"Nobody believes your excuses except for you."
-that person you wanted to invest in
-that book you wanted to write
-that weight you wanted to lose
-that habit you wanted to break
-that hobby you wanted to take up
-that waste of time you wanted to give up
-that relationship you wanted to fix
-that group you wanted to join
-that career you wanted to change
-that trip you wanted to go on
-that time you wanted to get out of bed


Moments of commitment and inspiration are rare. Use them to fuel you into action.

What really matters to you right now?
What will matter to you in five years?
Twenty?
Fifty?
One hundred?

"Embrace relational uncertainty. It's called romance.
Embrace spiritual uncertainty. It's called mystery.
Embrace occupational uncertainty. It's called destiny.
Embrace emotional uncertainty. It's called joy.
Embrace intellectual uncertainty. It's called revelation."
-Mark Batterson



You never know.

"To try to keep love just for us is to kill it slowly. We are not made just for each other; we are called to a ministry of love to everyone we meet and in all we do."

We're trying to not eat out on dates for a month.
A few things we've learned:
-Goat cheese can cost a fortune if you don't watch out.
-Tortillas are more that just convenient handles. Buy the good kind and toast them in butter.
-Limes are key.
-Like Mom says, cleaning as you go makes it all easier.
-Always listen to Old Blue Eyes while cooking.
-Cooking together is more than just preparing food. We highly recommend it.

Things I was taught about "The Old Man and The Sea":

A man is not made for defeat.
A man does not depend on luck.
A man bears pain and hardship without complaint.
A man does not boast.
A man finds inspiration from others.
A man always goes down swinging.
A man's legacy comes from maintaining his integrity.

What if your "catch" doesn't bring you your long awaited success?
What if your purpose is to exhaust yourself for the sake of integrity?
What if your status, control, comfort, pocket, or reputation never grows?
Is integrity worth it?

Connect the physical and mental.

Maybe this will help me:
Face to the ground-"You are God and I am not."
On knees with arms lifted-"You are God and I am in awe."
Standing with hands raised-"You are God and I stand in hope."
Dancing-"You are God and I am foolish."

I realized something about a guy named Job that I read about today that I thought was interesting.
His initial response to difficulty wasn't the internal prayer. It was the external posture.
Maybe our physical actions do carry weight when we come before God.
It makes sense really. We are physical beings so our physical responses are always going to say something about what is going on on the inside.
Now, the phrase we've heard for years about "God looking at the heart" still remains ultimately true.
However, what if our hearts response and our physical response are more connected and synced that we think?

For example, Wambach's header to beat Brazil didn't result in reflective pondering. There were five of us in a living room raising the roof like it was 2002.

Another thought on fear:
"The alternative to fear is boredom."

"To be obsessed with the destination is to remove the focus from where you are."

John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear."

Why do we love?
So we can be fearless.

Challenge:
Pick a day within the next month (for me it will be July 30th).
Pray the prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy," throughout the entire day.
The only goal of the day is to encounter God.

That is the only goal.
No plans, or learning, or revelation, or change, or growth, or studying, or fixing, or agendas.
For in the end, if those are the reasons for our longing for God, then even our commitment to Him is self-centered, is it not?

Recent discovery:

Don't spend money on possessions.
Spend it on experiences.

Fake it til you make it.

"Psychiatrists posit that we're born with only two innate fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. That means every other fear is learned. And more importantly, that means every other fear can be unlearned." -Batterson

A few things I've learned about writing so far:
(Many of these ideas were taken from Lamott, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Steinbeck)

-How would I describe it if I had never heard someone describe it before?
-Watch what happens today. What gave me excitement and why? Make the reader see it too and make him have the same feeling you had.
-Always try something that has never been done before or that others have tried and failed.
-Because there have been such great writers in the past, writers today are driven far out beyond where he can go. Out to where no one can help him.
-Only the human heart in conflict with itself seems worth writing about. The basis of all things is to be afraid.
-You own what happened to you.
-We rarely stop and pay attention. An author makes you stop and pay attention and that is a great gift.
-The reason you remember something is because it was meaningful to you. Find out why.
-Write what you see in a one inch picture frame. One memory, one scene, one exchange.
-Take out everything you possibly can.
-Start with your childhood and write down everything you remember. Kindergarten, lunch table, smells, old pictures, Boy Scouts, holidays, birthday candles, Grandparents, houses...fill up a book of memories.
-Pay attention to the way great writers write.
-It's not like you don't have a choice, because you do--you can either write or kill yourself.
-Don't be tidy. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it's going to get. Be naked and immediate.
-Use up lots of paper. Just scribble away.
-Write about the little things that everyone identifies with but thinks no one else notices.
-Sit down to write at same time every day.
-Keep a stack of your ten favorite books by your bed for inspiration.

"Sometimes God won't intervene until something is humanly impossible."
Don't let all of your prayers be focused on asking God to reduce the odds.
Maybe the odds stacking up is exactly what He is waiting on.

"How much happier would you be, how much more of you would there be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos?"

One of the greatest tragedies in life is to have a god that gets smaller as each day passes by.
Practicality will draw you further and further into yourself until one day you look around and see wood on all sides and hear dirt settling in on top.
I hope God will keep me fearful because the best of all things is to be afraid.
That way I won't be living just because I woke up, but I'll have to run.
It is when we are afraid that we are most desperate, and when we are most desperate we are most alive.

I never want someone to say, "He used to be desperate."

The problem with the question, "what is God's will for my life?" is the "my life" part.
What is "my life" really?

The question should be, "what is God's will?" and my little life should fit into that.
The funny thing is it's a good bit easier to find clarity with this question.

One of the best decisions I've ever made:

Meeting regularly with a mentor.

Preach yourself the gospel every day.

It all comes down to this.

The key to turning ideas into actions...simplicity.
I need to break things down.
Here's a break down that helps me.

All I have to serve God with on this planet:
-my mind
-my mouth
-my eyes
-my hands

Am I?

God bless the U.S.AAAAAAAA...AAAAAAAA...AAAAAAAA!

Death...just a "sudden clearing of the eyes."

I have nothing to fall back on.
This is obvious and I am so thankful.

Christ's courage is all that is actually mine.

"Most successful young people don't look inside themselves and then plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life."-David Brooks

Pilate was merciful till it became risky.

I'm so close to being just like him.

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
-C.S. Lewis