Ever have one of those times in your life where you feel totally out of sorts? Well Richard and I are in one of those times. We are people who tend to over-extend ourselves, we have a lot of ideas and *generally* work well together. However, we have recognized that we do tend to be super busy and are striving to bring some things back into balance. All work and no play and all that. Plus, we want the things we do participate in to have meaning and be fruitful to the causes in which we believe.

Now here is the hard part, what do we get rid of and how do we extricate ourselves from things that we were once committed to, but seem to be no longer functioning well or giving any benefit? And by benefit, I don’t mean benefit to us, but benefit to the purpose of the activity. Here is where the problem that we face lies. As a Christian it is very hard sometimes to draw the line when enough is enough. Admittedly, Richard is easier at this than I am. I have a very strong sense of commitment and it’s very hard for me to extricate myself from anything I feel I made a commitment to, no matter how invalid or dysfunctional that thing now has become. But I would say overall we are not people who take commitment lightly and try to hang in there through good times and bad.

Our frustration with some of the activities in which we are involved is astronomical at this point. Between seeing little or no results, both to the issues that plague the activities and the activities’ purpose, and dealing with incompetent people, we feel our talents are best served in other arenas. At the same time, we worry that if we leave those activities that there will be no one to pick up the slack. And if that is the reason we have stayed, is that a valid reason to continue beating our heads against a brick wall? At what point is it best to start pursuing other activities to achieve the same goals and leave behind the activities that just aren’t working? At what point to do we have to remove ourselves from the personal aspects of those activities and take a hard look at the practical achievements of those activities? These are our dilemmas.