Friday, June 29, 2018

Collecting

One of the things that I’ve noticed about myself, and people in general is that we like to collect things. Back when I was younger, I collected baseball, basketball and football cards. That was my focus and passion, second only to music. Once I was in college, I was faced with a dilemma. Do I lug my expansive collection of cards with me or do I get rid of them? They weren’t valuable because they were of the 80’s and 90’s, when cards were overproduced, so I just got rid of them. I haven’t thought much about collecting cards since then.

My girls love Barbies, as many girls do. My youngest daughter’s room has all of the Barbie paraphernalia in it. The dream house, the cars, and a whole ton of Barbies. Many of these things were given to them by a family in our church whose daughter didn’t want her collection anymore. And my girls play with the Barbies quite regularly.....but there’s so much of it!

I could keep going with more examples from my life, but as you’re reading this, you can probably think of many more yourself. We collect things. And when we find something we like, people feel compelled to give us things that help us with that collecting. Now, inherently, there’s nothing wrong with that, until your shelves, your rooms, your house is filled with your collection. And you’re facing the “now what” with all of it. You’re overwhelmed, And you don’t control the stuff, the stuff controls you.

While the optimal first encouragement I’d give in regard to collecting is don’t do it, I have 3 encouragements in helping to deal with your collecting:

1) Find a manageable number. When one new thing comes one, it has to replace another item in your collection. I collected nutcrackers. I’d only put them out at Christmas. I kept a few out regularly. So I decided that 28 nutcrackers were not worth storing, so I kept the 8 I really liked, and got rid of the rest. If I get a new one, it replaces one in my collection.

2) Keep asking yourself why. Ask why you collect these things. Do they bring you joy? Cheer you up? Awesome. Do they serve a purpose? Because if you don’t keep asking why, you may end up with the dinner plates of the world collection and not really have them serve a purpose or have a place to store them!

3) Don’t be afraid to say no. As a musician, much of my music has been handed down or picked up through giveaways. And I’m thankful for that because I’ve found some great music. I’ve also found some awful music, music I’ll never use and music that’s falling apart. Why should I keep it? So, I’ve become more discerning. I’ve learned to look and if there’s music I know I can’t use, I’m not just going to take it and hold on to it to take up space.....I’m not taking it in the first place. No is a hard word to say, but it’s so necessary and beneficial!

Happy collecting!

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Social Media

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been a bit busy with launching a podcast (The Healthy Church Musician Podcast) and being a husband and a dad, along with doing lots of fun things for the music ministry I serve. Today, I want to spend some time diving into social media.

There are some pros to social media. It’s a great way to keep in contact with family and friends that you don’t regularly get to keep in contact with. I’ve used Facebook to join groups and get ideas and encouragements for lots of different things. But there sure are plenty of cons to social media. Not only the absolute time suck that it can become and the control that it can take on your life. And on top of that, the arguments, disagreements and whatever else that may come across the way.

So, how do you get control of it? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself lately. I’ve spent way too much time on social media. What I’m trying to do is schedule my social media time. 15 minutes in the morning when I wake up and 30 minutes in the evenings. But on top of that, this coming weekend, I’m planning on a social media fast. What does that mean? No posting, no reading, no nothing on social media. I’m going to start Saturday morning and actually go through Monday afternoon. Why that time? I’ll be doing lots of yard work on Saturday, so I’ll be outside most of the day. Sunday and Monday we’ll be going to my wife’s aunt and uncle’s house, so I’ll be busy with that, then go to a baseball game Monday night.

What are your thoughts on social media? How do you control your time and your interaction with it?

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