Time management gurus stress the importance of putting the boulders in your schedule first. You must prioritize the key actions and items of your life. But does this strategy ever free us from all the details that so often follow? Can we delegate all the little stuff away? I don't think so. Leadership necessarily involves dealing with minutiae sometimes. I have been mulling over this contrarian advice from Steven Sample: ...I have come up with Sample's 70/30 Formula for … [Read more...] about Sample’s 70/30 Formula for Leadership
Matter Matters
Because Christ is risen, matter matters. The resurrection says something very unique about matter, that is, the physical world around us. Now, typically, there are two extremes when it comes to how we view matter. On the one side of the spectrum is an atheistic, materialistic view that says there is only matter. Ironically, this demeans matter because there is no higher meaning to matter. Categories like truth and beauty are nonsensical in a purely material world. But this perspective … [Read more...] about Matter Matters
Our Rock
In caring for a house, I have made one surprising discovery: Houses are anything but still. They look still. They look stable and immovable. But it’s not true! There’s a reason why they call house care “upkeep,” because you have to keep the house up! It is always falling down in one way or another. Winds ruffle and rip its shingles. Rain rots its seals. Vines find its walls. Sunshine blisters its decks and trim. Bugs find its chinks. Foundations settle. Drywall cracks. Mice nibble its … [Read more...] about Our Rock
We Will Rise Physically
Because Christ is risen, we will rise physically. In every story with a jailbreak, there is one thing everyone is trying to get, one thing everyone is straining and reaching out for, one thing everyone is trying to slide off the hook, one thing everyone is trying to wrench from the guard’s belt: the keys. He who holds the keys has the power of freedom and life. In the Book of the Revelation of the Apostle John, the risen Jesus appears to John, and he tells him the most amazing thing. … [Read more...] about We Will Rise Physically
Digital Minimalism
DIGITAL MINIMALISMChoosing a Focused Life in a Noisy WorldBy Cal Newport Would you have more life if you had less tech? Cal Newport explores this question in Digital Minimalism, and his answer is emphatically "yes." Newport considers the effects of technology and social media on our productivity and wellbeing. While various social platforms can have many upsides, Newport reminds us that they come with many downsides, too. Smart phones and social media are not neutral. They come with … [Read more...] about Digital Minimalism
Our Carrier
I don’t know that we consider this image much when we think of God, but it comes up fairly frequently in the Bible, and it is easily one of my favorites: God is our carrier. We have already encountered this image in talking about God as our Father. Deuteronomy 1:32 says, “the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son.” In His role as our heavenly dad, God carries us. This motif is picked up in the shepherding imagery, too. When the prophet Isaiah describes God as a Shepherd, … [Read more...] about Our Carrier