Decrease the Suck. Increase the Awesome.*

Do you hate things that suck? Me too.

In fact I hate things that suck so much, that I can quickly compile a list without even trying:

• violence
• hatred
• malnutrition
• bigotry/racism/intolerance
• poverty
• selfishness/arrogance
• loneliness
• wastefulness
• anti-intellectualism
• legalism
• depression
• repression
• Wayans Brother’s movies

And that’s just a 30 second brainstorm. I assume that we can all agree that the above are terrible, no good, very bad things (if not, we probably shouldn’t hang out – it’s just better that way. I mean.. we can still be Facebook friends I guess…).

I want my life to be full of decreasing the things that suck; their veracity and their frequency. I want to be able to lay my head down at the end of a long day, and know that I made life suck less. And not even for myself. I mean, I know what sucks, I experience the Suck, but I am not bound to it. There are too many people driving cars right next to me, and checking out of the store on both sides of me who only know Suck. And you know what? That is just completely unacceptable.

I want to Increase the Awesome in life. I want people to experience:

• Joy
• Love
• Creativity
• Freedom
• Peace
• Restoration
• Renewal
• Laughter
• Healing
• Power
• Independence
• Learning
• LIFE

So, I slowly work to that end.

Some days, I don’t make much progress. Some days, I forget to increase Awesome. Some days I even increase the Suck for some people…

But I continue on.

Why?

I can’t lie. Jesus. He’s my reason for the season. Every season. Every day. My faith in what the Gospel is compels me to do things that I might not ordinarily do. I botch it up a lot, but I keep going, because it’s that important that I give people what they deserve, a chance to see life as a full, big, beautiful thing worth stepping out of the Suck for.

My increasing the Awesome isn’t about proselytizing, or a bait-and-switch for religion. It’s just really how I see my calling in life. If I can increase the awesome in your life, and you aren’t interested in Jesus or gospel, that isn’t going to change anything about how I see you, or how I want to journey in life with you. If you do want to know more about my faith, that’s just icing on the cake. Bottom line: I want to be able to turn the Awesome up to eleven in peoples lives.

Increasing the Awesome isn’t a strategy, or a scheme. It’s the way I want to live.

But Dave, how are you trying to increase the Awesome?

Well, let me break that down tomorrow. You’ve read enough already.

*Line stolen, but it’s mine now.