Pro-cra-sti-na-tion

One thing that has come up as a theme between my wife and I lately is our common desire to enjoy life and each other more. To laugh more, joke more, play more games, flirt more...the stuff that is the fruit of a happy life. We've realized that God describes the Christian life as a joyful one (the kingdom is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit), so it seems that in our daily grind we're somehow missing the fullness of a life quality that makes everything better...joy.

I was thinking about this yesterday and came to a realization. It's not that we have no free time to enjoy each other. It's not that we don't have a heart to enjoy life and each other more. It's not even that we have some lack of communication or major deficit in our marriage we can point to (we would have known because, like everyone else, we've had those before). So....what is it? I've realized, at least on my end, that my life is not fully joyful at least in part because I'm not getting things done. I like that saying "begun is half done", because often that's as far as I get. At least I can say I got it half done, right?:) It struck me that I don't have sufficient systems in place in my life to handle the personal, professional, and spiritual aspects of my life, so stuff tends to slip through the cracks. And, when it slips through the cracks, it's really hard to get back.

So, time and energy management rear their ugly head once again. No one likes to continually re-organize their lives to remove old stuff and fit in new stuff, but if we are not willing to do so, we cannot move forward productively into what God has for us in the next season or, for that matter, in this season of life. So, what does that have to do with joy? Well, I've found that I spend more of my time writing lists about, talking about, and strategizing ways to tackle simple projects in my life than I spend doing them. I'm so wiped out with the lists that by the end of the day I want to sit around and be unproductive. So, instead of enjoying that time, I'm constantly mulling over things that I didn't do today, rather than reveling in what I did accomplish. So, my joy is robbed by a bunch of writing on paper. Yuck.

I'm sure some people reading know exactly what I'm talking about. Let's be a people who realize the hidden treasure of joy in life is worth pursuing. Let's set up systems, organize our time and energy, and plan life so that we can be joyful in what we are doing, rather than being clobbered by the never-ending list. Let's not waste our lives on regret. I'd rather be viewed as a little crazy and have my joy be full than have the capacity to commiserate with others in our disgust of life. I hope you are challenged by my conviction to bring what's important into focus and stop majoring on minors. Once I work it out here for awhile, I'll try to remember to update my own progress:) Talk to you soon!