Usually, but not always, these are denominational affairs. If it’s not Methodist, then it usually covers something I’m not very adept at or familiar with.
Sometimes I even become disengaged at a meeting I am leading. That’s a problem, right?
So a couple of months ago, I made a list of things I do with my pen and pad of paper when I’ve lost interest in what is happening in the meeting I’m attending. Or leading.
I don’t draw. I do write. That way it looks like I’m taking notes.
Here goes:
1. Make a list of the Top Ten Tennis Players Of All Time. (Federer, Sampras, Laver, Nadal, McEnroe, Borg, Agassi, Budge, Lendl, Kramer) Even if Jimmy Connors deserves to be on that list, I keep him off. Just because.
2. Make a list of the Top Five Don Henley Songs Of All Time. (Boys Of Summer, The Heart Of The Matter, Everything Is Different Now, The End Of The Innocence, Little Tin God)
3. Make a list of the largest United Methodist Churches in the Carolinas and then in the USA.
4. Rehash the scores of every Super Bow, in order. (35-10, 33-14, 16-7, 23-7, 16-13, 24-3, 14-7, 24-7, 16-6, 21-17 . . . . )
5. Make a list of Favorite U2 Songs. (Where The Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found, One, Beautiful Day, Hawkmoon 269, Magnificent)
6. Count up all the “ums,” “you knows,” and “things like that.” I got up to 113 “you knows” not too long ago.
7. Try to remember as many phone numbers as I can from the church in Monroe, NC. What is scary and not even remotely healthy is that I can remember most of them.
8. Think up a blog topic for future use and put it in my “Blog” file.