Friday Coffee with PJ

C.S. Lewis once wrote, "You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me." Now who am I to correct a C.S. Lewis quote? His words will be quoted long after my name is forgotten! But I feel he falls short here. I think he would have been far more eloquent and sophisticated and wise if he had said, "You can't get a cup of COFFEE big enough or a book long enough to suit me."  With that said, go ahead and pour yourself a cup of your favorite brew and join me for a couple of random thoughts.

1. The other day my wife asked me if our trip to Aruba and back seemed like a dream. I admitted that it did. Hard to believe we were there, enjoying the warm breezes caressing our faces and the white sands tickling our toes (not to mention the water's various shades of turquoise and blues too beautiful to describe with mere words). But even more hard to believe is the generosity of our church family to send us there (and back!). Generosity. That's a good word. It's an even better deed. I am thankful for our church's generosity toward us. I am even more thankful for God's generosity! He who did not spare even the life of his one and only Son, is indeed MORE THAN GENEROUS! God calls us to follow in the footsteps of that Son. And just as Jesus continually manifested the generosity of God toward others, we need to be doing the same. I challenge you today (I chose the word "challenge" because the word "invite" isn't strong enough!) to reach out and show some generosity toward someone in your network of relationships. Perhaps you can offer to cut a neighbor's lawn or prepare a meal for a harried  mother of young children or even pay for someone's purchase at the grocery store checkout. Keep your eyes (and heart) open. You won't have a problem finding someone to shower with a good dose of generosity today!

2. Tim Keller, well known author and Lead Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC, recently pointed out that we are the most overworked society in the history of mankind. What he has to say on this topic is well worth reading and thinking about (AND hopefully responding to with some life changes!). Here's what he said in his sermon, "Work and Rest:" 

The most workaholic culture in the history of the world (that’s us!) dare not turn up its nose at any effort–even misguided efforts–to giving to people one of the things most crucial to making life even human, which is rest…The modern situation means that the eternal human need for rest is enormously aggravated. Let me give you four trends:

A. More and more, at least in Western culture, jobs are insecure. Jobs, whole departments, if they don’t perform and if they don’t turn profit, they’re eliminated. There has never been a culture where job security has been so bad.

B. There has been a lot of research done on the fact that where it used to be that people at the top of the company used to make maybe 10 or 20 x what people at the bottom of the company make; now, it’s more like 100 to 200 x. And partly as as a result of this, to some degree, increasingly, people who make large amounts of money and it’s expected to put in

enormous numbers of hours–it’s just expected. If you don’t want to do it, there’s a line behind you. Whereas people on the bottom are having to take multiple jobs. So everybody’s overworked. It doesn’t matter  where you are on the scale. In order to make ends meet, they have to take multiple jobs.

C. Technology. Ah, technology! You can work anywhere, which means now, we work everywhere. It means you can’t stop work from spilling out of every nook and cranny of your life.

D. Whereas traditional societies said that you got your meaning in life from your family, and through fulfilling a fairly prescribed social role–. And work wasn’t as important as that.  You define yourself. There’s never been more sociology and emotional pressure on work.

So .. if you want to take some time to get alone with God, or spend some time with your spouse or family ... you had better keep it short because there's always something you need to be doing, according to the culture in which we live.

So ...lots to chew on (after, of course, you have dunked these nuggets of wisdom in your coffee)!

Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj