One Small Tip That Might Be a Game-Changer For Your Productivity

Tony Schwartz: 

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, before you even brush your teeth? Is it checking the e-mail that’s flooded into your inbox overnight? Does the pull feel increasingly irresistible, even Pavlovian? Do you get so immersed in responding to other people’s agendas that 30 minutes can go by before you even look up?

Here’s a radical proposal: Don’t check your e-mail at all tomorrow morning. Turn it off entirely. Instead, devote a designated period of uninterrupted time to a task that really matters.

For more than a decade, the most significant ritual in my work life has been to take on the most important task of the day as my first activity, for 90 minutes, without interruption, followed by a renewal break. I do so because mornings are when I have the highest energy and the fewest distractions.

I’m doing it right now, but in all honesty, it’s gotten tougher in the last several years. My attention feels under siege, like yours probably does.

For the last 10 years, my colleagues and I have helped companies like Google, Genentech, Coca-Cola, Green Mountain Coffee and Facebook fuel sustainable high performance by better meeting the needs of their employees. Far and away the biggest work challenges most of us now face are cognitive overload and difficulty focusing on one thing at a time.

Whenever I singularly devote the first 90 minutes of my day to the most challenging or important task – they’re often one and the same — I get a ton accomplished.

Read the rest.

Dunk of the Day

Those Aren't Sins, They Are Just Character Flaws

Tim Keller:

For decades Kathy and I  have profited immensely from the pastoral wisdom of the converted slave trader John Newton. As an 18th-century Anglican minister, Newton was a good preacher, but it was as a pastor, counselor, and adviser that he excelled. His pastoral letters are a treasure chest. In one of his letters (entitled "Some Blemishes on Christian Character") Newton points out that while most Christians succeed in avoiding more gross sins, many do not actually experience much in the way of actual spiritual growth.  

Newton lays out a convicting and specific example of the kinds of Christian people who coast on their strengths but do nothing about their weaknesses and so rob themselves and others of joy and God of his glory. These blemishes are often seen by their bearers as mere "foibles." Newton says they "may not seem to violate any express command of Scripture" and yet, they are "properly sinful" because they are the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit that believers are supposed to exhibit.   

These "small faults" mean that large swaths of the Christian population have little influence on others for Christ. While our faults always seem small to us due to the natural self-justification of the heart, you can be sure they don't look so small to others.   

Over the years I've gone back again and again to this list in the manner he directs to use in my personal self-examination (not as a way to find fault with others). As a result I've seen things in myself that I've sought to stamp out with God's grace. And as I've worked through the list I've expanded it—often breaking some of his larger categories into smaller ones in order to be more incisive.    

Here I'll share my expanded list—based heavily on his Newton's original one. Since Newton gave each case study a slightly humorous Latin name, I've done the same.
Austerus is a solid and disciplined Christian but abrasive, critical, and ungenerous in dealing with people, temperamental, seldom giving compliments and praise, and almost never gentle.  

Infitialis is a person of careful and deliberate character but habitually cynical, negative, and pessimistic, always discouraging ("that will never work"), unsupportive, and vaguely unhappy.   

Pulsus is passionate, yes, but also impulsive and impatient, not thinking things out, speaking too soon, always quick to complain and lodge a protest, often needs to apologize for rash statements.  

Querulus is a person of strong convictions, but known to be opinionated, a poor listener, argumentative, not very teachable, and slow to admit wrong.   

Subjectio is a resourceful and ambitious person, but also someone who often shades the truth, puts a lot of spin on things (close to misrepresentation), is very partisan, self-promoting, and turf-conscious.   

Potestas gets things done but needs to control every situation, has trouble sharing power, has a need to do everything him or herself, and is very suspicious and mistrustful of others.  

Fragilis is friendly and seeks friends, but constantly gets feelings hurt, easily feels slighted and put down, is often offended and upset by real and imagined criticism by others.   

Curiosus is sociable but enjoys knowing negative things about people, finds ways of passing the news on, may divulge confidences, and enjoys confronting too much.  

Volatilis is kind-hearted and eager to help, but simply not reliable—isn't punctual, doesn't follow through on promises, always over-extended, and as a result may do shoddy work.   

Look at these and ask which one or two most describe you. Have the courage to ask someone else you know, too. In future articles we'll look both at why so many of us seem to be stuck in these character flaws instead of growing and changing to be of more godly character.

The Story of the Long Brothers

Ultimately Our Evil is Too Profound to Make Sense

Tim Challies:

I began writing this morning hoping to find something profound to say, something that might clarify this crime in my mind. But there is no making sense of it, for evil doesn't play by our rules and doesn't give us a satisfying explanation for its ways and deeds. If there is a glimmer of hope it must be this: the promise—the sure and steady promise—that even the most evil events do not escape the eye of the God who is good. If he sees the fall of the sparrow, how much more does he see and care about the death of a man made in his image. And if he assures us that there were redeeming purposes in a murder even more ghastly—the crucifixion of his own Son—we can believe there must be greater purposes in this murder as well.

Read the rest.


Books by Tim Challies:

• The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion 
• The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment 
• Sexual Detox: A Guide for Guys Who Are Sick of Porn

“It may surprise you to learn the finest young sportswriter—perhaps the finest young writer period—in America is a Christian.”

World Magazine provides an interview with one of the best young sportswriters, Thomas Lake.  I loved his answer to this question.

You had no television until age 14, which today would be considered cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Constitution.  

We thought it was [laughter], but it wasn’t up to us. I think about that now and am grateful for it. Time that would have been spent watching TV we spent playing outside or reading. That had a major effect on my development and helped me get the chance to become a better writer because all those hours weren’t spent passively watching television.

Read the rest.

Lavish Generosity

 

 From the original poster:

So my mom and I have been working the same waitress job for 5-6 years now. She had been waitressing years before, but this is recently. Anyway, about… 15 minutes ago this guy she waited on left and told her to take care. Just that. Prior to this she had talked to him about Italy. Her people are from Florence, this and that, and she said she's never been. She's got 8 years of art education and she's working a waitress job. It's pretty… Sad and disappointing, I guess. Her and my father divorced 6 years ago and she hasn't had a real job ever. Just been stuck in a small town she's not from. This man who we have never seen before tipped her 1000 dollars for a trip to Italy. Walked out, not another word.

(source)

Mind-Bending Guitar Skillz for a 14-Year-Old

A Powerful Reflection on the Moore, OK Tornado

Mike Horton:

No matter how many times it’s been asked–and answers offered–the perennial question is provoked by fresh wounds: “How could a good and all-powerful God allow such a tragedy?” The massive 2-mile-wide tornado that leveled much of Moore, Oklahoma, exposes the fragility of life—but also the apparent contradiction between a God who is good and all-powerful.

Receiving the news, my heart raced as I thought about my brother, sister-in-law, nieces, nephews, and cousins in Moore. My parents were from there. It was a place I’ve known well since childhood, visiting extended family. So I scanned the local OKC TV stations for updates. I knew by the description of the devastated area that the home of my brother and sister-in-law was in its path.

Finally, late at night I received an answer to my text-messages and talked to my brother by phone. “It’s all in God’s hands,” he said. It was from him that I first heard the doctrines of grace. He and Linda are enthralled with the God of grace and glory who has revealed himself in his Son. We don’t know why, but he does—and that’s enough. It’s one thing coming from me, and another thing hearing it from my brother just after he and his wife had lost every material treasure they had.

His wife was away for the afternoon, beyond the range of the tornado. Their children were just out of its path. Waiting it out at home, my brother—a veteran of “Tornado Alley”—changed his mind when he heard it was a Category 4 or 5. Climbing into his truck with debris already falling, he drove off for several miles until he saw the twister pass his neighborhood. Returning only 5 minutes later, he found only a heap of rubble. Yet there they are, extending a helping hand to neighbors. Why? Because life is meaningless and “sympathy” is just an expression of self-interest?

Without answers, we are faced with senseless tragedy. Arbitrary, meaningless, random. We search for answers—to make some sense of things—because our hearts and minds are not satisfied by this shrug. It’s not an easy thing to affirm faith in a good God who could have restrained this ferocious storm but didn’t. But it’s more offensive both to reason and to life itself to imagine that we live in a world where there is no ultimate meaning or purpose. The only thing worse than losing a loved one in such a tragedy is believing that their death—and their life—had no transcendent purpose.

I noticed that evangelists of atheism—mainly from other parts of the country—quickly appeared in chat rooms. “If a god who allowed this does exist, we would have to call him evil,” said one. It’s struck me that this person lives in a world as simplistic as any radical fundamentalist claiming to read God’s mind. For both, the answers are clear. For both, God is not hidden and he does everything directly and immediately. Both imagine a God who sends natural disasters like Zeus throwing thunderbolts from Olympus, either for sadistic pleasure or for specific judgments.

The nihilistic shrug is not an answer—even a partial one. It’s not a comfort at all. It has absolutely nothing to say in a situation like this. “Stuff happens” is the only response consistent with a naturalistic worldview. But the emptiness spreads. It’s not just the bad things, but the good ones, that are reduced to meaningless trivia. It also means that the love that has been overflowing in extravagant generosity shown not only to but even among victims of the tornado themselves is meaningless.

Out of darkness, light is already emerging. And instead of turning on God, like many of the faraway critics, they are turning to God for comfort, even as God sends his people to tend to their temporal needs.

This is in no way to treat lightly the tremendous loss incurred. The amazing spectacle of victims who have lost much extending a helping hand to neighbors who have lost more is a testament to the fact that there must be something more to life than making up meaning as we go along. Yet it doesn’t assuage the grief over losing a loved one.

The choice is between placing our confidence in a God who is both good and sovereign despite the moral and natural evils—even when we don’t have all the answers, and giving up on any transcendent meaning for love as well as suffering.

And that choice isn’t arbitrary. How can we be so sure? Perhaps it might have been, except for the fact that the Triune God revealed in Scripture has fulfilled every one of his promises in history. Most conclusively, he has sent his Son to rescue sinners by his life, death, and resurrection. Who knew what God was doing at the cross? Jesus’ disciples fled, the Romans jeered, and his own people judged him cursed by God. By the look of things, Good Friday yielded only one of two choices: a God who doesn’t care or a “Savior” who was a fraud. Because Christ has been raised in history, our lives are no longer “the show about nothing.” We have come from somewhere grand and although we have fallen from it, we are being taken far beyond that glorious beginning, in the train of the Conqueror who has defeated death and hell.

Read the rest.


Books by Michael Horton:

• The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way
• Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church
• Putting Amazing Back into Grace: Embracing the Heart of the Gospel
• For Calvinism
• The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World
• A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship
• The Law of Perfect Freedom

An Unmistakable Sign of a Legalistic Spirit

Legalism has been defined in a number of ways, but here is my attempt: Legalism is the tendency to regard as divine law things that God has neither required nor forbidden in Scripture, and the corresponding inclination to look with suspicion on others for their failure or refusal to conform. . . . 

2. Do you elevate to the status of moral law something the Bible does not require? . . . 

Hold your conviction with passion and zeal, but do not seek to enslave the consciences of others who may disagree with you. . . . 

One unmistakable sign of a legalistic spirit is the tendency always to be looking for what’s wrong in other people’s lives in order to judge them, instead of looking for what’s right in order to encourage them. . . . 

Legalists feel good when they can identify another person’s errors. It reinforces their feelings of superiority. They actually think themselves more spiritual, more godly, and more favored and loved by God.

- Sam Storms, Tough Topics: Biblical Answers to 25 Challenging Questions, 311–12, 314–15

(HT:  Andy Naselli)

Profound Photos of Recent Tornado Damage

The Big Picture has the disturbing images.

Is Forgiveness Conditional or Unconditional?

Based on a discussion this morning with some friends I thought it would be wise to post this article from Justin Taylor dealing with forgiveness.  This is a very important topic and I think it is wise to be sure that we are using language that reflects the truths of the Bible as we discuss what forgiveness is and isn't.

He writes:

Is it possible for a Christian to remain fully obedient to Scripture, with kindness and tenderheartedness, loving his enemy as himself, and yet at the same time not granting forgiveness to an unrepentant offender?

From what I can discern from the evidence in the Bible, and from what the Westminster Confession of Faith calls “good and necessary consequence,” I’m persuaded that the answer is yes. “Love your enemies” is something that we should do at all times and in all places. It is modeled after God’s love for his enemies, whom he loves even when they are “unjust” and “evil” (Luke 6:35). At the same time, our forgiveness of others is likewise modeled upon God’s forgiveness of sinners, whom he forgives conditioned upon their repentance. God does not forgive apart from repentance; neither should we. In major offenses, we are not to forgive the unrepentant.

In the event of a tragedy that involves the loss of human life brought about by wanton human sin, it is therefore wrong for Christians to call upon immediate forgiveness in the absence of repentance. Such a call both cheapens and misunderstands the biblical doctrine of forgiveness.

Read the whole article for a very responsible treatment of this issue.

I would strongly recommend Chris Braun's book, Unpacking Forgiveness as well.

Uh... Beatboxing Just Got Redefined For Me

The Grace of Radical Ordinariness

Dan Darling:

There has been much discussion in the evangelical world about the call to radical discipleship. Perhaps it began with Matthew Lee Anderson’s corrective to books by men like David Platt, Francis Chan, and others. I thought Matt’s piece was very helpful. On other hand, I have also been encouraged by the books and movements Anderson sought to correct. David Platt and Francis Chan and others are right in pushing the American church from it’s lethargy, of echoing Jesus call to radical discipleship. 

Where the conversation, I think, is unhelpful is when it devolved into a sort of mockery of some of the radical message. I felt Anthony Bradley’s piece in World was unfair and, at times, snarky and dismissive of genuine attempts at Christian faithfulness. I also disliked Erick Erickson’s piece, which demonstrated a sort of dismissive, broad-brush approach to Christian’s answer the call to go serve Christ in hard places. 

The problem, sometimes, with our discussions and our movements is that we embrace some wild, reactionary pendulum swings. I’m disturbed by this. I think it reflects our inability to embrace tension. The Scriptures are full of seemingly competing ideas that are not meant to be resolved or “won.” They are meant to be embraced as they are. One of these is the two, side-by-side ideas that form the basis of the “Radical” conversation. 

On the one hand, Jesus calls us to sacrificial, out-of-the-ordinary, commitment to His call. He calls us to suffer and to die. He calls us to give up what is precious. He calls us to be his emissaries to the hard and difficult places of the world, to permeate all corners of the globe with His love. 

And yet, we are called to a sort of ordinariness. A sort of faithful, anonymous regular living. We are to fulfill our unique vocations, based on the set of talents, gifts, and opportunities He has given us. We’re called not simply to be pastors or missionaries in far-flung places, we’re called to faithful living at home, in ordinary vocations, because the actual work we produce honors God as the Creator. We reflect him when we do good work. 

These two realities do not have to compete. So why do they? 

Read the rest.

Get Dan's books here.

Executives and Businessmen on Mission

John Quick:

I’d like to share a few things with you that were helpful to me when I was on the road and/or very busy at work. Remember, these only apply if you are not working too much or neglecting your relationship with Jesus and your family.

• Use your gifts and skill sets to benefit your church family. If you own a commercial real-estate business, represent your church family. If you’re an attorney, draft documents they’ll need.  If you own a coffee shop, help your church’s coffee shop become the best coffee shop in town.
• Mentor and/or coach key leaders in your church family.  If your church family has an elder or deacon that leads in Operations/Finance/HR/Organizational Strategy, these guys are, often, the lone rangers on a church staff team. Identify who these leaders are and offer to meet with them once a month.
• Your financial gifts are important. If you’re the Vice President of of a large company, you probably won’t be at all the training opportunities, Sunday gatherings or missional community gatherings through the year because you might be closing business deals in Asia or Europe. However, your large paycheck helps support the advancement of the Church’s mission. Please remember to model tithing for your church family every month.
• Prayer is very important. If you find yourself on many business trips throughout the year, make an effort to press pause on your favorite podcast sermon and and simply pray. Pray for your wife, your kids, your neighbors, elders, deacons, your larger church family, your city, your state, your country, the world, etc.
• You may not be able to be at all the neighborhood BBQ’s this summer because you are opening a new restaurant or closing a major deal in another state,  but do not let this be an excuse for not living on mission in the everyday life. Your life just looks a little different than the person who works a 9-5 job at the bank down the street. You will get to work with people of influence so be ready and willing to use every opportunity at work to live on mission. Living on mission does not mean you’ll passing out bible tracts before a business acquisition meeting.  Jesus came to serve, not be served. Use this truth as your foundation for making decisions in your job or business.

Read the rest.

OKC Before and After Pictures

Utterly heartbreaking.

(HT:  22words)

Will Smith Improv on Letterman

Tim Keller on A Reformed Theology of Work

Wisdom here from Tim Keller. Get his new book on this topic here.

(RSS, click through to view.)

 
Redefining Work - Tim Keller (TGC13 Faith at Work Post-Conference) from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

The Front Page of an Oklahoma Newspaper

Click on the image to see larger.

The Defining Cultural Peek from The Billboard Music Awards

Walt Mueller with some astute cultural commentary:

Perhaps the defining cultural peek from Sunday night's Billboard Music Awards was Selena Gomez's performance of her new single, "Come and Get It" (video below). The two words that came to mind as I watched were "sad" and "embarrassing." It was sad because it was formulaic, lacking any kind of creativity, and it was lip-synced. It was embarrassing for two reasons. 

First, this twenty-year-old performed in front of a room full of musicians - many of whom have genuine talent - and she performed in front of a television audience. It was embarrassing for her. But it was also embarrassing at a much deeper level. If this is this all we're attracted to musically. . . and we settle for it. . . then we've been complicit with a music-industry driven more by marketing and consumer interest, than it is driven by talent, truthfulness, and hard work. As I thought about the difference between Selena's performance and what I saw from Heart the night before (along with the other Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame inductees), well. . . then shame on us. It was embarrassing because I realized not only how low we progressively set the bar, but the kind of message we're sending to our kids. "Come and Get It" is a seductive invitation. Sure, there have been seductive musical invitations for years. But if a grade could be put on how the seductive invitation is worded and delivered, we've even gotten worse at being seductive!