Darrin Munson is a veteran OA guy. He’s on the local Doable Evangelism (DE) team with me, has taught hundreds of high school kids the principles of ordinary attempts, and is now leading his own faith community through a short course on practicing ordinary attempts. After his first session, he wrote an email to his group with some instructions and a short confession…from himself.

I went to Costco yesterday. I hate going to Costco. Aside from the fact that there are way too many people all walking around not looking at where they are going (like Disneyland), I’ve found that it is impossible to get out of there without spending at least a $100. It’s like the Costco tax.

All that to say, I wasn’t looking forward to the experience. I quickly got the things I needed (and some I didn’t) and made my way over to grab some samples in an attempt to redeem the trip. No samples. Now I’m spent. Too many people, and no free samples. So I wait my required 15 minutes in the checkout line and finally get up to the cashier. She spends the next 5 minutes lazily checking me out while talking to the woman who I assume is supposed to be boxing up my purchases, but is apparently getting paid to distract my cashier. I wasn’t happy. In fact I was now even more irritated.

I gradually made my way out of the building maneuvering between carts, children, and other equally frustrated people, and began to load my car. It wasn’t until then that I noticed what an ass I was. For 5 minutes those two women were standing in front of me and I couldn’t even tell you their hair color, yet alone their names. I was so absorbed in myself, and my needs that I didn’t even “see” them.

That’s the thing about “ordinary attempts”. They seems so simple that we wonder why people even have to be taught this stuff, and yet only 2 days after discussing it, I’m already so self-absorbed I’m missing it. Unless this becomes something we talk about regularly, celebrate, and share with each other, I know I will just not do it on a regular basis. We all believe that God is working in others around us all the time, but for me at least, I’m so focused on myself so much of the time, I miss a lot of the adventure He’s calling me to.