Welcome to the October 20th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
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The Story of My Week.
I started a two-week holiday this week from work.
A holiday I have been looking forward to.
Why?
It’s another opportunity for us as a family to create memories.
A couple of things at work have tried to find their way into it. The usual way work tries to re-create the rest of life.
Well, I have learned to protect the rest of my life from the tyranny of work.
And so I kept them at bay. They will remain there till I return or someone else will take my place in fighting the hordes at the gate.
One thing that has given me a less inflated sense of my importance at work is this - I am completely replaceable at work.
Someone else will always be ready to fill any vacuum I leave at work.
Because of that, I don’t have to wait until the unexpected happens and I get taken out permanently before I create vacuums of absence.
During these vacuums of absence, others will develop the skill to raise their game.
Or they will discover that I have been a crutch they have been leaning too much on.
The people who work with me will become better because they will discover capabilities they had left dormant.
And me?
I will continue to set myself up to live far away from the villainies that the tyranny of work brings.
I am currently on holiday.
I am unavailable.
Things I Learnt
1 - The Friendship of Strangers: I had to make an international flight during the week. One of those never-liked unexpected events happened at the airport.
The flight was delayed.
The initial information was that it would be delayed for 2 hours. We ended up waiting for about 4 hours before we eventually flew.
During the wait, a mother travelling with her toddler looked overwhelmed when her son decided he wanted to run around the terminal. She was tired and didn’t have the energy to play follow-the-child in the airport.
I was not.
I offered to play daddy daycare. She gladly accepted this offer from a stranger at the terminal waiting for a flight with her. I played surrogate father with the boy until he had tired out and went back to mummy. Not long afterwards, he was culled up on mummy’s legs and in slumber land.
At some point, two gentlemen who were sitting beside me had gotten tired of staying still in one spot. One of them suggested, “Let’s walk to the other end of the terminal gate”. His partner replied “We can’t just leave our bags alone.” The first guy, a braver guy than most responded “There are people here.” At this point, I got into the conversation, “I’ll be here to watch over your bags.”
And that’s how the two of them left their bags under the security of a stranger and went for that much-needed stretching of their feet.
Situations like these remind me that there will always be hope for humanity. People will always create room to trust people and build friendships through the smallest sense of common ground.
The connection we all had was that we were all stuck at the airport waiting for a plane.
That was common ground enough to trust a child and hand-carry luggage to the care of a stranger with the comfort that everything would be OK.
God has created a wonderful world.
I agree with Louis Armstrong “And I think to myself, What a wonderful world”
2 - A Community for Your Growth: My family met with other families on Sunday. It wasn’t a random meet-up.
Our small community had developed organically.
We all knew each other from church and had a conversational relationship.
It kicked into gear when we decided to start meeting up now and again to share meals.
This evolved into deeper times of sharing - we talked about our marriage journeys, parenting, work, extended family matters, living out our faith and anything else that made its way into the conversation of the day.
We were all committed to open, honest and learning discussions. And we were growing from the whole experience.
This is one of the things I have benefited from living across multiple countries - creating a community that surrounds me and my family, supporting us and helping us to grow.
It was great to connect with everyone again.
A community is a blessing - a big one.
Postscript
May you find the right community to support you grow to become the best you can be. Amen
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Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ-focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
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