Category: Ramblings

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Consistency: Good Habits Are Hard To Start Once You Stop

Well, The Inconsistent Blogger is back!

My inconsistency in blogging has me doing some thinking. We all value consistency and faithfulness, and therefore we want to connect with people who are consistent. Inconsistent people are hard to be friends with, because it’s hard to have a relationship with someone we cannot count on.

And this teaches us something about life in general: We need to be consistent!
Image with the statement: Consistency is key.

At the end of 2017 at a family get-together, my sister-in-law Alisha made a humorous comment at the dinner table about my social media presence. She mentioned that she won’t see anything from me for a month, and then her feed will be inundated with quotes and articles from me for the next two weeks. She was absolutely right – it was “famine or feast” with my posting in 2017.

My inconsistency last year spurred me to write 52 posts to use in 2018 before I posted my first one. However, I still didn’t post 52, because my computer crashed at the end of March and I had some ridiculous problems in getting a new one up and running. It wasn’t six months’ worth of problems, but once I stopped posting, guess what? It was easy to keep on “not posting.”

Isn’t that just like the rest of life? If you stop working out due to an injury, it is easier to continue not working out. If you stop dieting when you go on vacation, it is easier to continue not dieting. And in spiritual matters, if you stop attending church worship services or stop reading God’s Word, it is easy to continue not attending and not reading.

But since we know these things are good for us, then we ought to start them back up again as soon as possible.

Restarting Good Habits

And while blogging does not fit into the same category as many other beneficial items, my point is that consistency is important. And so my question for today is:
What spiritual activities have you stopped or been inconsistent about doing that you need to start back up again?

Consistency isn’t natural and takes intentional hard work. Aldous Huxley said:
“Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.” Ha! What a great quote! Yes, the body of a dead person stays in the same place and does the same thing each day. And so the inconsistent life may be more natural and normal in this world, but such inconsistency does not help you move along the path God wants for you.

I hope you’ll choose today as the day to restart a beneficial spiritual discipline!

(And my plan is to post the rest of the year on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)

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Changing Conversations (A Skill That So Many People Need to Develop!)

Changing Conversations. Goodness… how badly this is needed today!
Are you like me and have become frustrated with the conversations you see on Social Media? Have you seen the fact that we no longer even know HOW to have conversations? We have a long way to go regarding Changing Conversations that are taking place around us! I’ve had several people tell me they have become extremely frustrated with how difficult it has now become in knowing what you should or shouldn’t say or post. We definitely need some help in changing our conversations!

a picture of two sheep bleating at one another symbolizing our need for changing conversations with others
This is too often what our conversations feel like – a lot of bleating at one another!

One of the phrases we have latched onto at FBC Newton regarding Changing Conversations was added into our statement of roles and tasks:

“I Am a Disciple.
I Am a Disciple-Maker.
And I Am a Missionary.
So as I am going,
I will change my conversations, and
I will excel still more.”

We are called to be Disciple-Makers. In fact, according to 2 Timothy 2:2 , we are to Make Disciples who will Make Disciples. This verse gives us four generations of disciplemaking:
Paul disciples Timothy who disciples Faithful Men who disciple More Faithful Men!

Therefore, we talk about the commitment that as a Disciple-Maker, I will change my conversations attempting to bring God and Christ into every conversation, teaching others how to know and obey everything that Jesus commanded. To do that we need to commit to these items:

  • I will intentionally make new friends
  • I will make time to be part of a disciple group
  • I will share the things I’ve learned as a disciple with my family and my d-group

    • I will change my conversations. If you are thinking that some of these roles and tasks bleed into each other, you would be right. Being a disciple, bleeds into disciplemaking, which also overlaps with being a missionary. And so changing our conversations deals with all three. The truth is that as we are going about our day we converse with people all day long. We talk about the weather, we talk about sports, we talk about recreation, we talk about vacations, we talk about family, we talk about the pastor. But since we are to “Walk Like Jesus Did,” then we should always be working to change the conversation (to steer it) toward God.

    For example, if the weather has provided a summer drought and finally there is a break in it through a strong rain, then when someone says, “It sure was great to get some rain yesterday,” we typically say something like “Yes, it sure was.” But how about working to intentionally change the conversation and move it toward God: “Yes, it sure was. God really blessed us in sending us that rain.”

    See that wasn’t hard at all. You barely changed it, but you brought God into it, opening the door for more conversation about God in the future. And as you do it more and more, it gets easier and easier to bring God into your conversations. And in time you will be able to move the conversation more clearly toward Jesus.

    Changing Conversations. We need you to start doing it today.
    So as you are going wherever you go today, go out and Change Your Conversations for Jesus!

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    Errors and Minor Inconveniences: I Apologize

    As often happens in life, I find that things are not quite as easy as I had hoped. In re-starting my posts, some things have changed with the tools I use to publish posts. I fixed the error that occurred with my email recipients, but in a similar way, Facebook is now only giving an excerpt and a link, not the full article like it used to do. I’m looking for a fix, but until I find one, it means that any Facebook followers who want to see the full article will have to follow the link to my website. I apologize for the inconvenience! The best alternative if you want to get the full article without having to follow the link would be to sign up for the email which sends the full article directly to your inbox. You can do that by clicking here.

    And if you have been on this journey with me for the past few years, you are probably asking yourself: when will his posting taper off? Will it be in one week or two? You may be surprised! You’ll get at least 52 this year, and here’s how I know for sure…

    While I have had some difficulty in the past finding time to post regularly, this year I decided I would not post anything until I got at least 52 posts ready! And so that’s what I did. I plan to send out two a week (on Tuesdays and Thursdays), which will take us through one-half of the year.

    When did I find time to put together 52 posts at once? Well, it was during my sinus infection that kept me at home for several days around Christmas. (And yes, I did write many of them while on medicine! I tell you this so you can give me some grace on the weird ones!) If we get to the end of 52 posts and then they suddenly stop, then just pray that I get another sinus infection to crank out another set! Just kidding – please don’t pray that for anybody!

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    Day One 2016: Time for a New Year and a New Plan

    Day One 2016 - Happy New Year with fireworksWow… another year over and done. And a new one about to begin. We come to Day One 2016, what will take place this year?

    The quick review of my 2015 plan:
    Though I had selected 365 quotes to share through the year, the actually number of posts I made was slightly less than that due to me not posting on several mornings. I had all sorts of great excuses for those days I missed: the issue of my computer dying, then I had the A/C at the house go out, and there were a few days I didn’t post when I went out of town for various reasons. Whatever the excuse, instead of meeting my goal of 365 daily posts, I ended up with about 340 daily posts, and I learned a number of lessons.

    The main lesson I learned is that it takes a lot of work to post something every single morning. I remain impressed by those who do so with such consistency.

    But the other key lesson I learned is that I didn’t feel I could flesh out some of the ideas as much as I would like due to me pushing myself to post something each day. Of course, the only one who put the pressure on me to post each day was myself because I set a goal and wrote about it at the beginning of last year. So for this new year of 2016, I am going to cut back and I plan to post less often than I did in 2015 but more often than in ’13 & ’14. That means that I plan to post something about three days a week. I hope that doing so will allow me to put more thought into the posts, and therefore make them more meaningful to everyone who takes the time to read them.

    Thank you for reading and for encouraging me throughout the year. And I hope that this year is one where you will grow closer to God than you ever have before.

    On Day One 2016, that is my New Year’s Resolution – to grow deeper in my relationship to Jesus Christ than ever before – and I hope that is also the commitment you are making to Him this year.

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    I Might Have Made An Error

    In response to my previous post on unmet expectations, my wife Paige has informed me that I made a grievous error in something I stated.

    Her informing me of the error went something like this…
    As I was getting ready to go for my morning jog, I had gotten out of bed, changed into some running clothes, and stepped back into the bedroom. Standing beside the bed, I bent down to give her a kiss on the cheek, and then told her: “I’m going running. I’ll see you when I get back.”
          She slightly opened up one eye, glared at me with it, and said to me in all seriousness: “I am not a blanket-stealer.”blanket symbolizing my possible error

    Her further defense:
    She says she does not steal the blanket, but that the fault rests completely on me, since I kick the covers off of myself and throw them onto her in the middle of the night. She asserts that at that precise moment the blanket becomes fair game for her to do with as she pleases, and I have no right to re-claim it or complain.

    She might have a point. What do you think?