Checks and Balances

One of my favorite Army truisms is "What gets checked gets done." When I was a Battery/ Company Commander I got handed a lot of directives each day, and had to accomplish those directives with minimal manpower and never enough time. I got pretty good at figuring out what I had to do and what I could afford to blow off. What helped me determine which "balls" I could drop was figuring out what taskings had visibility, i.e. what got checked; e.g. keeping the Battery area clean, high vis. ordering 100 left handed widget removers we would never use, low vis. Sometimes though, the wrong stuff gets checked, the focus is on how a Soldier looks rather than how well he is trained, how many widget removers are on hand rather than whether or not we know what a widget is or how to remove one in the first place.

The same holds true for me as a Christian. I mis-apply that same mentality in my "spiritual life". Going to chapel on Sundays is high visibility, it gets checked so I make sure I'm there. Spending quality time with God is low vis. so I often let it slide because no is checking in on my quite time. Never mind the attitude that accompanies me to church, I'm there so "check the block", and the deeper issue of blowing off God daily because no one see that. I know, I'm working on that too. And, I'm not saying don't go to church because it's a check the block thing, I love going to church most Sundays (having 2 little boys makes Sunday mornings an adventure sometimes). I think chapel is an awesome way to enjoy corporate worship and connect with other Christians, so put those stones down.

Yes, I did use i.e. and e.g. back to back in the same sentence, though possibly not in the right order. More feats of grammatical gymnastictry in future posts . (gymnastictry is not a word according to spell check, what does spellcheck know. I am inventing words at a phenomenal rate, and thanks to the miracle of the Internet they will now find their way into common usage).