books

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A Pre-Sort May Be Required When Organizing

There’s a right way to sort things and a wrong way, but doing a pre-sort is generally not the best way.

a pre-sort may be required when organizing

I’ve read books and attended seminars on how to organize one’s life. Most of the information I’ve consumed deals with work – office files and paperwork that come across my desk. There are good systems out there on how to streamline the processing of paper, requests and tasks to maximize your time.

I worked for UPS when they first came to Canada. I was their first part-time employee hired. It has been interesting to watch the company grow from about fourteen vans in one corner of a warehouse to the whole warehouse and a fleet of the large package delivery vans we see on the road today. 

I started by washing those vans and then moved to an office job of processing the drivers’ time cards. I even drove the package delivery vans for a summer when I was in Bible college.

Thousands of packages got picked up every day and needed to be sorted to get on the right delivery truck for the next morning. That was the job of a particular crew. 

They would arrive early in the morning, somewhere around 2:00 am. Their job was to take all the packages and place them in the trucks for delivery later that morning. 

They were called the pre-sort crew. It was a pre-sort because later the drivers would come in and organize their parcels in the precise order they were going to deliver them in. 

But that pre-sort was essential. It provided the driver with all his packages. He didn’t have to go searching or sorting around a big pile of packages for the ones that would be on his route.

A pre-sort may not be the prescribed way to handle office files, paper and requests. But it might be the best for my situation right now. 

The proper way to deal with office mail, paper, phone messages, etc., is to handle it once. When you pick up a piece of mail, you attend to it, file it or trash it. And if something can’t be processed that quickly, you schedule a time when you are going to deal with it and then move on to the next item. … Simple, right? 

Well, I’m in the process of cleaning out my office. It’s a slow process; I’m doing it, bit by bit, over about seven weeks. But I’m realizing, to my wife’s chagrin, that much of what I’m bringing home from my office is only a pre-sort.

I’m not done determining exactly where some of this stuff will go, so there are books that are lining one wall in our basement and boxes of files that are being stacked in a corner. Lots of it is just a pre-sort. I will have to spend more time organizing where it will all specifically end up. 

… It’s not the right way of doing it, but it’s the best way for me right now. 

Here’s the thing: Life is uncertain at the best of times. We don’t know what is around the corner and the end of life is an even greater mystery. That scares people. You can’t know what’s around that corner, but you can pre-sort your life so you get it in the right place. Place your faith in Christ. You may not know what heaven will be like, but you will be sure of your destination. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you have trouble sorting in your life right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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My Life Is In Flux Right Now

I’m in a state of flux right now. Though it’s early in September, and I’ve had a long planning session for the upcoming year, I still feel a little out of sorts.

My planning went well and I came away from that week with some solid tracks to run on. But when I sit in my office, I don’t feel settled.

The reason for that? – my office is a mess!

During the summer we had a huge rain storm. The church basement flooded and we had to have a company come in to help clean up the mess.

I was away on vacation at the time; my office was locked and there was no need for anyone to go in it.

So when I returned after being away for several weeks, the first thing I noticed was the damp smell and then the ceiling tile that had fallen down.

There had been a leak in the roof and it had soaked through a ceiling tile, which had fallen down beside a bookshelf.

The amazing thing about it all was, though the ceiling tile was still soggy wet, the leak never touched any of my books.

I was sure happy about that, but it left me with a bit of a mess and forced me to make an even greater mess.

I took all the books off the shelf and put them in piles around my office. I then moved the bookcase out from the wall so that someone could examine the situation and put the ceiling back together again.

Well, things are moving rather slowly and my office has been in the same state for a couple of weeks now.

… And that’s why I feel so unsettled in my office.

It’s that same feeling you have when you’ve moved into a new home and you have boxes everywhere. You’re excited to be in the new place but you don’t feel right until all your stuff is where it is supposed to be.

I’ve been meeting with people in another room because my office chairs are being used to support three foot high piles of books.

I also have a bookcase that is standing in the middle of my office.

My office feels more like a storage space than an office. It’s not conducive to focussing on work.

When I look up from my computer, I often wonder if one of the piles of books looks like it’s leaning a little too much. I start to imagine it as the leaning tower of Pisa.

I really hope that I don’t need any of those books. If I do, I’ll be forced to play that block game Jenga with them … and I’ve never been particularly successful at not toppling over the stack of blocks.

I think the sooner my office can get put back to normal, the sooner I will start to settle down for the fall.

Here’s the thing: Many things can come up in life that cause you to feel unsettled – a health issue, job pressure, a move or even a flood. There may be nothing you can do to get life back in order, leaving you tempted to completely lose focus. However, you can keep order in your spiritual life by spending regular, quality time with God. If you do that in the morning, it will start your day off right, even if other aspects in your day are still in flux.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has got you feeling a little unsettled? Leave your comments below.

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It Was A Different Story, But The Same Outcome

I read a story last night … something I haven’t done in years.

Let me explain: it was a children’s story and I read it to a couple of kids.

It’s been years since I’ve read a children’s story to kids, because it’s been years since our kids were little.

The story was new but some things were familiar, like my tendency to change things when I read them or add things to the story that aren’t there.

I actually have the reverse effect on kids that I’m supposed to have.

When our kids were little and I would read them stories, they would end up giggling and laughing and ready for a party to break out.

Lily would have to come along and settle them down for bedtime all over again.

Last night I found myself in that old, familiar situation. It was bedtime for a couple of kids Lily and I were babysitting for the night. … It was actually Lily doing the babysitting; I just came in at story time to give a hand … or maybe disrupt the flow.

Lil handed me the books, so I went into the living room and slumped on the couch. Two little creatures followed me and sat beside me, one on each side.

There were two stories, and they picked which one I would read first. So I began to read.

I was a little uncertain of how it would go; it had been so long and I felt out of practice. I also didn’t know what it would be like reading to someone else’s kids, but I got into the rhythm fairly quickly.

Back when our kids were little, I would stop on certain pages – the same pages every time, in fact – and make comments about the pictures. … A number of years later, our son was reading a story to younger kids at his school. When he got to the page I used to make comments on, he was shocked to find that those comments weren’t actually part of the story.

I’d also read things in the first person, or sometimes change the story just a little. That usually stirred the kids up.

Well, last night the reading was going on without a hitch … nothing to change, only a few comments to be made about the pictures.

Then I came across a word that triggered a song in my head.

Now I don’t know how many times these kids have had that story read to them, but I bet it was the first time that the reader broke out in a rendition of “May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.”

I think they made me sing it three or four times after that! I just hope those little guys’ parents will know what to do when those kids get home, hand them that story book and say, “sing the song”!

Well, it’s nice to know I haven’t lost my touch!

Lil had to do her magic once again. I walked by their room a few minutes after they left me, and she was telling them one of her calming, soothing stories to put them to sleep.

Here’s the thing: If you find that things have been strained with God, that maybe your time with Him has been non-existent recently, or that through disobedience you’ve felt far away, just come back to Him. When you do draw close to Him, you will find that familiar relationship you once had is back again. God never changes.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What memories of your time with God do you want to rekindle? Leave your comments below.