A couple years ago, I finished a task that I started at least a decade earlier. I finished writing a book. It is not like a novel or anything. It is more a devotional/testimonial/tutorial book filled with Life Lessons that God has taught me. It is called, Life: A glimpse from God. It is basically filled with tools that God has showed me to help cope with life and its ups and downs.

I will not bore you with the full chapter, but one of those lessons is called a Table and Shelves.

God has wired me very strangely. I am one who thrives on doing lots of things. If you knew our business structure, you would see that we are very diverse in our involvements. This has the potential to allow one to become overwhelmed.

Through lots of different avenues, God has taught me the lesson of Table and Shelves to deal with the organized chaos.

Each of us have before us a table and behind us a lot of shelves. On the table in front of us is everything in our lives. Family, friends, church, work, tasks, hobbies, etc...It is easy to become depressed, discouraged, etc. when the table is heaped so high that you cannot see over it.

The whole teaching of table and shelves is the fact that there are shelves. I needed to learn to put everything on a shelf behind me and only allow my mind to focus on one thing at hand. I may move 50 things back an forth in one hour but still, I needed to focus on only one. My wife hates this phrase, but it is what has and will keep me going...'Chip away'. It is similar to 'baby step' in the movie, "What about Bob?"

The only other huge part of this is the fact of who is standing beside me behind the table. It is Jesus. It is through His Holy Spirit that all functionality happens. He is the teacher, the counselor, the all knowing. The proverb that goes so well is, "in a man's heart he plans his course, but it is the Lord who directs his steps."

Well, I will stop there. Hope this helps.

Chris