so that I can continue to be fruitful when I am no longer here among my family and friends? If the Spirit of God guides our lives–the Spirit of love, joy, peace, gentleness, forgiveness, courage, perserverance, hope, and faith–then that Spirit will not die but will live on!”

Think-abawgt-it!

McSpirituality

I’m currently reading Divine Embrace by Robert Webber. In one chapter, he’s writing about the church’s accommodation to a kind of spiritual consumerism that really made me stop and think: In our consumeristic world, have we:

“…reduced spirituality to attending a few religious services, and having a few heart warming experiences? Have we substituted real spirituality with these various silly imitations and at the end of the day while we have many more people giddy about our church, not many of them are actually more like Jesus?”

I’m still thinking…

N.T. Wright – Coming to Nashville

N.T. Wright, one of the most engaging and interesting thinkers of our day, is coming to Nashville.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
7:30-9:30 P.M.
West End United Methodist Church
2200 West End Avenue
615-749-6123

His writings and teaching have opened my eyes to see the world behind the scriptures come alive, but he’s equally as good at inspiring me to engage the world in front of the scriptures. Btw, I absolutely love his English accent too!