New Podcast

Recently I began a new venture in the world of podcasting. I've been hesitant for a while, asking myself if we really need another person talking in cyberspace. But I think there is a need for yet one more podcast. 

We are all submerged in the modern world to some extent. We can't and shouldn't try to abandon the world in which we live. Jesus did die for it, after all. If He immersed Himself in the daily matters that surrounded Him, ushering in God's kingdom, we should do likewise. 

Slavery has always been a temptation. We understand how selling others into slavery is sin, but we don't understand the problem of giving yourself over to slavery. That's the wisdom of the doctrine of man's natural depravity. Not the straw-man version of depravity, but the realistic teaching that man naturally desires to rule himself rather than submit to God's rule. Ever since Adam and Eve, the serpent has presented the false-story of God-as-tyrant and ____?____-as-deliverer. These potential deliverers can all lead to slavery, whether bad things (drugs, ideology, communist dictators) or good things, e.g. technology, money, etc. A good life is about learning to walk free from the slavery of sin and become a faithful member of God's kingdom.

In this podcast we'll talk to people who understand different aspects of living a good life, whether it's becoming more like Christ, loving our neighbors, growing in wisdom, or being a good steward of the gifts God has given. We will talk about what it means to live free from the oppression of the world and be an agent of God's new creation.  

If you're interested, go here...https://mattcarpenter.podbean.com/

Growing Virtue Through Education

 

a Review of Norms and Nobility by David V. Hicks

One of the lesser-known cries of the Protestant Reformers was, “Ad fontes,” which means “back to the sources.” They were calling upon people to return to the writings of the Church Fathers when studying theology. The fathers were guides for many who were leading the Reformation at the time. Recently I decided to go back to a source that, while not ancient, was instrumental in the rise of the modern classical education movement: Norms and Nobility (1981), by David Hicks.

Some books allow for a quick reading and yield their insights without much effort. Not so with Norms and Nobility. Although short, it packs enough wisdom to require multiple, slow readings. Mr. Hicks’ thesis is simple: education will produce some kind of person. Whereas modern education produces utilitarian, empty souls; classical, Christian education aids the formation of virtuous souls. He believes the latter should be the intention of education, as it was in classical Greece, Rome, and the early Christian era. But modern education has abdicated that role in exchange for the diminished role of job preparation. In doing so we have failed the rising generation.

Establishing Habits

 

This is the second part of a personal finance lecture on goals and habits. 

Goals must have an action plan, a method of putting the steps towards achieving that goal into practice. In our traveling case, the action plan were the roads we’ve travel to get where we wanted to be at the end of each day. This leads us into the discussion of habits.

I’m taking much of this from the book, Atomic Habits, by James Clear. It is the best book I’ve read about habits and the effects they have on people.

People often confuse goals and habits. Forming particular habits can be a goal, but good habits should not be temporary things we attempt and let go of, but permanent changes we make that form character. Aristotle refers to the four cardinal virtues as types of habits, things we must be formed in. But developing good habits is not easy. So if you set large habits it may not be attainable immediately. You should aim for smaller, more permanent habits (hence the name, atomic, i.e. atom-like” habits). These will remain with you. The author, James Clear, emphasizes the nature of compound interest when considering habits. Compound interest is the interest that builds up over time, months, and years. When we build smaller habits over time, they form larger patterns in our lives and give us the ability to achieve our goals.

“Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient.” (Atomic Habits, ch. 1). Also in chapter 1, he says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” In other words, you must have a system or a process in place to bring about your goals. He even says that goals are a waste of time, which I disagree with, but I understand what he’s saying. There must be a plan to accomplish the goals, and then there must be further goals to pursue them.

As your habits change, you will change. You will find that your outlook improves and you will grow in confidence. This is not immediate but happens as you stick with your habits. Which leads to another point – you must be willing to grow, to change. Jesus commended humility in what we know as the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), e.g. “blessed are the poor in Spirit, blessed are the meek…” These qualities are born in the person who is sees his or her life as being in God’s hands and is willing to submit his life to the direction God gives.

We all have areas in which we need to grow. Willingness to give yourself to godly habits and change is necessary to become the person He intends you to be. Never become locked into thoughts or a mindset except what is commanded by God in His word. Commit yourself to growth throughout your life.

There is much more we could say about habits, but let me tie this together with personal finance. In time we will come to discussing God calls us to be good stewards of our finances, i.e. saving and building. But having more money isn’t the end of life. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that the rich only end up leaving their money to others (Eccl. 5:10-17). We begin this semester by considering how we are to arrive at the destination before us. But if your destination if faulty, all the planning in the world will only get you to perdition faster. This goes back to your reason for building wealth. If you see yourself as a steward in God’s kingdom and everything you have as a gift from Him, you will be more likely to pursue the gifts of God but to do so as a soldier, living as a minister of God’s restoration in the world.  

Setting Goals

This is the first portion of a lecture I delivered on goals and habits. 

Time is precious. Your time is marked when you’re young by holidays, usually Christmas or birthdays. As you grow older, those markers become more closely aligned, because you have more years behind you. As you grow, your memories collapse together. The question is, what will you do with your time?

Time is a gift, just as any other type of wealth. Every person is allotted 24 hours in a day, 365 ¼ days a year. Why do some people accomplish more than others? Because of the way they use time. If you are lazy, you will not accomplish as much. On the other hand, others follow the tyranny of the urgent, only doing the things that are in front of them, rather than investing your time beforehand. Don be that person either. We are called to invest, to be good stewards of our time. This doesn’t mean we only work all day, every day. It means we plan beforehand for how we will spend our time. ‘

One of the saddest things to hear is someone who is older who regrets wasting their time on their daily job, their bad habits, or selfish behavior. It is not possible to have everything you want; scarcity is still with us. But God has given you gifts, abilities, wealth, and time to use those things.

Your life is not your own. Throughout your life there will be stops, starts, energy, and lack thereof. Yet in everything, God controls your life. You belong to Him and He calls you to use your gifts to honor Him.

The direction of your life is largely in front of you. You have a multitude of options available, based on your gifts or skills. The choices you make in the next several years will determine the path you follow, the person you marry, and the eulogy that will read about you at your funeral. 

We will talk about those choices soon, but this week we must consider the first objective: setting goals and building habits. A goal is not just a task, but a building-block to the type of person you want to become. Years ago, when our family moved out to Idaho, the trip took 36 hours of driving, not including stops. Our final destination was Lewiston, Idaho, but there had to be planning beforehand. I planned four stops along the way. We would stay there each night and go the next morning. I realized my planning was not thorough enough because one of the stops, Denver, CO, unbeknownst to me, had three major events going on and every hotel within a 1-hour radius of the city was booked. We ended up driving until almost 1:30 in the morning and staying 1 and ½ hours further north.

You should have one or two final goals, the things you want to do with your life, which will probably resemble the final goal of others. But the stops along the way will be different for each of you, based on where you are. The stops along the way are your goals now. I thought Lewiston might be a long-term place for us to live, but it turned out that we only lived there two years. Then we repeated the trip back, although to a different place in Alabama. Your life will change and you will have to adapt at times, but your goals are still attainable.

Why set goals? They require you to set a destination. You’ve probably hear the saying, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” That is true. There must be something you want to achieve.

They must be goals that motivate you. You won’t pursue them if they don’t. It will probably be something that you appreciate or want to become.

They should be SMART (https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_90.htm).

Specific – they must be clear, not vague. For example, when we traveled instead of saying, “Denver, CO,” I should have said, “The Holiday Inn Express at 123 Johnson Street in Denver.”

Measurable – you must know how you can determine whether or not you met the goal.

Attainable – if it is not within your reach in the time you set, you will get discouraged and be more tempted to quit.

Relevant – they should be in the service of the general direction you want to go. If we were travelling from Alabama to Idaho, we shouldn’t set a goal of stopping in Maine. It’s not relevant to our main goal.

Time Bound – there should be a specific time you plan on achieving your goal. If not, you will flounder. We planned on driving approximately 9-10 hours each day on our trip west. Establishing a time (create a website in 6 months) puts you under the gun.

Finally, they must have an action plan, a method of putting the steps towards achieving that goal into practice. In our traveling case, the action plan were the roads we’ve travel to get where we wanted to be at the end of each day.