Stop Expecting So Much, Enjoy the Skosh
I am a visionary. I don’t know why; I suppose God made me that way, since I’ve seen big things happen before they do, as long as I can remember. Seeing the future was an asset when I was leading a church. But it was, and is, sometimes a recipe for discouragement.
Life is not made up mostly of “big” things. In fact, impressive experiences are the result of a mountain of little things. If you are repulsed or disheartened by “small,” you will suffer two consequences: 1.) you will rarely enjoy the big things, and 2.) you will allow your disdain to rob your everyday joy.
While researching this article, I came across a new word I want to add to my vocabulary: “skosh.” Skosh is a shortened form of the Japanese word “sukoshi,” meaning “small amount.” U.S. servicemen stationed in Japan after World War II picked up the word and shortened it.
Life is about a lot of skosh.
A great vacation starts with one dollar, one day of work, and one hour of planning, followed by days of long discussions and research, hours online, numerous phone calls, several loads of laundry, five repackings, and hours of frustration in airports. And that is just getting there!
Since there is so much skosh before you check in to the hotel and sit on the beach, we sometimes miss hours, or even days of enjoyment that took more time out of our lives than the vacation itself.
Pick just about any significant endeavor, something you see in your mind before it happens, and you can mess it up because you have learned to hate skosh
If you hate school, it’s much harder to get a significant degree.
If house shopping frustrates you, you’ll miss the fun of discovering what you really want and need.
If you dislike the daily grind of working towards a new job, you’ll have wasted a lot of days in discontent.
If celebrating a ten-year wedding anniversary means wading through more relational skosh than you ever imagined and are willing to face, you’ll never get there.
Skosh is present everywhere, all around, every day. It’s the stuff of life. If you don’t figure out how to enjoy it, you’re in for a lot of drudgery.
I’ve always loved to speak in public, particularly to teach and preach the Bible. But the hours of skosh spent doing research and writing, not so much. I went through periods when it felt like drudgery. Yet I’ve always loved to learn new things, and writing sermons is about gaining insight, inspiration, and knowledge about important matters.
So, I learned to reframe the difficult part of the process in my mind. “Hamilton, why would you dislike the very thing that produces the result you enjoy so much? Every time you produce a new sermon, you’ve learned something new, something interesting and important. And now you get to share it with the world.”
For instance, I learned this week that the Hebrew word Nehemiah used to tell the workers how to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem, a small mountain of skosh, is the same word God used to tell Joshua to be “strong and courageous” several times. In essence, He was saying, “Joshua, today and every day, you will face challenges and opposition. So strengthen yourself, shore yourself up, face the skosh with zeal and determination. Strengthen your spirit.”
And that is exactly what Josh did.
Nehemiah told the builders to take the pile of skosh at their front door and build a strong wall that will last. The result will be not only your physical defense but also restored integrity and pride.
The citizens of the Holy City followed his instructions and rebuilt the two-and-a-half-mile wall in fifty-two days. They waded through the skosh, and you can still stand on top of parts of that wall 2500 years later. Not bad for a pile of skosh.
For me, sermon preparation took a while, but I learned to enjoy the skosh, which meant I didn’t lose ten to fifteen hours of life each week just to enjoy forty minutes of presentation.
If you don’t teach yourself to enjoy the skosh, you’re facing a lot of wasted, joyless time.
It’s important to start with the end in mind, but if you don’t break it down to enjoy the days and hours, you’ll quit before you’re ever lying on a beach, holding a diploma, feeling the accomplishment of health from quality eating, walking a few miles without exhaustion, or reading the entire Book of Nehemiah!
Learning to enjoy at least most of the skosh means the difference between daily joy and slithering through life with a frown on your face.
I suggest you put a sign on your mirror, on your car’s dash, or in the corner of your computer screen – Enjoy the skosh!
Live Inspired!
Don Mark
By the way, if you want to hear the rest of what I learned about Nehemiah chapter three, you can watch me preach it at www.forkchristian.com this coming Sunday.
