Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR: Over the last couple days, I have been convicted. I was on time this morning to give blood, and that voice in my head said “That’s more like it, you’re on time, you’re showing up for this.” Typically, I’ll be exactly at the minute or five minutes late because I’m just giving out of my goodness. I’m just volunteering. It’s not important. But that doesn’t “be your best.”
We just spent a few days talking about The Four Agreements: Be your best. Don’t take anything personally. Be impeccable with your word, and don’t make assumptions.
Over the last couple days, I have been convicted. I was on time this morning to volunteer to give blood, and I went down to the blood center. As I was driving I was like “That’s more like it, that voice in my head, that’s more like it, you’re on time, you’re showing up for this.”
Typically, I’ll be exactly at the minute or five minutes or a couple of minutes late or ten minutes late because I’m just giving out of my goodness and my heart. I’m just volunteering. It’s not important. But that doesn’t be your best, that doesn’t be my best. That isn’t “whatever you do, do it as to the Lord and not unto men.” And so that’s been just like I spoke it and it’s echoing back on me.
I remember years ago when I was on the ski patrol volunteer organization in town, there’s like fifty or one hundred people doing this, and you’re on a regular schedule, so you need to – everybody’s got time off, but people needed to plan ahead and plan for that time. And just so many times, they’d be like “Oh, well, I’m just a volunteer here, so I’m not gonna show up for my shift. I’m gonna let you guys know that I’m not showing up.”
Instead of, yeah, there’s an email blast list, but if that doesn’t work, you should probably be calling people individually and doing your best to cover that position because someone needs to be there. One of the worst things that happens to volunteer organizations is when the volunteers don’t show up. And when we make that commitment to come and volunteer, we need to do that. We need to show up. We need to do that as to the Lord.
Back to me again, we’re not on time for church. Yeah, I get that there’s flexibility and stuff there, but that’s not the point. The point is, what am I showing my kids? I’m showing my kids that these “soft” topics, the most important topics, are flexible. We’ve trained our kids, they know that on time is late, and late is fired, and truly being on time is to be early but showing them that’s just for work.
Also for Bible study, I’ve been pretty good for a couple weeks before I started the sermon series on The Four Agreements. But volunteering and coming together in community is so empowered by commitment, by being there on time, by using and valuing everyone else there when you do it.
So whatever we do, do it as to the Lord. When you volunteer, when I volunteer, do it and show up.
Not so long ago, we were going to our neighbors – they invited all the neighbors down our street for an after holiday party to come together and meet with each other. And we had something come up and we weren’t out the door on time. And my daughter said something about being “fashionably late.”
As I was thinking about that statement, “it’s okay, you’re supposed to be fashionably late.” What is the logic behind that? It might be fear. I don’t want to be there alone with just the host. That fear of intimacy, that fear of someone knowing me.
So I’m gonna try to also give up being fashionably late and be on time for social engagements. Being on time is an opportunity to connect and be vulnerable and know the people, an opportunity to help out and dig in and be part of their lives, to really get to know somebody at a more intimate level. Yeah, the party was good, and we got to know all our neighbors at a more mass social level. The more people the less intimate.
So Fashionably Late is out for me. It may happen due to other unforeseen things or planned things. We got five kids going different directions, and we’ve got our own stuff going on, and we try to do everything. But that’s part of this series – is NOT doing everything. If it can’t be done as to the Lord, maybe the Lord is saying no.
But whatever you do, volunteering, socializing, when you do something – and when I say “you”, I mean “ME” too – when you do something, do it. If you’re not gonna do it, just say “no.”
You be blessed!
