John and Kathy Deisher

One Call, One Harvest, 50 Teams

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Tick-tock, am I on the Clock?

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Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Being self-employed means I feel like I am always on the clock. In truth, I am not, and have some fairly defined boundaries, but it still feels that way. So, it was no surprise when I pulled a list of all my saved-for-reading-later bookmarks and discovered a wealth of time-management and productivity tips. But, to be absolutely honest, each article may have a sentence or two that means something to me or gives me an idea I want to try.

Since January, I have been using Obsidian as both my task-management and personal knowledge management tool. It was a move born of necessity since I do not have the internet at my home and my freebie phone refuses to act as a hot spot (my phone is pretty much relegated to communication; everything else is in Obsidian). So, I have to do most of my work offline on my computer. I use Obsidian and a notebook to do most of my work (including printing out my notes for talks and lectures, which is pretty old school). I am still tweaking Obsidian, but I am committed to this process through 2022.

So, I need to go through these sites, pull the one or two things I want to retain, and then delete them. And maybe quit looking at so many articles on being productive and just go be productive.

A Deliberate Decision

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Photo by name_ gravity on Unsplash

Church is an appointed gathering of named people in particular places who practice a life of resurrection in a world in which death gets the biggest headlines: death of nations, death of civilization, death of marriage, death of careers, obituaries without end. Death by war, death by murder, death by accident, death by starvation. Death by electric chair, lethal injection, and hanging. The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe…

Eugene Peterson, “Practice Resurrection”

Resurrection tends to get the headlines at Easter, and rightly so. But the practice of resurrection is a daily, intentional, deliberate decision to be the people of life. That is not how we normally think of the church, but maybe we should. Church is not a place we go; it is a practice, a position, a belief that we come from in order to live and give life. It is the practice of resurrection.

What is the Reason?

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Wood fence in the country
Photo by Edan Cohen on Unsplash

“Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.”

― G. K. Chesterton

I sometimes look at things and think, “Why in the world did someone do THAT?” something, whatever it is. You probably know what I mean. It tends to be something that I would have done differently or even not done at all. The trick is to stop, take a step back, and look at it from the other’s perspective. That means I change the question so that I can begin to see why someone would do it that way. Maybe the reason for doing it that way no longer exists, but at one time it did. Or maybe the reason still does exist but I need to look at it differently. Chesterton’s quote is a great reminder to stop and reflect before making changes just because you don’t see the reason for something.

Weary

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Man sitting in the water reading a book

weary

adjective

  1. Physically or mentally tired.
  2. Expressive of or prompted by tiredness.
  3. Having one’s interest, forbearance, or indulgence worn out.

Some weeks are simply longer than others. They are not necessarily busier; they are simply longer. For those weeks, the word “weary” works much better than “tired”. Or maybe it is that “weary” describes tired taken to a different place.

Weary weeks do not come around very often. Most of the time they are simply the result of an overload of accumulated tasks that have to be completed. I think most of those weeks are not anyone’s fault. They are the intersection of multiple calendars landing on your own. It happens.

So when I have had a weary week, I refresh by reading. The genre is less important than the act. Reading restores my spirit. That is what I will be doing in a couple of days when this weary week (actually about 10 days) comes to an end.

Had a weary week? Then read and refresh!

Working in the RV

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My desk in the Arv
My desk in the Arv

It is not easy creating a space to work in an RV. I am the type of person that needs a physical anchor for my work. I don’t mind working at a coffee shop or a library, at a kitchen table, or even sitting in the recliner and doing some work. But I prefer a desk, a place that is uniquely my own workspace.

Living in an RV right now means that space is limited. We had to make decisions about what furniture would be included and excluded. When we first moved in, we had a kitchen table for our meals and no dedicated desk. We soon realized that we mostly ate sitting in the recliners and rarely at the table. So, out went the table, and in came a very small desk for my workspace. It is big enough for most of my work and yet still fits into the scheme of the RV. I have windows for light and fresh air as well as for distracted contemplation (there is no one next to us right now, and the window looks out on woods and fields).

It may not be optimal, but it makes my working in the RV more productive for this season of life.

The Ladder of Success

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Photo by Xin on Unsplash

Thomas Merton, the American monk, pointed out that we may spend our whole life climbing the ladder of success, only to find when we get to the top that our ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

Richard Rohr, “Falling Upward”

What I’ve Been Reading – April 2, 2022

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  • The good news of your God-given limits – Acton Institute PowerBlog– “McGever argues that the basic problem with the productivity genre is not that it doesn’t adequately account for our limits. It’s that productivity authors “fail to account for theological anthropology—or to put it simply, they don’t consider what it means for human beings to be created by a Creator.”
  • The Centrality of Communication in the Missionary Task – OutreachMagazine.com – “Evangelism is the most basic and radical ministry possible to a human being. This is true not because the spiritual is more important than the physical, but because the eternal is more important than the temporal.”
  • Arianna Huffington On Cancel Culture and the Need for Redemption – “But true change at the systemic level has to be accompanied by change at the personal level. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it, “the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart.” Dr. King knew that, which is why he had made it clear that to change society, “you’ve got to change the heart.”
  • How Suffering Can Save Us All – Warrior Poet Supply Co – “Our primitive selves see suffering as a threat to our survival. But really, comfort, not suffering, is what’s causing us to crumble and melt like snowflakes. The right kinds of suffering, though, make us tough as nails—physically and spiritually. The right kinds of suffering can save us all.”

“Falling Upward” – A Book and a Life

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Photo by John Fornander on Unsplash

I recently started reading Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr. The first paragraph of Chapter 1 leads me to believe that I am going to enjoy this book immensely:

There is much evidence on several levels that there are at least two major tasks to human life. The first task is to build a strong “container” or identity; the second is to find the contents the container was meant to hold.

Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
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The first half of my life probably lasted until I was 36. I grew up, traveled and experienced the cultures of Europe, studied and obtained several degrees, married, had a daughter, taught in a college, and worked in churches. Each of these experiences gave me the knowledge to build an identity, or as Rohr calls it, the “container.”

The second half of my life continued from age 36 until age 63 when I served as a missionary on a university campus. Working with students from a variety of countries with varying educational degrees and helping them discover who they are in Christ allowed me to discover the contents of that “container.” The container was filled with the knowledge and experiences I had acquired, but it was bathed in what we now call Spiritual Formation, my life in God, and imparted through the relationships I formed with students.

But at age 63, I moved into a season of life that I would add to Rohr’s levels as a third: pouring out the contents of the container. As an intern director working with college graduates who have been called by God into vocational ministry, I spend each day helping them build their own identity and giving them maps so they can discover what content they are meant to hold.

It has been a life of “falling upward”, or as Rohr writes moving from “the first half of life…discovering the script” and into the second half “actually writing it and owning it”.