Half-Assed

For those of you that know me well,  you can hear me singing "Dominick the Donkey!" HEE HAW! If you don't know that song, you really need to look it up:  Dominick the Donkey

I said it. I never was allowed to say these things when I grew up. There were two phrases that my grandma used, but we could not whisper them.  First there was the smart ass.  And that smart ass probably got in trouble for doing something half-assed (the other word I dare not whisper.) I never understood what those phrases had to do with anything. I didn't really think about it until I used that word today. So silly me… I went to wiki-pedia.  I didn’t want to just assume. Assuming leads me to the same common denominator.  So, I looked up smart-ass. To my surprise I was informed that a donkey is a donkey. A smart donkey. A dumb donkey. It is all just a donkey. 

This is Wikipedias Smart-Ass, I couldn't find a half.

Then you have the half-assed. I have to admit. I typed it into google. I just wanted to know. Wikipedia was no help to me when I tried to look up the half-assed definition.  So here is what I found:

half-assed; half-arsed adjective 1 inferior, unsatisfactory, incompetent US, 1865. 2 incomplete, not serious, half-hearted US, 1933 -        A SPECIAL thank you to the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang.

Did you know that this phrase appears in a general court martial dating back to 1863? I didn’t either. Now we can be smarter together! 

There is really a game guys!
I think I may need to find it!

So here is the deal. How are you living? Are you full-heartedly committed to doing things in life? Or are you just half-assing it? (Side Note: I would really like to use a term whole-assed too, but it just doesn’t sound right!)

At work? At home? On the mission field?

Sometimes, what a person means to be as help, isn’t really helping me. Can you relate?

I really needed to get some work done. So Mr. Wonderful stayed home to help with the kids. However, staying home  meant asking me to back up his phone. Making food because someone was hungry. Him taking the kids outside to play and after two minutes calling me to come get the baby. After five minutes calling for me because Jayden was thirsty. Twenty minutes later finding that the baby I had recently walked inside had a diaper that was soaked with water and exploded all over the floor that I got up early to clean. Help? Did you say help? It would be easier for me to lock them in their rooms so they can play and so I can focus! But… He tried to help! I recognize the effort orrrr lack there of. His help was not the kind of help that I was desperately seeking in the moment.

At work? What did you only spend half the time doing because you were too busy on Facebook? Everyday I have staff members that I have literally been requesting things from since October not hand in the completed project, but by golly there are ten new posts on Facebook and a hundred new pictures being sent to all of the gringos that come to visit. Where are the reports? Why were the forms not filled out properly for the government? Why did you not make that meeting? Did you forget you were supposed to be working?  Why didn't the guys have the materials on time so they could work? And that leads me to this... How did you let your company down today? Are you reading this when you should be working? Please, don't let me be your distraction. My tangents can wait until your break.

This happens on the mission field. If you want to know the honest truth, ask the missionary that you support to tell you.  We all talk about it when you all go home. Short term groups are known for coming in, blowing up, and taking off. Are they beneficial? YES! Do we love to host them? YES!!! But do they many times create more work and cause more damage? YES!!!!!!! Could they improve their actions and accomplish more thus providing more support to the missionary? YES!!!!!!!!!!! Just ask us how!

Short termers come in and throw around money to staff and/or the people receiving the ministry causing the people supported by the ministry to get delusional thinking every American has the money and I should be paying them more and they immediately forget every blessing received by the ministry up until this point. The new car. The $1,500 for the surgery. The old car repairs. The no living expenses all free living plus an income. Yea... All of that! It gets forgotten. Like it never happened.

Teams are known for bringing down limited budgets to work with and maybe not being able to have the funding or time to complete a task, but they attempt it anyway. Leaving messes for the people on the ground to clean up. Starting projects with outsiders that then look to the on the ground people to follow through when maybe we had no clue there was even a contract.  Or sending and supporting a family that is in need, but privately we (the on the grounders) know the true need is because of their own foolish ways of not picking up the fishing pole to fish so we (the on the grounders) have moved our resources to an area that is known to have more fertile soil. This isn't to be mean. Missionaries are not picky or selfish people. We are the ones that really will go hungry to make sure the needy are fed. We see the real need behind the smoke screens that the homeless kid on the corner begging is showing you. (His mom is sitting there behind him in the parking lot or maybe that little boy just ran away from another orphanage and is begging just so he can feed his drug addiction.) 

Sometimes, I think it is because as humans we don’t have respect for what is going on behind the scenes. Sometimes… It is because deep deep down we don’t truly consider anybody else, but ourselves.  Did you give because you have a heart that is desiring to meet the need or was it to make yourself feel good and ease your conscience? Not that both are not desired.  We need both types of givers. 

Do you know how much a ministry, any ministry would thrive if more than 20% of the givers actually cared about the true needs and tried to meet them? Have you asked your pastor what your church NEEDS and rallied behind him to help accomplish it? I am mean really hear the desires in your core and ask to better understand so you can be a bigger part and meet the larger need! Not the silly, quick, easy, superficial so I can pat myself on the back for helping need. I mean the one that aches you to finish and that is a real sacrifice for you to make because just like you there are a thousand others that kind of want to help if they don't have to sweat or bleed. How would your own church grow if more than 20% of the congregation started to give back with their time and resources? How would your business and workplace blossom if more than 20% of the staff gave 100% of an effort every day?  This is a hard thing to ask, but how would your own family be affected if when you came home at the end of a long day and actually connected with them for more than just fifteen minutes before bed? And what about a day of no tv? WAIT!!! That means no news!

What if every church member cared as much for the church as the head pastor? What if every employee cared as much about the business and its customers as the business owner? And what if every member of the family cared as much about how clean the house stays as the one that cleaned it?

It is hard for me to turn off my phone and email.  Guess what I do when I can’t sleep? Guess what I do when I am stressed and want to disconnect? What is right beside me as I make dinner?  Technology has ruined us in many ways. There are great benefits to being able to live around the world and in seconds receive a picture of a loved one or even video chat. There are also great threats to our success as a human race; as a parent, a spouse, a minister, an employee, or boss. 

I know this isn't for everybody. Many of you are way better than me. And I recognize that many of you are putting in way more effort than I will ever see. You are not the majority!

Bottom Line: I don't want to give a kid with a desire to be a butcher a spoon. I want to find him a sharp knife so he can get started and begin to practice. I don't want to give an aspiring chef an additional plastic bowl to boil soup in... The plastic bowl, he already has one. What he needs is a stock pot. Did you ask what he needed? Do you care about meeting the need, or are you just excited to give something away?

I don’t want to be an ass.  I want everything I do to be whole hearted and with excellence! Don't you agree?