Archive for the ‘Disciplines’ Category

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The Borrower Is Slave To The Lender

August 20, 2015

“I told them what I thought of them,” proclaimed the president of the company to his senior management after a meeting of the local bank’s Board of Directors.

“Uh, oh,” I thought. “Better start looking for a new job.”

Once again my premonition–or common sense–was right. Six months later I was no longer building automated assembly machines. I was now in the PC business.

You see, the week after the president puffed up his pride and forgot the Proverbs that his preacher father probably taught him, he was called to a meeting at the regional level of the bank. They called the loans. Gave us six months to find a new lender. We went Chapter 7.

Let’s do the math. Sales were about $6 million, the order backlog was about $10 million. We were growing (my job), but I didn’t realize that we couldn’t finance the growth. Worse, neither did the president or the CFO. We already owed the bank $1.75 million for the nice new building. Oh, and we also owed the bank $2 million in working capital.

I entered the company very knowledgeable about costs and the P&L statement. After discovering what a shambles our balance sheet was, I learned its nuances the hard way.

My grandfather was chairman of the board of a small local bank for a lot of years. I heard the banker’s side of things since I was a pup.

I also knew about Proverbs. Among others, one says, “The borrower is a slave to the lender.”

When you take on debt, remember that.

One of the most powerful things you can do to simplify your life is get out of debt. The only debt we’ve had for years is for a car. But we had the money to write a check but figured earnings on the money where it was would offset the interest. It was no burden, and now it’s gone.

Had Dave remembered that Proverb, perhaps 125 people wouldn’t have lost their jobs.

Stay out of debt and be free.

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I Am A Disciple-Or At Least Try To Be

July 15, 2015

Reading my Facebook stream trying to understand “Christian” would leave you puzzled. In fact, I bet that you could read your own Facebook stream of news and be puzzled.

Some whom you know to call themselves Christian seem like the most loving, gracious people. Some, on the other hand, seem to be disputatious, quarrelsome, judgmental, cynical, in other words, someone whom you would not really care to hang out with. Or—even to be labeled the same.

That has been a problem for many years.

For example, did you know that there was a preacher/politician named John Calhoun in the early 19th Century in America who wrote books “proving” that black people (the slaves at the time) were not really human beings. And he used the Bible to prove it.

Andy Stanley addresses this problem in his latest Your Move series. He points out that Jesus and his followers used a much more specific term—disciple. We know what a disciple is. The definition of Christian is open to debate. But a disciple is a follower of a teacher who tries to emulate everything about the teacher.

That is one reason I like to develop spiritual practices in my life and try to lead others to develop these practices. The correct spiritual practices help us try to become a true disciple of Jesus.

You know, Jesus, the one who told his disciples (John 13:34), “I give you a new commandment, to love one another.”

There are people who may self-identify as a “Christian” but who certainly do not appear to be living out Jesus’ last commandment.

So, I have preferred the term “follower” or the term “disciple” for most of the past 45 years. Like many, I shy away from describing myself as Christian.

Maybe if more of us followed this advice from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we wouldn’t be so ashamed of the term:

Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.

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Six Things Productive People Do Every Day

July 14, 2015

This is a riff off a Silicon Valley investor (I follow many high technology bloggers and Websites) James Altucher. I think about personal disciplines a lot. I think about how developing a set of disciplines–or practices–can improve the way we live our lives. And enhance our spiritual journey.

Altucher was not thinking specifically about spiritual development. Many of his (more than) six things are (or can be) spiritual disciplines.

He says, “About six years ago I would say I was 100 percent unproductive. Everything I did would cost me in either well-being or money. By “well-being” I mean, competence, good relationships, and freedom. So when I say “cost me well-being” I would do things to specifically hurt the above three.”

Here are some good thoughts–especially when you see some of the stuff that gets passed around on Facebook. “Using that filter you can easily decide what is productive and what is not. For instance, do you respond to that negative comment on the Internet? No. Never. That person is dealing with his issues. Maybe he or she needs help from people who love him. But you don’t have to give that help. That would be unproductive.”

“A day is productive if I grow in competence. If I grow in my relationships. If I grow in my feeling of “choosing myself” – my freedom to make my own decisions in life instead of catering to the decisions and tastes of others.”

Here is his list. I love them. I may think of a couple more. What do you think? What would you add?

Reading

Reading is maybe the most productive thing you can ever do. Here’s what happens: when you die at the age of 100, you’ve just lived one 100-year life.

But when I read a book in a few days time, I just absorbed an entire life, curated, of someone I admire or respect. It’s like every book I read is a mentor. How many mentors do I have? 1000s.

Sleeping

I used to admire people who say, “I only need three hours of sleep a day.”

Only later do I find out that most of these people are borderline mentally ill. Think about the people in your life who say they only need three hours of sleep. Be honest. Maybe they are a little… (fill in the blank).

Why is sleeping productive? There’s brain science about rejuvenating neurons, etc. I read that somewhere. There are all sorts of studies that people who sleep more get sick less, have more willpower, are less at risk for cancer, etc.

But there’s something else. Dan Ariely, a guest on my podcast, says that the brain’s peak performance happens 2-4 hours after you wake up. So here’s what I do. I wake up at 5. I’ll read (or take a walk), until 7 a.m., and then I’ll start writing. Writing is the activity I love most. I’m a little kid again when I write. So I want my brain to be at it’s peak. So I’ll write from 7 – 9 a.m.

Then, I do a trick. Many days (when I can) I’ll take a 1-2 hour nap around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Then I know that two hours later my brain again will be peaking. Maybe not as much as before. But enough. So I’ll write again. This is why I do my Twitter Q&As at 3:30 every Thursday because I know my brain is supercharged then.

I know that if I do the activity I love most when my brain and body have the most energy then that will create the most value, create the most opportunities for me, improve my competence and improve my freedom (because of the opportunities generated).

Eat at Home

I don’t like to eat out. It takes so long. And then you have to wait for the bill. And I always feel bloated and I hate salads in restaurants.

So we make simple meals and we are done in about 10 minutes, two meals a day. I probably save an hour or two by not eating out or not eating junk that will bloat me and make me less productive.

Throw Stuff Out

A few months ago, my wife and I threw out almost everything we owned. What do we really need? I like reading on the Kindle. How many sheets do we need? We never have guests. How many clothes do I need? I was storing clothes I hadn’t worn in forever. Our house was totally empty. It was really nice. I felt like a breath of fresh air was going through my head.

It makes room for new things, new connections between my memories, new things for me to enjoy. Fewer things to obsess over. Cleaning the outside and cleaning the inside reduce stress. Every day I try to throw things out. It makes me feel good.

It also makes me feel like I need less. Throwing things out tells my brain, “you don’t need this anymore,” so my brain stops wanting things.

No News

Someone asked me a few weeks ago to comment on “the situation in Greece.” I guess they are going to default on their debt. So what? This gives TV people something to argue about. I’m happy for them.

People are wired to notice lions much faster than they notice apple trees. That’s why we are alive.

Since there’s no more lions chasing us down Main Street, the news tries to find other ways to trigger that fight or flight reflex.

No Meetings

I never went to a meeting where someone gave me a check at the end. I’ve never traveled to a meeting where it resulted in me making money or being happier. Most meetings can be summarized in a two-line email.

I’ll go to a meeting if it’s with my friends. That’s fun and improves my relationships. But I never go to any other meetings.

No Phone

I talk on the phone maybe once every other day. Again, the two-line email thing works in most cases.

Email

I like Neil Strauss’s approach. He has one hour a day scheduled for emails. His wife has his password so he can’t even log on to email before that hour.

Again, if you’re an employee somewhere you might be in the habit of responding quickly to email from, say, a boss. But try to cut it down to end-of-day when your brain is moving a bit slower and you don’t need it as much. Only do the thing you love most during your peak productive hours.

Experiences

We’re the sum of our experiences and not our material things. Experiences stay with us forever and build us into who we become. They add to our well-being. Material things get lost or thrown out or lose their usefulness.

A good experience for me is: where I meet friends, where I learn something new, where I learn something new that can increase my freedom.

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When Faith And Works Intersect

May 14, 2015

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

No, I’m not going for a bad joke for a 7-year-old. On the other hand, this sounds like a question to meditate on to break your preoccupation with the cares of the world.

Last night, our small group was studying Romans (like we have for the past several months and we’re only to 8:1). We were talking faith and living by faith. But where do the spiritual disciplines fit?

“What comes first? Faith or disciplines?”

This is really a faith versus works argument. Can we make ourselves right with God through our work?

James tackles this question. Actually Paul does, just not as succinctly. Jesus does.

People who have had faith and who have realized that they were drifting away from their relationship with God have rekindled their faith through regular reading from the Bible.

When I lead people into an understanding of the spiritual disciplines and try to lead them into practice, my counsel is that the purpose of practicing study, prayer, mediation, service, worship, simplicity is not to earn your way into God’s favor. It is to work on yourself so that your relationship deepens.

Jon Swanson is writing on routines again. He says, “Think of it this way: a ritual is something we do hoping to influence God. A routine is something we do to work on us. A routine like daily prayer or weekly Sabbath or monthly celebration brings our minds back to the story of God’s work. But thinking about a routine this way means we have to think about what we are doing rather than ritually acting.”

I am a person who needs routine. If my routines are interrupted–such as almost every time I travel–then I can feel it physically as well as spiritually.

Routine, practice, discipline–if done intentionally, they are all ways to work on ourselves.

Faith comes first. Then we go to work.

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Choose If You Can

May 5, 2015

How much free will do you have over your choices?

When you go to the store, are you buying because you need or want something–or are you buying because of the message of an enticing advertisement that made the product so appealing?

At a deeper level, are you making choices based on emotional reaction or with a clear head?

My friend Jim Pinto who wrote a column on the business of automation for me for 10 years has taken to writing on philosophical issues in his retirement. He published a blog on April 27 pondering all the aspects of choice.

Scientists who study the brain debate the amount of free will we actually have. Some think we have none. A philosophy taught in English departments for many years is that everything is culturally derived. Therefore you cannot make general statements. Oops, pardon me English scholars, but I  believe you made a general statement.

The philosophy du jour when I was an undergrad was existentialism. These people looked at life and observed that there would be a few times, maybe only one, where a person will make a decision–the existential decision–that is a determining factor in the rest of their life.

This is not the decision about Irish breakfast tea or jasmine infused green tea. This is the decision that the apostle John talked about (1 John) where he said we must choose to follow the light or to follow darkness.

We have so many choices to make daily–that’s why some people like Steve Jobs wear the same type of clothing every day, it reduces a decision–that we can be lost in decision. It is the paradox of too many choices.

But, there are a few choices that we make daily that determine what sort of life we will lead. It pays great dividends in the future to ponder at the end of every day whether we made the right decisions in important  circumstances. 

We have so many options, so many opinions, so many influencers, that making the right choice requires intentional effort.

Go and do the hard work.

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Read With Mindfulness

April 22, 2015

Did you miss National “Pot” Day? 

Sometimes I wonder about all these “national days”. Or “national months”.

We are in National Overeaters Month. Did you know that?

Paul, the apostle, talked of keeping the mind and body fit along with the spirit. But Christianity often became just a theology rather than a complete way of life. If we are bringing our entire selves as a sacrifice to God making our body a Temple of the Spirit, then overall fitness should be part of our daily habits.

The reason I know that it’s National Overeaters Month is because among all the sources of information I digest daily are writings on health and fitness.

One such source discussed how we eat–indeed, over-eat–due to a response to our emotions. When we feel down, we eat. Doesn’t a big bowl of ice cream seem especially delicious and enticing when we have bad feelings?

Aside from opinions about religion, no other topic has such a diversity of views (and mis-information) than health. Especially nutrition. No carb, who cares about carbs, high fat, no fat, eat as much as you want, starve yourself, and on and on.

Most of us know that in America one of the greatest national diseases is piling our plates too high with food. I just returned from 9 days in Europe. The emphasis was on reasonable portions of high quality food.

One woman said to me following our first dinner served on the river boat, “The amount of food on our plates looked incredibly small. But after I ate, I was satisfied.”

The one buffet on board was for breakfast. I noticed people taking an omelette, a couple of scoops of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal, bread. Wow. I found an omelette with a couple of the small hard-crusted rolls sufficient for the entire morning (considering that this week, breakfast is just an English muffin).

Neither my wife or I gained weight over the 10 days we were gone.

But…

Scanning my nutrition news yesterday, I ran across an article that said be careful of limiting your portions. You may not be getting enough to eat. This was an American source writing to Americans (this blog is read globally, so I try to differentiate). 

I would hate for someone to read this and use it as an excuse to pile the food on higher so as not to starve!

When you read, read mindfully. Be aware of context. Be aware when someone is just filling up space. Even when reading the Bible, be mindful. Don’t just grab a verse at random. Read it in the context of the paragraph, the story, the whole of the Bible.

Be as fit as possible within your capabilities and constraints–emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually. Take your entire body to God as a worthy sacrifice.

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What One Thing

April 16, 2015

I first heard Andy Stanley talk about Nehemiah several years ago. He boiled it down to a talk about What One Thing. That talk was just repeated (or given again) in this week’s Your Move podcast/video.

Combining this thought along with Dr. Henry Cloud’s thoughts on “Necessary Endings” significantly changed my life for the better. I’ve removed myself from a couple of dysfunctional relationships and found new focus.

Nehemiah was the man who served the Persian emperor Artaxerxes somewhere around 444 BC. He heard a report from his brother about the terrible condition of the walls around Jerusalem destroyed by the previous empire–that of the Babylonians (the two are still fighting each other, by the way).

He decided to do something about it. So he went to Jerusalem as sort of mayor and project manager and started rebuilding the walls.

This work was going so well that some enemies in the plains below the city got worried. They needed to get rid of Nehemiah and stop the work. So they sent a message to him as a lure into a trap to come down from the city (which is on a mountain) to meet with them.

Nehemiah replied, “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.”

Great Work

If you use this time of the year for reflection and rededication as I do, this is a great thought to meditate on.

What great work am I or should I be doing this year?

  • Ending a relationship?
  • Beginning a relationship?
  • Strengthening a relationship?
  • Breaking a habit?
  • Starting a new ministry?
  • Becoming more compassionate?

Figure it out. As we set our minds, so shall we become. Let’s set our minds on our great work.

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The Measure of How We Love

March 31, 2015

He had great wealth. However, he also tried to be close to God by following all his commandments. From the very beginning of his life, he said, he had always kept the commandments.

But somehow he just didn’t feel as if he had arrived into God’s grace.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” he asked the teacher.

“Sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow me.”

When the church begins talking about tithing or giving offerings, do our thoughts turn to ourselves? How much should I give? The question usually means, what’s the minimum amount I can give and still be considered good?

And usually we think in terms only of money. We ignore giving our minds to God in order to grow properly or to teach or preach more effectively. Or giving our bodies in service.

Jesus said, follow me. Give up everything in order to follow me. Anything that serves as a barrier to total commitment, get rid of. Just follow. We just love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. That pretty well covers it.

I read this in the Celtic Prayer Book. “It is not what we give of ourselves or our resources that is the measure of how we love, but what we hold back.”

Our teacher didn’t hold back. If we are striving to be a disciple, that is to emulate the life, of Jesus, then we need to stop and analyze our thoughts, feelings and actions. What are we holding back that interferes with being a follower?

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The Tongue Can Cause Great Hurt

March 30, 2015

No one can tame the tongue, full of restless evil and deadly poison. James

She heard that a certain group of people were plotting against a leader. She felt the greatest sympathy for the leader. Surely the source was correct. All the insinuations fit precisely within her already formed prejudices.

It became so easy to just begin telling people about the great injustice. Tell people about those evil people.

And there was more than one she.

And he heard something about another person. And then he saw something suspicious. Not sure what it was, but in his mind it became something else. Bigger. Worse. He just had to tell colleagues. It’s only natural.

Yet another person figured out within the mind what motivated another person. The analysis slipped out in conversation one day.

In every case and more, the word never stops with the friend you just happened to speak with. It spreads. Eventually to the target of the talk.

It may not have even felt like gossip. It felt righteous. A feeling of relief swetpt over the mind and body with the unburdening of the information.

Except.

Except, it was all wrong. There was no basis in fact. There was no attempt at finding facts. And once spoken, the words become beliefs.

Some people make this stuff up in order to gain some sort of advantage or to gain some sort of emotional release. Most of us? Well, most of us just talk without thinking.

And it hurts. The target will hurt deeply.

I’ve witnessed so much of this in my life. Many times just within the past 12-18 months. 

It scares me. I wonder about every off-hand remark I might have made. Every wrong analysis.

James was so right about the tongue. And it is so hard to control.

I also found Psalm 15 and Micah 6:8 to further convict me.

The Renovare Life With God Bible in the commentary on James tells us that we must learn to discipline our wrong emotions and bring them under God’s  control. 

I hurt for those who have been wrongly hurt by an unthinking tongue. Just hoping I’m more of a calm and peace-seeking influence than a fire-starter.

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Disciplines For The Emotions

March 19, 2015

“She is a drama about to  explode.”

“Yes, and her friend is a walking drama.”

Talking about a couple of teenaged girls we know. And I thought, the mother of one is also a walking drama. Emotions worn on the outside. Voice always tinged with anxiety and, er, well, drama.

A friend recently wrote about fear being the source of anger. That is true. Especially fear born of insecurity.

On the other hand, Jesus showed anger. He made a mess of the Temple market. His anger came from a deep sense of what the Temple should be (a place of devout worship of the Father) versus what it had become (a sort of market system for selling animals to be sacrificed to pilgrims needing animals to sacrifice–probably with a comfortable profit margin).

We all have emotions. At least I hope we have not completely buried them. In that case, a trip to a shrink is in order. But the key is–how to we handle those feelings that seem to arise from our gut in a mature and helpful way?

I once had a lot of anger within. Mostly I dealt with it conquered it. The few times it bubbled up to the top over the past 20 years or more I remember with sorrow and repentance.

Remember, we are what we habitually do.

How can we change our habits to help put our emotions in their proper, healthy place?

One suggestion is to develop the habit of practicing gratitude.

I have now put it in my task manager software (I use Nozbe, you could use an outliner, or your calendar) to pop up once a week to sit in the morning and write those things for which I’m grateful.

This places things in perspective. One of my favorite sayings to remind me of perspective is, “In the scheme of life, just how important is this? Not so.” And then I’m reminded of the things in life that are worthy of my attention.

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