Mark Watson

While traveling back and forth to upstate NY for the past six months, I’ve had an unbelievable amount of time to read.  Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom was my latest airline read.

First I have to tell you that I love Mitch Albom books.  I have read three of his previous books, For One More Day, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and Tuesdays with Morrie.  When I start reading one of his books, I feel like I’m with him.  I feel as if I’m experiencing and seeing exactly what he is seeing as he tells his stories.

In Have a Little Faith, he tells a beautiful story about his interaction with two very different men.  The first, a childhood Rabbi that was given only a limited time to live and has asked Mitch to speak at his funeral.  The second, a black ex-con and former drug addict struggling to feed and clothe the members of his inner city church in Detroit.  It is through the influence of these two very different men, that Mitch finds his faith.

If you ever have doubts and struggle with your faith, this is a must read.  If you are like me, I can identify with Mitch’s story on so many levels.

One of the nuggets in the book are the Reb’s (Rabbi’s nickname) sermon notes from 1975.  The end of the sermon has the following quote:  “My friends, if we tend to the things that are important in life, if we ae right with those we love and behave in line with our faith, our lives will not be cursed with the aching throb of unfulfilled business. . . . we can sleep in a storm.”

Read the book.  And Have a Little Faith.

I was chatting on Twitter with a good friend who lives in Florida this week when he used the term “A mile wide and an inch deep” to describe a situation we were talking about.  The phrase stuck with me throughout the weekend.

The Urban Dictionary defines the phrase A Mile Wide and an Inch Deep this way:  Impressive at first but with experience, found to be stupid or unimaginative.  A pretty good interpretation, if I do say so myself.

We see this in people, relationships, organizations, businesses, churches, and governments.  It usually happens when we work on appearance or self promotion more than internal growth and depth that we become this way.  Or, it could be we totally lack mission or committment.  Either way we are hollow eggs.  Once cracked – nothing comes out.

If you want to read something really awakening, look at the article from Daylight Atheism about Christianity in this country today.  They use the same term, a mile wide and an inch deep, when referring to Christianity in this country.

How are you growing deeper and not just more wide?

I was supposed to be able to spend this past week at home to catch up on work and a little R&R .  I was able to catch up on some work but the R&R, well, it didn’t happen.

Last Sunday was Jared’s graduation from the University of Memphis.  After graduation we took him and his friend Kate to Boscos for a late lunch only to figure out that Boscos had no clue how to serve people after 2:00 PM.  So in Mark Watson fashion, we left and I reminded them on the way out that all they really sell is service, of which they had none.  We went on down the road to Houston’s who is all about service.  They were covered up at 2:00 PM but seemed to enjoy five more patrons.

The rest of the week was spent on conference calls and trekking back and forth to my other facility in Batesville, Mississippi.  Long days and short nights.

I thought Saturday was shaping up to be a great day with perfect weather only to receive a call about 3:00 PM that Tate was being transported by ambulance from Lifetime Fitness to Collierville Baptist Hospital.  He went swimming with a friend and bumped his head on the slide and “knocked” himself out.

Everything turned out OK.  We were fortunate to meet the remaining Fire and Rescue team of both Germantown and Collierville (we know them all because of Tate).  He was released and came home in wet bathing suit, hospital gown, and skid resistant socks!

Next week in upstate New York is sounding better all the time!