Pay Attention. Get A Life. Cut The Crap.

Photo from The Livesay Haiti blog.

Still compelled to search out stories of Haiti, watching CNN, talking through the news with my family. Finding that these thoughts are not only occupying my immediate concerns, but somehow connecting with a shifting sense of purpose.

I'm at this place where I know that things are changing, shifting. It feels like a pivot point of sorts.

It's tied to this book, which I just finished Saturday night. I intend to write a more detailed review later, but for now, I'll just say the tale of this guy's most recent journey deeply affected my view of the world and the people in it. And myself.

And I have felt so compelled by the stories coming out of Haiti - not the CNN blurbs and the news stories, but by the people who are there, blogging about their experiences here and here. I'm thinking about organizations like this one and this one that have poured their resources into walking beside the people of Haiti not just because an earthquake has devastated the country, but because they were called - years ago - to invest their lives into something that matters.

After my pastor's message yesterday about stewardship and using our resources and talents and money to do something that matters, I am overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions and something more deeply spiritual.

Some sort of calling.

If I have learned anything in these twenty-odd years of walking purposefully with Jesus, it is that these things grow and smolder and mature only with time. So I'm not rushing, not jumping, not moving too quickly.

I am waiting, with expectancy. And I am provoked to move even deeper into some self-examination by a post by photographer/pastor Mark Beeson, which you can read in its entirety here. Here's an excerpt from the post that caught my attention; Beeson was pondering the helplessness we sometimes feel in tandem with a desire to help, to fly to Haiti, to simply do something.

*Get a life. Make a plan worthy of your existence.
*Pay attention. Start listening to those doing what you’d like to do.
*Practice. Want to do something great? Start building your talent, strength and stamina - one step at a time.
*Cut the crap. Read a good book...memorize 2 Peter 1:2-12 and fuel up.
*Get in gear. Gravity hates you. Intercept your entropy and start moving.
*You’re going to die. There. Now that we’ve got that settled, what’s to fear? Go ahead and live.
*Say, “No.” Stop spending more than you have, or you’ll have nothing to offer. Manage your money, time and energy so you have something to give others. Get yourself in position to help. - Mark Beeson