The thing I noticed today was . . .

Today is my first day in America on this particular trip and my son invited me to go with him while he accomplished a bunch errands, shopping and about town. I always love such invitations, and of course I said yes. Plus I needed to recharge my American phone chip to use while I am in the states, so accomplishing multiple things on one trip is always good, right?

So the thing that caught my attention today was that every single store, every single one, challenged/invited/requested us to join their bonus card, their discount card, their brand card, to get all their discounts, bonuses, and well, their stuff at a cheaper price. In fact, and this is gonna sound weird, I hate shopping at my two favorite (I already told you that this was gonna sound weird) grocery stores in the states, because every single price posted, demands that you have their "card" in order to get that posted price.

A much better way to get my commitment to their store, a devotion to their brand, is to simply give me that special price to begin with, without all the extra I-can-now-track-all-your-purchases mechanisms that they force us to do. This enforced process LOWERS my commitment and my devotion to them. Does not in any way enhance my shopping experience, nor has it ever a single time made me want to return and spend my resources in their particular store.

Those who make the shopping experience one that I want to repeat over and over, make it extra simple and straight forward. There is no "if you have our special discount piece of paper" price enticements or processes. If you want to build a long term relationships with me, think about my experience, not your desire to track me in some fashion.

High on earplugs

I have taken to ear plugs in a grand fashion. "Almost everything is noise" Greg McKeown said, and he was right in more ways than he knew. Not only have I taken to wearing ear plugs in such a way that I frequently have them with me ALL DAY, but I have now crossed an ocean (different oceans) 12 times without watching one single show on the entertainment screen in front of me. What did that cost the airline? Something like $10,000 per seat. All wasted on me, because almost everything is noise.

Here is the McKeown quote, "The prevalence of noise: Almost everything is noise, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. This is the justification for taking time to figure out what is most important." Followed by an equally good one from John Maxwell, “You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”

For transparency sake here, let me state that I do download and watch American Ninja Warrior and The Voice, because otherwise I would have nothing about which to talk to my brother and he is addicted to both of these shows and I like them fine too. I also am a huge hockey fan and watch games every week, and thank God regularly that the hockey season is nine months long :-). But that is it. No movies, no drama shows, no game shows, no TV in general, because it is all noise. 

The additional effect of the muting, that comes from the ear plugs, makes for a much quieter world, a world where you can think, a world where you must decide to be responsible for your life, a world where the frenetic noise of entertainment does not allow you a free pass. You have to choose what you do with your life, or someone else will.

Help at 4:22 am

I travel. I travel alot! It is practically a weekly activity for me. Needless to say I have missed my share of flights and connections. It happened again this week, even though I did everything humanly possible to prevent it, including running two kilometers through two airports, asking for help all along the way, trying to enlist every Turkish Airline employee I could, fruitlessly in the end, because I still missed my flight, by less than three minutes.

Fast forward two and half hours, I finally, finally, finally get to the hotel that the airline provided me, and then was informed by the front desk that I would have to be ready to go at 0400 hours back to the airport!! For a 8:00 am departure????  No thank you. I  told them firmly that I would find my own way to the airport. Since I visit Istanbul many times each year, I am well versed in how to get around on my own. I wanted no wake up call, and I would bear all the consequences for getting my own self to the airport.

I got to my room, and unplugged the phone just in case they did not get how serious I was. There was no way on earth I wanted a 0330 wake up call!  I set the alarm for 5:30 and went to sleep. Imagine my rude awakening at 0422 hours when someone was pounding on my door. They would not stop. They continued on and on. I finally got up and yelled, "what do you want?!?!?" The persons on the other side of the door informed me that the bus downstairs was waiting for me and that they frantically needed to leave NOW!  I told them to go on of course, and went back to bed . . . but the damage was done, I could not go back to sleep.

This is not the kind of help I need when traveling, but it is the kind of help that the Turkish culture is required to give. It is help, but not actually helpful. We do the same all the time, telling the truth without regard for how it will be received, talking about people not present in order to "help" the person dealing with them, or any other time that we decide what is best for someone without regard for their wishes. Sure there are exceptions to this rule, but not very many at all. Help at 0422 hours is not really help.

The energy and the power

World class cities have a energy that is very unique. Istanbul is a city of around 12 million jammed crammed people on endless rolling hills, awesome horrible traffic, a million refugees, no parking places, and sea of asphalt and cement. And it hums and it thrums with a powerful energy that comes from all this humanity, all this potential, all these possibilities thrown together in one small landmass. Yet it is relatively safe and unthreatening as world class cities go.

But there is so little chance that someone who lives here will meet a Christ-follower. There is almost no witness. There is practically no opportunity to hear Truth, to meet God on neutral ground, to choose Life everlasting, to read the scriptures, to hear His voice in the roar of the crowds and in the masses of humanity that vibrate with the pursuit of everything else and all other.

What if we rose up and responded with an equal energy, a response of love and compassion and redemption that was rooted in our daily powerful experience with Yahweh, the creator who pulses with power and light and clarity and love? It seems to be hard to find such people of character and competence and compassion, who will live the Kingdom dream rather than the Western dream or their personal ones.