Darryn's Blog

24 Hours Without Whining?

“Starting today, go 24 hours without saying anything negative, anything dishonest. No complaining, no whining, no gossip, no excuses, no minimization, no rationalization, no denial, no defensiveness, no blaming. Don’t pass judgment. This includes body language: no eye rolling, no sighs of exasperation, no cold shoulders, no clucking of the tongue. For 24 hours, assume the world can exist without you correcting everybody and managing the flow of information.”
—Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

The Ministry of Fishing and Listening

Randy McFarland is an active follower of Jesus Christ and member of Heartland Church. He is also a Fishers Police Officer assigned to Hamilton Southeastern Schools. Several years ago, he had a God-inspired idea that at-risk young men need to have positive experiences with law enforcement officers, and not just be seen as disciplinarians.

On June 25th, the Indianapolis Star devoted a front-page story in the Fishers section to cover the impact he is making. Here's a great quote Randy made in the article.

"I am a Christian who also happens to be a police officer," he said. "No matter how reticent a child might be at first," McFarland said, "they always open up, at least a little."

Randy's life demonstrates a key value we hold that we're all called us to be ministers of Jesus Christ through our domain in society. Real ministry is simple meeting needs with love.

A LITTLE LISTENING CAN HELP
Program is about more than fishing
By John Tuohy
Posted: The Indianapolis Star, June 25, 2008

Randy McFarland's a cop, so he'll leave it to the academics to study why youths get into trouble or lack guidance.

But McFarland has a gut feeling about what to do with those kids. Sometimes, it's as simple as putting a fishing pole in their hand and listening to them, he said.

Read the whole article here.

"Spending on Happiness" by Harvard

Can money buy you happiness? Yes—so long as you spend the money on someone else. According to new research published in the Harvard Business Review this month, giving other people even as little as $5 can lead to increased well-being for the giver. Read the full article here.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"One of the most puzzling paradoxes in social science is that though people spend so much of their time trying to make more money, having more money doesn't seem to make them that much happier."

"We found that it was the relative percentage of their money that people spend on others—rather than the absolute amount—that predicted their happiness."

"... many companies donate a lump sum to charities each year. Our research suggests that companies might think about splitting that money up among their employees and empowering them to choose the recipient of those donations. We refer to such initiatives as creating a "prosocial workplace," which we believe has benefits both for companies, in the form of happier employees, and for society, through increases in charitable giving."

In February 2007, we did a "reverse offering" at Heartland. We gave everyone an envelope with a random amount of cash in it. We said, "this is God's money ... go distribute it!" We gave out about $5,000, but with ingenuity and creativity, from the reports we received back, we estimate that over $85,000 was given away! It was one of the most fun and exciting things we ever did.