"The reason people should care about this is that anywhere there is groundwater there is almost always going to be challenges in managing it, because it's difficult to see, it's difficult to monitor, it's easy to think that it's everlasting."

Kelsey Cody

Good morning, friends!  Did you remember to pack your long johns for the fall trip?  I needed mine this morning, that’s for sure!  Let’s get to it.

In my line of work disagreements are commonplace.  Everyone has an opinion on most things and sometimes the disagreements become arguments.  I used to get involved in such give and take until that fateful day I realized we were always disagreeing, arguing, talking about the wrong things.  Why did we never talk about the right things?  Because they are difficult to see, difficult to monitor, and we think they are everlasting.  Whether you know it or not this delusional affliction affects you, too.

Consider a simple list of genuinely valuable aspects of your life: love, friendships, health, mental acuity, and financial security.  There may be other important things but this list will do for today.  In the course of a day how much time do you spend focused on the maintenance or improvement of one of these values?  Probably not much; we take them for granted and generally expect them to be everlasting.  Why?  Because they are difficult to see and difficult to monitor so we generally avoid them to focus on things more easily controlled.

As a “list” person I know the value of focusing on minor things; marking off easy victories is intoxicating.  But some things are hard to “list”, particularly the more important matters.  Perhaps they seem too ethereal, or opaque, or obtuse.  Whatever, as the old saying goes, “Expect what you inspect.”  If you don’t give generous time to your important matters, your truly important matters, what do you expect?  Exactly.

·What would a short list of your valuable matters be?

·What would your life look like if you began giving better attention to them?

·What can you do this week to start the process?

I think I’ll contact three friends this week just to communicate.  I may do three for many weeks.  What will you do?  Whatever it is I expect you’ll do great.  Happy Thanksgiving, friends!  And have a great week.

Matthew 6:25-34