An Excellent Life

I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can’t be right.” ~ Bilbo Baggins, The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

It is the ordinary duties and labors of life that the Christian can and should develop his spiritual union with God. ~ Thomas Merton

And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. ~ William Shakespeare

Life is like playing a violin solo in public and the learning the instrument as one goes on. ~ Samuel Butler

Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we could only sit down and keep still. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The spring breeze gently wafts across the softball field which is next to a pasture which is still populated with remnant corn stalks from last autumn’s bountiful harvest. The warmed ground is beginning to show signs of new life, sprouting growth and tender green shoots which are tempting to the rabbits and young deer. The fragrance of spring is pungent: the hyacinth with its heady bouquet, the daily showers with their cleansing deluge, and oh, the pastures. The predictable activity of the farmers with the warming weather, they have begun fertilizing their square miles of acreage with rural perfection. As I drive from piano lesson to baseball practice to softball practice, I cannot avoid the amount of rural activity which happens so close to my home. There is a strong perfume, a pasture perfume, and its smells incredible to me, but it can also knock you off your feet and grab your attention. Whoa!

Our life is deeply centered within a rural setting and the signs of spring bring a compelling activity to prompt growth from the soil and from the pasture. Lambing season is always the first signs of new birth on a farm, and the local fields now have baby lambs grazing with mothers, learning and running and tripping in their tiny attempts to figure out their life. There is no quick traffic, for several farmers have their large machines which join traffic and maneuver their left turns with greater cumbrance than my small van, and it is important to drive patiently and cautiously when they are included with other traffic which wants to drive at 70 mph. The size of these large tractors and combines with their enormous attachments for plowing, seeding, ground breaking and tilling is phenomenal as they can occupy ¾ of the road for the 1 mile they need travel to enter the other side of the farm to work again. The blades and back hoes, giant bucket and flat beds with giant spinners – they really do look incredible.

A few families on our 2 softball teams are farmers – cattle and corn – and they have been describing the daily life they tackle, embrace and live every day. Yesterday was a day in which the dairy farmers had purchased another 30 cows to add to their 130 head. I don’t even have a dog and this family has over 160 cows – AMAZING! The feeding. Milking. Mucking. Examination for injury or infection within the hooves. Management of the dry cows, who are pregnant and preparing for delivery. There is a short time in the afternoon, when all of the animals are cared for which allows for personal duties, then softball practice, and then it begins again.

I typically arrive at softball or baseball practice from a hectic day, typically sending some of my children with their coaches so I can make it to one practice. I’ll get to another practice for another child on another day. Dinner is an early, quick and light affair (we eat about 4:30 in baseball season, and really, no one wants to try to turn a double play with a stomach filled with mashed potatoes and gravy.) We’ll have a snack before we go to bed, so even though we are more hungry than usual, everything will be fine. My office work and ministry keep my days filled and moving, my graduate studies keep a book in my hand at every open moment, my children’s schedule keep me on the constant move.

But I don’t have anything in my life that is close to the demanding schedule that these farm families encounter. If I’m still awake at 11:00 p.m. it has frequently been my choice of how to use my time (i.e. it is easier to get school or office work completed after the kids are in bed) but for this dairy farm family it is 11:00 p.m. from the second feeding and milking of the herd and barn.

When describing her schedule, M. was trying to be as positive as possible but was quite discouraged by others who were complaining about “how busy life is”. I had been listening to these conversations as closely as I could, aware that I haven’t been to many of A. practices and that I am still new to many of these moms. I had stated that “It must be exhilarating and exhausting to be involved with sustaining new life everyday. Its God’s work and it can take everything you have to be involved with it.” She didn’t say anything then, but later as we waited for our darlings, who were now covered in mud, she stopped and shared a smile and gratitude for hearing what she was saying and understanding that farming for them isn’t just a trade, or a trained vocation or exclusively a chance to provide food. It is their family’s connection to God’s activity. Spring tilling, and planting and large animal birthing has kept them from being able to be at church recently, and her soul was hungry to hear from God.

My Bible present, a few minutes to share: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Colossians 3:15-17, NIV

It is a privilege to share in God’s activity and honor Him with everything we do. We give thanks to God for our life by using each aspect of our life to praise and worship Him with excellence. Embrace the realm of life you have, whether it is defined by a cubicle or the back 40, and do everything you can with excellence. Frost those cupcakes with excellence. Return that fax with excellence. Tend to each patient with thorough excellence. Complete the curriculum parameters with excellence. Answer the office demands with excellence. Get the dry cleaning, return the library books, and complete the grocery shopping with excellence. Write that sermon with excellence. Feed the livestock with excellence. Complete the sale of that house with excellence. Clean the bathtub and complete the laundry with nothing short of excellence. God is honored with excellence!

Practice Makes Permanent

"An ounce of practice is worthy more than a ton of preaching." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

"We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God." ~ Martha Graham

As you put into practice the qualities of patience, punctuality, sincerity and solitude, you will have a better opinion of the world around you." ~ Grenville Klaiser

"Practice is everything. This is often misquoted as 'Practice makes perfect.' " ~ Periander

"Cab drivers are living proof that practice does not make perfect." ~ Howard Ogden

"They say practice makes perfect. Of course it doesn't. For the vast majority of golfers it merely consolidates imperfection." ~ Henry Longhurst

Our home is filled with a variety of people grasping new skills, trying to learn something new, or sharpen a skill which has been used again and again. The mantra of my life lately has been, "Practice does not make perfect; practice makes permanent." This has really hit home with A. as she draws closer and closer to her Harpsichord recital.

The harpsichord is an older sister of the piano, and though constructed in a similar manner, it is VERY different from the piano touch that A. has grown to know and love. The piece that was chosen was waaaay harder than she had ever seen before and looking at the amount of notes, you could see the tears of frustration already in her eyes. "You can do this, dear," her teacher encouraged wisely, "you can do this, a little at a time. But you have to practice the small details, every time you sit down at the bench. Practice doing the little things right, not the speed, not the million notes...but your posture, the curve your fingers and wrists. This rhythm is the same, whether the tempo is fast or slow."

These are two videos of her hard work, and her deep concentration and pleasure from the benefit of determined practice. I am so proud of her!




My ears are not deaf, I hear her mistakes, her misfingering in a phrase here and there. But my ears are very forgiving, hearing her progress, hearing her hard work, hearing her practice. Practice makes permanent means if you practice something again and again, it will become the way it is performed again and again. Whether it is right or not, it has been permanently applied into the habitual response and learning. Practice something wrong, and it will remain wrong and will be harder to unlearn and reteach.

Practice makes permanent is not excessively tied to music performance or turning a double play or learning 25 Greek words. Practice makes permanent reaches into the spiritual discipline a believer exercises. Jesus taught His disciples many things, and underscored for them how important it was to continue to practice them.

Do this:
Forgive yourself
Love one another
Forgive each other's failures
Serve each other
Pray with passion and fervor
Remember the poor
Tell everyone about God' love
Repent
Heal
Reach out to those who are hanging out on limbs around you
Speak the language of love
Run out to greet those who have been lost and have returned
Rejoice
Celebrate
Jesus helps us to know it is important to practice our faith. Practice makes permanent. Practice sharing verses from Romans with someone who needs to hear the story of salvation. Does evangelism make your palms sweat and your heart pump?

Practice including conversations about God in your conversations with the people you care about. Share the love God has for the world, woven with forgiveness and mercy. Practice it everyday. How about this? Make a pact with yourself to tell someone - anyone - about God everyday and ask God to guide who that may need to be. By practicing the discipline of evangelism, you are being included into God's work and God's presence will be your deepest blessing.

Practice makes permanent. Practice a spiritual discipline today. God is with you, every step of the way.

"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another." John 15:9-17