Tag Archives: God

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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Theology

Diagrams for Understanding How God Reverses Idolatry

There are two analogies that have helped students I work with understand how God reorients someone’s life.

To start, God must become our first priority. Before we meet God, our priorities are all out of line. We live for money, travel, massive homes, and then our spouse and maybe our children fall in line later.

wrong priorities

If we live primarily for something or someone other than God our god can (and will) be stripped away from us. If our spouse is our god, our god can die, or leave us. If our career is our god, we could lose our job and thus lose our god.

Any god that isn’t God is temporary and untrustworthy.

Continue reading →

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Theology

Reese’s Puffs and Impatience

It’s nearly a daily occurrence for me to throw up a half-hearted-mid-chew prayer to God as I eagerly dive into a bowl of Reese’s Puffs.

It’s more than a rushed supplication. It’s an indicator of a deeper issue.

I’m impatient. I’m too impatient to take a half a minute to thank God for his provision. I’m too impatient to consistently and continually seek God in prayer. I’m too impatient to ignore a phone call or text or tweet, so instead I choose to interrupt a conversation with a real, live human being that I’m talking to face-to-face. I’m too impatient to sit down for 20 minutes and write a single blog post in one sitting (this line is being added in during round three). And I’m certainly far too impatient to deal with customer service over the phone.

Image provided by stock.xchng

It’s hard to be patient (mostly because of the whole waiting thing).

As a result of a constantly connected world, I’m in the habit of constantly disconnecting from God. It’s rare for me to make it much longer than a few moments in the awareness of God’s presence.

I’m impatient because I think the next item will satisfy me more than my current situation.

I think Reese’s Puffs are more satisfying then a moment thanking the God of the universe for providing for me.
I think a tweet or text or call is more satisfying than genuine human connection.
I think something I can buy is more satisfying than Jesus, who has given himself to me freely.

Let’s not let the next moment get in the way of the current one, especially if the current one is with the Lord.

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