I know, you were expecting award-winning content and laughter, adding mirth and joy to all around. But I just wrote a post that is far too bitter-sounding (I’m not bitter, but the post sounded bitter) and I have made an agreement with myself to edit the bitter stuff out of my writing, which is sometime tougher than it sounds. So, in lieu of a post that makes people cringe and wish they hadn’t read it, I want to take a step back, and hear from you guys. Continue reading “About A Shameless Plug for Comments.”
Creatively Washing Dishes: A Guide to Enjoying Work.
I am a creative guy. My heart feels most satisfied when I am creatively expressing something. I absolutely love coming up with ways to make people smile when I’m at work. The latest is, when answering the drive-thru window at Starbucks, I’ve started saying something like “Thanks for choosing the finest Starbucks on the east coast (self appointed), my name is Ben. What can I get started for you?” And lots of people smile and play along. Some don’t (haters gonna hate), but lots do.
My smile-quest doesn’t end with customers, though. I want my coworkers to enjoy their day, too.
I’m finding that there is almost nothing to which a creative process can’t be applied. Take washing dishes, for example. I’m not going to lie and say that washing the dishes is a real self-actualizing thing for me, but at the same time, I can honestly say that I’m finding ways to approach that least favorite of my work activities with a sense of adventure and creativity. I ask myself how I can do the dishes in such a way as to bring the greatest benefit to my employer and the most satisfaction to my coworkers. For this particular task, I think I need to do them efficiently (both done well and done quickly) and with a positive attitude.
I’m not just cleaning coffee stains and creamer-rings off of dishes, see. I’m intentionally making work a more fun environment. My volunteering to do the dishes, and then doing them with a smile (with excellence and efficiency) really does make the workplace better. By smiling, I can (as the lowest paid employee in the building) totally affect the culture of the store. Nobody enjoys being around people that hate being at work. Conversely, the only people that mind being around people who are happy are the type of cancerous personalities that would drag others down to their own level of misery.
So, you can either let things happen to you, or you can happen to them. Me? I’m going to go into even my least favorite things with an eye to making them enjoyable. It’s a creative outlet for this creativity junkie.
About getting a Call from Global Leadership.
There are a few times in my life I’ve been rudely awoken.
True confession: We tended to sleep in a bit when we were on staff, before we had kids. I’m not gonna get into the hours that we’d sleep until, but let’s just leave it at the fact that we did most of the ministry related things in the afternoon and evening. Continue reading “About getting a Call from Global Leadership.”
It’s All By Grace: How I have been so wrong about Poverty.
I have been wrong about lots of things in my life, but I have never been more wrong about a topic than about poverty.
For years I’ve been on the political right side of this argument. Poverty, I would have told you, is a problem that can be fixed by people taking personal responsibility for their lives, and setting out to take control of life. Recently having been unemployed, I got a first-hand look at what it takes to get a job. I’ve been struck by how much of my ability to find employment has been based on things totally outside of my control.
I am employable because I can read, write, do arithmetic in my head, and conduct myself well. But all of those characteristics happened as a result (not a necessary result, but a direct one nonetheless) of me being born into a certain family, in a certain socioeconomic setting. Sure, I had to apply myself and learn, but the road was pretty easy. I slept through high school and still landed in one of the best colleges in the nation.
My ability to comprehend complex subjects, my ability to pass tests, and my personality and people-skills? All by grace. I didn’t do a thing to deserve or create those things. So it’s really easy for me, from my comfortable suburb with my bachelors degree, to decry impoverished people for “not trying hard enough.” It’s easy, and it’s probably the least helpful thing I could do.
I’m not coming with answers, so much as an encouragement for those of us who are so quick to try and apply our trickle-down Reaganomics as a way to alleviate poverty to step back from the situation and admit that it is far more complicated than we originally posited. Also, I’d like to strongly recommend the book “Ministries of Mercy: The call of the Jericho Road” by Tim Keller, (that’s not an affiliate link, I don’t get any money when you click it) as it is the catalyst that has so rocked my boat recently.
What do you think?
About the most awkward thing you can possibly do.
(the idea for this post submitted via the submissions page. Don’t be scared, submit your story, too!)
We in the support raising business like to stick our foot in our mouth from time to time, just to remember what it tastes like. Like the time I sent a letter to a dead guy for a couple of months. Continue reading “About the most awkward thing you can possibly do.”