Doing it Different

I'm doing it different this time...

I love good sermons, books, thinking, pondering but do I soak enough to promote desired change? Not usually so I'm going to do something different this time... Rather than moving through the book to get done, I'm going to stop and master the practice.

The book: "Practicing the Way" by John Mark Comer

The practice: "Turning God into a Habit" (one of the chapters)

I'm going public for two reasons: 1) I'll be more likely to follow through if I've told someone & 2) I hope you are encouraged to slow down, soak and promote the change that you want (may or may not be the same as my current change). Feelings follow focus. 

So I just re-listened to the chapter above and here's my goal or desired outcome

• that my norm (habit, regularly, always) is to be in a place where I have...
• God's Perspective (eternal)
• God's Heart (mission/love for all)
• God's Action & Words (trusting God in radical submission)
• Constant ongoing prayer / communion / fellowship (friendship) with God. 

Action (my specifics in red)

• Re-wire my mind (mental habits)
• Repetition / Discipline - my specific tools: 1) short paper journal entries throughout the day 2) worship music 3) up early to pray & read the Bible.
• Practice the presence of God. (Abide) Thank you Brother Lawrence. 
• Pause the book for 30-60 days to prioritize (focus) on this habit: God being my go to constant companion / co-pilot. I think this will fit nicely with the holidays, advent and chaos of my home and this world. Share (with you) how it's going Dec. 6 (~30 days) and Jan. 6 (~60 days).
• Compile a list of Bible characters (such as Daniel, David, Moses, Abraham, Jesus, etc.) and specific habits/disciplines they used to stay focused on God. Probably do this with my wife and our 7 year old. Maybe he can illustrate?

Stay tuned, 1st update is due Dec. 6 😎

=== === === Here's the 1st update === === ===

(12/3/24) 

    So I'm about 30 days into this and at a high level, I am keeping "God's perspective" (and peace) more of the time (more of a habit). And I'm experiencing more fruit (Gal 5:22) and so are those around me 😊. I CERTAINLY HAVE NOT ARRIVED but I am not living in the past, but pressing on (Phil 3:12-14) and this will always be the case. 

    Here are two more gems from the last 30 days: 1) "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Ps 90:12). Being mindful of the brevity of life and gratitude for the health we have helps me not sweat the small stuff (my perspective) and keep God's perspective. 2) "I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends." (Rev 3:20). Three things stick out to me: 1. He is pursuing us (knocking) and wants us to hear his voice. 2. We must open the door. Thoughtfully, deliberately making a choice to prioritize Jesus and then... 3) We will share a meal as "friends". What a beautiful picture! I pray that you give yourself this gift of friendship with Jesus. 🙏❤️

Personal Wellness Plan - It's a process

Hello friends.

In this post, let's talk about wellness...

You may be familiar with the "wellness wheel"...

I'm going to dive in and suggest a process to continually monitor and improve your wellness. If you don't have time, I'd ask you to look 5 years out... In 5 years on your current trajectory where will you be? If you incorporate the process below, how might things look differently in 5 years? You make the choice (please invest in yourself, you are worth it). 

Here's the process...

Choose a time and space, free from distractions where you can be unrushed.

Step 1: Assess your own wellness (self-evaluation) in each of the categories.

During this step some big gaps/needs may arise, jot them down in the margin or on another page for later. 

Step 2: Reflect on it a bit and see what you think or if there are themes or identify biggest gaps/needs.

And don't forget to celebrate the wins. You have many wins!

This is a fuzzy step, but probably the most important step. 

Step 3: Create your action plan.

Make sure you have NO MORE THAN 2 primary actions/changes to implement. Write them down (re-write them as needed). You can have a handful of lower priority items, but consider them a much lower priority than your BIG TWO. 

Step 4: Repeat this exercise at least 1 a quarter. 

Please reach out with questions, success stories, failures, etc. 

========

If you want a little more guidance as to what may fall within each category, read on...

Occupational Wellness: This is what you do. What occupies your time. Often a paid job or a business your run, but not always. How do you feel about what you are doing? Are you finding fulfillment in the work you do and maintaining a positive work-life balance?

Environmental Wellness: This isn't just recycling, going green and driving a Tesla. Is your personal environment good for your peace and growth? Think of a green house as a great environment for a plant. What is a good environment for you? Clutter? Does your home, car, life promote your peace and growth?

Intellectual Wellness: Your mind is a wonderful thing. Are you mindful? What are you learning about? Are you investing in yourself here? Are you trying new things and being curious? Often we put this on the back burner. Note this is not just reading books or listening to podcasts, but thinking, pondering, trying new things (application of what we are learning).

Spiritual Wellness: How is your spirit/soul? How have you best connected with your maker in the past? Are you doing that now? What are your spiritual disciplines? What do you believe and how is that impacting your life?

Emotional Wellness: Are you checking in with yourself? Is your internal talk negative (critic) or kind, gentle and curious. When you have a feeling, do you feel it long enough to honor it and see what it is indicating? If so you can effectively investigate the facts and make a thoughtful next move. 

Physical Wellness: Are you a good care taker of your physical body? How is your sleep? Exercise/activity? What are you eating/drinking? When & why? What are your good habits (or bad habits)?

Financial Wellness: Does money bring you life and freedom or stress? What habits/practices do you have (or do you need) so that you are financially well?

Social Wellness: Do you have a solid community including 1-2 people that you can really open up to? People that know you, see you, get you and celebrate/encourage you? And how are you serving others and giving from your abundance?

Basic Reminders

Slow down right now and imagine this…

an explosion in your heart of epic proportions filling your heart with Christ’s light and love. Shaking lose and purging any sin, foothold or stronghold Satan may have had. You are left with nothing but his light and love filling your heart to overflowing. Meditate on this reality right now for Christ has done it for you just be still . (Part 2 is coming tomorrow)

Part 2 - Guard Your Heart “Above all else, guard your heart for from it flows the springs of life.” Prov 4:23 It is done! And Christ will fill our heart with His love and light daily upon our request so be filled and guard it to maintain the outflowing of His love, light & grace to others. Biologically the heart keeps the mind alive and our bodies full of energy to run the race. Spiritually our hearts keep the body of Christ alive. Our hearts are the source from which we can consistently love and encourage others. Christ said, “I have come that you might have LIFE abundantly.” Let us guard our hearts so that we stay ALIVE and give LIFE to the body of Christ. To God be the thanks, praise & glory. Amen.

Part 3 - Your Mind Kept alive by your heart, the mind is central command. It is subject to everything we see and hear . It is where we take in and process this information, react with emotions and form beliefs. Let God transform your mind so that it is built on the rock of Jesus/Truth and can withstand any attack. Satan attacks directly and covertly. The mind is the gateway to your heart and you must be on guard so that Satan never gets a foothold in your heart. Be MINDFUL (thoughtful and intentional) and alert to the Devil’s schemes putting on your spiritual armor so that you do not fall.

Part 4 - Your Body Our temporary earthly vessel by His design for His purpose and glory. Think of your body as your uniform in the Lord’s service. Issued by Him and for Him. Unlike a shirt, we cannot take off this vessel so do not get entangled with earthly things (2 Tim 2:1) and chase pleasures of this life (Jam 4:4). Take care of your body and use it as an instrument of His peace (John 14:27). You are His and the power in you is stronger than any powers in this world (1 John 4:4). Yee haw!

Part 5 - Others

Our hearts are full and guarded. Christ’s stronghold is secure and deeply rooted in our heart & mind. Our bodies are disciplined and obedient to God (our commanding officer). Now, operating from here we can freely love one another, period, no exceptions. Fruits of the Spirit running rampant showing the love of Christ in every encounter God set up in advance for us to love one another, love one another & love one another.

Let's talk about fruit...

Imagine a well pruned orange tree full of fruit. 

Now imagine a poorly cared for tree that is scraggly, out of control and yielding sparse and inconsistent fruit. 

Who doesn't want to be fruitful?

This morning I was reading John 15 and am reminded that GOD WANTS US TO BE FRUITFUL probably for two reasons: 1) it glorifies Him, builds His Kingdom, draws others to Him and 2) we will be happier and more fulfilled if we are fruitful. 

(vs 1-2) I am the vine, my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch that doesn't produce fruit and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so that they will produce even more. 

(vs 4-8) Jesus encourages us to REMAIN JOINED TO HIM AND HIS WORDS so that we will be more fruitful. 

(vs 9-17) Jesus reminds us of his great love for us and that He wants us to remain in that love which will bring us joy. He goes on to remind us to love each other and that we can be his friend if we obey and remain in his love. 

PART 2 - Let's look for fruit...

Gal 5:22 "...when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will product this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control."

These fruits are the result of remaining joined to Him, in His love, knowing His word and obeying His call on our lives to remain in Him and love one another. Let us do that more and more today. 

Phases of Life - let's think about it

So I'm 48 now and reflecting on life phases...

Hopefully this encourages you to think, reflect & ponder who you are, where you are now and where you are going. 🙂

(I'm skipping birth-18 and limiting my scope to after high school graduation)

INVEST: This is typically a selfish phase of investment in self (such as college). In this phase you are tested to see how you do on your own (you don't have to listen to your parents if you don't want to). You will have many choices and freedoms and you will reap what you sow (Gal 6:4-5,7). I hope you choose/chose wisely, but if you didn't, at least you learned! (Heb 12:11)

ESTABLISH: During this phase (early/mid 20s?) we usually select housing, a job and what we do with our time (hobbies/passions/interests). Also during this phase we inform our decisions based on our lens and how we see the world and our place in the world. For me, I established that I'm a beloved child of God, that is passing through this world with the purpose of loving others and sharing Christ. 

BUILD: On the foundation we established and the beliefs we have, we build, build, build. Hopefully in fruitful joyful labor, but the slippery slope in America is to accumulate (more, more, more). Society tells us that we can have it all, do it all, be it all and we can fall into the trap of building our own personal kingdom (life). We make many choices to establish security (retirement) and joy (entertainment/pleasure). I want to battle the busy rat race and remain in the peace and purpose established above. 

CONTENT: (40s?) For me, I think I'm in this phase. I recently left my highly compensated and secure job to do work that is much harder for a fraction of the compensation (Marriage & Family Therapy). I did not sell all that I have to follow Jesus (Matt 19:21) and still live comfortably in a nice home and I have nice things. The milestone/change of this phase is to stop building your personal kingdom and focus more (more, more & more) on things of eternal value. No one on their deathbed wishes that they spent more time at work, so keep this in check. 

CONTENT PHASE 2: (50s & 60s?) During this phase, we start to feel our age more, which reminds us to focus on the truly important and let go of things that don't matter. 

CONTENT PHASE 3: (70+) If you haven't already, in this phase you'll experience more loss as people (friends/family/community) pass. Yet another reminder of what really matters. 

So my takeaway as I reflect on these phases is how important our day to day decisions are! I'd argue that during invest, establish & build we can and should be content and focused on the truly important. 

=========================

And here are a few semi-related resources to consider:

1) Wild At Heart - stages of manhood (John Eldridge) link to Amazon

2) Primal Path - rite of passage to develop boys to men (12-20 yrs) https://primalpath.co/

3) Heart of a Warrior - men's spiritual development cirriculum https://www.heartofawarrior.org/

4) Raising a Modern Day Knight - (Robert Lewis) https://rmdk.com/

5) Resolute: men's ministry to develop spiritual mentors (Vince Miller) https://beresolute.org/

6) The Intentional Father (Jon Tyson) Amazon link

10 lbs in a 5 lb bag

 Hello readers. I haven't blogged for awhile but I wanted to share this latest thought and what I would call wisdom (at least for me). 

I've been working on my tone which essentially means being more patient and I've been pretty successful at home, but not as successful at work and here's my epiphany: when I'm stressed, I'm much less likely to be compassionate, full of patience and grace. 

At work, I'm busy, over busy and I feel like I'm always trying to put 10 lbs in a 5 lb bag (which isn't possible by the way). When I'm operating like this, I'm scrambling and fighting a battle I can't win (pause for reflection) and in addition, I'm not patient and graceful. So that would make it a lose-lose situation. I lose and the person I'm impatient with as well also looses.

So here's my action plan: Keep expectations realistic (5 lbs in a 5 lb bag) and then I will be able to be who I want to be (full of patience & grace). 

What will this take? Prioritization and focus (see 4/3/11 blog post on "never enough time" & "big rocks"). Anytime we say "yes" to one thing, we are saying "no" to several other things. With that being said, I'm going to finish saying "yes" to this blog post and move on to the next part of my day. 

Peace. 

9/10/22 Update: In May of this year I left my busy corporate job and now I am a therapist (Marriage & Family). This has been quite the life change. I still need to think about it, but it's not as hard 🙂

Do you want to encounter Jesus?

I was inspired by the sermon this morning (Mark 5:21-43, https://extendgrace.org/) and wanted to share...

The question was asked: Who would be most likely to encounter Jesus? To know and walk closely with Jesus?
I quickly scribbled an answer and then came up with two more...

1) If I had very regular quiet times full of prayer and Word, I think I would encounter Jesus. If I loved others unconditionally ALWAYS, I would probably encounter Jesus more.

2) Feelings: If I had the desire to know and be with Jesus, I would be full of joy, peace, power & purpose. And encounters with Jesus.

3) The only pre-req is that we have a NEED. Jesus meets us when we are in "need" of Him.

YES. Jesus is available no matter what! We don't need to have good Christian disciplines. We don't need to have the warm fuzzy feelings. We just need to need Him and ask for an encounter (see Mark 5:21-43).

++++ additional thoughts ++++
Upon additional pondering... The nature of the word "encounter" implies not very often. My desire (#2 above) it to continually "encounter" Jesus 24/7 in every micro moment, thought and action.

++++ a poem I thought fitting ++++


++++ Bonus Material to Ponder ++++
Q: Do you have the power/ability to limit what God can do in your life?

A: I'm afraid the answer is "yes" because if we surrender and turn to Him, good things happen (God's power flows through us). If we turn away from God and go our own way, we delay God's power and plan coursing through our lives.

Let me know what you think. :)