I Was Going to Write My Blog, But I Forgot…

If my writing jumps around a lot and it doesn’t always make sense, it’s because I have ADHD so I can’t stay focused. I’ve been locked in my office and I’m not allowed to come out until I’m finished writing all of my blog, but I don’t think that’s very fair, since no one even told me what I’m supposed to be writing about.

The whole reason I’m still not done is because this is the second time I’ve written this blog. I wrote the first draft last week. I put it in a folder in my briefcase, but the next day when I went to get it out, it was gone. It makes me really mad that someone went in to my briefcase and stole my blog that I had worked on for so long. Whoever it was must have taken the key for my briefcase out of my desk drawer and used it to get my paper when I was in the restroom, because I only left my briefcase sitting by itself for five minutes the whole day.

I don’t even know why I should bother writing this blog anyway. The people who read it don’t like me and they’re just going to write mean comments on it and give me a bad review. All of the other bloggers get higher ratings even though my blog is way better than what they write. That’s just because the readers like them more than they like me. It’s so unfair.

I’m not even going to get full credit for writing this. Supposedly the deadline was last Tuesday, but I must have gone to the bathroom when it was announced, because I know that I wasn’t made aware. If I had known, I would have turned it in on time. I was given a one-day extension to get it in, but I had a dentist appointment that day, so when I got back to work, no one reminded me to upload my blog, so I forgot to do it, even though I had it, so now it’s considered “late.” Isn’t that ridiculous?

I mean, what’s with all these dumb rules, anyway? How am I supposed to know when this is due and that’s due and how much time for this and that and the other? I’m trying my hardest, isn’t that enough? Nobody cares about me; all they care about is whether I get my blog done. How impersonal!

When I told my mom the real story about what happened with my blog, she marched right down to my workplace and demanded a meeting with my supervisor. She told him about how hard things are for me at home right now with a wife and two young kids to take care of and the slumping economy and the rising cost of food and gas. My mom is good at making other people understand my circumstances so that they aren’t so hard on me when I’m a little bit late posting my blogs.

It’s hard being a thirty-something these days. I’m pretty stressed out from worrying about America’s need for alternative energy sources and the financial bailout of Fannie Mae with taxpayer dollars. And there’s a lot of peer pressure to deal with too. People are constantly pushing Obama on me, so sometimes it's hard to do the right thing and support McCain/Palin. With all these worries and pressures, I just don’t have time to write the blog.

It’s 2:00 a.m. and I’m still trying to finish this thing. It’s supposed to be at least 500 words long, but that’s way too much to expect from an amateur blogger. I’m not a professional. It’s not like I’m even going to use any of this when I get older.

Supposedly it’s in my contract that I’m to write one blog every week, but I never saw that anywhere. I remember getting a bunch of papers at the beginning of the year, but I didn’t know I was supposed to read them all. Why didn’t someone tell me they were important?

I just looked through those papers and I found something about my blog assignments. Apparently, I have an assigned topic for each month. So now that I’ve wasted all this time writing all of this other stuff because no one told me what to do, I’m going to have to start all over again on the topic I'm assigned:

“Teaching Personal Responsibility” – a blog by Jim McKenzie

Excuses are so easy to make, aren’t they? I could list dozens of excuses I hear everyday from students...

Life is Good

You've probably seen these t-shirts or bumper stickers featuring a caricature of a guy lounging at the beach or sitting around the campfire with the motto "Life is Good" written playfully underneath.


I like these t-shirts. And I agree with the sentiment it personifies. Life is good. But it is not the circumstances of my life that lead me to this conclusion. It is the knowledge that life is good because God is good.









Life is good when we're enjoying a cold ice cream cone on a warm summer afternoon.











But is life still good when we suddenly lose that delicious moment?













Life is good when we're out enjoying fun on two wheels.













But is life still good when one of our toys gets broken?







Life is good when you have the company of Man's Best Friend.
















But is life still good when Fido rolls over but isn't playing dead?











Life is good when we're heading to the beach for a weekend trip.









But is life still good when that trip takes us in a different direction?








Life is good when we're running the race strong.









But is life still good when it trips us up or knocks us down?











Life is good when we're sitting by the fire with a friend.





But is life still good when we're going through the fire alone?










Life is good when we're blazing the trail with family and friends.










But is life still good when one of them walks away from us?

As parents, life is often overwhelming. We face the stresses of family, marriage, finances, and work life. Our kids get sick at the absolute worst times (like when we have an important meeting to attend that morning). We come home exhausted from a tough day at work only to have to hurry back out for the kids' soccer game across town. We run to the grocery store to pick up the things we need for dinner and are completely embarrassed by our screaming and crying kids who suddenly melt down at the checkout counter.

On the best of days and the worst of days, God's Word reminds us:

"On a good day, enjoy yourself,
On a bad day, examine your conscience.
God arranges for both kinds of days,
so that we won't take anything for granted."
---Ecclesiastes 7:14


Now, where can I get that Life is Good tee showing a mom awake with the crying baby at 3am...

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us

“With the lights out it’s less dangerous,
Here we are now, entertain us,
I feel stupid and contagious,
Here we are now, entertain us.”
--- Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana, 1991)

I remember well when this song was first released in 1991. I was a senior in high school and this song quickly became the anthem of my graduating class. But more than that, I look back over the past fifteen years and I realize, with great sadness, that it has become the theme song for my generation and those coming behind.

Here we are now, entertain us.

We see and hear and experience this expectation in almost every context of life today. There is a premium placed upon “fun” and the responsibility for ensuring a “good time” falls squarely upon the shoulders of everyone but the individual.

Let’s look at a few examples within the context of a typical teen’s reality.

At school, we hear statements like “My math teacher is so boring.” The assumption, of course, is that the most important attribute of an educator is that they are fun. Their qualifications of experience, content mastery, and methodologies are rendered meaningless if they are unable to entertain the student. The ultimate goal of most students attending school is to have fun and to grow their social networks. The primary purpose of education is to promote learning. Sometimes the two can work hand-in-hand, but often times they are diametrically opposed. Learning is work and work is not always fun.

This type of immature logic is repeated in the context of family life (“I hate doing chores – they’re no fun”), employment (“I need a new job – this one is so boring!”), and church (“I hope church isn’t dull today or I’m going to fall asleep!”). Again, the supposition is that these things exist only to entertain, and that the individual bears no responsibility for what he gains from the experience. That task gets relegated to the parent, pastor, employer, and teacher.

We want a fun process to lead us to a fruitful reward. But the biblical model says that a fruitful process will lead to a fun reward. Psalms 128:2 reminds us that “when you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it will be well with you.” The fun that we should seek is not in the process of what we do, but in the joy we find in the reward of our efforts.

The human tendency is to only do the things that we enjoy. We like the things that we value and we value the things that we like. But our dislike of something does not, and should not, diminish its value or importance.

Immaturity says, “I don’t like _____ so I’m not going to _____.”

I may say "I don’t like broccoli so I’m not going to eat it," but that does not diminish the nutritional value I would receive from a regular diet that includes broccoli.

Yet, we hear this statement frequently from children today. I don’t like my parents’ decision so I’m not going to obey. I don’t like writing essays so I’m not going to do my homework. I don’t like the school’s dress code, so I’m not going to tuck my shirt in unless I get caught. I don’t like reading the Bible so I’m not going to do it very often.

Statements like these, whether directly stated or just implied by our actions, demonstrate that we are driven by our desires for fun.

Are we raising our children to be governed by their feelings or by their faith?

Studies show that the average 21-year-old has watched 20,000 hours of television, played 10,000 hours of video games, and sent 250,000 e-mails and instant messages. While today’s generation of American youth are busy chasing the next thrill ride, there is another population halfway around the world that is working hard now to ensure a prosperous (and fun) life later. (For more on this topic, read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat.)

I like having fun as much as the next person, but that can’t be the end-all goal.

We must teach our children to be mature enough to recognize that the greatest things in life will never be achieved chasing a good time. If they limit their pursuits and their efforts to the things that are fun, easy, and pleasant, they are guaranteed to live a life devoid of value, purpose, and significance.

Talk about boring.