An Ideal Process Part II

The other piece of the ideal process is the act of working towards an end with the knowledge that the end we imagine may never come to be.  

For our frustrated families whose loved ones have yet to enter recovery, the only end in mind is a sober loved one, living a happy and productive life, making lots of money, having a family, etc. etc.  Obviously I’m generalizing our hopes a little bit here.  What I mean is, dedicating ourselves to a process of recovery living seems worth it if we’re promised the end we want.  

Our achievement-oriented mindsets convince us that a certain series of tasks must be “worth it,” they must be “effective,” or “productive” in order to undertake them.  What happens if we dedicate ourselves to recovery-living and we do not get the desired outcome?  It doesn't seem worth the effort.  

I can't help but ask:  Should we only pursue these efforts if we feel that our desired end is likely (or probable)?  

I’ll unpack this further tomorrow.

An Ideal Process Part I

One piece of an ideal process is diligence, or what I called yesterday, wholeheartedness.  It means we are dedicated and attentive to our process.  We take the process seriously because, as Colossians reminded us, faithful people take all aspects of life seriously.  We invest all the effort or energy we have on hand (for that particular area of our lives) in the process itself.  At a given moment in time, we only posses a finite amount of time, energy, and resources to throw at a particular process, but we invest what we have.  We give to the process what we have to give and we do it consciously.  That is diligence.

Footnote:  If you're wondering at this point, "What am I in process of doing?" Then that's a fair question.  Hang with me on that.  The short answer is:  everything.  Until we unpack further, here's a few examples:  If you work, you are in the process of becoming an employee (even if you are already working and being paid).  If you have children, you are in the process of becoming a parent (even if you are already parenting).  If you are in recovery, you are in the process of recovery (even if you are already sober).  We are all always in process of becoming different versions of ourselves in each of our roles. 

What is "Process"?

Whatever you do, do it from the heart for the Lord and not for people.  Colossians 3:23, CEB

A dictionary would suggest process is the act of working towards a particular end.  

Let's add some of our own NSC flare.  We do not want to speak of process only in terms of what it is, but how we approach it as faithful people in recovery.  My assumption here is that there is something profoundly spiritual about wholeheartedly committing ourselves to whatever we do- even if the task at hand seems particularly banal and insignificant.  This is the essence of, “…[practicing] these principles in all of our affairs."  And so, feeling bold, I'll suggest that faith calls us to approach process, in life, in a specific way.  I believe (tentatively) that there is an "ideal" approach to process (not that we're here to judge the ways in which we fall short of this ideal- because we're not).  

Over the next couple of days I'll explore a couple of key factors that go into an "ideal" process.   

The Means are the Ends

To say we’re a goal-oriented society is a massive understatement.  Goals are good, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with setting and working towards goals.  However, it is possible to become too goal-oriented.  Not only are we a goal-oriented society but we are an achievement-oriented society.  In fact, we’re more or less taught that goals are only goals if they have something to do with productivity and achievement.  They must be measurable or they are not goals.  Further, success and the appearance of success represent the highest form of status.  The ends justify the means, so the saying goes.  This is just another way of saying that the means don’t matter.  We’ve taken this to the extreme.  

It comes as no surprise then that families want to know, first and foremost, how do I get my loved one sober?  It’s an honest question, I get it, but it isn’t necessarily realistic.  In my role as a sort of “guide,” I can’t answer that question.  I can only answer the question, “Where do we begin?”  

Once we (as a society) mix our results-obsession with our increasingly short attention spans and decreasing patience for delayed gratification we end up with a large group of people who are overly attentive to the “ends” of things and rather neglectful about the means through which we arrive at them.  In other words, we pay attention to results and overlook the profound spiritual depth of process.

What do I mean when I say "process"?  

Check back tomorrow.

Learning to prepare for uncertainty

It seems to me that, in this day and age, in our culture, people only become willing to address problems when a particular problem builds to the level of “crisis.”  I do not know why this is the case, other than the obvious explanation of convenience.  It’s simply inconvenient to be proactive about something that isn’t yet a /big/ problem.  Because I do not know exactly why this happens I also cannot make recommendations about how one changes this habit but, in spite of that, I do want to argue the importance of learning to prepare.  

It's impossible to prepare for all possible circumstances that may come our way.  It may even be impossible to prepare for circumstances that seem likely to come our way.  I do believe, though, that in some small, humble ways we can learn to view life itself as preparation for the unpredictable and the unknowable.  As we spend a few days talking about the importance of becoming process-oriented, I'd like us to begin to see preparation as a result in and of itself, rather than something we do only in order to achieve a result.