A Little Bit of This and a Touch of That
Today I share a few random thoughts I've gathered over the past several weeks. I hit on preparing your heart and mind for the political season to spiritual growth to why I offer a paid subscription.
To this point in 2024, I’ve written in a series format — each month was a different series of posts on one subject. If you’re curious, here are the 5 different series I’ve written this year (each link goes to the last post in the series, which has links for the entire series embedded):
January | Word of the Year
How to choose one word and grow from that word in 2024.February | Promises of God
Learn what a promise from God looks like and how to step forward.March | Disappointment with God
How can you process your disappointment with God, and how do you move forward?April | Church Sacraments (Communion + Baptism)
These outward acts produce inward grace, but what do they mean?May | Themes in Scripture
Using just one chapter in Genesis, I identified five themes or symbols that appear throughout the Bible.
Today, I take a break from the series format. I’m taking a short breather.
Instead, here are a few random thoughts I’ve collected over the last few weeks. Don’t worry; a new series will be coming soon (and may be embedded within this post…see if you can catch it!).
Promised Lands to Desert Sands
Over the next two Sundays, I’ll preach at my church in Shawnee, Kansas. I’ll be sharing two themes I wrote about in May — Covenant and Egypt. We’ll see how Abraham journeys from the Promised Land to the Desert Sands of Egypt and then back. I’m excited to dive deeper into those two thoughts, and I’d love to have you join me.
You can watch in person at Cross Points Church at 10 a.m. or our live stream on YouTube (same time).
If you can’t be here live but would like to hear me speak, I’ll preach again in July (14th and 21st)—at the same time and place!
Market Insulation
I’ve been reading and following Seth Godin for over 15 years now. He is an exceptional thinker, especially in marketing and promotion. He writes daily on his blog and does interviews across the podcast sphere. Recently, he wrote a post, which I found to be my constant dilemma when promoting my own work.
It's possible that your day will be more enjoyable if you are insulated from the market.
If you have a boss who has a boss...
If you don't have to review the sales numbers for the products you created or edited...
If you have raised a ton of venture investment...
If you are embracing the discontent of being unpublished, undistributed or unfunded...
An alternative is to seek to strip away all market insulation, the equivalent of the kid selling cookies at a table in front of their house. Either people buy the cookies or they don't.
The market might be wrong, it might be callous or it might be stupid, but there it is, right in front of you.
Too much market awareness pushes us to be short-sighted, hustling to pander.
And too much insulation almost guarantees that we'll end up solipsistic, listening only to one voice and ultimately bitter when it turns out the voice was wrong.
For the last 15 years I’ve bounced back and forth between these two spaces of complete insulation and nothing at all. I was never happy with the results. I want my work to go as far as possible, but I would love to find some compensation from it as well.
I finally feel like I’ve found that happy medium here on Substack. If you are reading this, it most likely means it is via a free, non-subscription channel. A few of you, though, have generously created a paid subscription. I am not getting rich. I haven’t even earned enough to pay for the coffees I purchase as I write a few mornings a week. Yet, there is a sense of validation, and I am learning what you, the reader, believe has worth and value.
If you read regularly and feel like this newsletter is worth $5/month, I’d love for you to become a paid subscriber.
If you read even occasionally and feel like someone you know might benefit from something I share, I’d love for you to share that post or the publication in general. It warms my heart and tells me I’m on the right path regarding topics and information.
How do I encourage spiritual growth?
Recently, I’ve been diving into the Substack Notes function. If you’re unfamiliar with Notes, it is a Twitter/X-type application native to the Substack brand. I’ve enjoyed it because it exposes me to more writers and authors in the areas I’m interested in and completely unique subjects, too.
One of these authors I’ve been introduced to is Ryan Hughley, who writes a newsletter called The Lighthouse.
Ryan is a pastor and spiritual director, and something he wrote a few weeks back spurred me to map out how I encourage spiritual growth for the men and women I encounter throughout the week. This isn’t exhaustive, but it’s where I’ve landed most recently.
Intentional—When we want something, we must intentionally make it happen. Even when success feels organic and spontaneous, if we are honest with ourselves, we will see intentional acts that have led to that achievement.
Community—we are not meant to grow alone, but too often, this is our answer to moments of hurt or frustration. God designed us to live and grow in a community.
Bible Reading—Scripture is the Word of God and the bread of life. It sustains us.
Prayer—Communication with God looks different for everyone. Sometimes, it is deep intercession, but other times, it is short, consistent chatter with our Maker.
Re-Learning to Think
Finally, just last night, I came across an interview with one of my favorite political thinkers — David French. French is a columnist with the New York Times, giving opinions on politics, law, religion, and more. David is a former lawyer and a devoted Christian. What I love most about David French is that he is a true Christian moderate, meaning if you lean to the left or right, you’ll disagree with something he says.
In this interview, he doesn’t dive into specific topics, but he generally shares how to prepare your heart and mind for the coming political season. I have no doubt it will be contentious, so we need to know how to approach the battles we encounter. Give this thirty-minute interview a listen to help prep yourself to decipher fact from fiction.