Making Things More Interesting

This past weekend, Chris, Anna and I traveled to St. Louis (well, technically Belleville, IL and environs) for the funeral of his grandmother. Having recently celebrated her 104th birthday, Grandma (Anna) Stutz lived quite a life! Quite well-educated for a farmer's wife, she raised two daughters (including Chris' mother Mary), taught for many years (save the break she was forced to take when, during the Great Depression, she got married and her job was required to be given to a head-of-household) and contributed to her community in many ways. Chris and I found ourselves reflecting upon all the things she saw change during her life, and it's almost mind-boggling to think about! Unfortunately, by the time I got to meet Grandma Stutz a few years ago (it was her 100th birthday and Chris and I traveled out to celebrate her birthday with the family) she was already suffering pretty severely from the mental effects of old ages and Alzheimer (I don't know her actual diagnosis but it seemed to me like others I've seen suffering in that way). In a time when there was a very definite idea of what someone in her place in life would do with their lives, she certainly found ways to make it interesting and chart her own path!

I wondering what the world would be like if more people tried to make things more interesting (well, and if some people did the opposite :-) ). One of the funniest moments on our trip was when, as Chris, Anna and I drove to the other side of St. Louis to visit a church we'd heard of, I was commenting on the sights and, as I told Chris, trying to make St. Louis "more exotic." As we drove, on our right, I saw a cement sculpture/sign, and asked Chris (being, as I was, in my "exotic" mind frame and not really paying enough attention to the fencing just behind it) what a "NOO" was. Chris about crashed the car he was laughing so hard. A zoo. It was a zoo. In my attempts to make things more exotic, I had missed the one thing that truly was exotic :-)



It was a mom moment, what can I say?! :-) Whatever. I was reading it sideways. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The world is full of people who march to the beat of someone else's drummer. And sometimes we need to do that. But some of the best achievements in life have happened because someone refused to be constrained by what everyone else thought was possible. For good and for bad.

I recently saw an episode of Biography on Sam Walton. Here was a guy who bucked what everyone else thought was possible. And did so often at great financial risk to himself. And whatever you think of his legacy and the impact of Walmart on our society--he did indeed achieve a great deal.

There are many ways we can break expectations--and it requires setting priorities. For some, it may have to do with our influence on our families. Our commitment to helping others. Our skill at something in particular. And yes, sometimes even our business success. It may be helping people become and grow as disciples, or providing housing for those without. God has called each of us, I can convinced, to shatter the roles that society would seek to push us into. God has called us to make things more interesting. May 2012 be the year we do just that!