Tag Archives: faith

Theology

What Impatience Really Is (and Why You Need to Deal with It)

People who do things the wrong way are fools and people who get in my way are even worse.

That’s a nasty thought, but it’s undoubtedly one that crosses my mind more often than I’d care to admit. [It looks worse in text than it does when it runs through my mind, but we all know it’s equally horrifying either way.]

I’ve long-confessed that I’m impatient. My honesty about my lack of patience made my feel ok that I was a ticking time bomb.

impatient-kid

As I reflected back on my time overseas in Slovenia, I realized that one blatant sin that summed up my whole year was impatience.

  • Impatience with students when they didn’t believe the gospel.
  • Impatience with Christian students who didn’t want to grow or share their faith.
  • Impatience with my wife when she didn’t meet unspoken expectations I didn’t even realize I had.
  • Impatience with God when he didn’t answer prayers according to my timing.
  • Impatience with myself when sin continued to creep up or self-improvement didn’t come as quickly as I hoped.

I listened to a sermon that is as old as I am (nearly to the day!) by John Piper entitled, “Battling the Unbelief of Impatience.”

The title alone struck me. I had never heard impatience framed that way–not believing faithfully in God.

Here’s a quote from Piper to set the tone.

“Patience in doing the will of God is not an optional Christian virtue because faith is not optional and impatience is the fruit of unbelief. It is no minor skirmish.”

Ouch. Impatience is a big deal. It’s a faith issue. Continue reading →

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Theology

Evaluating Daily Success with Two Simple (but Challenging) Questions

What gets measured gets improved.

I’m reasonably obsessed with personality tests, measurements, data, information and using those tools to make better decisions. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to collect data and then do nothing with it [*”Some day I will,”* I assure myself] or to flat out collect the wrong data.

evaluation-test

I normally measure the success of my day by how many things I accomplished and how many things I left unfinished. I never check off all the boxes on any given day because I’m constantly thinking of more things I need (or would like) to do. Instead of evaluating my day by the number of boxes checked and list items crossed off, I felt led to completely change my method of evaluation.

At the end of each day, I’ve started to ask myself these two questions. Continue reading →

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Methodology

How to Create Your Own Morning Manifesto in 7 Easy Steps

We’re all guided by what we value and what we prioritize. Unfortunately, we can be quick to forget what is most important to us and let our priorities get out of line.

A few weeks ago, I shared my morning manifesto–12 points that I read over each morning to remind me of how I want to live my life.

I think it’s a great practice to keep our priorities at the forefront of what we do. Below I created a process for you to create your very own morning manifesto. I promise it’s worth the initial time investment.

Once you make your manifesto, could you share it with us in the comments? I’d love to see what you came up with.

pen-on-paper

Continue reading →

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Theology

The Process for Answering Tough Questions About Christianity

Every day I talk with students who ask nearly impossible questions about Jesus, Christianity and the Bible. I don’t have all the answers (and I never will). Thankfully, that’s not what God requires of Christians to share our faith.

This isn’t a perfect process, but it is a way to equip yourself in answering questions like “How can we trust the Bible?” and “Was Jesus really God?”

Instead of answering specific questions, I’d rather share ways to prepare to answer tough questions and pass along a few resources you can start checking out today.

answering-questions

The Process Continue reading →

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Theology

Mike Mobley at Before the Cross invited me to guest post, and I describe how my lack of understanding of the Grand Canyon and its beauty relates to my lack of understanding about Jesus and who he is.

Here’s a little taste to whet your appetite:

I think, for most of us, we treat Jesus a lot like the Grand Canyon.

We’ve heard a fair amount of stories.

We know he’s a pretty impressive guy.

We’ve possibly even placed our faith in him and say we know him personally.

But we haven’t even begun to explore the depths and riches of who Jesus really is.

You can click here for the rest of the post, and be sure to browse around Before the Cross.

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