Serious Silly Love
Savvy Saturdays - 4/25/20
Hello friends,
Greetings from Austin!
Not sure if quarantine has inspired any creativity out of your boredom but I’ve been experimenting with cooking.
I accidentally bought 4.5 lbs of ground beef, so I took a few pounds to make some burger patties and set aside the rest for normie pasta.
In that process, I ended up making a layman’s version of a Whataburger Patty Melt!
One of the hardest things I found with cooking burger patties is that the meat shrinks after cooking. Getting a good hefty patty that’s not too thick or not too small is a delicate art. Maybe if I get good enough, I can open up my own franchise by the end of this quarantine. 🤔
That aside, recently, I learned I’ve been taking life too seriously.
The truth is, I naturally have a silly happy-go-lucky personality.
But during college and post-grad life, as I started to take on more responsibility and step into leadership positions with many eyes watching me, I felt I had to change.
I felt I had to be effective, efficient, and cast aside my carefree personality and “childish ways” of life to set an example as an adult.
But as I lived through this change, I recognized I took things to the extreme and lost a part of myself.
Through my obsessed pursuit of effective leadership and productivity, I killed off my ability to graciously take time to love others.
To empathize, relax, and invest without an agenda.
It makes me think of 1 Corinthians 13:2, where it says:
“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
As I reflect on what it means to love, I’m learning that for now, I need to relax and be looser with my time. To be less serious and more carefree and gracious.
I’m excited. Though it will be a process of balancing seriousness and silliness, I know it will be good to rediscover a part of me I thought I lost.
Anyways, I hope you guys are pushing through in quarantine and not personally taking yourself too seriously! It’s easy to become harsh and not give grace to others during a stressful season, but I believe this is the most important time to empathize and forgive others.
With that, thanks for checking in, continue to wash your hands thoroughly, wear your face masks 😷, and I'll see y'all in the next update! 😊
Weekly Collections
Faith
Ben Stuart has a way with words and storytelling, and I always leave feeling challenged and refreshed by the Gospel. As I watched this sermon, I was reminded of the reason why we undergo trials and tribulations in this life. Hope it helps!
“What if we viewed all our suffering as a bruising blessing and severe mercy, all reminding of God's sovereignty?”
Takeaways:
1. Loosen your grip of the world
2. Lift your gaze to see what matters mostThe Hidden Value of Pastoral Gentleness - Crossway
Entrepreneurship
What leader are you? It depends on your parents - BBC
“If your parents were shrinking violets, the odds are increased that you will be too. But that’s far from the whole story
The more overprotective their parents, the less the teens were perceived as having leadership potential by others, and the less likely they were to actually be in leadership roles”
Productivity
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Key to Innovation - FS Blog
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it. They just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while; that’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”
— Steve Jobs
Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Doers and thinkers from Shakespeare to Jobs, liberally “stole” inspiration from the doers and thinkers who came before. Here’s how to do it right.
Verse of the Week
“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
- Colossians 3:12-14
Challenging Quote
“Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world.”
- Ekhart Tolle