It seems so much has happened to me in the last few months, sabbatical completed, new job started, saying goodbye to people who have become like family and then the completion of the marathon. I can hardly believe that I typed that, I can hardly believe that I did actually completed it.
The thing that has got me thinking the most is what my mother said when we got to the end, I can't remember exactly but it was, something along the lines of 'we were really worried about you, we didn't want you to overdo it'. This is, of course, an appropriate thing to say, it was said because I am her son, she loves me and doesn't want anything bad to happen to me. My response was immediate and perhaps a little sharp, something along the lines of 'mum I see so many people "under-doing" their lives, I would rather overdo do things than take life easier'. I guess ultimately that comment and my approach is one borne from a belief that we all have so much unlocked potential and the person holding the key is invariably us. Of course we are all different and we will not all be able to do what everyone else can do, Mo Farrow runs more than twice the speed that I do and no matter how I try, unless I use a motorbike, I will never be able to go as fast as him. But maybe I can run as fast as me.
I have now started at Cranbrook and am delighted to be able to play a role in the life of the church, I have been leading collective worship (assemblies), helping with reading, RE and maths(!) and even learnt some nursery rhymes on my guitar to teach to the little ones. It has been an eye-opener and a joy. The school has at its heart a phrase that I hear daily 'be the best you can be', this can be used to affirm those who try really hard within a variety of achievements, it can also be used to those whose behaviour or attitude is not what it could be. What I particularly like about it is that each child does not have to compare themselves with another to judge success or failure, it is about applying themselves to what they are doing and doing their very best. Best of all the children respond well by trying harder and coping when things don't go how they want them.
So I think that I am a committed 'over-doer', I want and probably always have wanted to be 'the best that I can be'. As a Christian that means I am a follower of Jesus, a man who lived an amazing, forgiving and dare I say 'perfect' life. Me trying to be like that can only end in failure just as I will never run like Mo Farrow. Yet in Jesus I see a man who was the best that he could be. Maybe that is how I should live my life, not to be like Jesus in what he did but how he lived; and to take the God given me and make the best of it. And if that means I 'Over-do' things then I guess that is just the way it is.
