Faith in Action

I received a funny text message from one of my best friends on December 30, 2007. In the message, he says that he is going to start a “Wackest 2008 Church Motto” contest. For those not famililar with the church motto practice in the traditional Black church - it goes like this. A preacher looking to excite the congregation toward the end of the year begins thinking about words/phrases that rhyme with the coming year. S/He then jumps at the opportunity to incorporate this phrase in the sermon or throw it across the upcoming church conference banner. Before you know it, members of that church are going around saying this phrase as if it was divine revelation from God while totally discounting the fact that their preacher just created a pseudo-religous nursery rhyme for their quick consumption.

My boy texted me the list of mottos that he feels are coming down the pipe this year. His guesses are:

We’re sure that these will make an appearance this year and sadly many more wack church mottos are yet on the way.

His text did get me to thinking though about a motto that I hope to put into practice this year. It goes: “I must lose excess weight in 2008.” Okay - besides the general “wackness” of the statement, it does speak to something that I am actively doing already on the second day of a new year.

I’m shaving away projects and/or initiatives that have tied up too much of my energy without producing a promising return on investment. These types of efforts are in my estimation excess baggage that are weighing me down.

Most of you know me - or if you only know me through my blog you at least get a sense of the type of brotha that I am. I am genuinely altruistic. I have a burning passion to assist others every day that I wake up. While generally, this can be a great characteristic to have, I have noticed that sometimes I get pulled into projects that aren’t focused or are occupied by people that aren’t organized. Unorganized people aren’t necessarily a problem, but when they refuse to do the work necessary to get organized the effort becomes a losing battle and in the end my time is wasted.

So on the first day of this year, I spent the day cleaning out my email inbox and recycling paper decorated with “good intention” statements and “wishful thinking” plans. I can’t take every initiative with me in 2008. After God and Family there are only a few more slots available to be filled by social action initiatives that are supported by focused, organized people who respect other people’s investment of energy & time and have the capacity to “flesh out” their plans. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like there is a long line of people begging me to help them with something, but I am experiencing a slight increase of people calling on me to do this, that, or the other. While that’s great, I must be far more discriminatory in what I allow to be put on my plate.

Concerning the “excess weight” projects and initiatives, they won’t be totally discarded, but they will be on the periphery and I’ll make myself available to support in ancillary ways. (i.e. blogging about it, forwarding an email to others, mentioning it in one of my upcoming press articles)

I’m just not doing it in ‘08. In the words of Dr. Benjamin Mays:

I have only but a minute
Only 60 seconds in it

Just a tiny little minute
But eternity is in it

No - it’s not a catchy church jingle, but I will be a better steward of my time in 2008.