This is Wikipedia's description of this book, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
Outliers: The Story of Success is a non-fiction book written by Malcolm Gladwell and published by Little, Brown and Company on November 18, 2008. In Outliers, Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success. To support his thesis, he examines the causes of why the majority of Canadian ice hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year, how Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates achieved his extreme wealth, how The Beatles became one of the most successful musical acts in human history, how Joseph Flom built Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom into one of the most successful law firms in the world, how cultural differences play a large part in perceived intelligence and rational decision making, and how two people with exceptional intelligence, Christopher Langan and J. Robert Oppenheimer, end up with such vastly different fortunes. Throughout the publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.
This one principle, "Throughout the publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours," is the key that has unlocked my path and opened up my eyes.
Jumping to a few stories.
Story number one...I just read an article on CNN about why pastors and Christian leaders aren't talking about Heaven. To say I read it is actually an exaggeration. I skimmed it and by saying that that might even be an exaggeration. I read a few sentences here and there. Because my heart was full of my own thoughts and while I was interested to read the "whys" of others I really wanted to meditate on the heart beat of God concerning these things.
Story number two.. I was talking to a dear friend of mine. I love this person. But as this person began to share something the air changed. He was giving me counsel and it was biblical and true but he didn't believe it, himself. I could feel the lack of authority in the air and in the conversation. I wimped out and didn't say anything because I more wanted to process the reality of what had transpired versus anything else. I am planning on going back to this friend and chatting on these things sometime soon.
Story number three... I've gotten on Reddit. Now I admittedly have no idea of what I am doing. I have no idea about "karma points," or anything else of that matter... But I AM LOVING IT!!! I am loving the exposure to things that I WOULD NEVER NEVER be exposed to. From the craziest Youtube.com videos to people of all sorts of backgrounds. I'm looking to pop the religious Christian bubbles that surround my life and I feel touching Reddit is doing so.. It is also introducing me to conversations with really Conservative Christians which I have found just as fascinating as the conversations I have gotten into with liberal Buddhists. I'm loving it all.
Story number four... I love the church communities I belong to. But today I gave myself permission to stay home. I think my friends would be applauding my choice towards rest and solitude. OK in a house that is barely 1400 sq ft and full of 8 people the solitude that I probably need and what I probably got are two very different things. BUT in giving myself permission today to just sit and be I touched joy. Now of course I was watching Twitter and Facebook and smiling at all the great comments about my church families but I was doing so from my bedroom and I was glad.
SO.... How do I tie all four stories in with a book recommendation... Do you remember what sentence of the description I expressed as having rocked my world and changed my life?
"Throughout the publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours."
I remember sitting at another house we had lived in and sitting at my desk. Thinking 10,000 hours... What? What? What really do I or would I devote 10,000 hours to... and then I knew... I knew what it was for me and all that it was for me.... what field? What expertise? What task? What 10,000 hours?
I wanted to know God.
PERIOD!
I wanted to know God.
Spending 10,000 hours on Him would never be wasted... spending 10,000 hours on Him would be the journey of a lifetime....
Where was I born? Boston.. I could talk and talk and talk and talk and talk about Boston, about Massachusetts. I love Manhattan and I could talk and talk and talk and talk New York City. I have loved living in South Carolina but I haven't explored it as much as I wish, I could talk about strawberry season and the peaches and the small town aspect of Fort Mill.. But I COULDN'T run off at the mouth about it.. not really. I wouldn't consider myself an expert. I have loved living in South Carolina. BUT I LOVE NYC and Boston. I love the Patriots but route for the Yankees. I could talk and talk and talk about those places until I was blue in the face.
What place do I love more than anything?
HEAVEN.
I will come back here but I want to go one step further before doing so.. One of my more recent prayer focuses have been this or something like it... I don't worship a stone, a statue, a tree... I don't worship an image... I don't worship a god who is impotent or unable to save... I don't beg an object to arise and move on my behalf.. I celebrate, worship, serve, lay my life down for, love, am passionate about a living.. A LIVING GOD!
He is alive....
What place do I love more than anything? HEAVEN.... WHOM do I love more than anything? HIM
I want to know God as He is .. not as I or theologians would make Him. Not as wiser more learned men and women would tell me... not as books could describe.... Not in pride nor in any way that makes me pompous or elite... But I want.. NO I NEED to know Him... Know Him for myself.. and know Him from the source .. from Him.....
Having said that I have surrounded myself with amazing men and women, theologians and friends. I am not looking to drink Kool Aid of any kind.... and I don't want to go off track.. BUT I WANT TO TALK IN CONFIDENCE ABOUT MY GOD AND ABOUT THE PLACE FROM WHERE MY CITIZENSHIP COMES FORTH FROM.
I don't want to be like the scribes who when compared to Jesus had no weight or authority to their teachings...
I don't want to be lumped together with 10,000 teachers .. I want to be a mother...
I want to stand like Jesus and say the ruler of this world comes but he has nothing in me...
I want to know the sounds and sights and sensations of Heaven.. my citizenship originates from them.. I am a representing ambassador... One would think I could and should speak confidently of that place....
SO 10,000 to know Him..... and then when they are done.. 10,000 hours more... and then when they are done another 10,000 hours... 10 years... 10 years.. and 10 years.. 10,000 hours until the day when hours and minutes are no longer counted as we know them to be....
I want to know Him... I want to know what makes His heart beat.. what makes His heart break... what Jesus prays about as He makes intercession to the Father... I want to know Him as He is.... He is living.. He is that He is that HE is... and He is knowable....
Touching Heaven.. touching Him.... isn't locking myself into a convent and shutting out all other doors.. almost the exact opposite.... more people... more experiences... learning to see His beauty in the petals of a flower, in the faces of my children, in the sounds of the birds, in the thoughts of a preacher... in the face of the cashier at Wal-Mart... in the eyes of the stranger.. in the embrace of my husband....
I started the 10,000 hours and pursuit of knowing Him.. with the thought of if I believe then I really going to believe and it is going to change my life.... it has and it is .. and I am astounded at what knowing Him and touching Heaven is doing for all that I am.....
He is beautiful and powerful and awesome and gentle and compassionate and kind... He is kingly and yet He is funny and joyful and full of a love that startles me time and time again. He is the best thing I could spend 10,000 hours on getting to know... He ravishes my soul and He Fathers me.. He is that He is.. and I am more thoroughly the me I was always meant to be as the hours tick away....
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