The bigger picture...

Have you ever went to a museum that has amazing large paintings or gone to where a large mural is painted? When things are over-sized it is amazing how we can see the details even clearer. Have you ever had a time where you felt you were in a fog and even the thoughts inside your own head weren't clear? Well that is what we tend to call brain fog, and is a neurological condition that we treat every day with amazing results, but that's not the point. (I imagine you love reading the blog of a hyperactive ADD doctor:-) Back to the point: When you look at a over-sized painting you can go up close and even the minute details are not lost in lack of vision, but are clear and concise to see even with the naked eye.

Now picture that this large image is a digital image and that you are but a pixel in the large picture. Many times we may feel small and insignificant, but if you take that beautiful picture and you have a few dozen of the pixels decide that they want to do their own thing and not participate and turn off the picture is obviously not complete. So how do we decide to do our own thing? Is that so bad, yes it can be! In fact when we decide that fulfilling our purpose is not as important as making me feel good right here right now, we sacrifice what great things we can have for the okay things we may be able to experience right now.

So lets put some skin on this, many of want to be a part of something bigger, higher or more noble than the daily grind. So we see ourselves as achieving something of great notoriety and think that this daily task is beneath us or not pursuing our higher calling. Well let's just keep things in perspective and steal a quote from a friend as we were discussing this in an e-mail: "Not everyone was meant to achieve greatness, but enduring difficulty and struggles, and still praising and giving God the glory is what matters most. If you can do that, I am certain in the end he will say 'well done my faithful servant!'" -Dr. Berard.

So we want to achieve this great thing, but we keep our eye on the end result, but making sure we are Faithful in this moment! So what does it mean to be faithful in the moment? Do we call a married man faithful because he was faithful on Tuesday? No, we call him faithful because each and every time he had the opportunity to cheat or be unfaithful, he chose to keep his eye on the commitment he made and do the right thing. Why do we call some people focused, because they have some super-human skill the rest of us doesn't? No, just when the distractions come that don't like up with their goals or values, they chose to follow their values and goals than the thrill of the moment. So with all the bombardment of information and distractions that come our way everyday, how can we possibly keep a eye on the big picture and be faithful in the moment? Well here is list of questions to ask yourself to see if you are being faithful in this moment.

1. What is my assignment? When I am with a patient and treating their health conditions, am I focused on them or me. Are we discussing my day or their health? Am I worrying about billing, staff, family, etc. or am I engaged in this brief moment of time I have to instill health, hope and value into this person. When my son asks me a question am I listening to him or is he a distraction from the television? When my spouse is frustrated, do I look at her heart and help her or just react to her words that come out of frustration that may be negatively directed towards me?

2. What are the possible rewards for being faithful in this moment? If I am faithful in this moment, what great things can come out of it? An opportunity to connect with one of my kids? Express value into a patient who will leave super-satisfied? A student who changes her opinion of herself and makes wiser decisions. There are a lot of positive rewards from being faithful in the moment.

3. What are the possible consequences if I am not faithful to this moment? Now we could go to the nth degree real fast, but keeping it simple the person that perceives you are not really listening to them, the frustration of a child not really listening to them, the student that sees her value in what they allow others to do to her than what is in the inside. I often think of all the people who depend on me to be faithful in every moment, family, staff, students, those I've mentored over the years or just those who look up to me, If I'm the next idiot on the news for doing something stupid, what will that do to them?

4. Is my attitude right? It's not just a matter of doing the right thing, but doing it with the right heart attitude. There is sometimes I have to delay or keep quiet as I have to really keep my attitude in check and not react to the what was said or done. If I loose my cool, I loose, no matter how justified I think I may be in my display of lack of control. People who are watching me and you, won't remember all the great things you've shared with them, but that time you put your foot in your mouth or went bizerk.

5. Does this honor God or my purpose? You don't have to be a believer in God or follower of Christ to get this as our purpose is the result of us following our core values. The values that we have defined as what is the guiding principles in our lives. If we are following those in this moment then we are being faithful, but if we are saying one thing is our our core values and living something else even in this fleeting moment, than we are not being faithful in this moment.

6. What would my mentor / leader / hero do in this moment? You could use any of these or all three. Heroes may be few and far between in today's society. When someone starts to make a name for themselves by many times being faithful in the moment, the media or maybe society wants to find the chinks in the armor or find skeletons to tear this person down. This goes back to who we choose to be our heroes, our mentor, the leaders we choose to lead us. I know it sounds like a WWJD moment, and maybe so, but those who we admire, how would they react or handle themselves in a similar situation, that is what we need to ask.

Take these and one by one, start looking at the times through our day and as some or all of these questions and before long it may be you we are admiring for the amazing character you are displaying.

Until next time...

Faithful in this Moment!

Faithful is the kind of word that only comes up when we are at church or when talking about some bozo who wasn't faithful. There are a lot of other terms that could be used, such as Present in the moment, Attentive in the moment, Focused on the moment and they are all true to the similar point, except one. Faithfulness is being true to your core convictions and having you words be in line with those convictions, but faithfulness in the moment something that has hit me square between the eyes recently. Let me paint a picture for you:

My wonderful wife Tabetha was talking to me about this next semester with schedules and where kids are going and how we would juggle the changes and like 'Doug' (the dog from the movie, 'Up') I saw something that was outside and was like the dog saying 'squirel!' and I bolted out the door to see what was going on outside. I came back in not even realizing what I had done, I hurt my wife's heart because I was not faithful to her conversation. I had to appologize and earn back trust that I should have never taken.

What's the point? I heard someone ask 'How do I stay focused with everything going on in my life?' The answer wasn't the typical, 'Just like you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.' I heard wisdom that pierced my heart, 'Be faithful in the moment.' When they world is swirling all around and my son asks, 'Dad, how does this work?' Stop and focus not on everything at once, but be faithful in the moment and answer to the best of my ability. When my wife starts talking to me, ignore the 'squirels' and give her this moment, and giver her everything for this moment. When I walk into a consultation with a patient and I've read the chart, I've seen this so many times before, I slow down and make no assumptions and listen, and the world may crash all around outside, but for those moments, this patient, this condition is all that matters, this life, this mom, dad, sister, brother, for this moment I am faithful to them.

A old friend of mine, since back in the days of college taught me something in his drafty old Victorian home in freezing winter after I just got back from a pre-marital counseling session that I found out I had no mercy whatsoever. I was concerned that how was I going to go into health care and I'm as hard as a rock. My friend, now Dr. Miller said, 'when you walk into that room, just remember that's somebody's mother, that's somebody's father, sister, brother, child.' I've used that often when I have been helping to improve lives for 14 years, when I put my hand on the doorknob, nothing else matters once I turn that knob and walk in.

This is really a matter of focus, what we choose, yes I did say 'choose.' For years I would have tried to argue about right now, but from a hyperactive out of control little boy to being in a big boy's body, it is the choices we make that make us. Yes, somethings get thrown at us beyond our control, but when we pause to react, and choose how to respond, we start to understand focus. When any of you are in the clinic and if you ever think I am not being faithful in the moment, I give you permission to bring it to my attention. I just heard half of you say, wow, you must be looking for criticism, but I bet you may be disappointed.

Focus and being faithful in the moments we are given is like the difference of white light and red lasers. White light contain all the wavelengths that are moving is all kinds of directions, but when the wavelengths are put in parallel with each other & going the same direction they can cut through steel. We want to have a life without the craziness, with health, peace and love. I can't tell you everyday will be a bed of roses, actually I can probably bet more of the opposite, but instead of running from trouble, embrace it and know that each moment you are in this moment and not the ones that haven't gotten here yet and not the ones that are in the past.

Each moment you have to be faithful to the people in front of you, Pour your heart into them, don't suck the life out of them. Be in the moment and be faithful to who you choose to be in advance!

Until next time...