jmcgready’s misc universe

One of the churches I mentioned in my article on
Where to find Japanese Christian music, songs and artists.
First Japanese Baptist Church
in Sacramento, CA was ransacked - thousands of dollars in instruments were taken.

Burglars ransacked a church and a dozen other businesses
in south Sacramento overnight, making off with expensive equipment
and leaving costly damage behind.
The First Japanese Baptist Church suffered the loss of
thousands in musical instruments, a vital part of their services….
The thieves also swiped a pricey overhead projector…

The thieves also took money and computers from a non-profit
that helped needy fathers.

My first reaction was disgust, along with
anger and hatred towards the thieves.

Then I remembered the sermon at Bethel this Sunday,
about how the pastor recalled facing the guy who broke into his car
and stole a lot of valuable stuff and his natural instinct was to get annoyed,
but then he looked at the notes for the sermon he was preparing -
it was about guilt, grace and forgiveness in Christ.

That gave him a reality check that got his mind refocused
much like my recalling his recollection has given me a reality check.

Decisions have consequences - and not just for the bad guys, either.

anyway, if you’re the praying sort, please pray for them,
the church and the thieves, that the highest and best good is done
in all their lives - for God’s greater glory.

Technorati: bethel, christian Japanese music, costly damage, First Japanese Baptist Church, japan music christian, japanese christian music, japanese christian music artists, Japanese Christianity, musical instruments, Nessen Music Ministry, Sacramento baptist church, sacramento ca, sacramento church, south Sacramento

That sentence, spoken by Michael Brown
and accompanied by a gift of one year’s expenses,
sparked the creation Harper Lee’s greatest work -
To Kill a Mockingbird. I bring it up today because
she was born 82 years ago on this very day.

I also bring it up because it brings up
some interesting points about doing the One Big Thing -
the work that focuses your gifts, talents and callings.

The first is more of a question -
“even if I got a year’s worth of expenses covered,
would I be able to get the work done?”

I know I’d have problems doing it - it’s not the
shangri-la that it seems to be when viewed
from the vantage point of working a job
just to keep a roof over your head.

It would be a year of no excuses,
where the life work you wanted becomes work.
The job becomes a convenient excuse for
not doing your true work.

Maybe having a job that isn’t your true work,
but is more amenable to your true work is better option.
83 years ago today, T.S. Eliot took a position
at Faber & Faber, leaving his dreary
former position at Lloyd’s Bank.

The problem there is that even sort of true work
still becomes work, and thus a new source
of rationalization and procrastination.

If I had the perfect summarization to offer
on this subject, I would be offering it now.

I would also be a bit more renowned than I
am right now, which is to say that I would be renowned.

So I’m now back where I was before this,
but for these two hundred some-odd words.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Technorati: causes of procrastination, faber, harper lee, job escape from work, lloyd, merry christmas, michael brown, procrastination, rationalization, rationalization and procrastination, t s eliot, talents, to kill a mockingbird, true work