So now that I’ve decided that simply being hungry for something is not enough, and that I also need to live life with excitement, anticipation and expectation, I have a challenge: I don’t excite easily.
There are plenty of things I enjoy, or even love, but few excite me. I enjoy steak and potatoes, but they don’t excite me—in fact, answering the question “what do you want for dinner?” is a chore. I love baseball, but I don’t dream about going to games. I really appreciate being able to drive places when I need to, but honestly, most cars look the same to me and I couldn’t answer you if you asked which was my favorite.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I absolutely love my life, my family, and everything about it. I am excited for where we are now and where we are going. I am excited for the deepening walk I have with God. I am excited for the future of our business. I am excited to see the adults that my kids grow up to be. When I say I don’t excite easily, I’m talking about the smaller things in life—those steaks and potatoes, the baseball games, or the type of car I want to drive.
To make things more complicated, even when I am excited about something, you might not be able to tell by my expression and body language. I have to intentionally remember to smile in situations where others smile involuntarily. Kelly and her friends even tease that they can’t tell the difference between my “mad face” and my “happy face”.
My ability to disconnect my emotion from my expression comes in handy in stressful work situations, and it definitely fits well with my dry sense of humor. I don’t want to lose that, but I also don’t want to be a robot all the time.
Kelly doesn’t have this problem. At all. In a funny coincidence, this morning I opened the Bible and flipped around until I randomly landed at Psalm 47. I read the first sentence, then told Kelly, “This verse was written for you.”
Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
So I guess I have two challenges this year: be excited and act excited. Honestly, this is unnatural for me and it is going to take a lot of effort. But this is me committing publicly to be better at this by the end of 2020. This is me declaring that Psalm 47:1 was written for me, too.
Hold me to it.
This post is part of the Januwordy 2020 challenge. Today’s prompt is “challenge”.