Here’s the TED talk that introduced Brene to the world.

The post Sunday Video: TED Speaker Brene Brown on why Jesus Wept appeared first on Chris Morton.

A short contract job working for an advertising agency changed how I think about every day. We billed our clients hourly and tracked our own work. This made sure that we were staying balanced individually and billing accurately.

I’m going through what a friend jokingly referred to as “wedding withdraw”. I recently completed my graduate degree, I’m helping start a new church community and hunting for a job. It’s a strange season where my days are unstructured and my goals are self-directed. This has left me with a constant sense of fear/guilt about not accomplishing anything. 

A friend of mine is a Quaker and Ignatian trained spiritual director. When I shared my anxiety with him, I assumed he would tell me to get in touch with my true self or trust in the grace of God. Instead, he suggested I could do the same thing I did at the agency: track my hours.

At first this sounded really unspiritual. I was hoping for some hocus-pocus prayer or a productivity strategy. What I realized was I just needed to be more mindful of what I was already doing. The best way to do this was to take the time to be aware of time.

Suddenly, everything from writing this blog to putting away laundry has a new significance. I have a good idea of what I did, and how long it took. I am also aware of how much time I “wasted”, surfing the web or watching Netflix. The encouraging thing is, most days, I actually did something!

The post You Did Something Today appeared first on Chris Morton.

Alas, I knew this lifestyle couldn’t last. Not only would I eventually run out of money, but I needed to get back to chasing after my vocation.

These five steps are helping me get my life back on track.

1. Seek God’s will.
This is the perfect season to reevaluate. Revisit the deep truths and big questions of life. Spend time in scripture and in prayer. Use tools like the prayer of examen and free writing to pray through where you are coming from, and where you are going.

Don’t do this alone! Ask friends and mentors what you should you do differently. Meet with a spiritual director to help you listen to the Holy Spirit. The goal of this might be as grand as determining your vocation, or as specific as creating a “Stop. Start. Continue.” list.

2. Make sure your situation is sustainable.

Getting your life back on track will likely take much longer than you would like. You have huge decisions to make here, and you don’t want them to be ruled by a shrinking bank account. You may have to find a part time job, a roommate or a tighter budget. Do whatever you have to do to make sure you are stable enough to dream.

3. Make a list.
Once I’m off my game, things start falling through the cracks. Getting on top of this is as simple as making a list. A good list has two types of items “Big Projects” that are broken into “Next Steps.”

Put everything on the list. Usually the top item on my list is “make a list” followed by basics like “grocery shopping” and “brush teeth”. Everything goes on the list. Nothing feels better than marking things off the list!

4. Build a schedule.
Unstructured time is the bane of both productivity and creativity. When time is unassigned, it will get wasted. Michael Hyatt suggests creating a budget because “the only difference is that you plan how you will spend your time rather than your money.” If you sleep eight hours a week, that leaves you with 112 waking hours to spend. Use them wisely!

5. Envision your long term goal.
One of the scariest questions I’ve been asked is “what do you want?” Perhaps it’s a deeply seeded fear of failure, or anger about my current reality. What helps is thinking long term. I can’t fix my problems for tomorrow, but I can begin to dream about my life fifteen years from now.

Currently, I am working on a fifteen year plan. When you write something down it becomes tangible. This gives you something specific to work toward. One element of this plan is my vocation. My goal is that by 2028, I will be spending 50% teaching and developing leaders in a local church, and 50% of my time developing leaders in a national missionary movement. Once I had the courage to write that down, it is easy to work backwards to figure out what to do next.

What do you do when you get off your game?

The post Try These Five Steps and Get Your Life Back on Track appeared first on Chris Morton.

Thick practices or (liturgies) are rituals of ultimate concern, rituals that are identity-forming and telos-laden, that embed particular visions of the good life, and do so in a way that seeks to trump other ritual formations.

So what kind of liturgies do the people in the congregation you serve in embody? How do they increase people’s honesty and love for God? How do they help shape people for God’s purposes in the world?

JR Woodward, Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World

The post Habits that Change the World appeared first on Chris Morton.

High School and College had provided a clear framework of how life was supposed to work. I just had to show up for class, do my work, and not do anything too stupid. But now I was in the real world. I had to find a job and pay my bills and find my place in community.

Unfortunately, there are no printed guidelines telling us how the game of life works. We have to figure it out, more or less on our own. Scriptures, and most plainly, the Sermon on the Mount, provide an ethical framework of how Christians interact in the world. But how do do you deal with disappointments, find a job, talk to people and get stuff done?

Andy Stanley says that it’s not experience that’s the best teacher, but other people’s experience. Here are five of my favorite resources from other people who have already figured out what it means to act like an adult.

The Road Less Traveled – M. Scott Peck

M.S. Peck’s classic will help you grow up by admitting that life is tough, love is hard, and then getting over it.  Peck was not a Christian at the time he wrote it, and it is fascinating to see his thinking on psycho-spiritual issues taking shape.  I think of this book everytime I run into a difficulty, or have to fix my car.

Life is Difficult.

This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.  It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it.  Once we truly see that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult.  Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

You can read my full review here.

Spirit of the Disciplines – Dallas Willard

Dallas Willard’s most practical read.  He explains what it means to be a disciple, and more specifically, how people change.  The basic idea is that Jesus really meant us to live out all the things he said. Change happens through Vision, Intention and Means.

A discipline is an activity within our power – something that we can do – which brings us to a point where we can do what at present we cannot do by direct effort.

Let Your Life Speak – Parker Palmer

There are some wonderful, cheerful people in this world.  They may have bad days, but they seem to always be surrounded by silver linings.  Then there is the rest of us, for whom life just feels heavier.  We are realists and melancholics, capable of seeing past the lies of the world, but prone to get caught up in our own.  Life is a constant search for purpose, meaning, and vocation.

Parker Palmer is a teacher and a Quaker.  He has stared into the depths of his soul, and come out, with a knowledge of his true self on the other side.

Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.

A Severe Mercy – Sheldon Vanauken

How do you shelve this book? Memoire? Romance? Apologetics?  The story of two Ivy League pagans who fall in love, travel the world, get to know Jesus and hang out with C.S. Lewis. It also stares death in the face. The book tells of a truly great romance. In doing so, it deconstructs the very idea of romantic love.

Lewis had been his mainstay in this half-year of sounding the depths of his grief. He it was who had said that Davy’s death was a severe mercy. A severe mercy — the phrase haunted him: a mercy that was as severe as death, a death that was as merciful as love. For it had been death in love, not death of love.

Read my entire review here.

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
– Stephen Covey

While not the first, Covey’s classic is the definitive self-help book.  I often find myself relating to his story about the kids in the subway at the beginning of the book.  The term “tyranny of the urgent” appears in my mind whenever I get stuck taking care of unnecessary emergencies. Of all the organizational tools I’ve encountered, none are as straight forward and applicable as his four quadrants.  And of course, there’s his legendary saying, “Start with the end in mind.”

Until a person can say deeply and honestly, “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,” that person cannot say, “I choose otherwise.”

What books have helped you handle life as an adult?

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