Pick up that Tonka truck. Now throw it across the room because you just spotted a Bernstein Bears book. Crawl over to the book. Flip through it in 20 seconds. Now slide it across the floor so it hits one of your less-favorite stuffed animals. Then get up and waddle over to your blocks. Stack a few of those up and then throw them into the air. This is the life of a little kid, who, in the span of 30 minutes, can make a perfectly clean playroom look like a toy battlefield.

It seems to me that in a lot of ways, we never grow up. As we grow up, our toys change. From blocks to clothes. From stuffed animals to entertainment devices. But our lives get more complex. Hobbies, interests, and causes come across our horizon. They’re inspected but frequently discarded in short order as either uninteresting (which is probably fine) or because more and more items come across our path preventing us from really sinking ourselves into those thing that DO interest us (which is probably NOT fine).

Like the people on the conveyor belt in Wall-E, it seems like we’re shuffled through life from one thing to another. And then 5 years go by and we get sad, asking, “What’s happening with my life?” But we know the truth. Little is happening with our life. Life happens to us. For the fortunate few that have rock solid attention spans, they make something of their lives and we’re left wondering why that can’t be us. But in many ways, the comparison is moot. As a dude in St. Louis recently said, “Some of us are born on third base but think we’ve hit a triple.” For some, their God-given abilities allow them to be excellent. They certainly work hard to be successful, but lamenting we’re not them is unhelpful.

How to Beat a Short Attention Span
Our aim should be to stop the conveyor belt or make adjustments while it’s still moving. When the next hobby, interest, or cause comes across your path, stop your life for a little bit and examine it – for longer than a little kid. Start slow. Get online and read some articles about the topic. Search YouTube for videos. Search a Twitter keyword and see what other people also interested in that thing have to say. Follow the links they post. Research the best books; buy them and read them. And then, and this is the important thing…put that hobby/interest/cause down beside you ON THE CONVEYOR BELT!!

Let that interest or cause travel life WITH you through your day! Create events in your calendar every day that remind you to spend time in pursuit of that thing until it’s a habit. For me, it’s Haiti. I’ve re-arranged my life not to forget Haiti. I wrote a computer program that automatically searches Twitter for news articles/photos/videos so I can quickly scroll through the article’s headline and know if I want to read it (or if I’ve ALREADY read it so I don’t waste time going there again). I have a time set aside to learn Creole (spoken in Haiti) and also a time to read about the country. I’ve started talking with other people interested in Haiti. And I listen to a radio station over the internet broadcast from Port-au-Prince to get used to hearing Creole. So even though I’m still on life’s conveyor belt, not only is Haiti next to me, but it’s becoming PART of me. And I haven’t even been there yet. The point is to be creative in how something can be a part of your life!

Obla-di Blah blah blah
Now, it’s true. Life must go on. You have responsibilities. But God has responsibilities for YOU. And ME. There are things He wants us to do in our life. Primarily, He wants us to love Him and love our neighbors. Are the things traveling with you on the conveyor belt helping you do those things? If not, do what Hebrews 12 encourages, “cast off everything that hinders…” I can’t tell you what in your life is a hindrance, but you know. You have a feeling in your heart that you really shouldn’t do something. It’s not that the thing is WRONG. It’s just not RIGHT. You feel there are other ways you could spend your time. You MUST listen to that voice. That voice is trying to guide you to your role in the kingdom of God!

The irony of this post is that life will happen to us immediately after reading/writing it. You’ll be inclined to forget this in a matter of moments. Whether it DESERVES to be remembered is up to you. But, if you like it, put this little post nugget in your mind. Because, literally, my brothers and sisters, this world is FULL of hurting people. People who need not only material goods but they need to hear about the hope of Jesus and the life to come and how He can be everything for them – even in their suffering!

The One
Some 12 years ago, a movie was released that rocked our country. In “The Matrix,” Keanu Reeves played a character name Neo whose life seemed out of control. Things happened to him almost against his will. He was on the conveyor belt. Until one day, things changed with one word. The world needs us. So much. Please don’t tire of people telling you that. Don’t say it’s the same old line. People need you and me. It may not be a million people. It may be 10. But you can ROCK those people’s worlds. It just takes a simple, firm word: I will not be scared. I will not be distracted. I will not have a short attention span. When it seems like you can’t stop life, think of Neo. People need you!

YouTube won’t let me embed it, so please watch the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4FUPSGiy8Y

Eight minutes ago, at nine minutes past midnight, I found out my best friend’s brother died. He was 20 years old.

He’s been locked in a battle with kidney problems, fighting for his life for years.

It’s Fall Time
On my run today, I saw some of the first leaves in Nashville dropping off their branches. As I passed through the shower of leaves from trees that have been standing for 50 years, I felt a bit of sadness. I don’t want summer to end. But I don’t have much choice in the matter.

Death, it seems, we have no choice over either. The bible tells us our lives are a mist. The problem is we don’t know when the mist will lift. And as the old song goes, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”

Everything Goes On
The tree loses its leaves and a 29-year old guy runs underneath and continues down the road. Someone loved spends their last breath and all of nature moves on. The family affected mourns the loss. Suits and dresses that haven’t been worn in years are pulled out of the closet. Stories are told that make people laugh through tears and for a few days, life is about as raw and precious as can be. The stack of papers at work doesn’t matter. The extra 10 pounds on our waist doesn’t matter. Our 9-year old car that we don’t like doesn’t matter. What we learn from reflecting on death is that most things we treat as major matters matter very little. We underemphasize the important things and magnify the unimportant.

Relative to people, work and vanity and possessions don’t matter. We see that people aren’t a means to an end of power or prestige. People ARE the end. They shouldn’t be used in relationships – whether romantic or professional or any other way. Every other person we know is loved by Jesus just as much as we are. And, frankly, to me, that seems very strange to think on.

I Rock
Of course Jesus loves ME. I’m awesome (or so I think). But all these other idiots who make my life difficult – the lady at the grocery who can’t figure out the U-Scan machines, the driver who is going 3 MPH slower than I think he should, the football player who punches another player in the face. These are the losers of life. The anger I direct at them is well-deserved because they don’t live up to my code. Yes. Technological confusion, 3 MPH, and a lapse of self-control are worthy of my wrath. Why do I behave like this? To lift myself up and put other people down. I use them. But we’re all the same. Computers confuse me a lot, I often drive slower than others want me to, and I have self-control problems every day. In honesty, I’ve broken mice and keyboards because I’ve lost self-control while working with computers. But I’m better than everyone else, right? We’re all the same.

It’s the Final Time
Just six months ago, a leaf was born from nothing. However many years ago you were born, you came from virtually nothing. And so the leaf dies. And so must we. We’re all the same. From dust we come and to dust we will return.

Thinking about my friend’s brother made me wonder: How are we treating all the people in our lives – other people with the same temporary tent of a body? What do we think about them that they can’t hear? And I want you to know these are mostly rhetorical questions. Just considering them for even the moment it takes to read this cuts through layers of rubbish and lets us access our true hearts. That’s what happens when people die. Mourning gets us to our true heart. It’s a place of sadness but also calm and peace. Which is what I’m praying for my friend and his family tonight. No more fighting for life. Only resting in peace.

Goodbye for now, Chase.

CHARLES WATSON BEH May 26, 1989 – September 8, 2009

If nobody else tells you this today, I want you to know something.

I’m pulling for you. And there are other people in your life who are pulling for you today, too. You may not have a Facebook Fan page or ten thousand followers on Twitter. But you have fans, nonetheless.

I want you to try something. If you get in your car today and it’s nice enough, put all the windows down and turn the radio off. If you don’t have a car, maybe on your bike or as you’re walking. As you go down the street, I want you to notice the air as it moves by the sides of your head. Listen to the air brush past your ears. You’ll hear a sound that is vaguely familiar. It might sound like the beach. It might sound like fans cheering. But either way, my guess is that it’ll make you smile.

Certain things in life are so simple but we like to move past the simple a lot of times. Tomorrow, I’ll be writing some funny stuff. But beginning on Tuesday, I’m writing about getting close to life – closer to the things that make us feel so human…the moments we wish would stick around.

If you feel like you need fans today and that the odds are stacked against you, remember this brief recount of Daniel’s story in Daniel 6.

Unfortunately, The Lions’ Den Isn’t a Nightclub
Daniel, an Israelite and foreigner living in Babylon, was devoted to God and prayed to Him three times a day. He was set to be the Head Administrator of the entire Babylonian kingdom by King Darius. When the other administrators heard this, they had King Darius sign a law which stated that anyone who prayed to any god for the next 30 days would be thrown into the lions’ den (essentially, nature’s electric chair). So they had the king sign this law with the added stipulation that it could not be repealed.

That day, Daniel knew about the law but went home to pray anyway. Three men (who presumably KNEW Daniel would be praying), went to Daniel’s home, found him praying, and reported it to the king. Bound by his own law, “the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, ‘May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!’” (verse 16)

King Darius was a fan of Daniel but was forced to let him go through all this anyway.

A rock was placed in front of the lions’ den so Daniel couldn’t escape. After a sleepless night, at the first light of dawn the next morning, the king ran to see if Daniel had survived the night, and yelled to him from outside the cave. Daniel answered, “‘O king, live forever! My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me…’ The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.”

I’m pulling for you today. Be simple. With whatever burden you have, don’t just feel bad about it. Trust God in your heart and tell Him so. You may have people who don’t like you and would like to see you “dead.” You may feel under the pile from some other circumstance. Do what Daniel did. Get close to God. And remember the experiment I mentioned. It’s meant to help you do that. Put your windows down and let your ears hear the air and talk to Him from there. I hope you feel close to Him today!

Baseball
Tonight, I went to a Nashville Sounds game with some friends (that is the AAA farm team for the Milwaukee Brewers).

What we didn’t know is that tonight was First Grade Night at the ballpark. It’s precisely what it sounds like. You’ve seen an ant hill. This was like a really loud ant hill! About 27,000 first graders (exaggerated figure), their friends, and siblings were jumping up and down the rows of seats, one of them falling every 3 minutes or so. Some of the kids managed to pull seat covers off the bleachers (a feat that is still a fascinating mystery to me). When you get a little kid alone in a room, they’re pretty funny. Fill a minor league baseball section with them and it’s hilarious.

I went to the game with a group of friends, including a couple guys named Jason and Brian. Sitting amongst all these kids, I was suddenly and profoundly thankful that some girls were in our group if for no other reason than my buddies and I didn’t look like pedophiles. The time-honored tradition of Run the Bases concluded the night. And, yes, that’s a guitar-shaped scoreboard in left field!

I Know You See Me
Earlier today, I knew what I was going to write about. I like to run and I normally run down a stretch of road here in Nashville that is heavily traveled by cars, but not other pedestrians. Well, I’ve started stretching out some of my runs and am now running a portion of them in high pedestrian areas (just because the route works out that way, not because I’m particularly interested in people seeing me run in short shorts. It’s not that hot a sight, in all honesty). In the few days I’ve been running in this new area, something’s bummed me out.

Walkers, bikers, and runners share the sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides of the street. What’s bummed me out is that so few people wave and say hi. This street is wide enough that it’s awkward to wave to someone on the other side, but same-side waves are simple…though rarely happen. Eye contact seems a minor miracle.

As I was returning from my route, I was almost out of the heavily trafficked area when another runner ran RIGHT BY ME, face-to-face, inches away from me, in the opposite direction. And he didn’t even look at me – as though I was invisible. You might think this is a holier-than-thou post where I’m chastising other exercisers for not wanting to buy me a Happy Meal as I see them on my route. Not so. This has bummed me out doubly because I know I do it, too. And it’s not just when we exercise. It happens all the time.

It’s not how little kids behave.

I See You
Little kids stare. They have no problem staring at an adult or another little kid. And they stare for a long time. Who knows what they’re thinking, but they’re observing something and will almost always eventually say hi. It’s a cool thing to see. And I saw it numerous times tonight as my friends and I sat amongst our first-grade compadres.

It seems that instead of socially evolving into people who say “hi” faster than a little kid, most of us have regressed into not saying hi at all.

I know people get in the zone when they exercise. Some people are blind out of one eye. Some people are angry about life. I give them a free pass. For the rest of us, I’m wondering if we don’t say “hi” to more people because we’re somewhat unkind. In Matthew 5, Jesus says, “…if you only greet your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” Has our social convention of ignoring others become so commonplace that we don’t even know we’re doing it or, worse, think it’s strange to greet others we don’t know?

Let The Forecast Be Good

The older I get, the younger I want to be. If not in looks or intellect, in spirit. Life can be tough and one of the toughest storms to weather is the one that threatens to make us unloving, unkind, cold curmudgeons. Have you ever met an unkind toddler? They have their moments of selfishness, but would you define them as unkind? No. They welcome all. Jesus tell us the same in Matthew 18. “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So be great today, my friend.

Though Jesus doesn’t say HOW to be a child, I’m confident kindness would make the list. And if you have a hard time being kind (like I often do), remember that you don’t have to muster this on your own. Paul tells us in Galatians 6, that this is Holy Spirit work: “…the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, patience, KINDNESS…” Ask God to make you who He wants you to be today and then say hi to some people you don’t know. Let them know you see them!