{"id":2374,"date":"2012-04-12T07:23:25","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T14:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=2374"},"modified":"2012-04-12T07:23:25","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T14:23:25","slug":"your-to-do-list-its-a-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/04\/12\/your-to-do-list-its-a-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Your To-Do List, It’s a Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"End of the Day,<\/em> painted from the model one day last year, before I checked it off my list. Click for larger views.<\/a><\/h6>\n

I once met a man with so much money he didn’t have to work. He’d volunteer for things, but when it got difficult, he’d drift away. He didn’t have to deal with all that. On the surface it was a perfect existence but, in fact, he wasn’t at all content. In a rare moment of honesty he blurted out:\u00a0I wish I just had something to DO!<\/strong><\/p>\n

What a shock. We’d have thought a person with everything<\/em>\u00a0could do anything<\/em>. What this one lacked, however, was the \u201chave to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without that, the old ghosts of “What’s life all about anyway?”<\/em> begin to haunt and undermine our sense of worth.<\/p>\n

Boredom is a Boogie Man of the soul. It’s a barren desert where nothing grows and there’s little hope for change.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there are certain signs around to remind us to get busy, like:\u00a0“No Loitering.”\u00a0<\/strong>We should\u00a0inscribe\u00a0that one inside our eyelids.<\/p>\n

Another useful one we’re likely to find on maps at the mall:
\n“You Are Here.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always take that as a great reminder.<\/p>\n

As somebody said, \u201cWherever you are, be there!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another classic: “Don’t just stand there . . . “<\/strong> (you know the rest).<\/p>\n

Once, when I was young and had the blues (I’d been jilted), my dad recognized it and in his wisdom counseled me to get busy. Just \u201cget busy.\u201d Like what? He invited me to ping pong with his friends. It wasn’t just ping pong, it was killer<\/em> ping pong, like when you finish you need a bath . . . in linament. And it was very effective for beginning to pull me through my doldrums.<\/p>\n

All this agrees with a passage in Ecclesiastes about the happy state of man:\u00a0He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.*<\/strong><\/p>\n

GOD keeps him occupied. No wonder my To-Do<\/em> list keeps filling up. No wonder I wake up with ten things to do and by night know I’ve only finished five, or two . . . but done ten others not on the list.<\/p>\n

This is God keeping me occupied,\u00a0and calling it a favor!<\/p>\n

He knows that too much pondering is, well, too ponderous.<\/p>\n

A busy person is a happy person . . . and vice versa.<\/p>\n

A ship looks beautiful in a harbor; but ships weren’t built for harbors.<\/p>\n

We are born to move.<\/p>\n

So, get back to whatever you were about to do.<\/p>\n

And recognize it as a gift.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

*Ecclesiastes 5:20 NIV<\/p>\n

Next: “What I learned from Dad about Fishing.” Coming Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever wonder how one thing follows right into another, completely filling up our days? Ever considered it a gift of God to keep us from wallowing or carrying weight that’s too heavy? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2374"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3001,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions\/3001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}