Relevancy

I love to be stretched. I love to have my mind stretched. I think more people do than not...just in different areas. I love a difficult math problem (yes, I hear the gag sounds). I love to read blogs that stretch my thinking, expand my environment, and force me to back up and approach it from a different direction.

I love reading things that I could talk to someone about and come away thinking we must not have read the same thing. I love art. I'm not an 'artsy' person by any means, but I am intrigued by it and appreciate it as something beyond my natural talents.

All that to say, we must push ourselves...we must push our minds like a runner in the last stretch of a race looking for his second wind. However, there is this one caution. We must remain relevant. I want to give the world something that pushes their minds, but I have no desire to give the world something that is only useful to small portion of the population. I want to give the world something to think about that might be new or different for them, but I want them to understand it when they hear or read it. I want to be outside their box, but I want to be relevant.

I would humbly say that I am told I am a smart person, but without relevance, I am dumb...without wisdom, I am stupid...without the ability to improve people around me, I am...irrelevant. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." I named by fantasy football teams IRONMEN as a reminder of that. If I participate, and win it all...hoist the trophy and set it on my mantle for the year, but don't positively influence those guys I play with, I have won nothing.

My world may not consist of that many people...my family, my friends, the kids I work with on Wednesdays, the kids on the teams I coach, my Sunday School class, and the few people that actually read my blog...but I want to stand before God one day and have him tell me that I was a positive influence on those people for him. That is what my prayer is. There is no "meaning in life" that does not include, and is most importantly, what you give to others. It's so easy to be selfish. It's so easy to lean on certain talents to get praise from others. It's so hard to keep your motives pure. But when we focus on pure motives, our actions will remain pure. When our actions remain pure, we remain useful and relevant to a world in need.