I dont know where im going to go with this, so bare with me. I want to take you through my day and make some comments and then maybe I’ll go to sleep. (edit: this blog is not directed at individuals. i use my day as a process tool for things i have learned and seen over the last 15 years)

I woke up this morning and built a fire. I love fire. It gets me excited. But, the last time I built a fire i set the fire alarm off at 630am waking up all the new friends that i live with and freaked me out so deeply that i feared to make a fire this morning. Which also freaked me out because I understand the depths of my love for fire.

comment 1:

don’t let fear get in the way of your objectives.

– If making a fire is suddenly met with apprehension… take it step by step.

put logs in the furnace. get a little bit of paper (last times culprit for smoke) turn on fan. light carefully. feed fire until you can leave. check on the fire later = confidence restored.

Then i had breakfast alongside some friends, looked through some worship stuff and then went to a meeting.

comment 2:

If you organise a meeting at a specific time…. be there, ready to start OR don’t set a time. OR don’t run over time to make up for being late in the first place. (this is a general statement to everyone on the planet… not a directed statement at any individuals)

– I had multiple meetings today. I had a long to-do list to do today. We get more stuff done and, therefore, bless more people when our meetings have a purpose, limits and fruit. If meetings start late, have no agenda and go off track the entire time…. fewer people get blessed. Meetings should change something or cease to exist. Meetings should be something that CANNOT be summarised in a one-page word document. Otherwise, they should be summarised in a one-page word document and, therefore, waste less time in meetings. Meetings are not hang outs. Hangouts should not be meetings. both of these can and should at times be fun. I had hangouts today, and I had meetings today. I will have the same tomorrow. My week gets more productive and, therefore, achieves more of the visions we have been given by God when we have meetings that change things and hang outs that bring us closer.

Then after practice we had FIKA where I sat at a table and ate jam and peanut butter and it was GLORIOUS. (I love Wednesdays) I then decided to, in my mentally exhausted state, read a heavily worded, researched-deep book on media whilst sitting in a very friendly, conversational and creative office. Containing a lot of my favourite humans of late.

comment 3 – you will never get much mentally hard work done in the midst of your friends. And you will get frustrated. And you will feel like a failure. Just pick your environment better. ALSO, don’t listen to new music or interactive music when trying to read said book in said environment. You will get no work done, you will laugh at all the in-jokes, and you will be captivated by the well written new songs.

– i love the book im reading. I love the office i work in. I love the music i found today, including the live EP that my band recorded in 2007. But… i can’t do all of these things at the same time. at present at least.

Then, I retired to my room for lunch and office work. setting up worship for vilnius, replying to emails, attempt 2 of reading said book.

comment 4 – I made a strangely good falukorv stroganoff (australians read: tasty Devon… less dog food. Hawaiians read: more meaty spam sausage. Everyone else read: interesting combo sausage) and actually read some of the book. (Good job champ…. this isn’t really a concise comment… #tryagain)

comment 4 – Sometimes the soundtrack to Morrowind and jesus christ superstar help get work done and sometimes the sun shining in your eyes is the worst thing ever… note to self move to a country with less sun… oh wait a minute…

One of my co-workers brought down an apple muffin. Then i went to another meeting.

comment 5 – if no one knows why you have a certain meeting, and this ignorance continues for more than a year… maybe said meeting should have been cancelled a long time ago.

– I used to work in a cool organisation that ran breakfast clubs every Wednesday in high schools. We would arrive, pray, talk about what card games we would play and then do it. Afterwards, we would make a few comments, encourage each other and then go home. No extra meeting necessary. I then worked in another group and we would have weekly meetings, not about anything in particular.. we would “just gather” and not do anything. I then worked in another group where I would meet my superior every week and they would fire questions at me to figure out how I was going. sometimes it was hilarious and trust was grown. sometimes there were tears and trust was grown.

If meetings are for trust and vulnerability building… run them as such.

If meetings are for laughing… run them as such.

If meetings are pointless and no one knows why we have them, then the meetings breed a hatred of meetings so when good meetings come along people feel more inclined with playing candy crush on their phones, ignoring the good meetings completely.

comment 6 – candy crush is so stupid.

I then had people over for dinner, then i had people over to watch vikings. i THEN sat in my lounge room and spoke with a man i highly respect about life not being at home.

today was an amazing day. i enjoyed it. i enjoyed every part of it, every person i interacted with, every bite of food i ate and drink i drank.

Days like this teach me a lot.

But days like this are also pointless if the lessons from today don’t effect tomorrow.

last week i had multiple flashbacks of when i was 19. I didn’t like the thought that i haven’t changed.

and i have.

but there are still things i need to train and strengthen in me before these lessons can sleep.

I will leave you with this quote.

“No one remembers the former generations,
    and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
    by those who follow them.”

No one remembers the former generations because they were uncreative, generic, pleasure seeking drones.

and so am i.

But i want to be in a generation remembered for changing how the world lives because Jesus Christ died on a cross.

and a lot of it is going to have to start in how we meet.