Doing Things

Yesterday, I posted on this blog for the first time in nearly a year. My blog has always been rather hit or miss, more miss than hit over the last couple years. There are many reasons for my lack of posts, and I may explore those in later posts, but that's not for today. Today, I want to talk about something that I have been learning this year.

I am an idea person. Just walking down the street or driving around town, there are usually swarms of ideas flitting around my brain. But they don't just stay in my head; I also like to talk ideas. I enjoy sitting around bouncing ideas around with friends, dreaming about the great possibilities and solving the problems of the world.

The problem is that it is often just that: talk. My big ideas rarely amount to much, because I talk or think about them until they lose all urgency and eventually just fizzle out, leaving me looking for the next idea to think and talk about without any action. Ultimately, it becomes a battle against inertia that gets harder to overcome each time.

This year, however, I have made some conscious choices to change that. I have started acting on my ideas, taking steps to make them realities. In January, I started redoing our backyard, something I have been talking and thinking about almost since we moved in. I haven't finished it yet (thank you, baseball season), but I have made some of the big changes already and hope to finish some of the details this summer. Christie and I have talked about rearranging the house a bit so that we can give our older two boys separate rooms, and rather than just letting it end at talk, we are in the process of clearing out our old home office space to accommodate that. I have taken more ownership of my work at church and been more vocal to those in leadership to try to change things that I think need to change. I am even pursuing some new avenues of ministry using my contemplative nature to, hopefully, disciple others in deeper ways.

Obviously, many of these things are works in progress, and I have still allowed some very good ideas to peter out. But I am working at it, and perhaps this blog will be a part of that. I have been wanting to write more, but have chosen not to take the time or initiative to do so. I have some nebulous ideas of what I might do with this blog, but I realize they won't take shape unless I start writing. So I am putting myself out there with the hopes of writing more consistently. I'm not sure where that will settle, or how long it will last, or where it might lead, but I choose to not just let it stay in my brain.