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Why Inspiration Can Cost You Big Time

We get inspired by watching someone do something, but our inspiration is not always well-founded.

Inspiration can cost you

You know this is true – just think about how many times you have watched a TV show where they have said, “Don’t try this at home.” They sometimes even go further by telling you that their stunts were done by professionals and safety precautions were taken.

You know when they say all that that somewhere someone is going to get all excited, all inspired and try to reenact what they saw.

… As an aside, I went to a hockey game last night and at one point the puck was flipped high in the air in front of the goalie. A defensemen jumped to knock the puck down, but only got a piece of it, causing the puck to unfortunately fall behind the goalie into the net. 

Well, with absolutely no intention of repeating that goal, I did the same thing when I was playing early this morning. I couldn’t believe it! It happened exactly like it had the night before, only it was by my hand this time. 

I certainly wasn’t inspired by the defensemen’s feat to want to repeat it. 

I remember watching a commercial once when my son was about 10 years old. The commercial was for a piece of exercise equipment called, “the AbDolly”.

I was in a goofy mood at the time and thought I could make one. My inspiration fired up my son as well. 

Soon we were off to the hardware store, looking for items we could use to build our own AbDolly. About an hour later we came home with our purchases and got to work. 

When it was finished it didn’t really look anything like the AbDolly we’d seen on TV. I never used it for exercise but, on occasion, we have put it under really heavy items to move them around our basement. 

Oh, and the cost to make it was probably more than buying the AbDolly itself. … But we had fun.

The other day I was looking at purchasing a stand-up desk. They cost a lot of money, so I thought that I would look online for a DIY version of a stand-up desk. 

I found several – most were ridiculous – but there was a simple version that I thought I could make. 

I told Lily and she answered, “Don’t you dare!” (maybe she was remembering the AbDolly).

I replied, “I’m going to price this thing out”, and off I went to the hardware store. 

Meanwhile Lily went online to find me a decent stand-up desk. 

I had a price list, and recorded the cost of all the items I needed. When I got home I added them up and the DIY stand-up desk would cost me about $250.  

But from Lily’s list I found I could purchase a stand-up desk, that I could electronically control the height of, for about the same money as making a stationary one. 

This time my inspiration to make a stand-up desk didn’t get the better of me. Wisdom prevailed and I purchased one online. 

Here’s the thing: There are a lot of things that can inspire you, but from God’s perspective are not in your best interest. We can get all excited and inspired even though it is costly or there is danger involved. When we find ourselves in that situation, take time, weigh the dangers and count the cost. Then make the wise decision: listen for what God would have you do. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has got you all inspired right now? Leave your questions and comments below.

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How To Clean Things Up In No Time

Creating the visual of clean can be as satisfying as actually doing the hard work of cleaning.

For example, your living room is cluttered with things and someone is on his way over to your home for a visit or a meeting. You don’t have the time to clean the living room from top to bottom so you take the clutter and you stash it.

You put those items behind things, underneath things, out of sight. 

Then, just before the visitor arrives, you stand back and admire how neat and tidy everything looks.

You get the same satisfaction you would have if you had taken an hour to put everything away in its proper place. 

I do this with my office. Over the course of a few weeks, paper will start to gather on my desk. 

I don’t know how it happens. It’s a little like how snow starts to fall from the sky. At first it melts quickly and you don’t see it on the ground. But as the snow persists, it starts to accumulate. 

It begins to pile up.  

That’s what happens on my desk. Dealing with all that paper that has accumulated takes a lot of time – sometimes hours. Who has hours for filing and sorting and what not?! 

The downside is that I can’t work with the piles of paper; I keep looking at them. So, from time to time, I simply gather up all the papers and put them on a table in one neat pile.  

Then my office desk looks neat and clean and I can work. It’s fantastic. And I don’t have to spend all that time dealing with each individual piece of paper to give me that feeling. 

Today I cut the grass. At this time of year the dandelions are in full bloom … and we definitely have our fair share of them. 

No, that’s not correct. We have way more than our fair share! 

Curiously, most of those dandelions are on our side of the street. The houses on the other side of the street must have some kind of deal with a weed company. You don’t see the weed guy coming around spraying their lawns but none of them have these lovely spring flowers … certainly not like us!

This morning when I cut the grass, I cut the heads off of every dandelion on our lawn. It was a major killing spree. Then I stood back and looked at how green and even our grass looked. 

I was proud of myself. 

However, I really didn’t do anything to the dandelions. The roots are still there; the leafs are still there … and they will grow right back in their place again. 

But today – right now – looking out my front window, I don’t have any of those little flowery devils.

The one downside to all this is that, although I have immediate satisfaction with my lawn looking so clean, in reality I still have a mess on my hands that will have to be dealt with at some point … which sucks!

Here’s the thing: You can clean up your life in a very superficial way and it will look good to you and to all those around you. But unless you do a deep hard clean, you will always be looking for places to stash things. A deep clean can only be accomplished by dealing with the junk in your life – that is confessing it to God and doing the necessary work to keep it from coming back.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What in your life do you need to do a serious clean of? Post your comments and questions below.