A little thought I posted on facebook...

So, I am not typically one to post any kind of "deep thought" or "devotional" on facebook, but every now and then I'll come home from church with a thought in my head that it helps to get out. In this case, I wrote this one out and posted on facebook. In doing so, I hoped I might initiate a little discussion. In the end, I got more comments along the lines of "thanks for posting" and "I needed to hear that" and that sort of thing. So, that's great... but if anyone is inclined to respond/engage in conversation, I'm down for that too. So, here's a repost:

At teacher inservice a few weeks ago, one of the points made by a guest speaker that stuck with me was essentially this:

When we as teachers say things like "I know it's Monday, but let's try and have a good rehearsal today!" or "I can tell you're tired, but I need you to sit up!" or "I know it's Friday, but I need you to focus!" - what we're doing is validating the idea that tiredness, or Monday-ness, or Friday-ness, or whatever-ness is an obstacle to our success. The guest made the point that these small comments have a way of causing us to lower the bar or the expectation for our students without us even realizing it - just as we thought we were trying to raise the bar.

I wonder if we're not the same in other parts of our lives. An easy example (for me, anyway): fitness.

Isn't it easy to say:

"I'll never run a marathon, but I can try to jog a 5K."

"I can't jog a 5K, but I could maybe walk a mile each day."

"I couldn't possibly walk a mile Every Day, but I can do it twice a week."

"I can't find time to go for a walk..."

Isn't this all just a nice little way of saying - "I'm not going to expect myself to be fit."

Now, this is definitely a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black. I am not a fitness guru. But I was able to prove to myself in 2010 that certain things I had never thought I could do were just as simple as changing my mind and my viewpoint. I'm betting that most people that have made fitness a real part of their lives would tell you that the activity itself is not always as hard as just deciding, over and over again. Making the decision each day to get up and get it done.

I feel this way about many of our financial decisions. Is it hard to live without credit cards, to save up and pay for stuff in cash, to tithe to our church? I mean, I guess it's hard... or at least it might have been hard when we started. But once you decide, and you keep deciding... it's less hard. Almost a non-issue. Technically, Andrew and I now give about 12% each month to the church... because last year my income went up, being partially assigned to a high school position, and we began tithing on that amount. My income went back down this school year, but we kept giving the same amount to the church each month. Never really even thought twice about it. Non issue.

All this leads me to... how do we lower our expectations of ourselves as Christians? I feel like I so often hear that lessons taught in scripture were great for an earlier time, a less stressful world, a more primitive society, but that in this day and age, you couldn't possibly expect someone to live in that way. "It's hard to balance our faith with our real lives." "It's hard to focus on God's will for our lives." "It's hard to allow our faith to influence the decisions we make."

Is it really?