Have you ever woken up out of a dream with an amazing idea, written it down, gone back to sleep, and come back later to find that what you wrote down was not only less-than-amazing, but it was actually complete nonsense?
I have.
Often.
But what I’m about to share with you is not one of those moments.
Today, I happened to be going through my Evernote and I found a short note I had written down and completely forgotten about. (I don’t usually sleep with an actual notebook beside my bed, but my phone is always nearby – so Evernote it is!) The note recounted a dream where a friend of mine was talking to a group of us about this idea of a “tour de day.” It’s actually brilliant, so I’m going to share!
(Also, I texted the friend to ask if he really did coin that phrase, and he had never heard of it. So we’re safe! No infringement on intellectual property here, folks!)
Many of you may have heard the term “tour de force” before. If that doesn’t ring a bell, a tour de force is what you call an impressive achievement, a masterpiece. Well, don’t we want to do our best to make every day a tour de force? Don’t we want to maximize every opportunity, live life to the fullest, and make the most of every day that’s given to us? Of course we do! Nobody likes feeling like they’re wasting their life away. So, how do we do that?
I’m glad you asked, because that’s just what dream-Kris (actually, my friend dream-Noah, to be fair) told us! Now, granted, this isn’t some kind of “do this and find eternal happiness!” mantra. But I really do think it’s brilliant. Here’s an almost direct copy/paste from my notebook, and I hope you find it as useful as I do:
Man actually needs his mind to be more at peace during the busyness of the week. If you want to make the most of your day – tour de day – you have to feed yourself during your times of rest so that you are ready to act when the moment calls for it. Be in action during your rest so that you can be at rest while in action.
Come on! Who dreams that up?! But isn’t it actually kind of brilliant? When you have a day full of wake the kids up, get them to school, go to work (and all that “work” entails), pick the kids up, make dinner, clean the house, help kids with homework, baths, story time, bed time (this is my wife’s day by the way – mine is way easier), plus whatever else gets added along the way, it’s easy to want to just come home, sit down, watch Netflix, and relax! And, to be fair, relaxation isn’t a bad thing. God made the sabbath a commandment – we need rest! But if we never use any of our “down time” for growing and learning and preparing our hearts and our spirits for the things we really want to do with our life, then will we ever really be prepared to do anything with our life?
Most of us don’t want to be caught up in the rat race. We want our lives to have meaning and fulfillment. Well, I think dream-Noah gave us a great bit of advice here! In times of rest, be filling your soul! Then, when life throws Hell at you – and you know it will – you’ll be ready because you have Heaven living deep inside you.
The Endeavor 