We Just Do What We Can

(Saturday, August 25, 2007 - Transferred from a previous blog spot)

I was on my way out of town yesterday to make a meeting in Atlanta that I was already going to be late for (by a whole day!) when my mom called to tell me that she had learned that her husband's heart is not functioning properly.They are trying to figure out exactly how bad it is and what they can do about it, but there is a huge portion of his heart that seems to be damaged. Mom was upset and I offered what empathy I could. She explained that she was upset by this, but that she was crying because she had just talked to Lynda (my wife). She said she had called Lynda to tell her about Jim and she had told Lynda that neither of them had been able to cut their grass in a while and because they had been watering the grass was getting tall. Without prompting, Lynda just said, "Welll, I can probably come over and cut it tonight." Mom said she was very moved by this gesture. My response to her was, "Well, we just do what we can."

As I drove down the road I was thinking about how many times I use the phrase "Just let me know what you need and I will do what I can." Lynda and I do that a lot! Most of the time, like with mom, we really don't mind. However, when we are part of so many groups and we tend to do that wherever we are, that can add up very quickly. Between church, the girls' schools, work, professional organizations, denominational work, etc. Everywhere we go, we always try to "do what we can". I am usually glad to help others when I have the chance and I enjoying using whatever abilities I have to help others, but I think sometimes it might be appropriate to realize that doing what I can for lots of people means that I sometimes feel like I am giving out of emptiness. Paul wrote, All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial. Perhaps it is taking a bit of liberty with the text, but it seems that it is not necessarily beneficial for me or my family for me to do everything "I can do." Sometimes I set good boundaries and when I say I will do what I can I really mean that I can't do everything and I may have say no, but too often I find myself saying yes to too many things I can do instead really focusing on fewer things that are better to do. I working on it anyway.