Are you ever ALL THERE? Or is your attention always distracted?

"Wherever you are, be all there. Live life to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God." -Jim Elliot

This quote often challenges me when I'm sitting in various situations where I could easily be splitting my attention between the setting that I'm in and the smartphone in my hand. I want to be efficient and effective with my time, but here's the question I am confronted with:

Is it the best use of my time to never truly be ALL THERE?

What am I missing out on when I am distracted at chapel? What could I have added to the conversation when with a group of friends? What knowledge could I have gleaned, what principle would I have learned, what excellence could I have achieved if in every situation I was ALL THERE?

My challenge to you is to engage in life to the fullest. Like Jim Elliott said, "Live life to the hilt." ESPECIALLY, if you are a Kingdom-minded individual who is purposeful with your time, what time do you have to waste? If you're living out the will of God in your life then you should be ENGAGED in there here and now, because that's truly the only time you have to give of yourself to it.

Otherwise, you'll have lived a life with one foot in the present and one foot in some other social/futuristic/dreamosphere achieving only half of what could have been achieved if only you had truly engaged.

Keep the main thing, the main thing.

Don't miss out. Engage all of yourself in whatever you're in. It'll only come once, then that moment is gone.

Wherever you are, be all there...

Sow Into a PG-Rated Life, REAP a PG-Rated Life

Yesterday I was reminded of a profound conversation I had with Nate, a friend of mine.

We were talking about how to live a life on FIRE for the Lord and he noted that if we want to reap such a lifestyle then we must SOW into that lifestyle. It is not enough to simply hope that one day our minds will be completely set on the Kingdom and we will walk around like Peter, whose shadow healed people.

No, we must SOW in the place of prayer, into searching the Word of God and into simple devotion with an ear tuned to the Lord's whispers. Our time management and lifestyle must sow this if we want to reap a powerful walk with the Lord.

On the flip side, if you sow into music that does not edify your spirit, into movies that do not encourage you, into relationships that do not uplift you and into reading material that is not God centered, do not be surprised if your reap an APATHETIC, MOTIONLESS LIFE.

That is exactly what you sowed into!

We all know about the "Christian" bands that never mention the Lord and the movies that Christians tolerate and promote. But are those Christians on fire, passionate men and women of the Lord? Or are they as languishing as the next person since all they've ever sowed into their life is as CLOSE to the line of worldliness as possible rather than SPRINTING towards holiness as Jesus called us to do (1 Peter 1:16).

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." ~ Galatians 6:7

God is not mocked. He isn't fooled. So don't fool yourself. You can stop wondering why your passion for the Lord has subsided when you do a little introspection and see where you've sown your time this week.

Into the Kingdom or into lukewarm, water-down Christianity?

What is one new way that you can sow into a life on FIRE this week?

Living on Purpose

I think that's going to be the title of my blog. "Living on Purpose" or maybe it'll just be in the subtitle. Not sure yet. Basically, I want to grab life by the horns in the spiritual, emotional and physical avenues of life. And be the most effective and efficient I possibly can with every moment.

Efficient and Effective. My how those resonate deeply.

I also want to have several pages of references that I can point people to. Diets I've tried, books I've read, sermons I've listened to, training materials for marketing, stocks to check out, The Gospel, spiritual nuggets, and maybe even products I recommend (maybe I can affiliate through Amazon!).

Right now this blog is basically a list of introductory thoughts but it'll develop eventually. I don't really expect anyone to read these. It's more that I'm actually starting... :)

A Whole New Focus

Welcome to my new blog! I have several streams of focus for this new blog, but here's the 50,000ft view. I love life and I want to share my learnings with other people. I want to have a pool of resources for people to dive into and be refreshed by the Word of God, tips of fitness and perspectives on business and economics. This will end up being a conglomeration of ramblings of my mind from spiritual to emotional to physical sides of life and I hope you can glean from my life experience (as little as I have so far) as well as the wisdom that I gain from above.

I am hungry to learn and I rarely spurn wisdom. I view life through a unique lens, especially as one who as lived overseas for 9 years of my life.

Not sure exactly how this is going to turn out, but here's the first step at it. From here, the only direction is up.

For the glory of God above all else and the benefit of His people, With Love, Matt Tibbetts