social isolation

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Anticipation Is Making Me Late, And Keeping Me Waiting

Anticipation is a great motivator and will help you plow through something you don’t really want to do. 

Anticipation is making me late and keeping me waiting

Though sometimes anticipation can make time seem to go really fast because you are so focussed on it, usually anticipation makes time seem to go very slowly.

It all depends on what you have to do before you get to what you are anticipating.

As a kid, I remember Christmas morning being something I anticipated for weeks in advance. But let me tell you, Christmas Eve seemed to last forever, like time was standing still.

The word itself reminds me of a Carly Simon hit song from 1971. The chorus went like this: “Anticipation is making me late, it’s keeping me waiting.”

It’s like that for me today. 

I’m anticipating going for my first mountain bike ride of the year at my local mountain bike club. 

But before I get there, before I even make sure my tires are pumped and my gears are shifting smoothly, I have to get a few things done, including finishing writing this blog post. 

While I’m sitting in my family room, staring at my iPad, with a keyboard on my lap, I’m really visualizing the course out at the farm.

It looks so different depending on when you ride. Early in the spring when the leaves are still not fully developed, it is brighter and you can see more of the terrain around the path.

In a week or two, the leaves will provide shade to ride under and the path will appear to be all that is highlighted. 

Later in the fall, with brown leaves all around, it will be difficult to even see the path underneath.

With our new social isolation measures, there will be rules to follow, even though most of the time when I bike, though there are over 1000 members, I rarely come across other bikers. And when I do, it is only for a flash, as I glide past them or they whisk by me. 

As long as the trees can’t get COVID, I will be safe from potentially getting the virus on the mountain biking trails. It’s just getting to them that’s the issue. 

And the more I think about riding, the more I anticipate it and that is making me late, keeping me waiting.

As painful as it might be for me right now, if we never anticipated anything, we wouldn’t make plans. We wouldn’t get excited about what is coming up. We wouldn’t dream about what is to come. 

When I was a youth pastor and my junior high girls were anticipating a week at summer camp, or a weekend retreat, they would jump up and down wth big grins on their faces, saying things like, “just 6 more sleeps!”

Anticipation is a good thing. Sometimes we think it’s killing us but it really keeps us going. It motivates us like it is motivating me to finish writing this post.

Here’s the thing: I don’t think we anticipate being with God in heaven all that much. If we did we would have a very different outlook and response to the world around us. We would be less caught up in solving the issues of the day and more concerned with how to best leverage the present circumstances to bring about Christ’s return and our eternity in heaven. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How would anticipating being in heaven change your present mindset and actions during this time? Leave your comments and questions below.  

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Isolation Is Good For Something; Not Sure What That Is

This Isolation is wreaking havoc on my efficiency and making me less productive. 

Isolation is good for something; not sure what that is

Probably most people and businesses in general are running at a lower efficiency than they normally do. I was talking with someone recently who said he thinks he’s operating at 70%.

It’s understandable. We are finding our way through a new set of rules and measures. Life is not what it was a few months ago before coronavirus.

I am in the same boat as most people, although, if anything, I should be more productive and working at a high efficiency. You see, I work best when it is quiet, and boy is it quiet at work!

I hear of people working from home and being on Zoom meetings where their three-year-old makes an appearance several times during the meeting … and the kid isn’t updating their dad or mom on the latest sales projection numbers.

I know some people are going nuts trying to get work done at home. 

I’m the opposite. I still go into the office, and I’m the only one there. It’s really quiet which should be perfect for me. 

I once had an assistant who loved to play music when he worked. He often would play it Friday mornings when I was trying to write my sermon. He would keep the sound low but he had a subwoofer in his office and all I would hear was boom .. boom . . . . . . . boom . . boom . . boom echoing through the wall between our offices.

I couldn’t concentrate at all.

It’s probably because of my ADD that I need quiet to focus, but the quiet isn’t even working these days. Anything can take my attention away from what I’m working on.  

In fact, the other day I stopped working on my sermon to pray. After a moment or two of prayer, I realized I had spotted a black squiggle mark on my desk and my mind went to some cleaner in the kitchen I had seen earlier. I almost stopped praying to go get that cleaner when I realized what I was doing and got back to praying. 

Maybe it is too quiet here at the church. Maybe I need a couple of three-year-olds messing with my mind and my patience. 

Wait … I’ve been there before, and no thanks; I’m not going back.  

But maybe it’s not my ADD. Maybe I’ve been going for too long without a break and I’m running out of steam. 

Come to think of it, it’s often around now that I remember my summer vacation is coming up and I start thinking that it can’t come fast enough. 

Maybe it’s that I would normally be a little more active by now. I would be mountain biking and golfing. I haven’t done any of that and I haven’t really been working out in my home gym either. 

It’s possible that it’s all these factors and the isolation has just created the perfect storm for them all to be working against me. 

Here’s the thing: This isolation can get you off your game with your time with God. Your schedule has changed; you don’t have the same routines as normal. You may have different demands placed on you. All these things can create that perfect storm that makes spending time with God more difficult. Let me encourage you to find some calm in that storm. Eke out some quiet waters where you can listen to the Lord for direction and guidance through a turbulent time. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How efficient have you found yourself to be in this isolation? Leave your comments and questions below. Hit the “like” button if this has been helpful and subscribe if you want these posts to come to your inbox.