Life Thought: When it gets crazy.

It's been a little crazy around here in the office. Derry in Uganda picking up his son. Chris out with the GO team as of Monday. IMPACT team leaving for the DR. Oh, and we're planning for Summer Camp. So, when I say it's been a little crazy, I am clearly understating the situation.

The thing about craziness and stress is that it forces us to truly organize our lives and reveals the discipline that we have in place. I, for one, have to work very hard at this one. But, in my working to make it better, I have come to a place of recognizing it's importance in my life. I look up to those that have much better discipline than I do. Those people that can go through the windy times in their lives and can still maintain all of the activities that refresh them and give them life.

I'm working on it, but here are the things that are working:

1. If you don't prioritize yourself, no one will. It's not anyone's responsibility but our own to make sure that we are staying healthy and working to stay refreshed. And if you think that you will just do it when there isn't work to do, you need to come to the reality that work really doesn't care about your mental and spiritual health. It just pesters you like a mosquito in the evening by the fire. 
2. Shut it off when you are off. In the day and age of smartphones, text message updates, and more productivity than ever, it is very tempting to think that you can manage the technology that drives your workday when you aren't working. If you are like me, you have to separate from it at some point. I have found myself budgeting a certain amount of time each evening to make sure that my phone, computer, and iPod are all shut off. Some nights it seems to be shorter than others, but we have to have that time away.
3. Get outside and do something quantitative. I know there are many days that I will go through meetings, plan new things in my offices, have a number of conversations that were all very productive to some larger cause, but produce no obvious result. I have taken up to trying to find something quantitative to accomplish on those days. I have been called a "Big D" because I score a high "D" on the DISC profile for personality assessment. It means I like to get things done and I will do just about anything to get it done. Some things that I have resorted to: Mowing people's lawns, cleaning dishes, riding my bike, etc. It is amazing what can happen when I do something outside during this time of the year. It just lifts my life in some incredible ways.

I'm not sure what works for you, but whether you work in full time ministry or otherwise, you need to do something to get out and get away. You can't work every day. And if you can establish some disciplines that give you life, you will be able to weather the windstorms of life much easier and much more effectively.