stick a fork in it

Is there anything worse than being somewhere and being forced to listen to someone that makes you just want to pluck your toenails out one by one with needle nose pliers and shove them into your pupils or stick a fork up your nose?...

Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration and a bit graphic but you get the point. I love learning and growing. I am at the Willow Creek Summit listening to someone that I thought was going to be great and eeerrrrrrrrrrrr (sound effect of an airplane crashing...). I can think of plenty of things I would rather be doing - one of those is blogging. I think I am to the point where I have totally tuned this dude out and I hate that.

This guy may have some great points but I will never hear them. So that got me thinking... I was excited to hear this guy but he didn't grab me from from the beginning and it only got worse from there. This guy will not get a second chance.

When you are telling a story or trying to explain something to someone you only have a certain window of opportunity. If a book doesn't grab me in the first few chapters - it is put down and probably not picked up again. It's all about the window.

I remember giving someone a CD entitled "how to get your point across in 30 seconds or less". That person got the point. I know as Christians we have a great story to tell but we sometimes don't get the chance or don't have a captive audience. One reason could be because you are boring. Another is because someone else tried to tell them the story of Christ and made it a painful experience. It was unclear, confusing and brutal.

If you can't get your point across in 30 seconds, it is probably too long. This is not applicable to every story but it is a pretty good rule of thumb (why do we say that? whose thumb is it?)

My point: think before you speak. Have a point you are trying to make and make it. If the other person is still engaged - then you can continue, if not "stick a fork in it" you are done.

This guy is still talking. Where is my fork?...