Happy New Year!
It may be a bit premature to say this, seeing how we’re only 3.5 days in as I write, but I’m happy to say, so far so good; the sky and all my faculties still seem to be intact. I know I’m tempting 2021 with such a bold and audacious statement, but if 2020 taught me nothing else, it’s that in a world gone stark raving mad, everything’s fair game, so you might as well be bold and audacious when the situation calls for it.
In fact, I think that’s my resolution: be bolder and audacious-er. And less grammatically correct. Life’s too short to be timid and/or agonize over the proper use of there, their and they’re.
Oh, and I guess I do have one more new thing for the new year, just to keep things interesting around here; A brand new installment I like to call Misfit Monday!
This is how it works: Every Monday for as long as you and I both can stand it, I will share a shortish, sweet, random thought, and punch it up with a scripture and/or quotable quote… kind of like a devotional. Ok, exactly like a devotional (for you non-Christianese speakers out there, click here for today’s lesson). But hey, like I always say, you can’t get enough random, shortish, sweet Misfit Devotionals in your life. So let’s get crackin.
“You have to face reality sometime. But there’s no sense facing it until someone forces you to.”
Billy Beane
I think maybe that was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. I don’t know for sure, never saw Moneyball (the movie the quote comes from), so you’ll have to tell me. But nonetheless, I do think he has a point, cause let’s face it , NOBODY really wants to face reality; not on purpose, anyway. Reality is so stark. All that harsh lighting. No one looks good without the filters, I’m just saying. Of course, there is a certain entertainment value in someone else’s warped sense of reality being exploited for the train wreck it is. That goes without saying.
But all in all, I think in many ways we all do our best to avoid reality as long as we possibly can, when the actuality of it clashes with our idealized version of it, which is often. Cause it’s not so very entertaining anymore when it’s our train wreck we’re talking about. And oh the lengths we will go to keep that imaginary train on its imaginary track. You know what I’m talking about.
#beentheredonethat.
There comes a time when we all have to face what we’d rather not. Maybe it’s the reality of a tough situation that came to us, uninvited. Or the result of a choice or two (or 99) we’ve made, and can’t seem to reckon “why is this happening to me???” Or maybe we “know” exactly why, and even what to do, but it’s juuuust tooooo haaaaard, so we don’t, hoping it will all sort itself out (which it never does). Whatever it is, sooner or later, reality does indeed come a knockin.
And here’s where it comes full circle with Mr. Beane. The only “Someone” who can force you to deal with reality as it really is, and not as you wish it to be, is, well, you. Shocker, I know. But you know what I’m saying is true. Look at all those poor saps out there, living detached from the actual facts of their own lives. It’s sad, I know. But that’s not you. And not me, of course. We’re too smart and far too responsible for that. Because we know that everyone and their brother can point out the truth to us, but until we’re willing to face it, and (here’s the kicker) DO something about it, we’re still living in LaLa Land (which sounds like a nice place, but believe me, neither Ryan Gosling nor Emma Stone really live there)
Now we also know the good news, which is this; when we finally do force ourselves to face the truth, we find that unlike the fantasies we build around our lives, reality is something we can actually do something about. And change. Through different choices. Hard choices, maybe. But our choices. Cause remember. YOU are that SOMEONE.
So take THAT, Billy Beane!
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
James 1:22
Isle of misfits 