lessons from post its

oh my gosh. i love making lists. i list everything. shopping lists. packing lists. action lists. wish lists. gift lists. positive vs. negative outcomes lists. then there’s post-its. mini lists. and i try to condense content into a smaller cm2 space (i like the challenge but ultimately end up writing all the way up the sides and eventually over onto the back which kind of defeats the point).

so in common terms my compulsive list-making makes me ocd. pedantic. hyper-organised. or whatever. someone once laughed at my list. i mean i’m sure he thought it was funny/quirky/strange, but it actually kind of hurt. and i wonder what it is that makes us so attached to these idiosyncrasies inherent in us. i guess we don’t think it’s strange until someone points it out and then we feel totally abnormal. like we may as well have a big green broccoli stem sticking out of our left cheek.

but where would i be without my big green broccoli? it’s who i am. it makes me happy and feel like i’m in control and able to get all this stuff in my life done, and not forget anybody or anything. it doesn’t hurt anyone. but when my big green broccoli actually makes someone else feel bad, it’s not good. so if i try to control people and condense them into little purple 3M post-its...it’s a big problem. if i try bullet-point them into my life and action items for the day, it’s a big problem.

i doubt JESUS ever made a list. i doubt he had an orange post it on his carpenter’s bench reminding him to love people. to share with them. to pray with them. to remember important things about them that are important to them. and i believe GOD made me kind of quirky with my list-making, but he also wants to make me more like his SON. and to live and love more like him.