I GET TO vs I have to

I get to vs I have to

Week eight has us smack dab in the middle of all the things that I care for very little. Fussy, time consuming tasks that can leave me feeling rather unproductive. One day after school I spent the entire evening sitting on a stool wiring light switches. In case you were wondering, there are 26 light switches in the house. 5 hours, 26 switches equals 5-ish switches an hour or 1 switch every 20 minutes. Not to brag, but that 20 minutes included installing the switch cover. (please hold your applause to the end).

It’s all necessary but when I walked out of the house at 9:30 that night it didn’t look any different. I like BIG WORK, impactful stuff, make ya turn your head when you drive by kinda stuff. Somehow light switches fail to make that list for me. No worries though, I find myself bribing myself as I work through the list of non-flashy essential tasks. It goes something like “ Hey buddy, as soon as you get this ceiling fan installed, you can go see how Elton is doing with the footings for the big house.”

I see it as what I HAVE to do before I can do what I WANT to do. Therein lies the root of my discontent. I’m placing negative values on things before I even start. Instead of HAVE TO (negative outlook) and WANT TO (not present, looking past the moment) I”ve landed on GET TO. I get to wire switches and next week I’ll get to tile the shower and soon I’ll get to live in the house we built in 90 days.

This became very clear to me on Wednesday when Becky and I attended a funeral. The thing that struck me was that a family member of the deceased wasn’t able to attend the service because he is at MAYO clinic receiving treatment for stage 4 lung cancer but he sent a note with his wife to be read on his behalf. In it he wrote “Please consider how lucky you are to be at the service today.” He continued, “As sad as this day is, I would give anything to be there”. His wife explained how he sees every day in terms of “I GET TO”. I get to have radiation treatments, I get to undergo chemotherapy or even as simple as I get to wake up today. All with the hope that he will get to come home. Talk about perspective.

Everyday is a GET TO!!! No matter how tedious the task, I get to do it. I get to do dishes, I get to pay bills and yes, I get to wire light switches.