Workout:  Describe or list the attributes of what equals a “Good Day” for you.

A few weeks back I had what I considered a really good work day.  It started with an exciting problem-solving meeting with a friend and client in the morning, then a cup of coffee  in one of my favorite book stores skimming the new book section, and later another meeting with a potential client brainstorming how to grow their business.   I drove home that afternoon feeling pretty darn positive about the whole day.  I realized that there are certain elements that make up that proverbial “good day” for me, i.e.challenging assignments that I feel contribute in a meaningful way to helping people.  If that happens I’m singing a pretty happy tune.

Speaking of singing, every time I hear the phrase “it was a good day” I always fill it in with Ice Cube’s “didn’t have to use my A.K.”  I went and found the lyrics and now have a pretty good idea of what Ice Cube characterizes (at least back then in this rap) as a good day

Just waking up in the morning gotta thank God
I don’t know but today seems kinda odd
No barking from the dogs, no smog
And momma cooked a breakfast with no hog

Plus nobody I know got killed in South Central L.A.
Today was a good day

Plus nobody I know got killed in South Central L.A.
Today was a good day

…
Today I didn’t even have to use my A.K.
I got to say it was a good day.

Essentially, his list includes:

• No barking dogs
• No hog (bacon) for breakfast
• No AK-47 assault rifle usage
• Meeting with a pretty girl
• Good rolls in dice game
• Excellent basketball performance reminiscent of Michael Jordan

Your good day may (hopefully, in some of those cases) differ from Ice Cube’s.  Regardless, he has a pretty clear vision of what is “good” for him.  When you have this vision the next step is figuring out how to make it consistently happen.

Think about what equals a good day for you

• at work
• at home
• vacationing or on a day off

If I add these up I begin to get a picture of what a good week might look like and a good month or year.  Put them all together and those good days, months and years total life.  Go for it!

***Link to youtube video of Ice Cube’s “It was a good day.”  NOT WFS (work/family/safe)!! It’s Ice Cube!! ***

Warning:  This post is NOT drama free and is only as deep and meaningful as you make it.

Just got back from the beach. And yes, it was another beautiful day in Hawaii.  I went to surf with my family but sat along the shore for about 15 minutes.  I wish I could say I was contemplating deep, spiritual, and philosophic thoughts but I can’t ’cause I wasn’t.  What I was doing was sitting on the sand watching the waves roll in because I was – cold.  There.  I said it.  Cold as in not warm, as in brrrrrr…I couldn’t motivate myself to get off the sand and into the water. So I sat there. And contemplated.  And thought.

One of my sons, Micah, was already in the water, catching waves, braving the icy chill of the noon time Pacific ocean.   He’s always been the first in, last out boy.  The other was contemplating the uh, conditions, with me.

Two things pushed me past the cold. It wasn’t the waves because the conditions weren’t that great (in fact, if I really had gone to surf I would’ve turned around and gone home instead). The first thing was that I had come to surf with my two boys, to be in the water, hang out, spend some time together.  They’re both getting older and pretty soon I’ll be going to the same beach but surfing alone.  I want to receive this day as the gift it is. Being and wanting to be “being,” both physically and spiritually in that moment, pushed me past my warm, comfortable spot on the sand.

The second reason I got in the water was that I recalled, simply and profoundly, my mortality.  Not only are my days of surfing with my teen-aged sons quickly passing, but my own days of physically being able to get out in the water and surf are measured.  I turned to the “contemplative” son next to me and said, “I’m going out and I’m going to relish in the cold!  I’m going to savor each moment of that initial, icy plunge because this is how I know I’m alive!  I can feel.  I want to feel.  I’m going out in that water and I will feel because I’m alive.”

No joke.  I’m not kidding or making this up.  This is what was going through my brain and what we were talking about.  A little dramatic?  Maybe.  (More like a little traumatic for my boy but he’s used to it…)  He raised one eyebrow, grinned at me, rose to his feet and moved to stand at the shore beside me.  When that first touch of cold blue hit my feet I slowed, but only for a moment.  Then I grinned, raised my one eyebrow, turned my face out to the sea, and keeping with the spirit of the moment, embraced the drama by yelling “I’m alive!” as I plunged into the waves.

You may have heard that saying “good is the enemy of best” but I’m thinking that good, and it’s doppelganger adjective bad may both be enemies of the soul.  There have been some times in the past few years where some good things happened, and at the time, these things seemed – good; they felt positive, beneficial even.  And I was happy. Then, as the world turned, those same previously identified good things turned into bad things.  And I became unhappy.

Now, I’m wondering if this dichotomous good/bad, up/down world-view is keeping me on the proverbial life roller coaster.  Should I be avoiding these extremes and search for constancy or could there be, maybe, another way to look at the situations?

Ancient Taoist Proverb

One day, a farmer’s horse ran away. His neighbors expressed sympathy, “What terrible luck that you lost your horse!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

A few days later, the horse returned, leading several wild horses. The neighbors shouted, “Your horse has returned, and brought more with him. What great fortune!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the wild horses and got thrown to the ground, breaking his leg. The villagers cried, “Your son broke his leg, what a calamity!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, conscripting all the able-bodied young men for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son because of his broken leg. Friends shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

Moral: Everything is not what it appears to be.

I’ve gone back and forth with questions abounding on the farmer’s maybe attitude.  Is living a life of non-judgment where there is no good and no bad a “good” thing?  Can I, or should I, even ask that question? Do I want to negate the highs in my life to avoid the lows? Is to live a maybe life to live a monotone life?

This story has fascinated me for years.  It has its analog in the New Testament book of Philippians where the apostle Paul states:

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

If I superimpose Paul’s contentment with the farmer’s maybe I begin to get the picture.  Simply put, it’s good to be content.  I don’t want to live a life of no goods or bads for how could I be happy without the sad?  But my goods and bads are difficult to determine from my temporal vantage point.  How am I to know the difference?  Maybe I don’t need to know.  What I need is to be content.

Contentment is no cop-out, it’s not constant dull and dreary.  To live with contentment is different than to live with constancy.  Constancy, with no highs or lows, just a straight line life, is not the life this soul desires.  A straight line on your heart monitor is called a flat line, so call it a dead soul life, no bass no treble.  Contentment allows me to experience life fully, with all its glorious goods and bads.

So, it’s not good OR bad or maybe but rather good AND bad AND maybe.  This addition of maybe allows me to withhold judgment in favor of contentment, to substitute my limited perspective with limitless serenity.

And this, to my soul, is good.

A few weeks ago I put up a quote on my facebook page that got a lot of interesting responses  from people.  It wasn’t meant to be devisive – just to make me think.

Going to church is to spiritual growth as running is to fitness.

Some responses focused on the discipline required for both.  Others said that running isn’t the “only” way to get in shape and neither was going to church.  One person mentioned that running was an easy way to start working out; it doesn’t require a lot of investment or upfront costs and you can get a lot out of it pretty quickly – just like attending a church.

Is running good for you?  Sure. Can you lose weight and strengthen your cardiovascular system?  Yep, I’ve lost the weight and I can find the reports that say it’s good for me.   Will running make your muscles stronger?  Well…sort of.  What about giving me improved balance? Will running improve my coordination or agility?  What about power?

Running is good.   Going to a church service on a Sunday is good.  Both require other activities to complete you as an athlete and as a person.

Three Questions:
1.  Who is/are your role model(s)?  What
2.  Where do you fall short of walking the thoughts and the talk?
3. Who is following you and do you want them to go where you’re heading?

Last week I wrote about thinking, about being conscious and aware of what goes on in our minds.  The apostle Paul, in the letter to the Phillipians instructs us to consider those things that are true, noble, right – good things.  That’s in verse 8.  Over the past 20+ years I think I’ve quoted that verse about a thousand times more than the one immediately following.  Verse 8 is beautiful, one of my favorites.  Verse 9 is one of the most difficult and arduous things imaginable – do it.

Paul says that as we think noble thoughts we are to do noble things.  We are to put into practice, he admonishes, those things we have seen him do or heard him say. Essentially, we’re not just to think good, we are to do good, do pure, do right.  Walking what we’re talking about; walking what we are thinking about.

When you add in verse 9 it presupposes someone in our life that has contributed to who we are and how we are.  It assumes there is (was) someone we could model ourselves after, we could follow behind and learn from. Who is that person in your life?  A parent, a friend, teacher or coach?  What did they do that made them that person for you? Do those things too.

I’ll also suggest (and here it adds a bit more pressure) that there is someone following us, or that there should be, and we should be thinking, walking and doing in such a way that our “followers” benefit from it.  Your friends, co-workers, spouse, and children – even the people driving next to you on the freeway are watching where you’re going. Consider these questions:

• Husbands/Wives, do you want your wife/husband to be thinking and doing what you are thinking and doing?
• Parents, do you want your children to be where you are when they grow up?
• Would you even want the people around you to know what you’re thinking?

If not, think and DO something about it.  It may be a slow process of change but pick one thing you’re not doing that you should and try and add it into your life.  Or, take out just one thing you’re doing that you should not be doing and get rid of it.  Pick small things first and get stronger.  As your success rate increases your confidence to take on the larger dos/don’ts will too.

Show up; keep it up.  We’re talking about long term changes.  If you miss one, get back and try again.  Don’t beat yourself up over it.  That’s why it’s called practice.  Make an inventory of YOU and what you’re trying to do.  Checklist are motivating when you see progress.

Don’t forget verse 9.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. Phil. 4:8 AND 9

WORKOUT:  1.  This week spend time thinking about what you think about.  2.  Thing about these things (Phil. 4:8)

For the past couple of months I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about — stuff.  House stuff, gardening stuff, work stuff, family stuff, ocean stuff.  Not too much spiritual stuff.  Not much of the stuff that strengthens my soul just a lot of lounging on the spiritual couch.  So, now it’s the start of a new year and nothing like that turn into January to get me thinking about spirituality and soul fitness again.

TOMA
I guess one of the good things about going to church every Sunday is that you’re reminded (gently or otherwise depending on your persuasion) about that soul part of you.  Since I haven’t been attending church (you should probably ask why so I have to explain it) that at-least-once-a-week-reminder hasn’t been in place and I’ve had to try to keep it TOMA on my own.  In the marketing/business world lingo TOMA stands for Top Of Mind Awareness and it’s what commercials are designed to get from you.  When you’re hungry, McDonald’s wants you to think of a Big Mac FIRST before any other hamburger, taco or pizza.  If you do, then Mikey D’s would be at your TOMA. My life TOMA recently has been filled with stuff non-spiritual.

You are What You Think About
Gluten-free, Fat-free, free-range, sugar-free, grass-fed — the adjectives that describe the quality of our food are now increasingly entering our awareness.  That old adage “you are what you eat” is more relevant than ever with the premise being if you want to be healthier eat better food.  I can follow that for the body but what about the soul?  How do I get soul healthy, soul fit? What do I need to eat?  What pill can I take?  What book series, sermon, church/pastor, cd, should I read, listen to attend??

I have a short answer for you:  whichever, whatever or whoever helps you to keep that spiritual part of you at the highest TOMA, the longest and most consistently.  For some people that means going to church on Sunday morning and evening and mid-week fellowship groups.  For others those exercises are more distracting than focusing.

One guy I talked to recently told me that he used to spend his Sundays looking for God at church.  He said that the politics and problems in that community were so frustrating for him that he gassed up his dirt bike and has been spending his Sundays looking for, and more often meeting with, God up in the mountains on the trails.

Others find that regularly reading the bible in the morning, spending quiet times with God, listening to certain types of music before they begin their day stays with them through their day.

Use it or Lose it
Normally, the soul, the spirit, almost by definition, is intangible, that which we cannot touch, see, hear with our normal senses.  There are physical things, though, tangible things like books, music, etc., that affect the spiritual part of me, some more than others.  Certain people even help me to keep my attention on spiritual things.  If I want to be stronger spiritually, if I want my soul to be fit, I must use it, exercise it, turn it on, more often and with increasing intensity.

Where Your Attention Goes, Your Energy Flows
So, what do we think about?  Think about it.  What touches your soul?  What reaches your spirit?  Paul the Apostle, in his letter to the church at Phillippi, says

“whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

This is the workout this week:  Focus our attention on such things for as long as we can, AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible). Post times and challenges and thoughts to comments.

People nowadays talk about the need to put down the remote (and the fork) and get your body moving but have you considered that your feelings need working out too?  There’s a great word, apathetic, that I see too much of.  Here’s Webster’s definition:

Main Entry: ap·a·thet·ic

Pronunciation: \?a-p?-?the-tik\

Function: adjective

Date: 1744

1 : having or showing little or no feeling or emotion : spiritless
2 : having little or no interest or concern : indifferent

synonyms see impassive

— ap·a·thet·i·cal·ly
\-ti-k(?-)l?\ adverb

Interesting synonym in “spiritless.”  Apathy is from a Greek word that means literally without patheia, no passion or feeling.  Wikipedia describes it as being linked to the phrase made widely known during World War I called “shell shocked” used to describe soldiers who grew numb and desensitized to the horrors of war.

Thankfully, most of us haven’t had to go through that level of intensity and despair but if we look around and within we see what I consider alarming numbness

What does it take to get your emotional self off the couch? Do you feel anymore?  Do you allow yourself to feel?  When was the last time you cried? You can tell a lot about yourself by looking at what moves you – what makes you feel happy, sad or mad – or by your lack of movement emotionally.

Start by making a list of movies that have made you cry.

Here’s some of mine:

• The Notebook - if you didn’t cry in this one something is wrong.  Don’t get married unless your boyfriend/girlfriend broke down at the end…
• The Lion King - my kids had to move a couple of rows over in the theater during this show so they wouldn’t get sloshed by my sobs.  When Mufasa died, when the older Simba looked up in the sky and heard his father speaking to him, when Simba gazed out over the land at the end – all tear-worthy.
• Whale Rider – one of my all time favorites!  I lose it (gain it?) every time Paikea gives her speech – “My name is Paikea.  I come from a long line of chiefs.”  Even just writing that – ooohh, chicken skin!

What about you?  Put some titles in the comments.  Allow some patheia in your life.

“Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do.“-  Gian-Carlo Menoi

This quote stops me.  It forces me to look, to really search for who I am and what I’m supposed to be doing.  When I can say “I’ve done my best,” I can say I’m done.  Until then, I must continue to do as Paul the Apostle when he says:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

I don’t want to waste a sunrise.

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.  — Cicero

Cleaning up the other day I found loads of old pictures, love letters and a few missing marbles.  I couldn’t help but have a warm feeling of gratefulness down in my na`au (guts) as I sat down (on a short break) and reminisced.  “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “Plans to prosper you not to harm you…”  God has been good to me, marvelously so, and I’m thankful.

Workout:  Journal, 5 minutes each day this week, on two things:
1.  What you are thankful for; and
2.  What you need to DO to be happier.

Don’t get me wrong on this one:  I’m not trying to move into a grateful-secular-humanism.  I do know, however, that there are times when God has shown me where to walk and how to walk and I’ve chosen to follow do it, much to my detriment, my way.  What can you Do?  What do you know you have to do?  5 minutes a day.  Do it.