Dear Why Team member,
I hope this week’s message finds you well and open to new perspectives.
I, most days, enjoy attending to things, and at times I am even fastidious: very attentive to and concerned about detail. It has served me well.
While I have been labeled OCD, I choose to regard it more today as OCA:
An Obsessive-Compulsive Advantage - However, I now find attending to the details is no longer an obsession, or a compulsion, but rather all advantage.
Early in my adulthood, I came to realize that the reason I was seeking order in my external world is because I, unfortunately, had a disordered internal world.
Now, with many years under my belt, a good internal order, life experiences, coaches, and mentors, I see external disorder differently and I’m more at ease with it when other priorities stack up. There is a time and a season for everything. To make better trades with our precious life currency, our attention, we will at times not attend to some details as other priorities emerge. However, in time, the time comes to clean, to attend, to reestablish order.
A person’s disordered life is first seen and experienced externally - for many, if we just began by cleaning our room, we would begin to become a more positive influence on ourselves and the world.
I find it interesting that those who have little to no order in their lives believe they know best what others should be doing. Maybe this is what Jesus meant when he said take the beam out of your own eye before you point out the speck in another’s.
Why Attend More?
How much more wonderful the world becomes when we take on more responsibility for our state of mind - and how much more improved that state of mind when we attend more to our surroundings, to the small stuff.
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
Luke 16:10
I very much enjoy making my bed in the morning, some mornings quickly, but more often I take my time to do it well. It’s an act of devotion as I am devoted to caring for what has been entrusted to me. It’s an act of gratitude for the bed and what it has given me in peace and restoration. If we would appreciate more what we do have, we would be less in want for what we do not have.
I attend to the pillows and smooth out the wrinkles in the bedspread. I enjoy the finished product, the order, the beauty. When in the kitchen, I clean, I keep things in order, I attend to my plants, I look out the windows to take in the beautiful view, all with gratitude.
Attending to my external environment does much to bring peace and order to my internal environment. And all the while I am building confidence in my ability to attend to the difficult details that will certainly arise when the storms of life arrive.
It’s best to build your Ark before the rain.
Are not all religious practices, present practices, disciplines, and devotionals that invite us to attend to what is present? - to what has already been given to us?! How are we to be a source of abundance to others while preoccupied with what is missing? It’s not a surprise that we would miss what is present by focusing more on what is missing. The alter of more certainly brings an experience of Hell. The alter of gratitude, for the immense present alone, brings an experience of Heaven.
What could you attend to now? How may you bring more order into your life right now? Maybe it’s just cleaning off your desk. How about going through that stack of papers that has been building up for weeks and months - it is burning your valuable life currency to NOT attend to it. Attend to it NOW and notice how you feel when doing that which you know is important but not urgent.
Who is in charge of you?
Who is responsible for your environment?
Being more proactive than reactive is very empowering. Clean and straighten up because you can, and the world will literally be a better place upon completion - you will SEE it!
Appreciate more the details and live more in wonder how the big stuff unfolds more smoothly. Live with more devotion, gratitude, and care, feeling more the joy of living your Best Day Ever!
Your paid attention alone will increase the value of that in which you attend.
The details matter - you are a detail that matters. Express more gratitude through your actions and receive more joy for being, for waking up, and for being given this glorious day - for the day will surely come that will be our last - live this one as such - knowing tomorrow is promised to no one.
Live Today: I WILL REJOICE, and it WILL BE your BEST DAY EVER!!
Make it a great week - attending more, noticing more, the gifts in your life.
Steve Luckenbach