Intro: Alright, we are going to be adding something to the podcast. And that is every Wednesday we’re going to be putting out a Three Minute Thought. Something short and sweet and something for you to focus on. Let’s call it a midweek reminder of an area that you can lean into for the remainder of the week and even into the weekend. So the three minute thought is going to come out every Wednesday morning and this is the very first one.
00:38 Alright. Today’s three minute thought is going to be around community. We’re going to do three quick little points on something I’d love to challenge you on for the rest of this week and let’s say into the weekend. And that is to do something intentional, something uncomfortable, and something inconvenient. If you do those three things related to your community, and you might be saying, “Josh, well I don’t know about you, but we’re still in social distancing and we can’t exactly do what we used to do.” Don’t use that as an excuse. Use this as an opportunity to do something that is out of your norm as in uncomfortable to lean into building relationships. I’ll give you a really practical one of something that’s intentional and it can also be uncomfortable. My younger brother has been doing these weekly challenges and they’ve been challenging me.
01:35 It could be something as simple as running so many miles, reading so many chapters in a book, and doing something that you haven’t done before, cooking a meal you haven’t done before and he’s sending those out to a group of people. And it is building community remotely, whether that is locally in the city that he’s in or- you know, we’re in completely different States and it’s still deepening our relationship because we’re challenging one another encouraging one another, celebrating one another. And that’s just one practical example of something that you can do that is out of your norm that is intentional, that is leaning into building community. It doesn’t have to be that. It could be, “you know what, I am going to reach out to one guy that I haven’t talked to in more than six months and connect with them on FaceTime or zoom or Skype or Google hangout, whatever it may be.”
02:29 Just something, something that is intentional as in “I’m going to not just wait for life to come to me, but I’m going to be proactive and lean into it.” Something that is uncomfortable as in “this is not my go to. This is not something that I would normally do.” And then something inconvenient. You know? I always say that if all of your relationships are convenient, then I would question how deep your relationships are. Because they’re going be times where you are going to be needing something from people, whether you’re in the process of grief or going through a separation or a business failed or whatever it may be, where you need more from your community and there’s going to be times where you can give more to your community. So in the sense of doing something that is inconvenient, it could be, “You know what, I’m going to make a meal for X, Y, or Z, and I’m actually going to bring it over to them and drop it off on their doorstep.” If you don’t want to interact with them because of social distancing or whatever it may be. That in and of itself is inconvenient for you to think of the meal. Think of the person, make the meal, package it, drive it over to your friend’s house, et cetera. But it is deepening and strengthening relationship in your community. So for this week, the three minute thought is, “What are you doing that is inconvenient, that is uncomfortable, and that is intentional related to you building community?”
