Abraham, Colonel Sanders, and Me

 

At the beginning of a new year not that long ago, our boss, the now Governor of the state of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, challenged the employees of the company to do something he had been doing as the calendar pages rolled over to January once more.  For a few years he would think and pray about a word that would challenge him for the year in lieu of a laundry list of mostly doomed-to-fail new years resolutions.  Maybe it was 'peace',  with the challenge to do things to create and maintain more peace.  "Balance" could be the word which would help those who tend toward extremes of workaholism or lack of motivation.  Other words may include: gratitude, generosity, love, grace, or humility.  

I've never been much of a new years resolution kind of guy.  Maybe it's my propensity to avoid failure.  Perhaps it's laziness.  Lack of commitment? Then again it could be I'd like to keep things as simple and uncomplicated (both good new year words) as possible and simply plan to do and be better than I was last year.  However that plan lacks the specificity which seems to be required to bring about any tangible change.  Therefore, the new year "word" idea made a lot of sense.  And coming from a boss who loves the Lord and has made a huge positive impact on many people in his lifetime, the thought made even more sense.

I've done it now for 3 or 4 years.  I write the word in a prominent place on a post-it note.  OK in reality, a few post-it notes.  I've put them in my calendar binder, on computer screens, sometimes in the truck, so that I'll be reminded.  I actually just had a thought that having my iPhone give me a monthly reminder which pops up on the notifications screen may be another good method...brb...reminder has been created.  I'm thinking that given another 10 years or so, I will be buying post-it notes by the case and my phone will be reminding me of everything including to put on pants in the morning.  

As 2024 came to an end, I typically do a post-mortem on the year, thinking about the positive and negative events which took place.  I reflect on contributing factors of each.  I want to continue and improve on the former, and eliminate the causes of the latter.  I begin to think about the behaviors, attitudes, and activities that need to be buried (if not cremated), and begin asking the Lord what He wants me to partner with me to be, think, or do in this new year.  At the same time I realize that there will be some things with which He surprises me in the coming 12 months which are designed (in my belief at least) to purify and cleanse me of the detrimental and add to me the beneficial to bring me back to the kind of human he created before the snake slithered into the garden.  

Years ago...I mean YEARS ago...I listened to a series of cassette tapes (ask your parents) called Time Power by Charles Hobbs. The time management system he created is pretty cool and comprehensive.  It helped me in a very busy time in my life.  One of the features which was pretty challenging and time consuming was to think about your core values, or the principles that guide your life.  I recommend that everyone take the time to do this at some point in your life. The earlier the better!  They needed to be written down in a format which was a "be" statement (i.e. be debt free) or an action statement beginning with a verb (i.e. love God, have no regrets, maintain a positive attitude). 

The next step is under each action statement is to write a statement about what that value means or how I understand it to be fleshed out.  Of course through the years my understanding of these values has been enhanced or changed based upon new information, so they aren't intended to be static throughout my life.  Some values have been added, though I can't remember that any have been deleted.  I typed all of this into a word processor and printed it to a small booklet hoping it would survive a few years.  The version I currently have tucked into my day planner has a revision date of 1999, though it has undergone quite a number of hand written additions and revisions since then.  The most challenging part of this project was that Hobbs had the participants prioritize these from the highest to the least important.  That. Is. Tough.  But it's worth the pain and suffering as well as the time to do so.  I don't think the order has ever changed in my booklet.

What does this have to do with time management?  The idea is that as you make your 'to-do' list, you prioritize what you do based upon the list of your prioritized core values.  Where did 'spend time reading scripture and praying' fall on my list.  Therefore you are spending time doing the things that are most important to you and less time on the mundane and less valuable. 

Hobbs had the listeners draw two circles.  In one circle was written "What you believe (core values)". The other circle had written in it, "What you do (how you use your time)". He stated that the degree to which the items in each circle intersect is the degree to which we are integrated, or how much integrity we have.  OUCH!  If we're not intentional in prioritizing our to-do list with that list of what we value the most in life, we will not accomplish the most important things in life which means we won't be living our best life.  

As I was reviewing my core values and thinking about my boss's advice, I came across one of the core values in my list that hit me like a gut punch.  On a very pleasant December afternoon last week as I was sitting in the sun reading and reflecting, I felt like the blood rushed out of my face.  I realized when I saw the words and they made their impact deep within me, that there was something I valued enough to be memorialized in my booklet that I had neglected, if not ignored.  To that extent I lacked integrity.  I have not been living my best life with the attitudes and actions lacking.  The words?  Dream big dreams.

As I started ruminating on that value, I realized I had written that down when I was in my early 30's.  The bulk of my life was ahead of me.  Nothing seemed impossible.  One of my favorite bible verses has always been a blessing at the end of Ephesians 3:  "Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to his power that works in us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."  Some translators chose "imagine (dream?)" instead of "think" in that verse.  When I was 30 I could dream some pretty big dreams, and since his ability is capable of doing above and beyond that?? WOW!

What made me go pale was when I started asking myself the question, "How long has it been since you dreamed big dreams, and what happened to them?"  Ouch.  To be brutally transparent, I couldn't remember the last time a big dream drove me, energized me, and brought light to my eyes.  It's not that I haven't had things in my life that has excited me and given me ample reason to wake up in the morning.  I've certainly had goals to strive toward accomplishing.  In the past I've had my share of new year resolutions.  But when was the last time I had a dream...a huge dream...a massive God-sized dream that was so much larger than my ability to accomplish that could only be done in partnership with the Creator of the universe?  I couldn't answer the "when", so I needed to take a stab at the "why".

In my 30's, as stated above, I had the bulk of my life ahead of me.  30 years later, I see the majority of my life behind me.  In that wake there are a ton of blessings, miracles, beautiful events and relationships that God has granted me the privilege of experiencing.  In that same wake is sickness, pain, loss, and a plethora of failure which can cause one to doubt the veracity of dreaming. Maybe it's partly thinking that there isn't time left for big dreams come to fruition because of sensing seeing the clock signaling the 4th quarter of play.  Perhaps the lack comes from a bit of becoming at least slightly jaded due to aforementioned failures and problems.  In Genesis, the brash dreams of a young man got Joseph nearly killed and taken as a slave.  Maybe dreams are for the young, not for those who are not (ain't gonna say old). 

But then, God gave Noah in his old age a dream to build a massive boat on dry land to save creatures from a worldwide flood. God gave 90 year old Abraham the huge dream of he and his 90 year old wife being the genesis of a nation that would envelope the world.  God gave Moses the massive dream to free slaves from a superpower at 80 years old. Those are two that come to mind that show me that big dreams don't come with an expiration date.  Joshua was 'old and well advanced in years' when God gave him the gigantic dream of completing giving the promised land to the 12 tribes.  

Moving on, Colonel Sanders opened his first restaurant at age 62.  Laura Engels wrote "Little House in the Big Woods" in her 60's. Ray Kroc opened his first McDonalds in his 50's.  Sam Walton, Duncan Hines, Stan Lee, Nelson Mandela, Joseph Campbell (the soup one), JRR Tolkien, all had big dreams in their 50's and later.  John Pemberton was 55 years old when he formulated Coca-Cola - which thankfully had some changes from the original.

If God is able to do so much beyond my biggest dream, why am I limiting God's desire to partner with me at this point in my life to do some amazing things in fulfilling the Genesis mandate to humanity to take the raw materials of His creation and build upon them to create spaces for humans to flourish and be culture makers on a scale of his choosing.

My belief is that the dreams that matter the most (although all are potentially important to him) are the ones given by Him.  The examples above from the Bible were charged with those dreams.  They looked impossible.  They WERE impossible. They could only be accomplished in partnership with Him.  All changed the course of history.  Not all dreams will be world changers.  We may not see the full impact of our dreams in our lifetime.  I believe, however, that we should never, never give up on seeking big dreams.  The wake behind you may have made you a much much better candidate to be given huge dreams and be an effective caretaker of them than you were in your 30's.  With age potentially comes wisdom.

Ray Kinsella feared growing older without having done anything to achieve his dreams.  One day while walking through his cornfield, he heard a voice telling him, "If you build it, he will come."  Building a baseball field in the middle of rural Iowa cornfield was huge, impossible, and irrational.  He was laughed at and ridiculed, but his family supported him in his dream and conviction. The rest is movie history!  Don't stop dreaming.

Oh yeah!  My word for 2025 should now go without saying.

FG