Stuff That Matters in Life

Katy’s Weblog

For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.

Sickness is a bad thing.

But as I laid in bed not feeling well, I was not distracted, or rushed, or preoccupied. Illnesses lead us back to what matters most in life, doesn’t it?

We are led back to God, family, and friends.

Sickness is not always a bad thing.

John Ortberg in his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted describes several spiritual disciplines. One is the practice of an unhurried life. He makes a good case for why too many activities is harmful for your spiritual life, because they cause us to lose track of the important things of life.

Love and hurry, he says, are fundamentally incompatible. We get tired, irritated, and impatient with people because we are rushing here and there. That is a good point. It is true for me that when I am not pushed for time, I am more willing to take the time and opportunity to listen and care.

I am only a third of the way through Ortberg’s book. I borrowed it from a friend. It is well-worth the price, even if the rest of the book is lousy.

You can read an excerpt from this link:

This will make you drool –

Dinner tonight, especially for my husband, was: King crab legs with garlic in melted butter! Broil tri-tip roast medium rare! Home grown chinese brocoli!

We’r taking an extra dose of cholesterol meds tonight!

Work

Filed under Generalby Joyful

Employees expect to work at their jobs. Students expect to work at school.

But when it comes to personal relationships, people don’t think they have to work at having a good relationship.

I suppose when you are dating, you do work to impress the other person. You do nice things for them to make them…

Read more of “Work”

Food at Google

Filed under Generalby Joyful

Art Levinson, CEO of Genentech, on the Board at Google, says, “Here I am, a guy who can afford a good meal, and every time I go to a Google board meeting, I don’t leave until ten o’clock at night because I get a free dinner there.”

Google is so known for their food.

I went to visit the Google Santa Monica office on Sunday. They don’t serve on weekends, but I got a Naked Juice and a package of Fig Newtons from their snack area. Everywhere you turn there seems to be a snack area.

Also at Google, I got to play the Wii for the first time. Interestingly, my bowling score on the Wii was about the same as my average real bowling score…

“The failures of our faith do not frustrate the purposes of God.”

I think that is consistent with the concept of the sovereignty of God.

Where then does faith fit in? I think the overall purposes of God will to fulfilled, but I am the one who will miss out if I fail in my faith.

I don’t know if that makes sense.

“Now I understand why real estate agents are skinny.”

That was a comment from my client after she saw all the work I was doing for her in the purchase of her house.

Most people don’t really know what a real estate agent does. They think we just drive around showing houses to people. That is the easiest part of the job.

For one transaction, I have to work with more than 10 different people, who has a zillion other files to work on, and whose top priority is not my client’s file. With great diplomacy I navigate the timing and paperwork with those people so that everything comes together for my client’s closing on the date that it needs to close. If I wasn’t on my phone constantly, driving documents from here to there, and making sure all the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted, my client’s purchase would not have closed on time, and she would have been out on the street.

Believe me, a real estate agent is not overpaid.

The story is so simple, the writing is so easy to read, yet the concepts about life are so poignant.

In the book, Artist of the Floating World, by Kazuo Ishiguro, the artist Masuji Ono made a decision to use his artistic abilities for what he thought was a greater good. Instead of painting the “floating world” of physical beauty and pleasures, he chose to join the imperialist movement in Japan that led the country into World War II.

Read more of “Artist of the Floating World”

Hard times

Filed under Generalby Joyful

Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

I was surprised that this thought came to me while driving the other day. I am not a big fan of Lord of the Rings, though I enjoyed the movies. I couldn’t finish reading the books.

This exchange between Frodo and Gandalf taught me a lesson.

In difficult times, I feel exactly like Frodo – “I wish none of this had happened.”

Gandalf’s reply gives me a perspective of how my response to life’s difficulties should be. What I do with the time given to me shows who I am and what kind of faith I have in God. Do I complain, behave badly, walk away, give up, choose an easier route? Or do I stick it out, do my best, continue to love those who are difficult to love, continue to help those in need?