energy

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Shopping Is More Tiring Than Running A Marathon

There is something about shopping that zaps the energy right out of me. 

shopping is more tiring than running a marathon

I can work out for a half hour or play hockey for an hour and a half and have more energy afterwards than I do following a shopping session at the mall. 

My daughter and son-in-law just got a dog. They tell me that dogs expend more energy sniffing around than they do going on a walk. So you can run your dog ragged, chasing him or playing fetch, but he won’t use up as much energy doing that as he does just sniffing every tree and hydrant he comes across on his walk. 

Maybe we’re like dogs when it comes to shopping.

There is something else I noticed about shopping: I slow down.

When I’m walking from our car to a hockey game with my wife, I motor. My pace is fast. Sometimes Lily even complains that I’m walking too fast and that she can’t keep up. 

Usually she yells that at me from about 30 paces behind – haha, just kidding. 

But when I park our car at a mall, immediately I go into slow mo walk mode. As I follow Lily into the mall, my pace sinks to a saunter and my legs and feet feel like they are lead.

I notice that other people walk like that too. 

Sure there are some people who are power walking through the mall but many are trudging … like they’re on their way to a life sentence for some crime they committed. 

There is something about shopping that just simply sucks the life out of you. 

I wonder if it is the music they play. 

Maybe there is some kind of secret message in the music to dull our senses and make us least resistant to the ploys of the sale clerks or signs and stickers that read, “sale”.

The other day I went to a mall with Lily and our daughter, Karlie. I thought the we were there to shop, but Karlie had an agenda and it was to return items and buy different stuff. 

So what I thought was a shopping trip turned into more of a waiting and people-watching trip for me – waiting outside of stores I didn’t really want to go into and watching the people who were trudging by. 

When we were finished, in that whole mall of 140+ stores, there were only two that I had been interested in entering. I went into several more stores but not on my own volition. Lily and Karlie had a few stops they had wanted to make. 

When it was all over, it was dinner time. I was so tired, it was good there was a restaurant outside the mall we could eat at. I don’t think I could have made it back to our car; it was too long a walk.

After dinner I had revived enough to make it home and to contemplate doing it again sometime … not soon though!

Here’s the thing: There are things that exhaust us yet take very little physical output. One of those things is contemplating what happens to us at the end of life. Some just don’t think about it, while others try to convince themselves of something comforting. It zaps our energy. The Bible tells us that God loves us and has a place for us to spend eternity with Him. Expend less energy and believe Him. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find that zaps your energy? Leave your comments and questions below.

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We Are More Renewable Than I Realized

There is a big emphasis in society to use renewable energy rather than just consumable energy. 

More Renewable Than I realized

The other day I realized that we humans are maybe the greatest source of renewable energy.

The idea of the energizer bunny that keeps going and going is a nice thought … good advertising gimmick, but it’s limited. They would like you to think that he never runs out of energy – or batteries, that is – but we know that batteries do wear down. 

If they are rechargeable batteries, however, they can renew and be used again and again and again. Still, they need a time out on the charger to keep going.

… Have you ever thought of how little down time you need to be renewed enough to keep going? 

I was playing hockey last week and we only had one sub. I went off the ice to take a break, but another guy needed to come to the bench no more than 30 seconds after I sat down. 

I didn’t hesitate to get back out there. Even a 30 second rest renewed my energy enough for another shift. 

There is no battery in the world that can renew or refresh that quickly!

But it’s not just physically that humans are incredibly renewable. 

Yesterday I was writing my sermon and around 2 pm I hit a wall. I was tired mentally, had trouble focussing, and found myself being distracted by little things. Even more than that, I was looking for something to distract me so that I didn’t have to keep working on my sermon. 

I decided to take a break. I sat and read something that had nothing to do with my sermon or the subject I was going to speak on. I answered emails. I even got sidetracked on a YouTube video that I subscribe to. 

When I looked at my watch, I realized a lot of time had passed. It was now late in the afternoon and it didn’t look like I would be able to finish my sermon.

I would have to work on it on Saturday … and I hate having to write my sermon on Saturday. 

I had just a little time left before I had to go to an appointment, so I thought I might as well see if I could get a little more of my sermon knocked off.

I began writing again, and thoughts started coming; I started typing fast. I felt refreshed and inspired as I wrote against a deadline. 

I still shake my head a little because, although I ended up being a little late to my next appointment, I actually finished writing my sermon. That break that I took from writing in the middle of the afternoon renewed my energy. 

Human energy is extremely renewable. 

Here’s the thing: As renewable as we are, we don’t compare to God in this way. God is with us all the time. He is always working; He never takes a break. God never needs a break. There is never a time when His energy is low, or that He is not able to give to you His complete fullness.  God is also the source of energy, so when we need to renew and refresh, we can be charged by Him. Think about each day plugging into God to supply you fully, renewing your energy every day. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you seek being renewed by God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Managing Your Energy Levels

Lately I’ve been thinking about how to best assess and manage my energy levels. … I should have been looking into this before now, but I guess it’s better that I do some research now than not at all. 

We need energy to do anything. And it seems like today almost everything requires some kind of energy to be useful.

Now-a-days we have more and more things that require renewable energy rather than constant energy. 

… Just so we’re all on the same page, when I say “renewable energy”, I’m talking about battery powered items – items that require batteries that must be charged when they are depleted as opposed to something that must be plugged into a constant energy source to function.

We humans run on renewable energy. We need to rest, and when we‘ve had enough rest we are ready to go again.

The problem with renewable energy is knowing when we need to renew it before it runs out. Otherwise, we may find we go to use an item and it doesn’t have enough energy in it to do what we want it to do. 

My watch does that sometimes. It can be 9 pm yet it doesn’t have enough energy to keep working until I’m ready to go to bed. 

They ran into the same problem on the Star Trek TV show. Captain Kirk would call down to Scotty in the engine room for more power. Scotty would yell back, “I’m givin’ her all she’s got. We don’t have enough energy to go into warp speed.” 

Sometimes it can be a quick fix when an item’s energy is low – you just slap in a new battery. 

I have several tools that all work with the same batteries. And since I have several batteries, I never worry if I’m using my grass trimmer and the battery dies. I just slap in one of my other batteries and keep on going. 

Some batteries come with indicators to how much energy is left in them – that’s helpful. 

I remember Duracell once had battery indicators on their double A batteries. You would press on two points with your fingers. There was a yellow line that would grow along the side of the battery. How long the line would end up was depending on how much energy was left in the battery. 

But sometimes I wasn’t sure it was measuring the energy in the battery or the energy I was employing to get that little line to reach the other side. My fingers were always sore after those tests.

Sometimes you can tell when your own energy is getting low. You feel it; you get tired and don’t function at your best. Measuring and knowing your energy level is pretty important when you are dealing with renewable energy. 

And as we get older, our energy levels are going to change. My energy is not going to last as long in my 60’s as it did when I was in my 40’s. 

So knowing how to assess and manage my energy levels is  something I need to investigate …before I run out of energy to do it! 

Here’s the thing: God never runs out of energy; He is a constant source of energy. When you are low, no matter in what area of your life, you can plug into God and find a power source to get recharged. Have you ever considered spending time with God for this purpose, that your time with Him recharges you? It does when you fully engage. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you manage your energy levels? Leave a comment below.

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All Time Is Not Equal

We live in a world that tries to convince us that everyone and everything is equal. Don’t try to tell me that! It’s just not true … time isn’t even equal.

balance-time-and-needs

Time is all measured out; we use it to be exact, to track things. But I’m beginning to believe that all time is not equal. For instance, we have 24 hours each day, and though every hour has 60 minutes in it, not all those hours are equal.

You can’t accomplish the same amount in every given 60 minute period of a day. You can’t even equally enjoy each 60 minute time frame in a day … nor can you control what will take place in any hour.

So when you complain that you’re short on time, and someone says we all have the same amount of time, technically he may be correct, but his statement is rather cliche with very little thought behind it.

This week I was in Toronto for a conference. One night we went to the Blue Jays baseball game. At 5 pm it took us over an hour to get down to the ball park. After the game, and a few more hours spent downtown, the trip back only took us 25 minutes. The difference was mostly traffic.

You naturally have more energy in some hours than others. You can have more interruptions at certain times or a deadline to meet before you can take a break and relax. … I don’t want to be trying do something that requires a lot of thinking when my energy is low or when there is a great chance of interruptions.

The other day I tried to plan accordingly. My intention was to write my blog early on Monday morning, but I had stayed up late the night before and didn’t get up as early as I had hoped to.

I had a short window in which to write my blog because I also had to phone to make an appointment to take our car to our mechanic. When I called, he said he could take the car right then.

Because I got up late, I didn’t start writing my blog early enough and then had to leave it to take the car in. All this took place before 9 am – prime quiet time when I have good mental energy. I lost out because of a bad decision the night before and an appointment which was out of my control.

I never did get a blog written that Monday.

It takes some planning and strategy to coordinate your day into the hours that best suit the things you want and need to do.

You just can’t go into a day without a plan or you won’t be very productive. And if you string a few of those days together, you’ll feel like you will never get out from under the backlog you find yourself in.

Here’s the thing: If you are going to spend time with God you need to plan it. And you need to plan it for a time when you will be mentally alert and you won’t face interruptions. You can’t guarantee all that but you can plan for it. If God is important to you, then plan to spend time with Him when there is the greatest chance that you will be mentally and emotionally able to meet with Him, at a time when you won’t be interrupted by things, people, emails or phone calls.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What time of day are you at your best and least distracted? Leave your comment below.

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What Everyone Ought To Know About Maintenance

The word “maintenance” has a tag-along emotion for me . . . it’s called frustration.

I get frustrated with maintenance because I want to enjoy the thing that needs to be maintained; I don’t want to work on it.

Bike Maintenance

Bike Maintenance

I want to use something and not have to care for it or fix it. In the 80’s I didn’t want a PC because you needed to know DOS and a series of commands and what pressing the “Ctrl+Alt+Del” keys did. I just wanted to use a computer, not figure out how it worked.

I like to ride my bike; I don’t like cleaning it. I want to just pull the cord on my lawnmower and start cutting the grass. I don’t like having to scrape the grass off the undercarriage or keep it tuned.

The problem is, in the last week, my avoidance with maintenance has accentuated my frustration. I broke the chain on my bike, probably because I didn’t clean the gritty oil off it.

My lawnmower is having a hard time starting these days and it’s not cutting evenly because it needs a tune up and a wheel adjustment.

And my computer needs some file maintenance soon or I will run out of space on my hard drive.

This was all fresh in my mind when I watched a little 3 minute video on how to clean your bike after a ride so it’s ready for your next ride. The guy on the video said you could do it in five minutes, but somehow (through the magic of video, I guess) he showed us in three.

I’m almost convinced that I need a new attitude toward maintenance, but for that to happen I really need a new emotion to go with the word. I’ve been thinking of some emotions that I could associate with maintenance – emotions like affection, confidence and satisfaction … but I can’t seem to trick myself and instead I feel annoyance, contempt and suffering.

Some people love maintenance, maybe even more that using the item. But not me. I know my things would last longer if I had a warm, fuzzy attachment to the word but it’s just not that easy. I can’t turn a switch on and like it.

I thought of a couple of solutions. I could give away my stuff when it needs some maintenance, and just bless people with things that sort of work. But that would require me needing a lot of money to replace my items.

Also, I could farm the maintenance out to people who like doing it. But that too would be costly and I would be without my beloved whatever, while it was being serviced.

There doesn’t seem to be an easy solution for me that works. I might have to do maintenance even though I don’t like it, even though it frustrates me. I might have to just discipline myself in spite of the piggy-backed emotion that comes with the word.

Here’s the thing: Relationships, like with things we own, require maintenance. We might like the idea of just enjoying our relationship with God but to maintain that relationship, we need to connect with Him, grow in Him and serve Him. That kind of maintenance might seem like work that we might not want to put our energy into, but maintaining our relationship with God will require us to discipline ourselves in order to connect, grow and serve.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How disciplined are you at maintaining your relationship with God?  Leave your comment below.