Whaddya doin’?

Friend: “So whad­dya doing these days?”

Me: “Work­ing, pay­ing bills and mak­ing tough decisions.”

Friend:  [silence]

This is usu­ally where the con­ver­sa­tion either ends or changes sub­ject.  Why?  Well, it’s ordi­nary, and he prob­a­bly didn’t want the full story right this minute any­way.  It’s not that he doesn’t care, because then how would he qual­ify as a friend?  It’s all about the timing.

Speak­ing of tim­ing, there’s a whole list of things I want to do with my life. (I’m sure you have a list like this too, some­where, some­how.)  On this list of things to do I have “learn new things, and do them” and a lit­tle fur­ther down, “do every­thing I’ve learned.”  I want to fin­ish life hav­ing used the knowl­edge I gained — all of it — not just parts, but the whole.  The last few weeks have been quite a roller coaster of events that have solid­i­fied some goals and dis­solved oth­ers.  To be quite hon­est, it was ridicu­lous.  I’m ready for hope and change and I’m not refer­ring to the 2008 elec­tion.  On that note, I break to a new paragraph.

I came across a job offer recently that seemed to have the hope, change and oppor­tu­nity that would fit my hand like a glove.  Only one problem…the more I thought about the job and what it offers, I couldn’t go to where the job is.  It would require the removal of the hand from my body and send­ing it 4 hours away to a place where my body isn’t.  My body is in Tulsa, in my com­fort zone.  While it is good to get out of that com­fort zone some­times and stretch, it would not be prac­ti­cal right now for me to take the job.  So, after 2–3 weeks of con­tem­pla­tion, prayer and think­ing out loud, I called them today and backed out.  I hope they understand.

One of my trusted men­tors gave me some great advice a few years ago, regard­ing impulses.  The illus­tra­tions goes like this: You walk into a store and see this thing that you just have to have…it’s not what you were shop­ping for, but it’s just cool and you want it now, or it’s finally on sale now.  Well, if it’s not a planned or bud­geted pur­chase, or there’s no legit­i­mate need for it now, then just walk away.  Don’t talk your­self into buy­ing it or make up a rea­son to need it.  Just walk away.  If it’s the deal God wants to give you, he’ll make sure it’s still on sale tomor­row, or next week, or next year, when His tim­ing is right.

I took that advise today and applied it against this job opportunity…it’s just a want, not a need.  So I’m walk­ing away.  If God really wants this for me, he’ll tell me again later, and the job will still be there.  It might even be bet­ter the sec­ond time.  Some things get bet­ter with age.

So, now you know what I’m doing.  What are you doing?