Hats

I haven't posted something in forever. I'm not naive enough to think that shook your world, but here we go again. Remember getting a new hat? I know that when Brad and I would get a new hat it was an art form creating the "perfect" hat. We would rubber band the bill around a baseball over night, soaking the brim in water so it would dry in a perfect curve. The inside front of the hat always had that plastic layer that would make the hat stand up flat, we hated that, so we removed it. Painstaking process of cutting out the plastic, but you had to be careful because it was very easy to poke the inside of the hat and cause a hole, thus ruining the hat. Then there was the front tip of the bill, sometimes it looked good all frayed, other times we took a lighter to it because it looked better scorched a little. We would literally beat the hat into the wall, against brick, whatever we could do to break it down so it fit perfectly.

The reason I bring this up is because I often think about how many hats I wear "job" wise. In a given day I could be a teacher, department head, DC coordinator, Mentor to new teacher, team leader, middle school ministry leader, high school ministry leader, app salesman, father, and husband. That's a lot of hats. Each one is unique it's in own way and brings both joy and stress. I spend a lot of time mentally beating these hats into a comfortable fit. I want to bend them to fit my life better, because I live with the idea that "I'm needed" to do this job. Then today I woke up from a nap and read a blog by Steven Furtick. The blog basically said "stop kidding yourself that you think you're job is so important that the bigger purpose of life, God, can't be, and won't be carried out". You know the hat that I wear the most? sleeper. 1/3 of our lives we will be asleep. Why do I put so much stress on myself over these many jobs I hold? Because in my mind the stress comes from me believing what "I" do matters the most, instead it should be I do my best and God takes care of the rest. If you haven't seen the movie Facing the Giants I recommend it, especially if you have little kids. Ignore the poor acting and focus on the point.

Line from the movie

“Grant, I heard a story about two farmers who desperately needed rain,” the man said, “and both of them prayed for rain. But, only one of them went out and prepared his fields to receive it. Which one do you think trusted God to send the rain?”

“Well, the one who prepared his fields for it,” the main character replied.

“Which one are you? God will send the rain when He’s ready. You need to prepare your field to receive it.”