Dumb Smartwatch

I own a smartwatch that connects to my smartphone and it’s supposed to make my life
easier and more productive. I can track my eating, my exercise, and my sleep patterns.
I can reply to text and emails, and even set meetings. The problem is I feel dumber every
time I try and figure out how to do all that to make my life better. Because my watch is
smarter than me, I usually resort to just changing the watch face and wonder why it’s so
hard to make my life easier?


And then I see the new ad for the Apple Watch about the guy who keeps duplicating himself
and the ends with the tagline, “There’s a better you in you” (if you haven’t seen it here’s the
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms4yxJcvW3s).


It seems like all you have to do to discover the better you is to get a smartwatch. But is
a smartwatch really all we need to get out the best of whatever is in us?

I want the best out of my life and my watch doesn't seem to be doing it for me. That’s why
I’m convinced we already have the ability to tap into the best that’s within us, by simply
seeking the one who put it in there in the first place.


I believe Paul thought the same thing when he wrote this to the Romans....

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your 

sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an
offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t
become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead,
fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what
he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. - Romans 12:1-2

I may not be as smart as my smartwatch, but I’ve discovered a smart way to discover the
best of me and it starts with God. I believe that at the soul level of each and every one of us
exists our best, so over the next few weeks I’m going to work on some new blogs to help you and I discover the best in us. In the meantime I leave you with the words of the modern
poet and prophet Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters to ponder... 

“Has someone taken your faith? It’s real, the pain you feel. You trust, you must confess.
Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?”

The Calendar Cure

I don’t know about you, but my calendar can get full really quick. A meeting here, a lunch
there and then throw in a few interruptions and next thing you know I didn't accomplish
anything I needed too. Then I get so busy I need to start rearranging my appointments
and schedule and then things get really crazy. That’s why we’ve all heard that if we don’t
tell our calendars what to do, they’ll tell us what to do.

In fact the only time I like my calendar telling me what to do is when it comes to weekends
and Holidays. I have noooo problem with my calendar telling me to take a day off. It's almost
like calendars are programmed by the manufacturer to tell us to do what’s best for
us. I mean we can always fill our calendars with what’s most important to us, but our
calendar tells us what’s most important in life.

Take weekends for example. We all know how vital rest is to our lives, so as bad as
Mondays are, without our calendars reminding us to take weekends off, we would
really hate Mondays. Then there are holidays. Give me a day off to drink a green beer,
eat a stuffed bird, or an egg shaped piece of chocolate and I’m in. However, holidays
aren’t just for eating and doing things we normally don’t, holidays are for remembering.  
When we observe a holiday it’s about remembering important moments in history that
shaped our world, our culture, and our faith. Our calendars tell us what matters most.

The fact that our calendars remind us that we are in the year 2018 is measured by the
most important person in human history who walked the earth some 2018 years ago.  
The reason we still remember this today is because of, you guessed it, our calendars.
If you think about it, Jesus changed time and wants to change the way we think about our
calendars.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up
about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever
hard things come up when the time comes.” - Jesus

Just like our calendars remind us what’s most important, maybe it’s time to realize
how important time with Him is.