Full Acceleration

"God can work through you better when you are not hurrying.  Go very slowly, very quietly, from one duty to the next, taking time to rest and pray between.  Do not be too busy.  Take everything in order."

I've always said that I have two speeds: Full Acceleration and Completely Stopped.  I either have the accelerator mashed to the floorboards or the car is sitting in the garage, up on blocks, with the battery disconnected.  Back to balance, Seaweed.  Get in the middle.

"In dealing with personalities, it is a mistake to step out too much on your own.  You must try to be guided by God in all human relationships."

I can't even comment on this passage today.  How powerful is the thought that if I turn my relationships over to a Higher Power then they'll work out fine?  This has been particularly relevant for me as the Keep It Complicated group has been holding a series of interminable business meetings to decide how everything is going to work as we transition back to live meetings.  There are members who are eager to start meeting in person again, as soon as possible; others who want to keep Zoom going, people who don't drive or have kids at home or are sitting in from out of town; and a faction who would like to see some kind of hybrid meeting where a monitor would be set up in the meeting room so that Zoom people could virtually attend the live meeting.

Thank God I wasn't in charge of this clusterfuck.  East Coast Seaweed would have been out of control in his attempts to be in control.  My attitude has always been to get things started as simply and quickly as possible and then work out any kinks as we go along.  The church is undoubtedly going to be changing the requirements for using their room fast and furiously as society starts to reopen so to my thinking we needn't try to work out how stuff is going to be working six months down the road.  It's hard enough trying to imagine everything in a month let alone next year, especially since we're probably imagining incorrectly.  The group, alas, has a different agenda which seems needlessly involved to me.  In my mind a well-run business meeting should last about 20 minutes so I didn't feel overly guilty bailing out 45 minutes into the last two meetings, both times before anything of substance had even been voted on.

Surprisingly enough, they got along fine without me.

"We alcoholics used so little self-control when we were drinking.  We were so absolutely selfish that it does us good to give up something once in a while.  Using self-discipline and denying ourselves a few things is good for us."

This is always good advice.  Deny yourself something every now and then.  Doing something just because you feel like it doesn't mean that it's a great idea.