How Does This Work? Love.

Yesterday's post ended with something for us to consider as we went about our day: Is Jesus relevant to whatever we're doing or going through at the moment we ask the question? Here's one way it worked for me.

On November 1, a major coffeehouse sent me an email letting me know that my favorite time-of-the-year coffee would be available as a free sample on November 2 between the hours of x and y. (All my math friends, I really think you should give me a high-five for whatever it was that I just did there.) However, when I went to my local coffeehouse on November 2, there were no samples. Not a single one. I was tempted to tweet, post, and message my displeasure, but I remembered that I was asking myself if Jesus was relevant to my real life.

In my head I'm playing a running commentary with video: "Oh, boohoo, you didn't get your free coffee sample. How first-world 'poor me' problem is that?" If you thought that along with me, you're right. So before I come back to Jesus and coffee, let me make a few comments about this journey.

1) I presume that you are part of the 40% of the world with Internet connections. That doesn't necessarily mean that you are wealthy as I have met people who due to devastating circumstances are in homeless shelters, and they made sure to keep their computers so that they could find jobs (or have access to their jobs). But, it does mean you are not part of the 60% without, and my examples will probably be familiar to you.

2) In college I read these words in "The Unknown Masterpiece" by Honore de Balzac: "...Gillette, who almost forgave him for sacrificing her to the art of painting..." (italics mine), and I decided I wouldn't sacrifice relationships for the sake of writing. When appropriate, I will share deeper than petty annoyances, but, in reality, it's the day-to-day responses to petty annoyances that build up how we respond when life's tragedies hit us. (More on this in another post.)

Therefore, when I thought about "how to do what he [Jesus] said was best" (Willard, Divine Conspiracy), Jesus said love was best.

"Jesus said unto him [the lawyer who had asked about the greatest commandment in the law], "Thou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your should, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40, underlining mine).

If you're reading: We're still reading the introduction to The Divine Conspiracy.
If you're practicing: We're still exploring -- what does Jesus have to do with this moment? 

No Resolutions for Me on this Seventh Day of Christmas

Coffee. I know "Give up coffee" is on many resolution lists today. I know because January is a horrible month for my daughter financially. You see, she is a barista. This means she works at a rather well-known coffee shop, and during the month of January their sale of coffee drops to perilous lows. Therefore, the working hours of the baristas are cut. However, if they all can stay with their jobs until February, their working hours will come back. By February, 88 percent of people's resolutions are broken; thus, those who gave up coffee are back to buying cups of caffeinated energy in massive amounts.

I checked for resolutions on the Internet to see if making them is an international affair. Mostly it is a Western activity -- definitely not a third world issue. Who in a third world is making resolutions such as "I will eat less; I will stop accumulating"? But, I digress. This may be a topic for another day. I do live in a country that makes resolutions because we do need to eat less and buy less.

I am not resolving anything this year. Did I mention 88 percent of resolutions are broken within the month? On this seventh day of Christmas, however, I have noticed I have been given 7 of something, and it is not seven swans a-swimming. I have been given seven days in the week, and I'm going to use one of them to rest. The other six I am going to "practice" something that might have been a resolution if I had been so inclined to make a list of resolutions.

If you want to make a list, check out the site that goes with this image above. The Scientific American article includes some great thoughts about making your resolutions specific, attainable, etc. I may even incorporate some of their ideas in my "practices"; mostly, each day will be like a day of practicing for learning any sport or any instrument or anything I have ever wanted to learn.

If I mess up a "resolution," I tell myself what a failure I am -- I am part of the 88 percent of resolution failures.  If I have a bad day at "practice," tomorrow will probably be a little bit better because I will have learned something that I can use to make the next practice inch closer to my goal of improvement.

I'll let you know how this all goes. :D