An Opportunity to Tell Me What You REALLY Think...

Right outside my office some guys are jackhammering the sidewalk - we have a couple slabs of sidewalk that need replaced and today's the day. Reminds me of the sidewalk we replaced like a year and a half ago in Warren.

Anyway, I watched them for just a minute.*** Here's the process. First they used a cutting tool to cut the concrete. Then, it's the same thing over and over. Jackhammer for maybe 30 second bursts a couple times. Dig. Repeat. Pick up pieces of concrete. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

It's a slow process.

But the concrete didn't deteriorate quickly, either.

You know, I'm thinking that's true about a lot of the stuff we need to get rid of in our lives. The "bad stuff".

David Crowder (yeah, that's his picture) wrote a book called Praise Habit which talks (in part) about how to make our praise of God a habit.

A habit is an act acquired by experience and performed regularly and automatically....

Years ago a friend told me that an action repeated for a minimum of twenty-one days is likely to become a permanent habit. So I thougth I'd give it a shot. I would choose a habit that was nonsensical but not too nonsensical. After much thought I decided that my trained response to "Hello" or "How's it going?" or "Hi" would be to salute and wink. In the beginning it was quite fun. Some pal would walk in a room and say, "What's up?" and I would raise hand over eye in quick, sharm movements and wink while responding, "Not much." It was beauty. The internal joy this brought was overwhelming. It was the perfect habit to form. It was quirky but legitimate. Impossible to tell if I was serious or not. I could be. I mean, if you hadn't known me you might not even notice that I'd just saluted you and winked as we passed in the hall. But it really looked asbured. The "Sunshine Sailor" is what I called it.

...Sure enough, before long I didn't even think about it. The Sunshine Sailor had become my salutation... *

Yeah - David's crazy - and that's part of what makes the first part of that book so good (the bulk of the book - his reflections on the Psalms - well, it's okay...but I never did finish that part...).

Anyway, the point is that it takes time and effort to do something habitually. And, consequently, it takes time and effort to UNDO something habitual. Cut. Jackhammer. Dig. Repeat.

So, here's my question. Do I work on doing some good habit for the next three weeks, or do I work on undoing some bad habit for the next three weeks?

David:

...one day when I saluted the convenience store clerk and realized it did nothing inside. There was no suppressed smile. There was no choked-back laughter. Nothing joyous bursting in my chest. There should have been celebration in the knowledge that it had worked. It was habit. I had done it. Instead, that day became for me the first of twenty-one attempts to sever the Sunshine Sailor from my person. *

So, okay, if I salute you and wink when you say hello, well, you'll know I've gone off the deep end. But...which way to go with this. Is it a balancing act? Do I try to develop some good while...um...undeveloping some bad?

Lori will tell you, if you really want to ask her, that I can really only focus on one thing at a time. Sure, my head goes all over the place - and while I'm writing this I'm remembering what it was like to run a jackhammer on the jobsite years ago and thinking about getting another cup of coffee and wondering if Elie is up yet and listening to Greg Adkins sing "Romantic Comedy" and tucked away way in the back is my sermon for this Sunday. But I'm really only focusing on writing this paragraph - 'cause the background stuff comes and goes, you know. I can only really focus on one thing at a time.

So what will it be? Heh, I'm tempted to ask people to put in the comments what I should work on - but that's a pretty scary thought. First, what if you tell me something I don't want to hear? You know, work on that really annoying...something that you didn't even know you did. Or, worse. If nobody posts...sob...I have no friends.

So, no, don't put your comments on what I should change in the comments section... Email me - catch me in the hall - give me a call. Whatever.

Frankly, I'm thinking I should grow a David Crowder beard. What do you think? Might take more than 21 days...















Oh, um...Lori says no to the beard...



*** I would have watched longer, but I didn't want them to think I was some kind of geek who is facinated by construction stuff - even though, apparently, I AM that kind of geek...um... And I was going to take a picture of what's going on out there, but, really, how would that have looked?

*Crowder Quotes from Pages 25-26...