Faith + Life

Bills.  Family.  Job.  Boss.  Friends.  Dreams.

Go ahead.  You know you want to add to that list. Go on… make it longer…

You and I have lives of obligation. We are tied to money and things and then, maybe, to each other.

At least, that’s how it seems to be.

Add in holidays, health concerns and religious obligations and that list just gets

Burdensome.

Hectic.

Out of focus.

In spite of teaching people and organizations how to dig out of the mire, I found myself feeling

Over-burdened.

Hectic.

Out of focus.

I kept asking myself one question:

Why?

I was asking

• why me?
• why now?

I was looking for the answer to the wrong version of that question.

Fortunately, I was jolted into that realization by an old friend.

Prayer of Purpose

In my faith tradition there’s a covenant prayer — a prayer of commitment.

This prayer is dusted off sometime in January most years. We say it. Some of us really mean. Most of us, I think, get overwhelmed by life and forget it.  That’s why we’ll have to pray it together next January.

It goes like this:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

…

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

…

Frankly, as I recited that prayer, I winced.

I had let so many other concerns cloud my vision. I was asking the why question all wrong.

The 4th Question

Ken Blanchard (One Minute Manger, Lead Like Jesus ) writes that most people ask why only after they know what.

Why was shown to be the fourth question people asked when confronted with change.

Pity.

The What doesn’t have any meaning without the Why.

The why question should be about purpose.

• Why am I doing any of this?
• Why am I here?

As that covenant prayer reminded me, I’m doing this and I’m here for reasons beyond my reach…

Whoa!

I do it, too.  Do you?

I start projects by spending time, energy and resources on the what before I’ve figured out the why.

By the time I slow down long enough to ask about why, I’m knee deep in something that I didn’t envision.

For example, this blog.  It started as a part of a church web site.

Why?

I could add content on a variety of topics and it would help with SEO.

Good idea. Bad rationale.

Fast forward to late 2009.  I started asking the why question more and more frequently. I started asking it with more passion.

So far, I’ve gotten great results.

Answering THE One Question

My answer to THE One Question that you (and I) must answer didn’t really surprise me.

Answering it did take a lot of work.

It will take even more work to live by its guidance.

Q: why are you writing this blog?

A: To enter into conversations and relationships in order to encourage a more complete RE-connection with God and us and between each other.

It is in that RE-connection that we may journey together and celebrate the transformation that takes place in each other.

It is in that RE-connection that we may journey together and, when we stumble, help each other to regain balance and focus.

It is in that RE-connection that we may journey together and enjoy being connected.

Danger Zone

Wow! Talk about focus!

Now, when somebody says, “Hey, do you have a blog?”

I can say, “Yeah, I’ve got a blog.”

“What’s it about?”

“It’s about RE-connecting — building relationships with God and with each other.”

The dangers, as I see them, are these:

1. Lots of ideas will stay in my notebook.
2. I will be forced to stay reasonably on-topic.
3. You will know exactly what this blog is about.
4. You will tell your friends who might be interested.
5. All the traffic will crash my server… ‘-D  (Okay… I can dream.)

Your Turn!

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review suggested that the most successful people and businesses had one sentence to describe their why.

Do you?

What’s your why?

What’s your vision for living it?

___________

Photo credits: Pink Sherbet Photography, D. Sharon Pruitt;

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