Matt’s Blog

A while ago my grad school advisor was telling me as story about a meeting he had with some government agency. As a student in a civil engineering program nearly all the projects that we were involved with dealt with the government in some form either directly as a client, or as a stakeholder. This meant that not only did we have to meet with various government agencies frequently, but often times the forward progress or even continued existence of our projects relied heavily on the outcome of those meetings.

Now back to the story, my advisor explained that in this case he was meeting with a representative of some state department of transportation for several hours discussing some aspect of a project they were working on. Remarkably, for the entire duration of the several-hour meeting one of the representative’s co-workers sat nearby at his immaculately organized desk doing nothing save reading the paper. The representative my advisor was meeting with remarked, from behind his rather cluttered desk, that most of his fellow civil servants spent their days in pursuits similar to that of his paper-reading colleague.

Based on this my advisor made a rather valuable observation: If you want to get anything done in a large organization (governmental or otherwise) you need to find the person with the messiest desk. In my, admittedly limited, experience I’ve found this observation to be quite true. I call this phenomenon the concept of the “messiest desk.”

Although I would add at this point that having the “messiest desk” does not always mean that your desk is particularly disorganized. For example, I am the kind of person who is pretty obsessive about cleanliness so my desk isn’t always messy, but it’s rarely clear. As the important priorities pile up there’s a lot of ongoing work, some of which has to be shelved temporarily while I focus on more critical tasks.

Not to say that organization isn’t important. I think every successful person with a “messy desk” would say that they could easily find any particular item on demand if needed. Clearly if your desk is so messy that you can’t find anything effectively then you aren’t being productive. In addition, this doesn’t apply to people who have a lot of useless kitsch in their workspace. The “mess” does not consist of stupid crap, but the elements of ongoing work.

The theory also applies if you don’t even have a desk to begin with. It could cover online or electronic workspaces, or physical workspaces like workbenches, garages or shop floors. Having a “messy desk” indicates that you have a lot of irons in the fire, and that fulfilling important priorities is more important than having your workspace perfectly organized. Rarely do you have time to do both.

So here’s what I look for in a messy desk (you could call them the “traits of the messy desk”) which indicate that a person within a given organization is a good contact to have:

• It isn’t just a mess, there’s at least some sense of organization.
• The mess does not impact productivity.
• The mess is predominately composed of work items (tools, files, reports).
• The elements of the mess are not only work items but current work items, not archived dead project files from 20 years ago.
• The mess is the result of ongoing work using the latest technology feasible, not the result of a refusal to join the 21st century.
• The mess does not smell, that’s just gross.

So what are your thoughts? Do you have a messy desk? If so, what do you look for in a mess that indicates that it’s more than just a mess? If not, then what do you look for as a sign of value in a workspace?

This: http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritehire/2008/12/microsoft-project-team.php

Made me laugh this morning. Although it is all true, I find it funny that anyone would care that much about me moving to work for Microsoft. That, and being quoted on a news site is cool, but also strangely creepy.

The past few weeks at Mars Hill they’ve been in this series called “It’s All About Jesus” which, as I’m confident you can clearly see, is all about Jesus. The overall theme is that God is authoring a story (or script) for all of His creation. Most recently Pastor Bill Clem, filling in for Mark, was talking about the idea that we are all part of that story and that the scope of our view the story depends on our understanding of our role in relation to God. Sadly for many, both Christian and non-Christian, the story is only about one’s personal journey. Because of our fallen nature we often reject supporting roles in the grand production that is God’s story opting instead for leading roles in small side-shows of our own. One analogy presented was that of a few acting students scraping together their meager resources for a production of their own script in what is basically a warehouse versus a young actress auditioning for, and landing, a minor supporting role in a major Broadway production. On this point Bill stated that those of us who take a narrow, personally focused, view of our stories will interpret the theme of our ”movie script” in light of our present circumstances. When we are blessed with success we see our life as a heroic action/adventure, when we find a special relationship a romance, and when we are plagued by pain or struggle we see life as a drama or perhaps even a horror film.

As Christians we’re all raised with the message that we must constantly give praise to God in the midst of our blessings. Whether we apply it or not, there’s definitely a sense (or at least an intellectual assent) that the blessings of health, friends, job, marriage, children, and so on are a part of God’s greater plan. We know well the risk of forgetting God in our success. But for me, and I would suspect for others as well, it’s not the times that I see success that I feel disconnected from the story of God, but rather the times of struggle. Although in times of difficulty the emotional connection to God may seem stronger, I think that the temptation is to look at the circumstances of life and introspectively label my story as one of woe and misery (a film of dramatic struggle against all odds) regardless of my emotional “spiritual high” or outward expressions of dependence on God. This gives rise to the questions like “how can a loving God allow so much pain” or “why do bad things happen to good people?” I replace God ‘s script with a much smaller one of my own design in my mind and heart. The film analogy can be extended in this sense by considering the difference in tone if an action/adventure script featured the victims as the protagonist instead of the rescuing hero.

Luckily I am not the protagonist of the story. I’ve been reading in Job (one of my favorite books) and I’m always struck by the way that God responds to Job starting in verse 38:1 and continuing throughout the rest of the book:

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Job 38:1-7

I love this passage for multiple reasons. First because God uses sarcasm to righteously mock that unreasonable belief in Job (and in us) that there is any other story but God’s. Not only do we see that sarcasm has a justifiable place in the Kingdom, but it’s used to highlight the ridiculousness of our belief in anything other than the grand story of God. Second, God basically tells Job to put on a cup because he is about to be kicked up the middle in a theological sense. The tone of speech in consideration of the audience is as often important as the content of the message itself, and here God demonstrates that when speaking to men a direct, harsh application of the truth will have the greatest benefit. And finally, (back on topic) we see God not so gently remind Job that He is the author of the story, and that Job is merely a supporting character. He asks Job if he thinks that he has the power or the desire to author a story as grand as the one unfolding in the hands of the Creator to which Job gives the only logical reply:

Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:1-6

The difference to me is significant. When I remind myself that I am only a small supporting role in a much, much larger script I can keep both suffering and success in proper perspective. Like catching the game-winning home run at a baseball game, no one cares that you caught the ball. They are rightly caught up in celebrating the much greater victory. And you should be to, whether you caught the game winning ball or not.

So after all that what then is the theme of the story of God? I’m going to have to go with Mark’s assertion that the story presented in the Bible is a comedy (albeit a dark comedy) but that’s a post for another time.

Normally I frown upon people who post blog entries that talk about the frequency (or lack thereof) of their blog posts… generally a post of that type assumes that people actually read your blog and care if you post or not. An assumption that I find rather comical in general given the average readership of most blogs (mine included), and quite outrageous in this particular case given that my last post was over two months ago and by now the few followers I had have undoubtedly moved on to richer reading pastures. So, on that count there’s no reason to apologize for the lack of posts recently. Furthermore, far be it from me that my site would become just another tombstone in the vast graveyard of dead blogs filled with posts lamenting the lack of time for proper writing.

Anyways, that said, it’s been a wild couple of months. I left Atlanta on the 29th of June, Seattle bound. After a long cross-country trip with a brief stop in Colorado I arrived in Seattle on the 6th of July. There hasn’t been one aspect of my life that has not changed at least a little, and most areas have changed so significantly that I have yet to fully grasp the magnitude of the difference.

Since I left Atlanta:

• I’ve gone from living in a double-occupancy room in a fraternity house to living in an apartment alone to living in a three-story townhouse with a friend from GA.
• I have not eaten at Jason’s Deli, not even once.
• I’ve left my church home at Buckhead Church where the music was like a rock concert and Andy reiterated everything three times for 30 minutes tops and started attending Mars Hill Church where the music is indie-ish and Mark Driscoll yells at us for at least an hour every Sunday.
• I’ve gone from being a poor grad student to working for the largest software company on the planet although, in contrast, my wardrobe has remained relatively constant.
• I’ve gone from working out at the GT Rec Center with a bunch of college aged guys and one girl to working out at what amounts to the Microsoft Rec Center with a bunch of 40 year-old guys and no girls
• I’ve gone from walking 5-10 minutes to and from class/work to a 30 minute minimum drive from home to work. I now take the bus almost every day.
• I can pretty much afford to eat out whenever I want, but I no longer have nearly as many friends to take with me.
• I’ve gone from living in the middle of constant activity to living in a quiet neighborhood and working alone at a desk for most of the day.
• I’ve gone from near constant involvement at Theta Xi to nearly none outside of observing the e-mail lists.
• I’ve gone from anticipating the GT football season with great excitement to mere indifference.
• I used to sweat just looking outside, now I wear a polar fleece jacket nearly every morning, and often throughout the entire day.
• I’ve gone from having to pay for each load of laundry in washers and dryers with two clothing settings: Maul and Destroy to having a washer and dryer with more settings than a mid-sized aircraft.
• I’ve gone from having basically everything I own in one room to having to go to Ikea to get stuff to fill up all the extra rooms in the house.
• There hasn’t been a day, or really even an hour, that I haven’t missed all of my great friends back in Georgia in one way or another.
• I’ve been blessed with the seeds of new friendships here in Seattle.
• I’ve struggled as God has moved me across the country and away from all my connections, comforts and familiarity to the place He wants me to be. And I’ve been amazed as He has given me grace to persevere in the face of what can often be overwhelming sadness and frustration.

And that’s just a few of the things going on now. When people ask how the move has gone I usually tell them that it’s like a roller coaster; there are up days and there are down days but in the end the entire thing is an exhilarating ride. It’s been a very exciting period in my life, but as I get settled in the swings become less frequent, and less severe. As I move forward I always try to recall the feeling of awesome opportunity that I had in anticipation of the move when I was still in Georgia.

And, if all else fails, I just book a ticket “home” for the weekend