starfish and coffee

Ever played a wii sport and been frustrated because you felt like the controller didn't work only to realize it was your form that was preventing all those pins from falling together? Maybe you were trying to make that ace a little too fast in wii tennis or you twisted your wrist so far in wii bowling that you didn't quite connect the sensor to the base. Whatever it was, you had to spend time perfecting your form to make the connection. It's time consuming and it can be frustrating.

I've talked to some of you. Some of you are fighting cultures in churches that just don't seem to have the capacity to change. Some of you are working with individuals who think they get it, but they're really way off the mark. Some of you are fighting time, fighting budgets or fighting yourselves, struggling to make the connection.

Recently I've been struck by the idea of the process. Clementine and Claudette got that reconciliation with Jean is a process--that's why they joined their land to his land: so they could have a place to work out the process of reconciliation. The process is an art, a process that requires attention and consideration, consideration of how all the different stages of that process connect to make the whole. When we neglect perspective on the whole process, individual parts of the process can suffer!

Sports players know the importance of focusing in on every part of their swing. Their success in connecting with the baseball, golf ball, or achieving the right release point in bowling depends on how well they can manage the connection between every part of their swing.

Perfecting a process can also bog you down. You can get too far into the work to be able to see it clearly. Sometime we need to stop looking at the breakdown and revisit our goal, the desired outcome, and regain our perspective on what we're doing.

It's been two months since I was in Bukonya. Two months since I saw 75 out of what are approximately 500 children suffering from malnutrition. Tomorrow, our man on the ground, Innocent, is meeting with the providers of Nutri-form and investigating the provision of a peanut-based suppliment by the Rwandan government. Before I spoke to Woody, one of our supporters from Florida, I had a pretty poor perspective on the situation. All I was seeing was 60 days. Woody saw starfish and told me this story:

There once was a little boy walking along a beach full of starfish. Every step he took he stooped down to pick up a starfish and throw it back into the water. An older gentleman, coming from the other direction, stopped the little boy and asked him what he was doing. The little boy said he was saving the starfish. The gentleman looked at the little boy and said, "Little boy, you'll never save them all."

In reply, the little boy bent down, picked up a starfish and threw it back into the water. "Just saved that one," he replied, and kept walking, picking up a starfish every step and throwing it back into the ocean.

So where are you in your swing? If you're working on perfecting a specific stage, make sure you're fully focused and don't lose sight of how it connects to the entire process. If you happen to be where I am: if you're bogged down, too far in, too wrapped up in one part of your swing--if you seem to be stuck, then take a moment. Stop. Breathe. Take a walk. Refocus on your goal.

My goal?

One More Starfish.