Embrace the God Life

The Power of Small Actions

Many of us would love to make big changes in our lives. 

Many of us feel called to accomplish big things with our lives. 

The bigness of our goals can block our progress on these goals because the end result seems so far in the future.

That’s why its so important to remember the power of small actions. Any goal worth having cannot be accomplished in a day, a week, or a month. You can’t loose 50 lbs today. You can’t read the whole bible today. You can’t write an entire book today. Knowing that we can’t do it all today often creates stress that keeps us from moving forward on our goals. Since we cannot do it all today we often do nothing. 

But you can do something today. You can take a small step that moves you forward on your goals. You can eat a healthy meal for lunch today. You can read the Bible for 10 minutes today. You can write 100 words on of a book. These are so easy to accomplish that we feel like we’re not making any progress. But string together a week of these small actions and you’ll have made noticeable progress. String together a month of small actions and others will notice your progress. String together a year of small actions and you will have accomplished your goal.

Michael Hyatt has posted a helpful article on The Power of Incremental Change Over Time.

What small action could you take today that could be the start of accomplishing a life goal?

Review of The Sacred Journey by Charles Foster

Many moons ago, the good folks at Thomas Nelson sent me a copy of The Sacred Journey to review. This is the final installment in The Ancient Practices Series. I have read and reviewed most of the series already and was eager to receive this volume to engage the ancient practice of pilgrimage.

There are two kinds of books that are quite easy to review: books you love and books you hate. Both of these categories create an emotional response that leads to an easily written review. However, I find books that I neither love nor hate to be harder to review. The Sacred Journey falls into this category for me.

This text is Foster’s attempt to “articulate a theology of pilgrimage.” Christianity is about journeying with God, following Jesus on the way, and the practice of pilgrimage captures this essential component of the faith. For Foster, pilgrimage is not a metaphor, but setting out on an actual journey—packing the barest essentials, leaving behind normal commitments, heading out on an unplanned journey, wandering into the unknown, and discovering more of God in the process. The pilgrimage journeys recounted in this book remind me of a mix between an Australian Walkabout (recounted in the old Crocodile Dundee movies) and the journeys of Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. “It’s a dangerous business,” says Bilbo,”going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

Of course there are lessons to be learned on pilgrimage. Foster writes that “Pilgrimage, done properly, is one of the best-known antidotes to gnosticism.” Gnosticism mistakenly separates the spiritual from the physical: spiritual good; physical bad. Christianity, the religion of the good creation, incarnation, and bodily resurrection calls for a spiritual-physical wholeness. The spiritual is embodied in the physical. The extreme physicality of the pilgrimage journey offers a constant reminder of the importance of the physical that strips away the lure of gnosticism. This is good stuff that Foster offers.

Yet two concerns lingered for me throughout this book. The first is the extreme nature of the pilgrimage journeys that Foster recounts. Must one leave behind commitments to jobs and relationships in order to practice pilgrimage? Is there a way to enter the lessons of pilgrimage while remaining at home? Can we approach our daily routine through the eyes of one on a life-long pilgrimage with Christ? Unfortunately Foster does not adequately address the pilgrimage life as lived among daily commitments.

A second concern: Foster frequently explains pilgrimage as understood among other religious traditions. This in itself is not a concern; Christian practice can be enriched through examining practices of other traditions. My concern is that, at times, I lost the connection between an Islamic or Buddhist understanding of pilgrimage and a thoroughly Christian understanding of pilgrimage.

The invitation to embark on a journey is an essential component of the story of Israel in the Old Testament and the life of Jesus in the Gospels. Followers of Christ would be wise to considered what it means to journey with God, even in the daily routines of life.

DMIN Project Preview

I’m focusing all my writing energies on completing the Professional Project for my Doctor of Ministry Degree (similar to a dissertation for a PhD). I hope to complete it in the next couple of weeks, then I’ve got all kinds of fun writing projects in mind for this blog.

In the meantime, here’s a preview paragraph from my DMIN Poroject.

Read More

Scripture Readings for the 12 Days of Christmas

Looking for suggested Bible readings for the 12 Days of Christmas (Dec 25-Jan 5)?
Here you go!

Read More

Family Prayer for the 12 Days of Christmas

Today (Christmas Eve) is the final day of Advent. Tomorrow (Christmas Day) begins the celebration of Christmas, which lasts for 12 days: Dec 25-Jan 5. Here is the prayer guide my family will be using for prayer before meals as we celebrate the birth of Christ for 12 days. We’d love it if you used the prayer guide to pray along with us!

Read More

Christianity is not primarily a belief system whose individual adherents hold a certain set of beliefs, but is rather a way of life for a community of people who live a certain way, informed by the beliefs that they hold together.

Advent Family Prayer

Here is a guide for prayer that I compiled for my family to using this Advent. I’m happy to share it with you. I’d love to hear if you find it useful as well.

Read More

Family Prayer at the Evening Meal

My family has recently begun an intentional prayer and scripture time modeled after the daily office that we use each evening before dinner. Still a work in progress, here is the format we are currently following.

Read More