Too good to be true

“Wow, Matt…that sounds amazing, but it also sounds too good to be true.”

Anyone ever said that to you before?

I’ve heard it a few times over the past month as my organization, SafeWorld seeks to finalize some major plans for 2012. Reality is, it’s the biggest venture we’ve ever embarked on, and I believe will be a game-changer.

Closer to the end of the year, we’ll begin revealing what’s next, so stay tuned, but that’s not what this post is about.

I’ve had lots of “too good to be true” moments in my life. They’re painful…even debilitating depending on when they hit the fan.

“Too good to be true” (or TGTBT) moments happen when our imaginations hijack our logic, lock it in the back room of our minds and keep it there just long enough for us to make an ill-advised decision.

Now, I’m not giving imagination a bad rap…imagination is one of the most vital parts of us.

But imagination is simply evidence of all the hard work we do in our heads. Hustle, sweat, tears, late nights, callouses…those are the evidences of all the hard work we’re doing in real life.

There’s a chasmic difference between the two, bridged by focus.

In correspondence to his younger brother, Mark Twain wrote: “The bane of Americans is overwork–and the ruin of any work is a divided interest. Concentrate-concentrate. One thing at a time.”

Imagination is your biggest fan, and also the biggest exaggerator of your abilities and progress, so while it must be protected, it must also be kept in check. (Just as imagination is there to keep our logic in check, and make sure we’re not giving into resistance.)

TGTBT situations have caused me to fall flat on my face and overlook the needs of my wife and children before. Not because I didn’t care, but because I leapt before it was time to leap…I over promised and under-delivered…I didn’t seek wisdom from people who knew more than I did (or I ignored the wisdom they gave)…

You’ve been given a gift that people desperately need, and your imagination is there to help you kill dragons, keep your ability to dream alive, and protect child-like faith. Imagination births excitement and anticipation…I’ve never heard anyone’s heart race as they logically thought about a process…it doesn’t happen.

The best part of hearing that phrase, “Wow, Matt…that sounds amazing, but it also sounds too good to be true”, is that I get to respond with this:

“No, it’s not…I’ve worked too hard…I’ve spent too much time making sure all the loose ends are tied up…the details are in place…and we’re all on the same page for it to be too good to be true.”

Red flags get raised for me when I ask someone about their plans, then they point to their heads and say something like, “Oh, don’t worry…I’ve got it all up here.” That’s nice…but I’m 100% convinced it’ll look different as it translates from “up there” to real life…and that’s ok, just be ready, and don’t give up.

As you push forward with your plans, just make sure the work being done in your head is also being done in real life. Trust me, if it’s a dream worth doing…it’s worth the hustle it takes to do well.

——

“The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange.” // GK Chesterton

—–

Have you ever had a job, opportunity or relationship that ended up being too good to be true?

Don’t interrupt me

It was all planned out.

My morning. My day. Every hour had been properly labeled. I even left the house a little early to give myself some cushion.

I walked into the coffee shop where I love to write…

…and was promptly interrupted. Usually I can order my coffee with an extra shot of espresso, pop open my MacBook Pro and stuff my headphones in my hears so fast that no one dares approach.

But not today.

There he was, blocking the start of my day, an old friend with much to share. (Which he did…at length). It felt like the scene fro Monty Python and the Holy Grail when Sir Lencelot tries to cross the Bridge of Death, but must first answer three questions.

My plan was ruined.

How dare he. Didn’t he know I only had an hour to hustle on a project before my first meeting started? Didn’t he know my son had a doctor’s appointment? Didn’t he know my schedule for the day didn’t have any wiggle room?

No. Of course he didn’t.

For the first half of the conversation, I was looking for a way out. (Ever been there?) I was done before he even began.

Then…he shared a story. (Which wasn’t short, and had several subplots).

The story was about how a few days ago, his life had also been interrupted. It was about how he didn’t want to deal with it. He figured if he just ignored it, the situation might go away. It didn’t. It stayed until he finally understood and embraced his role in it.

For this old friend, he thought the people in the situation would just end up using him…instead…he was used by God because he didn’t abandon the interruption.

And there it was.

The reality is, while we slave over our calendars and intricate schemes, many times God is waiting for us in the interruptions…in the margins.

A couple thoughts:

1. Don’t use interruptions as an excuse to be lazy
2. Don’t leave an interruption until you understand your role in it.

We’re highly trained to brush people off…to the point where even our own children sometimes have to call for us 3 or 4 times before we answer. Deep down I convince myself it’s because I’m focused, but really it’s because I’m selfish.

Remember this…

People are always more important than plans.

People are always more important than hustle.

People are always more important than projects.

People are always more important than politics.

People are always more important than theology.

People are always more important than my ego.

Embrace interruptions. Rarely are they a waste of time…in fact, you never know when an interruption might just change everything.

——————-

And…to my dear friend this morning…thank you for interrupting me.

A dirty diaper almost ruined my plans

The longer I live, the more (painfully) aware I become at how easy it is for even really well designed plans to be completely derailed.

In fact, launching my blog when I had planned to almost didn’t happen because my two year old twins (Eden and Marceau) decided to pull off an incredible feat of disaster-laden wizardry.

And I figure, if two year olds can foil my plans, there must be something bigger happening that I should learn how to see.

So here’s the story…

It was literally 10 minutes before the link to my very first post was supposed to go live online. Now, I’m still new at this whole “internet orchestration” thing, but after a several days of scheming, I had everything “ready to go” (ha).

Suddenly, from the playroom, my wife yells, “Oh no! What are you guys doing?!”

**NOTE TO MEN: Your wife is designed to be able to handle a massive amount of child-related stress, but when she yells “oh no” … you better get there quick.

Anywho, up until that moment, the twins had been playing quietly. And, for some reason, a parenting lesson I’m still struggling to completely grasp is that when your children are too quiet…something sinister is happening around 99% of the time.

I rushed to the doorway to see what catastrophe had occurred, but much to my horror I could actually smell it before I could see it.

My wife and I have five kids, and I’d like to believe that we’re fairly seasoned vets when it comes to facing the regular ambushes of parenting, but mark my words: nothing ever prepares you for when your two-year-old twins strip off their diapers just before they decide to carry out stink-bombing mission.

No, I’m don’t feel the need to describe it in any more detail than that. Yes, it was as bad as you are imagining. Many of their toys are now going through trauma counseling.

In the end, the mess was cleaned up, my blog still made it online and now we’re considering using diapers with padlocks to avoid that ever happening again.

Plans are a funny thing. It seems we even use axioms like, “God laughs at my plans”, when everything goes wrong to try and mask publicly the huge disappointment and frustration we feel underneath.

But, to be honest, I don’t think God laughs at our plans. I don’t think He ever laughs at us at all. I do believe God has an incredible sense of humor, but He doesn’t get his jollies at the expense of His children.

The reality is, plans change…plans fall apart…plans get completely wrecked. Even well designed ones. Even ones I think are impossible to screw up. (Maybe even ESPECIALLY ones I think are impossible to screw up.)

So no matter how well you’ve drawn up your plans, make sure to keep a blank page close by for when everything changes. Because everything always changes.

What I’ve written about in this post is a very surface example of plans changing that we’ve experienced. Our list is actually a mile long – and includes moments where we wept and wondered if there would ever be peace, happiness, joy or normalcy again.

And I know you’ve been there too. Maybe you’re there now.

But it’s not about what we do when our plans happen to work out, it’s about how we respond when they don’t.

I’ll leave you with this:

Isaiah 43 — “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you…because you are precious to me…and I love you.”

The wizards of plan-derailment

—-

Have you ever experienced a change of plans in your life that you weren’t ready for?

What happened?

How did you deal with it?