I Get To Do This — Plucking and Planting

Have you ever had one of those moments, maybe you're sitting in your living room with your spouse watching your kids or finishing a project at work that you have spent a year or more investing hard work and passion, but one of those moments where you are just filled with an overwhelming sense of joy and gratitude? For me one of those moments was this morning when I was taking my daughter, Judah, to school. I looked back at her with her pigtails and gleeful smile and said "Judah, you are super cool". She said "No I'm not, not any more". I replied "You're not anymore? Why not, what happened?" She responded, with a massive smile across her face, "The sun warmed me up!" I could do nothing but just smile at the innocence of such a beautiful answer. As I dropped her off, walking into her class while holding her hand, I though to myself, I get to do this. Rob Bell's new book How To Be Here addresses the importance of the mantra, "I get to do this". It doesn't really matter what it is that you are engaged in as long as you are fully engaged in it. It requires being fully present in each moment. That means that nasty email you just read that questioned your effort or commitment, the fight you had with your daughter while getting ready for work or school, the meeting you have at the end of the day that will mean you're going to be late getting home, the long commute or even the much needed date you have planned with your spouse, each of these events are something other than this one thing you get to do in this moment. What you find is that even the difficult tasks become much easier and the wonderful moments of beauty become even more beautiful. Sitting in a coffee shop trying to write a blog is no longer something you are trying to do, it is something you get to do. Getting home and cleaning the disaster of a toy room while listening to your favorite album isn't a chore, it is a gift.

Our lives are filled with these moments that if we don't stop and take the time to appreciate and cherish them, they begin to all fade and blend together. No specific memory sticks out except for those monumental moments like a marriage, family vacation or the birth of a child. I just think that if those are the only moments we look to to find our joy that our joy will run out very quickly. The taste and crunch of a carrot, the smell of coffee brewing in the morning, the way that wind sounds as it passes through trees, the way that your daughter can't quite say Patricia (The name of one of our new ducks) and how it comes out like Matricia. These are the things that fill our souls with joy, if we can live in those moments. I get to do this. I get to do this!

Rob, in his book, goes on to talk about the difference between "craft" and "success". Success tells you how you are doing with words like pass or fail. Did you achieve your desired outcome or did you not? If you did not, you failed? "Craft" is wrapped up in this concept of "I get to do this". Are you a stay at home mom or dad? Do you feel like you are failing as a parent? Maybe you can never keep the house clean or maybe your daughter says she hates you or maybe you blew up and started yelling at your kids for no reason. All of these things can make us feel like failures. Maybe you are in the business world and you ares struggling to meet a deadline or maybe you work in the music industry and your latest album didn't receive the desired reception. Perhaps you're a preacher and the sermons that you put so much into, your heart and soul, fall flat and the sermon you weren't feeling really touches people. If you are wrapped up in these outcomes and deadlines, wrapped up in this constant loop of "is it enough?", "is it good", "what do they think?", "what will they say", you will find that you will never find joy. The only question you need to ask is, am I doing all that I can, in this time and space, with the talents and treasures that I have, to be the best version of me that I can? If the answer is no, I would bet that it has something to do with not being fully present in the thing that you "get to do". If the answer is yes, then just repeat to yourself over and over again, "I get to do this".

I leave you with a blessing this day. You have been beautifully and wonderfully made for a time such as this. All of your hurts and your disappointments, your victories and mountaintop experiences, have shaped you for this present moment. The people you are surrounded by, right now, are a gift and they play a part. The "craft" that sits before you is just waiting for you, in all of your beautifully broken splendor, to go to work. But always remember, "You Get To Do This". Consider it all joy.