Faith Venture

Psychiatrist Phil Stutz notes, “The impulses for all of our bad habits travel along the same path – a straight shot to immediate gratification through what I call the lower channel… Lower channel functioning is a disaster. When the pleasure is over, we’re left with nothing.”

Perhaps you, like I, have experienced this straight shot of dopamine gratification through the instant reward system. Just like a sugar/caffeine high, the reward from other bad habits is fleeting.

Must be why Jesus tells us to live a more disciplined life. In the long run, the rewards are sweeter.

Preachers and teachers thrive on motivation. Some speakers forge lucrative careers holding huge motivational rallies. Those of us who have attended such events wonder how long the fire lasts.

Motivation is short-term fuel. Routine is the only fuel that lasts.

Be intentional developing your routines.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ “

The constant stream of people I see in the news and people I meet otherwise who proclaim “Christian Values” astound me.  I wonder…does Jesus know them? To my observation (decidedly less valid than that of Jesus), doing the will of God seems to be somewhat lacking.

But then I reverse the lens of the camera kind of like camera mode on my iPhone to selfie mode. I wonder how I look to Jesus. Does he know me?

What about you?

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you. You can also check out my book list and my 10-part video series on Romans as a Guid to Spiritual Formation.

Jim Collins researches people and companies to discover patterns of success and failure. He likes to discover what makes people and organizations tick. I’m finishing his latest book, ten years in research—What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone curious about living a life.

He begins with the concept of encodings. He defines these as durable capacities of a person’s intrinsic construction that lie within, awaiting discovery through the experience of life.

He writes about many pairs of people (successful, because there’s enough data in the public domain). His team found three patterns to their lives:

• Discover and display a set of encodings
• Flip the arrow of economics to afford to follow the encodings
• Focus inner fire

Among his pairs of subjects were the first two American women’s figure skating champions. These exemplify the “focus inner fire” part. But also these relate to my continual thoughts on spiritual (and physical and mental) practices. His comment caused me to revaluate the path I’ve been on.

Of all the sources of fire, I’ve concluded that perhaps the biggest is sheer unadulterated love of doing. If you discover something you’re encoded for and you love doing it, then you can’t help but want to do more of it.

• Love is greater than discipline.
• Love is greater than ambition.
• Love is greater than ego.
• Love is greater than fear.
• Love is greater than achievement.
• Love is greater than determination.
• Love is greater than passion.
• Love is greater than purpose.

I’ve read Charles Duhigg Power of Habits and James Clear Atomic Habits and Richard J. Foster and Dallas Willard on Spiritual Practices and even Arnold Schwarzenegger on setting up the day to do the first thing that will create momentum. 

Ah, but love. 

I’m not sure I could call it love…that I meditate almost every morning, that I go to the gym (and see familiar people), that I take walks.

But maybe. Maybe I love the feeling after?

What do you love?

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you. You can also check out my book list and my 10-part video series on Romans as a Guid to Spiritual Formation.

I have reshaped my body over the past three years or so. Body fat composition dropped to 13%. Noticeable changes to arms, shoulders, chest, thighs, calves. This came through subtle changes in  nutrition (we never really ate poorly) and through a consistent practice of strength training. Plus I met several nice people in the fitness center.

Similarly, we can transform our spiritual formation becoming the kind of person who does good naturally. We experience God’s grace transforming our habits of body and mind through intentional spiritual practice. Even though much of the practice is done alone, people on the path are often drawn to other fellow travelers on the path.

Our average self tells us as we are sitting on the couch, “I will (exercise, practice my instrument, write my novel, pray, study, perform a service) when my motivation rises.”

This motivation to get up and do rarely happens. I have a time in late afternoon when I pick up my guitar for practice. Sometimes I just don’t feel it. But I run through a few chord progressions and finger picking styles, and I’m into it.

Motivation follows action. Not the other way around.

Waiting for the proper motivation for your daily time of prayer and meditation? Quit that. Pick a chair and a regular time—usually before the household comes alive. Then, like the old Nike ad, just do it.

Same with reading.

Same with exercise.

Force yourself if you must. Get up and start. Once begun, the rest is easy.

Paul Graham, an early venture capitalist, on writing: “1. When you write something intended to be read by an important person, go through it and cut every unnecessary word. 2. The reader of anything you publish is an important person.”

The same thing could be said about speaking—except you must pause and think before you speak.