New Years Revolution! Resolution... or something

Life...its bigger. Bigger than you and you are not me. Which is a break for you. So I never blog anymore. I am too busy. FEEL SAD FOR ME! My life is too full with work and family and work and friends and work and church and work and traveling and work and reading and work and work. But it is a good time to have work. A good time to have a vocation. Occasionally I post in my Facebook Status Update my favorite work song ever...EVER which is by the great Tom Waits. I am sure I have posted it before in this space:

“You gotta get behind the mule,
In the morning and plow”

It just has some classic lines that just resonate...every time:

“Well the rampaging sons of the widow James
Jack the cutter and the pock marked kid
Had to stand naked at the bottom
Of the cross
And tell the good lord what they did
Tell the good lord what they did.”

Because sooner or later, since we self identify as the most Christian nation on earth, most of us should anticipate having to do just that. What am I going to say? I scrambled for a buck? I... provided for my family? I educated my kids? I drove an excellent car? I lived in a bitching house? I really don’t believe judgment day will be like that. I really don’t believe that I will be judged because that is not what I have been taught. I have been taught that I need to believe, and try and live my life like I believe. Right now in 2012 that means living my life in some kind of grateful way for the fact that someone died for my sins. But living your life like that, might not look any different to anyone watching. Weird.

So what does it feel like to go to work every day. Are you filled with purpose? I know I am more like Tom Waits:

“I'm diggin all the way to China
With a silver spoon
While the hangman fumbles with the noose, boys
The hangman fumbles with the noose.”

Well that might be a little dark. It seems pretty clear to me that what I am expected to do to make a living really stopped working for me a few years ago. So I keep trying to change it. And I keep failing but life has gotten a little more interesting. If your lucky (and even though I bitch like there is no tomorrow I am the luckiest guy in the world) and you keep your eyes open there are some chances that are laid out there (I like to think that God lays em out) to do a couple of good things. Of course I am still a lawyer. I am paid to be a prick but even with that....Waits leaves us with a little hope at the end.

“Pin your ear to the wisdom post
Pin your eye to the line
Never let the weeds get higher
Than the garden
Always keep a sapphire in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind.”

I think Jesus said something like that. I don’t think Paul did. He could be kind of a judgy guy. Hold it... I take it back. Paul did have a sapphire and diamond in your mind type line. A little thing we call Phillippians 4-8: 8

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Seems like good advice and hard to remember when you are yelling at someone on the phone are arguing at court. A greater sense of gratefulness for 2012. I know I will not do it all the time but lets make it a goal for me for 2012.