SHARPENING IRON

As I am trying to get a solid start on 2024, one unfinished project is on my hit list and it relates to this blog and my daily writing habit. 

Over 20 months ago, I set up my own website, gave it a name, and paid for it. My intent was to migrate all the posts from here at blogspot to my own domain.

I was motivated by two thoughts:

1) I had read that blogspot was not the safest place to keep my material. In essence, it was possible - though not probable - that someday everything I ever wrote here could disappear. 

That would definitely bum me out. But my greater motivation for starting my own website was the fact that ...

2) It's not easy for visitors to leave comments on blogspot. 

I know I would get even more value out of writing here if it were easier to gather feedback. 

I want to know what others think. Especially if I have some blindspot in my own belief system.  

I mentioned today from the pulpit the usefulness of considering my collection of various Christian beliefs to be a "rough draft" which is still under revision. Couldn't we better serve each other as "iron sharpening iron" if we had a platform where we could bring our current thoughts and insights into dialogue with other thoughtful believers?

So what has prevented my move to the new website? 

It's good old inertia complicated by a lack of technical know-how. Blogspot's advantage is that it is incredibly user-friendly on the backside. The new website might be just as easy, but it's unfamiliar.

The funny thing is, I know I could start the transition tomorrow if I would just be willing to start it as a rough draft ...

I will keep you posted. Perhaps this could soon become more of a 2-way conversation. 

ANNUAL REVIEW

I came across a "Personal Annual Review" template from Sahil Bloom as 2023 was drawing to a close. 

I have made plenty of useful resolutions in past Januaries, but this year I was looking for a new angle.

So I thought Bloom's Annual Review might be a useful exercise. I was confident enough in this belief that, even before I had applied it to my own life, I recommended it a few days ago through the weekly email newsletter that I publish for Mission Resource.

Now that I have started working through it myself? 

I wish I could pass it to everyone I know.

In his Annual Review, Bloom walks you through 7 key questions:

1. What did I change my mind on this year?
2. What created energy this year?
3. What drained energy this year?
4. Who were the boat anchors in my life? (People who held you back. This is the only question I couldn't relate to.)
5. What did I not do because of fear?
6. What were my greatest hits and worst misses this year?
7. What did I learn this year?

The longer I have sat with these questions in front of me, the more insight I have gained. As Bloom quotes from John Dewey: "We do not learn from experience ... we learn from reflecting on experience."

It's not too late for some reflecting on 2023! It will make a solid foundation for further growth in 2024. 

Bloom's work is aesthetically and functionally well-formatted. You can download your own copy at sahilbloom.com/annual-review for the price of your email address. (Bloom publishes a regular email newsletter that is worth checking out too.) 

FATHERS

For this week's message, I am looking at the story of Jesus' extra days at the temple in Jerusalem at age 12.

I am focused on the explanation He gives his earthly parents when they return to Jerusalem in a panic. Mary scolds Him a bit - in true motherly fashion - "Why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." 

Jesus picks up on the word "father" and uses it to reference Someone quite different from Joseph: "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

Interestingly, this is the first recorded instance of Jesus calling God His "Father" and the last mention of His human father, Joseph. 

Since last summer, on a daily basis, I have been intentionally following Jesus' lead in addressing God as He taught us: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." 

I stop and linger over that word, Father. I suppose most of us could spend a lifetime meditating on God's fatherly love for us and never exhaust all that He intends for us to understand.

But in reading the story of Jesus at the temple, I am struck that I have only ever seen one side of "Father": God's warmth toward us ...

But it also expresses our obligation to Him as His sons and daughters. 

Because in the end, a father is someone who loves me and asks me to do things.

As a son, I love my father and I do the things he asks me to do.

When I pray to "my Father in heaven", it should call to mind not only His love for me but also my obligation to do what He asks of me. 

ALL SYSTEMS GO

I once read about a study that showed anyone keeping a messy, disorganized workspace added an extra 3 hours to his work week. 

Who knows how a study could measure such a thing, but it certainly sounds plausible. The rationale is that such an environment wastes the workers time in unnecessary distraction as well as constant searching for something amid the various piles.

Knowing one of my major goals for 2024 is to write a dissertation, I figured a good cleaning of my home office was step #1. 

After all, without a system in place, a goal is just wishful thinking. 

So not only was I dusting and decluttering over the past two days, I was also devising new systems to replace old, inefficient ones. 

These systems aren't visible in the photos, but they are there, under the surface. 

By the end of January, I will know what's working and what needs tweaking. 

It feels like foundational progress and a good start to the new year. 

REFLECTION

I've done plenty of New Year's resolutions in the past, but this year I am stepping into new territory and doing some year end review first.

Although I have never done it intentionally, the value of reflecting on the year that has just passed now strikes me as being quite obvious.

I like Sahil Bloom's ideas for a "Personal Annual Review". It includes the following 7 questions:

1. What did I change my mind on this year?
2. What created energy this year?
3. What drained energy this year?
4. Who were the boat anchors in my life? (These are people who "hold you back from your potential".)
5. What did I not do because of fear?
6. What were my greatest hits and worst misses this year?
7. What did I learn this year?

It feels like some time spent meditating on these questions would provide an excellent foundation for developing goals and dreams for 2024. 

Would you agree?

If you are interested in a little more background and a nicely formatted document in which to do your own reflecting on 2023, you can download Bloom's template at sahilbloom.com/annual-review.

GETTING STUFF DONE

Just over two days into the new year and I am already learning new lessons.

Like how useful steroids can be.

My latest sinus infection chose Christmas Day for its arrival. The next day I felt remarkably better. But then the third day I woke up at 1:00 am to drive Sarah to the Fort Wayne Airport, two and a half hours away. 

I was glad to do it, but I know it played a role in giving this infection a major second wind. By Sunday morning, it had travelled into my vocal cords, leaving me to croak my way through the sermon. 

My Sunday afternoon nap - usually a trusted friend - betrayed me. When I woke, I couldn't speak at all.

Today, I decided that I had resisted seeing a doctor long enough.

At 3:38 pm, I walked out of the clinic with an antibiotic for my sinuses and a steroid for my voice.

The doctor had said, "This late in the day you might want to wait to start the steroid tomorrow or else you won't be able to sleep tonight." 

Wanting my voice back sooner rather than later, I took the first day's dosage of the little white pills as soon as I got home. (As a guy, I know that following a doctor's advice is optional - like braking when a traffic light turns yellow.)

This evening, with newfound energy, I decided to rearrange my home office. I had been thinking it would make an excellent new year project since I had become aware of the setup not being optimal for my current workflow. 

Now it's nearly 1:00 am, and my office looks like this:

Yes, it's a little bit cluttered, but tomorrow I will finish organizing things and decluttering. The work side of the room is somewhat better already:

Anyway, all this to say that I might have to look into taking steroids on a regular basis. 😉

OLD SCARS AND NEW STARTS

Some odds and ends to start the New Year. Today's themes included new starts and Haiti.

Today marks the completion of 3 years of daily blogging. It has been useful to me in so many ways. If only I could find a way to monetize it and get paid for doing what is now essentially a daily habit, that would be great. 😉 But seriously, I know for a fact it will pay of in some significant way in 2024 when I will be doing a ton of writing because 2024 will be ...

The year of the dissertation. I will need to make my dissertation a top priority this year if it is going to get finished - and it WILL get finished. I have come too far to not get to the point where I can force people to call me "Dr. Gross"!

Today I wasn't thinking about the dissertation, though, since January 1st is ...

Haiti's Independence Day. Our friends, the Michels, invited me and others over for pumpkin soup, the traditional dish for this special day. (Storly Michel is Haitian and he and his wife Kate were instrumental in introducing our family to Haiti in 2010.) It was wonderful. (Though I have had a sinus infection that has travelled south to my vocal cords, so it was hard to communicate.)

Even though I wasn't feeling topnotch, I resisted taking a nap after I got home because for some reason this year - instead of focusing on a bunch of New Year's resolutions - I was determined to find at least one significant unfinished project to complete before 2024 ramps up.

I have plenty to choose from, so I found one of the oldest. 

Years ago, for the arrival of each of our 4 kids, I decided to make a cross out of stained glass to have in the hospital room during the births. (One of my cooler ideas, I must say.) 

Amazingly, I actually followed through with each of the kids, and so Melissa and I have 4 similar, yet unique, crosses in our possession which will someday be passed down to the kids. 

They are nothing fancy, but they obviously hold a ton of sentimental value.

Well, we took those crosses to Haiti with us when we moved there in 2013 and not too long after we got settled, Caleb's got broken. (A story for another day.)

To fix stained glass is not quick or easy, even if you have the proper equipment. Which I did not in Haiti.

So I kept the broken cross and brought it back to the States and it has been taking up counter space in my home office for the past three years...

Making me feel guilty. 

I had tried a couple of times to simply super glue it, but glue was just not doing the job. The cross folded forward each time. 

So today seemed like the perfect time to put this little project to rest once and for all and so I dug out my soldering iron, flux, and copper tape and I DID IT RIGHT.

It felt good.

And the fact that the cross now has some scars from its time in Haiti seems symbolically appropriate: 

Nobody who lives in Haiti can ever escape being broken in significant ways. 

Caleb, I can now die in peace, knowing I won't be passing your cross to you in several pieces. 😏