God’s Pleasure · 7 June 2025
One of our pastors quoted Eric Liddell in a sermon he gave recently. “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” I wondered to myself, “Is that why I write?”
Eric Liddell was a Scottish runner who won the Olympic gold medal in the 400 meter dash at the 1924 Olympic games in Paris. It was the actor who portrayed him in the movie, Chariots of Fire, who said the famous quote, but it is certain that those words were inspired by Liddell’s actual life. I would like those words to be how I live my life.
When I teach, I feel His pleasure. When I coach, I feel His pleasure. When I write, I feel His pleasure. When I draw, I feel His pleasure. When I live my life, I feel His pleasure.
I am not a pastor. I am not a missionary. I am just a mediocre man or at least somebody striving to become mediocre. I am not like Eric Liddell who knew God’s purpose for him was to go to China. (Actually to go back to China.) I am not that certain about my life. About my purpose. Not completely anyway.
I know that God made me for a purpose. I know that part of that purpose is teaching and coaching. I do not know that I always feel God’s pleasure when I am teaching and coaching, but there have certainly been times when I have. Times when I know that God is watching what I am doing and smiling. Maybe saying, “That’s my boy.” Or at least I am pretty sure that He is smiling and thinking those words. I am hopeful that He is.
It is funny though. There are times when I am writing when I feel like Eric Liddell must have felt. When I am getting some thought out there, I just know that God is smiling. I feel it. I feel the warmth of God’s pleasure. I can almost sense Him patting my back. “Way to go.”
I know that it is probably a silly thought. After all, do I feel it or think I feel it because I remember the line from the movie? Even though it is a movie that I am not sure I have seen? I remember the theme song. I remember some of the trailer. I know much of the premise. And I read or listened to a book about Eric Liddell’s life. About how he did go to China and suffer much hardship. About how he loved China and the Chinese people that he and his parents before him served. And I cannot help but wonder if I just imagine God smiling on me because it is something I want Him to do.
Now, I do believe that I am where I am supposed to be. I believe I am supposed to be a teacher and a coach and a writer. I am just not always sure why. I am not always sure that God’s message did not get messed up in translation. That I missed the message that I was supposed to get. Then I remember.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24 ESV)
It is my goal to teach and coach and write and draw as if God is my only audience. I may not be the best at what I do. I may not always do the things I do to the best of my ability. But I can strive to do it all for the Lord. Not because I am under obligation. Not because I can earn His approval. Just because I am grateful that He has adopted me into His family.
God made me the way I am. And even though it was a character in a movie who said it, I am going to continue to write because I can feel God’s pleasure when I do so. In fact, I feel God’s pleasure when I know (or at least am pretty sure) that I am doing what He wants me to do. I hope you do too.
© 2025 Michael T. Miyoshi
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Website Maintenance · 31 May 2025
I have a couple different websites. And they usually work. But…
I currently have two different websites for my writing. Since you are reading this, you know about MediocreMan.com. If you look to the left of the main part of the page, you will see that I have links to my YouTube channel and to my other website, MichaelTMiyoshi.com. I do not post that much on MichaelTMiyoshi.com. So I do not always know when it breaks. As I write this post, it is currently broken. And since I am the author and tech support for my websites, that means that I need to fix it. Argh.
The worst thing about fixing a website is fixing a website. Especially when you do not do it very often. Especially when you do not need to do it very often. My websites have been set it and forget it for so long. I just post whenever I want (weekly on MediocreMan.com) and voilà. Something new on my site.
But every once in a while, something breaks. So I need to fix it.
I probably should have seen it coming. After all, things break even in the digital world. Something new comes along and fouls the whole works up. A new browser or browser extension. A new this or a new that. I am not sure why my website is broken, but I do know that I need to fix it. Even if nobody goes there. After all, I wanted to point people to one part of that website, and I could not even get there myself. Argh. It was quite frustrating.
But I will fix it. I will get in there and look at what is going on and compare it to my other website (this one) and figure it out. After all, I know that this site is working. So it ought not be difficult to fix the other one. I did create them both. And I created them to be essentially the same. I borrowed from lots of places to get it to be the way I want. At least the way I wanted it back then. Of course, now, I want it to be different, but I am not quite sure how to do that. After all, I do not want to start from scratch. (But that is a completely different story.)
I must say that I am not complaining. I know that I have neglected my other site. I know that I need to get it up and running again. Rather, I need to get it back to a better than limping along state. I need to get all the pages working rather than just having a few working. After all, people do not just want to get to the landing page. Even me. I want to get to more places than just the start page and use the backward and forward links to navigate.
Well, I am sorry if I complained here about myself and my inability to keep up my own websites. I guess I just needed to write about something. And since the piece that I want to post links to one of my other sites at a place I cannot get to, I figured I could write about that. But perhaps I should not have. Or maybe I should just not post it. We shall see. (I obviously posted it.)
I hope that you have enjoyed my websites. And I hope that this little post does not make you regret visiting.
© 2025 Michael T. Miyoshi
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When the Well Runs Dry · 24 May 2025
I am not sure, but I believe the writing well will never run dry.
I have surely had times when the idea well or writing well has been short of water. But I do not think that the well has ever run completely dry. Nor do I believe that it ever will. At least not as long as I keep writing. Not as long as I keep priming the pump.
Now, I know that people do not know much about pumps. They might know that you can get a pump, plug it in, and liquid will flow. Or they know about their water pump on their car. At least they do when it happens to go bad. But most people do not know about hand pumps. And they surely do not know about priming said hand pumps.
I must admit that I do not know how to prime a hand pump. All I know is that you need to do it. You need to pour water into a hand pump to get water out. Which is called priming the pump. For if you have a hand pump, you cannot just pump and pump and pump to get water. You need to pour water down the line and then pump. Then, you will get water from deep down in the earth. Aah. Fresh relief.
Writing is like that hand pump. The ideas are deep in the well. Or they may even be in a well that has water close to the surface. Either way, the ideas are there. And that well never runs dry. It is just that sometimes you need to prime the pump. Sometimes you need to write nonsense or shallow thoughts or terrible rhymes to get something good to come out of the well. Sometimes, you need to prime the pump to get the cool, clear, fresh water. You need to prime the pump with a journal entry to get that next idea to come through the pump.
I have been writing six days a week for many years now. I do not always write anything worthwhile. Even when I put said stuff on the internet. But I write and I publish. Even if it is just to prime the pump. Even if it is just to keep the ideas flowing. For I know that one day, something will stick. Some idea will be great, and I will write it. And maybe one person will read it.
I know that I will always be striving to become a mediocre man. And I know that I will keep writing and writing and writing. Even if nobody reads. Even if I never have a good idea. For I know that one day I will have a good idea. And that idea will turn into some piece of writing. And if that one reader gets something good out of that writing, I will be satisfied.
I might have said at the beginning of this piece that I was not sure, but I am now. I am sure that when it comes to writing, the well will never run dry.
© 2025 Michael T. Miyoshi
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