From the Observation Deck

The other day I was watching the movie “The Women.” It was a pretty decent movie—I mean how can it stink with all those mega stars in it? The plot of this movie revolves around several women and some pretty stressful situations that they are going through. Pregnancy, job instability, infidelity, divorce, and raising a teenage daughter, to name the big ones. Everyone deals with stress in different ways but it was Meg Ryan’s character who really cracked me up.

During this one scene after she has a big fight with the soon-to-be ex-husband, she goes down to the kitchen and starts looking for something yummy (that is to say sugary and fattening) to eat. A girl after my own heart. Her kitchen however, was lacking in those kinds of foods, so she makes what I have to say is the most disgusting concoction I’ve ever seen.

The recipe goes like so:

• One stick of butter
• One can of cocoa (the kind you bake with)
• One glass of milk

Instructions:
Dip the stick of butter into the can of cocoa and then dip it into the glass of milk. Take a bite.

I heart the writer who came up with that scene. It was priceless. In any case, I’ve been dealing with the stress of unemployment for the last several months and I’ve decided that I’m going to start eating better and exercising more. Having said that, since it’s officially summertime, I will not be giving up my frozen strawberry daiquiris. Please people, you’ve got to live a little!

How do you deal with stress? Is there anything you are resolved to work on this summer?

Back when I worked at Camp Tockwogh, we liked to sing songs with the kids. One song had the lyrics, “I’m going lion hunting. And I’m not afraid…” At the end of the song, when we face the lion, we run back through the streams, grass, and marshes and admit we were afraid. Why all this talk of the lion hunting song? Because I just read a fantastic book called, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson. I hope he doesn’t mind, but I’m going to talk about it today.

The book is about taking risks, dreaming big, and putting your trust in God. Its premise is based on one little line in scripture that could easily be overlooked and is so ho-hum in its delivery that it’s almost comical. 2 Samuel 23:20 says, “Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab’s best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.” Seriously, it’s almost like an afterthought. Oh, yeah and there’s this guy who was really cool and oh yeah, he chased a meat-eating animal that weighed a few hundred pounds and could kill him with one swipe of his claw into an area where they were both trapped and the ground was slippery. I bet the ladies loved him.

In his book, Batterson truly inspires. He’s really got me ramped up to think BIG dreams and to ask God for HUGE requests. God is God; He can deliver on anything, so why not ask? I know that He has a plan for me (and for you, too; I haven’t forgotten about you, dear reader). I also know that I haven’t the foggiest idea why I’m in the situation I’m in right now. No job in the middle of a terrible recession. As Batterson says, we have unanswerable questions and unexplainable experiences. God uses us in ways we just can’t see right now. Since I’m impatient I really hope He gets on with it so I can get paid to be useful.

Batterson reminds us that children live in limitless worlds. I love hearing the dreams of my nephews and nieces. I’m going to be a Jedi knight, or an astronaut, or a vet, or an Olympian. Over the years however, we let the enemy destroy our dreams. If we go back to being like children with God—no hidden agendas, no pride, no inhibition—we can dream big, ask God, and believe.

So for now I’m going to try to do what Batterson suggests. To live a life that is worth telling stories about—which would probably make this blog a lot more interesting. I’m going to accumulate experiences, not possessions—like the pooping baboon story Batterson mentions in his book.

And I’m going to ask ridiculous prayers. Prayers like the one mentioned in the book. In 2 Kings 6:5-7, a guy loses an ax head and they pray for it to come out of the water and it does. That actually reminds me of the time at camp when the waterfront staff was really excited about a mighty magnet we ordered. This magnet was going to help us retrieve all the tools we kept losing in the Chesapeake Bay. The magnet was a mighty let-down. Guess we should have tried Elisha’s prayer.

One final thing about what Batterson wrote (and there is sooooo much more that’s interesting and inspiring in this book). He says that if we don’t like what’s out there—art, literature, entertainment, businesses, etc., then we need to stop criticizing and start creating it. We need to write better books, make better movies, and start better schools and businesses. We need to offer better alternatives. I totally agree Mark! Thanks so much for writing a great book. Obviously I recommend it and it can be found on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Pit-Lion-Snowy-Day-Opportunity/dp/1590527151.

Right then! I’m off to create…well, something. And remember, “Those who hear not the music think the dancer is mad.” Faith is like that. Jump in and see what happens!

Stick a needle in my eye. I swear, he swears, we all swear for ice cream. Okay, wrong jingle. Taking oaths and making promises—not the eye sticking one of course, but the concept—goes back to the days of Abraham. So it’s not exactly new. Having said that, I thought it was interesting that we may be seeing a bit of an ethical revival of sorts in our business community. (About time lads.)

I was just reading this article from BNET that stated that almost a third of this year’s MBA graduates of Harvard Business School signed what they are calling an MBA oath. It’s an oath about working for the greater good and realizing that our actions have consequences that affect others. Wow. That’s impressive for a bunch of really smart business executives about to take on the world.

I remember taking an ethics course in business school and was astonished by what a couple of the other students thought was perfectly ethical behavior. And after the Enron scandal I remember talking to my Dad about how ethics courses should be mandatory for all business school students. Well I applaud the Harvard MBAs any other business executive out there who has taken the oath. Maybe if these values were taken seriously a decade or two ago, we wouldn’t be in so much trouble today. Maybe.

This oath is a good start but as Mary Poppins said, “No Pie Crust Promises. Easily Made, Easily Broken.” We must take the high road people. Swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon. I really could go on and on with clichés and other fun stuff said and written by others. Seriously, so many smart people have made comments about promises and acting morally. Right now I’m doing what Mark Twain once said. “To act morally is noble, but to talk about acting morally is also noble and a lot less trouble.” So on that note, I promise, pinky swear, cross my heart and hope to die, that I will really try not to steal old ladies’ pensions, run any scams, or basically behave like a wall street banker—I mean con artist. And that last comment bears no reflection whatsoever on my good buddy Fast Ed who is a financial whiz in New York and who, like me, is an ethical, MBA grad looking to earn an honest day’s wage.

And before I go I just have to say that I’m glad I got to insert a Mary Poppins reference into this blog. It brings me back to a fond memory of writing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in really big letters in the sand at the beach. I think I’ll go do that tomorrow. After I take the oath and search for a job of course.