2nd Opinion: Lessons learned ‘the hard way’

Instead of year-end analyses and new-year resolutions, I prefer to share important lessons I have learned. Most came the hard way. That’s the first lesson: The easy way rarely leads anywhere worth going.
Here are others as we begin a new year:

• Make your bed and wash the dishes. Take pride in doing the basics well.
• If you make a mess, clean it up.
• Trust your gut.
• Seek justice, not revenge.
• Tell the truth, even when it’s inconvenient.
• If the cashier gives you too much change, give back what isn’t yours.
• Embrace your uniqueness; don’t rush to conform.
• Be as beautiful, handsome, successful and skilled as you can be, and don’t listen when others set standards and boundaries that only serve them.
• Listen first; speak second.
• Don’t tell anyone to “shut up,” especially a child.
• Don’t let someone pay you less than you are worth. Don’t demand more than you are worth.
• Enjoy work.
• Don’t go along with the crowd.
• Not every argument is worth having. Look up facts, and be kind toward opinions.
• Being right counts for little. Getting your way counts for little. Being generous counts for everything.
• Dream unceasingly. What you see in front of you is never all that can be.
• Change isn’t your enemy. People who resist change to protect their privileges are the enemy.
• Light and darkness are always at war. Your life is what they fight over.
• When a preacher tells you what you want to hear, stop listening.
• Politicians and cowards aren’t to be trusted.
• Eat simply, live simply, love extravagantly.
• Soldiers fight wars that politicians declare. Respect and support the troops, and then choose better leaders.
• When teachers and bankers earn what they truly contribute to society, it will be a better world.
• A healthy society protects the vulnerable. A corrupt society allows dark forces to prey on the vulnerable. We live in the latter, and it’s time to fix it.
• Praying to God is wise. Scripting God’s response is foolish.
• When people quote Scripture and the Constitution in pursuit of power, your freedom is at risk.
• People want jobs, not handouts. People want respect, not pity. People want freedom, not comfort.
• Owning a black robe doesn’t confer wisdom on a judge or a preacher; just look at the Supreme Court.
• If someone criticizes you for voicing an opinion that they don’t like, voice it again. And again. The sky won’t fall on either of you.
• The greatest rock ‘n’ roll songs of all time are those that made your heart sing.
• Always be reinventing the wheel. Always pursue change for the sake of change.
• Be curious about what lies around the next corner.
• Read stories to children. Then buy them books.

Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant, author of Just Wondering, Jesus and founder of the Church Wellness Project. His website is www.morningwalkmedia.com. (RNS)