Message from Pastor Karyn for Aug. 2021

“Throughout history, there has only been one killer productivity app and that is thinking more deeply.”

For years now, as I continue to study human behavior, I have heard from people far smarter than myself about the importance of making time to think a regular part of your daily routine. On those days when I manage to carve out such time, I find that I am better able to face whatever comes my way, so when Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter, Faster, Better, said this thing during an interview, I shouldn’t have been surprised. It certainly shouldn’t have stuck with me days later. Except that I don’t remember my other teachers making the connection between deep thinking and productivity so clearly. Except they did, if we consider productivity to be more about staying connected to your “why” than about getting more things done. I haven’t finished listening to the interview, mostly because I keep going back and listening to sections again, but I have been led more deeply into the connection between deep thinking, productivity and my “why”, which is nothing more than another way to think about living out your values, stating your purpose statement, your personal purpose statement.

“I will be pulling from a decade of learning and experience to teach a class on learning and living our values, this fall.”

I turn 50 in a week. It amazes me that I am half a century old, kind of blows my mind, and I have found myself being rather reflective about the paths I have taken these past 50 years and how they have led me to where I am now. I have been especially reflective on the last 10 years, which have mostly been lived while I have served at First. This neat divide has been helpful as I consider the learning I have done since moving to the west coast of Wisconsin. Most of that learning has been about how to know and live my core values in a meaningful way. Knowing that loving all people, integrity, fun and spirituality are the things I hold most important has brought to the place I find myself now: in the waning days of the pandemic filled with social strife, contemplating the ramifications of loving all people. It is a place where nearly everything I once held as true is being tuned to a different key. Decisions about things like what I wear and eat, how I speak to and about people, what gets top billing in my life and how I listen, are all shaped by what it means to love ALL people.

I believe so strongly that as people of God, followers of Jesus, we need to know what our values are, that our values ought to be shaped by our faith and our lived out faith shaped by our values, so that the decisions we make about the way we live are thoughtful and consistent with the faith we proclaim. I believe strongly enough in these things that I will be pulling from a decade of learning and experience to teach a class on learning and living our values, this fall. I hope you consider joining me, and as you continue to make your way through this strange time of transition, that you give yourself time to do some deep thinking.

Peace,

Pastor Karyn