Saturday, August 11, 2007

What is your quest?

Now every time I look at a bottle of shampoo, I am going to think about by impending demise.

Last night I was talking with some friends about favorite movies. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" came up. We started talking about the "bridge of death" in the movie and the bridge keeper's three questions.

"What is your name?"
"What is your quest?"
"What is your favorite color?"
or the third question might be:
"What is the airspeed of a swallow?"

Someone turned the conversation serious and asked the question for real, "what is your quest?"

So there it is. Pause, stop, think for a moment. What are you about? Can you answer the question in one sentence? Two? Three? For some reason I want to spend some time thinking about the question before I answer.

But for today, here goes.
I go back to the shampoo bottle. I don't know how many more shampoo bottles I will get to use in my lifetime. I don't know how many days I have left. But I want to make every single day count. That is my quest. To be awake and aware every moment. To do my best for my family, for the church, for God and for every one of you.

To be "on" as much as possible. To do my very best as much as is possible. To apply myself to excellence.

This is one of my favorite quotes, attributed to Pat Riley, NBA coach.

"Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better."

What is your name?
What is your quest?

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

2 comments:

Song of Deborah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Song of Deborah said...

1. My name is Deb Spaulding.

2. My quest is to finish the race set before me and enter into my Father's house.

I've found a way to use less plastic shampoo bottles. I purchased a mega jar with a pump from my hairdresser, so I can refill it whenever I run out of shampoo. Just so you know, I use more shampoo than you do, since I have a lot more hair than you do.

It's a good thing the value of our life's work is not based upon how many shampoo bottles we empty. Hmmm. But this is certainly food for thought.

Thank you pastor! Your daily devotional messages rock!

Deb Spaulding
Faith UMC - St. Charles, MO
www.songofdeborah.com