2020 03 31 Coffee with Chris Dealing with Disappointment

In this video, Chris discusses the challenges of shifting gears and mindset during the current situation of working, eating, and relaxing in the same space due to physical distancing. He talks about dealing with disappointments and highlights the blessings we have, such as homes, food, jobs, and technology. Chris encourages viewers to take advantage of the extra time from not commuting to spend more time with the Lord and prioritize Him. He also suggests spending more time reading instead of being on the computer. Chris reminds us of the importance of making the most of our time and offers his prayers and support. Good morning and welcome to Coffee with Chris. I've got some homemade coffee for today, as I'm sure most of us are drinking at this point, and I finally managed to make good instant coffee. You may notice that I've dressed up a little more today. I didn't do this for the video, but you know I find that normally one of the things that that helps me switch gears. I'm a person who tends to stick in one gear, you know what I mean? And then I have to shift my my mindset into a new gear, you know? And normally when I'm in two different places to work and to for recreational time, that helps me switch gears from, okay now I'm doing and now I can relax. When I'm working and eating and sleeping and having my recreational time all in the same space, thanks to physical distancing, sometimes it can be hard to shift my mindset from one of those things to the other thing. Whether it's, you know, getting up in the morning or whether it's getting out of the work zone frame of mind afterward and getting into a relaxing frame of mind afterward. So one thing that I'm trying to be helpful is be really business-stressed for work time and then I can go super casual afterward to help my mind switch tracks. Today I wanted to talk to you about dealing with disappointment. You know, during this time we're all dealing with disappointments. Disappointments that we can't see friends or family, that our favorite sports league, you know, they've canceled for the season. Struggling to find ways to enter into corporate worship together or, you know, speaking on a personal note, Hannah and I are watching the news updates pretty closely, trying to listen for those updates to see whether or not that's going to potentially affect or delay our own wedding. So this is hitting us all in a very personal way and there's lots of disappointments to deal with. There are so many frustrations and disappointments that we face even outside of this current crisis. You know, disappointments can come though when we focus on what we don't have but wish we did instead of what we have. You know, what do we have? The fact we have homes to self-isolate in, that's a major blessing that not everyone has. And the fact that we have food, for many of us we also have jobs that can be done from home to some degree or capacity. And the fact that we have technology to stay in touch, technology that I can give this message to you right now, those are huge things. No, but most of all the Lord is with us and we can be thankful for that. You know, have you been telling yourself before all of this started that you wish you could get closer to the Lord and spend more time, you know, reading the Word, reading the Bible, just praying, but you just didn't have the time. There was just too much going on and as soon as you got over this busy spot in your schedule, that's when you'd finally be able to have that time to really spend that time with the Lord. But that that never seems to come, you know. Now we have an opportunity where we are at home, you know. You think about, sure, you know, a lot of us still have got to work from home and everything like that and our hours have not changed in that light. For some of us there might be even additional tasks as a result, but think about your commute time is gone, right? You've got extra time in the morning because you don't have to drive to work, extra time in the evening because you don't have to drive back home. Why not consider instead of sleeping in a little later where you would normally have that commute time, why not consider getting up and spending that time with the Lord, you know. You know, I speak to myself when I say this too, you know, I have to admit the temptation to sleep in a little longer or watching a little more Netflix than I normally would is there. And, you know, it's not wrong to get a little extra sleep, to have a little more recreation time. Nothing wrong with that. But first and foremost, God must be our priority. The Lord is going to set the tone for our day. What we do with this spare time shows what's really a priority to us and what matters to us, you know. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad because I said, like I say, I'm speaking to myself as well. But what we use this time is going to make all the difference for us, you know. You know, I was thinking about the other day too. I want to spend more time reading instead of on my computer. I'm working on my computer. Those of us who don't even work normally on a computer for our jobs are having to work on our computer for our jobs right now. So why not spend some more recreational time reading versus watching? Um, you know, again, I'm not knocking any of those things, but we've got to think about how we use this time. I'm often reminded of how fleeting our life is. The time that we have, we can only get it once. And so we got to make this time count. Anyways, I'm praying for you guys. We're in this together. Take some time with the Lord today. God bless.